Hi David, Don't despair. You always have friends out in the caving family.
The Bockbeerians are just having their fun. Not enough drama in the world I guess so they make it up for grins. Cheers ! Jerry Atkinson. Sent from my iPhone On Feb 1, 2017, at 11:13 AM, David via Texascavers <texascavers@texascavers.com> wrote: > I just received my copy of the NSS News - February 2017 issue > by email. > > I have not been paying attention, so I do not know if that is the > first time this has ever happened. > > But upon clicking on the provided graphical link, I was able to > easily log on because I have my NSS # memorized. That login > procedure is a very good idea, and extremely well implemented. > > The issue of the NSS News loaded in less than a second, I think. > The graphics or image of the issue was beautiful. ( I am using > a FreeBSD computer and I had no problems ). > > This issue features a very professional article by Bob Richards. > > Bob was a member of the Greater Houston Grotto for several years, > and was very active in the club. I recall sometime around 1996, that > GHG was not doing a whole lot of stuff, and along came Bob, who presented > himself as a caver from California. At that time from my perspective, the > caving club ( due to the work nature in Houston ) would get a lot of > transient guest > who were in town for a few months working. So my immediate impression > of Bob, was he might be one of those. But the 2nd meeting, he brought an > awesome slide show. And he continued to do that or offer to do that at > every meeting thereafter, for the next 10 years. He hosted at least one > party at his cool house > where he had a real impressive library mostly devoted to caving topics, and > he showed > everybody his computer and how he made his award-winning maps. We did > not realize he was a famous speleo-cartographer. At that time, I had only > been to the 94 NSS Convention. Anyways, after all that, I was extremely > impressed > with Bob's dedication to caving. He was and still is one of my greatest > inspirations in life. His lovely > wife ( R.I.P. ) also made the most beautiful little quilts that had a real > cave theme. The > quilts were very unique formed by tiny little pieces of cloth partially sewn > to the quilt, like > feathers or leaves dangling from the quilt.. Bob left for greener pastures > somewhere > around Durango, Colorado about 10 years ago and he was sorely missed. > That was about > the same time, I stopped going to meetings, although I had not been a regular > full-time > active member since 1995. > > I was very interested in cartography in high school, and made an impressive > drawing, my sophmore > year in 1980. I placed 3rd place in the state UIL drafting competition as > a sophmore competing with > about 30 juniors and seniors. I was still working as a > contract-draftsman or had aspirations to be a > draftsman when I first met Bob, but after seeing Bob's work, I felt I would > never be that competent in > cartography. I changed careers in 1998, but I doubt that experience played > a role. I just could > not find a stable job drafting, and was going to have to take a risk to > re-learn everything, and instead, > I just said to heck with it. > > But back to the NSS News, > > I think every member needs to get on-board with receiving > their NSS News via email, or at least make some effort to reduce cost or > reduce wasting > paper and ink. I have boxes full of old issues of NSS News, and I cherish > them, but I am not sure if I will ever > find time to read any of them, unless I live a long time in a nursing home, > that will let me > have my speleo-library. That seems unrealistic at this point. > > On to another topic, not related to anything, > > And if you are still reading this email, I would like to take a moment to > defend myself > from the humorous attempts of the Bockbeerist. I have no earthly idea > what their > secret agenda really is. I have no relation to this cartoon character. > He does not look > like me, and I don't drink beer, and Bock-flavored beers are my least > favorite. So if you > see or hear them going on a tantrum, it is your prerogative whether or not to > give them > any credibility. > > As far as the topic goes of people using me for a punching bag, it started > long before I got involved in caving. I have lived like a gypsy since I > was born and I never > lived anywhere more than a few months until just recently, and I still live > more like a > truck-driver. The point is I never lived in the Hill Country or made > friendly bonds with a > lot of those people, so when I would go on a rant about caving, they had no > idea who I was > or where I had been or what I had accomplished. I can sleep knowing I made > a minor contribution > to caving, eventhough I had low financial resources and lived many hours > drive from > caves my entire life. I have never broken a bone in my entire life, and > except for a bad twisted > ankle, from an injury on the Texas A&M Bonfire in 1982, I have never been > clumsy. At the moment, > I am just too overweight and out of shape to take on a real caving trip. I > know I would be > an accident waiting to happen. But I still love caves, and hope to find > some caves I can > safely go in. > > I do not have any friends or any real family, except for my mom and daughter > and a half-sister > in Mansfield. My acquaintances in the caving community, and you know who > you are are > my closest friends. I have only known one caver in 33 years that went out > their way to not be > on my friend list. It is not who you think it is. > > > On another topic, > > My daughter has shown no signs of health issues since her incident on January > 5th. All > the test results showed she is perfectly fine. My theory is she drowned > in > her sleep, somehow. We will never know what happened. I have lost a > whole lot of sleep, but > I am just going to have to forget it, and hope it never happens again. > > See you all at the Spring Convention. > > David Locklear > NSS # 27639 > > ( Author of 16 YouTube videos on TrueOS under the pseudonym, El McFrolicker ) > _______________________________________________ > Texascavers mailing list | http://texascavers.com > Texascavers@texascavers.com | Archives: > http://www.mail-archive.com/texascavers@texascavers.com/ > http://lists.texascavers.com/listinfo/texascavers _______________________________________________ Texascavers mailing list | http://texascavers.com Texascavers@texascavers.com | Archives: http://www.mail-archive.com/texascavers@texascavers.com/ http://lists.texascavers.com/listinfo/texascavers
