Supercharged

Tim Top

So my son John and I are out walking around downtown San Francisco late Friday night and we encounter a couple of hills (who'd a thunk it?). He bolts up the hill and I charge after him. I'm not going to let this little whipper snapper show me up. Of course he does. He pauses half way up the block and waits for me to catch up, which I do, eventually, huffing and puffing. He tells me he's tired and then turns around and bolts up the rest of the block. I follow at a more sedate pace.

This gets me thinking about people using oxygen when they climb Mt. Everest. Most of them carry bottles of compressed oxygen, and then they leave them there. I understand the path to the top is literally littered with them.

I read a science fiction story some time ago, I can't remember the author or title, but it involved winged creatures approximately the size of a human, living on a world with an atmosphere and gravity similar to Earth's. The author argued that this should not be possible, but someone noticed that these creatures were supercharged. They had something like bellows between their main wing bones and their torso, so every time they flapped their wings, they forced more air into their lungs.

Bellows

So now I'm thinking, why can't we do that for mountain climbers? Strap a couple of bellows onto your chest, connect the nozzles to an oxygen mask, and hook a strap between your upper arm and the handle on the bellows. You swing your arms while you climb, your arms compress the bellows and blow compressed air into your lungs, you get more oxygen and you can keep climbing.

It might not be workable, forcing more air into your lungs might cause more problems than it solves. Working the bellows with your arms may take more energy than the extra oxygen would create. But maybe this will give someone with more knowledge of these topics an idea.

Update July 2017 replaced missing pictures.

Hoo Boy.

Got back late last night from a weekend trip to San Francisco for my brother Dan's wedding. 1300 miles round trip, eleven hours door-to-door each way. Stayed at the SW (Sam Wong) Hotel on the corner of Broadway and Columbus, or to give you a better idea of the locale, at the collision of Chinatown, Northbeach sleaze and Little Italy. A dozen people from our side of the family showed up at the banquet Sunday evening, including my cousin Linda who flew all the way from Boston. The bride brought about a hundred of her closest relatives, nearly all Chinese.

This was at the end of a week that included my wife coming down with pneumonia, several trips to the doctor, several trips to the pharmacy, numerous phone calls concerning the pending weekend escapade, numerous phone calls from employment agencies, and a couple of phone interviews from a prospective employer. I was fried when I got home last night. I deliberately did very little today and now I am beginning to feel more human and less zombie like.

Cousin Linda claims that I met her once a long time ago, but I have no recollection of said event, so for me this was a first time meeting. Saw my cousin Peter again. Haven't seen him since I don't know when. Cousin John was also there, but shoot, I just saw him last week, or was it two weeks ago? I wonder how many cousins I have? Two aged aunts, two brothers, two girlfriends and three kids rounded out our battalion.

I finally finished reading a book I started a month or two ago. That's what happens when you get cut off from electronica. Had about 50 pages left when I got home. Had to force myself to sit down and finish it, otherwise I would have been sucked into the insatiable internet vortex and I never would have finished it. Heck of a good book, too. Curious the way the mind works, isn't it?

Update December 2016 replaced missing picture.