Or D.C. for that matter. My oldest works on the hill, youngest in Aspen.Quote:
Originally Posted by TahoeJ
Younger ones a hell of a lot happier now.
Printable View
Or D.C. for that matter. My oldest works on the hill, youngest in Aspen.Quote:
Originally Posted by TahoeJ
Younger ones a hell of a lot happier now.
I don't get that. Those people grow up and lay off the drugs and buy a safe life with great medical care in the high end burbs. Closest they come to physical injuries is falling out of their Aeron chairs.Quote:
Originally Posted by TahoeJ
It's because of all the old fucks who don't know how to offload off of chair 9 at Loveland!!Quote:
Originally Posted by fastfred
[emoji23][emoji23][emoji23][emoji23]
If that's how you think it works and the insurance industry is worried about physical injuries than you really don't get it. Chronic illness, disease and old age are far more expensive for insurance companies and rack up costs exponentially faster than a blown ACL. The 50-something Wall Street guy who buys a "safe-life" in the burbs and ends up with a heart condition from stress and being overweight and too many client dinners is gonna cost way more over the course of his coverage than some liftie getting knee surgery.Quote:
Originally Posted by Benny Profane
And in my experience most mtn town residents age much better and healthier than anyone living in the burbs. The drinking and partying and drugs, at least to the extent that it would actually effect long-term health, is much smaller subset of the population than you think and they tend to be younger and not long term residents anyway, but rather seasonal workers. Pretty much every one of my 30-something friends here in Aspen (with kids and 9-5 jobs like everyone else) is healthier and leads a healthier lifestyle in general than my 30-something college friends who now live in the burbs on the Front Range.
30 is pretty young.
Cmon, mountain people can't afford good medical care, so, they let things slide. And one good injury can make one unemployed and unemployable, which happens a lot. Maybe mom and dad can help in one's thirties, but, chances are, they're gone when one hits fifty. That's when things really go bad. The city dude under all that pressure has probably cleaned up his or her act by then. If they haven't, they're fucked too, but, really, I just don't see it in my hood. The safety net is vast here.
Listen to Bunny on this, he completely understands the mountain lifestyle because of spending part(s) of a season or two* in Summit Cty, and he also knows the true path to happiness as outlined above.Quote:
Originally Posted by Benny Profane
*Help me out here, B, how much time have you spent pursuing the dream in the mountains?
Not only that but clearly, there are no drugs or alcohol abuse on Wall Street. It's a healthy lifestyle.
Go ahead man. Do the core local thing, no savings, no insurance, crappy pay, whatever. Be macho about it. Chicks really dig 50 year old drunks with bad knees and shoulders and no money.
You talking about me? I hope so, because that cements the case for your total cluelessness on the topic of mountain lifestyles.Quote:
Originally Posted by Benny Profane
Benny how far can you get your head up your own ass? You clearly know jack shit about mountain lifestyles.
There's plenty of the same shit going on in suburbia, except more often than not they're also spending their waking hours outside of work watching TV and getting fat.
got no prob with tourists in colorado. got access to great lift serve skiing for cheap. tons of opportunies to go out an play without getting into the tourist conga line. fun to chat them up on the chair also but i like talking to people
keep em coming, we'll take their $$$
WhoopsQuote:
Originally Posted by Benny Profane
Benny, I think your sense of demographics is a little fucked. People in the greater population have just as many challenges as those in the mountain communities. They are just less integrated. Don't you live in lower Westchester? Go check Yonkers or White Plains or Bridgeport and get back with me on the overall health of society.
I don't have the answers and I'm not sure there really is a problem. The problem I see from a local political standpoint is that the tourist economy is basically a closed loop. The "economic benefits" i.e. revenue, tax or otherwise, seem like they go back into expanding the tourist economy. The local municipalities have town councils stacked with realtors, developers, and hospitality business owners who all stand to benefit from having it be "busier".
People from the burbs aren't dealing with destroyed limbs after hucking 50 feet the other day. Even if they did, on that Vail trip, the cube life accommodates such an injury.Quote:
Originally Posted by TahoeJ
Go over to gimp central, which is conveniently hidden here, and read and weep. Lots of sad stories in there. And many are young.
Well, sure, there's always the trust fund to foam the runway. Have fun with that.Quote:
Originally Posted by Meadow Skipper
Yeah, the mountain people are casually hucking 50 feet.....LOL....
50 footer at Vail and they're removing the teeth from your kneecap still.
Geezus Bunny. Take a lap.
Benny, when there are 20K people at the ski area, how many are hucking 50'? Your trying to tell me that the increase in orthopedic injuries from actually being active in indicative of other all "health" as a community?
I get to spend a month or so every year Colorado. We've been doing it for 15 years now.
During that time, I've made a lot of friends there where we share dinners, go skiing together, do some moderate imbibing, go to the hot springs, hike and just talk.
None of the folks I know there fit the description completely. Some don't make a lot of money, but they're very savvy about working the scene with multiple jobs, vacation rentals, hut owners, construction, patrolling, guiding and so on.
Some of them are younger (20-30) some are older (60s). Some have bad knees or other ailments, but none of them are drunks and even those with leg injuries and hip problems are healthy and generally happy.
None of them are bitter.
None of them have trust funds.
They just made a decision to live life on a different slice. And kudos to them.
Are there drunks in town? Yes, but they're in the minority. As far as I can tell the wasted bro-bum is a stereotype that like a lot of things, doesn't really have a lot of statistical foundation.
They can be difficult to unload sometimes... especially for tourists.Quote:
Originally Posted by Benny Profane
You know, Bunny, sometimes you're kind of cute when you're being an idiot.Quote:
Originally Posted by Benny Profane
You'd give both nuts to have the insurance I have, the pension I have, the (paid-off) house in the nice part of the nice mountain town that I live in, and the wonderful chick that married me. And I got all that from fighting and managing wildfire in the mountains (well, and Alaska) for many years. But do go on, clearly you know what the deal is here.
Yeah, more of them are just getting triple bypasses instead or fighting diabetes. You also once again revealed your massive ignorance about those who live in the mountains, as most are pretty chill and aren't bros hucking big cliffs. And there's just as many visiting from suburbia who end up at the ortho clinic.Quote:
Originally Posted by Benny Profane
If you really want to find a bunch of drunks, go... anywhere.
Im a mountain drunk and proud of it. Being a FUNctional drunk who skis and bikes more than most while holding down a good job, owning a nice home and a business, and being married to a great gal is how the long term residents get by. Not always easy but I could never get by in the city, just not my environment. There, I would be just a drunk. ;)
We'll take the tourons money and retire early and move to NZ.
IF that's true, and you did it all on your own (ahem), let's get real. You're an exception. Tell me about your neighbors with pensions and paid off mortgages. Right. How the fuck can most mortals without serious income afford to live in most mountain towns these days, and still have money left over for old age, and, trust me, you're getting old like everybody else. Tell me. The only way I see it is to luck out with a sweet job, the wife also has a sweet gig, you luck out on a home that's less than a half mil, and, ahem, mum and dad are there to help, er, kickstart the whole deal and help out every now and then. Correct me if I'm wrong. I can do simple math. It's really fucking expensive to live up there these days. And, if you're working all the time to fund it, what's the point?Quote:
Originally Posted by Meadow Skipper
And my insurance is better than yours.
Please continue to propagate these beliefs at your dinner parties on the east coast.Quote:
Originally Posted by Benny Profane
No, really, cut the bullshit. Tell me how it's possible. Bring something better. I fantasized about it for twenty years, like almost everybody on this board does, and, for the life of me, could not figure out how to do it. Maybe because my inheritance was a small coin collection?Quote:
Originally Posted by shredgnar
If that's true?!?Quote:
Originally Posted by Benny Profane
But okay, neighbors with pensions and paid-off houses: both sides.
Me: not an exception. My friends and my acquaintances from living my life in the mountains have more similar stories to mine than the ones you pretend apply to the whole.
You: clinging to weird ideas that sardonic caricatures are somehow accurate for everyone in the mountains, which seem that you hold pretty much to justify your own lifestyle. And I understand that - I am not fully immune to characterizations and mythological generalizations so that I can feel superior to the poor schleps that live in the east.
For instance, I don't think it's any more expensive or difficult to get by in the mountains than it is to live in the east, say, like in Westchester County.
Edit: I doubt that your insurance is better than mine - federal retiree. And I "figured out" how to live in the mountains by doing it, and getting a forestry degree, because I really wanted it. Not by sitting in my cube trying to make my past decisions support my future desires.
Ok, enough already. You really are full of shit on a Trumpian level.
Bunny, you'd do well in Walden, Kremmling or Saguache, start your search there for affordable mountain town living.
I might be full of shit, but compared to you I'm caviar. And I'm living the dream in a mountain town - you live in suburban hell.Quote:
Originally Posted by Benny Profane
Priorities.Quote:
Originally Posted by Benny Profane
I doubt anyone would give you change for a nickel Bunny.Quote:
Originally Posted by Benny Profane
So fucking weak.Quote:
Originally Posted by shredgnar
Hey, let's get this down to numbers, ok, because, ultimately, it's the numbers. How much did this awesome fire fighting gig pay? What was you top salary? How many years?Quote:
Originally Posted by Meadow Skipper
Wife work? How much did, does, she make. How long?
Benny, if this is an honest question, be specific and I'll do my best to get you the answers. Listen, life is hard for everyone. We all make sacrifices to carve out our little piece of what we want. Just because you may not be willing to make the sacrifices necessary to live in a mountain community, doesn't mean that those of us that did are either trustfunders, broke, drunk, working all the time, or whatever other misconception you developed while being on extended vacation in Summit County.Quote:
Originally Posted by Benny Profane
For every Jackson, Vail, Aspen or Brekenridge their is a Victor, Edwards and Tabernash. For every lifty, dishwasher and snow shoveler there is a mountain operations supervisor, restaurant owner and master electrician.
But I get it. It's not for you. You see the glass half full in the mountain towns. The thing that I think you are having a hard time with is the fact that despite having a ski area near by, a vast majority of these places are just normal towns full of normal people.
Give us your deets and we will tell you where you went wrong.Quote:
Originally Posted by Benny Profane
Dude, really, Victor? How the fuck do you make a living in Victor? That's my point.Quote:
Originally Posted by Foggy_Goggles
Numbers. Give me numbers.
By sitting on your ass for 20 years in Westhchester talking yourself out of doing it.... no wait that's not how you do it.Quote:
Originally Posted by Benny Profane
I thought this was a thread about dealing with tourism in mountain towns? Now it's about Benny justifying east coast city life, of which there are exactly 1,000 threads on TGR already. Pity, because the original conversation was interesting.
Fuck you and your numbers. I was solidly in the double-digit GS scale when I retired after 32 years. When I was on crews and going to fires all the time (which I did less when I worked up into management) I got tons of overtime. I worked really, really hard, sacrificed, and made it work.Quote:
Originally Posted by Benny Profane
And go fuck yourself for asking about my wife's work. I only brought her up because of your bullshit about chicks not digging mountain guys.
Go ahead and rationalize your failure to live an interesting and rewarding life, but the blame for that is inescapable - it's you.