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mouse from merced
Trad climber
The finger of fate, my friends, is fickle.
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Nov 25, 2012 - 08:26pm PT
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Going Up, page 277.
Every horse in this string will have a different story to tell about the journey. They embellish one another's tails. The life of the half-breed metaphor is like the life of...a horse with half a tail!
"neato peeto" as Gypsy used to utter.
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mouse from merced
Trad climber
The finger of fate, my friends, is fickle.
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Nov 26, 2012 - 12:54pm PT
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Reasonable. Well-put. Sold.
Concurrence, Tad?
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mouse from merced
Trad climber
The finger of fate, my friends, is fickle.
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Nov 26, 2012 - 01:34pm PT
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I got that, OK, Roger, can do, willco, ten-four, no prob, all righty-dighty, and sure, thanks.
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mouse from merced
Trad climber
The finger of fate, my friends, is fickle.
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Nov 26, 2012 - 01:50pm PT
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"You'll pay fer this!"--Yosemite Sam
Tad's a varmint. I should know. Ron?
This shows what it means to the unit when one tries to run the ship which is not run by a crew but a team. I suppose I'm just trying to see some redeeming value in watching cartoons, here, but this one surely gives a good rendering of how important anchors are.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yJH50kkjuTQ&feature=plcp
Got me watching cartoons instead of reading Jake's Ranch. Ravmint!
"Belay there say, ya long-eared galoot!"--neebunny
I'm a shnook, and couldn't resist, neither.
Ma apologee neebee...
It's not Saturday morning agin, is it?
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Gypsy
Social climber
NC
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Nov 26, 2012 - 08:18pm PT
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Gypsy
Social climber
NC
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Nov 26, 2012 - 08:29pm PT
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Gypsy
Social climber
NC
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Nov 26, 2012 - 08:39pm PT
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Gypsy
Social climber
NC
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Nov 26, 2012 - 09:41pm PT
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Except for myself, the ladies in the above photo all worked at Degnan's in 71, 72, etc. Mollie played guitar and sang in the dorm rooms and sometimes in the dorm hallway. Sheila told great stories and read our palms. Sue Homick later became a veterinarian. (Sheila wrote one of her Harlequin romances based on Sue as a character) Mary Lou is part of the infamous Stuart clan--the counterpart to the infamous Donohoe clan. And of course Pat and Matt were best friends. I used to sleep on their porch once in a while and occasionally come over to dinner. One night at dinner, I met this crazy man who was living in June Lake. We decided we would go backpacking together. He asked me when I wanted to go. I said "How about now?" It was ten o'clock at night. We slung on our backpacks and walked out the door. We were together for twelve years until the day he died.
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Gypsy
Social climber
NC
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Nov 26, 2012 - 10:26pm PT
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I read The World According to Garp and I though yeah, sure...I read The Hotel New Hampshire and thought--yeah, right, noboby's life is like a John Irving novel. And then I thought again and thought "wait, a minute, my life is a John Irving novel. Okay. Randy was killed at age 33 on Good Friday which also happened to be April Fool's Day. He was climbing the cross on Mt. Davidson in San Francisco with an inexperienced climber (who obviously did not know how to belay properly) whose name was Fritz and Fritz was the lead singer in a punk band called The Mutants. And Randy was working as an animator on feature animation films and on his own independent films. The film he was working on at home was finished by his friends and used as the title sequence in the 16 Tournée of Animation. I held a wake and tree planting ceremony for Randy after he died and spread his ashes under that same tree. Although over 200 people attended there was not a single rock climber there.
Put that in your book Mouse and see if anyone believes it.
So now you have the beginning story of a 12 year relationship and the ending story of the same relationship. We were never legally married--nor even illegally married. We just lived together that long and had a son who is now 36.
And I am old now. And my son is even wilder than his dad.
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zBrown
Ice climber
chingadero de chula vista
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Nov 26, 2012 - 10:35pm PT
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mouse from merced
Trad climber
The finger of fate, my friends, is fickle.
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Nov 26, 2012 - 11:05pm PT
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"Hey, Paint it purple and put a pink ribbon on it an sell it to American Romance, sister."
I can hear Matt tell Pat under his breath. Nada was sacred tween them two. Nada.
They were very much like us flatlanders, Jeff and I. And when we got there to Yosemite, learned about the climbs they had done, we were glad to hang with them as much as we could for a while. Cowboy was the enzyme, the enabler, the puppet-master and then we kind of separated.
Matt and Pat should have found a pinnacle together and climbed it for yucks. They likely thought of it!
Matt took a nasty fall on Meatgrinder, but I really know nothing, who was belaying, what pro he had, what held him, how loud and how loud his scream was, whether he was cut up, as the name suggests, if he got a second wind and like a true Irishman, went off to the Circus Room Bar.
I know he fell because he was tired. He kind of collapsed and bing! Whoops! Ouch! Etf*#kingcetera.
But no, the stories belongs right here, actually, for now, at least. they have still got to resolve and dissolve and revolve in our minds for another forty years. I'm willing to wait. Unless Mr. Merry is right, and I need to write a pudlication. I'm happy.
For today, I can provide this tribute to some Flames running dogs and doggers.
The Shaft FA 1971 Matt Donohoe George Meyers
http://www.supertopo.com/climbing/thread.php?topic_id=728084&msg=728772#msg728772
Dromedary Direct 5.10c FA 1971 Barry Bates Matt Donohoe Herb Swedlund
http://www.supertopo.com/climbing/thread.php?topic_id=510459&msg=510567#msg510567
Chocolate Dihedral 5.9 1970 Rick Sylvester Matt Donohoe
Degnan Diagonals 5.9 1970 Rick Sylvester Matt Donohoe Barry
http://www.supertopo.com/climbing/thread.php?topic_id=376225&msg=376665#msg376665
There is a lot of good content in the threads mentioned.
Wherever the Donohoes and Stuarts have gone off to, that alone would be a saga.
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Gypsy
Social climber
NC
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Nov 26, 2012 - 11:24pm PT
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I had my own landscaping business for about 26 years in Santa Cruz, Ca. About 5 years ago (more or less), I was up high in a tree pruning it when I hear the door of the house where I was working open. Someone said "Gypsy?" I turned around to stare down at someone I thought I didn't know. I said "Yes". He said "Barry Bates". Oh! ha ha ha ha ha. Turns out he was visiting his in-laws. He invited me in for something cold to drink when I was finished. So I continued to prune the tree and then went in later to hear how he was doing and to meet his wife. I remember Barry coming over almost every night for dinner the winter I lived in the Donohoe house in the valley. Matt always cooked him a steak from the huge stash of meat that was in the freezer in their room off the dining room. I think that was where the old Degnan's used to be (or where they would make the bread for Degnan's in the early days). Anyway, there were footprints all over the walls in the dining room from climbers standing along the wainscotting and doing one finger pullups in the doorjambs. One night Barry and I took a long walk in the dark and ended up in the middle of the road lying on our backs watching a complete lunar eclipse. That was the first time in my life I remember seeing a lunar eclipse.
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mouse from merced
Trad climber
The finger of fate, my friends, is fickle.
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Nov 26, 2012 - 11:54pm PT
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My name's Jack Cheese. I'm a hunnerd eight. Lemme tell ya, we saw three features for fifty cents in Ventura on our way out to Josh. It was rolled taco night, too, at the drive-in near the high school and we'd never had a rolled taco, but Millis, he introduced us to the rolled taco. I think I mighta posted that on the New Taco, but you'll have to ask Anders if it's okay to use his wikitikotalkie thing-ma-bob or what the heck them kids're using now.
Oh, yeah, hey there I almost forgot. We got Willie Wonka Was Here, A Mouse Called Horse, and the capper was The Little Horny Man! I remember it like it wasn't eighty-some years ago.
Looks like old Gypsy's waking up. You'll have to be patient. She never takes out that pair of remote ear-buds.
"Don't worry my son, you will be back with us, I dreamed it last night. I saw you with your wives."--Old Lodge Skins
Younger Bear: I have a wife. And four horses.
Jack Crabb: I have a horse... and four wives.
Jul 7, 2006 - 05:31pm PT
Mutt,
It's a well known fact that short people appear fatter, so that is probably an accurate representation of your physique. Better contact Barry Bonds about some growth hormone. I understand a remake of the Wizard of Oz is in discussion, maybe some potential work for you? Didn't I see you in Willy Wonka as an Umpa Lumpa?--fattrad
Jul 7, 2006 - 06:41pm PT
I thought this was going to be about a movie with Dustin Hoffman and Chief Dan George, godamnitalltohell.--dirtineye
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neebee
Social climber
calif/texas
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Nov 27, 2012 - 12:18am PT
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hey there say, gypsy...
thanks for sharing... nice to see you...
say, no to worry... we all have or will have, the
'shadows of time' graced upon us.. :)
i like hear all this old stuff...
i always loved santa cruz...though i was a kid
there and did not roam and have adventures there...
some of my family had adventures, later, and some friends, too, of
theirs...
thanks again...
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throwpie
Trad climber
Berkeley
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Nov 27, 2012 - 12:36am PT
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Hey gypsy...here's the cabin you and randy turned us on to up in Eureka canyon. Peggy and I went up there a few years ago to find it but alas it had burned in the huge fire that swept the canyon.
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Gypsy
Social climber
NC
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Nov 27, 2012 - 10:00am PT
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Wow, Throwpie--what a flashback!!! Sorry to hear it burned down. Well as Cowboy Larry used to say "Sometimes your house burns up and sometimes your house burns down."
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Patrick Oliver
Boulder climber
Fruita, Colorado
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Nov 27, 2012 - 07:46pm PT
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If anyone has contact info for Shiela Slattery, please let me know.
I would like to get in touch with her. Thank you Gypsy for your
suggestions and for the photos above.
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Patrick Oliver
Boulder climber
Fruita, Colorado
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Nov 27, 2012 - 07:54pm PT
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Patrick Oliver
Boulder climber
Fruita, Colorado
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Nov 27, 2012 - 08:09pm PT
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