Tell us something about you....

[yiostheoy]

Beautiful area, have been many times. I love the whole Monterey peninsula.

The rich retirees of Northern California get to choose between Monterey or Lake Tahoe.

I would like the Lake better. But the Ocean is fine too.

Yeah, I chose the Lake, here is an aerial look over my area. That's Mt Rose ski resort in front.

OMG -- I blew up on one of those runs. Was showing off a bit and literally fell to bits scattered over maybe 30 yards. Goggles, hat, poles, skis, gloves, even a boot. Split my snowsuit in the process and had to spend the rest of the day getting ribbed, drinking a lot of Irish coffees and not walking around a lot.

Great views from there. Loved Northstar, Alpine Meadows and Sierra Ski Ranch. One of the companies I worked for kept a large condo at Squaw Valley. We all we schemed to get snowed in on Mondays..

I was skiing at Kirkwood cross country and got lost and ended up on a triple black diamond trail and went crashing down the mountainside.

My right ski got ripped out of the binding and I had to ski back to the lodge on one ski.

After that I stuck to Bear Valley which was very easy skiing with no black diamond trails at all.

My right knee was never the same after the skiing accident however, but I never got surgery on it.

 

[yiostheoy]

I'm a dog lover, had two and my second one is winding down. They don't live long enough, it just ain't right. I have an allergy to cats and find them interesting. I work in people's homes, some have cats and they are always curious but generally won't let you approach them. Except one guy who said his cat was like a dog. And it was. I was hammering away on a door frame and he was inches away watching. any other cat would have been hiding in the furtherest recesses of the house cursing my very existence.

A friend of mine adopted a young kitten, and the cat imprinted on his dog. It does whatever the dog does. If the dog sits for food, the cat will sit for food. If the dog fetches something, the cat will fetch something. I've never seen anything like it.

Some cats are called dog-like.

My Angora is like that.

He goes on walks with me and does not need a leash.

He comes when I call to him.

He probably thinks I am his father/mother.

I raised him from the time he was born.

 

[yiostheoy]

They're called chamber pots here, too. They had lids. You kept it under the bed. Downstairs, you went outside to the outhouse. First thing every morning (after breakfast, of course) you went up and made the beds, emptied and cleaned the chamber pots.

When I go camping I use a type of chamber pot which is called Lugable Lou. It is a 5 gal paint bucket with a toilet seat lid on it. You line it with a plastic bag before you use it. Then wrap up the plastic bag when you are finished.

That's as close to any chamber pot as I have ever come.

Always had indoor plumbing ever since being born (back during the Korean War).

 

[yiostheoy]

My dad said Korea used to be a beautiful place until the North and the South bombed the Hell out of it and burned down every single tree. He said the Korean War was more devastating than WW2 In Europe.

 

[yiostheoy]

Somethings I haven't revealed already???

I'm 57
my oldest son is 36
I'm not a Grandma yet.....dammit
I grew up around bikers (they lived next door, took a liking to us & we became 'family')
been clean, straight & sober for 32 years
started 'working' for money when I was 10....babysitting, washing cars, mowing lawns, odd jobs. Only time I haven't worked was because of family. Family comes first. Always has, always will.
I've never been fired from any job.
been to a nudist camp
was chased down by the border police........misunderstanding & was let go
never been arrested
I love animals & trust them more than most people
Currently we have 2 dogs (1 is Jack Russell, 1 is Shepard/Lab/Pit mix),
2 cats (1 is long haired orange tabby, 1 is grey/black tabby & MIA),
and 19 chickens ages from 3 weeks to 2 years......and yes I have butchered.
I refuse to hold a grudge, because I won't poison my life because of others

A mere 57 huh?

Then you could have been my baby sister's baby sister.

 

[westwall]

Beautiful area, have been many times. I love the whole Monterey peninsula.

The rich retirees of Northern California get to choose between Monterey or Lake Tahoe.

I would like the Lake better. But the Ocean is fine too.

Yeah, I chose the Lake, here is an aerial look over my area. That's Mt Rose ski resort in front.

OMG -- I blew up on one of those runs. Was showing off a bit and literally fell to bits scattered over maybe 30 yards. Goggles, hat, poles, skis, gloves, even a boot. Split my snowsuit in the process and had to spend the rest of the day getting ribbed, drinking a lot of Irish coffees and not walking around a lot.

Great views from there. Loved Northstar, Alpine Meadows and Sierra Ski Ranch. One of the companies I worked for kept a large condo at Squaw Valley. We all we schemed to get snowed in on Mondays..

Yeah, i had a pretty astonishingly bad kerfuffle on Wild Card about 20 years ago. Probably the worst wipeout I've ever had. I am truly amazed i suffered no long term damage. The short term humiliation was pretty severe though!

 

[Gracie]

generally just hang around the house and wait to die.

Well. We have something in common after all.

 

[yiostheoy]

Yeah, i had a pretty astonishingly bad kerfuffle on Wild Card about 20 years ago. Probably the worst wipeout I've ever had. I am truly amazed i suffered no long term damage. The short term humiliation was pretty severe though!

Skiing is not on the top 10 list of things that can kill you.

Ski-mobiling is on it however.

But plenty of people get killed skiing each year.

Sonny Bono comes to mind immediately.

 

[xband]

USMB is a community...often in this partisan atmosphere - it can get toxic. But we exist beyond a political label.

So...who are you? What can you tell us that we might not expect, in our readiness to label?

I'll start.

I adore dogs, they've given meaning to my life as I have no children (but, no, I don't think of them AS child replacements - they are who they are). I'm involved in Australian Shepherd rescue but have a soft spot for all the herding dogs and Pitties too. Any dog. I have a real fondness for asshole dogs no one else wants.

I have cats. They rule. Need more be said?

I live in a state that is VERY red, but also full of wonderfully kind people. The sort that when you stupidly drive to fast in a snowstorm and plow into a drift will pull you out.

I love hiking and running and live in the perfect area to enjoy both.

I love horses but will never be able to afford them.

I love to read - my junk food reading of choice is mysteries and sci fi.

I"ve enjoyed conversations with liberals and conservatives both...and learned things and adjusted my assumptions.

I think our country is great.

Who are you?

I am a WASP (white anglo-saxon protestant), Vietnam Combat Vet who never accepted one penny of charity or inherited one nickel, never went to college and retired a wealthy country squire. Even a blind hog finds an acorn once in a while.

 

[OldLady]

They're called chamber pots here, too. They had lids. You kept it under the bed. Downstairs, you went outside to the outhouse. First thing every morning (after breakfast, of course) you went up and made the beds, emptied and cleaned the chamber pots.

When I go camping I use a type of chamber pot which is called Lugable Lou. It is a 5 gal paint bucket with a toilet seat lid on it. You line it with a plastic bag before you use it. Then wrap up the plastic bag when you are finished.

That's as close to any chamber pot as I have ever come.

Always had indoor plumbing ever since being born (back during the Korean War).

I always have, too, but when I visited the family homestead (which also had a bathroom downstairs) the old folks there continued with their chamber pot habit so they wouldn't have to walk downstairs in the middle of the night. Considering how creaky my knees are getting, I am amazed that the old ladies could get down on those chamber ports--or more like, that they could get back up. My mom remembers the house before the bathroom was added. There was a pump in the kitchen sink, though.

 

[miketx]

generally just hang around the house and wait to die.

Well. We have something in common after all.

Yeah, call me sometime, we can talk about choices, being old and wore out, and how sorry everybody is.

 

[Pogo]

FlaCalTenn has lived in Florida, California and Tenn (since about 6th grade -- some other places before that) I COOK for 2 box turtles that have a palatial outdoor "Turtle Port" with their own vegetable garden. They've been in the family for over 20 years and I hatched one from an egg. Love nature and the environment. Long walks on the beach. Grew up LITERALLY on the beach. Ex -- surf bum/musician/lifeguard. Got my UnderGrad in Biomedical Engineering at Univ of Fla and had to take pre-Med as part of that. Soloed in an airplane at 19. Later in Grad school plugged blind people (with surgically implanted electrodes) into a "visual evoked responses" machine so they could play "Pong". Kind of set me off on a fabulously eclectic career in science/engineering/academics/intel... Included a year at Kennedy Space Center and seven years that I can't discuss much. After being consumed by Silicon Valley for awhile, started an engineering group for hire that turns theory into working electronic/computer gadgets of all types for the past 20+ years.

Played in concert at the Daytona Beach bandshell during spring break to 10,000 drunken college kids with a pick-up band of old band members and lived to tell about it. Been a lot of places in the world. Not a snob about living ANYWHERE in the USA outside of Cali. Active member of the Libertarian party for over 20 years.

One daughter who wants to be "House" and is doing neuro research currently at Vanderbilt. She gave me refrigerator magnets with tinted pink/blue human brain slices for Father's Day. And I've adopted HER dog (stolen him actually) after losing my last two.. LOVE Tennessee now. It's gorgeous and much better managed than Cali.

What instrument(s) do you play?

I play about anything with strings on it. Have played guitar, hammered dulcimer, bowed psaltery, violin/viola, bouzouki, and started on piano. I try to avoid wind but can muddle through a recorder or tinwhistle.

 

[flacaltenn]

Beautiful area, have been many times. I love the whole Monterey peninsula.

The rich retirees of Northern California get to choose between Monterey or Lake Tahoe.

I would like the Lake better. But the Ocean is fine too.

Yeah, I chose the Lake, here is an aerial look over my area. That's Mt Rose ski resort in front.

OMG -- I blew up on one of those runs. Was showing off a bit and literally fell to bits scattered over maybe 30 yards. Goggles, hat, poles, skis, gloves, even a boot. Split my snowsuit in the process and had to spend the rest of the day getting ribbed, drinking a lot of Irish coffees and not walking around a lot.

Great views from there. Loved Northstar, Alpine Meadows and Sierra Ski Ranch. One of the companies I worked for kept a large condo at Squaw Valley. We all we schemed to get snowed in on Mondays..

Yeah, i had a pretty astonishingly bad kerfuffle on Wild Card about 20 years ago. Probably the worst wipeout I've ever had. I am truly amazed i suffered no long term damage. The short term humiliation was pretty severe though!

The blow-up wasn't the most embarrassing ski experience. Even with the ass-split in my ski pants. That was a good day compared to another trip to Squaw. We took a bunch of people up to the company condo at Squaw and 3 of them were beginners. Nobody was volunteering so I stuck with with and it was a last minute thing, so I rented equipment with them . I was totally focused on making them comfortable. Got outside and was trying to show them how to wedge and shift weight and something was bad wrong. But they had me distracted, so we went up the beginner lift and I got them off and explained the plan. I was falling every 10 yards trying to ski backwards and keeping an eye on them.. They were hysterically laughing. After a few minutes, I looked down to figure it out and discovered I left rentals with 2 left boots !!!

That's embarrassing....

 

[flacaltenn]

Beautiful area, have been many times. I love the whole Monterey peninsula.

The rich retirees of Northern California get to choose between Monterey or Lake Tahoe.

I would like the Lake better. But the Ocean is fine too.

Yeah, I chose the Lake, here is an aerial look over my area. That's Mt Rose ski resort in front.

OMG -- I blew up on one of those runs. Was showing off a bit and literally fell to bits scattered over maybe 30 yards. Goggles, hat, poles, skis, gloves, even a boot. Split my snowsuit in the process and had to spend the rest of the day getting ribbed, drinking a lot of Irish coffees and not walking around a lot.

Great views from there. Loved Northstar, Alpine Meadows and Sierra Ski Ranch. One of the companies I worked for kept a large condo at Squaw Valley. We all we schemed to get snowed in on Mondays..

I was skiing at Kirkwood cross country and got lost and ended up on a triple black diamond trail and went crashing down the mountainside.

My right ski got ripped out of the binding and I had to ski back to the lodge on one ski.

After that I stuck to Bear Valley which was very easy skiing with no black diamond trails at all.

My right knee was never the same after the skiing accident however, but I never got surgery on it.

That's not good. I worried about knee damage sometimes when it still hurt a week after pushing thru too many moguls. It's REALLY hard on knees even when you don't wipe-out.

 

[flacaltenn]

FlaCalTenn has lived in Florida, California and Tenn (since about 6th grade -- some other places before that) I COOK for 2 box turtles that have a palatial outdoor "Turtle Port" with their own vegetable garden. They've been in the family for over 20 years and I hatched one from an egg. Love nature and the environment. Long walks on the beach. Grew up LITERALLY on the beach. Ex -- surf bum/musician/lifeguard. Got my UnderGrad in Biomedical Engineering at Univ of Fla and had to take pre-Med as part of that. Soloed in an airplane at 19. Later in Grad school plugged blind people (with surgically implanted electrodes) into a "visual evoked responses" machine so they could play "Pong". Kind of set me off on a fabulously eclectic career in science/engineering/academics/intel... Included a year at Kennedy Space Center and seven years that I can't discuss much. After being consumed by Silicon Valley for awhile, started an engineering group for hire that turns theory into working electronic/computer gadgets of all types for the past 20+ years.

Played in concert at the Daytona Beach bandshell during spring break to 10,000 drunken college kids with a pick-up band of old band members and lived to tell about it. Been a lot of places in the world. Not a snob about living ANYWHERE in the USA outside of Cali. Active member of the Libertarian party for over 20 years.

One daughter who wants to be "House" and is doing neuro research currently at Vanderbilt. She gave me refrigerator magnets with tinted pink/blue human brain slices for Father's Day. And I've adopted HER dog (stolen him actually) after losing my last two.. LOVE Tennessee now. It's gorgeous and much better managed than Cali.

What instrument(s) do you play?

I play about anything with strings on it. Have played guitar, hammered dulcimer, bowed psaltery, violin/viola, bouzouki, and started on piano. I try to avoid wind but can muddle through a recorder or tinwhistle.

I played guitar constantly most of my life until a hand tremor started to ruin it. Tremor started in my late 20s. With the bands I was in -- I was also attracted to all the audio mixing, effects, recording aspect of it. So I had collected a big toy box of stuff. After college shifted to "solo-style" playing. Learned to use ALL the fingers in the right places and started arranging songs for solo style finger-picking. The message board thing is really a replacement for all that. Because that's where I spent a lot of time.

If you never heard what ONE guitar can do -- here's an example of a song I liked to play.. Bass, melody, chords all at once. Guy has to pick up the meter a bit tho...

 

[Ringel05]

 

[Pogo]

FlaCalTenn has lived in Florida, California and Tenn (since about 6th grade -- some other places before that) I COOK for 2 box turtles that have a palatial outdoor "Turtle Port" with their own vegetable garden. They've been in the family for over 20 years and I hatched one from an egg. Love nature and the environment. Long walks on the beach. Grew up LITERALLY on the beach. Ex -- surf bum/musician/lifeguard. Got my UnderGrad in Biomedical Engineering at Univ of Fla and had to take pre-Med as part of that. Soloed in an airplane at 19. Later in Grad school plugged blind people (with surgically implanted electrodes) into a "visual evoked responses" machine so they could play "Pong". Kind of set me off on a fabulously eclectic career in science/engineering/academics/intel... Included a year at Kennedy Space Center and seven years that I can't discuss much. After being consumed by Silicon Valley for awhile, started an engineering group for hire that turns theory into working electronic/computer gadgets of all types for the past 20+ years.

Played in concert at the Daytona Beach bandshell during spring break to 10,000 drunken college kids with a pick-up band of old band members and lived to tell about it. Been a lot of places in the world. Not a snob about living ANYWHERE in the USA outside of Cali. Active member of the Libertarian party for over 20 years.

One daughter who wants to be "House" and is doing neuro research currently at Vanderbilt. She gave me refrigerator magnets with tinted pink/blue human brain slices for Father's Day. And I've adopted HER dog (stolen him actually) after losing my last two.. LOVE Tennessee now. It's gorgeous and much better managed than Cali.

What instrument(s) do you play?

I play about anything with strings on it. Have played guitar, hammered dulcimer, bowed psaltery, violin/viola, bouzouki, and started on piano. I try to avoid wind but can muddle through a recorder or tinwhistle.

I played guitar constantly most of my life until a hand tremor started to ruin it. Tremor started in my late 20s. With the bands I was in -- I was also attracted to all the audio mixing, effects, recording aspect of it. So I had collected a big toy box of stuff. After college shifted to "solo-style" playing. Learned to use ALL the fingers in the right places and started arranging songs for solo style finger-picking. The message board thing is really a replacement for all that. Because that's where I spent a lot of time.

If you never heard what ONE guitar can do -- here's an example of a song I liked to play.. Bass, melody, chords all at once. Guy has to pick up the meter a bit tho...

That's what I like to do - fingerpick. Learned a lot from playing banjo. Kudos for working over the disability. Seems like you have a few things in common with Les Paul.

Back in I think the '40s Les Paul was involved in a bad car accident where the car flipped over and his right (playing) arm got shattered. Doctors told him they couldn't set it back to normal and recommended amputation. He flew out to L.A. and had them intentionally set it at a fixed permanent angle where he could play. Served him well for the next fifty-plus years.

He was into audio recording/mulittracking too, an innovator in multi-tracking even before Ampex invented the technology to do it.

That's also in my background, audio, recording and radio. Always has been.

 

[ChrisL]

I have many secret talents, but if I told you I would have to kill you.

 

[ChrisL]

Beautiful area, have been many times. I love the whole Monterey peninsula.

The rich retirees of Northern California get to choose between Monterey or Lake Tahoe.

I would like the Lake better. But the Ocean is fine too.

Yeah, I chose the Lake, here is an aerial look over my area. That's Mt Rose ski resort in front.

OMG -- I blew up on one of those runs. Was showing off a bit and literally fell to bits scattered over maybe 30 yards. Goggles, hat, poles, skis, gloves, even a boot. Split my snowsuit in the process and had to spend the rest of the day getting ribbed, drinking a lot of Irish coffees and not walking around a lot.

Great views from there. Loved Northstar, Alpine Meadows and Sierra Ski Ranch. One of the companies I worked for kept a large condo at Squaw Valley. We all we schemed to get snowed in on Mondays..

Yeah, i had a pretty astonishingly bad kerfuffle on Wild Card about 20 years ago. Probably the worst wipeout I've ever had. I am truly amazed i suffered no long term damage. The short term humiliation was pretty severe though!

The blow-up wasn't the most embarrassing ski experience. Even with the ass-split in my ski pants. That was a good day compared to another trip to Squaw. We took a bunch of people up to the company condo at Squaw and 3 of them were beginners. Nobody was volunteering so I stuck with with and it was a last minute thing, so I rented equipment with them . I was totally focused on making them comfortable. Got outside and was trying to show them how to wedge and shift weight and something was bad wrong. But they had me distracted, so we went up the beginner lift and I got them off and explained the plan. I was falling every 10 yards trying to ski backwards and keeping an eye on them.. They were hysterically laughing. After a few minutes, I looked down to figure it out and discovered I left rentals with 2 left boots !!!

That's embarrassing....

You're not a mod anymore??? When did this happen? Have I been sleeping? Damn. You were one of my favorite mods. I am grieving now.

 

[flacaltenn]

FlaCalTenn has lived in Florida, California and Tenn (since about 6th grade -- some other places before that) I COOK for 2 box turtles that have a palatial outdoor "Turtle Port" with their own vegetable garden. They've been in the family for over 20 years and I hatched one from an egg. Love nature and the environment. Long walks on the beach. Grew up LITERALLY on the beach. Ex -- surf bum/musician/lifeguard. Got my UnderGrad in Biomedical Engineering at Univ of Fla and had to take pre-Med as part of that. Soloed in an airplane at 19. Later in Grad school plugged blind people (with surgically implanted electrodes) into a "visual evoked responses" machine so they could play "Pong". Kind of set me off on a fabulously eclectic career in science/engineering/academics/intel... Included a year at Kennedy Space Center and seven years that I can't discuss much. After being consumed by Silicon Valley for awhile, started an engineering group for hire that turns theory into working electronic/computer gadgets of all types for the past 20+ years.

Played in concert at the Daytona Beach bandshell during spring break to 10,000 drunken college kids with a pick-up band of old band members and lived to tell about it. Been a lot of places in the world. Not a snob about living ANYWHERE in the USA outside of Cali. Active member of the Libertarian party for over 20 years.

One daughter who wants to be "House" and is doing neuro research currently at Vanderbilt. She gave me refrigerator magnets with tinted pink/blue human brain slices for Father's Day. And I've adopted HER dog (stolen him actually) after losing my last two.. LOVE Tennessee now. It's gorgeous and much better managed than Cali.

What instrument(s) do you play?

I play about anything with strings on it. Have played guitar, hammered dulcimer, bowed psaltery, violin/viola, bouzouki, and started on piano. I try to avoid wind but can muddle through a recorder or tinwhistle.

I played guitar constantly most of my life until a hand tremor started to ruin it. Tremor started in my late 20s. With the bands I was in -- I was also attracted to all the audio mixing, effects, recording aspect of it. So I had collected a big toy box of stuff. After college shifted to "solo-style" playing. Learned to use ALL the fingers in the right places and started arranging songs for solo style finger-picking. The message board thing is really a replacement for all that. Because that's where I spent a lot of time.

If you never heard what ONE guitar can do -- here's an example of a song I liked to play.. Bass, melody, chords all at once. Guy has to pick up the meter a bit tho...

That's what I like to do - fingerpick. Learned a lot from playing banjo. Kudos for working over the disability. Seems like you have a few things in common with Les Paul.

Back in I think the '40s Les Paul was involved in a bad car accident where the car flipped over and his right (playing) arm got shattered. Doctors told him they couldn't set it back to normal and recommended amputation. He flew out to L.A. and had them intentionally set it at a fixed permanent angle where he could play. Served him well for the next fifty-plus years.

He was into audio recording/mulittracking too, an innovator in multi-tracking even before Ampex invented the technology to do it.

That's also in my background, audio, recording and radio. Always has been.

Didn't know that Les Paul story. Pretty amazing. At first the tremor was a feature, because it added a little uncertainty to the finger picking. Actually did stuff I tried to repeat.. But eventually, I couldn't do it like I used to and gave it up. Probably about the time I moved to "Music City, Tenn"..

Ampex was my first job in Silicon Valley. Was involved in research there on digital video effects and signal/image processing. A lot of folks I worked with there became principals atIndustrial Light and Magic and Pixar.