Portfolio of the week - 2008

[stenzrob]

louetta doesn't realize it yet but she just may be ecstatic over this turn of events. and could love come to a nicer guy?

I'd be happy to send peanuts one from my collection of felt tip pens.

[skiracer]

I'd be happy to send peanuts one from my collection of felt tip pens.

either aquamarine or violet will do stenz.

[skiracer]

as sure as kafka was on the mountain he was on slippery rock as he moved the flap aside and entered the tent. louetta wasn't exactly sure how this was going to work out either. she spoke the nepalese dialect of this district enough to get by. she had slipped into her pants and shirt and was sitting on the leopard skins. kafka had never met much less been with a woman like louetta. they were both a little uncomfortable. kafka moved towards her and as he leaned over she straightened her arm out with her palm up in that stop fashion. without a blink she spoke out in the native tongue, "i read that sometimes when a ladie's feet are cold a sherpa will come in and lay at her feet at the bottom of her skins. i have asked you to come in because my feet are very cold and i have to climb in the morning. i would ask you to please do that for me now". kafka from years of carrying equipment for expeditions up K2 knew his place and without the blink of an eye was arranging the skins so the he could lay down with his back to the bottoms of her feet. louetta in turn removed her trousers and blouse and got back under the skins. she placed her feet against his back and could feel the warmth of his body take the coldness from her feet. this was much better and she knew she would be able to climb in the morning. she immediately fell back into a deep slumber. she was dreaming of someone else.

peanuts was still in the air but closing in on the airport at katmandu. this wasn't the easiest of approaches and for a small twin engine type like this beechcraft 6 seater it could be bumpy. the planes would come in from the south and had to maneuver through a series of mountains and turn to the immediate west to line up with the runway. the wind at that time of the year came in almost strong from the north and at a direct right angle to any plane making that turn and trying to land. it was always harder on the lighter prop planes. some light turbo-prop jets could get in but it was very easy to make a life ending mistake. peanuts was in a lighter prop airplane and it was going to be a bumpy ride. he didn't really know or understand that. he was connected thru the planes electrical and radio system to the internet and was working on the laptop sending an email to a friend when the pilot asked them to please buckle up. he had hooked up with a nepalese family who hitched a ride with him. so there were the pilot, peanuts, and the four people in the family. a full load was good and the reason for the pilot insisting that they come along. he understood the avionics of the situation and the mountains winds having made many flights from new delhi to katmandu.
the first drop knocked the laptop off peanuts lap. actually peanuts was yanked out from under the laptop was more like it. the pilot
had just banked into the turn west and was just coming out of the that when the blast of wind caught the plane in a severe cross current and pushed the plane to the left and down in the same motion. peanuts never finished the email as the plane dropped almost 700 feet in an instant. the cord was pulled from the outlet and the computer fell to the floor hitting on the corner of the screen. the coffee in the depressed holder lifted out of it's place and became airborn. this was just the beginning of an bumpy landing.
peanuts could see the pilot pulling as hard as he could on the controls and he felt the violent bank back to the right as the pilot brought it back into line with the runway. coffee was all over the place and the computer was broken. the mother of the family was screaming.
thinking back it was over rather quickly and the pilot, the family, and peanuts were all on their separate ways. peanuts couldn't believe he was actually going up this mountain. everything was done and had been arranged from his laptop on the way from the phillipines. the four sherpas guiding him were brother and cousins who were supposed to be the best and knew a route that others knew of but none could climb. or should i say nuts enough to climb. but it cut two days off the climb. it involved a clever engineering method devised by one of the sherpas. he had somehow found his way to california and stamford and had a masters degree in mechanic and civil engineering. it seemed like an instant and they were climbing up the route to where they had already hooked up the first portion of the system that would move them up the mountain.
louetta was deep deep into the rest she absolutely needed to be strong enough to climb as first light. the sherpa had worked and she was dreaming of the person who was really on her mind. when offered this climb she had accepted as the first woman these three men had or would ever climb with. she was accepted as the best of her sex at it and said yes when they asked her to make the ascent with them. it took alot longer than peanuts climb to put together. the logistics for an endeavor of this type had to be perfect. the equipment had to work and be perfect. everything had to be there and ready to go. each of them took a specific facet of what was required and took care of it. it took alot of time and there was no way she could have been with peanuts. she hoped that he would understand what she had to do. hope was as much as she would allow any "man" of her. but here she was almost on top of the 2nd highest mountain on the entire planet and she was dreaming of a boy again. she thought to herself with a light chuckle that, jeez, all us woman are alike". can't get the boys off our minds. light was breaking and it was time to get going. will be continued.....

[billyjoe]

Ski,
If VIV gains 30% tomorrow, the story will change and billyjoe will run up that mountain!

---------billyjoe

[skiracer]

Ski,
If VIV gains 30% tomorrow, the story will change and billyjoe will run up that mountain!

---------billyjoe

i hope viv gains 30% for you tomorrow billyjoe. i'm not sure it will change the storyline or the developing plot from the way i am thinking it will end but it could be an interesting interjection. you might say that right now what is happening is a plot or story within a story. another point is that you are an integral part of the story right now. i see that you only lost .06 today so that will probably keep the "shark in a minnow pond" in 3rd place and a viable character in the yarn. btw, are you enjoying the story?

[billyjoe]

Ski,
Your writing style is refreshingly unique. I can see you developing it into a profitable enterprise. What does Mrs.Ski think of this? I was just thinking your style would really make for interesting reading if adapted to business reports or weekly/daily business publications. When referring to the current lending scandals , colorful language would be appropriate and entertaining.

----------billyjoe

[stenzrob]

No wonder the ride was so bumpy.
Peanuts arranged this flight with CTRP!

[skiracer]

Ski,
Your writing style is refreshingly unique. I can see you developing it into a profitable enterprise. What does Mrs.Ski think of this? I was just thinking your style would really make for interesting reading if adapted to business reports or weekly/daily business publications. When referring to the current lending scandals , colorful language would be appropriate and entertaining.

----------billyjoe

mrs. ski only wants me to be happy and to do what she asks me to do which is an insurmountable mountain of "honey do listings". aside from skiing, writing is the most fulfilling thing i enjoy doing. i am a natural bullshitter billyjoe. i have always been good at it but it is only over the last 10 years or so that i have been feeling comfortable at putting it down. there were times in the army when i would have a dozen guys forget where they were and what they could be doing at any moment. this potw stuff is fun but limiting in that i am trying to keep it terse and precise and to the point to save space and time. karel just gave me the ok to try something different and to give it more room to breathe. you see the analytical side of me coming out. i have been writing some short stories over the past several years correlating with my life which has had several totally different phases and character aspects in the course of evolving to who i am today. one of these days i hope to put it all together. in the meantime along with other things i have going on i want to nuture this writing thing to see where it goes. like i said i love to build and nuture a short story whether if be pure bs or non fiction. your honest critique has made me feel very good. thank you billyjoe. nothing beats knowing that something that you have put out there to entertain others is actually doing it.

[skiracer]

jiesen, sirtuck, and billyjoe were the three top casualties of the markets today as the previous days leaders get whacked by them. to be one day and to be not the next. it was not as if being players they had not experienced the agony of falling from grace. only stenzrob enjoyed the pleasure of the gods as he remained in 2nd place. the markets giveth and they taketh in the same breathe.

peanuts had no idea of his standing having lost the use of his laptop during the landing besides it was the farthest thing from his mind as it was all he could do to keep his composure and focus making his way up the narrow slice of gorge he and the four other sherpas were traversing. this was more than work and every move could be the difference between life and death. they were moving at a remarkable pace and he could see that the system of ropes and pulleys was the work of a genius. they were moving almost effortlessly higher and higher surely elipsing the time gap between himself and louetta. his heart was pounding from a number of different emotions but the only picture he could envision was that of her in his arms and him staring into her eyes at the moment of first meeting.
Stenzrob, gentleman that he is, tried to congratulate peanuts on his move into first place before the markets had closed. he had no idea of what was transpiring on the other side of the world. in 2nd and more than 5 percentage points in front of mea in 3rd place he knew any aspirations of taking the top spot were slim or out the window with only one day left. peanuts was out of town with the new job and somewhere in the south pacific. his absence left the groupies with only him and this guy mea in 3rd. their need to be close to whoever was in the top spots was going to work out to his advantage big time. he would have to remember to buy peanuts dinner sometime in the near future when he was back home in the states. the groupies, like piranha, had encircled him and mea. their young hard bodies pressing upon one another trying to get in to get a strap signed they had him pinned up against a wall and he was sure several of them had ulterior motives as their hands were all over him in the heat of all of this.

mea had never experienced anything like this. no one could remember the last time he had entered a pick in the potw. he had been entertaining it for quite some time but couldn't bring himself to put one up. finally after months of procrastination he puts one in and finds himself in 3rd place after the 4th day of competition. the groupies were more than he had bargained for. he had no idea they grew them this way and couldn't imagine seeing anything like this in nebraska. he was sure he wasn't in nebraska anymore. like stenzrob he let the mob do it's work. the thought of signing some straps had gotten lost in the pandomonium of the groupies trying to get close to him. they were having their way with him and he was loving it.

at first light louetta was up and getting dressed. not bothering to worry of kafka's prescense in the tent or that she was nude with him trying to catch a glimpse of her naked body she dressed in a flash and was about her business. the sherpa whose only task was to keep her feet warm had his own responsibilities and any thought of something else was flushed out of his mind by thoughts of them. she was out of the tent before him and on her way. their ascent to the 3rd and final camp was underway and they were now moving up the mountain. less than 5000 ft. away was the guy she had been dreaming about all night. two things were on her mind as they began climbing. peanuts and the mountain. she wasn't sure of which one was more important and that bothered her. she was now less than 2000 feet from the summit and climbing without the use of oxygen. the next 2000 feet were going to define her life and who and what she was made of. still as focused as she needed to be she could not get peanuts out of her mind. she could see the sherpas strung out for the hundred yards or so in front of her but noticed the darkening clouds blowing in from the north and as cold as it was she could feel the temperature dropping. this was what the weather was like at the top of the world. they were moving across a sheer vertical face of ice and rock towards the shute that would lead them to the last small flat area where a camp could be placed. it was 1500 feet away and straight up.
at sea level and far far away the remainder of the field were strung out from 5th thru 17th. suprisingly ernie had gained a spot in moving from 5th to 4th place. what was this as he reached down to pick up the bone like object barely pertruding from the mud. the brush. could it be his brush? sirtuck who had also fallen from his position at the top to the 8th spot had not seen the brush fall from the loop on stallworth's saddle. life has it's own methods for evening the score and making things right. this was one of those moments for ernie whose expectations of reaching 16% meant more than 1st place. and the brush meant more than the 16%. he felt so much more at ease now. like any security blanket it soothed him like nothing else.
billyjoe was looking into the mirror and realizing that he was still billyjoe and that nothing was any different being in 10th place. he was still a shark in a minnow pond and as he walked out the door to test the waters the insatiable groupies proved that for him.
one day left and each player was left with their own thoughts as the final day was racing towards them. there were still issues to be resolved and the potw and the mountain had alot in store for them on the last day. they all had a number of trades left and although peanuts had what looked to be an insurmountable lead nothing was out of the question. stranger things had taken place and probably would. and the scorecard please:

[billyjoe]

Ski,
Can you sell my VIV and give me GTRE long. Thanks.

-----------billyjoe

[skiracer]

Ski,
Can you sell my VIV and give me GTRE long. Thanks.

-----------billyjoe

done billyjoe. somewhere this morning i thought i read that the markets were closed today but i guess that's wrong? they are open?

[stenzrob]

ski, take me out of VLNC now please.

[skiracer]

ski, take me out of VLNC now please.

stenz, you're out at at the time of your post or 1 min later whichever price is the best on or the one that i can get for you.

[skiracer]

louetta's side of k2 was directly in the face of the storm blowing in from the north. peanuts was almost 180 degrees to the south with the mountain between it buffetted peanuts and the 4 sherpas from the storm. they had been able to continue climbing awhile longer because of it. the 4 sherpas had a sad story regarding the shaping of their lives. their fathers had a 3rd younger brother who in turn had two more sons. the three brothers and two sons had perished in a climbing accident involving the prototype models of the ropes and pulleys system they had developed. pin pulls out of a fissure and one man falls pulling another man below with him and the weight is now to much and 5 of them go off the south side of K2. another reason no one likes to use the route or the system.

Louetta had spent another night with kafka at the foot of her bed. they had made 1500 feet today and had gotten their camp set and the tents up just before the storm blew in. at least they didn't have to put the tents up in this. the winds were reaching 80-90 knots and the snow was horizontal. 4 tents housed louetta and the three men in her party. the sherpas had a different method. they would gather all the packs and build a wall of them. they would then lie down next to one another behind the wall as best they could and fall asleep. they had canvas tarps which they would pin down and pull up over themselves and the equipment. it was rudimentary but it worked and they survived the worst conditions. kafka, although expecting something else, considered himself lucky to be in his position as a footwarmer.

peanuts had spent the last 4-5 hours in his cocoon sleeping bag hanging off the side of a rocky vertical wall. he had managed to fall asleep but it wasn't something you get used to overnight. his first climbing experience of any kind and it's an assault on the 2nd highest mountain in our world. he was now about 500 feet lower than louetta and had made up 80 % of the difference in time and height. he was wondering if she had read his email informing her of his intentions.

it was 3 hours before daybreak when the force of the wind blew their tents from the pins. it had woken her 30 minutes or so earlier. she had just enough time to get into her clothes, boots and jacket on when the wind pulled the pins out and all 4 tents were gone. the 3 men must have been awakened in the same way as they all had their clothes on. it was the thing that saved them. kafka reacted as you would expect. he rousted the other bearers from their sleep and within minutes louetta and the men were under the tarp and huddling next to the sherpas. they spent the remaining 3 hours until daybreak trying to get some sleep but the wind and the flapping of the tarp made it impossible. on the positive side there was something to be said for body heat under a tarp in conditions like this. she wasn't that uncomfortable. she actually fell asleep for a bit and had a short dream of her reaching the top.

they were nearing the place where the accident took the lives of the three brothers and the two sons. about 1000 feet from the summit
the next 400 feet was up a flat vertical surface at about a 40 degree angle across that surface. at the top point a pin had been placed and enough rope let out so that you could take the rope and go back down a hundred feet or so and swing out and run across the flat vertical surface to a gorge or more of a slit in the surface that they would climb to the summit. the logic being it was much easier to climb inside the v shaped slit than up the flat vertical surface. peanuts had been anxious about the whole deal from the start when he decided on doing this but swinging out like this and hanging from the pin was down right frightening. the first sherpa was getting ready to make his attempt. if successful he would be on the other side and able to grab or help the next climber coming over.

the storm had intensified and become much stronger. the winds were now sustained over 100 knots. during the night the 4 climbers had discussed whether or not to make the attempt on the summit or stay under the tarp until the storm blew out but their base camp had informed them the storm was expected to worsen and last for several more days. so it was decided to go now before it worsened. and as they were readying for the final leg up to the summit and moving out peanuts was trying to stay as focused as he could for the moment in front of him.

peanuts pushed off with as much force as he could muster and swung out as far as he could. as he came back to the face of the mountain he was running as he touched the surface. it was perfect and his momentum carried his effortlessly to where they grabbed him and secured his prescense in the narrow slit. both peanuts and louetta were on their way to the summit but peanuts had now narrowed the gap between them to 300 feet.

the sherpas were to stay at this level and the 4 climbers were going to make the attempt on the summit without them. they had all studied the route from this point on maps during the initial preparation stages. they knew the route like the back of their hands and really didn't need the bearers. as they started up the mountain louetta was thinking this was a going to be sweet. the only thing she had in her mind was what was directly in front of her. it was the first time in a few days that some part of her mind wasn't thinking of peanuts. now it was blowing so hard it was all she could do to keep from being pinned against the mountain. they had the best equipment money could buy and she was amazed at how warm and comfortable she was. only a very small portion of her face was cold but the magnitude of the event and it near to becoming a reality was generating plenty of warmth throughout her body. she felt a real nice burning glow inside her chest in the middle of raging 100 knot winds and blizzard conditions on the top of the world. she thought could it get any better than this.

the mechanics of the method and the system they were using was becoming almost second nature to peanuts. he was getting better at this and more sure of himself in the process. they were less than 500 hundred feet from the summit. there was no wind and in fact the quiet was quite errie. the south side of the mountain never received wind or storms this time of the year. it was going easy and they were moving very fast. louetta's group was fighting the worst blizzard they could have imagined. winds over 125 knots had them pinned against the ice and rock and the moving was much slower than they had planned. they needed to make the summit and return to what was left of the lower level camp before dark for they would surely perish without tents, sleeping bags, or cover in these conditions. time was running and it was past mid morning and their attempt was 300 feet from the top of the world. louetta and peanuts were now at the same elevation above sea level and only a short distance from each other as the bird would fly although neither knew this.

[billyjoe]

I just wish Louetta had a bit more body fat. Peanuts doesn't have that worry.

----------billyjoe