Good evening, 919 Gang.
BRIAN CLARK writes:
Belated greetings from the Himalayan Mountains of Nepal, or what the late, acclaimed National Geographic photographer Galen Rowell called "The Throne Room of the Gods." And for good reason. All around me on my trek to (almost) Everest Base Camp at 17,598 feet were giant peaks, many of them rising to elevations of more than 8,000 meters, or 26,246 feet, with famed mountaineering names like Lohtse, Makalu, Choy Oyu and Sagarmatha, which is what Everest is known as in Nepal.
I'm attaching some photos from the "hike," which started with a precarious flight from an airport near Kathmandu at 4,344 feet to Lukla, which is perched on a mountainside at 9,337 feet. After that, it was up and up and then up some more. My trekking group stayed in inns, called tea houses locally, and we passed mule trains often 30-to-40 critters long, like something out of the Old West.
And then there were the Yaks, whose perilous horns came close to our guts as we stepped to the inside of sometimes narrow trails with precipitous dropoffs. We also stopped in a monastery to observe Buddhist prayers, saw cute, smiling Nepali children and lots of "stupas" or small temples painted white with eyes on each of four sides keeping watch over our karma.
Oh, and I forgot to mention the suspension bridges built hundreds of feet above deep gorges with tumbling rivers, including the Dudh Khosi, cascading below us. Walking across those narrow, often moving spans was, in a word, a "puckering" experience.
Overall, the trek was what I would call something of a "sufferfest" of an outing. And I think it may be the last of that kind of a vacation for me. Travels closer to sea level, like sailing, or even below, like scuba diving seem mighty appealing now. To say nothing of gardening, tennis, hiking or cycling in or near my home in Madison, Wis., elevation 866 feet.
And, you may ask, why my trek was only "almost" to Everest Base Camp? At a tea house in Lobuche, elevation 16,210 feet, I developed Acute Mountain Sickness (AMS), which anyone can get hiking at 8,000 feet or above. The key to avoiding this malady is to ascend slowly and acclimate, which our group did, even climbing high and then sleeping at a lower elevation a couple of acclimatization days. And for the most part, I'd felt good on the trek, even robust, often being the first trekker behind our lead guide. Not bad for an old fart of 71.
But at a village called Lobuche, my AMS progressed into High Altitude Pulmonary Edema (HAPE), a potentially fatal condition marked by fluid on the lungs. If not treated, there is a 50 percent chance of mortality. It is the major cause of death caused by high altitude exposure. I'm glad I didn't do something stupid like try to soldier on. Then, for good measure, I also developed High Altitude Cerbral Edema (HACE), with fluid on the brain.
So after a night of fierce coughing, no sleep, difficulty breathing and chest pain and some other symptoms, I got an emergency medical evacuation via helicopter back to Kathmandu, where I felt like the walking dead for a couple of days. But I received excellent treatment in a modern hospital with care by a passel of nurses, a regular doc and a cardiologist. After 10 days on the trail, I even got a shower.
The cost for two nights in the hospital, a high level of medical care with lots of tests? A mere $2,502. The charge for changing my airline ticket back home, which took a few clicks on a computer by a clerk and five minutes of her time? $400. Go figure...
Am I glad I came to Nepal? Yes, but I sure do wish I would've gotten to see the sunrise on Sagarmatha (Everest). And I would have gladly skipped the AMS, HAPE and HACE.
I'm now back in Madison, where the grass never looked so green or the tulips and daffodils so pretty. As Dorothy said in The Wizard of Oz, "There's no place like home."
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CARL LARSEN writes:
I’ve heard a lot about expunging archived stories of arrests if the subjects aren’t convicted, but this is the first time I’ve seen it articulated. Anyone know if media in California have similar policies?
The Chicago Sun-Times’ ‘right to be forgotten’ policy
By Chicago Sun-Times staff
At the Sun-Times, we don’t think it’s fair for stories about arrests to follow people around forever if they were never convicted — or if charges were dropped, dismissed, reversed or expunged. Yet, because of the internet, it’s easy to find years-old or even decades-old articles, which means that some of the people we’ve covered continue to live with the negative impact of being arrested for, or accused of, a crime they might not have committed.
When stories about those arrests remain available to the public, they can have a lasting negative impact — sometimes leading to unsteady employment, a lack of housing access or other issues that can keep people from thriving. And we recognize that this coverage disproportionately affects communities of color.
Our “right to be forgotten” policy is intended to create a simple, clear and fair process to help right that wrong. We’ve set up a newsroom panel to review requests to de-index, or remove from internet search engines, past coverage that meets certain criteria. Our intention is to consider whether the harm these articles present to the accused or arrested outweighs the public benefit of keeping the stories readily available on search engines.
If you were the subject of a past article about an arrest or accusation that later was disproved, dismissed or expunged, you can request a review by filling out the form below. You can read more about our “right to be forgotten policy” in this column from Executive Editor Jennifer Kho.
Any questions about our policy? Email Sun-Times Deputy Managing Editor Norm Parish at nparish@suntimes.com
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MARK MONDAY writes:
Regarding the death of Filner: One of our own played THE key role in knocking Bob Filner out of control of San Diego, its citizens, and importantly its female employees. We should probably reprise the information on that. It took courage to do what our co-worker did. I cannot imagine the stress put upon her as she went through the battle that cleaned up, at least for a while because nothing is ever permanent in government, the rotten core at the heart of San Diego governance. We need to honor our co-worker's courage.
REBER: Mark is talking about a 919 Gang member, and I hope she shares her story with us.
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MICHELE DAVIS writes:
Last Saturday evening I had to rush one of my cats to the emergency vet in Mission Valley on Hotel Circle South. It is a somewhat awkward facility to get to and parking can be difficult due to the steep hills one must take to get to the facility. My sweet kitty did not make it.
On the way home I was on Camino de la Reina when I noticed a new emergency vet facility at the intersection of Mission Center Road and Camino de la Reina, on the north west corner. This used to be a Verizon store, The new emergency vet place is called VEG Emergency services. VEG stands for Veterinary Emergency Group. They handle only emergencies and are open 24/7, including weekends and holidays. The parking lot is flat so getting in and out would be much easier than the one on Hotel Circle South.
If you live in the central San Diego area this might come in handy for you should an emergency arise.
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CARL LARSEN writes:
This popped up on a site I follow. What a deal: 11 games for $1! Does anyone drink 7-Up anymore? More to the point, does anyone today say “Hey Kids?”
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REBER: We celebrate a new month and wish Thomas Neumann a Happy Birthday on May 1.
