So, what is she?

Is she a Pixie, or a Fairy, or a butterfly, or a superhero, or what?

Throw Mama off the Train

"Mama" is a whole bunch of liberal democrat spin-suckers, and they all just got thrown off the train. And who threw them off? We did. We, the rubes and dolts who don't know when to sit down and shut up when our leaders are doing what's good for us. Also known as Americans.

When the human projectiles quit bouncing in the gravel, they can pick themselves up and wander home. Question is, will the libs who dodged the bullet this time and are still riding the train learn enough from what just happened to their now gone friends to back off the spending and socialism, and let America be America. Should be fun to watch.

Something in the air? Or maybe the water?

Seems like a lot of people are a little short tempered and unhappy right now, even in my own family. Touchy, quick to give a cutting comeback to some perceived slight, no matter how small or innocent. I'm guilty too. It's given me cause to reflect on why, and I don't really have an answer. I am consciously trying to remain on an even keel, and not get snippy, but I have to admit that there are times that the boat rocks a little. That would be my fault though. I am responsible for my own thoughts and actions.

The saying goes that you always hurt the ones you love, and it's true. The reason is because 1) you wouldn't dream of being insulting to a total stranger, unless circumstances warranted it, like they were yelling at your kid or something, and 2) people that don't love you back don't care enough to be hurt by your dumb a__ness. Rolls off their backs. So, we have the problem of caring about someone but at times lashing out at them and causing them pain. Why would we want to do that? It doesn't make sense.

Satan loves a good fight. Just realize that when you want to say something hurtful. Ask yourself where are those thoughts and words coming from? Not from a prompting of the Spirit, I'm sure. Patience is of the Lord, and we are encouraged to develop it. It's hard not to get angry and say something mean, and sometimes it's harder to keep from saying something meaner back. Still, I hope we all (me especially) learn to be more thoughtful of others, and realize that a soft answer turneth away wrath. We should be building each other up, not tearing each other down. Let go of the grudges, if you have any. Life's too short to waste. Nuff said.

I'm confused...

I just read an article by Charles Krauthammer, one of those guys who make their living pouring their thoughts out of their brains onto paper, lamenting the recent victory of Christine O'Donnell over the RINO Mike Castle in Delaware's republican primary. His point was that now that O'Donnell has won the primary and will be the republican candidate in the general, the democrats will win. His point was that if Mike Castle had won, he would have beaten the democrat because, according to Krauthammer, Mike Castle would have been unbeatable!

Uh, I must be missing something here. If he was so unbeatable, how come he was just beaten?

Another thought -- the lesser of two evils is still evil.

Hang in there, family. The next life will be better!

Autumn balloon

Look what flew right over the top of our house a couple of weeks ago. I wanted to call it the Fall Balloon, but that has a sort of negative connotation, if you know what I mean. Cathy happened to walk outside to help Jennifer put kids in the car, and she called me out to see. Naturally, I grabbed my camera. It was close enough so you could hear the noise when the flames went on to heat the air.

Burning Korans

Here's my take on the big media explosion about the pastor dude in Florida who wanted to burn some Korans to highlight Sept 11, which was yesterday and a great day of college football.

If he owned the books then they were his property and he could do what he wanted to with them. Burn them, flush them, blow them up, give them to poor atheists, whatever. Who are we to dictate what a person can do with private property, as long as he (or maybe she) isn't breaking the law. We get too caught up in what the symbolism might be and what we think is politically correct. If it were Bibles or Books of Mormon I would feel the same way. The Lord might be a little miffed if someone burned the scriptures, but if they were his private property, he could do it if he wanted to. Or maybe she could. None of our business.

Fly fishing

We got fishing poles for the grandkids about a month ago, the same time I went to Sportsman's Warehouse and got myself a fly rod for Father's Day, but we hadn't had a chance to take them fishing until this morning. For the 4th of July Cathy and I went camping at Fruita State Park, which is about a mile from the house, Sunday afternoon and Monday. They told us at the park that we couldn't use the generator to power our cpap machines -- too noisy, the neighbors in the next campsite might complain, so we upgraded to a couple of pads for 5th wheelers that were equipped with power and water. Except that the power didn't work at our site, and we didn't discover that until we had our tents all set up and our stuff moved into them, and it was bed time. We had to move into Jennifer & Erik's tent and they had to move into ours. Their site had power.

After that minor inconvenience we got up the next morning and I cooked bacon and eggs for breakfast. Then we had to pack up, because we had to be checked out at noon. We finally went fishing at about 10:00 a.m. After we got to the lake, I had to rig Ethen's pole, and Mia's pole, and Kendall's pole, and Cathy's pole, before I could do mine. Travis was there, so he took care of Loralei's pole, or I would have done that one too.

I finally got to try out my new fly rod, and one of the flies that Bruce sent to me. You guys probably already know, but Bruce is a fly tier. It's a hobby of his that he did in his younger days, and has taken up again. He sent me about 48 - 50 flies to use. So, I set aside the cheap Wal Mart flies I had, and used one of Bruce's.

Well, Loralei and I caught the biggest (and onliest) fish of the day. I hooked one that was 3 to 4 inches long, that got thrown back, and she caught one about the same size, that also got thrown back. The other anglers got nibbles, but nobody else hooked anything. We quit at about 1120 and went to the packed up vehicles, then went home. At least I know my pole works and Bruce's flies work too. Maybe next time I will find a better fishing hole.

New floors!

We gots new floors, in the living room and hallways, anyways. The installer came yesterday and got started, and came back and finished up today, except for the transition pieces around the entryway tile, which never got ordered for some reason. They will come back and install those when they come in. As soon as Pat wakes up from his nap hopefully we will get the furniture moved out of the garage and back into the living room.

Our new flooring is called handscraped Maple, and is an engineered hardwood that locks together. No glue or nails. We learned in our flooring search that solid wood requires a wood underlayer, and since we have a concrete slab, no go. We didn't want laminate since we went that route in the Ridges. The solution was the engineered hardwood. It's a hardwood layer (pretty thin, like 3 mm) bonded to a plywood base, in our case a total of 1/2 inch thick. Mosts engineered hardwoods are 2mm layered for 3/8 total thickness, so we got a little better product, I think. Looks good too. It was made in the PRC though, so it's probably laced with lead or sewage or something I don't want to know about. We got it at Lowes, and they contracted out an installer.

Happy upcoming 4th of July!!

It has been a long time since I have posted. Shame on me. I hang my head with regret. Ok, I'm over that now. Last Friday and Saturday Cathy and I went camping with Lou and Dorothy. They had a camper, we had an old tent. We set up camp amongst the mosquitoes out past Vega reservoir Friday evening, and looked forward to Saturday when we were going to go ATVing. Lou and Dorothy brought some 10 year old kid that was a talker, and that stayed up until about 4:30 in the morning while everyone was trying to sleep. We had trouble sleeping because our air mattress kept leaking and we would wake up. The kid woke us up, the air mattress woke us up, the generator noise woke us up, and there wasn't room in the tent to move. We were glad when Saturday arrived. We spent 7 hours on the ATVs, riding around and having a great time. We got rained on, the trails got muddy so we were slinging mud all over the place. It was a blast. The picture above is to show the height of some kind of milkweed plant (I guess) I saw.
We got to drive through this stream. It was fun too. The country was really beautiful. We saw a couple of deer (except for Cathy who didn't see either one of them) and billions of mosquitoes.
This picture was taken moments before Cathy decided to drive and immediately rolled the ATV OVER! She had to make a hard left turn, and when she did, the right front tire climbed a bush while the left front tire went into a rut, and over we went. She had been driving for like 5 seconds. Luckily, we weren't hurt (Cathy found a minor bruise today) and the ATV wasn't even scratched. Everyone had gone ahead so we had to wait for them to miss us and come back because we couldn't right the machine by ourselves. We had to use a winch from another ATV to pull us over. Cathy wouldn't drive after that until we got off the trails and back on the dirt road.
These are the people we went with. Lou is the guy, Dorothy is the gal, and the annoying kid is the annoying kid. Actually he wasn't that bad. Anyway, after Friday night's crummy sleep we took the air mattress back and got a couple of cots, and a new tent that holds the whole ward if we want it to. It's 8 ft x 16 ft floor space. Love you all.

Our new toy...

Here is a photo of our new toy. Cathy and I are proud owners (along with the credit union) of a new shiny red 500 cc Can-Am ATV. It's a two-seater. And it's a 2009 model so we got a pretty good deal on our midlife crisis machine. Here are a couple of pictures of it. Th first shot is the ATV itself, still clean and new looking because it hasn't been ridden through the mud yet. The second picture is the ATV with an old fat man sitting on it. The third picture is the old fat man's friend Lou, sitting on his ATV and giving the reader an idea of what the shiny new ATV will look like after a few rides. Huge difference. And Lou's is a 2010 model. It's a 650, so it's more pricey.

You can only hide for so long....

I ducked and dodged for as long as I could, but I finally got caught. I have been called to the calling that I never wanted -- ward missionary. I will be released from my cushy job as an assistant to the high priest group leader, and will actually have to go out and meet people. Inactive and non-member people, at that. Oh my.

Oh well. I used to be the one to preach that people should get out of their comfort zones. Now I am taking my own medicine.

Graffiti as art

These are images I took when Ashley and I went to the "Graffiti Building" and old streetcar out by the Great Salt Lake the last time we went to visit. I boosted the color quite a bit on the shot above, which is I think a paintball hit. It looks pretty modern artsy to me.
This one I really like a lot. I boosted the color on it too. I am thinking of making an enlargement and framing it. Lots of color.
This third shot I like too. It's not as abstract, but I like the colors splashed on the old building. I appreciate good graffiti.

My Toyota is giving me the swine flu!

And it's all George Bush's fault, and it's snowed today because of global warming. We also need an expensive new health care bill that we can't afford because if we don't get it, the economy won't rebound. Businesses won't hire anyone unless they are burdened with more taxes and debt. We must spend ourselves, our children, and our grandchildren into oblivion because if we don't, we won't be able to get out of debt. We can't save money unless we spend it first. (That's not working at my house.) To top it all off, we have more oil underneath the ground in our own country than the whole middle east combined, but it's better to leave it there and get if from overseas because if we get it here, we will cause too much prosperity. And maybe kill some spider or lizard that needs to live or the whole planet will become a living hell.

Am I ready to run for congress yet?

KD0KIT

That's my call sign for my amateur radio license. I passed my test a couple of weeks ago and last Friday I got the call sign. WooHoo! Now I can spend money on radio equipment (I already have) and talk to other amateurs over the airwaves! For what reason, I'm not sure, except that the church is setting up an emergency net for when the big one hits. Other than that, it's mostly on-air gabbing and gossip. I have only transmitted a couple of times, but a start is a start. By this time next year I will probably be up the next step to General class, from Technician, which is what I am now. Hello, World! Or maybe Hello, Grand Valley! Gotta start small.

The Promised Land

Have you ever watched one of those "documentary" shows trying to pinpoint where the Garden of Eden was at the dawn of man's history? It's amazing to me that they are nosing all around the middle east looking for the location of the famous garden, and do it mostly because there is a river in the area named the Euphrates. This happens to be the name of one of the rivers near the Garden of Eden that is mentioned in Genesis. Trouble is, these people forget all about a little thing called The Flood, where Noah and his group of people and animals floated around for a while until the waters receded. They don't know, and most of the world doesn't know, that the Garden of Eden was located in good old Missouri, and when Adam and Eve were cast out, they moved out about 60 miles is all, and there human history began. The river named Euphrates was in North America.

No wonder the Lord calls this the "Promised Land." It was choice enough for God to place the Garden of Eden here, and for the human race to begin here. It is choice enough for the gospel to be restored here, too. We should feel grateful and inspired that we are able to live in such a choice (that word again) location, and we can snigger at the boobs who think that the Garden of Eden was in the dusty old middle east. All they have to do is listen to the modern day prophets, and they would know. Why don't they?

I am hitting my first slump

I have been religiously tracking my calories, proteins, carbs, and weight for the entire month of January, but the last couple of days I have wanted to eat more than I am allowed. I took a couple of days off from working out too. I scraped the skin off the back of my left hand (not all of it, just a patch about an inch square) and I was told by Doc Doyle to stay out of the pool for a few days until it heals over. I have been on the stationary bike instead, but I need some variety. I can't run yet because of my knee. I am beginning to wonder if it will ever get back to normal. I still limp on it, although I consciously try not to. People at work tell me every day that I am still limping. Like I don't know myself.

Ah, well. I don't mind a couple of lazy and overindulgent days. I think it's actually good for the system. Shakes things up a little. I let myself have a free day once a week, usually on Saturday. I guess this week I will have two and they will be on Wednesday and Thursday.

By the way, Jennifer and Rebecca are trying to talk Cathy into applying for The Biggest Loser show. They almost have her convinced.

The training has begun!

One of my goals for this year is to lose 50 pounds, hopefully not by losing my head, and participate in the Highline Hustle Triathlon again, and by extension, the Black Canyon Tri in Montrose. With the knee surgery and all, I have been pretty sedentary, with a few excursions on the stationary bike in the garage as my only exercise.

Last week, though, with the holidays officially over, I began a nutrition plan. I downloaded an app onto my handy dandy IPOD Touch called Tap and Track, that takes personal information like height and weight, and lets you pick out a weight loss plan (mine is 2 pounds per week), then gives you a database to track what you eat and how many calories, grams of fat, carbs, proteins, and all that stuff you consume per day. It keeps a log, and is portable and easy. It also uses your personal info to determine how many calories per day you get. There is an exercise portion that estimates the number of calories burned for the exercise you do, and adds those calories to your allowance. So far in the first week I lost about 3 pounds.

Also, today I began swimming. I had to get up at 0600, which for me is agony and requires the self-discipline of a saint, and go to the Orchard Mesa Pool for lap swim, because it's scheduled from 0630 to 0815 M-F. Once I got there I was glad I went and got tired really fast. Showed me that I needed it.

A couple of months ago I got a $150 gift certificate from the city for 15 years of work, and I used part of it to buy a swim mask and snorkel. I have a problem swimming freestyle because I always breath in water after about a quarter of a lap, and have to change strokes. The upside of the mask and snorkel is that I can swim freestyle and breathe without any water. I tried it today and it worked great. The snorkel takes some getting used to, but with practice it will be fine. The downside is that Rebecca has promised to tease me without mercy if she sees me wearing it. She thinks the little eye cups are all that are stylish enough for someone to be seen wearing in the pool. I don't care. Last year I wore my wet suit in the pool, to get used to it before the race. She never wore hers in the pool.

When I put on the mask, I think I look like Russell Crowe when he puts on the helmet and mask in the movie. MY NAME IS GLADIATOR!