BlogPrints

2012-01-17T03:10:00.001+01:00

Getting Ready for Orthodontia

2012-01-05T04:25:00.001+01:00

Yikes!

Christmas Vacation 2011

2012-01-01T01:50:00.001+01:00

With the rate at which my nieces and nephews get married in California, we should have bought stock in SkyBlue Airlines years ago. Lauren finally chased a boy until he caught her and we had her wedding celebrations the week in between Christmas and New Years. Kim graciously offered to let us stay with them. We were planning on staying in a motel. But, were happy for her hospitality.The last time we went to Disneyland was in April of 2007. So, Lenore has been saving some money and the kids have been anticipating for a while. This time the weather was beautiful, which makes for a nice time except that everyone else in the world is there. We had reservations at the Blue Bayou and when we finished at the restaurant all of the Fastpass tickets were doled out for the day. So, we did a lot of waiting in line. I would be better at this if I ever did much walking or standing. We got to do a lot. But, would have liked to do more. Indiana Jones was broken when we were in line (again.) We saw David Boreanaz and I was going to take a picture and then I felt sorry for him.The most fun we had was on Tom Sawyer Island. I think it is now called Pirate Island. I had forgotten about the fun caves and stuff, and yes I am too tall for the caves. I am always amazed at the mass of people you see wearing sill hats and dressed in who knows what at Disneyland.

We got a chance to drop by the Aquabats! studios and see their latest project. Shanna and Christian were nice enough to give us an informal tour. It was quite interesting. This is probably the closest I will come to greatness, I was in the same room as a BAFTA award! The Yo Gabba Gabba award from 2008.

The kids inside the BattleTram!

Mom at the controls of the laboratory.

In between the temple sealing ceremony and the reception we dashed down to San Clemente to have some Cassano's pizza and walk around. We were still in our nice clothes so people were staring at us like we were David Boreanaz.

Christmas Kiss

2011-12-25T20:29:00.002+01:00

The Big Yellow One is the Sun!

2011-12-14T06:45:00.001+01:00

2011-11-11T18:10:00.001+01:00

Jensen on http://connect2utah.com/fresh-living-beauty

Fall Hair Color TrendsWednesday, November, 9 2011 @ 1:17 PM

Here

PinkJens

2011-11-03T03:34:00.001+01:00

Pikachu! Jupiter Thunder Power!

2011-11-01T02:29:00.000+01:00

Tour de Saint George

2011-10-20T22:01:00.001+02:00

A couple of weeks ago Stuart Porterasked me to consider doing the Tour de Saint George. He was signed upfor the full century. I checked into it and decided I could probablydo the metric century. It had more climbing than I like (otherwise, Imight have done the 100 mile route). But, it looked like it wouldn'tbe too bad. Besides, it gave me a goal to work for late in theseason, to keep me riding.

We took the whole family down to SaintGeorge last weekend to do this ride. It was a little cramped withStuart and Kristin and Cody there too. But, they left fairly soonafter the ride. So, Saturday night it was just us.

Cody was doing the 36 mile route. Wedecided to ride our bikes down to the start in the middle of town sowe wouldn't have to deal with parking. We had timing chips. But, they onlytimed us individually as we crossed the finish line. I had wanted tokeep my options open. So, I registered for the full century but justdid the metric. So, for now on the results page of the website theyhave me finishing quite fast in the full century. I've let them knowthey should put me in the other category.

So, I finished 4^th out of 16in my age group and 12^th out of 94 overall. Which I feel pretty goodabout since I don't like climbing. And although I only stopped at oneof the feed stations, and only briefly, I did have problems with aslow leak that I stopped three times to put air in and then finallyreplaced the tube 73 miles into the ride.

Stuart was quite frustrated because hewanted to do well and he got off course a couple of times. This addedto his overall time. He probably would have easily come in 1^stin our age group without his problems.

Salvages

2011-10-10T04:24:00.003+02:00

Tentative Rough Cover by Jens

New Mailbox

2011-10-10T04:22:00.003+02:00

I put in our mailbox when we moved in 20 years ago. It was a simple aluminum box on a 4x4 wood post. On 3 Oct I came home from work to this.

We went from the ugliest, cheapest, scuzziest mailbox in the neighborhood to the nicest. Our neighbor updated our mailbox(es) and doesn't want me to pay for it. We will figure out something to do for them. He is bigwig in State politics for Dem party. Has been working on Obama campaign lately. And even though he is also a Ute fan, I could bring myself to vote for him. He is the nicest guy.

Lane truly is our Asian child

2011-10-05T06:50:00.002+02:00

2011-10-05T03:22:00.002+02:00

Rememberance

2011-09-10T01:10:00.000+02:00

I was driving Ailsa to school and heard that a plane had crashed into the World Trade Center. Soon after that I was at the dentist and saw footage of the second attack (while I was in the dentist chair.) at one point the news coverage cut back to the live footage and I could only see one tower. Eventually they confirmed that it had collapsed. When I finally got to work we were fully in the throes of the day. It seemed to me that we should all go home, if only for the reason that we wouldn't be getting much work done and it would be easier to keep track of all of the news. Lenore and I stayed up quite late watching the coverage. I was astounding to consider the possible amount of lost lives (at sometimes estimated to be upwards of 30,000, as I recall.) Thank goodness it wasn't that high.

Each LDS ward was instructed to have a memorial type service. I believe ours was on Sunday 16 September, because that is the date I assigned to the file containing my remarks for the service.

They can be found here.

Labor Day

2011-09-07T01:07:00.000+02:00

I had a funny thing happen atYesterday's Labor Day family pool party. I got in the pool andclimbed on an air mattress to relax. The mattress was a littleslipperier than normal and it took me a little while and someconcentration to get on and situated. I had my ear bud in so I couldlisten to music. I had a previously opened bottle of soda that I hadput in the freezer to cool down and forgotten about. It had frozensolid and was now partially re-thawed. I'm not sure but, I guessfreezing soda does something to the carbonation because when I triedto open the drink, the gas in it wanted to expand a lot and wouldn'tstop. I tried a couple of abortive attempts to open the bottle andlet the steam off slowly, then I just pulled off the top and let itdo its thing. After all I was in a pool. It wasn't overflowing a lot.But, I still didn't want to make a mess and lose half of the drink.In all of this I guess I was moving around a little too much for myprecarious purchase on the mattress and I slipped off. I went all theway under the water. But, I managed to save the drink, holding it dryand aloft triumphantly with one hand. I was concerned about myearphone which had now gone through a complete, albeit very brief,submersion. I quickly turned it off and shook as much water off/outof it as I could and left it just for a short while. Within a halfhour I checked it and turned it on and it was still working. For awhile the volume control seemed to be ineffective. But, it works justfine now. Dodged a little bullet on that one.

San Clemente 2011

2011-09-03T00:47:00.007+02:00

We had a very lovely time for our annual trip to San Clemente in August again this year. We encountered very little traffic on the way down and the way back (thank goodness, we must have hit Las Vegas at the right times.) Driving the old Explorer with its old driver's seat for long distances is starting to get to my back. We stopped at grandma and grandpa's both coming and going and we always enjoy our stays with them. I didn't concern myself with any bike rides in Saint George this time.

We went to the beach as soon as we could after we arrived on Saturday afternoon and it was glorious. The whole two weeks we were there the water temperature fluctuated between 64 and 68 degrees. This is at the low end to the almost comfortable part of the spectrum for me. The weather was a little more iffy than normal. We had 2-3 days where the sun really didn't come out. I've found now that I rather prefer the days were there is a little cloud cover so the sun isn't simply blazing forth all the time.

The surf was probably more “up” than normal. And, there is a story or two to go with that. I was having fun with the body surfing (since I didn't do any last year, and I didn't bother to get the surfboards this year from Ed and Sean, just didn't have the gumption.) On the second Tuesday (16 Aug), the surf report was 4-6 feet and started with yellow flag conditions. I like the waves to be biggish. I have surfed and body surfed even in 10-15 foot waves. But, I am getting old

Anyway, I was out and the bigger waves were only coming one at a time. I caught a couple and then missed a couple because I wasn't in position to catch them. A lifeguard came out to tell some people that we were in a rip. He asked me if I was okay. I said sure. In the past they have left me alone because I was using fins. A couple minutes later I caught a big one and got a little pounded in exiting the wave. Years ago I developed the habit (perhaps bad) of exhaling through my nose when under water while body surfing to keep from getting water in my nose. (Maybe I should use a nose plug instead.) This may be fine on smallish waves. But in bigger surf sometimes you really need to hold your breath.

I came up from my wave sputtering a little. Right on its heels were 5-6 more huge ones. I was stuck in the impact zone, and drifting nearer to the pier. (The lifeguards don't like you to get too close to the pier. There is almost always a current that pulls swimmers north into the pier. This current is stronger when the waves are bigger. When I am waiting for waves and treading water, I am almost always swimming south just to stay in roughly the same spot.) I was getting worked by the pounding waves and breathing hard. At the lifeguard station on the pier they sounded a sort of siren/klaxson and I wondered if they were trying to warn me or everyone about the newly dangerous conditions. At this point I might not have minded a little assistance from the staff, preferring, of course, the girl lifeguard. The set of waves finally passed and I soon made my way in. Right after that they changed the flag warning to “RED, dangerous for all swimmers.” I really didn't do anymore body surfing after that, I think. Partly, because I tweaked my back again the next morning. But, overall I had a lot of fun and still can do well. I just don't have the stamina I used to.

The same day Alex wanted to go to the Wedge because of an exciting surf report from there. He and Britty and Ailsa went. I thoroughly coached Ailsa on how dangerous it could be and to stay out of the way of the serious surfers. Of course they all had to go in the water and Ailsa came back gushing about how fun and wild it was.

Still on that same Tuesday, the weather had finally been fairly sunny all day and we languished late on the beach. Around 4pm Lenore and I started a walk toward the south and the kids decided to join us. We just went at a leisurely pace. We thought we MIGHT walk down to the old Western White House, which I have never done yet. But, we went at such a relaxed pace that we were only probably at the most 2/3rds of the way there when we needed to turn back. Still, it was a wonderful walk together with the family. We searched for shells and rocks and skipped stones in the water. (I threw out my shoulder doing so. But, that's not hard to do.) The sun shone down. The water was nice. The beach, once we got past T-street, was almost deserted. It was pretty much an idyllic adventure as sort of the capstone for this year's vacation.

With the aging of the grandkids, we are at a point now where just about everyone is mature enough to get along well. The kids did lots of things together and often took walks in the evening down to the beach or into town. One evening while strolling the pier the kids saw that someone had reeled in a small sand shark and left it to die on the pier. So Ailsa picked it up by the tail and threw it back in. I think Karma should guarantee her never to be bothered by any sea creatures for the rest of her life.

The pattern for many years has been to rent one apartment for the first week and then two for the second week. Our numbers have grown over the years and we are sometimes packed in cheek to jowl. While we sometimes do have fewer people at the start, they trickle in during the first week and by the end of that week our facilities are stressed. I hope in the future as we continue this tradition, we can convince people that one apartment is not enough for the first week and that it would be okay to take on some of the rental cost so that Poppa doesn't have to bear it all.

Poppa brought some Shirley Temple DVDs to watch in the evenings. I have often thought that the kids should watch these. However, the kids weren't that enthusiastic. I think they watched one or two of them and in reality they really didn't want to hang out with the adults at night. But, we introduced the clan to Doc Martin (quirky British sitcom) on Netflix and the adults were soon hooked. I think we got through two seasons or more while we were there.

Once again I took the tandem bicycle and my own road bike. It's gotten to where the kids (especially Ameer) won't let me go on rides by myself. I got in 8 rides and 6 were on the tandem. Ameer went on 3 of those. I also rode with Shazia, Jensen, and Sajid. Last year we started a thing where at some point on the ride we would sprint to see how fast we could go. Last year it was at the “landing strip” on the marine base. This year we started doing it on the downhill going northbound right near where you can see Lower Trestles. Ameer and I got up to 37.9 the first try. Every other try after that fell short. Ameer finally is starting to understand how consistently you have to exert yourself on a serious bike ride. He started to pay attention to our average speed and contribute more and more. On our last ride we averaged 17.97 mph, which isn't fantastic but respectable for an old guy and a kid who really doesn't know what he got himself into yet.

The girls took some shopping trips into town and we also went down to the Spectrum one day. They had spied a beautiful cat in an antique store up on Del Mar and I decided on the last morning I had to go visit her and get a picture.

I've been trying for a while to get together with Laura Bounds and her family at Old Man's. On the last Friday, while we terribly wanted to stay with the family and spend our last afternoon and evening playing with Laney in the waves and repeat our walk down the beach, Ailsa, Jensen, and I loaded up the car and went to San Onofre. I took the 8 foot foam board and tried to surf on it a little. Last year with Sean's I had a lot of fun. This board is at the bottom spectrum of what I can knee paddle on. I am out of shape for too much belly paddling. So, I mainly paddled out a ways and turned around and caught one wave in. We all tried Laura's SUP board and had a lot of fun. It's a little different than I expected. I didn't have much trouble paddling around. But, when it came to trying to catch a wave, I couldn't see what was going on at all. I wanted it to be like a Venetian gondola where the bottom of the boats are shaped so that the gondoliers can paddle all the time on one side. I only caught one wave after knee paddling into it. I also tried out Larry's long board. It was somewhere in the 11 foot range, which is longer than what I usually use. Again I mainly paddled out, turned around and caught one wave in. It was simply too much work for my out of shapeness.

We had a wonderful at San Clemente for two weeks. We still love the beach and hope that Heaven has something like it:)

Ward Campout

2011-06-27T19:38:00.003+02:00

Here.

We had the ward campout last weekend. Laney loves to go to this. Last year it was canceled (because of rain, if I remember correctly.) So, we had to go this year no matter what. There wasn't a huge crowd attending and it was mostly leadership/people in charge. But, a fun time was had by all. It is kinda neat to fall asleep under a mostly full view of the sky in our tent with the meshy walls.

Some Screen Captures From Italy Trip Video We Forgot About (We forgot about the video, not the trip.)

2011-06-18T06:52:00.001+02:00

Ci Vediamo a Roma

2011-06-15T00:09:00.001+02:00

This last weekend was the triennial JRHIMM reunion. Michelle bravely headed this up. Jay and I did our best to keep her from giving us the whole thing. I think she was fairly stressed about it. Anyway, it came off great with only one small survivable hitch.

Shortly after I arrived at the Friendship Park Pavilion to start setting up, members of the Hillside ward Elders Quorum also showed up. We were double booked. We decided to work together and we just (mostly) kept to one side and they the other. (We did have some people without knowing help themselves to their food, yikes!)

The weather was nice, we had some of our regulars show and a good mix of faces we haven't seen in a while, or ever. There was quite a bit of wind for an hour or so. But, overall it worked out fine. Ailsa went home briefly to gather up some books she had borrowed from Blake Ostler before her mission to give back to him. Also, Steve Young went to our house at one point to watch the end of a Stanley Cup game.

Saturday morning we went to the Draper Temple to have a session in Italian, officiated by our own Mark Scoville. This was a very nice thing. Susan Ashby had provided some Italian Family file names for us to do. At one point Ailsa sat for a little while next to sister Jeanne Fillerup. They figured out that Jeanne's son had been in Ailsa's district in Houston.

Afterward we chatted and took some pictures outside the temple. From our vantage point you could see the other three temples in the valley. The Temple itself is gorgeous. It has a Celestial room that is 4 storeys high with an amazing chandelier. They do a very good job of keeping patrons reverent there also. Only problem was with the layout it wasn't clear how you accessed the Celestial room. Lenore, Ailsa and I all tried to go the wrong way. Hmmmm, I think there is an analogy there somewhere. The temple setting and grounds are very nice too. Just up the hill from the parking lot, though are a handful of 8000 square foot McMansions that are nice looking but quite ostentatious.

Lenore and I got acquainted with Ron Hilton who it turns out is the son of Darrell's friend, George Hilton.

The Saturday evening dinner we held at Spaghetti Mama's in Jordan Commons. This was also very nice. Just a tad pricey. But, you have to remember, in this case you are not just paying for the meal. You are also paying for the use of the room all evening. (What really could have been possibly 3 meals for the restaurant.

Really, everything came off without a hitch. They made me MC. But, that was okay. President and Sister Dunaway gave very interesting and stirring talks. There are 7 stakes now in Italy. (Once they got the temple announcement I stopped paying attention. Baptisms have been on the rise. They now have lots of multigenerational families there. He also brought along TOP SECRET/Nulla Osta Segretezza pictures/renderings of the inside of the Rome Temple. The food was actually better than I had remembered, right on par with Buca.

Steve had wanted to see the movie Super 8 afterward. But, we went quite long and didn't get out of there until about 10pm. Have to do the movie next week.

June Gloom

2011-06-12T19:22:00.001+02:00

I've only run the sprinklers twice so far this year. When I started my bike ride Friday morning the temperature was 44 degrees. We've only had our air conditioning on for a week now.

HOPE It's Just to Gain the Moderate Ground - Don't Expect Him to CHANGE His Tune

2011-06-10T00:02:00.001+02:00

While I still like Mitt Romney and support him as a candidate (I think he has the best chance of winning the election and the best chance of being able to turn this country around), I think he is wrong on the Climate Change thing.

Yes, yes, ridicule me all you want. I am a denier. Well, kinda. I don't deny that our climate fluctuates. Temperatures rise and fall. Even if there is a small rise in temperature over the last couple of decades (and I contest that claim for reasons I will state later) it likely has only an infinitesimally small chance of having to do with man's activity.

Years ago the bugaboo was the Ozone layer. You see we kept making holes in it. When that campaign failed to generate the concern and change that liberals wanted to see in the world the topic was dropped and Global Warming, now Climate Change have taken its place.

The two biggest sources of heat for our world are the Sun and the molten interior of the Earth. To think that a fractional increase in a naturally occurring element of our atmosphere can have more influence on the temperature of the Earth than the enormous ball of gas that is burning at more than a million degrees (at its core) (and is close enough that it influences everything else about our world) and the spinning molten/solid/radioactive core of the planet that reaches almost 10,000 Fahrenheit is like blaming the excess heat in your home on the match you just lighted rather than the furnace burning in your basement or the stove that is heating up your dinner.

Now, about the "science." Scientific inquiry should be motivated by one thing alone: The search for truth. Unfortunately, it is not always motivated by that. Sometimes it follows political or social trends. There is evidence that the stations and instruments used to record weather data are increasingly and incorrectly influenced by their locations near heat sources or "urban heat islands." There is also evidence that researchers have also cooked their data to achieve an aim.

Cool Memorial Day

2011-06-08T01:13:00.002+02:00

Although Memorial Day was not a stellar day as far as the weather goes, (since it is the defacto beginning of Summer, I should be a nice, sunny, warm day) I did have some fun interesting thing going on. I was invited to a “man date/breakfast” with several other men from our ward. We went to the Midvale Mining Company and had hearty breakfasts. It was quite enjoyable and a fun thing to do. I don't think I've ever had a man date before.

I thought maybe I had successfully dodged going the the Salt Lake City Cemetery this year. But, We had some time before the afternoon festivities were to begin as Leslie's and Lenore suggested we should go.

We usually have a hard time finding the Lane family markers. We finally did again this year. They are located only slight north and slightly east of the Smith family plots.

The big thing this year was that Christopher Nemelka (not dead yet, NOT a Smith) has erected a marker with his name on it (and also Hyrum Smith's and the url for his website, (Mr. Nemelka's, not Hyrum's)) on a plot right next to Lenore's grandparents. Lenore said we should be charitable in our remarks about him because Muh would just say, “that poor, poor man.”
As we were leaving and making our way back toward the Smith plots we saw Gloria Irion and Elder Nelson and others of their family nearby visiting some graves of their own loved ones.

2011-06-05T03:14:00.003+02:00

Dan's Project

2011-06-03T19:00:00.002+02:00

“Uncle Dan,” Lenore's brother, has a cute little 425 square foot home in South Salt Lake on a nicely wooded lot. He bought this property in 1996 for about $63,000. He had to do a lot to fix the home. But, he did a very nice job.

I guess he had grown tired and bored and maybe cramped in his little space. He does have a lot of stuff.

He started house hunting maybe a year ago or more. Well, he recently bought another house and last Saturday we went to help him clean it up so he can move in.

I say “we.” Lenore did the lion's share of the work. I mostly walked around with mouth agape. It was so overwhelming for me I couldn't stay long. I washed a few windows and stuff. But, then I left.

Every square inch of the place SCREAMS “tear me down!” Nothing to code. Nothing finished. No window or door that was square or operated correctly. No baseboards. No casements. Lots of kludged repairs and additions. I had to channel the late Norrick Long and say, “it's a piece of crap.” He's basically spent $115 cash for a quarter acre lot in South Salt Lake.

However, Lenore likes the house. It reminds her of Marin. So, we have now wagered a dinner of choice for the person who in 10 years doesn't eat their words on this house. Sorry Dan. I came home with a greater appreciation for the state of our home.

Adjustment Bureau

2011-05-22T10:01:00.002+02:00

What an interesting movie! I'm not sure I would say GREAT. But, certainly worth watching just for the shear uniqueness of the story. Good chemistry between Damon and Blunt. She does a great job of emoting just with her face. We had the choice of seeing Arthur with Russell Brand or this one. I think we chose correctly. May have to see it again just to check its staying power.

Great Saturday

2011-05-22T09:59:00.004+02:00

Finally, a nice, sunny, beautiful, epic day. This means Spring has broken and Summer is almost here. What a great day for the Rapture. The only thing that didn't go perfect was my bike ride. Really, I think the Adjustment Bureau was trying to make sure I didn't stay too long and miss something at home. Maybe the powers that be felt I shouldn't be enjoying myself too much and too long while Lenore and the kids were working in the yard. I had some persistent mechanical problems (of my own making) and one flat. Still it felt good and I just had to give into fate and cut the ride short.

Yes, I was recreating while the family was slaving away. But, I live for riding and this was pretty much the first day all week where the weather cooperated. The family understands. And it's not like I don't do things around the house and put my back into it when I get home.

There were lots of bugs in the air at the Legacy Parkway. A couple of stretches were just thick with them. One or two made their way into my mouth. (Yes, when I ride I tend to be a mouth breather.) I was home around noon and worked in the yard amd then around three, Geri needed help with her air conditioners. Afterwards, I was cleaning up at home and noticed a gnat stuck between my two front teeth.

A couple of times a year we have to beat back the jungle. whoever told Brigham Young that nothing would grow here? We tore out a bunch of vegetation that didn't make it through the winter. There were some hard freezes this year and it showed. We planted more potatoes right next to some volunteers left over from last year. More vegetable garden stuff next weekend, hopefully. A sprinkler repair that I thought was going to be somewhat involved was remedied way more easily with some luck and maybe a little help from the Adjustment Bureau.

I inspected the back fence that is falling down. I no longer think it is due to roots from the Box Elder tree. It appears it is just succumbing to the slope, slowly coming downhill after 20 years. Cheapo me, I'm probably going to try to brace it up using the strength and stability of a couple of trees. It might last for another few years.

The end of the daylight was one of those calm, still, comfortable evenings that I know are not unique to Utah. But it seemed like such a blessing and even a reward for making it through the Winter and the insanely wet Spring. This time of evening, this time of year. It evoked my habitual assessment of Utah: this is what we live here for. It's just so easy to forget from November through March. On a day and evening like this it is very common for me to feel a pervading and universal well being. You just know that millions of people are having the same kind of experience at the same time and it is reassuring and comforting.

Looking for the Summer

2011-04-30T00:37:00.000+02:00

I can be unusually singularly minded about some things. I have spent years of my life waiting for the next chance to go surfing, or play volleyball and lately to go cycling. I'm not manly enough to endure cycling through year-round Utah weather. This means that in the winter I might go 3-4 weeks without getting on the bike. I'm lucky to just maintain a semblance of fitness. Also, It is easy for me go up in weight by 15-20 lbs during the inactive winter (not so shocking I'm a pretty tall guy.)

So each year around February March and April I start thinking often about trying to get out on the bike. I used to get up early in the morning to ride and granted, if I were doing that I would have gotten a FEW more rides in. For various sleep and health related reasons I don't see myself getting up early much until the weather gets REALLY nice.

This year has been horrendous. It's so disheartening to try to plan out what rides you are going to get in during the coming week when the forecast calls for yuckey cold, rainy, and snowy weather all week. As I was writing this it started to snow briefly. And typically the nicest weather all week will fall on Sunday, with the exception of Conference weekend.

On the bike I like to go fast and I won't go that fast until I lose a little weight and that won't happen until I can get at least 3-4 rides in per week.

Fun with Place Names

2011-04-29T18:39:00.000+02:00

We were just having fun with Oconomowoc, WI. There was only one vowel available when they named that place. Or, a trapper comes out of the woods on an extremely cold day. They ask him where he came from and he' only able to mumble Cnmwc. That's the Arabic spelling.

How I find my music

2011-04-22T18:03:00.001+02:00

I've gotten to a crotchety old age where I do not listen to music radio. The radio now is for talk, conservative talk.

But, being a singer and heavily drenched in popular culture, I have to have music in my life. I listen a lot in my free time. With my Borg bluetooth headphone in one ear, people probably think I think I'm some high powered mover and shaker (I really do more ducking and bobbing, dodging and weaving than shaking and moving.) But, the headphone is just so I can listen to music and it is mostly when I ride my bike. (I do also listen to other audio, scriptures, conference talks, devotional talks et al.)

So how do I find new music to bring into my rotation? A lot I get from soundtracks. I have been fascinated with them for 30+ years. I could make a case for their being our current "classical" music. The operas written since Puccini's death are mostly tripe.

My young adult kids do expose me to some music that I adopt. But, I bring music to them as well.

A couple of months ago I watched online a Filmology 2010 compilation video. The background music was quite fun. So, I looked up the content and purchased most of the songs. One that has really stuck with me is called "Little Baby Pines" by the Sunbears! on the Dream Happy Dreams Album. Now, don't those titles just make you feel good! Little baby pines has really stuck with me and the kids love it. You should check it out.

I once wrote that music embeds and invokes memories on a level with the sense of smell, because it attaches to our psyche in many places. It is not unlike the scriptures of Isaiah. There is substance and meaning and appeal on several levels.

What a blessing we have in Music.

Recital

2011-04-17T18:55:00.002+02:00

Yesterday Shazia and Ameer had a recital at Gram's house. They both did admirably (he on violin and she on voice.) Shazia packs more volume per pound than anyone in the world and she has great resonance. As she trains and improves her technique will get even better. Ameer was nearly perfect with his fingering and is able to draw a very nice sound out of his instrument. Its funny that most of the music that gets performed at recitals is "showy." It's a little like, "look l can sing this note." Or "I can do this run or this melismatic passage really well."
There were at least two numbers meant to show as well as entertain a more plebian audience like me: "I remember snow" (Sondheim) and "I dreamed a dream" (from Les Mis).

Very well done kids.

Marathon Bike Tour 2011

2011-04-16T17:52:00.004+02:00

I did the Marathon Bike Tour again on Saturday. This was the third time for me. It went okay. But, it could have been better.

I went for a ride the evening before and in retrospect, that probably hurt me. I tried not to push hard and I kept my heart rate down. But, I think It made a big difference.

Saturday morning I just didn't have the legs. I was a mile slower than my two previous times at this. I did a lot of riding by myself. A couple of groups came along that I managed to hook up with and hang with for a while. But, I couldn't stay with them longer than a mile or two.

AG Laney

2011-04-15T17:52:00.001+02:00

Laney recently participated in the local JA City affair (Junior Achievement City) something like Boys Town I figure. There were kids from a couple of grade schools participating. She was busy with anticipation during the run-up. She set her sights on different roles she could play and tried to keep her expectations low in case her role didn't rise to the level of prestige that she wanted. She went to the interview fully prepared. She was asked if she could do the job of a bank teller. She responded, “why, yes! I can say, Sir there are insufficient funds to cover this check.” As it turned out she got the prestigious role of Attorney General. and had a great time during the activity. Ailsa also went and helped chaperone the kids.

Good Article Having to do With Agency

2011-03-21T18:10:00.000+01:00

Especially this part:

LDS scholar Terryl Givens explains: “(T)here are appealing arguments for God as a childish projection, for modern prophets as scheming or deluded imposters, and for modern scriptures as so much fabulous fiction. But there is also compelling evidence that a glorious divinity presides over the cosmos, that God calls and anoints prophets, and that his word and will are made manifest through a sacred canon that is never definitively closed.”
... If humans had incontrovertible secular evidence for the existence of God, they would be unable to freely choose whether or not to accept God.
... “that there must be grounds for doubt as well as belief in order to render the choice more truly a choice. ...
“The option to believe must appear on our personal horizon like the fruit of paradise, perched precariously between sets of demands held in dynamic tension. One is, it would seem, always provided with sufficient materials out of which to fashion a life of credible conviction or dismissive denial. We are acted upon, in other words, by appeals to our personal values, our yearnings, our fears, our appetites and our egos. What we choose to embrace, to be responsive to, is the purest reflection of who we are and what we love. That is why faith, the choice to believe, is, in the final analysis, an action that is positively laden with moral significance.”

Jensen's Version of "Hey Diddle Diddle." (Laney and Cissy as models)

2011-03-06T03:37:00.004+01:00

The little dog laughed to see such craft...

Health Care

2011-02-18T21:23:00.000+01:00

With the way things are going, we won't have to worry about defeating or de-funding the Health Care law. By the time it comes to fully implement it, everyone will be waivered out. Seven hundred plus companies and four states have gotten waivers! That's appalling. If it was so good, how come no one wants to be subject to it? and how come the Government is letting people get out of it?

Early Jensen Painting (Ailsa as Model)

2011-01-29T23:53:00.002+01:00

Slip Sliding Part Two

2011-01-22T00:07:00.001+01:00

A couple of weeks ago there was a fairly good snowstorm. We were sent home from work a little early. We got a dvd from Redbox and went to Little Caesar's for pizza. Lane and I took the Blue Explorer. The rear tires are not that good. But, I checked it out a while ago before Jensen took it back to school and it seemed fine. We drove to the pizza place with some snow falling and some on the road and in the parking lots and the temperature dropping. I parked right in front of the store on a SLIGHT incline. We were at the register paying for our order when a lady said, “Is that somebody's Explorer out there?” I turned and saw the car sliding out of its parking space. The front wheels were turning. But, the back wheels (bearing more weight because of the SLIGHT slope) were locked with the transmission in park. The tread on the rear tires wasn't enough to hold it in the parking space. I went out of the store and re-parked it on the flat. Later that night after we watched the movie we went out to the car in the driveway and it had slid about 5 feet again. We are trying to make these tires last until next winter. Reminds me of: “My old man's spare tires were actually only tires in the academic sense. They were round, they had once been made of rubber.” -- from a Christmas Story

Thought for the Day

2011-01-21T23:36:00.002+01:00

As government involvement in our lives increases, it is only natural that society's “political discourse” would grow in volume. One pretty sure fact is a lot of folks don't like other people messing with them. The more you do that affects me, the more I have opportunity to be dissatisfied with what you do and the more inclined I might be to complain about it.

Ophiuchus

2011-01-15T19:49:00.000+01:00

They are going to have to rewrite "Hair."

Harmony and understanding
Sympathy and trust abounding
No more falsehoods or derisions
Golden living dreams of visions
Mystic crystal revelation
And the mind's true liberation

Capricorn!

Just doesn't work.

Waiting for a Climate Change

2011-01-14T18:57:00.000+01:00

Last Sunday I took a nap after Church. We are on the 9-12 noon block now. So, we have long stretches of time in the afternoon. I lay down on the bed and started to settle in. I noticed it was somewhat chilly. So, I opened the shutters and let the sun shine in on the bed. I only slept for 30 minutes or so. But, It was as if I was lying on the beach.

It has been so cold and each passing year I have less tolerance for it. This coming Holiday on Monday (MLK), I am half tempted to get in the car and drive somewhere warm, even if only to sit for a couple of hours.

Christmas 2010

2010-12-19T00:44:00.002+01:00

We really love getting all of your Christmas greetings. I am sorry that we are not as consistent with sending you ours. Our two biggest news items this year are: Ailsa’s return from a successful mission; and Todd’s release from the calling of Bishop.

It is fitting that Ailsa got to serve a mission to Spanish speaking people. After all she is our “Sister Salsa.” We were happy that she had to learn a language, but, were a little reluctant to just send her out to any old dangerous place in the world. Since her return she has filled us in on all the scary details that the youth of the Church gratefully do not send home in their weekly missionary letters. Now we know that Houston, although not terribly remote, is dangerous enough. One of her areas (Greenspoint) was lovingly refered to as Gunspoint by the missionaries. But, the neighbors take the sisters under their wing and protect the “church ladies.”

Ailsa picked up some good cooking skills and recipes from her friends in Texas. She can now make a pretty hot homemade Salsa (too hot for me!) This fall we had an abundance of tomatoes to process into Marinara sauce (a recipe from Todd's mission in Italy) and also Salsa (from Ailsa’s mission.) One day Todd came home from work, tore off a huge chunk of Italian bread, dipped it in the sauce and stuffed it in his mouth. Yes, he had mistaken the hot salsa for Italian sugo. And, no he won’t make that mistake again.

Last March after 387 years serving in the local Bishopric, Todd was released as Bishop. Not only was there an audible relief from our household, but from the whole ward as well. Truthfully, it was a pleasure and an honor to serve the Church in this fashion. Todd had a nice six week sabbatical from work last winter. But, he ended up with pneumonia at the same time. So mostly, he just stayed around the house, put a new tile floor in the master bath and cleaned the carpets, among other things.

Lenore has been teaching at the Prosperity Learning Center for the last year and half. She loves this job, and we feel it is right down her alley. We have noticed a marked decrease in her pontificating at home since taking on this role.

Jensen is at BYU and really enjoying herself. Unfortunately, at this point, she has plenty of credits. But, we really don’t know for sure what she will graduate in. She really has become a bright spot of sunshine in the home. She is lots of fun. We try often to remind her and Ailsa that to graduate to the next stage in life (the Mrs. Degree) they will need to develop relationships with boys that extend beyond the “parallel playing” stage.

Laney is fast becoming too big for her breeches. Last Christmas she asked the Santa at our ward Christmas party for, “harsher punishment for parole violators, Stan.... And, world peace.” (See Miss Congeniality) She is a great student and regularly gets all “A’s” on her report cards.

We now officially have a clowder of cats in our household: Tom, Diggy, Bella (usually called Beller, pronounced with the British intrusive “r”), and Cissy. We have had to register as a shelter with the local RSPCA and obtain special Health Department dispensation. None of us has the heart to deny a new kitten or a stray that may cross our paths. And they seem to do so often.

We wish all of you a very Merry Christmas and hope that you take time soon to contemplate the special gifts of our families and this beautiful world we live in. God is great and has blessed us all so richly.

The Lillywhites

TSAint

2010-12-14T21:48:00.001+01:00

The problem with our ever-worsening approach to “safe” air travel since 9/11 is, in an effort not to offend a small, but relatively easily traceable minority, we are offending everyone else. Don't spend precious traveler time and TSA resources looking for the tools and instruments that might be used in an attack, look instead for the people who would carry out the attack.

2010-12-12T18:39:00.000+01:00

River/Thanksgiving 2010

2010-12-04T01:08:00.016+01:00

My sister Kim and her husband Ed are so nice to open up their Colorado River home every once in a while to our family gatherings. It is lots of fun and a great chance for the cousins to associate. The family reunion feel from the movie “Dan in Real Life” is not far from what we experience, without anyone shouting “you.... are a murderer of love!” and singing “Ruthie, Pig face Draper.”

We had been looking forward to this latest trip for some time. Ailsa was now home from her mission, as was Lauren. Grandma's health isn't great. It was difficult for her to make the trip. But, it may soon become impossible.

I hadn't given much thought to possible weather problems for our trip. The weekend of 20-21 November had seen a snowstorm with pretty good accumulation. Then approaching “our” travel day of Tuesday 23 November (evidently, pretty much everyone else's too) the weather people started predicting a huge blizzard for northern Utah. I was supposed to leave work at 1pm go home and pack and Laney was getting out of school around 3pm. I was hoping to leave as soon as possible after that to avoid the storm. I kept looking at weather maps on line and it appeared that if we could get away by 3-4 at the latest we might be fine. It looked like the snow wouldn't go down south very far, or at least wouldn't do so until we were safely in Saint George. I figured if we could get to Holden without trouble, we would be fine.

Needless to say I was quite stressed getting home and packing and finishing up everything at home. I had to get a package together and take it to the Post Office. So we really didn't get away until 4pm. It is nearly impossible for me to pack ahead of time (the night before, or the morning of) at least I am never able to do it. Kim and Kristin called often wanting to know if we got away, and should Katie and Hannah try to drive it. Really, the only traffic we ran into was around Spanish Fork (ha ha I just wrote Fark, Freudian?) Kristin decided to leave and was probably minutes ahead of us on the road.

We stopped in Fillmore at the Burger King for dinner. Fillmore needs more choices. It was freezing and blowing really hard. But, no snow so far.

As it was, the “Blizzard of the Century” never really materialized and there was much hype for nothing. There was some precip. But, not nearly as much as the prior weekend. However, In defense of all those weather people. It was concerning because if there had been much more snowfall, it would have been a huge mess. The difference was the high winds. It would have been a nightmare on I15 south with all of the Holiday travelers.

We rolled into Saint George around 9pm. Kristin had decided to go on. They arrived in Saint George around 8 pm and weren't tired, so they drove straight through to Parker. We had our usual fun visiting with Grandma and Grandpa. In the morning it took us a little while to get up and going. I think we didn't leave until 10am. We had arranged to swap cars with the puggas and fold our seats down in the Explorer for Grandma to lie down on. We hoped that would not hurt her back too much. We were supposed to stop every hour or so for her to get up and walk around.

Grandpa really likes the In-n-Out Burgers, so we stopped in Henderson (both ways) to eat there. My dad is a fine driver. But, sometimes when I am following him I wonder if he has recently finished a refresher course at Bob Bondurant's school of evasive driving. JK, I'm just a little too non-aggressive in the caravan mode and often let people in between us right before crucial course changes.

At the In-n-Out, grandma saved us some seats and we were right next to two different families who struck up conversations with us. The one lady told Lenore she looked like Anne Hathaway. She's been told Marie Osmond and Teri Hatcher, and one other (who escapes me right now) in the past. But, not Ms. Hathaway. Anyway we got to talking to this family and it turned out the lady was Jeff Barton's sister. And then the other lady was a nurse who used to work with Jeff. Small LDS world. Jeff's sister texted him right then to let him know who she was eating lunch with.

We religiously avoided purchasing much gas in Needles or Vidal Junction. It was about $4.00/gallon. My dad put in 10 gallons in Needles. He thought we had started with a full tank and then after he realized that we hadn't, didn't think we could make it all the way to Parker.

We arrived in Big River around 3pm. Just enough time to settle in and buy what we needed for the Thanksgiving meal at the Safeway. The weather was lots warmer. The whole time we were there it was in the low 60's and was supposed to be a little cloudy. But, was largely just sunny.

Thanksgiving day I went for a ride in the morning. Nothing major, less than 30 miles. The weather map said there would be some wind. And it was bad in Parker. The ride wasn't too bad though. For about the first five miles after I turned around, I literally was leaning into the wind. But then it let up and the ride was mostly very comfortable.

When I got back from the ride, Jensen and I went shooting with grandpa. Ed and the others had already left to get set up. We had about 7 or 8 of us there. Nice thing, there was no lack for guns, so no waiting around to shoot. This wasn't a long range area so we had our spinner target set up only about 40 yards away. Jensen hit it with her rifle and almost put a hole right through it. So we retired it to use later at a greater distance.

When I returned, Laney was waiting for me to go canoeing. The water was quite low and there was an island exposed that she wanted to explore. We rowed out there and claimed it “Calizona” for God and our country. We picked up a number of the clam shells that littered. I did a little SUP on the way back. But, it spooked Laney and the craft wasn't too stable. It's a good thing Lenore was waiting for us at the dock because being daft AND blind I was looking further down river for it. And besides we needed someone to chew us out for not wearing life vests. (I doubt the water was deeper than four feet.) It was very beautiful.

Thanksgiving meal was very nice. All of the usual food. Two roasted turkeys. Ed decided not to do the deep fry thing, for which I am glad. There was lots of yummy pecan pie and chocolate pecan pie too. the evening was just relaxing.

Friday Stuart and I went for a bike ride together. Well, sort of. He is stronger and fresher than I am/was, and went off the front. At times he was a good kilometer ahead of me. But, he did work me and it felt good.

Friday afternoon we went to see the new Harry Potter movie. It was OK.

By Saturday morning about half of the family had gone. Ed got us up early to drive in the desert out to his long range shooting area. We spent a couple of hours there. The Explorer is great in 4wheel drive. We did a lot of shooting at 110 yards. Jensen's rifle is fun. I like it a lot. Once you get the sighting figured out, it wasn't too difficult to hit a 6inch target at that distance. Meanwhile, Ed was shooting a 7mm bolt action at targets up to 900 yards.

Right when we returned back at the house, Stuart was leaving on a bike ride. He offered to wait for me. I told him to go on ahead. I went out on route 62, the road that follows the river on the west side going north. I have ridden this route at least two times before. Note to self: this route is no longer safe for cycling, if it ever was. There were a couple of times where because of the condition of the road and the traffic, if I made one false move, I was toast.

Stuart took the same route all the way to the dam and came back on the east side. He was gone a long time and then started to fall ill. He called his family to come rescue him with about 2 miles to go. Pushed too hard, started to feel dizzy.

We bundled up the car and started our trek home arriving in Saint George about 8pm. We had intended to stay the night there and go to the puggas ward and then home in the afternoon. But, as we entered the city Lenore noticed a travel advisory road sign about an approaching winter storm. It was hard to decide what to do, knowing how accurate the previous storm had been predicted. But, we looked online and it was supposed to be steady snow starting in the night and continuing through the day on Sunday. While it didn't seem dangerous, it did appear that driving would be annoying in those conditions. So , even though no one wanted to. We loaded in our car and headed back to Murray, making it home at a little after 1am.

Having returned home “early” from our vacation, we decided to extend it through Sunday by going to Leslie's ward for SS and Sacrament meeting and we had a lovely farmer breakfast in the morning.

All in all it was a wonderful time. The weather was gorgeous. Made it very difficult to traipse back to Salt Lake. The cousins all got along wonderfully, no drama, no fuss. It really is a joy to see that they like each other.

Drowsy driving: Twice at least while driving, both on the way there and on the way back, I nearly lost it. It's getting so I can close my eyes for the briefest scintilla of a second and when I open them up again, it feels like I was almost out. It is very scary. Both times it wasn't late at night, only about 6-7 in the evening. I remember this happening only once when I was young, driving back late at night from the Capistrano area. Need to come up with a solution. May have to go back to eating sunflower seeds while I drive.

Stake Play - A Tale of Two Brothers

2010-11-23T20:23:00.006+01:00

While growing up, it seems our Stake often put on a play. It wasn't a yearly event. But probably at least every three years. I was in one at about the age of 10 or 11. I played the Stuart in “All in Favor.” Stuart dies in the play.

There were others as well. While I was on my mission they did Oliver and later Fiddler on the Roof. My dad was directly involved with both.

Our Stake here in Murray hasn't done anything since time immemorial in this field. I had grown to think it was just as well. Having been involved in ward leadership for a looooong time. I was more geared toward spiritual rather than social activities. Well, you can have a social activity that serves a spiritual purpose.

Early in the year I learned that the Stake was planning on doing a play, and it would be original. I figured I would just try to avoid it. To tell the truth, I figured it would probably be amateurish and provincial. When I was called as the Stake Music person the Stake Presidency implied that I might be involved in some way with this production because of my calling. Then, at the funeral of June Pope early in September, we ran into one of the writers/organizers of the play at the Stake Center. She informed me that I was being conscripted into the production. I figured I could go along with benign reluctance.

We had about 6 weeks of rehearsals and it got pretty busy and intense near the end. I didn't have a huge part. But, after awhile I realized is was kinda important for two reasons. I played the Bishop and early on at the Sacrament meeting he explains the schedule for he rest of the week which lets the audience know what is going to be happening and gives them a framework. Then in my next scene, I have a line that is meant to prick the spiritual conscience of one of the main protagonists and also the audience.

It was a story patterned after Shakespeare, where a family get split apart by tragedy and then comes to find one another again. Yes, there are intentional spiritual analogies and some very contrived devices to split them apart and keep them apart until the punch line. But, Shakespeare did that a lot too.

We had two performances, on a Friday and then Saturday. President Daw wasn't able to be there the first night, He was out of town. But, after the Saturday performance, he was so impressed that he scheduled another performance two weeks later. The script and story were very well done. The people who played the main parts were very talented, especially Mark Brousseau who played the father. Teal Buchi was coerced into playing one of the identical twin brothers, and he came through wonderfully, really responded to the challenge. The Hillcrest ward contributed a lot of talented people as well: Kevin Westenskow (a real movie star, who did a wonderful job as Mayor Snore,) Brooklyn Brewer, who was born for the stage, Jenny Simmons ditto, Jackie Westenskow on par with her husband. There were others as well.

I played the Bishop and I had some funny bits. But, I felt I had to be real careful about turning it into the “Bishop in the dunking booth.” The Sacrament meeting scene could have gone overboard. We wanted to poke a little bit of fun at ourselves and our leaders. We had to reign in some ideas. I was a little bit afraid of a solo dance scene I had to do, that it might border on detracting from the office of a Bishop. But, I think it turned out okay.

In the end it was a lot of work. But, I was really re-converted to the idea that these types of activities do have their role in the Church. It really serves to unify the Stake, not just the players. The youth responded wonderfully and will draw upon the strength of the friendship bonds they formed for years to come.

Wreck 2010

2010-10-15T00:23:00.004+02:00

Because I am a weight weenie and I am emulating one of the set ups that Lance used on a bike in the TDF, I use a downtube shifter for my front chainring. I also don't shift the front chainring very much (hardly at all) so it seems a little silly to devote the weight and sophistication of a fancy Campy Ultra shifter to its use. I have noticed sometimes the chain will drop to the smaller chainring on its own. I think what happens is on occasion when I take a drink from the water bottle, I will slightly nudge the shifter and over time it is in a position to shift on its own.

Saturday I went for a ride and this is what I remember and have pieced together from the evidence: As I approached Winchester on Ninth East the light was red and then turned green before I had to stop. I charged away from the light pedaling out of the saddle. The next thing I know, I am dreaming and wake up in the bike lane portion of the street in front of the Red Cross building. There were at least three people around me, and I suggested that we get out of the road. They told me I wasn't moving anywhere. I was in and out for a while. I remember EMT's in the ambulance asking me things. I was able to rattle off my SSN (not sure I should have done that.) But, I had trouble remembering what the date was. I finally figured it out.

They took me to IMC Emergency and set me up in a room. I called Jensen at home. She said mommy and Ailsa were on their way over to the hospital. Then they hauled me off to xray where they took a lot of pictures. By the end of that I was pretty consistently staying coherent and I was pretty sure nothing was broken, so I was a little anxious to get out of there. The concussion wasn't as bad as in 2002. They cleaned up my wounds, gave me some percocet after offering a couple of times. They put two little stitches in my eyebrow (Laney took them out last night) after I waived off the shot of lidocaine.

This was the shape of the bike: Chain was off. Handle bars and stem turned 90 degrees clockwise on the fork. Small patch of tread on the front tire peeling off. Small wobble in the front wheel coinciding with said patch of tread. Front of brake levers scratched up. Other than the head wounds as shown in the pictures. I separated my AC joint on the left shoulder and had a nasty scrape on the top and back of it. Also a bruise on my left elbow. Nothing much else. No hands scraped as if trying to catch myself.

This is what we have pieced together: as I was pedaling hard away from the intersection, my chain dropped off the crank. I had taken a drink right before I think. Anyway if the derailleur was slightly off and if I pushed hard I could torque the frame enough to bounce it off the chainrings. After that I came down on the handlebars and since the bike was rocking back and forth the front wheel went sideways (the tread peeling off the tire) and/or I grabbed a bunch of brake levers and the wheel went sideways. Regardless of the order, at that point I wasn't going to make much more forward progress and I went over the bars, landed on my head first, rolled onto my shoulder and the bike probably came down on top of me.

I could have easily hit my head hard enough (even with a helmet on) to kill myself. In which case, in retrospect I would have simply awakened on the other side, slapped myself on the forehead and said, “I must have done something stupid.” No pain, no anxious anticipation of the end.

The injuries settled in over time. Right now is 5 days after the fact and my shoulder hurts a lot. So, though nothing broken, I do feel like I got worked over by a couple of thugs.

Day One

Day Two

Day Three

Day Four

Letter of Thanks to the Editor @ Deseret News

Click Here.

San Clemente 2010

2010-09-08T00:30:00.005+02:00

Since we didn't get to go to San Clemente last year, we were really looking forward to going this last August, especially since Ailsa would be with us. We had taken a day or two at the end of our River vacation last year to visit with Wade and Kimberly in Orange County and we spent about 2 hours at San Clemente during that time. And then when Lenore and I were in Orange in January for Meredith's wedding we stopped by for less than an hour. These short stints may have only made us want our normal vacation even more.

Sometimes in Southern California it occurs that the weather in June is not that great for the beach. Sean told us that January was hotter this year than June was. And “June Gloom” this year carried all the way through July as well. We were lucky that the weather was probably about as good as ever during our two weeks this year. The big difference was that the water temperature was quite a bit lower than normal. All during our stay I don't think it got above 63-65. It can often be in the low 70's. However, I have to say the last couple of days when I went in the water. it was very refreshing.

My cycling didn't do that well last year, partly due to some health issues. I've done quite a bit better this year. I've tried a couple of times to accomplish a ride that will make it into my top 10 speed list. I have failed on about 4 tries. I have made a couple of 45 mile rides in the high 20.0's for speed. Which I feel pretty good about, considering how difficult it was for me to do the 60 mile 20MPH ride I did in 2006.

On our way to San Clemente we stopped in Saint George on Friday night to rest with my parents. On that same day, I think, I got the idea of getting up early Saturday morning and trying once again for a ride higher than 21.32 MPH on the River trail. I had trouble getting to sleep that night and probably only got about 3 hours sleep. Anyway, I had a good ride. But, missed the mark by .5 MPH. Despite all this, I really didn't have much trouble staying awake for the remaining 6+ hour drive to the beach. I say plus because it should have only been about 6 hours. We ran into traffic on the 5 and it was very frustrating.

The first couple of days in the apartment were VERY cramped with the number of people. It ended up that most everyone came at the beginning instead of the second week this year. We managed.

I think we only got in two maybe three different days of surfing. Between this and that, it didn't seem to easily fit in with our wants and schedule. Anyway, I did have fun at it. But, just barely. Sean has a foam board from Costco that he let us use that really was fairly nice. Good for people to learn on. There were shark sightings in the San Onofre area and several stingray stings in the T-street and Pier areas. So, some of the children were tentative about going in the water.

I had both my bike and the tandem there and managed to get in 7 rides in the first 8 days until I messed up my back carrying stuff and big surfboards around and on the beach.

One evening during the first week we saw a recumbent bicycle contraption parked across the street. He was pulling a trailer and had something like a bowery frame above the bike with lights on it. At first glance Lenore thought it was a UFO. The next day on our tandem bike ride with Ameer (must have been Friday, 13 August) We ran into this guy as we were returning, at the place where the trail meets the freeway (right here). He was stopped and looked like he needed help. He was asking about the trail. He had an accent that sounded German to me. So I offered to try to speak German. He said he was French and had come down from Canada. I asked if he spoke Quebecquois. He didn't seem to like that suggestion. So, I gave up and let him try to speak English. He gave me his card. Turns out he was from France, thus the repulsion at the Quebecqouis. He was in the middle of a trip from Canada to South America. His website is here. We exchanged some pleasantries and admired his bike and went on our way.

After the back incident I was laid up for about 2 days and was lucky to get back down to the beach and in the water. I didn't do any bodysurfing. It felt like my back might not like it.

We left Friday evening about 8:30pm to drive to Saint George, partly because of Ailsa's Homecoming on the Sunday after we returned. We felt it would be best to be able to spiff up the yard and make some other preparations. That worked out well. It took a lot of stress off. But, we ran into very frustrating traffic into Las Vegas at 2 in the morning. Between that and the pain meds and muscle relaxants, I was quite the zombie driver for the last hour into Saint George.

Recent Trip to Saint George

2010-07-18T06:17:00.001+02:00

Jensen's early birthday present.

Lenore's new do.

A very hot day on a hike to the Saint George Temple Quarry.

Youth Conference

2010-07-08T04:59:00.000+02:00

Lenore on the zip line.

Memorial Day 2010

2010-06-02T23:30:00.000+02:00

It ended up to be an okay weekend.

Friday night, Lenore and I went to see Bounty Hunter at the dollar theater. It was just okay. And it's a good thing we got there when we did we got the last two contiguous seats in the third row. The theater filled up. It really was amazing how much I did not laugh during this movie. We picked up Big Daddy's pizza on the way home.

I rode Saturday morning (under constant threat of worsening weather) for 40 miles. I only felt two raindrops. The weathermen seemed to think the weather was going to be worse. We did some work around the house and Lenore and I went out in the evening with Steve and Michelle Young. We went to see Iron Man 2 (which again was okay, not nearly the ride that the first one was) and then ate at the Five Guys hamburger place afterward. It was just slightly better than okay.

Monday morning I drove down to the Legacy parkway trail to do a 50 mile ride. There were quite a few people on the trail. I didn't have too much trouble with traffic except two yahoos came at me two abreast inside the long tunnel. I don't know what the one rider expected me to do. I yelled at them. I saw a guy on a very low riding handcycle that at first I thought I was going to be able to catch. He seemed to be a little bit more apt to maneuver through that traffic quickly than I was. Then at my first turn around I had a flat tire. So, I rode gingerly back to the Farmington Train station and sat down on a bench and fixed the tire. No more problems after that.

There were a couple of times where I had pretty good speed for extended periods because of favorable winds. But, I was expecting that wind again for the last 5 miles and it didn't materialize. I think the overall impact of the wind was negative. Still I managed to maintain slightly over 19mph and I felt pretty good doing it.

When I got home I did some more yard work with Jensen. Lenore had already spent a couple of hours in the yard. Then I helped Geri put in her window air conditioners. Then it was off to aunt Bless' for the "pool" party.

The whole day was cloudy with nice enough temperatures. We got a small window of sunshine while at the pool. Good thing because the water temperature was only about 58. I went in and Ameer and Laney..... on air matresses. I did get to enjoy the Sun a little. But, we need to get that water warmed up.

Places in my Mission

2010-04-30T04:23:00.001+02:00

Google maps and Street View are amazing.

First apartment in Torino.

First apartment in Genova. It's been extensively updated.

Second apartment in Genova.

Apartment in Milan.

Second apartment in Torino.

First apartment in Cremona.

Second apartment in Cremona.

Something to Say

2010-04-23T17:32:00.003+02:00

After reading the Articles of Confederation a week or two ago, one idea that comes to me is why are our Senators and Congressmen paid uniformly through a body of the Federal Government? Utah Senators and Congressmen should be paid by their state and their benefits set and regulated perhaps by their State Legislature. Same thing with the State Legislators. Perhaps it would be best if their pay and benefits were established by and paid out from their own districts. So each level's benefits were set by and came from the level it serves. This way they might feel somewhat more beholden to their constituents and somewhat less to the Federal. It almost seems like a conflict of the idea of Balance of Power to have them set their own pay and be paid by a central (federal?) body.

Diktat

2010-04-21T17:22:00.000+02:00

I don't like it when Lenore tries to limit my sodium intake. Why should I like it when the FDA steps into her place. Now, if the Government had some sort of interest in my health..... Oh Wait!

2010-04-05T03:59:00.000+02:00

Creamy Boy

2010-04-03T21:52:00.000+02:00

Drawing of Great Grandmother Olga Lindgren Wade by Grandfather Edward Boone Wade

2010-04-03T20:35:00.000+02:00

Honeyville (Hunsakerville)

2010-03-28T19:05:00.002+02:00

This is the old Lillywhite family stone house between Honeyville and Brigham City in the Calls Fort area.

Ross Wight (first cousin once removed in ascendancy) son of Lucille Lillywhite Wight sister of Joseph Clinton Lillywhite, my grandfather.

2010-03-20T01:42:00.002+01:00

The world struggles to find spirituality where it lies only shallowly.

Draw a Line

2010-03-12T19:29:00.002+01:00

"They invade our space, and we fall back. They assimilate entire worlds, and we fall back. Not again. The line must be drawn here! This far and no further!

2010-02-26T04:50:00.000+01:00

2010-02-22T01:50:00.000+01:00

2010-02-17T03:37:00.000+01:00

Pictures From Ailsa

2010-01-28T03:29:00.004+01:00

Is Acheron in Texas?

More pictures here.

Ailsa's Book

2010-01-15T03:34:00.005+01:00

We have self published a book for Ailsa. See the badge in the left hand column at the top of the blog. I wanted to document another drawing of hers that she sent home from Texas.

Meredith's Wedding

2010-01-12T00:01:00.009+01:00

We had a really fun but quick vacation/California wedding trip on 7 - 10 January. We left Jensen and Lane at home. Jensen has a Friday class that she shouldn't miss and they were both testing in King Fu on Saturday. They didn't want to miss that. Lane got her blue sash. Jensen is now 2nd degree red and Chantal got her Black sash.

We left on Thursday shortly after Lenore got home from Kimber. The drive down to Saint George only took a little longer than 3.5 hours. We had a very nice dinner with grandma and grandpa. In the morning it was decided that we should just drive down to California together rather than separately. I was glad. We got into Orange County around 3pm and just went straight to Kim and Ed's house. The weather was very nice. I was sure this would help my pneumonia. We had made arrangements to stay with Sean and Jenny.

The "meet the families" dinner was very nice. We just stayed at Kim's and had pizza. I visited the chickens in the coop. After the party we left grandma and grandpa at Kim's and drove to Sean's. We got to meet again their beautiful cat and meet for the first time their three legged dog, Riley. We enjoyed a nice couple of hours just chatting. Riley, unsure of me at first, warmed up to me and kept asking to be petted.

The next morning was a beautiful 80 degree Southern California January day. We decided to drive into Laguna. And then we just followed our noses south until we ended up in... yes, you guessed it San Clemente. We had to dip our toes in the water. It wasn't too bad. I was kicking myself because the waves looked very fun. Especially at the beach just down the hill from the old chapel. I hadn't brought my wetsuit or even entertained the thought of surfing because I expected the weather and waves not to be so inviting. Oh well.

Sean let us "borrow" his fastrak transponder so we could use the the toll roads. Good thing, after eating at Pedro's tacos we high tailed it north back to Sean's. We got to save about 10-15 minutes on that leg. We quickly changed our clothes and then again saved another 10-15 minutes to the Newport Beach temple. It is very close to Sean's house. I think it is okay to speed on the way to the Temple as long as you signal your lane changes. I told Sean if he gets a ticket in the mail showing me going 85mph, he should plead ignorance.

The sealing ceremony was very nice, although somewhat long. Poor Ed had given up his seat to Lenore and after a while he was sweating and didn't look good. I tried to rehearse in my mind all that I knew about resuscitation. It was good to see Dave Cluff and the Rozsa boys and their pretty wives. The boys all look great, very distinguished. Not many people pull grey off very well. One had a beard. I'm going to guess it was Doug. He looks a lot like the "world's most interesting man" on the Dos Equis commercials.

After the sealing we went back to Kim's for a couple of hours. The reception was very nice, got to see Toni Trumbo and some other old friends and family. We left at about 8:30pm and drove back to Saint George. I didn't sleep much on the drive. We had too much fun coming and going, just visiting with the folks. We went to their ward Sacrament meeting and SS on Sunday morning. A very fun and interesting time in their Gospel Doctrine class. Then we drove home to Murray in time to pick up the kids and go to Midvale for dinner with the Smiths. A very nice but quick trip.

Cat had to try on Ailsa's costume green contact lenses. You can hardly see them in the picture. But, it's a really good picture of Cat. She is using it as her Facebook profile pic.

2009-12-31T00:07:00.005+01:00

We went sledding at Murray park one day during my sabbatical, it set me back some on the pneumonia. But, we did have fun.

Gingerbread Contest

2009-12-24T22:10:00.008+01:00

Thing one and thing two (Maddie and Sage Burton) came over to decorate Graham Cracker houses. I participated by eating the black jelly beans and the green gumdrops.

Jensen won best recreation of a Gothic Cathedral, complete with flying buttocks and stained glass windows.

Maddie based her creation on the Jeffs family compound in Colorado City.

Sage wins the award for the best use of gumdrops on the roof.

I was grateful Lane included a carport/tool shed for the riding lawnmower and the snowmobile.

Sister Salsa

2009-12-23T21:11:00.003+01:00

What a fun Christmas picture from Ailsa, a little Houston snow in the background.

Christmas Bathroom Project

2009-12-22T22:59:00.008+01:00

I was given a six week sabbatical in December and January from work. It was a good chance to get some things done. However, I fell deathly ill with pneumonia the very first night and so my activities were limited. We did get our bathroom sink and tub and shower area tiled. I had lots of help from Becca with the cutting. Contrary to the previous tile jobs I have done, I did all the cuts on one day and then laid the tile the next day after returning the tile saw. We think it turned out pretty well. The "tiles" are 24 inch stone squares.

Atheism at Christmastime

2009-12-22T02:32:00.002+01:00

Most atheists like to think that they are intelligent and astute. One of the first things you learn in Philosophy is that you cannot prove a negative. So, how can they say with assurance that there is no God?

2009-12-06T02:51:00.003+01:00

Gerald the Fish

2009-11-17T22:42:00.001+01:00

While we were at the river in August we had an interesting thing happen that I thought we should record. We thought we took pictures. But, we can't find them anywhere.

One afternoon Lenore and Laney spent some lazy time wading in the river. After some time they were able to spot a couple of fish. They are a little hard to notice because their green color blends in well with the water and the bottom of the river. Lenore sent Jensen in to get some cheese to feed to the fish. We all got quite a kick out of doing this. One of these fish was quite large, about 18 inches in length. They were careful to keep their distance. But, at one point the big one came up to Lenore's foot and either bumped her toe or tested it to get her attention to throw more cheese or to see if her toe was good to eat.

Recent Pictures and the Bishop's Retreat

2009-11-16T04:50:00.009+01:00

We had a very nice Bishop's retreat in November. Unfortunately , Bishop's Dahle was out of town and Bishop Hawkins wasn't able to attend until Saturday (I think) so we didn't get to visit with them as much as we would have liked. Once again it was downtown and they put us up at the Marriott hotel. We had a nice tour of the City Cemetery conducted by Bill Rowley. Some very interesting and moving stuff. You wouldn't think a cemetery tour would be all that interesting. But, it was very enjoyable. At dinner on Friday we sat with Dusty Casey and had fun getting to know him. He is assistant manager at the Hotel.

More pictures HERE.

Ailsa Mission Pictures

2009-11-15T03:33:00.002+01:00

HERE.

2009-10-29T04:08:00.004+01:00

2009-10-12T21:36:00.002+02:00

Ailsa on Lonsberry Saying the Pledge

2009-10-08T19:00:00.000+02:00

Click here.

Riley Roo

2009-10-04T17:51:00.002+02:00

We've had Riley over a couple of times lately. So, she can play with Lane. So Ben can work late. And, so Ben and I can ride together. We gave her the pick of our pumpkins. She chose well. We thought we'd get a picture of the whole gang together.

Saturday and Sunday I pretty much wiped out my to do list. My workbench is finally clean. It has literally been years. I had purchased some broken rear derailleurs for parts from eBay, partly to try to fix my broken Carbon Crew Derailleur. I'm not sure I'm going to be able to do that. But, I was able to piece one together just from what was there. I swapped it into mom's bike and sold her old Campy Record Titanium derailleur for $100. I only need one more part for a whole nother derailleur. Going to start combing eBay for bits.

Last Nice Weekend

2009-09-30T19:27:00.002+02:00

Had a very nice weekend last. It seemed it may be the last Hurrah of the perfect weather we so often get here in Utah between April and October.

I worked a little late Friday, not very much, just 45 minutes. We got a case at 4:15 from a correspondent in the Northeast. I was a little ticked because, you know he was probably fiddling with it all day trying to solve it without any outside help and then sent it to us at the last minute. Anyway, Barry and Dan and I stayed and by 6:15 we had it figured out. I helped some. But, I also almost sent us home without finding the living heir. Dan read the crucial obit more carefully than me and caught my error. Anyway we did some good work and fancy footwork to solve it and it ended up that we were the third company to call the heir. That's probably an indication that the correspondent should have asked for our help earlier.

We had a hoedown of sorts at Prosperity. So we all dressed in our “Cowboy” attire (jeans, white t-shirt, me black boots, Lenore purple boots, Laney in whatever we can get her to wear) and went to the party. I spent most of my time as the designated event photographer. That way I didn't have to worry about dancing. Someone had brought two lambs and a goat and the kids and families were all trying to get their picture taken with the livestock. I just took a lot of pictures because you can't get kids to do what you want, let alone animals.

I got to spend a little time catching up with Laverne Davis who was there with most of her kids. It was good to see her.

I arranged a bike ride with Ben Bayless and Craig Buchi for Saturday morning. Ben was bringing Riley over. We were waiting around awhile for him so Craig and I took off and did a couple of laps of about 3 miles each before Ben showed up.

Ben brought a prototype Carbon Wheelset to test out. It was under 900 grams and costs $6000. Pretty neat. I rode his bike briefly. But, it's too small and squirrelly for me. The weather was beautiful. We went down into Draper and then uphill slightly ending up at the gas station where the climb goes up over Suncrest. We picked up a young guy named Brian on the way. he rode with us for about 10 miles.
We kept up the pace pretty well and I felt pretty good. Did a couple of line sprint type jumps that felt good. Craig and Ben hit it off well and did a lot of talking.

When we returned Lenore and I had a good chat with Ben and then he left Riley to play with Laney.

In the evening we took Leslie with us over to the Youngs and then went to see the new Bruce Willis movie: Surrogates. It was enjoyable and interesting. Lenore and some others really enjoyed it. I was just kinda pleased. We ate dinner at our usual place and then headed home to sit with the Youngs on their patio and chat.

September Saint George

2009-09-21T05:52:00.005+02:00

We took a weekend off 18-20 September and went to visit Grandma and Grandpa in Saint George. Grandpa had a bit of a cold and I think he could have felt lots better. I felt a little bad about crashing in on them. Grandma's surgery was supposed to have been scheduled for 22 Sep. But, was postponed once again to the 30th.

The timing of the trip was a little convenient/inconvenient. I got a call Wednesday morning that someone in the ward had died. I got a second call after just a few minutes from Carolyn Preece (RS Pres.) that the widower was rather upset with the ward and it might be best if I didn't call for a while. I called later in the day and spoke to a daughter. It was apparent that it was best if I didn't deal with the planning of the funeral and if I wasn't the one to conduct. If I were to be in town, I would expect to attend. But, I felt my attendance would be a distraction for the family. So, it was somewhat convenient that we were going to be out of town. President Daw and Brent helped with the planning. And President Daw conducted.

I went over to the widower's house Thursday night to talk to him/make amends.

Thus, on a couple of accounts it was good to get out of town. We left Friday at midday so we could arrive with still some evening time in Saint George. Saturday morning Grandma took us to the Rosenbruch Wildlife Museum. I wasn't expecting much and was completely impressed and excited with what we did see. There were probably 150-200 full body big game mounts of all sorts of animals in natural habitat dioramas. Mostly these were of the Elk, Caribou, Deer, Sheep, Goat variety. But, there were lots of others. Very many species. Saw some big game cats. But, no Tigers, no Rhinos, no Elephants. Just about everything else. Lots of very interesting and amazing horns, tusks, and antlers. It was a lesson in the power and love of God.

Later we drove up to Cedar City to see the Compleat Works of Shakespeare (Abridged.) We saw this once before about 10 years ago in Cedar. We were told that they had re-worked the script. It didn't matter. It was hilarious and the whole family enjoyed it immensely.

Once again the car served us perfectly. Got about 19-20 mpg while averaging 80 mph. Of course, we got stopped in a traffic jam right as we re-entered the Salt Lake Valley. A bale of hay had fallen onto the freeway. So they had it closed down to one lane while one guy with a broom swept and a handful of UHP's finest kicked the straw out of the way. They have no concern for facilitating the transport of the people. When we passed they were at the point where they could have just opened it up and let the cars "sweep" the remaining grass "away."

Lenore's Letter to the Editor

2009-09-16T00:35:00.001+02:00

Click here.

Read the comments to get an idea of how all over the map opinions are in our "conservative" state.

Legacy Parkway Tour 2009

2009-09-02T00:59:00.005+02:00

This is me at the back looking dead right before the final sprint.

This was such a fun race last year I was excited and looking forward to doing it again this year. For various reasons, not the least of which is laziness and even being maybe a little burned out on cycling, I haven't been riding as much this year. I'm in okay shape. But, about 10-15 lbs heavier than last year and not quite up there on endurance and top speeds. Come to think of it last year I could have been in better shape also.

They didn't time the bikes this year. We were left to our own timing. I went down there with Craig and Teal. But, Teal didn't ride. We started near the front of the group. I didn't want to be right at the front because I wanted to have people to draft on. They announced that they didn't want anyone riding faster than 25 mph and they had a police motorcycle and an SUV to enforce that rule. Shortly after the start, I and about 7 other people realized that if we could draft off of the lead vehicles that would be a good thing. I hung with them for about the first 9 miles. I hit the turn around at about 25 minutes. Very close to last year's pace. By then the lead group was long gone and I was being caught by others including Craig. I stayed with Craig the rest of the way, occasionally taking a pull. I didn't sprint at the finish last year mainly because I wasn't sure where to start. This year I pulled out with about 2/10ths mile left (still a tad early, picture above) and wound it up to about 27 for the finish. None of the people in my group responded so I gained about 5 places right near the end to finish about 15th.

River Trip Aug 2009

2009-09-01T23:51:00.000+02:00

We didn't get to do our regular San Clemente trip this year, for a couple of reasons that included fear over the economy and a tiff with the landlord over pets. I think Joan doesn't enjoy it that much and Darrell doesn't realize how much fun it is (and good it is) for the grandkids and for family unity and bonding. If I were really rich and magnanimous I would have gone ahead and made plans and paid for it myself.

Instead we were invited to spend a week or so at Kim and Ed's river house. This worked out fine and was quite fun. We did squeeze in one day (maybe two hours) at San Clemente. But, it just wasn't the same.

Normally, I would have planned to leave to go to the river on Friday (7 Aug) right after work. But, we had youth conference planned for that weekend and then Jensen had a concert to go to Sat night and then her friend Sarah had her missionary farewell on Sunday and then a couple in the ward called me Thursday night and asked me to marry them. I did it in Spanish.

So, we didn't leave town until about 4pm and we stopped in St. George at mom and dad's house for the night. The driving trip was largely uneventful. Lenore read to me from Ann Coulter's book Slander. It makes her get riled.

We went shooting a couple of times in Big River. It was blistering hot, 118, 116, 116 for Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday. I rode the bike on Tues morning 30 miles. I was okay for the first half. Rode again on Thursday up to the Parker dam. Again I was okay for the first half. I was not okay for the second half. Lenore said I looked ashen when I returned.

The 80th birthday party for dad was quite fun. We (Kristin) compiled a DVD of snapshots through the years. There were a couple of pics I had never seen. I don't think dad was too put off for the attention we heaped on him. Wade and Kimberly had planned on leaving Monday night. But, they were guilted into staying until Tues morning. They honked and waved at me on my bike ride as they left town on the Ehrenberg road.

We left Big River in the morning on Thurs and drove to Irvine to spend a little time with Wade and Kimberly. It was Friday afternoon that we went to San Clemente. We had to get our legs wet and eat some pizza and ice cream. It was a nice enough day. But, it was a little crowded and the tide was high and there was a “ditch” as there sometimes is after heavy surf.

Friday evening we took Wade and Kimberly to Islands to eat and really enjoyed ourselves. Afterward we watched Lost in Austen. Our first introduction to this fun new film.

Cut the Head off the Serpent

2009-08-04T23:24:00.002+02:00

I've given a lot of thought lately to how the Government gets changed and how we can return to following the Constitution. The biggest problem is the Federal Government has power as long as it is funded. Because of payroll withholding, we can't not pay income taxes and if they start running low on funds, they can just print more money. So, it is pretty hard to take that "power" away from them.

I think what happens is they dig their own hole. As was seen recently, foreign countries won't always be willing to buy our debt and give us cash. And, if they keep making stupid decisions and ruining the economy and our businesses, and angering the populus, recession hits real hard, tax revenues drop and things start to fall apart. So, I imagine things will have to get worse and we will probably need to rely on food storage and supplies to tide us over until we can pull ourselves back out of the hole.

I just hope someone like China doesn't try to take over while we are down. Who in the world would come to our rescue?

Nice Weekend

2009-07-21T00:03:00.003+02:00

That was the weekend that was. It was very nice.

Friday evening Lenore and I went out to eat at the Paradise Bakery. We have eaten there only once, after Lauren went through the temple, in American Fork. It's a bit of a trendy place. But, fortunately it was very uncrowded Friday evening.

All I have to say is the food was very tasty. I had the tuna. Lenore had a quiche. It was all very pleasant and satisfying.

We then went by the Smith's and picked up Missy, Natalie, and Leslie and went to see 17 Again, again. Almost better the second time. Very cute movie. I'm about ready to ask for Zac Efron's number.

Afterward we stopped at the Basket-Robbins right next to the theater and had some ice cream. It was a very nice time. The evening was still hot and the sky was clear. A beautiful summer day. This time of evening, this time of year.

Saturday morning we attended the temple along with some people from the ward. The new young couple, Darin and Talauna Canova were there.

I wasn't sure I needed/wanted to get in a bike ride. But, went anyway after we got home from the temple. Even though it wasn't quite in the full heat of the day, I did see 102 degrees on the bank sign. I was a little piqued.

Down in Draper, I saw the remnants of their parade, among which was a "redneck hottub," a truck with a plastic liner in the bed filled with much water and a couple of bikini clad girls. The driver swerved near me to try to make water slosh out. The girls screamed.

Later in the day I tried to post about this on Facebook using my phone and also tried to include an obtuse reference to a bit from the movie "The Sure Thing" about getting cited for not having a load not properly tied down. The status update feature on the phone only allows a limited input field. So, the comment got split into two posts. All it did was confuse people and I lost an opportunity for a clever joke. :)

One of the burners on our stove was on the fritz. I was able to fix it and get that going again and avoid serious financial peril.

In the late afternoon we went to Leslie's house to swim in the pool. Most of the Smith/Mughal/Taylor clan was there for an impromptu party. I REALLY enjoyed myself floating in the pool soaking up some sun. The water was in the low 80's. I ran out to get pizza at Big Daddy's and we sat and chatted until after 8pm.

Back at home we toasted marshmallows into the setting of the sun while the cats policed the backyard.

Preston, ID

2009-07-13T01:58:00.004+02:00

Last Saturday was our second time up to Preston in two weeks. First was the Goff family reunion and then the Johnson family reunion. Preston is a nice town. We visited Uncle Verl Goff who has a soft serve ice cream machine in his house. That was very impressive for the young folk. He also has a fun Coi pond in his backyard. The fish were none too comfortable with us gawking at them though.

The weather was nice both Saturdays. We had fun this last week visiting with all of the Woolley cousins. Natalie was in town. The kids wanted to go ride their bikes into "town" to a store. Some of the adults (Natalie) were a little apprehensive. Daniel Taylor asked if anyone had a GPS they could borrow. For heaven's sake, it's one block that way and two blocks that way. They survived. We live in a different age.

2009-06-07T04:20:00.006+02:00

'Kung Fu' star found dead

2009-06-05T00:44:00.000+02:00

All I want to know is if they found a pebble in his hand.

2009-06-03T17:59:00.001+02:00

Yesterday

2009-05-27T18:58:00.002+02:00

Just because something appears to be inevitable does not mean we have to facilitate it even though it is wrong.

Uncle Jay

2009-05-21T18:26:00.001+02:00

Orson Scott Card had the following column today:

Here are my thoughts:

I think, perhaps there is a clarity of thought and action that the Spirit is able to communicate in urgent circumstances. Although it may not be a big deal, this very possibly will be a life changing event for Aaron.

When I was a Boy Scout we had the responsibility of running the local fireworks booth as a fund raiser. This included setting up the booth. The Scoutmaster (my uncle) and a couple of us boys were struggling with the assembly of several ungainly panels of the booth. Suddenly, the roof started to fall. The boys all ran. But, my uncle stepped in to catch the falling panel. I was struck (figuratively) , first by my very quick reaction to abandon all, and second by my uncle's clearheadedness and courage to do what he did. Now, I was probably too small and weak to be of much help. But, I realized that an adult would immediately know and do the right thing. That stuck with me and has helped me since then several times react with courage and clarity in emergencies.

Obama and CAFE Standards

2009-05-20T02:59:00.003+02:00

Did IQs just drop sharply while I was away? - Ripley

Disaster!

2009-05-16T21:49:00.003+02:00

I had a major disaster with my bike on Saturday. My rear dérailleur has been shifting a little sloppy lately. It seemed like it needed to put more tension on the chain. The chain was as short as it could be. So, I decided to adjust the mech. I did not touch the limiting screws. But, when I got on the bike to ride, the part swung into the spokes and disintegrated breaking two spokes along the way. It was a pretty expensive coast down the driveway. The dérailleur was $720 and the rear wheel (with dedicated carbon spokes) was close to $500. I am trying to work out their replacement.

Thought for the Day

2009-05-07T17:37:00.003+02:00

I still take alarmists with a grain of salt. But, I've lived long enough to see what I thought was over the top concern in the '70's for the encroachment of "Humanism" and the dangers of Nationalized Education to have come true.

A(H1N1)

2009-05-01T20:37:00.001+02:00

I hereby pledge that I will not start fist bumping instead of shaking hands.

2009-04-30T05:47:00.002+02:00

"Carnival" night at McMillan Elementary School. You could dance in the darkened gym with dorky pre-pre-teens. You could wait in line for an overpriced hot dog or hamburger dinner (and pay more than they asked for, like I did.) Or, you could spend 10 minutes with a bunch of screaming kids in a pit of soap bubbles. At home you have to pay these kids to get in the tub. But, in front of public and peers they will fork over good money for the priviledge. It didn't take long for Laney to aspirate some bubbles and choke and gag for a while. Fun over.

2009-04-25T06:21:00.003+02:00

We meddle too much.

2009-04-24T22:19:00.002+02:00

We meddle.

River?

People don't like to be meddled with. We tell them what to do, what to think. Don't run, don't walk. We're in their homes and in their heads and we haven't the right. We're meddlesome.

Letter to the Editor

2009-04-23T17:29:00.002+02:00

Here

Marathon Bike Tour

2009-04-18T23:03:00.004+02:00

I did the Salt Lake City Marathon Bike Tour last year and had a lot of fun. It was really my first introduction to “racing.” I decided a while ago to do it again this year. But, I'm not in nearly the shape I was last year at this time. And, I may be 15 pounds heavier than I was last year same time. So, as the day approached I wasn't too thrilled and didn't expect to do very well.

Like last year I was going to wake up early and just ride down to the U, because it seems to help if I get some 45-50 minutes warm up. But, Jeff Barton called and offered a ride and I took them up on it. We went a little early because we didn't want to get stuck way back in the pack at the start and we wanted to try to ride around a little and warm up first. As it was, it was so cold there that we just stayed in the car. We were able to get pretty close to the front for the start. Probably within the first 150-200 people out of about 1600.

I didn't have nearly the trouble with slow pokes in front of me this year as I did last year. I started even with Jeff Barton and his son in law Brandon. Teal and Craig were ahead of us and stayed there the whole ride. They changed the route this year and had us go through sugar House park. It may have actually been the real marathon route for us this year. I did more passing than being passed. I was staying behind a husband and wife team on a tandem again. This seems to be a pattern for me. I did this in the Century ride last year.

A group passed me on lower Holladay Boulevard. Brandon was in the group. So, I latched onto the tail. I stayed pretty much with this group for the rest of the ride. For the first little while on Van Winkle there were some wild ones in the group and it was a little dicey. After a while it seemed to settle down some. Except we would get fast and string out and then slow down and bunch up a little. I think the leaders wanted someone else to take the lead and no one wanted to.

The route going into Salt lake was a little different this year also. We went up a slight grade up State street and that strung out my group for good. I wasn't going very fast at this point. Then we went down South Temple and wrapped around Gateway. Brandon was about 100 feet ahead of me going down the stretch. He didn't know I was gunning for him. So, I was able to catch him at the tape. Teal and Craig had come in a couple of minutes ahead of us. Jeff came in a couple after.

I turned in a decent time. I was within 1 mph of last year's speed. So, I was pretty pleased with it, considering my shape.