CR-V Socket Extension

This evening I went to a tool distributors store and was checking out all sorts of different items. While walking down one of the isles I spotted these extension bars for sockets. The one pictured (shown with an 8" adjustable wrench for scale) is labeled as CR-V steel and is just shy of 1/2" diameter by 17-5/8" long. That thing was nasty.

1,664 Pages

Yesterday I received a call inquiring if I was interested in some 2" thick directories. ABSOLUTELY! These books are fun!

A Piece Of History

Yesterday I visited with a friend of mine, artist and strongman Tom Hermansader. Tom's father was also an artist, in fact his father painted a famous portrait of the Mighty Atom. It is always great to hear more first hand accounts of the Atom from those who knew him. Tom shared some great old stories and showed me a few pieces bent by Atom from his personal collection. In the photo is a very stout looking horseshoe that the Atom bent with his teeth! That's right, with his TEETH!

Memorable Weekend

This past weekend is one that will be in my memory for quite some time. A great friend of mine and fellow Oldetime Strongman, Aaron "Mighty Mac" McKenzie, came up from North Carolina for a visit. Friday we had made our way to the training facility named "The Dungeon" of Slim The Hammerman Farman. It's a special honour anytime you get to visit with someone you greatly admire and to be mentored to by them. Every time I visit with the "old man" (Slim turns 75 this year and still routinely performs feats of strength that no one has been able to duplicate) I come away with a deeper understanding of what it is to truly be an Oldetime Strongman. Thanks Slim.

After performing for and visiting with The Hammerman till the we hours of the morning, Mac and I made our way to Dan Cenidoza's get together in Baltimore MD on Saturday afternoon. There we got to witness some incredible feats of strength. Jedd Johnson came down from upstate PA with John Eaton from NY, John Manino came down from eastern PA, as well as Luke Whippo also from Baltimore. Every one was doing what they do and we had a great time. Thanks Dan for putting this together, looking forward to the next time we can all meet up again.

Shreaded

Earlier this week I was very fortunate to have a large quantity of new phonebooks given to me. As you can imagine I have been like a kid at Christmas with these, ha-ha. The first evening alone I went through ten of these books, just having some fun. Today, as part of my workout, I decided to do a quad vertical tear. I just kept ripping a piece off the book in between sets of my other exercises. Before I knew it, I ended up with five strips of this 1-5/8" thick Baltimore phonebook. Thanks Rena!

Another Day At The Office

While working on the computer tonight I looked over and saw my camera and some mini decks of cards. I thought to myself - Hmm, I haven't videoed a mini notch yet. So I grabbed a deck and hit record while sitting at my desk.

I've been doing a lot of deck notching lately with both the full sized and mini decks. Like I mentioned in the previous post, it keeps it interesting...

Keeping It Interesting

I like to bend all sorts of different sizes and styles of horseshoes. I also like to bend them into many different designs to keep things interesting. For the most part in performance I'll stick with flattening them out into an "S" shape or crushing them into the "Paperclip", but when I'm just having fun "doing what I do" I like to mix things up now and then. Same goes for training, diet, reading material, etc. Don't fall into a stale boring routine, mix it up every so often and renew your enthusiasm.