The Bar
- Desert Duck
- Posts: 2029
- Joined: Mon Jan 19, 2004 10:53 pm
- Location: Oregon foothills near Silver Falls...wait, no...San Francisco...umm North bay?...The Playa!!!!
I'm thinking it will actually help, since the entrance is always centered at 6:00, and now that would be almost to the west edge of the city, maybe much of that gate road dust will miss the city entirely.theCryptofishist wrote:But what will it do to the dust storms!Desert Duck wrote:Well, not quite. But out is no longer generally North (ok, NNE) it's now more to the Northeast. They spun the whole thing clockwise and moved it 1 1/2 miles north.EspressoDude wrote: City turned? West is now East?
I like pudding.
I like tea.
I like chocolate.
Do you like me?
I like tea.
I like chocolate.
Do you like me?
- Bin Noddin
- Posts: 3097
- Joined: Fri Nov 11, 2005 11:00 pm
- Location: Silver Spring, MD
- Desert Duck
- Posts: 2029
- Joined: Mon Jan 19, 2004 10:53 pm
- Location: Oregon foothills near Silver Falls...wait, no...San Francisco...umm North bay?...The Playa!!!!
- sputnik
- Posts: 7865
- Joined: Wed Sep 08, 2004 6:17 am
- Burning Since: 2004
- Camp Name: Ubercarney
- Location: Detroit
Although, what it may do is spread the dust over more of the city, but that really depends on the wind direction. Remember, the road is now a mile and a half longer, so there's that much more area to make dusty and since the wind comes from the SW to the NE it may just be a more generalized problem. Time will tell.Desert Duck wrote: I'm thinking it will actually help, since the entrance is always centered at 6:00, and now that would be almost to the west edge of the city, maybe much of that gate road dust will miss the city entirely.
- theCryptofishist
- Posts: 40312
- Joined: Mon Feb 23, 2004 9:28 am
- Burning Since: 2017
- Location: In Exile
- EspressoDude
- Posts: 4920
- Joined: Tue Jan 24, 2006 7:30 pm
- Location: the first Vancouver
- Contact:
Whichever way the wind blows up your skirts kiddies.
( or is it kilts and/or chaps!! )
( or is it kilts and/or chaps!! )
Is 4 shots enuff? no foo-foo drinks; just naked Espresso
Tactical Espresso Service http://home.comcast.net/~espressocamp/
Field Artillery Tractor
FOGBANK, GOD OF HELLFIRE
BLACK ROCK f/x Trojan Horse,Anubis,2014Temple
burn shit and blow shit up
Tactical Espresso Service http://home.comcast.net/~espressocamp/
Field Artillery Tractor
FOGBANK, GOD OF HELLFIRE
BLACK ROCK f/x Trojan Horse,Anubis,2014Temple
burn shit and blow shit up
- theCryptofishist
- Posts: 40312
- Joined: Mon Feb 23, 2004 9:28 am
- Burning Since: 2017
- Location: In Exile
- Desert Duck
- Posts: 2029
- Joined: Mon Jan 19, 2004 10:53 pm
- Location: Oregon foothills near Silver Falls...wait, no...San Francisco...umm North bay?...The Playa!!!!
- theCryptofishist
- Posts: 40312
- Joined: Mon Feb 23, 2004 9:28 am
- Burning Since: 2017
- Location: In Exile
- Desert Duck
- Posts: 2029
- Joined: Mon Jan 19, 2004 10:53 pm
- Location: Oregon foothills near Silver Falls...wait, no...San Francisco...umm North bay?...The Playa!!!!
- Desert Duck
- Posts: 2029
- Joined: Mon Jan 19, 2004 10:53 pm
- Location: Oregon foothills near Silver Falls...wait, no...San Francisco...umm North bay?...The Playa!!!!
Nice timing, folks.. I'm just sitting down to write a reference letter to a former employee (I'm the former, she still works there...) that I've been procrastinating on all month, and its due tomorrow.. oopsie!
Time to start shovelling the shit onto the paper :)
X.
Time to start shovelling the shit onto the paper :)
X.
<b>The ePlaya Bar Camp:</b> "What will it be?"
- Box Burner
- Posts: 5803
- Joined: Mon May 01, 2006 2:33 am
- Location: Kentucky
Jewel*** wrote:morning everyone.............concert was great!
oh, we were at Mohegan Sun, one of the 2 casinos in CT. Lost $40 at the roulette table. I was SOOOOOOOOOOOOO close. Doesn't that count? shoulda just thrown the money in the garbage can.


My mom used to like to pull the handles once in a while. Any time we were vacationing in southern Utah there would have to be a side excursion to Mesquite for the buffet and so Mom could pull handles. Not being much of a gambler I usually just stood around and watched. But on one occation I was just too bored so I decided to find some way to kill some time. So I cashed $10 in for some 50 cent chips and went looking around, finally settling on a roulette wheel. After examining the wheel I decided that by only playing outside bets i could make my ten dollars last long enough for mom to blow her 40 dollars in quarters. Minimum bet was $2. I was the only one at the table. So looked at the wheel and then at the betting board and decided that it would land on red. It was a win which paid $2. So I took my 4 dollar winings off the board, looked at the wheel and the board and decided that this time it would land on Even and placed my $2 on even. It was another win. And so it went. After a while other people came around and a few played some but I think now that a manager said that no one else could play since every one else stopped betting. At one point another dealer or maybe a manager came over and examined the wheel. But they didn't say anything and I kept on playing. I only lost twice... to the house. Zero and double zero ARE even numbers. When I decided to quit I looked up and realized that the huge crowd around the table were all watching me and cheering me on. As I gathered my chips into a box some of them asked me how I did it. I don't know. I was just figuring the odds in my head. I won $90. Just playing 2 dollar bets. The $90 paid for diner and it paid for my moms $40 gambling losses and she got the rest to spend on presies for the grand kids. And I still had my original $10 which was not figured in the winnings.
Dance in the heart of chaos. . . . .
ὁ δὲ ἀνεξέταστος βίος οὐ βιωτὸς ἀνθρώπῳ
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - --- Σωκράτης
.
ὁ δὲ ἀνεξέταστος βίος οὐ βιωτὸς ἀνθρώπῳ
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - --- Σωκράτης
.
- Desert Duck
- Posts: 2029
- Joined: Mon Jan 19, 2004 10:53 pm
- Location: Oregon foothills near Silver Falls...wait, no...San Francisco...umm North bay?...The Playa!!!!
Story's done (sort of).
I'll set up a link.
It's weird. The process of trying to recall and write it down has...I dunno, it's made me think a little bit.
(edited to add)
Fuck it, here's the whole thing- if I don't I won't.
(Stumbles off leaving 4 pages of ?? on the bar)
I woke up at about 6:15 am on friday, already jumpy as hell. I immediately decided it would be a good idea for me to check my head. After a quick sesh, I started getting ready. Took me the whole two hours to get myself and my stuff ready for the weekend, but by 8:15, I was out the door.
Got on the bus, turned out to be a spare the air day, so my ride was free. Especially cool considering I was a bit loaded down and the bus was already getting full.
Moderate walk from the stop to the BM office, and there’s Blue’s car with Scarlet (his dog) inside, happy as ever, but no Blue. Back door’s locked, no answer, so I go around to the front door and ring the bell. Here comes a lady up the sidewalk saying “oh, you must be Blue’s friend”. She lets me in, we go upstairs, I go down the back stairs, into the warehouse area and out the back door. There’s Blue with a big-ass rental truck, just hopping out and getting ready to load up. Talk about timing.
We’re jamming trying to get this thing loaded and out so we can pick up the biodiesel totes in Reno by 5:00 pm., even with interruptions and a Costco delivery of a pallet of beverages, we manage to get out by 11:30 am.
Traffic’s great. Once we’re on the road, we seem to be doing good. Passed three minor slowdowns, each from an accident on the other side. First was a Semi trailer that had rolled over, and they had the equipment out there trying to extricate. Next was a Semi trailer that had apparently caught on fire, and so behind it was a Semi facing the wrong way, and in between were pallets of charred goods and a forklift transferring the damaged goods to their new transport.
We get into Reno in plenty of time, but the guys we were supposed to meet decided to leave and just set the totes outside for us to grab whenever we came by, so it didn’t even matter. Pick up some totes and were off again, off again, jiggity-jig.
Last slowdown happens on the other side of Reno maybe a mile and a half before the Wadsworth turnoff. Bronco or some such went from our lane tearing ass across the median, flipped, rolled, and ended up facing the right way in the eastbound lanes, just off the shoulder. We timed the slowdown knowing we only had a mile to our turnoff. Took us seven minutes, then just before the offramp the whole thing cleared.
Out into the backcountry now, and I’m timing cars. At one point it was 23 minutes between oncoming cars. We can see storm clouds in places on the horizon.
As we pull into Gerlach, we can see the lights are on in the Saloon. Turns out, we’re just in time for dinner. Turns out they’ve got this guy Spoon cookin’ for the crew out there for another week, and this guy’s good. Fresh salad, barbecue ribs and chicken, glazed carrots and real homemade French fries. DANG!!
The trailer park we’re stayin’ in is located on the south edge of town, and we’re in that last trailer on the south edge of the park. I go in to sort myself out and at some point see a flash. I finish with my comportment (tucking beers into the fridge and laying my sleeping bag out on an actual bed), and wander outside. Half a dozen or so folks are on the street there, in the middle of the street, some with chairs, a couple standing, a couple more just plopped down on the pavement, all just watching this spectacular lightning show. As we’re sitting there the strikes occur more and more often, some times two or three in a minute, but none of us is hearing any thunder.
Another beer, and we’re still out there oohhinng and ahhing, someone makes a comment that it’s getting a bit late and suddenly we realize we can’t see Empire anymore. A few seconds and we’re all blasted with wind and dust, a total whiteout from dead calm in 10 seconds. Everyone scatters, yelling goodnights as they go. I stay up for just a little while listening to the wind throw things around.
Morning comes early, and breakfast doesn’t get served till 7:30, so I’ve got plenty of time after I wake up to get myself together. I split my hour or so before breakfast being lazy and getting the dog wound up. She’s such a happy puppy.
Breakfast rocks!! Eggs, omelets to order, your choice of breakfast meat with potatoes, juice, coffee, cereal. I find that the juice is already a little fermenty, but otherwise an extremely satisfying meal.
Now we begin to make our rounds, delivering all the things we collected and brought out. First stop, Work Ranch. We’ve got an assortment of goods and materials to unload here. First off the truck, the three pallet sized fuel totes. Each can hold 275 gal, but they’re made of plastic and aluminum so are easy to handle. Next, we got a pair of 16’ long by 4’ wide tabletops for the Lamplighters. These just get set aside for now so we can finish unloading. Now we’ve got access to a big chunk, it’s the donated wood for the Black Rock Arts Foundation. These are strapped together and are easy to pick and drop with the forklift, so that bit goes pretty quick. So we get to the pallet of donated water –maybe 30 cases of those little 16 oz. bottles- and the forklift’s forks are too wide, even at narrowest adjustment, to pick. Blue doesn’t want us to have to huck the whole load by hand, so we gets us the bobcat. I don’t know how many of you have ever driven a bobcat, but it’s a little different than a forklift. You gotta control the up/down and the tilt with your feet. And they’re touchy. And that load wasn’t wrapped all that tight, so he goes to lift and it tilts back suddenly and stops. The whole load bulges under it’s own weight through the plastic wrap, then the bobcat moves again and the load tilts forward and down, and cases go rolling off and bursting in all directions. In an instant, there’s a swarm of people, as well as a golf cart, and everyone’s picking up cases and chasing bottles. Somehow, we managed to only lose a few bottles to leakage. We stuff a bunch of water in the fridge in the workshop, and some more in the freezer. By this time it’s hot (haha), and we take a break. Blue and I decide we need to look at the Crusher Frame inside the Recycle Container. We open ‘er up and just stand there looking into that maw. It’s not that you couldn’t crawl in and find something, it’s just that it is very much like being eaten alive. I go ahead and insert the upper half of my body into the web of metal and locate what we’re looking for. It’s instantly obvious that there’s no chance of extricating the desired components without dismantling this great strange puzzle, and thus having to put it back together again. We ponder in the hot midday sun as we guzzle another of those little bottles of water. Naaaaaah, we can make our pieces later, on the playa, or just take a guess at the workshop-it’s just one cut, we can wait. We seal up our container and get going on the last bit of our lamplighters drop.
Now this is gonna get nasty’s what I’m thinking. SuperDave says “I’ll come over and help ya”. Blue and I get the tables on the forklift, and take ‘em down the next aisle so we don’t hit anything. Container’s open, and full about 3/4 in the back and 2/3 in the front. Dave says “set ‘em down”. Blue drops the tables onto the blocks, with one block further in from the end. Now Dave says “come in from the end, and pick ‘em long ways”. Okay, but the forks don’t even reach the middle of the load. So we fork surfed those tables right into the top of the container without even breaking a sweat. Sealed ‘er up and off we went. Last stop, the office and the saloon. Techie bits to the office and 30 cases of donated bud light to the saloon (most of which was a year or two old already). We went ahead and loaded up the coolers for the next wave of volunteers to hang there. Well, that was enough to get us hot and sweaty, and we were thinking we should go to the reservoir and cool off. So a stop by the trailer and as soon as we were inside with that swamp cooler going, we realized it was nappytime. A couple hours later I wake up to a couple random people walking into the trailer holding their towels and shampoo. Seems they were as surprised to see me as I was to see them. They’d been told that we’d left, already (I don’t know why), and that the trailer was available for a quick shower. I told them I didn’t really care, go ahead, and offered them cold beverages. They showered, Blue and Scarlet both woke up, Scarlet chased nonexistent flies for a bit, and it turned out that Blue knew one of ‘em. As it also turned out, they weren’t even there to work and we were left wondering why they needed to use DPW showers. So off to dinner, and tonight it’s pork chops with pork ‘n beans, salad, fresh rolls, and by this time I’ve already had a couple beers. So we eat then decide we wanted to go out to the Black Rock where a bunch of folks were supposed to be hanging out.
Well, y’know dinner doesn’t even start until 7:30 pm, and we had to get ourselves all gathered up with some beer and some water and a sleeping bag and a dog and some more beer, and so then off we go in Metric’s mid 70’s 4x4 Ford pickup and she’s a-poppin’ and a-growlin’ as we head on out of town. We get out on the highway and the truck just roars and off we go. Some more pop pop as we transit onto the playa then roar and off we go across the darkened playa. So there we are flying across the playa at night no moon, all stars. I’m relaxin’ in back with Scarlet and neither of us has a care in the world. After a while we start to slow, the we stop. As the truck engine stops, and silence returns to my ears, I realize we’re out there. And everyone else realizes we missed our turn. So, I don’t know how many of you have studied the layout of the Black Rock area, but the Black Rock range is the one that splits the playa to the north. We just wanted to find the southern tip of that, then the trail that goes up the face to the upper playas. The headlights only let us see what was right in front of us, so we began experimenting with turning the lights off long enough to get bearings off the mountains, then turn ‘em back on just in time to avoid the next big rock, bush, or rut. We ended up doing a number of loops where we would go out (basically southeast) for a while the begin turning right and trying to find our way across the southern scrub and dunes of the Range. Each time we stopped, somehow we were again facing northeast on the east side of the range, but a little further south and west. And each time we tried to start the truck, it got harder and harder. After 3 or 4 of these loop-de-loops, we decided to cut a little further out and a little further across. This time we didn’t end up on the east side of Black Rock, and in fact did find a major road (for out there). After toolying on this for a good while, we come across a structure that turns out to be the Double-Hot springs tub. It’s after one in the morning and we decide to camp (or maybe the truck decided). Hot springs were HOT!! Very nice. As it turns out there were some other campers out there right next to the springs. They left early due to their lack of sleep. I admit we were a bit rambunctious, but they were not more than 30 feet from the springs, and it says quite plainly on the sign, “Do not camp within 150 feet of springs”. Oh, well. So after a bit more drinkin’ (I’d realized I had not enough sleep and was still a bit buzzed from the night before), we were on our way again. Before we left we figured that the road we were on might have even been an alternate route to the top. Anyway, off we go, and we found the road we had somehow crossed and missed the night before. So, down the road instead of up and we’re about to head out across the playa. We get to green. It’s actual grass of sorts, growing on the edge of the playa, and we’re crossing it. I can see on the other side what we’re headed for, and start yelling “GO, GO!!” when I see we’re not turning or stopping. Basically right as we hit the mud, I’m yelling, Blue’s thinking something about we should have turned, and the truck is thinking “Yeah, right about here”. We lose momentum, then the truck stalls. Brian’s the first to get out of the truck, and we’re in it. Not deep, but slick as snot, and sticky to boot. So I get out, Blue hauls Scarlet into the cab, Metric gets out, and we stand around for a bit. Then for a bit more. Then we decide to try ‘er again, she starts and moves back 5 feet before refusing to start again. By this point, we’ve already been on the radio, so everyone in Gerlach and on the Ranch knows we’re stuck. Brian flags someone down and they have a 25 foot climbing rope. We were a fair bit further in than that, even off the close side. ‘Sides, the truck won’t start. Metric goes back to the truck where Blue is waiting patiently, not wanting to get his new running shoes dirty, nor wanting the dog to get muddy. So, as Metric is standing in the open door of the truck, Scarlet sees an opening and shoots past him and out onto the open mud with this look of utter joy on her face. She goes running out full speed, then throws herself into a hairpin turn, her back legs going flat against the playa and flailing out to one side until she catches traction, then shooting off in another direction, this time tucking a front shoulder and sliding onto her back, legs flailing in all directions as she buries the top of her head in the mud. Then up and off, again. Blue finally decides to join us and we hike over to the edge of the dry. Our Samaritan offers us a ride back to the road off Black Rock, where hopefully someone will be coming down off the hill soon. Brian takes his bike, Metric wedges into the back of their load, Blue sits on the front bumper, and I climb up onto the roof rack. Scarlet follows as we ride the mile or two back to the foothills. The last we hear from Gerlach station is that inclement weather would make it too risky to come and get us at this time. So now, we’re sitting around waiting for some folks we believe to be up in the hills to come down and save us. And it’s getting hot. I lie down on the side of a small hill, having consumed the last of the cold beer and all the water I’d remembered to bring from the truck. Brian decides to ride off for help, says he’ll be back in maybe six hours. Scarlet chases Brian, and Blue makes some comment about walking back as he’s chasing Scarlet across the playa. I begin to bury myself in the berm, lying on my left side. First pulling crusty chunks off the top then tucking them behind my legs, then digging cool moist soil out and covering the top of my right leg. Then more chunks, deeper hole, drag myself into the hole a bit. There’s some cloud cover, and it begins to rain big drops, but it never really gets going. Soon the cloud cover is gone, my nap is over and it’s hot!!! Blue’s back, having recovered his dog. He asks Metric if I’m dead. Metric says “Not yet, why, you hungry?” A couple more hours have gone by and I’ve got myself dug in pretty good and it’s definitely helping. All of a sudden, it’s like a traffic jam, as car after car comes down off the Black Rock. Each of us gets a ride in a different car, and we make it back to Gerlach. Some of our supplies stay in the truck.
When we get back to the saloon, Dinner’s been over for a bit. The salad’s gotten sad from a couple hours in the stifling heat. What we’d missed for the evening meal had apparently been leftovers from the last two nights, and the leftovers of the leftovers were not really even warmish-not quite cold (might’ve been nice), but definitely not hot. We eat , anyway. It’s good enough, for sure and I get my fill. We wander back to the trailer, take turns showering, laugh about the whole thing (and individual bits, especially), Blue and Scarlet crash out, and I head over to Bev’s for a nice cold beer. Sierra Nevada’s fine, and it’s plenty cold.
Yah, obviously we made it back, and made the run work both ways by bringing the old pallet jack from the ranch for use at the office (they got a new one), annnd a stop in Sacramento for some beeyyyooootiful speakers for Café’ sound. But that’s a whole nother story.
I'll set up a link.
It's weird. The process of trying to recall and write it down has...I dunno, it's made me think a little bit.
(edited to add)
Fuck it, here's the whole thing- if I don't I won't.
(Stumbles off leaving 4 pages of ?? on the bar)
I woke up at about 6:15 am on friday, already jumpy as hell. I immediately decided it would be a good idea for me to check my head. After a quick sesh, I started getting ready. Took me the whole two hours to get myself and my stuff ready for the weekend, but by 8:15, I was out the door.
Got on the bus, turned out to be a spare the air day, so my ride was free. Especially cool considering I was a bit loaded down and the bus was already getting full.
Moderate walk from the stop to the BM office, and there’s Blue’s car with Scarlet (his dog) inside, happy as ever, but no Blue. Back door’s locked, no answer, so I go around to the front door and ring the bell. Here comes a lady up the sidewalk saying “oh, you must be Blue’s friend”. She lets me in, we go upstairs, I go down the back stairs, into the warehouse area and out the back door. There’s Blue with a big-ass rental truck, just hopping out and getting ready to load up. Talk about timing.
We’re jamming trying to get this thing loaded and out so we can pick up the biodiesel totes in Reno by 5:00 pm., even with interruptions and a Costco delivery of a pallet of beverages, we manage to get out by 11:30 am.
Traffic’s great. Once we’re on the road, we seem to be doing good. Passed three minor slowdowns, each from an accident on the other side. First was a Semi trailer that had rolled over, and they had the equipment out there trying to extricate. Next was a Semi trailer that had apparently caught on fire, and so behind it was a Semi facing the wrong way, and in between were pallets of charred goods and a forklift transferring the damaged goods to their new transport.
We get into Reno in plenty of time, but the guys we were supposed to meet decided to leave and just set the totes outside for us to grab whenever we came by, so it didn’t even matter. Pick up some totes and were off again, off again, jiggity-jig.
Last slowdown happens on the other side of Reno maybe a mile and a half before the Wadsworth turnoff. Bronco or some such went from our lane tearing ass across the median, flipped, rolled, and ended up facing the right way in the eastbound lanes, just off the shoulder. We timed the slowdown knowing we only had a mile to our turnoff. Took us seven minutes, then just before the offramp the whole thing cleared.
Out into the backcountry now, and I’m timing cars. At one point it was 23 minutes between oncoming cars. We can see storm clouds in places on the horizon.
As we pull into Gerlach, we can see the lights are on in the Saloon. Turns out, we’re just in time for dinner. Turns out they’ve got this guy Spoon cookin’ for the crew out there for another week, and this guy’s good. Fresh salad, barbecue ribs and chicken, glazed carrots and real homemade French fries. DANG!!
The trailer park we’re stayin’ in is located on the south edge of town, and we’re in that last trailer on the south edge of the park. I go in to sort myself out and at some point see a flash. I finish with my comportment (tucking beers into the fridge and laying my sleeping bag out on an actual bed), and wander outside. Half a dozen or so folks are on the street there, in the middle of the street, some with chairs, a couple standing, a couple more just plopped down on the pavement, all just watching this spectacular lightning show. As we’re sitting there the strikes occur more and more often, some times two or three in a minute, but none of us is hearing any thunder.
Another beer, and we’re still out there oohhinng and ahhing, someone makes a comment that it’s getting a bit late and suddenly we realize we can’t see Empire anymore. A few seconds and we’re all blasted with wind and dust, a total whiteout from dead calm in 10 seconds. Everyone scatters, yelling goodnights as they go. I stay up for just a little while listening to the wind throw things around.
Morning comes early, and breakfast doesn’t get served till 7:30, so I’ve got plenty of time after I wake up to get myself together. I split my hour or so before breakfast being lazy and getting the dog wound up. She’s such a happy puppy.
Breakfast rocks!! Eggs, omelets to order, your choice of breakfast meat with potatoes, juice, coffee, cereal. I find that the juice is already a little fermenty, but otherwise an extremely satisfying meal.
Now we begin to make our rounds, delivering all the things we collected and brought out. First stop, Work Ranch. We’ve got an assortment of goods and materials to unload here. First off the truck, the three pallet sized fuel totes. Each can hold 275 gal, but they’re made of plastic and aluminum so are easy to handle. Next, we got a pair of 16’ long by 4’ wide tabletops for the Lamplighters. These just get set aside for now so we can finish unloading. Now we’ve got access to a big chunk, it’s the donated wood for the Black Rock Arts Foundation. These are strapped together and are easy to pick and drop with the forklift, so that bit goes pretty quick. So we get to the pallet of donated water –maybe 30 cases of those little 16 oz. bottles- and the forklift’s forks are too wide, even at narrowest adjustment, to pick. Blue doesn’t want us to have to huck the whole load by hand, so we gets us the bobcat. I don’t know how many of you have ever driven a bobcat, but it’s a little different than a forklift. You gotta control the up/down and the tilt with your feet. And they’re touchy. And that load wasn’t wrapped all that tight, so he goes to lift and it tilts back suddenly and stops. The whole load bulges under it’s own weight through the plastic wrap, then the bobcat moves again and the load tilts forward and down, and cases go rolling off and bursting in all directions. In an instant, there’s a swarm of people, as well as a golf cart, and everyone’s picking up cases and chasing bottles. Somehow, we managed to only lose a few bottles to leakage. We stuff a bunch of water in the fridge in the workshop, and some more in the freezer. By this time it’s hot (haha), and we take a break. Blue and I decide we need to look at the Crusher Frame inside the Recycle Container. We open ‘er up and just stand there looking into that maw. It’s not that you couldn’t crawl in and find something, it’s just that it is very much like being eaten alive. I go ahead and insert the upper half of my body into the web of metal and locate what we’re looking for. It’s instantly obvious that there’s no chance of extricating the desired components without dismantling this great strange puzzle, and thus having to put it back together again. We ponder in the hot midday sun as we guzzle another of those little bottles of water. Naaaaaah, we can make our pieces later, on the playa, or just take a guess at the workshop-it’s just one cut, we can wait. We seal up our container and get going on the last bit of our lamplighters drop.
Now this is gonna get nasty’s what I’m thinking. SuperDave says “I’ll come over and help ya”. Blue and I get the tables on the forklift, and take ‘em down the next aisle so we don’t hit anything. Container’s open, and full about 3/4 in the back and 2/3 in the front. Dave says “set ‘em down”. Blue drops the tables onto the blocks, with one block further in from the end. Now Dave says “come in from the end, and pick ‘em long ways”. Okay, but the forks don’t even reach the middle of the load. So we fork surfed those tables right into the top of the container without even breaking a sweat. Sealed ‘er up and off we went. Last stop, the office and the saloon. Techie bits to the office and 30 cases of donated bud light to the saloon (most of which was a year or two old already). We went ahead and loaded up the coolers for the next wave of volunteers to hang there. Well, that was enough to get us hot and sweaty, and we were thinking we should go to the reservoir and cool off. So a stop by the trailer and as soon as we were inside with that swamp cooler going, we realized it was nappytime. A couple hours later I wake up to a couple random people walking into the trailer holding their towels and shampoo. Seems they were as surprised to see me as I was to see them. They’d been told that we’d left, already (I don’t know why), and that the trailer was available for a quick shower. I told them I didn’t really care, go ahead, and offered them cold beverages. They showered, Blue and Scarlet both woke up, Scarlet chased nonexistent flies for a bit, and it turned out that Blue knew one of ‘em. As it also turned out, they weren’t even there to work and we were left wondering why they needed to use DPW showers. So off to dinner, and tonight it’s pork chops with pork ‘n beans, salad, fresh rolls, and by this time I’ve already had a couple beers. So we eat then decide we wanted to go out to the Black Rock where a bunch of folks were supposed to be hanging out.
Well, y’know dinner doesn’t even start until 7:30 pm, and we had to get ourselves all gathered up with some beer and some water and a sleeping bag and a dog and some more beer, and so then off we go in Metric’s mid 70’s 4x4 Ford pickup and she’s a-poppin’ and a-growlin’ as we head on out of town. We get out on the highway and the truck just roars and off we go. Some more pop pop as we transit onto the playa then roar and off we go across the darkened playa. So there we are flying across the playa at night no moon, all stars. I’m relaxin’ in back with Scarlet and neither of us has a care in the world. After a while we start to slow, the we stop. As the truck engine stops, and silence returns to my ears, I realize we’re out there. And everyone else realizes we missed our turn. So, I don’t know how many of you have studied the layout of the Black Rock area, but the Black Rock range is the one that splits the playa to the north. We just wanted to find the southern tip of that, then the trail that goes up the face to the upper playas. The headlights only let us see what was right in front of us, so we began experimenting with turning the lights off long enough to get bearings off the mountains, then turn ‘em back on just in time to avoid the next big rock, bush, or rut. We ended up doing a number of loops where we would go out (basically southeast) for a while the begin turning right and trying to find our way across the southern scrub and dunes of the Range. Each time we stopped, somehow we were again facing northeast on the east side of the range, but a little further south and west. And each time we tried to start the truck, it got harder and harder. After 3 or 4 of these loop-de-loops, we decided to cut a little further out and a little further across. This time we didn’t end up on the east side of Black Rock, and in fact did find a major road (for out there). After toolying on this for a good while, we come across a structure that turns out to be the Double-Hot springs tub. It’s after one in the morning and we decide to camp (or maybe the truck decided). Hot springs were HOT!! Very nice. As it turns out there were some other campers out there right next to the springs. They left early due to their lack of sleep. I admit we were a bit rambunctious, but they were not more than 30 feet from the springs, and it says quite plainly on the sign, “Do not camp within 150 feet of springs”. Oh, well. So after a bit more drinkin’ (I’d realized I had not enough sleep and was still a bit buzzed from the night before), we were on our way again. Before we left we figured that the road we were on might have even been an alternate route to the top. Anyway, off we go, and we found the road we had somehow crossed and missed the night before. So, down the road instead of up and we’re about to head out across the playa. We get to green. It’s actual grass of sorts, growing on the edge of the playa, and we’re crossing it. I can see on the other side what we’re headed for, and start yelling “GO, GO!!” when I see we’re not turning or stopping. Basically right as we hit the mud, I’m yelling, Blue’s thinking something about we should have turned, and the truck is thinking “Yeah, right about here”. We lose momentum, then the truck stalls. Brian’s the first to get out of the truck, and we’re in it. Not deep, but slick as snot, and sticky to boot. So I get out, Blue hauls Scarlet into the cab, Metric gets out, and we stand around for a bit. Then for a bit more. Then we decide to try ‘er again, she starts and moves back 5 feet before refusing to start again. By this point, we’ve already been on the radio, so everyone in Gerlach and on the Ranch knows we’re stuck. Brian flags someone down and they have a 25 foot climbing rope. We were a fair bit further in than that, even off the close side. ‘Sides, the truck won’t start. Metric goes back to the truck where Blue is waiting patiently, not wanting to get his new running shoes dirty, nor wanting the dog to get muddy. So, as Metric is standing in the open door of the truck, Scarlet sees an opening and shoots past him and out onto the open mud with this look of utter joy on her face. She goes running out full speed, then throws herself into a hairpin turn, her back legs going flat against the playa and flailing out to one side until she catches traction, then shooting off in another direction, this time tucking a front shoulder and sliding onto her back, legs flailing in all directions as she buries the top of her head in the mud. Then up and off, again. Blue finally decides to join us and we hike over to the edge of the dry. Our Samaritan offers us a ride back to the road off Black Rock, where hopefully someone will be coming down off the hill soon. Brian takes his bike, Metric wedges into the back of their load, Blue sits on the front bumper, and I climb up onto the roof rack. Scarlet follows as we ride the mile or two back to the foothills. The last we hear from Gerlach station is that inclement weather would make it too risky to come and get us at this time. So now, we’re sitting around waiting for some folks we believe to be up in the hills to come down and save us. And it’s getting hot. I lie down on the side of a small hill, having consumed the last of the cold beer and all the water I’d remembered to bring from the truck. Brian decides to ride off for help, says he’ll be back in maybe six hours. Scarlet chases Brian, and Blue makes some comment about walking back as he’s chasing Scarlet across the playa. I begin to bury myself in the berm, lying on my left side. First pulling crusty chunks off the top then tucking them behind my legs, then digging cool moist soil out and covering the top of my right leg. Then more chunks, deeper hole, drag myself into the hole a bit. There’s some cloud cover, and it begins to rain big drops, but it never really gets going. Soon the cloud cover is gone, my nap is over and it’s hot!!! Blue’s back, having recovered his dog. He asks Metric if I’m dead. Metric says “Not yet, why, you hungry?” A couple more hours have gone by and I’ve got myself dug in pretty good and it’s definitely helping. All of a sudden, it’s like a traffic jam, as car after car comes down off the Black Rock. Each of us gets a ride in a different car, and we make it back to Gerlach. Some of our supplies stay in the truck.
When we get back to the saloon, Dinner’s been over for a bit. The salad’s gotten sad from a couple hours in the stifling heat. What we’d missed for the evening meal had apparently been leftovers from the last two nights, and the leftovers of the leftovers were not really even warmish-not quite cold (might’ve been nice), but definitely not hot. We eat , anyway. It’s good enough, for sure and I get my fill. We wander back to the trailer, take turns showering, laugh about the whole thing (and individual bits, especially), Blue and Scarlet crash out, and I head over to Bev’s for a nice cold beer. Sierra Nevada’s fine, and it’s plenty cold.
Yah, obviously we made it back, and made the run work both ways by bringing the old pallet jack from the ranch for use at the office (they got a new one), annnd a stop in Sacramento for some beeyyyooootiful speakers for Café’ sound. But that’s a whole nother story.
I like pudding.
I like tea.
I like chocolate.
Do you like me?
I like tea.
I like chocolate.
Do you like me?
Well happy friggin' friday to all the bar peeps.
let's see, where was that switch again have not turned this thing on for the Espressodude for sometime now.
CLICK
there she is i think she likes it when i flip her switch. but i think she likes it better when EspressoDude press the richness inside her.
now you have a visual but i was talking about the espresso machine.

let's see, where was that switch again have not turned this thing on for the Espressodude for sometime now.
CLICK
there she is i think she likes it when i flip her switch. but i think she likes it better when EspressoDude press the richness inside her.
now you have a visual but i was talking about the espresso machine.
thank god for the powers that look out for us and guide us through this wild ride to find out that there is life afterwards.
- EspressoDude
- Posts: 4920
- Joined: Tue Jan 24, 2006 7:30 pm
- Location: the first Vancouver
- Contact:
Thanks Zoom...
She likes it when we play with her knobs and make her hot, flip the litle lever so she growls, steams, and breathes heavy..
Our hot Espresso Machine now serving up the tasty goodness this morning
She likes it when we play with her knobs and make her hot, flip the litle lever so she growls, steams, and breathes heavy..
Our hot Espresso Machine now serving up the tasty goodness this morning
Is 4 shots enuff? no foo-foo drinks; just naked Espresso
Tactical Espresso Service http://home.comcast.net/~espressocamp/
Field Artillery Tractor
FOGBANK, GOD OF HELLFIRE
BLACK ROCK f/x Trojan Horse,Anubis,2014Temple
burn shit and blow shit up
Tactical Espresso Service http://home.comcast.net/~espressocamp/
Field Artillery Tractor
FOGBANK, GOD OF HELLFIRE
BLACK ROCK f/x Trojan Horse,Anubis,2014Temple
burn shit and blow shit up
- EvilDustBooger
- Posts: 3807
- Joined: Wed Feb 16, 2005 1:56 pm
- Location: Outside the Box
Zoom walking back in for somemore e-shots, spanks Lorgasm on the buttocks. gives her a kiss good morning.
i am so happy it is friday, but it really aint friday for me gots to come in tomorrow too and possibly sunday. lots of work here. and plus my back is hurting.
i am so happy it is friday, but it really aint friday for me gots to come in tomorrow too and possibly sunday. lots of work here. and plus my back is hurting.
thank god for the powers that look out for us and guide us through this wild ride to find out that there is life afterwards.
- EspressoDude
- Posts: 4920
- Joined: Tue Jan 24, 2006 7:30 pm
- Location: the first Vancouver
- Contact:
Hope you didn't burn yourself if your skin has been pre-reddened by the sun......best to just rub the Espresso in, and stand by for another one.Lorgasm wrote:Dammit Zoom,
Made me spill my drink.
Oh my goodness, got creamy stuff all over me.
Zoom: are you going to help this lady with her EspressoCamp skin toner??
Is 4 shots enuff? no foo-foo drinks; just naked Espresso
Tactical Espresso Service http://home.comcast.net/~espressocamp/
Field Artillery Tractor
FOGBANK, GOD OF HELLFIRE
BLACK ROCK f/x Trojan Horse,Anubis,2014Temple
burn shit and blow shit up
Tactical Espresso Service http://home.comcast.net/~espressocamp/
Field Artillery Tractor
FOGBANK, GOD OF HELLFIRE
BLACK ROCK f/x Trojan Horse,Anubis,2014Temple
burn shit and blow shit up
WHAT!! did i hear something about birthday spankings coming up EspressoDude break out the paddles. we got some butts to spank.pinemom wrote:GOOD FRICKEN FRIDAY MORNING!!!!
sorry had to yell, I think my ears are plugged up?
Im so damned excited about life in general, and this sundays BIG social at my house, And its Titwi's and I's Bday! and and and and.......
thank god for the powers that look out for us and guide us through this wild ride to find out that there is life afterwards.