Matthew Supert

So I was playing a tennis match this evening and on the courts behind us a man with his son and his son's friends were also playing around, just hitting the ball. I saw that the guy fall at one point out of the corner of my eye. It appeared he broke his wrist, but it didn't seem like a big deal at the time. He was holding his wrist, but did show any major visible pain and he was walking around fine.

A couple of minutes later I hear one of the boys screaming and I turned around to see the man collapsed along the fence. I grabbed my water bottle and my towel and ran to him as fast as I could, as did most of the people on the courts. The first gate though was locked and I had to go the long way around, outside the courts. Another man playing basketball got to him right before I did and started CPR on him. He said that the man wasn't breathing, but I am unsure. The man was definitely not responsive.

His son, probably, 13-14 was sitting on the ground with his head on his knees just screaming. I went over to him and hugged him and tried to get him to walk with me away from the situation, but he wouldn't move. He was just frozen. A minute or two later the man was finally revived and I saw him sort of jerk back to consciousness.

He was very alert when he woke up and was trying to stand up almost immediately. He had no idea what had happened and was being argumentative with us. We kept trying to just keep him laying on the ground with his head propped up with my towel, sipping on some water. He eventually stood up and started walking around very wobbly, but talking about how he was fine and how he broke his wrist and needed to drive to the ER. I eventually had to stop him and look him dead in the eye and explain to him that he had just been unconscious for several minutes and that the man in the red shirt next to me had just performed CPR on him. It didn't seem like it was registering with him. His son was pleading with him to listen to us. He must have been in shock, because he kept playing with his broken wrist and showed no signs of pain.

The medics were there quick, probably within five minutes. They were talking him through various questions asking him his phone number, and address. I am guessing they were trying to determine his state of mind or find out if he had a stroke or something. His son was pleading with him to go in the ambulance. Eventually the police officer asked us all to step away and few minutes later they must have convinced the man to get on the stretcher and go in the ambulance.

Incredible.

So this past Sunday I rode up to the Harley-Davidson Museum  up in Milwaukee. This one isn't so much a ridelog as it is just a collection of photos from the museum. I basically just I-94 straight up from Chicago, but I used this as an excuse to have some more fun with my Olympus OM-1. On the whole most of the photos turned out pretty good. A few even turned out really well I dare say. 

Day five was our last day in the park and had us transferring up to the Tuolumne Meadows. I really wish I had spent some more time in this part of the park and to be honest it really was the feature of the High Sierra Mountains. I will plan a trip again in a few years to hit up this section of the park. 

Much of the meadows are still covered in snow through early July so this time of the year is the prime time to hit up the meadows. Their altitude is right around 8,600 feet. The high temperature was in the low sixties with a low in the low thirties at night. 

Since we only had half a day to spend in this part of the park we basically focused on tow areas. We hiked up the Lembert Dome to view the entire area and then went to check out the meadows themselves and hiked over to the Soda Springs and the Parsons Lodge, which was a lodge built by the Sierra Club for their meetings. 

Overall a satisfying hike, but I can see that there are some amazing day hikes in this area that I want to do in the future. 

Overall Yosemite was wonderful. A bit more crowded then I had hoped, but I did sort of go during the peak of tourist season though. 

You can see all of my photos over at Flickr

Day four had Megan and I splitting up. Her feet had given up on her so she did a photo walk with the Ansel Adams Gallery. I decided to do my big hike for day which included the Four Mile Trail (which isn't four biles), the Panorama Trail and then back down the John Muir Trail. I think my total distance was around 16 miles. 

The Four Mile Trail was surprisingly brutal on the way up. I was unprepared for the steep switchbacks on this trail and being that it was late in the week, but legs just didn't have a lot in them. On the trail though I met a lot of interesting people and ended up chatting with a group from South Carolina, Philadelphia and Wisconsin. Ironically the group from South Carolina had an extra permit for their Half Dome hike the next day and they offered it to me. Unfortunately, I was leaving the valley the next day and even if I wasn't I think my legs were too far gone to do the Half Dome. 

We actually finished off the evening by grabbing a nice chair and table at the lodge in Curry Village and playing some Hive while eating some huge ice cream sundaes. 

You can see all of my photos over at Flickr

August 10th, 2012

The war with the rabbits has been on going for almost three years now. Both countries to the north and to the west appear to have been invaded and completely conquered by these free loving savages. I am surprised that the north was conquered due the border protection they had from their Dramatic Ordinance Gunnery System (D.O.G.S.), but the enemy appears to have gone underground and is fighting with guerrilla warfare. Ultimately it appears to be stalemate with no side gaining an upper hand at this point. 

Initial encounters with the rabbits were mostly benign, but it is clear now the mistake we all made three years ago. What was once thought to be a mutual trade agreement of foraging in exchange for cat entertainment was clearly just a ruse for the rabbits to determine the weaknesses of our command infrastructure. 

This afternoon our uneasy stalemate was destroyed. While doing standard reconnaissance and mowing one of our scouts on patrol found an old chipmunk hole to apparently be inhabited by the rabbits. This clearly is a breach of the Beatrix P. treaty of 2010 and definitely and act of aggression towards our way of life. Without further intel we can only assume this location is being setup as a forward operating base for future invasion plans. 

Word was quickly passed to the Home Committee and to the Prime Minister and an emergency meeting was called. Recognizing the quick downfall of both the east and northern territories over the past years a decision was quickly made to immediately neutralize the situation. A vote was held and with no opposition a full nuclear strike was ordered to neutralize the threat and impart a decisive blow against the invader. It has been determined that a strong response is required, something that will get their attention. 

Therefore issued as of 15:00 hours all command line troops have been given a green light for a full artillery strike with an 80lb wet mix concrete bunker buster. Those issuing the order recognize the importance of the measure, but we all pray that any troops in that bunker get out before the final round.

God help them all.......