Good day today

Cathy spoke in sacrament meeting today, and gave a good talk on the atonement.  She was the second speaker and she did a really good job.  It was also my last day in Primary (not necessarily a good thing).  I got a phone call from Brother Peterson from the High Council today and he asked to meet with Cathy and me at 12:15, before church.  He called me to be an assistant to the new high priest group leader, Vern Howell.  Vern is a great man and I am excited to be working with him.  I got set apart after church, and after Vern got set apart.  President Dean was there and he also gave me my temple recommend interview before he had to leave.  

Dinner after church was at Rebecca's.  We had hamburgers and hot dogs.  

Maybe I won't get more flat tires for a while

Last week I rode to work about three times.  From the Friday before to last Wednesday, I got three flat tires.  I have had about 5 flats in the last month.  So, to do something about it, I spent about $100 on the back wheel of my bicycle this past week.  I spent $70 on a new wheel and $30 on a new tire.  I got a wider tire with a thicker tread, and one that has a puncture resistant belt inside the rubber.  Then I put my kevlar liners in it.  After that I added a slimed thorn resistant tube.  If I keep getting flat tires, maybe I should just give up.  I might have to get one of those solid tires.

My truck gets at least 20 miles per gallon, as does Cathy's Jeep.  Both are probably closer to 25 mpg, but for my purposes I just figured 20.  When I ride my bike to work, it's a 30 mile round trip.  That would be about a gallon and a half of gas per day, for the commute.  At $4.00 per gallon, I am saving myself about $6 per day each day I ride the bicycle.  That's a good incentive for me to ride.  The other incentive is fitness.  I have a long way to go to reach the level of fitness I want, and riding the bicycle really helps.  It's about an hour and four or five minutes one way, although one morning I got to work in 57 minutes, and on another day I got home in 55 minutes.  I ride fairly hard when I am on the bicycle, trying to give the legs a good workout and improve my cardiovascular endurance.  It's slowly working.  Now, if I can just keep from getting flat tires for a while...

Druids and Wiccans and Pagans, Oh My!

I read a Denver Post article today that was waxing eloquent on the exponential growth of paganism in the United States.  Like from 8000 or so in 1999 to 375,000 in 2007.  Paganism is a broad tent that includes those that call themselves Druids (not quite sure what a Druid is), Wiccans (a cooler name for Witches) and about every other brand of nature or idol worshiper.  There are those that worship the old Norse gods, like Odin (but not a real God, like Heavenly Father or Jesus Christ); those that worship forests, or at least their favorite places in the forests; and some even believe in witchcraft, fairies, magic, and about anything else except Satan worship.  Apparently they don't "do" that.  The article talks about how everybody that wants to be a pagan can do about anything they want, as long as it doesn't hurt anybody else.  They emphasize the spiritual side of being a pagan, and they even have accredited priests.  I wonder what you have to do to become an accredited Druid priest.  Is there an online course?  

Since it was a Denver Post article they had to speculate on how many Coloradans are pagans.  Probably lots, and most probably live in Boulder and Aspen.  What a great thing it must be to be a pagan.  No more organized religion, just do what you want and tell yourself that you are spiritual and let go of all of your guilt, put flowers in your hair and wear a robe occasionally.  Guys can let their beards grow and maybe get a pointy hat to go with the robe for pagan rituals.  It goes to show, at least to me, that people have an inherent tendency or yearning toward spiritual things, and when they don't find what they're looking for in today's churches they go out and make up their own "spirituality."  Problem is, paganism won't do much to get you exalted in the next life.  You might make the Terrestrial Kingdom, if you are a good and gentle pagan, but that's about it.  You can get that far just being good and gentle, without the paganism.   

We need to get all those people a copy of the Book of Mormon!  Maybe that would get them off all those forbidden paths and back on the straight and narrow path with the iron rod alongside it.  

Today is Bike to Work day here in Grand Junction, so I did. I pretty much do anyway, but today I get rewarded with goodies. The city provided breakfast and a free t-shirt. I got a second free t-shirt, this one long sleeved, from Brown's Cycles. I talked to Chris, Bruce, and he asked about you. I told him you were not coming back, because you committed to a new house in Indiana.

I rode in with another city employee named Randy Keller, who also rode a recumbent for the occasion. He usually rides a road bike, but since today was "special" and I ride a bent, he rode his. He has a big long one (longer than mine) with under seat steering. Long story short, he couldn't keep up, so I had to slow down. It was a nice leasurely ride in from Fruita this morning. He wants to ride with me again, and next time will probably ride his road bike, so I will probably be the one who can't keep up.

Happy Birthday Joe!! Your gift has been ordered and your card will be on the way tomorrow. We love you!

One True Church

The doctrine of one true church is as offensive to much of the Christian world today as was the testimony of Christ anciently that he was "the way, the truth, and the life" (John 14:6).  Yet some reason as did the youthful Joseph Smith:  "If God had a Church it would not be split up into factions, and that if He taught one society to worship one way, and administer in one set of ordinances, He would not teach another, principles which were diametrically opposed." (HC 4:536).  "There is no more self-evident truth in this world, there is nothing in all eternity more obvious than that there is and can be only one true Church.  A true Church does not create itself any more than man creates God, or resurrects himself, or establishes for himself a celestial heaven.  All churches may be false, but only one can be true, simply because religion comes from God, and God is not the author of confusion."  (Doctrinal New Testament Commentary 2:506-7)

I took the above from Volume 1 of Doctrinal Book of Mormon Commentary, page 109.  I was looking for something uplifting after some disturbing articles on the Foxnews website today that brought home to me the wickedness of people in the last days.  I was saddened by one story in particular, too disturbing to re-tell here, and so decided to publish something simple but true to make myself feel better.  

The Hounds of Hell are Grey

Cathy went up to Denver in her Jeep this past Thursday, and I was supposed to go up Saturday and drive back with her so she wouldn't have to drive back by herself with Loralei, which would have been difficult.  Originally I was going to rent a car, but in the interest of saving money, I decided to Go Greyhound instead.  After all, it was only a 4 1/2 or 5 hour trip, and I could sleep through that, and I would be saving 20 or 30 dollars plus the price of gas.  I look back now and I realize what a fool I was.

I started to get my first inkling that the trip was not going to be fun when the bus was 30 minutes late getting started.  The extra half hour gave me a chance to study my traveling companions.  The people in the bus lobby were a cross section of middle to lower class America, and Mexico.  There were a lot of people that only spoke spanish.  That was ok, I try not to be prejudiced, but with the illegal immigration problem and all, I couldn't help but wonder how many were in the country illegally.  Those that didn't speak spanish or weren't black mostly seemed to have a lot of tattoos.  Most races were represented, but I don't remember seeing any orientals.  I would say the bus passengers were 30 percent black, 40 percent hispanic, and 30 percent white.  I know I sound terrible here but I really am not trying to, I am just trying to give an accurate representation of my fellow travelers.  Without exception everyone I talked too was friendly and courteous, and everyone seemed to have a great deal of patience.  There were more men than women, but not too many more.  

The bus finally left the station, and I found myself in the very back of the bus, sitting right next to the door to the latrine.  At first that didn't bother me, but after a steady stream of people going back to use the facility the smell and the disturbance began to become annoying.  I put on my Ipod headphones and tried to doze off, to pass the time in unconsciousness.  We stopped in Glenwood Springs at a Mexican tienda and twice along side the road, the first time to get people's food out of the overhead bins and the second time to open the roof vents for cool air.  Then I dozed off....and awoke to find the bus stopping along side the road again, this time at the beginning of Vail Pass.  This time we were broken down.  Most people, including me,  piled out and wandered around waiting to see what would happen next.

What happened next was that another Greyhound bus stopped.  This one was from LA and had stopped in Grand Junction about an hour after we left.  They had room for 11 people so the women and children left the sinking ship first, then there was roof for 2 more, and I lucked into the last seat on the other bus.  Wouldn't you know it, it was right across from the latrine this time instead of right beside it.  Not much improvement, but I was just glad to be on a bus that would move, and didn't care about he seat location, but when I sat down, the seat was all wet.  Someone had spilled something in it, and I rode the next three hours into Denver sitting in a puddle with my left thigh pressed up against the right thigh of a total stranger.  The only thing that took my mind off my misery was a chance to watch a semi burning to the ground in the opposite lanes as we neared Denver.  The tractor of the semi was totally engulfed in flames, but the trailer was still untouched as we went by.  That at least took my mind off of my soggy rear end for a minute or two.  I got to Denver about an hour and a half late, which was probably way better than the other stranded passengers back on Vail Pass.  I am never taking a bus again.  

...if the creek don't rise...

I took my camera with me on the bent this morning and took a couple of pictures of the flooded over part of the Riverfront Trail.  It's kinda hard to see where the trail enters the water but if you blow up the picture you can see it better.  This afternoon the river started to go down a little.

I got all wet because it rained all morning, so I rode in the rain all the way.  The rain quit in the early afternoon and the sun even came out for a while, so I was expecting a nice ride home.  It was not to be, because another storm cell rolled in from the northwest and caught me at about 19 Rd.  It started as a sprinkle and by the time I got to 18 Rd it was a pretty steady rain.  I got pretty much drowned.  Cathy came looking for me and found me just as I was turning north at the Dos Hombres in Fruita.  I was only about 5 blocks from home but since she came looking, I threw the bike in the back of the truck and rode in comfort the rest of the way.  Tomorrow is supposed to be sunshine all day but I won't ride because I have to bring home all my dirty uniforms and they won't fit anywhere on the bent.  Figures.

I saw the great picture of Joe in his uniform on his and Ashley's blog, what with him looking all cool and confident and military-ish.  He was the very picture of a self confident, mature young man.  I am so proud.  Still, I thought it would be fun to publish another picture of Joe, to contradict the one he published. Just for the heck of it, of course, and to add a little humor to things.   It took me about 5 tries and 20 minutes to get the picture uploaded, but it was worth it.  As Ricky Ricardo used to say, "Joe, you got some 'splainin' to do!"  Only Ricky said "Lucy" instead of "Joe".  But you know what I mean.  Hard to believe both pictures are of the same guy, huh?  

I'm not trying to be mean or anything, but hey, if you can't make fun of your kids, who can you make fun of?  Cathy and I love all you guys lots.  We hope this blog entry finds all you fruit of our loins well and happy.  Especially you, Joe.  And, by extension, Ashley.  Well, not by extension.  Just you too, Ashley.  You're adopted, like Erik and Travis.

Dad.

The Fruita wards are dividing again

There will be four wards instead of three. The information is supposed to be put out next week at church, and of course Cathy and I will be in Denver for Mia's dance recital so we will have to call someone second hand to get the scoop on what happened. We have no idea yet what boundaries will be or anything. We should probably lay low for a while until all the callings are over. Like that could ever happen. As Drudge says, "Developing..."