[Shop-talk] Fwd: Fools and Funding

[Elton E. (Tony) Clark]

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Elton E. (Tony) Clark <eltonclark at gmail.com>
Date: Thu, Apr 1, 2010 at 7:46 PM
Subject: Re: [Shop-talk] Fools and Funding
To: Mark J Bradakis <mark at bradakis.com>
Cc: Shop Talk List <shop-talk at autox.team.net>


*Thanks for what you do Mark . My support is on the way by PayPals and I
want to "guilt" everyone who enjoys the lists but hasn't yet put anything in
the pot!  *
*Tony*

  On Thu, Apr 1, 2010 at 3:49 AM, Mark J Bradakis <mark at bradakis.com> wrote:

> No, this is not a political rant about the scoundrels on Capitol Hill.
> I'll rant about that elsewhere, probably the prattle forum on the
> Team.Net forums.  For the moment, though, consider this my annual
> State of Team.Net speech.  It is getting sent out on All Fool's
> Day.  More on that in a bit.
>
> Back in April of 1991 the domain team.net was registered.  We are 19
> years old this month.  Of course there were a few years before then
> that email was just sent to various places as the lists were in their
> infancy.  The patriarch of the family was SOL, the Scions of Lucas,
> thanks to Dale Cook and Jim Muller.  Now there are over 60 Team.Net
> email lists, and about 14,000 subscribers scattered about the planet.
>
> And 19 years old describes my age when I moved to Salt Lake City, a
> young lad looking for adventure in the mountains through climbing and
> skiing.  And many an adventure was to be had.  The biggest was no
> doubt the Weird Winter Wall trip of 1977.  I really need to write that
> up, get a bunch of the slides digitized to share with others.  The
> short version is that I am amazingly lucky to still be alive.  It was
> April 1st, 1977 when the four of us, hungry and exhausted, demoralized
> and chilled to the bone sat on a mountainside in the Wind Rivers and
> watched the sun come up.  Sunrises are always beautiful, but to this
> day those first faintly glowing streaks of red, orange and gold have
> never looked so welcome as on that morning.  We knew we'd make it,
> we'd see more sunrises.
>
> It seems appropriate that we returned to civilization on April Fool's
> day.  A winter ascent of the North Face of Mt. Hooker seems a fool's
> errand in hindsight.  But I survived.
>
> And Team.Net has survived.  There have certainly been many times over
> the years when I've felt the fool for putting in the effort to keep it
> going.  Just hitting the off switch and walking away would have been
> so easy.
>
> But far more prominent are the occasions where a well crafted message,
> an unsolicited thank you or donation, a T shirt or some trinket
> unexpectedly showing up at my doorstep makes me realize what a
> treasure Team.Net has been over the years.  There are untold old
> classics out there still on the road, thanks to you folks.  Sure, you
> may have never turned a wrench on them, or pushed them in or out of
> the garage, but the technical support provided, along with the email
> equivalent of a friendly smile and a heartfelt pat on the back has
> kept folks going.  They've taken that fool's errand of a hopeless
> restoration and brought it back from near death to see another sunrise.
>
>
> If you see fit, please make use of the information provided at
> http://www.team.net/donate.html
>
>
> mjb.
>
>
> "But look, the morn in russet mantle clad walks o'er the dew of yon
> high eastward hill"   Hamlet, Wm. Shakespeare
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