Bierstadt

Adventure time. Let me to tell you now about my attempts to climb Mount Bierstadt. Mount Bierstadt in the Rocky Mountains is what people here call a 14er, i.e., a mountain with at least 14,000 feet above sea level. Bierstadt is the name of an American of German descent. The translation of the name Bierstadt is "Beer City".
My first attempt was my birthday hike. It was at a stormy time and although we were early at the mountain, we were afraid that a thunderstorm would prevent us to hike all the way up. And sure enough, on our way up a thunderstorm started. But since the storm was not where we were, we decided to continue. After a few steps a hail started and the hailstones were hurting my legs. But I was determined to hike up my first 14er and so we continued... continued for 100 to 200 steps. When we saw how lightning hit the peak which we wanted to climb, we decided to turn around and call it a day.

First attempt, and only minutes away from the thunderstorm

End of August we went for our second attempt. And although there were a lot of obstacles (rapid stream, over stretched muscles, and a constant fear of getting hit by lightning) that made me feel we will not make it again, we succeeded. 14,065 ft or 4,287 m. Suddenly, Germanys highest mountain "Zugspitze" with only 2,962 m looks like a cakewalk.

Second attempt

Let's get science-y now. At the summit the air pressure was according to my cell phone only 620 mbar. Compared to the sea level pressure of  1013 mbar and the typical air pressure in Denver of 830 mbar that's very low. At that pressure water should boil already at 85 ºC (186 ºF) instead of 100 ºC (212 ºF) at sea level or 94 ºC (202 ºF) in Denver. Unfortunately, I didn't have my stove to verify.

At the summit

Bicycle Seat Thieves

I haven't posted for a long time. The usual summer break. But now I want to blog about a good and a bad news. the good news is that I started a new blog. It's a professional blog. I mean a blog about my professional life. The bad news is that my bicycle seat got stollen. Again. That reminds me on the old saying: "Steal my seat once, shame on you; steal my seat twice, darn it, stop doing that".

I posted a note on the board in my building just in case the thieve is in our building. The note says: "To the thieve who stole my bicycle seat, bring my seat back and no questions will be asked!".  I am writing this here just in case the thieve reads my blog!

A Boy Nicknamed Snoopy

Let me fill the gap before the next big thing with a post. I haven't bloged for a long time. I missed blogging. It's time for another old story. Because it happened many years ago, the way I remember it might be totally different from what really happened. Last year, I wrote that Snoopy is one of my nicknames. The origin of that nickname dates back to the time when I was in the 7th grade, the year in which I established myself as a class clown. Two of my classmates came to me one day...
Classmate 1: You look a lot like Snoopy
I didn't liked to be compared with a dog.
Me: No, I am not!
Classmate 1: I'm going to call you from now on Snoopy
Me: No, you are not!
Classmate 2: Oh yeah. That name suits you
Me: No, it does not!
Another classmate came.
Classmate 3: What's going on here?
Classmate 1: Snoopy doesn't like to be called Snoopy.
Classmate 3 to me: Why not?
That was the moment my nickname caught on. At some point even some teachers were calling me Snoopy. But, I didn't mind anymore. I did intensive research (I read "The Peanuts"). My research lead to the conclusive result that Snoopy is the most awesome dog. Snoopy is so awesome that all the other dogs say to him "You're the dog!" and Snoopy always answers "No, You're the dog!".

Two Handsome Men

Garage Doors

Today, I want to ask for your help. Since I started to read the comic strips Dilbert, two or three months ago, I get phone calls from people, who want to talk to Dilbert, the garage door guy. So far, I have wasted my precious phone minutes to tell them, they called the wrong number. I am sick of it. How can I flip this situation so that it turns to something good for me? So far, I have to ideas.

1. The classy telephone prank: I will respond to calls with "Dilbert here" and see where it will go from there.
2. Start a garage door sales business: I don't need to search for customers - they will call me. All I have to do is to respond to phone calls with "Dilbert's garage doors"... and also learn everything about garage doors.

Do you have any suggestions?

Dilbert's Garage Doors - I can help you