[MarkJerling]

Double smash 8 oz. cheeseburgers for dinner.
Cooked on a cast iron griddle, on a Weber charcoal grill.

But speaking of eating - That looks delicious Bob!

[MarkJerling]

But do you have a structural engineer's report on your pizza oven, Mark? Building Control would have you in the UK without one sir, you'll have to pull it down and make good sir, we insist sir!

It's perfectly legal and so over-engineered that it will remain standing even if the house falls down!

[bertwert]

I'd rather eat a barbed wire sandwich backwards.

I'm not quite sure what to make of that, but I take it you're not super fond of heights

[MarkJerling]

I'm not quite sure what to make of that, but I take it you're not super fond of heights

No. Strangely, when I was younger, I had no fear of heights. Even skydived and walked around on the top of very tall buildings. These days, I have a terrible fear of heights. Just looking at that video you posted is hard!

[bertwert]

No. Strangely, when I was younger, I had no fear of heights. Even skydived and walked around on the top of very tall buildings. These days, I have a terrible fear of heights. Just looking at that video you posted is hard!

Funny thing is, there's no reason to be afraid of heights. Falling off isn't the danger - the danger is becoming reacquainted with the ground at terminal velocity!

[Parallax]

Double smash 8 oz. cheeseburgers for dinner.
Cooked on a cast iron griddle, on a Weber charcoal grill.

That looks delicious, Bob!

Before anybody asks/comments, no, I don't boil hamburgers. Some things are not to be trifled with.

[OldPentaxFan]

Here's a little fear of heights story........

I've been involved in air quality testing for over 40 years now and back in the day, and even to this day but to a lesser degree, we would be working on utility smoke stacks somewhere between the 350 to 500 foot elevation above grade. Some times on the outside and sometimes between the outer shell and the inner flue. Back then we typically accessed the test platform by a very long climb on an open ladder. This was back in the mid 90's and we had a large crew out for a series of long tests so we had a wide range of experience on the team. One of the newer guys had only been with us for a few months and never been out to one of these large generating stations before. (A little background about him, he was one of those guys that knew everything about everything and was proud of that fact and wanted to share with everyone. )

So, on this project we were working inside the stack about 500 feet up, the tests were long so we had a fair amount of down time between starting and finishing, and because we were climbing we wouldn't go down until the end of the day unless a thunderstorm was moving in. I have no idea why but this guy gets bored and starts poking around a rebar anchor that was in the outer shell and, after a minute or two, he jabs into the concrete behind the anchor and digs out a bit of Styrofoam. If you aren't familiar with how tall concrete stacks are built in the US, most were built using slip forms. The form was held by the anchors and to make it easier to put the form in place they would use a piece of styrofoam board behind the anchor to make it easier to get the attachments in place. Any way. this was one of those installations. When he digs into the styrofoam he gets really quiet, which we were all thankful for, then asks why it's there. One of the more senior guys on the crew tells him with a very straight face that the core of the stack is styrofoam with only an inch or two of concrete making up the outer and inner "skin" of the stack, so instead of being 6 to 8 inches of solid concrete it's basically hollow. This fellow gets even more quiet after hearing that.

About a half hour later the wind picks up and the stack starts to sway in the breeze, which it's supposed to do. Even in a light wind you can feel movement and this day we were getting winds between 20 and 25 miles per hour, which is actually a pretty stiff breeze working 500 feet up. That gets things swaying back and forth quite nicely and the next thing we know he's harnessing up so he can climb down even if we did have a few more hours of testing to do, there was no way he was working on an inverted coffee cup even if it did have concrete all around it with that much wind out there.

He left the company about a month later for some job where he worked on the ground.

[lesmore49]

That looks delicious, Bob!

Before anybody asks/comments, no, I don't boil hamburgers. Some things are not to be trifled with.

I wouldn't trifle with you or your burgers.

But your post did remind me, when I was a bachelor, many years ago, I actually used to 'cook' for myself.

I do recall a product called 'boil in a bag' and the bags were transparent and had a food product contained within. You would fill a pot with water, bring it to a boil and toss in the food bag for a certain amount of minutes and presto...you would have food ready to eat.

They may have had a burger in a bag, I can't recall as it has been many years, but it wouldn't surprise me.

So there you were, slice a bun, get some ketchup, mustard (Grey Poupon, if you were feeling like having a dash of continental European condiment), a nice pickle and your boiled in a bag burger.

If you so chose, you grab your plastic package of squeez cheez out of the fridge, and apply liberally.

Serves one.

[StiffLegged]

He left the company about a month later for some job where he worked on the ground.

Great story! Perhaps he went off to be a real “weather boy”? An expression my daughter taught us only yesterday...

[StiffLegged]

Funny thing is, there's no reason to be afraid of heights. Falling off isn't the danger - the danger is becoming reacquainted with the ground at terminal velocity!

That’s the bit I’m allergic to - brings me out in a rash of cuts and bruises!

[robtcorl]

I don't boil hamburgers. Some things are not to be trifled with.

Admitting you trifle with your ribs is the first step towards recovery.
You can do this without the intervention I was setting up.

[robtcorl]

Years ago a fellow joined our survey crew that had worked high up on a power plant build.
He said the fear is less once you're high enough up that you can't relate to the size of things on the ground.
I'd have to be high to get that high.

[gaweidert]

True. Which is why pizza ovens are domes!

Now I get it. The Pantheon in Rome is actually a giant pizza oven designed by one of Mark's ancestors. Been standing so long people have forgotten it's original purpose

Iceland has come up with a great pizza oven design. Geothermal powered too. You can watch it on live feed.,

You Tube

You Tube

[OldPentaxFan]

Years ago a fellow joined our survey crew that had worked high up on a power plant build.
He said the fear is less once you're high enough up that you can't relate to the size of things on the ground.
I'd have to be high to get that high.

You get used to it after a while.

The first time I was up that high I had the pleasure of riding up in a crane basket. A LOT easier.

The crane left later that day.

We finished work around 9 PM and then we had had to climb down. This is on an open ladder, no cage. You wore a belt attached to a single slider that ran up and down the center of the ladder to keep you from falling if you slipped.

The ladder on this stack was on the far side of the plant and it was dark when we started down. I got about 20 feet below the cat walk and the slider hung up where two of the center track rails joined, they were slightly out of alignment. I couldn't get the slider past the junction. I called up to my co worker and asked what to do. His response was "let go of the ladder, grab the slider with both hands and twist and shove it down at the same time". Keep in mind, I'm over 300 feet up on the side of a smoke stack and this guy I've known for a few weeks tells me to let go of the ladder.

Needless to say I was praying and cussing the whole time I was trying to get that slider moving again.

Long story short, I got down and have been doing the same job for over 40 years now.

P.S. - These days most tall stacks have elevators so it's not the same thrill as climbing them.

[savoche]

Kid's stuff! For a real buttock clencher, you simply must try the Mount Hua plankway!

Yes, that's a good one. The guy is obviously a pro. Notice how he always unhooks both carabiners at once every time he moves them

Youtu.be

Youtu.be