Still hard for me to believe i-5 necks down to 2 lanes on the way into town. I don't miss that commute.
Random photos: Got anything interesting, unique, strange?
- Thread starter Head Lice
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Still hard for me to believe i-5 necks down to 2 lanes on the way into town. I don't miss that commute.
I can't believe I used to drive that craziness before. Glad I only go to visit now...
MountaineerTom
LJ Enthusiast, Retired USAF Weapons Loader
Supporting Member
Ride of the Month Winner
I got a pic of all the eclipses through one of my welding helmets. I’ll be back from Tatooine tomorrow evening. 
I am of the opinion that short of the United States military, no one else rivals United States farmers in development and ingenuity. This is not a spray rig.... this is how a grown man gets to live out a childhood fantasy of being a transformer
alittleoff
TJ Addict
Haha. That thought and pic makes me wonder what the heavy equipment that I used to operate would look like standing on its hind legs.
In my backcountry pursuits, I've had grizzlies follow me every day in the Scapegoat wilderness on an elk hunt (tracks over mine when back-tracking at days end - every day!) I've had a mountain lion scream at me 20 yards away when night-hunting a lion that was killing cattle in TX. In NM, before they were "officially" there, I watched a pair of wolves separate an elk calf from a cow elk on a scouting trip in the Gila wilderness. I didn't see the end, but I hope somehow that calf made it! And finally, I see western diamondbacks all the time in the field here at home.
But the most scared I've ever been was during lightning storms at elevation when there's no where to go and strikes are happening at random all around. That happened once before I understood high-elevation lightning storms, and then again years later when I just got caught out and a fast-moving storm cell moved in before I could avoid it. Both times, I was cannon-balled up, standing on my toes, praying to God to spare me. Lightning in the mountains is a serious deal! I see that picture and think, "those poor, innocent kids!"
Lightning at elevation is nothing to screw around with.
Myself and a coworker were working on a piece of railroad equipment on Pikes Peak during the rehab of the cog railway. Got some cloud cover and lightning struck less than a hundred yards away. Instantly shut the job down for day and high tailed off that mountain. My coworker is ten years younger and a good seventy pounds heavier than I. In the 25 years we’ve worked together, I’ve never seen his fat ass move so fast.
Myself and a coworker were working on a piece of railroad equipment on Pikes Peak during the rehab of the cog railway. Got some cloud cover and lightning struck less than a hundred yards away. Instantly shut the job down for day and high tailed off that mountain. My coworker is ten years younger and a good seventy pounds heavier than I. In the 25 years we’ve worked together, I’ve never seen his fat ass move so fast.
Does anyone remember the "Lightning Bowl"? Bears vs. someone at Soldier field, game was aborted early due to lightning strikes all around.
A video but still pretty cool
https://www.twz.com/air/minigun-armed-mojave-drone-now-blasting-targets-at-6000-rounds-per-minute
https://www.twz.com/air/minigun-armed-mojave-drone-now-blasting-targets-at-6000-rounds-per-minute
Saw this demon-faced cloud on my drive home yesterday. The face was super clear to the eye, much more so than the picture.
From 2007.
https://www.nbcnews.com/id/wbna17185299
A German paraglider was encased in ice and blacked out after being sucked into a tornado-like thunderstorm in Australia and carried to a height greater than Mount Everest. She survived.
"The glider kept climbing, climbing and I couldn't see anything," recalled Ewa Wisnerska. "Then it got dark."
The 2005 World Cup winner was lifted 32,612 feet (9,940 meters) above sea level by the storm near Manilla in New South Wales state while preparing for the tenth FAI World Paragliding Championships next week.
A 42-year-old Chinese paraglider, He Zhongpin, was killed by the same weather system, apparently from a lack of oxygen and extreme cold, the organizers said. His body was found on Thursday 47 miles from his launch site.
"You can't imagine the power. You feel like nothing, like a leaf from a tree going up," Wisnerska told Australian Broadcasting Corp. radio on Friday.
"I was shaking all the time. The last thing I remember it was dark, I could hear lightning all around me."
'No oxygen' in the death zone
Wisnerska, a member of the German team, had been carried to a height greater than the 29,035-foot Mount Everest an area known to mountaineers as the death zone for its extreme cold in just 10 minutes and was rendered unconscious for almost an hour.
She encountered hailstones the size of oranges, and the temperature plummeted to minus 58 Fahrenheit.
"There's no oxygen. She could have suffered brain damage. But she came to again at a height of 6,900 meters with ice all over her body and slowly descended herself," said Godfrey Wenness, one of Australia's most experienced paraglider pilots.
Wisnerska was admitted to hospital with severe frostbite and blistering to her face and ears, but has since been released.
She had been trying to fly around the rapidly developing storm front, but became trapped when two storm cells merged, Wenness said.
Sudden severe thunderstorms are common during the Australian summer and come with destructive hail, winds and torrential rain.
Wisnerska, whose flight was tracked by her personal GPS and computer, landed 40 miles from her launch site.
A British team member earlier this month survived an attack by two wild eagles which sent her canopy plummeting while flying in the same area ahead of the championships.
Took the girls to Disneyland for my youngest 16th birthday last weekend.
Mama told her she didn't approve of her T-shirt choice of the day and should change.
My daughter clapped back "The Care Bears cancel out the skulls and pentagrams! Its fine!!"
Mama told her she didn't approve of her T-shirt choice of the day and should change.
My daughter clapped back "The Care Bears cancel out the skulls and pentagrams! Its fine!!"