Your guide to the perilous waters of the internet

 

10-31-09

My schedule is gradually opening up as I finish my last 30 hour class and complete the rewriting of the web principles class. I climbed last weekend with James H in Leavenworth and wrote this report on facebook:

James has a car he calls flipper because it is a patchy, rusty gray color, and has a tendency to flip over. It's an 86 dodge caravan of unknown mileage because the speedometer hasn't worked in a few years, and he got it in a trade. The gas gauge doesn't work either, or, not reliably. It makes a heavy clunking noise when it shifts into drive, and it has to be parked facing forward as reverse doesn't always work.

The lift gate is much improved since four of us drove to jtree 2 years ago. He bought a used one at the junk yard and replaced the gas lifts, so it doesn't have to be propped up with a broom.

The fabric on the ceiling hangs down in waves, giving it sort of a bedouin look, with the same moldy smell. Either the glue is giving out, or the leaks in the roof are killing the glue.

New and exciting this trip is the heater...or, rather, the lack thereof. Neither the heater or the fan works, and the condensation on the inside, and the ice on the outside made for some interesting driving. I'd never realized just how valuable a working heater core was, especially in winter.

I thought we might be able to plug a hair dryer into the converter I brought for my laptop and keep the condensation at bay, especially for the night driving...but that would have meant spending money on flipper, which is a no no.

I drove flipper home from Monroe, and at one point a plastic housing the size of a paper back book fell off the reading light on the roof, dangling by a wire. I felt like flipper was giving us the finger.

We climbed some fun stuff this weekend. My favorites were Century on Castle rock 5.8+ old school, and ski track crack, 5.9, up at sam hill. I hadn't done either route in 25 years so they were like on-sights for me, both are awesome routes, 4 star in my book.

Ski Track is sort of like a 90 foot tall cantelope that someone sliced with a knife. The finger to hand sized splitter crack faces down into the rock. There is always an edge to grab, and at the bottom there is a parallel crack so you can do long stems as you power through the finger locks. At the top it fades out to thin fingers with a hidden edge for the top out onto the dome. Amazing route!

We also climbed 'can blue men sing the whites' 10a bolts and gear, which James finished for me after I backed off. I finished Century for him, so that makes us even.

At underhill James led 'don't forget arete' a stellar 5 bolt 5.9. He got a little off route at the top and kicked off a rock the size of a pack of cigarettes. I saw it coming, had plenty of warning. Instead of stepping back, I made a split second decision to get up close to the rock. It's often safe there as the rocks bounce on the way down, but the damn thing nailed me right on the wrist, from about 50 feet up. I felt really stupid. If I'd have just stayed where I was I would have been fine. I know better than to stand right under a route, especially a bolted route.

Overall it was a great weekend...though I really missed that heater. The darn car actually runs great for an old rust bucket, flipper lives on!

 

 

Paul Bailey had a horrible accident down in Australia where he was spending the fall after his summer teaching at outward bound ended. No one is talking about how he took such a bad fall yet, but there is plenty of talk about is treatment. Here are the first few reports.

Update from My Parents 10/22/09
I spoke with my Dad this evening and recieved some updated information on Paul's fall and status:

My parents were able to speak with a police officer that was involved in the rescue. He reported that when the rescue arrived, Paul was alert and on a ledge of the mountain. He was able to state who he was and where he was from. He also reportedly scored a 14/15 on a cognition test; however, his condition did begin to rapidly deteriorate due to swelling in the brain. It took the crew about two hours to get him off the mountain and one hour to fly him to the hospital in Melbourne.

When he arrived at the hospital they performed surgery to help the swelling in the brain. They also had to do some surgery to repair some broken bones around his eye sockets. Both of his arms and wrists are broken because he pulled them in front of his face when he fell. This was a good step on his part because the damage could have been much worse if he did not. They are going to be repairing his wrist bones by putting in a plate or some type of screws in the near future.

The doctor reported that the first four days are when swelling will reach its peak so he will stay in the induced coma for at least this amount of time to help expedite healing. They also reported that they are trying to keep the pressure in the brain below 20 and he's been fluctuating between 8-10 and that is good news.

My parents were at the hospital last night and today and reported that Paul looked much better today than yesterday. My cousin, Kirsten, who is a permanent resident of Australia has also said that Paul has made significant positive changes in his appearance from one day to the next.

Right now, this is a waiting game, but the good news is that they are not concerned about his survival. He will definitely survive this, but we don't know what long term disabilities could result from the brain injury.

Thanks for all of your love and support for Paul and our family. We need all of it!

Tara
POSTED BY WWC HOMEDOGS AT 9:44 PM 1 COMMENTS
Share your stories and pictures of good times with Paul
With Paul's many friends spread so far apart, several people have mentioned that they wished we had a way to share stories, pictures and video of Paul with one another. This site will continue to offer updates about Paul's condition and a place to donate to Paul's family, but rather than trying to keep in touch over facebook or other social sites, we have created a place online to share our stories with one another and be together as a community. It doesn't require any sort of log in, and its really easy.

Click here to check it out
POSTED BY WWC HOMEDOGS AT 4:04 PM 1 COMMENTS
Paul's Financial Situation
Although Paul did have accidental insurance, it appears at this point that his coverage is maxed out at $35,000. It isn't clear at this point what type of expenses he will incur over the coming months but they will surely be far more substantial. Many of us love Paul so much because of his willingness to live his life plainly with intention and compassion. I've never known Paul to ask anyone for a donation or a hand out. But he isn't in a state to refuse so when he wakes up, he can give it all back to us if wants to be that stubborn.

There is not a lot of clarity regarding what the total costs will be. However, many of us may know someone who has undergone this type of treatment and it can be financially debilitating. Many of Paul's closest friends are akin to him in our need for a life that is based on taking care of those around you and having a really good time doing it. Therefore, most of us don't make a killing and don't have a lot to spare. What I'm trying to say is donate what you can. More importantly ask all of those people you love if they can lend a hand.

Thanks-

Paul's friends.

POSTED BY WWC HOMEDOGS AT 12:35 PM 0 COMMENTS
WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 21, 2009

Paul's accident and status as of 10/21
Paul took a significant fall while rock climbing and hit an overhanging rock landing on his face. He was knocked unconscious immediately and needed to be helivaced to Melbourne.

Paul fractured his skull and many of the bones in his face. The most recent surgery was to ease the inner cranial pressure and to allow his brain to respond to the trauma of the impact. They had to put Paul in a drug induced coma for the next several days to allow his brain to recover from the trauma.

There is little known about the extent of the trauma in his brain until he is removed from the drug induced coma. However, there were no bone fragments in his brain and no brain tissue needed to be removed during the surgery. His spine is intact and everything below his arms is not seriously injured. I want to emphasize that Paul’s baselines are stable currently and the coma he is in was induced by drugs.

His Parents are on their way to Melbourne and should be arriving shortly. Much more knowledge will be available after his parents are given access to his medical charts. They will be staying with Paul for the duration until he can be moved back to the U.S. Currently, Sara Gaskin Sam Haskett, and Paul’s cousin Kirsten are with him.

You can read more here.

 

10-16-09

It's so lame starting each journal entry with a compaint about how busy I am. But work has been nuts. I'm taking a 4 week 30 hour online teacher certification class in angel on how to create an online angel class. It's about 6 to 10 hours a week, and very technical. On top of that I'm rewriting my web principals class to change it from tables to all css. I was overdue to do that. I have a book, but I'm having to supplement the book with explanations for what the book doesn't cover. The rewriting process involves basically writing an illustrated textbook complete with screen shots, call out arrows and technical explanations of web design programming. Sometimes the book gives incomplete code and I have to troubleshoot until I come up with a fix, then add a page to the book scans that fixes the errors in the text book. The book is "styling web pages with css" by tom negrino.

Climbed with Sue and Clint in Leavenworth last weekend. We took dad who needed a break from the nursing home where he has been caring for mom, when they let him. The staff is mad at him for getting mad at mom for not eating so he is mad at the staff. Getting him away for a weekend was a no brainer and we all had fun hanging out at Uncle Ed's and Aunt Mary Ellens house. I have pictures here.

Because we got there at noon, we were only able to climb west face of grand central and the two easy routes on sunset slab. It was cool knowing that our family was waiting for us back at Ed's. The people in the generation before us are very cool people. I have this continual sadness going on for mom, who sort of got left out of that generation when dementia hit her 10 years ago. It's been a gradual slide to where she is now, little more than a smile and a hand shake, so I've had plenty of time to become accustomed to it...but that does not really diminish the loss.

But Ed, ME and dad are totally with it and a ton of fun to be around. Mary Ellen is a master chef and made a 5 course meal for us that included baked potatoes, a beef roast, salmon, fresh homegrown tomatoes and gravy. Everything was no salt as she knows I'm sort of allergic to salt due to my menieres disease, which fortunately has been in complete remission for over a year...knock on wood.

Dad was like a little boy, exclaiming over all the road signs, and the fall colors. He was going stir crazy in that nursing home. It's awesome how he wants to be moms everything in her hour of need, but the fact is that he doesn't have the patience for it. As my brother said, if mom wants to stop eating, it's her choice, and dad shouldn't try to force food on her.

 

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