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Things you have done, most others haven't


woodsman

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That's very cool Bill. Are you involved in public transit in Chicago?

I visit NYC every year. APril of 2001 we went to the top of the WTC, it was incredible, you could stand in the open air on the very top of the tower. The next year we were visiting ground zero. Very moving. I can't imagine what it would have been like to be ON that hallowed ground so soon afterwards. Truly unique life experience there man.

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Ray Garrison wrote
the following post at 07-18-2006 3:40 PM:




I landed a Cessna 152 in a 25 knot cross wind in the
rain because I had no choice, and decided I didn't really like flying all that
much, anyway...




I took a 152 off in 30 gusting to 35, 90 degree crosswind (just a little
out of the operating parameters) and then landed it straight into the same wind
(or a little stronger) at an airport 40 miles away. I kept the nose on the
ground with forward pressure until I hit an indicated 120 kph (normal rotation speed is about 80 kph if I remember correctly) then when I
rotated, the nose swung straight into the wind and I went to an instant
indicated 70 kph. The thing climbed like an elevator (straight up over the same
spot on the ground) and made real good time going to the landing airport which
was directly down wind. The landing was again an elevator ride only down this
time. It sure pays to remember how to taxi in the wind, climb into it and dive
out of it![;)]



Another time I took off in my new to me 1959 Piper Apache when I noticed that
the airspeed indicator was reading ZERO! I finished climb out, went over the
local practice area and did several approach to landing stalls to get a feel
for the sound and feel of the aircraft as it slowed down. The landing was a bit
"hot" but everything came out just fine. The aircraft had just been
washed and waxed and the pitot tube was clogged in the process.





Yet another time I took a 152
on a trip with a buddy on a hot day into the desert. We were heading to a small
airport in So. Cal.
Where the temperature was the hottest in the nation that day. It was 122
degrees! It was so hot on the runway that the tar was melting in the cracks of
the concrete! It was also so hot that on the flight down, the oil temp (a major
source of cooling for the engine) was pegged in the redline! I tried to send
out a Mayday as our arrival at the airport was not a certain thing but it was
so hot that the radio had stopped transmitting more than a few hundred feet. We
discovered this when we landed and the airport had not heard ANY of the
transmissions until we called short final and even that transmission was very
weak! On that same trip but heading home, we took off with half tanks as it was
over 100 at 10 am and the density altitude put the aircraft on the edge of its
operating envelope. We were climbing out at max power at a rate of about 50
feet per min! We skipped our first fuel stop as the temp would have prevented
our takeoff from the airport and headed home. We had enough fuel to make the
trip home if everything went ok but we ran into an un-forecast thunderstorm going
through a narrow pass and wide open we had a ground speed of about 25 mph. This
caused a large drain on the fuel reserves and we landed at the airport in the
pass as the fuel gauge was bouncing off the empty peg and the crosswind was a
good 25mph, only when we passed some hangers did the aircraft straighten out
and I pushed it down on the ground. The takeoff was interesting also as the
direction of travel was uphill and we were climbing at a rate of about 30 feet
per min faster than the ground was rising up under us!



There are more stories I could tell about flying, I love it but it is too expensive to do just for fun when you are trying to raise a kid, so it has been several years since I last flew. One more thing I got to do is see a pod of wales from the air on a sight seeing trip to Catilina island, we circled them a few times and wished them luck in their travels, it was way cool!



Flying is fun stuff!!

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A lot of talented, interesting people around here. I used to spend most of my free time backpacking, which led to climbing, which led to climbing with rope, which led to caving and more rope. 50 straight hours in the Wolf River cave system in Tennessee resulted in an overexposure to the histoplasma capsulatum fungas and ended up costing me my eyesight in my left eye. Nice pics at the link below of things in that cave. This cave system is now locked down and treated as a Preserve.

http://www.cumberlandadventures.com/cave/wolf.html

Skylight Dome, part of the Pinehill Cave System in Kentucky is probably the most intense thing I've ever done. You can enter the cave by either dropping down through the hole, or going in via Hurricane Pit. It's actually safer to go in using the rope. Most opt to drop down, and use ascenders at the end of the day and climb back out through the dome. Hurricane Pit, we were told, "should be avoided". We decided to give it a try, figuring if it was too bad we could always double back and use the rope. Half way up the thing it finally dawned on us why they called it 'Hurricane Pit'. The exit took us to the limits of our athletic ability. As everyone was engaged in their own personal sick game of twister, a headlamp turned my way and a voice said, "You know, we probably shouldn't have done this."

post-3205-13819304767228_thumb.jpg

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That's very cool Bill. Are you involved in public transit in Chicago?

I visit NYC every year. APril of 2001 we went to the top of the WTC, it was incredible, you could stand in the open air on the very top of the tower. The next year we were visiting ground zero. Very moving. I can't imagine what it would have been like to be ON that hallowed ground so soon afterwards. Truly unique life experience there man.

I suggest you take the path train from the nj side, prefereably from exchange place NJ. When you get to the NY side you will know why.

this is exchange place's enterance of the path station. Its been photoshopped guys. I removed all the color except for the neon lights. but the original and the real file are not so much different honestly.

post-13377-13819304767528_thumb.jpg

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I am humbled by some of your experiences. [:o] I also have lived a unique life. I may share some of what I have actually done later.

The earliest experience I remember is living outside of Istanbul Turkey as a 4 year old during the Cuban Missile Crisis. I remember the commotion and that for some reason we were packing and about to leave immediately. My father passed away over 20 years ago and there are questions I wished I could have asked him about why he/we were there. [:^)]

I have had several brush's with greatness. In 1972 we lived in Bad Godesberg, Germany (Dad worked at the Embassy in Bonn) and my American Little League All-Star team had the honor of visiting with Johnny Bench, Bob Gibson and John Wooden on a personal basis for a few hours. FWIW, we came in 3rd that year to the Weisbaden AFB, who came to the US and beat the American regional teams, only to get beat by Taiwan in the Little League World Series. That was the year of the Munich Olympic Massacre and the year we returned stateside.

During our stay in Germany I remember some surreal experiences walking my dog at night and watching the Secret Service take up positions along the route President Nixon was going to take to meet with European Leaders (We lived one street over from a huge field near the Rhine River where dignitaries landed by Helicopter).

Nixon came two times while we lived there. On one of these occasions several kids in the other sixth grade class got to shake his hand. My Class didn't get a chance to meet him because as we were walking out, David H pushed Denise H. in the water puddle and Mr. Gangler took us back to the class room. [:(] I saw Henry Kissinger's Helicopter/motorcade several times as well.

In Texas, I got to shake Bono's hand and see my girlfriend give him a big hug in the lobby of the hotel we both were staying in. I said "Thanks for the Music," and he replied "Thank You." I will never forget that moment. [:)]

On a visit to New York I had my picture taken on top of the World Trade Center (unfortunately it's not in the digital domain). On that trip I was hanging outside of the Ed Sullivan Theater and had someone come up behind me and tap me on the shoulder so he could go into the backdoor. Everyone was pre-occupied watching a limo pull up and didn't notice the guy sneak up behind us--As he was walking in I couldn't help but think, "hey that guy looks like..." and that is when someone yelled "It's Robin Williams!"

My last brush with greatness came this summer in Hope. I saw a movie star that I recgnized but would be embarrassed to mention his name because of the banable material involved--All I can say is that he and that other fellow were really good actors, but not really my cup of tea.{edit: I missed the first several pages [:$]--I see he has already posted.}
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I knew this was going to be fun. Thanks for sharing all your stories.

Thanks for all the input on my cursed kindey stones.

Darkside, to answer your question. No I do not drink tea. I do drink about a gallon of water a day now to help eliminate them. One good thing I have with them, is they are smooth stones anyway.

I have had several test done to see why I get them. Nothing could be determined, and I do not eat the foods that cause my particular type (oxilate). The foods are like beets and kale, cranberries. Not in my list of foods to eat.

Jeff

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Darkside, to answer your question. No I do not drink tea. I do drink about a gallon of water a day now to help eliminate them. One good thing I have with them, is they are smooth stones anyway.

thats good to hear. my father shoots bb's out.... there really stones to put into perspective.

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- Have ridden on several Mardi Gras floats as a Krewe member.

- Stood in the eye of hurricane Camille.

- (unfortunately) Prostate Cancer. [:(]

- Unofficial world jumping distance on a Honda Trail 70

- In frat house after party myself and two girls did....well....mostly they did....well, you know. Sorry m00n. [:P] [:)]

- Made whoopee with GF on the 50 yard line at the Miss. State football stadium.

- Made whoopee with same GF in the home team dugout at Miss. State baseball field.

- Me & some frat brothers (while at Miss. State) raided 4 frat houses taking trophies & such at the University of Alabama while on-campus parties were still going on. Ran from cops.

- Only 12 year old to arc weld with a car battery and 2 screw drivers. Don't ask. [:(]

- Did a huge smokey burnout in city traffic with my Kawasaki ZX9R much to the amusement of everyone except for (gulp) the cop about 100 feet behind me. [:o]

- Won 1st place in a Pinewood Derby with the ugliest car ever made.

- Worked on the test stands used for testing Saturn V and Space Shuttle main engines. Mostly ran cabling for data aquisition and did some work with cryogenics. Also got to see a test firing of a Saturn V first stage.

Tom

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OK a few more:

In 1988 saw Pink Floyd Live in Mannheim, West Germany with 35,000 other screaming maniacs. What a show! Possibly the best I had seen and I had seen many.

I also attended the Monsters of Rock '86, '87, and '88 all at sites in Germany. In '86 the Scorpions headlined, in '87 it was Deep Purple, in '88 it was Iron Maiden. Wow! I survived all that.

In '87 I went to the Oktoberfest in Munich and the biggest wine festival in the world, Bad Durkheim, W GE the same year. It was incredible, did you know that you have to be seated at the Oktoberfest in order to be served a beer. It takes a while to find a place to sit even though there are a ton of huge beer tents. I got so hammered, I don't recommned the smoked mackerel on a stick. I burped it for days afterward, Bleech.

A '77 Chevy Suburban 4x4 can run over a 12ft tall and wide prickly pair cactus tree, I know I did it.

OK here is a good one:

My senior year in high school I took some buddies out to my father's ranch in Texas, a couple of the idiots went out and shot a calf with a .22 whilst I was at one of my ponds nearby and they were out combing the brush. We got a suprise visit at the ranchhouse by the Sheriff and my dad they were investigating a break in that had happened about a week before. We had taken the hind quarters off the calf and the Sheriff found them in the freezer and started asking questions as to why it was still warm. They hauled us all in and we got charged with 3rd degree felony cattle rustling, which was a hanging offense in Texas up until recently this was 1980. We ended up paying restitution and community service but when I joined the USAF they had to look it up in book since I mentioned it to them and the guy goes running down the hall telling everyone he has a cattle rustler in there. Oh joy!

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Got a College Degree while still 19,

owned a pair of heresy's,cornwalls,chorus and LA-scalas before i turned 20.

Was the sixth fastest swimmer in Canada at age 12 and 14 (for age group).

Won over 70 Medals at various Swimming competitions.

At 19 I started my own company.

To come:

Next year I bike accross Canada (8000km).

PhD at 28

Own a pair of Klipschorns?

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Some of the lows in my life...

was on a submarine that exceeded crush depth in the Atlantic.

have gone down the 2000 foot deep mine (low level transuranic waste storage facility) in Carlsbad, NM...and the sub went lower than that.

Spent a night camping in Death Valley, CA. The stars were beautiful.

Some highs...

Rode a hot air balloon in Albuquerque, NM during balloon week.

Found one of Dr. Enrico Fermi's original Manhattan Project lab notebooks at a decommissioning. It was way too contaminated to get clean(probably the reason it was in Colrado) and spent half a day reading it, rather than working. After getting chewed out, ended up getting a nice government finder's award for not dumping it in the garbage.

Have seen five open water swimming pool reactors in operation. They are way cool!

post-11894-13819304770038_thumb.jpg

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Tried to work while Scott Ian was bangin out rythmn on one of the guitars we made for him in the cubicle next to my office
Babysat Dimebag Darrel in LA - from Airport to Hotel to Convention Center in Ananheim, CA
Repaired Elvis Costello's Gretch guitar for the kickoff of the Spike tour in Chicago
Watched the crowd pour in to an outdoor arena with Jimmy Buffett at the monitor mixing console, listening to him assess the crowd.
Litterally ran into Roy Orbison in McCormick place at the end of a convention - no one was hurt, but it was funny.
Many more - too many to mention......

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Darkside, to answer your question. No I do not drink tea. I do drink about a gallon of water a day now to help eliminate them. One good thing I have with them, is they are smooth stones anyway.

thats good to hear. my father shoots bb's out.... there really stones to put into perspective.

Don't forget to cut out peanuts. Drink a ton of lemonade...better than water.

Oh..thought of one. Ran the 100 yard dash at the Georgia High School state Track championships witha bum knee. Didn't win.

One time went to McDonald's and ate 7 hamburgers, 5 fries and 2 milkshakes.

Never lost a game of pluck knuckles or racquetball.

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Speaking of McDonald's...

I once ate every meal, breakfast, lunch, dinner there for an entire month.

I had just started going to COD (local community college) and I had classes spread out between 7am and 10pm so had to bum around the area all day (commuter college). After the first two weeks I heard about "Supersize Me" and figured I would try it out just for kicks. I lost 7 pounds and never got sick - didn't even excercise either (the year prior I was a swimmer and had gained 15 pounds due to the change of activity level).

And another McDonald's favorite...spent over 8 hours there in one day...on a date no less! (we just sat there talking up a storm and didn't even realize the time - they had to kick us out for closing). Talk about getting your money's worth [;)]

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