Couldn't go climbing because of the severe weather potential. We spent the last 2 days dodging tornados. The one last night came within 3 miles of us. We spent about 30 minutes in the storm shelter. Here is a golf ball size piece of hail which fell in our front yard.

<img src="http://www.jackieandalan.com/images/hail2.jpg">

Damm, 3 miles. Glad to see you're ok. I saw that news report on Yahoo last night. Is your car all dented?

No, but my neighbor's car is dented. Our vehicles were in the garage. Looks like we have another round of storms today, but it appears like they are going to be east of us. That's the first time in 20 years of living in OK that I've bailed to the cellar.

Alan - that's pretty serious stuff you guys are seeing out there! Thanks for the photo of the hail and I'm glad you and your cars are safe. Just curious, but are tornado chasers just hobbists created for TV or are there actually people out there that chase tornadoes for a hobby?

There are people who chase tornados for a hobby, but most of them are amatuers who chase for the NWS, NOAA, U of OK, or TV stations.

It's serious, but we have the best weather/tornado warning system in the U.S. The national center for tornado warning and research center is in Norman, OK at the U of OK, about 40 miles from my house. And all the local TV stations have cutting edge radar systems which are better than the NWS and NOAA combined. Last night, we had over an hour warning that a tornado system was going to hit. We sat around watching the local weather until it got close, then drove 1 mile to a friends cellar. We waited until the last minute so it would minimize damage to our vehicle.

In the early 80's I lived in Moore, Oklahoma and did tornado chasing. Owned a landcruiser and had my Extra Class ham radio license (NW5T)...crazy stuff. I remember going out alone one night at about 11:00 PM in screaming wind, utter blackness and walls of water coming sideways. The guys in Norman were on the radio telling me where the twister was according to the Doppler and I was at ground zero with my head stuck out the window straining to catch a glimpse of it. The way the civil defense laws were written then was that you couldn't set off the sirens or declare a tornado or funnel cloud until someone actually spotted it visually so spotters were pretty important. What a nutty law. I'm supposing its changed now.
I still own my house there. Its on NW 7th street and I got a call last night that the tornado Thursday dropped debris on it damaging the roof, breaking a couple of windows and blasting the front door off its hinges (how does that happen??) The renters were terrified.
Then today I heard that my niece and nephews grade school was destroyed near Edmond. Sure enough, there's a picture of it on AOL news.
By the way, I went kayaking in San Diego today. Beautiful.

Jack - Coolness! Tornado chasing sounds like fun. I'm sure if I lived out there I would consider it. Sorry to hear about your house though. Do you have tornado insurance and will W. declaring the area a disaster area help?

What kind of kayaking do you do? When I lived out in the Boston area, I used to go sea kayaking quite a bit in the harbor and Cape Cod area. Of course having a friend who had 5 kayaks didn't hurt either (including one he made himself). I kayaked around Santa Cruz and Monterey Bay when I first moved out here but have since stayed away from it in CA for two reasons: (1) to do any more serious kayaking in CA, it seems like you're right in the ocean (e.g. Half Moon Bay down to Santa Cruz or along Big Sur) and (2) I'm not sure I want to buy a kayak until I have a house first . I guess I could get a Feathercraft but that's a pretty big investment. Actually the biggest reason is probably I just haven't run into any paddlers out here. Perhaps someone needs to create PaddlePost.com!

In any event, I hiked three mini-peaks yesterday in the South Bay: Mission Peak, Monument Peak, and Mount Allison. The latter two aren't on SP yet. I happened to not bring a camera because I was just planning to do Mission Peak by itself. Hopefully this will inspire someone to go there with a camera and write a page! Utterly gorgeous day. Spent today trad climbing with a friend at Castle Rock. I led 2 routes and he led 1. Also quite beautiful.

Hey John. Yes we have tornado insurance. In Oklahoma you'd better have it!!!
I do both kinds of kayaking... sea and whitewater. I had never kayaked until I got into adventure racing. But then I had to learn and discovered how much fun it is. I own a Riot whitewater play boat for rivers and a couple of sea kayaks (both doubles) for going out in the ocean. You want to go paddling? Give me a call. I'm listed in the phone book in Hemet. I'll go anytime you want. I need all the time paddling I can get... technique mastery is a long slow journey. I can't handle long periods out in big swells though... I get seasick. Last summer I was paddling 1 or 2 miles off-shore from Oceanside, heading for San Diego with my Eco-challenge team... it was 1:00 AM, pitch black and overcast... and I start puking over the side in chorus with my female teammate in the other double. The two guys who weren't sick about died laughing. It was like choreographed heaving. Ugh. Even I was laughing in between throwing up.

The night kayaking trip sounded like fun Jack - at least no clean-up was necessary! Was there a full moon? <!--I think I remember watching an adventure race on TV (Eco-Challenge?) where some teams got lost while sea kayaking a while ago which was interesting. -->I really like the sense of adventure you get from sea kayaking because you can go anywhere you want and it's a great upper body workout as well. Having waves crash over the bow is always a favorite of mine as well. Do all adventure races use double sea kayaks? I've mostly paddled singles which I think are more "fun" mostly because they're more maneuverable.

I'd like to do some paddling again (have never done whitewater) but unfortunately I'll have to resist for now if it means going down to SoCal. I have a few offers to go climbing down there but I haven't nailed down the SoCal weekend trip logistics yet.

Adventure races use all kinds of kayaks; singles, doubles, triples, hardshells and inflatables. Sometimes rafts (like in New Zealand) and sometimes you build your own (like the bamboo "bilibilis" used in Fiji. Sometimes you carry little 1.5 lb inflatable "pack" rafts just big enough for one person for traveling on rivers or getting across big inlets. Often we just carry PFDs and swim when neccessary.
Interestingly, paddling is really good exercise for climbing! It's all body core and shoulders, back and arms. Lots of pulling and your grip gets worked. My right hand actually began cramping on Saturday from some of the power strokes we were utilizing.

Had a great day at the crags on <a href="http://summitpost.com/mountains/mountain_link.pl?mountain_id=1534">Mt. Scott, OK</a>. I hope you don't mind me sharing a couple of photos I took of a collared lizard I saw on the mountain. I thought the colors were fantastic.
<img src="http://www.jackieandalan.com/images/collared-lizard.jpg"><br><br>
<img src="http://www.jackieandalan.com/images/collared-lizard-2.jpg">

Do these things bite? I once had an interesting experience with a rattlesnake on a ledge.......

Just got back from Wishon Reservoir after putting up a new route on an undeveloped wall that we've titled as the "Garrotte Wall" (the garrotte was used by special forces in Korea to dispatch the head their enemies with the use of piano wire!). The wall is 75' high with terrain ranging in the 5.9 to 5.10 range. We put up a 5 bolt route called 'Mary Queen Of Scots' (5.9). Going to head back there next weekend to put up one more. I didn't realize Wishon had so much potential!?!?!

How i spend my weekend. well it's just like any other weekend in the lowest country . no mountains no rock's reading what you guy's and doll's are doing makes me green with envy. (except for the turkey we do have those , and we eat them all year round) can you please send me some nice granit. a considerable piece of the half dome would be nice ( wiling to pay for it ! ) i went indoor climbing and this really starts to suck after a few years attended a very boring birthday party , walked home fell asleep (dreamed about my piece of the halfdome , thank's America) and now i'm enjoying at least a gallon of coffee and some of my own home grown herb's ( maybe we can make a deal : some herb's for the half dome ?) wish i could spend some weekend's in the state"s ( life isn't all that bad it's just this weekend)

OOOOH Great ....... At work.
Was going mountain biking then climbing with a mate but one of my staff decided it would be a good idea to get pissed and smash a window with his hand, last night. So i'm at work covering his shift.......... i hope he is in pain..
noah