The El Capitan's Dawn Wall

-Photo courtesy of Huckberry.com

This is Tommy Caldwell and Kevin Jorgenson. According to an article on Huckberry.com, they recently became the 1st people in recorded history to climb the El Capitan's Dawn Wall in Yosemite National Park. The Dawn Wall is a 3000 foot granite base. From what I can tell by looking at the pictures, this mountain face appears to be at a 90 degree angle from the ground below it. I didn't do all that well in Mr. Pierson's 1975-76 geometry class, but if I'm not mistaken, that's pretty close to straight up.
I don't know what would posses anyone to want to climb up something like that, much less camp out in a tent suspended a couple thousand feet off the ground. If you awoke at 3 a.m. on your campout and forgot where you were just long enough to step outside to take a leak, well, you get the picture.

I don't think Klietus and I will be trying to break Tommy and Kevin's record anytime in the near future (although I can't speak for Kliet). In case we do, however, I should probably begin training right away. With that in mind, I think I'll climb up out of this chair and get myself another cup of coffee, before I climb back down and get back to reading, "The Oregon Trail", by Francis Parkman.

Tommy and Kevin, I don't think you cats are in any near term danger of being one-upped from the boys of Arkansas. Should things change, however, I'll keep you posted....

PS. I'm guessing you fellas would have the collective respect and admiration of the Navy Seals!

Wood Weekend

I'm officially declaring this "wood weekend". Since we have a day or week dedicated to just about every thing else imaginable, it seems only fitting we devote at least 1 weekend a year to wood. In celebration, I may saw some wood, split some wood, stack a little and perhaps, just perhaps, I may burn a little firewood in the old wood fireplace. Or, now that I think about it, I might just let "Big Bear" do all the wood work while I sit myself down in a nice, comfortable, well worn oak chair pulled up to an old raggedy oak table and enjoy a nice frosty Sam Adams or 2. As long as I'm at it, I should probably consider washing those beers down with a piping hot pepperoni pizza. Yea...that's the ticket.
I'm glad I thought that out. I'll keep you posted....

Where's The Snow

Personally, I'm ready for some of this. If you're tuning in from Saskatoon, I'm guessing you're covered up with a nice layer and probably have been for a couple of months. But in Northwest, Arkansas and Southwest, Missouri we've seen only a few flakes that resulted in a very light dusting or two. I heard through the grapevine that some of the folks in Moorhead, Minnesota are already gearing up for Spring. That's probably a good plan.

Beaver Lake Sunset Part Thrice

These Beaver Lake pictures were taken a couple of weeks ago with my "icamera". The only thing missing in these 2 photos were Kleitus and The Duster Man. I can visualize Kliet trolling the shore line in his semi-v bass rig, in search of the wiley large mouth, while Duster sits patiently on the point in a well broken-in camp chair next to a couple of his trusty heavy duty open faced rigs, in his quest to smash the Beaver Lake flathead record, if not the Arkansas record. I'm guessing he may have his sights set on first establishing world wide fame by breaking the Missouri state flathead record, before branching out to all the other states, but that's a guess.
As I receive feedback from these two gentlemen regarding their fishing exploits, I'll of course keep you posted...

Self Deprecating Act

In an effort to appear grounded, Hollywood recently poked fun at itself. It turned out, however, they were just acting. If anything changes, I'll keep you posted.....

I wonder

As they used to say on mornings like this, "It's colder outside than a well digger's "posterior region!" Right now it's 12*F in our backyard, 7* in St. Louis, 10* at the cabin, 9* in Rolla down by the creek where the old cabin stood in the early 70's and 3* on Dustin and Val's front porch in California, Mo. Dang, that's cold!
I wonder what Grandma Keil would have done first thing on a morning like this in 1955, waking up to discover a heavy layer of frost on the grass in her backyard as she peered out her back window. I wonder if she headed straight into the kitchen through the bedroom door that passed beneath the stairs leading to the attic as she pulled her robe tighter to fend of the chill in the early morning air or would she first walk out to the front porch to get the newspaper before going back inside and brewing up a piping hot pot of coffee for Paw Paw and herself. I wonder if as a matter of early morning routine Grandma fried up a cast iron bacon and egg breakfast on her old white gas stove while Paw Paw sat at the kitchen table reading the paper and catching up on the latest happenings in Moniteau County, before heading off to work in his old panel truck. I wonder what thoughts they each had when they read the first article of the new year about plans for the upcoming California Fair, which has taken place each summer for the past 150 years or so at the fair grounds just a hop skip and a jump down the street from their old house. I wonder if like most of us small town folks the first thing they talked about in the morning while eating breakfast and sipping their coffee, was the weather. I wonder....

Where's Waldo?

I'm still around. If you've been tuning in wondering "why no new stuff", I've gotten busy on some other stuff and haven't set aside the appropriate amount of time for this stuff. Stay tuned and I'll see what I can come up with. Thanks for your support and fyi, still no word on Klietus. I'll keep you posted if I hear anything....

Piney River Brewing Co. Follow-Up

~If anyone runs into Klietus, let me know. I fear he may have fallen off the end of the earth

In an effort to keep you posted, here's a follow up on Piney River's Black Walnut Wheat Beer: it's good!
I ran a test pattern last night on a pint and I was pleasantly surprised....pleasantly I tell ya! I'm no beer aficionado and won't try to imitate the wine folks who apparently feel there's something magically special about wine, other than it comes in a bigger bottle than the average beer e.g.: it starts with a delightful effervesces normally experienced only during a French Riviera sunset, and finishes with the subtle but wonderfully evident taste of wild sanderberrys with just the slightest hint of fluffermudgeon keish etc, etc, etc. None of that high brow snot here at Old and Ridiculous (not that there's anything wrong with that). We just know good beer when we taste it. We're also prepared to go out on a limb and recommend you pick up a 4 pack of these bad boys at your earliest convenience, providing you like a good beer now and then. Or you can just try one of mine if you find yourself in the area. We think your reaction will be something pretty close to, "Dang, now that's purdy good!"

I'll keep you apprised of any further Piney River Brewing Co. developments as I become aware. Black Walnut wheat is probably not a beer I'm going to drink every time I drink a beer, but when I want something with a "down-home country panache", I'll likely call up a Black Walnut Wheat. I still have 3 in the "garagerator" and that will allow for 3 additional beer experiences. I'll keep you posted...

PS. Apparently, Pinery River Brewing Co.'s beer is only distributed in Missouri and Arkansas at the time of this post. My apologies to all the folks in Canada, France, Russia, Ukraine, Australia, Spain, Sweden and Ireland who may have already made a pub run hoping to sample a pint of Piney River, only to discover it's not available. On a positive note, now you'll have one more beer related matter to look forward to.

PSS. These pictures have nothing to do with Piney River beer: I just know folks like looking at pictures.

Piney River Brewing Co.

One of my great life long friends, Randy (of Rolla, Missouri fame), recently recommended I give this beer a try at my earliest convenience. After receiving his personal recommendation, I decided tonight would be pretty convenient. I quickly headed down to the areas largest booze house to see if they had Randy's pick. I enlisted the help of Macadoodles general manager, Richard, and soon after proceeded to the checkouts with 4 hand picked pints. After googling Piney River Brewing Co, I read the story about the proprietors, Brian and Joleen Durham. Although they're brewery is a start-up operation, opening it's doors in 2010, they've already received quite a bit of recognition including a few industry awards for their beer making efforts. Adding to our personal interest, is the fact this particular beer operation is located just a few miles from where Randy and I grew up rabbit hunting (actually, I was the rabbit hunter while Randy was out hunting girls, but our combined efforts apparently paid off, considering to date neither of us has done any serious jail time and both have all 10 digits and the majority of our toes...as far as I know).

Anyway, as Randy and I move forward on our combined Piney River Brewing Co. test pattern, I'll keep you posted....