Siftings
Jul
18
Spirit Animals
Don’t Google image search “torn hamstring”. It’s much better to be genuinely surprised when the event occurs. That’s the operating premise behind the “Sea Otter League”, as near as I can tell. A group of are you kidding me old ball players despoiling the Seaside High School diamond on summer...
Jul
17
Moving
Who knew. Surely not me. The phone rang at dear ol’ dad’s house, and there was a lovely young woman on the other end of it. Department Manager of Intimate Apparel. Through some incalculable kismet, I crossed her path and she took some note of the tall guy with the best (easy, because it was the...
Jul
15
Craig’s Friday Countdown Phoenix Hotels
Technically, Scottsdale.
But there's no point ranking anything after #1.
Not saying the Biltmore is bad. It's just #2.
Jul
13
The Black & Whites ...
They cruise by, and they watch us from the corners of their eyes…
The lines that follow in Springsteen’s “Out in the Street” resonated strongly in my ne’er-do-well youth. The black and whites are cruising by during Seaside’s Black Lives Matter rally, and there’s plenty more readily available...
Jul
10
George
George was his first name. I never knew his last. He worked days and I worked nights and weekends, so our lives didn’t overlap much. We were “Merchandise Handlers” at JCPenney’s. Unload trucks full of JCPenneyisms and fill up the loading dock. Be lord and sovereign of the freight elevator,...
Jul
08
Craig’s Friday Countdown All Star Improvements
12. Right fielder throwing contest.
11. Replace Chris Berman with Will Ferrell doing Harry Caray.
10. Eliminate all video reviews. Have whoever is sitting in Section 211, Row F, Seat 17 make the call.
9. Managerial swearing tournament.
8. Less Irving Berlin. More Woody...
Jul
06
Shasta, Briefly
If you’re going to be alone, a mountain is a rather good place for it. It’s incredibly beautiful, and generally unscarred by man. The scale is other worldy, and lends perspective to trials and tribulations well. There’s a saying in climbing that I’ll clean-up for this family language friendly...
Jul
05
Shasta
This will be interesting, I say aloud to no one at all as I step out of the Jeep. It’s three in the morning at a rest stop somewhere south of Redding, where a twenty-two hour day came to an auspiciously located end. The original plan was to drive all the way back to Seaside from Mount Shasta to...
Jul
01
Craig’s Friday Countdown - Bad to Worse
Packing for climbing is a never perfect balance of keeping weight down, while bringing enough stuff to deal with what happens. The dozen things I’ll be schlepping I least want to use:
12. Excedrin. Probably will, given seashore to 10,000 foot (or thereabouts) camp in less than one...
Jun
26
Routes
This won’t help at all. Outdoor World has an end cap with Wiffle Ball bats. I went in looking for some category 4 sunglasses. Otherwise known as glacier glasses, the dark tinted lenses and sideshields are necessary while at altitude, on snow. Three-day weekend coming up and snow-capped Mount...
