Dead men tell no tales - and dead Squirrels chatter no more! ;-)

John

John Rodgers
Clayartist and Moldmaker
88'GL VW Bus Driver
Chelsea, AL
Http://www.moldhaus.com

On 9/20/2011 7:22 PM, Rocket J Squirrel wrote:
> John, last year I got stuck in mud up a dirt track off a dirt road miles
> away from cell service. Why did I go up that hillside? Because a voice
> inside my head told me that I needed to be less-cautious, that Mrs
> Squirrel would have cheerfully urged us up that hill just to see. When
> I've gone along with her, we've found ourselves in better campsites than
> I would have found by myself.
>
> I went where I should not have gone, out of doubt of my courage.
>
> I questioned my caution, and pushed myself into a messy situation. The
> trick, as always, is to find the middle way, between silly optimism and
> overly-safe pessimism.
>
>
> --
> Jack "Rocket j Squirrel" Elliott
> Bend, Ore.
> 1984 Westfalia. A poor but proud people.
> 1971 "Ladybug"-brand utility trailer ca. 1972 from a defunct company in
> San Clemente, Calif., now repurposed as The Westrailia.
> .
>
> On 09/20/2011 04:05 PM, John Rodgers wrote:
>> As a bush pilot in Alaska - I can attest that one of the most difficult
>> decisions a pilot can make is simply NOT to make the trip - OR possibly,
>> to do a 180 degree turn and go back. Prestige, the boss, some young
>> up-and-coming hotshot pilot, something - always pushing to go. Even the
>> customers. Somehow, over the years of flying the bush, I managed to make
>> most of the right choices. I've bent a few airplanes, but I'm still here
>> - but many of my fellow flyers are not, their bodies crumpled in the
>> wreckage somewhere on a mountain, on the tundra, in a lake. Many failed
>> to make the safe decision, pushed by whatever drives one to take those
>> chances, while some were victims of other things. But the point is -
>> weigh carefully just how really important a trip is, against the
>> possible consequences that may follow. Some trips just shouldn't be
>> made.
>>
>> John
>>
>> John Rodgers
>> Clayartist and Moldmaker
>> 88'GL VW Bus Driver
>> Chelsea, AL
>> Http://www.moldhaus.com
>>
>>
>> On 9/20/2011 2:16 PM, Scott Daniel - Turbovans wrote:
>>> Last line ........there are professional mountaineers that have turned
>>> back
>>> 400 meters from a 8,000 meter summit, and they were smart, and
>>> proud, to
>>> have made that more conservative safer decision.
>
>