The Price Is Right: tampons, cleaning supplies, Wilford Brimley and diabetes medication, "power chairs", Depends, personal injury attorneys
So this tells us what you would expect; namely, that housewives, the retired elderly, and the capable-but-unemployed (injured or otherwise) are most likely watching TPIR. This pattern is pretty much the same that it's been since I started watching TPIR with my grandma when I was very small. As is was in the beginning, is now, and shall be forever...amen.
So those of you who've been reading my stuff for a while also know I listen to conservative talk radio on a regular basis. Let's guess at what kind of folks are listening, based on the commercials I've gotten used to hearing:
Conservative talk radio: gold and gold-backed investments, debt relief, tax relief, Barracuda anti-spam firewalls (I loathe these), mortgages
So paranoid investors, regular businessmen and professionals, and those in serious debt or having tax issues regularly listen to conservative talk radio. This didn't astonish me much, except for the tax relief/debt relief angle. I wouldn't have expected to hear so much about that. I would, in fact, be very interested to listen to the liberal talk radio (if I can find it) to hear what sorts of commercials get played in that medium.
Tomorrow's the BIG DAY! OU vs. North Texas, in the opening of what could be an incredible season. Tomorrow is doubly special for me, because it will be Owen's first OU game. You know I'm looking forward to that.
So here's a great one from last weekend, that I was going to post but forgot to during my busy week. I was playing poker with Connor and Donovan last Saturday night. After my usual 7 or 8 shuffles (statistically, the cards must be shuffled at least 7 times to ensure maximum randomness), I dealt one hand of 7-Card Stud. That's right, ONE HAND. So let's see how it turned out for me, shall we?
That's right...somehow, after that plain old shuffle, with absolutely no other shenanigans going on, I managed to deal myself a royal flush. Unfortunately, that 60K-something-to-one shot was my one bit of good luck for the night; our Powerball and Lotto tickets on that night's drawing won us nothing. Ah well, it was worth it. This is actually the second time in my life I have gotten a royal flush while playing poker, and both times, I miraculously dealt them to myself. The bad news is, neither time was I playing for real money. It figures.
By the way, if you haven't already done so, pop over and visit the world-famous blog of my wonderful wife, Heidi. The best part is the new pic she has up...yep, she's that hot all the time, and SHE'S ALL MINE!!!
So I mentioned that a few weeks back I had a bit of an adventure, climbing Mt. Bierstadt, then taking the Sawtooth to Mt. Evans. The Sawtooth traverse is generally agreed to be one of the great four great 14er traverses, and I must admit, it's a long, long slog, but it's a beautiful route, with some challenging climbing. I will say, there's nothing like a couple of 14ers to remind you how out-of-shape you really are. I was glad to see my willpower and spirit were unaffected, even if my flesh was weak. Unfortunately, while traversing on some large boulders near the summit of Mt. Evans, I injured my knee and knew I would not be able to make the 5-mile trek across more of those same boulders back to the car. Fortunately, Mt. Evans also has the highest paved road in North America (yes, higher than Pikes Peak). Being a very pleasant Sunday afternoon, there were plenty of people on the summit, and one family was nice enough to transport me down to Idaho Springs. Once we got down, I called my wife, who rushed up and picked me up, then took me back to the FJ parked at Guanella Pass. All in all, quite a full day. Below are some pics from the trip.
This is looking back toward Guanella Pass...in fact, in the original, high-res version of the picture, you can barely make out the tiny blue speck of my FJ parked at the trailhead.
A friendly goat that I spotted on my way up. He was a ways off, but he watched me for a good portion of my trek to the Bierstadt summit.
Bierstadt being my 10th 14er, I demonstrate my joy at finally hitting double digits...after a mere 10 years of climbing them. At this pace, I'll get through all 54 recognized 14ers by the time I'm 77.
Always good to have indisputable proof of your summit, so you always sign the register kept at the top of every 14er, and you snap a quick photo of the USGS summit marker (if you can find it...they can be a bit elusive).
A bunch of folks were with me on the summit that day. (It's good when you're alone, because it guarantees there will be someone to take your picture.) Some 14ers get visited more often than others; Bierstadt's relative ease and proximity to Denver ensure that the summit is never lonely during climbing season...or even during winter, for that matter. Bierstadt's slopes are relatively gentle and it is a popular first winter ascent for many mountaineers.
An excellent view, back toward Guanella Pass. This is a great shot not only because you can see the Guanella Pass road and just make out the trailhead parking lot, but also because you get a great view of two other 14ers I've climbed. The two pointy peaks dead-center of the background are Grays Peak on the left and Torreys Peak on the right. Two truly beautiful specimens.
This shot is from near the Bierstadt summit, and shows the route I am about to take to get around the Sawtooth.
This shot is taken at the top of the notch that provides access to the north face of the Sawtooth, which you must traverse to get by. No worries, though; the crux of the route (i.e., the most difficult climbing part) is actually what I had just completed to get to the point to take this picture. After this, there's a decent ledge the whole way along the north face, and this shot actually shows the upper section of that ledge...the wide sunlit band in the center of this picture.
This shot shows that the route isn't all sunshine and goats. I took it to show that the route meant business...honestly, I took it to freak Heidi out. :-) I'm at the narrowest part of the ledge, where it's about 5 feet wide, and I am looking straight down the north face of the Sawtooth. I know the perspective isn't very good, so it doesn't look like much, but that's actually about a 1,000-foot-drop I'm staring down. As long as you're not an idiot, there really isn't much danger, even at this point.
Click on this one to see it in larger format, so that it will do it justice. There's a semi-camouflaged family of mountain goats in this one, which I took on the side of Evans while traversing toward the summit trail. This family included a couple of spunky baby goats who spent a great deal of time playing with each other while I watched. It was very, very cute, and a nice distraction from the incredible fatigue I was feeling at this point. I had actually hurt my knee right before I took this shot and so it gave me a good excuse to stop and rest some.
My goal achieved...the Evans summit marker.
I don't look nearly as exuberant in this one as I did on the Bierstadt summit. If you can't tell, I'm leaning heavily on my walking stick so that I can take the weight off my right knee, which was throbbing pretty good at this point. In the far middle distance you can see Grays and Torreys shrouded with clouds and rain...that was another factor in my decision to get some assistance down. There's little as terrifying as a thunderstorm when you on a 14er, and such thunderstorms are common in the afternoons during climbing season. I wasn't looking forward to trying to rush down on a messed-up knee and risk doing even more damage to it, just so I could get caught in a thunderstorm halfway down. So that's the story of my trip.Thanks for reading along.
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