About 23 months into my LDS mission, I was stationed in a little town called Winnfield, Louisiana. It was my last area as I was training a new missionary. I was right at the sunset of my mission. I had worked hard for 23 months and had really put a lot of time into my studies. I felt good, I had been very obedient, and had a confidence that I think that most missionaries feel after nearly two years in the service of the Lord. I, at the time was about a month into training a new missionary from northern Utah. This young man came from a very wealthy upbringing. (His dad was the former owner of Price Savers, and at the time was the Executive V.P. For Walmart.) In the first month of his training he had lost 15 lbs. and was really picking up a good work ethic and took natural to the missionary work.
One day we were out knocking on doors and came to this large home. It was an old plantation home but it was in the hood. And like most old plantation homes in the area, had been converted into slum housing. Each bedroom became a tiny apartment, usually housing crack addicts and dealers. My companion hadn't quite become accustomed to the slums and was a little on edge as we knocked on the first door. After a couple of knocks a skinny black gentleman came to the door, he looked to be in his late-30's. He invited us in. The room was small and only had one chair. There was a bed and a small dresser and that was it. As I walked in I noticed a small 3" long metal tube about the diameter of a radio antenna with black electrical tape rapped around one end the other end had what looked like a piece of steel wool sticking out of it. From previous "hood" living I recognised it to be a crack pipe and knew that we were in for quite a discussion. I sat down on the chair and my comp sat down on the bed next to the black man. As we began the discussion the man stopped us and said:"Y'all don't know who I am do you". I said: "no we don't", He said: "look closer at me". I looked closer and said: "sorry nothings coming to mind" "Come on, look closer, y'all know who I am" I tell him:"I'm pretty good with faces, and I think it's safe to say that I really don't know you". He said: "Its me, John" "John"? "You know, John the Baptist". I looked at my comp, and I could tell he was getting a little uncomfortable. I mean who wouldn't feel uncomfortable, sitting on a small bed just inches away from some crack head who thought he was John the Baptist. I kind of smiled, stood up, reached on top of the dresser and grabbed the crack pipe and said, "tell me John, what does Jesus think about you smoking crack?" John kind of looked at me with his mouth open and said, Uhhhhhhh. I looked at my comp. and could tell he was really getting nervous, as he shifted himself to the edge of the bed. "You ain't gonna tell anyone are you?" John said. "No, I'm not going to tell anyone, but I am going to take your crack pipe." John just sat stunned. I asked John if he had any crack on him, because I needed that too. He said no, I don't have anymore. I said "John, this is a real problem, and we really want to help you, what other habits do you have that you need to quit?". "Well, I smoke." "Give me your smokes then", he handed me his pack of Bronco Lights 100's. "I want your lighter too". "Awwwww, can't I have my lighter, neither?" "Nope give it too me." He handed me his lighter. I pack my newly acquired goods into my scripture case, and said "John, your gonna need a lot of help, what other problems do we need to fix"? John scoots a little closer to my nervous and fidgeting companion, "Well, I am attracted to other mens!" Like a lightning bolt my companion, jumps up, looks at me and says "WE GOTTA GO, ELDER RIDDLE, I AIN'T SITTING HERE ANY MORE!" I really started to enjoy myself watching that, and said to my comp, just messing with him, "Elder, sit down, we have got to help this poor man." (Thinking of how glad I was that I wasn't sitting on the bed). My comp reluctantly sat down, and shot me a look that was a combination of a glare and a cry for help.
Almost immediately as my comp. sat down, I heard a ruckus in the hall of the old plantation home, dogs barking, a large slam, some muffled yelling and in the middle of all the yelling I could hear POLICE! I instantly realised that the room next door was experiencing a drug raid, and there I sat (not so smug anymore) with John the Baptist's crack pipe in my scripture case. I suddenly took on the fear of my new companion. I jumbled around in my scripture case for the crack pipe, stood up put the pipe on the dresser and said: "you can have this back, were getting out of here". John gave me a worried look as I walked to the door, as I looked down the hall, I could see that the coast was clear, so I turned around grabbed the crack pipe, looked at John and said "I think I will take this", thrust it into my pocket, and my comp and I took off to our bikes. As we walked to our bikes we passed a cop walking up towards the house, I got a little nervous but realising as we walked by the cop that he had no interest in a couple of Mormon missionaries, I felt better, and was glad that I grabbed the crack pipe after all. My comp and I jumped onto our bikes and drove away to the woods to dispose of the pipe. When we got to the woods I pulled the crack pipe out, we inspected it a little while I teased my comp for being so scared of the phony gay John. My comp smiled with a little relief on his face as we threw the crack pipe into the woods. "Back to work" I said with a smile, and we headed off into the sunset to save more souls.
Tuesday, April 29, 2008
Friday, April 25, 2008
Update
I guess it has been a while since I have been good at blogging, and I thought that I should give and update on my life. I like to make lists so I will make a list of updates on my life.
1. Cindy is knocked up again. I know that using the term "knocked up" isn't that nice of a term but I just love it. It just rolls off the tongue, I don't mean it in an insensitive way, I just like to break the news that way. I guess I just like the look that women give me when I say it that way, Its almost a look like shock that I used it, followed by a the "your an jerk look". (Yeah I get that a lot). The baby is due Nov. 3 just two years apart from Zacchy boy. I am really excited and not really scared. Cindy is a good enough mom to Zach that it makes up for my inadequacies in the dad department. With a wife like Cindy, I say bring em on.
2. I started Wrestling again. I am beat up and my cauliflower ear is back, I'll probably have to get a syringe and suck the blood out tonight.
3. I am taking my young men from church on a 50 mile hike in July for their high adventure. My first councillor Todd and I are stoked. We told the boys that we were going to turn them into men. I wonder if that transition will occur while they are packing my dead heart attacked body out of the deep Big Horn Wilderness.
4. It is supposed to be spring. Instead we got 3 inches of snow yesterday.
5. I have purchased a boat. It is fricken sweet. I would be willing to bet that it is the nicest boat in Wyoming. I don't even know anyone who has one like it. I Bought it for 50 dollars, its a 14', Steel Boat. I thought it was aluminum when I bought it, but when I lifted it up I realised by the rust and the weight that it was pure American Steel. It's gonna need a little work on the wood, but I think I can get it together in a couple of hours. I told my Wife that we were going to take it fishing to lake DeSmet. My wife declined. I told my wife that, that's what life jackets are for, She's not in. I bet I could get Stinky pockets to come up from Casper to go with me. The invite is open to anyone who wants a real fishing adventure. I think I'm going to paint a Rebel Flag on the side.
That's all I've got for now.
1. Cindy is knocked up again. I know that using the term "knocked up" isn't that nice of a term but I just love it. It just rolls off the tongue, I don't mean it in an insensitive way, I just like to break the news that way. I guess I just like the look that women give me when I say it that way, Its almost a look like shock that I used it, followed by a the "your an jerk look". (Yeah I get that a lot). The baby is due Nov. 3 just two years apart from Zacchy boy. I am really excited and not really scared. Cindy is a good enough mom to Zach that it makes up for my inadequacies in the dad department. With a wife like Cindy, I say bring em on.
2. I started Wrestling again. I am beat up and my cauliflower ear is back, I'll probably have to get a syringe and suck the blood out tonight.
3. I am taking my young men from church on a 50 mile hike in July for their high adventure. My first councillor Todd and I are stoked. We told the boys that we were going to turn them into men. I wonder if that transition will occur while they are packing my dead heart attacked body out of the deep Big Horn Wilderness.
4. It is supposed to be spring. Instead we got 3 inches of snow yesterday.
5. I have purchased a boat. It is fricken sweet. I would be willing to bet that it is the nicest boat in Wyoming. I don't even know anyone who has one like it. I Bought it for 50 dollars, its a 14', Steel Boat. I thought it was aluminum when I bought it, but when I lifted it up I realised by the rust and the weight that it was pure American Steel. It's gonna need a little work on the wood, but I think I can get it together in a couple of hours. I told my Wife that we were going to take it fishing to lake DeSmet. My wife declined. I told my wife that, that's what life jackets are for, She's not in. I bet I could get Stinky pockets to come up from Casper to go with me. The invite is open to anyone who wants a real fishing adventure. I think I'm going to paint a Rebel Flag on the side.
That's all I've got for now.
The F-Word.
When I was a boy, about the age of 9 was the first time I remember ever saying the F-word.
I wasn't a swearing boy, in fact I think that I was a pretty good kid, it's just, well, I said it at what I thought was the right time. I remember it like it was yesterday. Down the street from culdesac that I lived in, and over another street, was a street called Ironwood. It wasn't a heavily populated street, and it had a number of vacant lots. One day in a vacant lot my older brother, a few other friends, and I were messing around. We were doing our usual messing around, building huts, and playing games, around 4:00 PM a game erupted and due to some technicalities that I don't quite remember my older brother and I ended up in a fight. It wasn't an unusual showing, we probably had a good fight every couple of days. This was a little more intense because there were a few friends watching. There wasn't a lot of cheering or people trying to get us to fight, it was just my brother and I doing what came natural to us. I felt a little more pressure than usual because there were a number of older kids watching and I wanted to do a little better that I normally did. As my brother and I circled, I made the executive decision to not take the famous uppercut gut shot that I seemed to always step in to. It was a tool of evil that my brother always new how to throw just at the right time, always landing in the right place, sending all of the air out of my lungs paired with a deep uhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh, that seemed to last forever. I decided that I needed to pull out a tool that I had never previously used, the F word. I positioned myself correctly dropped my hands, looked my brother in the eye and said it. I won't go into details on how I used it, just that I did. I didn't say it more than once, I didn't need to. As I said it, I watched my brothers hands drop, his face go pale, his lip quiver slightly, and, for a brief moment that vacant lot went silent. The fight was over, and I had won, or at least I thought I had won. That was when I realized that my brother had even better ammo, he looked at me and pulled what I thought was an even cheaper shot that what I had thrown. He looked at me and said: "I'm telling mom". Not in a whiny tattletale sort of way, just a quiet, slow, you don't know what kind of trouble you are in sort of way. He turned around, got on his bike and rode for home. I stayed that evening a little later in that vacant lot, pondering what had happened, and wondering what I had in store. I wondered what would happen to me that night, would it be the running butt kick from my Dad, the soap from my Mom, or the Bedroom grounding? I just didn't know what I had coming. I had never crossed into this territory. I was in uncharted waters. All three punishments were equal in magnitude. The Running butt kick usually consisted of me running away from my dad, and him always catching up with a good kick in the butt. It didn't hurt the butt as bad as it hurt the feelings, the "washing the mouth out with soap" usually consisted of my mother taking my toothbrush, wetting it, scrubbing the bar of soap and then scrubbing my tongue for a short period of time. And the bedroom was just simply sitting in my room for the rest of the night. I could have only hoped for such a punishment when I got home.
I arrived home a dinner time, and by the look on my parent faces, I could tell something was definitely up. Nothing was said at first, we blessed the food, and and began to dig in to either deer meet or casserole. I can't quite remember. I looked over at my older brother to kind of read the situation, he looked quite serious, and for a brief moment I thought he hadn't told. Then I got it, the worse punishment, or worse form of punishment that I ever remember getting from my Mom or Dad. My mother looked at me and said:" David, I heard you said the F-word today?" I looked down and said yes, but.. I was cut off to something that I never forgot. "David, I'm really disappointed in you. I always thought you were a nice boy and didn't talk that way. My mother then went into a speech about how a lady a few streets over always complimented her on her boys language. After we sat there for a minute, my dad looked at me and said, "we don't talk that way around here". and that was it. No formal punishment, just me with my thoughts. Something kind of hit me and I thought about it "I always thought you were a nice boy". Was I not a nice boy any more? Did I loose that status? Did the F-word and it's use turn me to the dark side? Was I a stoner now? Did I need to stop by the store and buy a Motely Crue T-shirt and sew hair metal band patches onto my jacket? Should I start smoking? I liked being a nice boy. I wondered if I had given that up by the public F bombing that I had thrown out. I thought about that for the rest of the nights activities. When I would walk past my mom in the house she would give me that sad disappointed look that felt like needles piercing my eyes. I was different now, I had managed to make such a drastic change from light to dark, green light saber to red, through the thoughtless use of a single syllable four letter word. What had I done? I felt horrible. I went into my room and sat down on my bed. I looked out the window as the sun set in the sky. The room was bright as the sun hit the yellow bedspreads draped across the two twin beds in my room. I didn't even want to think about the F-word. Look what I had become. As night fell, my younger brother came into the room, I watched him kneel down to say his prayers. I sat there for a moment and contemplated weather I should even say my prayers. Would they be heard? Now that I was not a nice boy would my prayers stop at the sparkled ceiling of my bedroom? I decided that I would give it one last shot before I gave into that dark side that was slowly trying to overcome me. I slowly slid off the bed and onto my knees. I folded my arms and closed my eyes and began my silent prayer. Heavenly Father, I'm sorry for saying the F-word, I don't want to be bad, please don't be mad at me. I knelt there for a minute and a feeling of peace started to overcome that knot of guilt that had been hurting my insides. I felt better. I didn't feel like a stoner or a bad boy. I felt at peace, I didn't feel like I had set my course for eternal damnation any more. I closed my prayer and climbed into bed. I quickly fell asleep. The next morning I woke up to my mother making breakfast. I walked into the kitchen, my mother said "good morning Dave" with a smile, and kissed me on the forehead. I felt good, I knew that God had forgiven me and my mother had forgiven me. I realised that, just as my Mother would always love me, there is a Father in Heaven that will always love me.
I think I learned at a young age, that regardless of what we do, weather they be big mistakes or little mistakes or a whole bunch of little and big mistakes mixed together. At the end of the day we don't have to be that bad person that Satan tries to make us feel that we are pre-destined to be. It doesn't matter if we have days or years worth of mistakes. There is always a way out, and there are always arms open waiting to take us back.
I learned a better F-Word. Forgiveness
I wasn't a swearing boy, in fact I think that I was a pretty good kid, it's just, well, I said it at what I thought was the right time. I remember it like it was yesterday. Down the street from culdesac that I lived in, and over another street, was a street called Ironwood. It wasn't a heavily populated street, and it had a number of vacant lots. One day in a vacant lot my older brother, a few other friends, and I were messing around. We were doing our usual messing around, building huts, and playing games, around 4:00 PM a game erupted and due to some technicalities that I don't quite remember my older brother and I ended up in a fight. It wasn't an unusual showing, we probably had a good fight every couple of days. This was a little more intense because there were a few friends watching. There wasn't a lot of cheering or people trying to get us to fight, it was just my brother and I doing what came natural to us. I felt a little more pressure than usual because there were a number of older kids watching and I wanted to do a little better that I normally did. As my brother and I circled, I made the executive decision to not take the famous uppercut gut shot that I seemed to always step in to. It was a tool of evil that my brother always new how to throw just at the right time, always landing in the right place, sending all of the air out of my lungs paired with a deep uhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh, that seemed to last forever. I decided that I needed to pull out a tool that I had never previously used, the F word. I positioned myself correctly dropped my hands, looked my brother in the eye and said it. I won't go into details on how I used it, just that I did. I didn't say it more than once, I didn't need to. As I said it, I watched my brothers hands drop, his face go pale, his lip quiver slightly, and, for a brief moment that vacant lot went silent. The fight was over, and I had won, or at least I thought I had won. That was when I realized that my brother had even better ammo, he looked at me and pulled what I thought was an even cheaper shot that what I had thrown. He looked at me and said: "I'm telling mom". Not in a whiny tattletale sort of way, just a quiet, slow, you don't know what kind of trouble you are in sort of way. He turned around, got on his bike and rode for home. I stayed that evening a little later in that vacant lot, pondering what had happened, and wondering what I had in store. I wondered what would happen to me that night, would it be the running butt kick from my Dad, the soap from my Mom, or the Bedroom grounding? I just didn't know what I had coming. I had never crossed into this territory. I was in uncharted waters. All three punishments were equal in magnitude. The Running butt kick usually consisted of me running away from my dad, and him always catching up with a good kick in the butt. It didn't hurt the butt as bad as it hurt the feelings, the "washing the mouth out with soap" usually consisted of my mother taking my toothbrush, wetting it, scrubbing the bar of soap and then scrubbing my tongue for a short period of time. And the bedroom was just simply sitting in my room for the rest of the night. I could have only hoped for such a punishment when I got home.
I arrived home a dinner time, and by the look on my parent faces, I could tell something was definitely up. Nothing was said at first, we blessed the food, and and began to dig in to either deer meet or casserole. I can't quite remember. I looked over at my older brother to kind of read the situation, he looked quite serious, and for a brief moment I thought he hadn't told. Then I got it, the worse punishment, or worse form of punishment that I ever remember getting from my Mom or Dad. My mother looked at me and said:" David, I heard you said the F-word today?" I looked down and said yes, but.. I was cut off to something that I never forgot. "David, I'm really disappointed in you. I always thought you were a nice boy and didn't talk that way. My mother then went into a speech about how a lady a few streets over always complimented her on her boys language. After we sat there for a minute, my dad looked at me and said, "we don't talk that way around here". and that was it. No formal punishment, just me with my thoughts. Something kind of hit me and I thought about it "I always thought you were a nice boy". Was I not a nice boy any more? Did I loose that status? Did the F-word and it's use turn me to the dark side? Was I a stoner now? Did I need to stop by the store and buy a Motely Crue T-shirt and sew hair metal band patches onto my jacket? Should I start smoking? I liked being a nice boy. I wondered if I had given that up by the public F bombing that I had thrown out. I thought about that for the rest of the nights activities. When I would walk past my mom in the house she would give me that sad disappointed look that felt like needles piercing my eyes. I was different now, I had managed to make such a drastic change from light to dark, green light saber to red, through the thoughtless use of a single syllable four letter word. What had I done? I felt horrible. I went into my room and sat down on my bed. I looked out the window as the sun set in the sky. The room was bright as the sun hit the yellow bedspreads draped across the two twin beds in my room. I didn't even want to think about the F-word. Look what I had become. As night fell, my younger brother came into the room, I watched him kneel down to say his prayers. I sat there for a moment and contemplated weather I should even say my prayers. Would they be heard? Now that I was not a nice boy would my prayers stop at the sparkled ceiling of my bedroom? I decided that I would give it one last shot before I gave into that dark side that was slowly trying to overcome me. I slowly slid off the bed and onto my knees. I folded my arms and closed my eyes and began my silent prayer. Heavenly Father, I'm sorry for saying the F-word, I don't want to be bad, please don't be mad at me. I knelt there for a minute and a feeling of peace started to overcome that knot of guilt that had been hurting my insides. I felt better. I didn't feel like a stoner or a bad boy. I felt at peace, I didn't feel like I had set my course for eternal damnation any more. I closed my prayer and climbed into bed. I quickly fell asleep. The next morning I woke up to my mother making breakfast. I walked into the kitchen, my mother said "good morning Dave" with a smile, and kissed me on the forehead. I felt good, I knew that God had forgiven me and my mother had forgiven me. I realised that, just as my Mother would always love me, there is a Father in Heaven that will always love me.
I think I learned at a young age, that regardless of what we do, weather they be big mistakes or little mistakes or a whole bunch of little and big mistakes mixed together. At the end of the day we don't have to be that bad person that Satan tries to make us feel that we are pre-destined to be. It doesn't matter if we have days or years worth of mistakes. There is always a way out, and there are always arms open waiting to take us back.
I learned a better F-Word. Forgiveness
Thursday, April 17, 2008
Blog
So yesterday was the last day on my bridge. I am back in the office again today and decided that I would blog a little. I don't know what to blog about. Ive never written a tag and so I would like to tag anyone who reads my blog, if there is anyone left that reads my blog. My questions.
1. If you were trapped on a desert island who wouldn't you want to be there with?
2. For 100 million dollars would you cut off the first inch of your pinky finger?
3. Who do you find more attractive yourself or Bill Clinton?
4. What would you rather clean up poop or puke?
5. On a scale of 1-10 how would you rate your intellect against your friends?
6. If you had to choose one food to survive on for the rest of your life and only had the choice between mayonaise, catsup, horsey sause, or fat free Italian dressing what would it be?
7. If you had a free pass that let you commit any sin without having to pay for it what would you do?
8. If you had a billion dollars given to you what would be the first thing you would buy?
9. If the best plastic surgury clinic in the world told you they would fix any part of yourself for free what would you have done?
10. If you were given a choice to start your freshman year of high school knowing what you know now, having the mentality you have now transporting back into time into the old body you had with your adult brain, would you do it?
11. If yes to #10, do you thing you would be a better person reliving your life knowing the consequences, or would you be a worse person having a much more powerful brain?
If no to #10 why no?
12. Name one person that you would never eat dinner with, even if you were paid 300 dollars to do it?
13. Have you picked your nose within the last 7 days?
14. How many questions on my tag have you not been 100% honest to?
I guess it is only fair if I write a tag that I answer my own questions. So..
1. If you were trapped on a desert island who wouldn't you want to be there with? Rev. Jesse Jackson
2. For 200 million dollars would you cut off the first inch of your pinky finger? This took some thought for me, Yes.
3. Who do you find more attractive yourself or Bill Clinton? Myself
4. What would you rather clean up poop or puke? poop
5. On a scale of 1-10 (ten being highest) how would you rate your intellect against your friends? 2
6. If you had to choose one food to survive on for the rest of your life and only had the choice between mayonaise, catsup, horsey sause, or fat free Italian dressing what would it be? Fat free Italian Dressing
7. If you had a free pass that let you commit any sin without having to pay for it what would you do? I would Rob a Bank. A big bank.
8. If you had a billion dollars given to you what would be the first thing you would buy? A H4 model of the duramax diesel.
9. If the best plastic surgury clinic in the world told you they would fix any part of yourself for free what would you have done? I would fix my Cut off Pinky finger from question #2
10. If you were given a choice to start your freshman year of high school knowing what you know now, having the mentality you have now transporting back into time into the old body you had with your adult brain, would you do it? No.
11. If yes to #10, do you thing you would be a better person reliving your life knowing the consequences, or would you be a worse person having a much more powerful brain?
If no to #10 why no? I couldn't wait that long to see my little boy and wife, plus it wouldnt be worth the risk of that not happening.
12. Name one person that you would never eat dinner with, even if you were paid 300 dollars to do it? Rosie O'donnell
13. Have you picked your nose within the last 7 days? Yes.
14. How many questions on my tag have you not been 100% honest to?1
I tag everyone, you know who you are. If you do not have a blog answer in my comments.
1. If you were trapped on a desert island who wouldn't you want to be there with?
2. For 100 million dollars would you cut off the first inch of your pinky finger?
3. Who do you find more attractive yourself or Bill Clinton?
4. What would you rather clean up poop or puke?
5. On a scale of 1-10 how would you rate your intellect against your friends?
6. If you had to choose one food to survive on for the rest of your life and only had the choice between mayonaise, catsup, horsey sause, or fat free Italian dressing what would it be?
7. If you had a free pass that let you commit any sin without having to pay for it what would you do?
8. If you had a billion dollars given to you what would be the first thing you would buy?
9. If the best plastic surgury clinic in the world told you they would fix any part of yourself for free what would you have done?
10. If you were given a choice to start your freshman year of high school knowing what you know now, having the mentality you have now transporting back into time into the old body you had with your adult brain, would you do it?
11. If yes to #10, do you thing you would be a better person reliving your life knowing the consequences, or would you be a worse person having a much more powerful brain?
If no to #10 why no?
12. Name one person that you would never eat dinner with, even if you were paid 300 dollars to do it?
13. Have you picked your nose within the last 7 days?
14. How many questions on my tag have you not been 100% honest to?
I guess it is only fair if I write a tag that I answer my own questions. So..
1. If you were trapped on a desert island who wouldn't you want to be there with? Rev. Jesse Jackson
2. For 200 million dollars would you cut off the first inch of your pinky finger? This took some thought for me, Yes.
3. Who do you find more attractive yourself or Bill Clinton? Myself
4. What would you rather clean up poop or puke? poop
5. On a scale of 1-10 (ten being highest) how would you rate your intellect against your friends? 2
6. If you had to choose one food to survive on for the rest of your life and only had the choice between mayonaise, catsup, horsey sause, or fat free Italian dressing what would it be? Fat free Italian Dressing
7. If you had a free pass that let you commit any sin without having to pay for it what would you do? I would Rob a Bank. A big bank.
8. If you had a billion dollars given to you what would be the first thing you would buy? A H4 model of the duramax diesel.
9. If the best plastic surgury clinic in the world told you they would fix any part of yourself for free what would you have done? I would fix my Cut off Pinky finger from question #2
10. If you were given a choice to start your freshman year of high school knowing what you know now, having the mentality you have now transporting back into time into the old body you had with your adult brain, would you do it? No.
11. If yes to #10, do you thing you would be a better person reliving your life knowing the consequences, or would you be a worse person having a much more powerful brain?
If no to #10 why no? I couldn't wait that long to see my little boy and wife, plus it wouldnt be worth the risk of that not happening.
12. Name one person that you would never eat dinner with, even if you were paid 300 dollars to do it? Rosie O'donnell
13. Have you picked your nose within the last 7 days? Yes.
14. How many questions on my tag have you not been 100% honest to?1
I tag everyone, you know who you are. If you do not have a blog answer in my comments.
Wednesday, April 9, 2008
Big Jake
I just wanted to give a big shoutout to my little bro Gregg and his wife Lisa, a big congrats on the new baby, Jake. Thats a good looking little man.
Friday, April 4, 2008
3 years
Well, I guess I will continue on with my story. 3 years ago today, I woke up around 6:00 am. The sound of an alarm clock buzzing in my head. I sat up in that dingy, dive of a motel room and reflected on the last nights dreams. I had crazy dreams through the night, dreams of Wyoming, dreams of my wife living in Wyoming. I guess they were the type of dreams that you wake up and it takes a while to figure out if they were a dream or not. The kind of dream that sticks with you for the rest of the day.
As I shook it off I climbed out of my sleeping bag and plopped on to the floor again for another prayer. I don't think it was a regular prayer, not my usual, "help me have a good day" la da da da da, but It had a little more meaning to it, in fact it carried more pleading, more pleases, more thank yous, and more help me I don't know what I am doings , in fact there were a whole lot of help me I don't know what I am doings.
I wasn't to meet my boss's son until 8:00 AM, so I had plenty of time to get ready, plus the office was about 2 minutes away from the Western Motel. The sick feeling looming about four inches behind my naval had fled through the middle of the night but started slowly creeping its way back with every click of the clock. I jumped into the shower, nearly slipping on the mildewy tile, took a quick navy shower and got dressed. I had some clothes set aside, new clothes a yellow plaid button up shirt and a pair of new pants. I thought it would be important to make a good 1st impression with nice new clothes. The funny thing about that shirt, is that day was probably the only time I ever wore that shirt. It still sits in my closet having one wash and as new as it was three years ago. I don't know why but the sick feeling of that day comes back every time I look at that shirt.
After getting ready, watching a little TV, kneeling down for three or four more prayers, I loaded my crates back into the back of my truck, and headed for a gas station. It struck me as I pulled into the gas station that the parking lot was not paved. I know that is something little but that was a type of catalyst to that sick feeling that I was feeling, and that doubt and fear that was taking everything that I possibly had to not succumb to.
After filling up with gas, I drove to my new home office. I was a little early and after about five minutes Will (my bosses son) pulled up in a nice Duramax Diesel. Will was about 6'-1" a lean 200 lbs, he looked normal, I noticed his lower lip protruded a little more from a morning dip of Copenhagen satisfaction. I climbed out of my truck and walked to the front door of the office as he unlocked it. He said, You Dave? I mustered up a pretty good smile, stuck my hand out and said "I sure am, you must be Will, nice to meet you"), (hell, I think I'd make a good politician sick feeling or not). We walked into the office, the building was large, which pleased me. The first think that I notice was the cigarette smell as I walked into the office, it was quite imposing, and coming from Utah, I just wasn't used to the smell of cigarettes inside a building, as I looked around, I noticed numerous trophy animals on the wall and that pleased me, in fact it pleased me enough to forget about the cigarette smell. We walked back into Will's office and another thing that pleased me was the equipment. Everything was the best, the best computers, the best printers. I noticed that Will had a box with a new pair of Danner hunting boots on the couch of his office. That kind of made me feel a little better. I don't know why, I guess I am a little weird. After about an hour of talking and meeting people in the office, I said my goodbyes, left the office and climbed back into my truck. I have to admit that I was getting pretty excited to see Sheridan, I had only heard good things about the place and needed to see for myself. What if it was like Green River??? What if? The sick feeling made itself aware again.
As my red Chevrolet pickup pulled back onto I-80, I took in the sights and thought, it could only get better from here. After about 30 minutes on I-80, I was still saying it could only get better from here.
There is something lonely about the high plains of Wyoming, and if you have never driven between Green River and Rawlins you will probably never know what I mean. About mid-way between Rawlins and Green River I had to take a wizz so I pulled off a ranch exit and pulled under the freeway. As the wind blew and I heard nothing but diesels driving overhead I wondered what kind of desolate hell I was getting myself into. While I was taking a wizz the cold wind and dust hit me and I began to contemplate my sanity. I thought about the good job that I had turned down in Saint George, I thought about my wife at home alone having to live for the next couple of months by herself, I thought of the good times that I would be leaving with my family and my wife's family, I thought about missing the daily stop at my Dad's office after work to just talk. But then I thought about what it would do to me to give up before I even gave it a shot, I thought about telling my wife that I was going to make it in Wyoming and going back on that and what that would do to me, and I thought about the new Duramax Diesel and Four Wheeler waiting for me at my new job, I thought about the answered prayers and what God wanted me to do, and the money, yes the sweet money.
I jumped back into my truck and began to drive. After about 30 more minutes of Hell, I called my wife. She asked how it was going? I said, I don't know, I just don't know. She asked if it was pretty, I said well not really, pretty close to hell. We hung up. I looked north-east, no mountains for a million miles. I couldn't see mountains anywhere, just sage brush and wind.
Rawlins. After what seemed like forever, I had reached Rawlins. Rawlins was the point on the map that stopped my eastern route and took me north. I wasn't impressed with Rawlins. Rawlins was the dumpiest town that I had ever been in. I stopped at a Loaf and Jug, but didn't feel much like anything. So I headed north. The drive between Rawlins and Casper didn't seem to get any better in fact as I drove past the Martins Cove area my moral hit an all time low. In fact, I don't know of a time in my life that it had ever been that low. I began to think about the pioneers. I thought about the pioneers leaving there homes, and I wondered if when they hit the Martins Cove area if they about lost it. I realised that it was faith that brought them to that point, and it was a something of a spiritual experience as my path crossed the path that I had envisioned they had made. I realised that I was a pioneer in my own sense and also realised the faith that the earlier pioneers had, made mine seem bleak in comparison. There they were burying their children in frozen graves and still pushing on, on the other hand there I was driving 75 mph down the highway about to give up because I was homesick. I had a couple of realizations in about a five mile stretch that I will never be able to forget.
One realization that I will never forget was how important it is to understand God's will before you make a decision because God sees the whole picture. I think it is easy sometimes to want something so bad that we do not allow God's will to play into the picture. I knew that before even praying about the Wyoming move that I really wanted to live in Wyoming. I had to do a little praying around Martins Cove to check myself, because I no longer wanted to live in Wyoming. I was really ready to accept God's will. To my relief I had gotten another answer that, yes I needed to be making this move.
As I drove away from Martin's Cove, I sang Come Come Ye Saints. The song would never be the same to me again.
Casper. Beautiful Casper. As I pulled into Casper, the wind about blew me off the road. I pulled into another Loaf and Jug to get gas. I called my wife and told her about beautiful Casper. It had mountains, it had wind, it was cold, and frankly wasn't the beautiful Wyoming that I had envisioned. I walked into the gas station to use the bathroom, the lady at the counter pointed to the out of service sign on the bathroom door and directed me to the port-o-potty out side. As I sat in that port-o-potty and as the wind nearly blew me over, the thought came to me. I am only 2 hours away from Sheridan, there is no possible way that in just 2 short hours that the landscape would be able to make the transition to the paradise that I had imagined. I thought maybe God wants me out here because that's what I deserve, I mean shoot, I ain't that good of kid. I left the poly-john wondering.
I jumped back into my truck and headed for Sheridan. As I passed Kaycee Wyoming the home of Chris Ledoux, I wasn't overly impressed. I said to myself "that Chris Ledoux is full of sh%#." and "Sweet Wyoming Home my @ss!" How could I have been so mis-led by his songs of Big Wonderful Wyoming? I didn't stop.
Hmmmmmmm. Okay, I thought to myself after about ten more miles. Maybe this isn't too bad. As I reached the town of Buffalo, a calmness settled into my soul. I apologised silently to Chris Ledoux for all of the bad things that I had said. Buffalo was absolutely beautiful. How could this have happened? No wind, What? I had to stop. I saw a gas station, so I pulled off. The gas station was named the G-spot. I giggled to myself... G-spot heh heh heh, your telling me. I talked to the fat kid at the counter about Sheridan as he rang up my soda pop. I asked him if Sheridan was as nice as Buffalo, he said yeah, we just have more white trash in Buffalo. I laughed, thanked him and got back into my truck and headed north for the last 30 minutes of my trip. That 30 minutes was the most stress relieving trip of my life. I looked at ranches and houses, and imagined places that I would live. It was beautiful. In fact, I did not remember ever being in such beautiful country.
Sheridan. As I pulled into Sheridan, I felt good. I said a quick prayer and thanked God for his mercy and love. I told God that I loved him and that I would make it right with him for hooking me up. I called my wife and told her I was there. I told her: "Cindy, you can't believe how lucky we are!" I hung up. I was here. I called the guy I was supposed to meet, we met and I made it. I would make it my Sweet Wyoming home.
I wrote about this, not to bore the world with my whining and stories but, I guess it was the most pivotal thing I had ever done.
I have had a good life as an adult. I mean I went on a mission away from home when I was 19 for two years, I got married, my wife and I lived on our own, we put ourselves through school without scholarships, we have never taken a dime from our parents, We both earned college degrees. We made it on our own without trust funds or inheritances. We did everything on what we learned from our parents and faith in God.
I did a lot of things as an adult, but moving to Wyoming with nothing but faith in an answered prayer made me a man. I guess that's why I wrote about it.
As I shook it off I climbed out of my sleeping bag and plopped on to the floor again for another prayer. I don't think it was a regular prayer, not my usual, "help me have a good day" la da da da da, but It had a little more meaning to it, in fact it carried more pleading, more pleases, more thank yous, and more help me I don't know what I am doings , in fact there were a whole lot of help me I don't know what I am doings.
I wasn't to meet my boss's son until 8:00 AM, so I had plenty of time to get ready, plus the office was about 2 minutes away from the Western Motel. The sick feeling looming about four inches behind my naval had fled through the middle of the night but started slowly creeping its way back with every click of the clock. I jumped into the shower, nearly slipping on the mildewy tile, took a quick navy shower and got dressed. I had some clothes set aside, new clothes a yellow plaid button up shirt and a pair of new pants. I thought it would be important to make a good 1st impression with nice new clothes. The funny thing about that shirt, is that day was probably the only time I ever wore that shirt. It still sits in my closet having one wash and as new as it was three years ago. I don't know why but the sick feeling of that day comes back every time I look at that shirt.
After getting ready, watching a little TV, kneeling down for three or four more prayers, I loaded my crates back into the back of my truck, and headed for a gas station. It struck me as I pulled into the gas station that the parking lot was not paved. I know that is something little but that was a type of catalyst to that sick feeling that I was feeling, and that doubt and fear that was taking everything that I possibly had to not succumb to.
After filling up with gas, I drove to my new home office. I was a little early and after about five minutes Will (my bosses son) pulled up in a nice Duramax Diesel. Will was about 6'-1" a lean 200 lbs, he looked normal, I noticed his lower lip protruded a little more from a morning dip of Copenhagen satisfaction. I climbed out of my truck and walked to the front door of the office as he unlocked it. He said, You Dave? I mustered up a pretty good smile, stuck my hand out and said "I sure am, you must be Will, nice to meet you"), (hell, I think I'd make a good politician sick feeling or not). We walked into the office, the building was large, which pleased me. The first think that I notice was the cigarette smell as I walked into the office, it was quite imposing, and coming from Utah, I just wasn't used to the smell of cigarettes inside a building, as I looked around, I noticed numerous trophy animals on the wall and that pleased me, in fact it pleased me enough to forget about the cigarette smell. We walked back into Will's office and another thing that pleased me was the equipment. Everything was the best, the best computers, the best printers. I noticed that Will had a box with a new pair of Danner hunting boots on the couch of his office. That kind of made me feel a little better. I don't know why, I guess I am a little weird. After about an hour of talking and meeting people in the office, I said my goodbyes, left the office and climbed back into my truck. I have to admit that I was getting pretty excited to see Sheridan, I had only heard good things about the place and needed to see for myself. What if it was like Green River??? What if? The sick feeling made itself aware again.
As my red Chevrolet pickup pulled back onto I-80, I took in the sights and thought, it could only get better from here. After about 30 minutes on I-80, I was still saying it could only get better from here.
There is something lonely about the high plains of Wyoming, and if you have never driven between Green River and Rawlins you will probably never know what I mean. About mid-way between Rawlins and Green River I had to take a wizz so I pulled off a ranch exit and pulled under the freeway. As the wind blew and I heard nothing but diesels driving overhead I wondered what kind of desolate hell I was getting myself into. While I was taking a wizz the cold wind and dust hit me and I began to contemplate my sanity. I thought about the good job that I had turned down in Saint George, I thought about my wife at home alone having to live for the next couple of months by herself, I thought of the good times that I would be leaving with my family and my wife's family, I thought about missing the daily stop at my Dad's office after work to just talk. But then I thought about what it would do to me to give up before I even gave it a shot, I thought about telling my wife that I was going to make it in Wyoming and going back on that and what that would do to me, and I thought about the new Duramax Diesel and Four Wheeler waiting for me at my new job, I thought about the answered prayers and what God wanted me to do, and the money, yes the sweet money.
I jumped back into my truck and began to drive. After about 30 more minutes of Hell, I called my wife. She asked how it was going? I said, I don't know, I just don't know. She asked if it was pretty, I said well not really, pretty close to hell. We hung up. I looked north-east, no mountains for a million miles. I couldn't see mountains anywhere, just sage brush and wind.
Rawlins. After what seemed like forever, I had reached Rawlins. Rawlins was the point on the map that stopped my eastern route and took me north. I wasn't impressed with Rawlins. Rawlins was the dumpiest town that I had ever been in. I stopped at a Loaf and Jug, but didn't feel much like anything. So I headed north. The drive between Rawlins and Casper didn't seem to get any better in fact as I drove past the Martins Cove area my moral hit an all time low. In fact, I don't know of a time in my life that it had ever been that low. I began to think about the pioneers. I thought about the pioneers leaving there homes, and I wondered if when they hit the Martins Cove area if they about lost it. I realised that it was faith that brought them to that point, and it was a something of a spiritual experience as my path crossed the path that I had envisioned they had made. I realised that I was a pioneer in my own sense and also realised the faith that the earlier pioneers had, made mine seem bleak in comparison. There they were burying their children in frozen graves and still pushing on, on the other hand there I was driving 75 mph down the highway about to give up because I was homesick. I had a couple of realizations in about a five mile stretch that I will never be able to forget.
One realization that I will never forget was how important it is to understand God's will before you make a decision because God sees the whole picture. I think it is easy sometimes to want something so bad that we do not allow God's will to play into the picture. I knew that before even praying about the Wyoming move that I really wanted to live in Wyoming. I had to do a little praying around Martins Cove to check myself, because I no longer wanted to live in Wyoming. I was really ready to accept God's will. To my relief I had gotten another answer that, yes I needed to be making this move.
As I drove away from Martin's Cove, I sang Come Come Ye Saints. The song would never be the same to me again.
Casper. Beautiful Casper. As I pulled into Casper, the wind about blew me off the road. I pulled into another Loaf and Jug to get gas. I called my wife and told her about beautiful Casper. It had mountains, it had wind, it was cold, and frankly wasn't the beautiful Wyoming that I had envisioned. I walked into the gas station to use the bathroom, the lady at the counter pointed to the out of service sign on the bathroom door and directed me to the port-o-potty out side. As I sat in that port-o-potty and as the wind nearly blew me over, the thought came to me. I am only 2 hours away from Sheridan, there is no possible way that in just 2 short hours that the landscape would be able to make the transition to the paradise that I had imagined. I thought maybe God wants me out here because that's what I deserve, I mean shoot, I ain't that good of kid. I left the poly-john wondering.
I jumped back into my truck and headed for Sheridan. As I passed Kaycee Wyoming the home of Chris Ledoux, I wasn't overly impressed. I said to myself "that Chris Ledoux is full of sh%#." and "Sweet Wyoming Home my @ss!" How could I have been so mis-led by his songs of Big Wonderful Wyoming? I didn't stop.
Hmmmmmmm. Okay, I thought to myself after about ten more miles. Maybe this isn't too bad. As I reached the town of Buffalo, a calmness settled into my soul. I apologised silently to Chris Ledoux for all of the bad things that I had said. Buffalo was absolutely beautiful. How could this have happened? No wind, What? I had to stop. I saw a gas station, so I pulled off. The gas station was named the G-spot. I giggled to myself... G-spot heh heh heh, your telling me. I talked to the fat kid at the counter about Sheridan as he rang up my soda pop. I asked him if Sheridan was as nice as Buffalo, he said yeah, we just have more white trash in Buffalo. I laughed, thanked him and got back into my truck and headed north for the last 30 minutes of my trip. That 30 minutes was the most stress relieving trip of my life. I looked at ranches and houses, and imagined places that I would live. It was beautiful. In fact, I did not remember ever being in such beautiful country.
Sheridan. As I pulled into Sheridan, I felt good. I said a quick prayer and thanked God for his mercy and love. I told God that I loved him and that I would make it right with him for hooking me up. I called my wife and told her I was there. I told her: "Cindy, you can't believe how lucky we are!" I hung up. I was here. I called the guy I was supposed to meet, we met and I made it. I would make it my Sweet Wyoming home.
I wrote about this, not to bore the world with my whining and stories but, I guess it was the most pivotal thing I had ever done.
I have had a good life as an adult. I mean I went on a mission away from home when I was 19 for two years, I got married, my wife and I lived on our own, we put ourselves through school without scholarships, we have never taken a dime from our parents, We both earned college degrees. We made it on our own without trust funds or inheritances. We did everything on what we learned from our parents and faith in God.
I did a lot of things as an adult, but moving to Wyoming with nothing but faith in an answered prayer made me a man. I guess that's why I wrote about it.
Wednesday, April 2, 2008
3 Years
Three years ago today, with a wild excitement and a hint of fear, I packed 4 large grey crates full of books, clothes, a sleeping bag, and a couple of guns into the back of my Red Chevy pickup, wiped the tears off my wife's cheek, kissed her, told her I loved her, smiled and said, I'm off to make it in Wyoming. I climbed into my truck and started to drive. After a month of deep prayers, and reasoning, and revelation. I was off to where I thought God wanted me to be. It was Sunday and I listened to conference as I drove up I-15, hoping to get a little more revelation to help me on my journey. I was comfortable, and I felt good. I think that I had been dreaming of living in Wyoming since I was a kid, having only been there a couple of times, there was something about it that made me want it.
As I hit Provo I found myself in a traffic jam, thinking to myself, man I am sure glad to not be settling into Provo. As I ventured further looking for the belt route that led me to Wyoming, I saw a large maroon pickup with Wyoming plates and a bumper sticker that said ONE WOLF WILL KILL 300 Elk IN 1 YEAR! or something like that. I knew what truck to follow. I followed the truck through the belt route, up over Parley's Summit, Through Park City, and into Wyoming. I stopped at the welcome to Wyoming sign and took a picture to send home to my wife, (of whom I was already missing terribly). I lost my conference signal as I drove past Evanston East on I-80 and the silence came.
Silence. Wyoming Silence, High Plains Cold Windy Silence. As I drove across the high plains of I-80 through Southern Wyoming, my excitement kind of went to the back of my mind. I was in country that I had never been before, and I think a little fear came to the front of my mind as if to say, you dummy, what are you doing? What if Sheridan looks like Southern Wyoming? What if? What if? What if????????
A lot a questions, a lot of doubt, and fear seemed to be exponentially creeping up on me. The only thing that would slow the fear was prayer. I prayed in that old red truck, I prayed hard, I prayed out loud. I talked to the Big man like he was there with me. (looking back, I really think he was there with me.) My destination was Green River, Wyoming. I would stay the night there, meet my Bosses son at the home office the next morning, and head to Sheridan. It was a good halfway mark. As I pulled into Green River, I've got to say I was a little disappointed. I drove through town saying more than five times under my breath, what a dump. I drove around searching for a Motel that I could back my truck to the door, pull my crates in for the night and sleep. I found a place called the Western Motel. Not to be confused with the Best Western. You all know Motel Six, this was about a Motel 2. I went to the front desk, asked him the rates, (not hourly), and got a room. I backed up my pickup to the door and unloaded my crates. The room was a non-smoking room but it was a hard sell by the evident cigarette burns. The burns were so frequent I almost thought that they were part of the decorations. There was even a cigarette burn through the television. But hey for 30 Bucks a night, that wasn't too bad.
I wasn't hungry and I thought that if I ate I would be able to rid my stomach of the sick feeling that was beginning to collect about 4 inches behind my naval. So I drove to Hardees and bought some double Angus burger meal. It was starting to get dark so I grabbed my food and drove back to my Motel. I walked into my room ate a couple of bites. I wasn't hungry so I set my burger down on the lamp table and grabbed a phonebook. I had the Idea to call my bosses kid, perhaps he'll be friendly and possibly make me feel better about all of this.
I called him, and after a brief discussion hung up discouraged even more. The sick feeling starting to set a little deeper. I had another thought. I'll call the guy that recruited me he could make me feel good again. So I called him. I think the first think I said was I talked to Will and I am wondering if you are screwing me, Bro, you ain't screwing me are you? He assured me that I was hooked up better than I could imagine. I hung up, feeling a little better. I called my wife talked for a minute. Talking to her made me homesick for her, she was positive, and there was something comforting and motivating in her voice. I got off the phone, and wishing that it was my own bed that I was climbing into. went to the bed, knelt down on a cigarette burnt carpet and prayed for a good hour. After I was done, I got up, felt a little better, pulled down the covers to the bed to climb in, only to find that the sheets had holes in them down to the yellow stained mattress. I pulled the covers back up, opened my crate with my sleeping bag, rolled it out and laid down. After about 30 seconds of laying the sick lonely feeling came back. I climbed out of my sleeping bag and knelt down on the burnt carpet again, asking for help, asking for courage, and a good night's sleep. I climbed back into bed and very quickly fell asleep.
To be continued tomorrow...
As I hit Provo I found myself in a traffic jam, thinking to myself, man I am sure glad to not be settling into Provo. As I ventured further looking for the belt route that led me to Wyoming, I saw a large maroon pickup with Wyoming plates and a bumper sticker that said ONE WOLF WILL KILL 300 Elk IN 1 YEAR! or something like that. I knew what truck to follow. I followed the truck through the belt route, up over Parley's Summit, Through Park City, and into Wyoming. I stopped at the welcome to Wyoming sign and took a picture to send home to my wife, (of whom I was already missing terribly). I lost my conference signal as I drove past Evanston East on I-80 and the silence came.
Silence. Wyoming Silence, High Plains Cold Windy Silence. As I drove across the high plains of I-80 through Southern Wyoming, my excitement kind of went to the back of my mind. I was in country that I had never been before, and I think a little fear came to the front of my mind as if to say, you dummy, what are you doing? What if Sheridan looks like Southern Wyoming? What if? What if? What if????????
A lot a questions, a lot of doubt, and fear seemed to be exponentially creeping up on me. The only thing that would slow the fear was prayer. I prayed in that old red truck, I prayed hard, I prayed out loud. I talked to the Big man like he was there with me. (looking back, I really think he was there with me.) My destination was Green River, Wyoming. I would stay the night there, meet my Bosses son at the home office the next morning, and head to Sheridan. It was a good halfway mark. As I pulled into Green River, I've got to say I was a little disappointed. I drove through town saying more than five times under my breath, what a dump. I drove around searching for a Motel that I could back my truck to the door, pull my crates in for the night and sleep. I found a place called the Western Motel. Not to be confused with the Best Western. You all know Motel Six, this was about a Motel 2. I went to the front desk, asked him the rates, (not hourly), and got a room. I backed up my pickup to the door and unloaded my crates. The room was a non-smoking room but it was a hard sell by the evident cigarette burns. The burns were so frequent I almost thought that they were part of the decorations. There was even a cigarette burn through the television. But hey for 30 Bucks a night, that wasn't too bad.
I wasn't hungry and I thought that if I ate I would be able to rid my stomach of the sick feeling that was beginning to collect about 4 inches behind my naval. So I drove to Hardees and bought some double Angus burger meal. It was starting to get dark so I grabbed my food and drove back to my Motel. I walked into my room ate a couple of bites. I wasn't hungry so I set my burger down on the lamp table and grabbed a phonebook. I had the Idea to call my bosses kid, perhaps he'll be friendly and possibly make me feel better about all of this.
I called him, and after a brief discussion hung up discouraged even more. The sick feeling starting to set a little deeper. I had another thought. I'll call the guy that recruited me he could make me feel good again. So I called him. I think the first think I said was I talked to Will and I am wondering if you are screwing me, Bro, you ain't screwing me are you? He assured me that I was hooked up better than I could imagine. I hung up, feeling a little better. I called my wife talked for a minute. Talking to her made me homesick for her, she was positive, and there was something comforting and motivating in her voice. I got off the phone, and wishing that it was my own bed that I was climbing into. went to the bed, knelt down on a cigarette burnt carpet and prayed for a good hour. After I was done, I got up, felt a little better, pulled down the covers to the bed to climb in, only to find that the sheets had holes in them down to the yellow stained mattress. I pulled the covers back up, opened my crate with my sleeping bag, rolled it out and laid down. After about 30 seconds of laying the sick lonely feeling came back. I climbed out of my sleeping bag and knelt down on the burnt carpet again, asking for help, asking for courage, and a good night's sleep. I climbed back into bed and very quickly fell asleep.
To be continued tomorrow...
Tuesday, March 11, 2008
Back on the Bridge
As you can tell, my blog is back to suffering. I think I blogged pretty good for a couple of days and now I am back trying to finish up my bridge. I only have a couple of weeks left on that dog of a bridge. Sorry for the inconvenience. I will be back to dumbing up cyberspace before we know it.Wednesday, February 27, 2008
Dummy.
In the office complex that I work, just outside of my office, sits a table. This table is large and usually people put plans, snacks ,or what ever on it. Monte, the guy in the office to the east of me walks by and asked me if I like nerds (the candy). I said yeah they are all right. Well Monte drops about 10 boxes of nerds on the table outside of my office for the rest of the office to eat. I grab a box, and Hanns the guy in the office to the West comes out of his office and grabs a box of nerds. After a few minutes Hanns comes into my office and asked if I thought a person could eat four boxes of nerds in one minute. I studied a box and told him that I thought that a person could. Hanns then proceeded to place a bet. He bet me a dollar that I couldn't eat 4 boxes of nerds in one minute. I thought about it for a minute and started wondering if it was possible. I wondered if I could be that man that could defy all laws of eating and do it, and me, being the kind of person that doesn't take a challenge lightly decided that I would take the bet. I opened the boxes, set them on my desk and began, box after box chewing and crunching fruit punch valentine nerds. Swallowing gulp after gulp of sour flavored sugar until all four boxes were gone. As I finished I knew that I did it. I asked Hanns the time. It took me one minute and five seconds. I lost the bet. So not only am I a dollar poorer, I am sick as a dog and I think I have diabetes now.
Dummy.
Monday, February 25, 2008
The Rest of 100 things about me.
76. I believe that there should be a weight limit on any belly button piercing and if that weight limit is exceeded, a minimum of 3 layers of long shirts should be worn.
77. I think that if your mid-drift is showing it must not protrude over the top of your belt buckle thus hiding the belt buckle. Unless you are a redneck and work in a scrap yard. Then it is allowable.
78. In High School, White Trash Jeff Orton took me for a ride in his sweet 88 Camaro. The car's body was beat up but he had just dropped a new 350 engine into it. We were driving down mainstreet listening to AC/DC while his dirty blond mullet flapped in the breeze. While he was chugging an Old Milwaukee he accidently ran a stop light. On the other side of the stoplight was a cop. The lights flipped on, and trying to impress me with his new engine, Orton gunned it, we turned down a side street and headed for the Indian village to hide out. Orton cop-slid around corners like it was the Dukes of Hazzard. He found a parking spot between a couple of other cars shut the lights off and tossed his beer. About 20 seconds later the cop car came zooming by. I was so relieved to have gotten away. I wasn't that scared of getting caught, I just didn't want to have to share a jail cell with Orton.
79. My senior year in High School I was walking down the hall next to my science teacher. He pulled the hat off my head and reactively (it was wrestling season) I put him into a headlock and began to give him a noogie. After I let him go, I realized that Science teachers do not like to be put into headlocks and noogied.
80. I love to get coal at the coal yard. Because it gives me other white trash to socialize with.
81. I love to cut wood.
82. I love lighters.
83. I am a pyro. I love to play with fire of any kind.
84. In college, one day my dog jumped out of the back of my truck and bit a kid. It wasn't an angry bite, just a playful fetch the kid bite. I was sick about it. I walked the kid home, and waited for his parents to come home wondering what kind of lawsuit I was about to get into. When his dad got home I was relieved when the kid's stoner dad gave him five for getting his first dog bite. The guy asked me to bring my dog over the next day so his kid could play with it so he wouldnt be scared of dogs. I took the dog over and in the 45 minutes that I was there he drank a 12 pack of beer. I became his new best buddy. He invited me and the dog in the house to look at his gun collection. While we were looking at his guns I noticed that my dog was peeing into his closet. I didn't say any thing because I didn't want to ruin our new friendship.
85. At the age of 12 on the way to a scout hike, I sat in the back of my scout leaders station wagon that had in-operable windows. I got car sick really easy back then and the Zion trip just wasn't doing it for me. As I realized that I was about to call Ralph. I told my scout leader that I had to puke. He said are you sure? I said yes I am sure. He asked if I was sure again, I said yes again. He asked if I was sure again and I blew chunks all over his car and on him. I think that was enough to convince him that I had to puke.
86. When I worked with my younger brother Gregg as a telemarketer, we were sitting next to this kid name Andrew. He was a Dungeons and Dragons dungeon master. Just messing with him we told him that Gregg was adopted and when I went with my parents to the orphanage to pick Gregg up, my parents told me that they would never love Gregg as much as they loved me. Gregg acted sad as I relayed the story to the dungeon master. The dungeon master rebuked me for my unkindness nearly casting an evil spell of warts upon my body. That day I realized that even dungeon masters have hearts.
87. One time my friend Todd and I started a heavy metal band called KRANK. We were pretty Hard Core. I wrote the Lyrics and Sang While Todd put the tunes to the Lyrics on the Guitar. We were kind of like a mix between AC/DC and Cinderella. We had a drummer that was supposed to be pretty bad A on the drums named Brent but he didn't have any drums. And when It came time for me to buy a microphone, I just didn't think that I was ready for that kind of committment. So we broke up.
88. One time I went to a Poison/Cinderella/Dokken/Slaughter concert at the Joint at the Hard Rock Hotel in Vegas with my wife and Mark Slaughter came out into the crowd and gave me five and I was like "you rock Mark Slaughter!" and he gave me a look like "yeah I know I rock, I'm Mark Slaughter."
89. One time I went to a Poison/Ratt/Great White/LA Guns concert in Salt Lake. LA Guns opened and they were all wasted and everybody started booing and I was booing until The lead singer held up a bottle of booze and then every one started cheering for the bottle of booze. That is every one but me. I'm a Mormon, I don't cheer for Alcohol.
90. One day at work I was out in the field working near an electric fence. It kept calling to me to mess with it. I inched closer and closer. I decided that if the fence didn't kill the horses that it housed, it wouldnt kill me so I touched it. It zapped me a little but not bad. Then I realize that my boots were preventing the power from grounding so I held on to the ground rod and then touched the wire. It shocked the hell out of me. I felt my heart almost explode. I sat there for a minute and realized how stupid that I really was for doing that.
91. On my High School Senior Trip at Universal Studios there were a couple of old Iranian guys that got into a fight. They were yelling at each other, We didn't know what they were saying but we could tell that they were mad and instead of hitting each other they would slap themselves, and the madder they got, the harder they would hit themselves. My friends and I kept yelling to them to stop hitting themselves and hit the other but I guess they didn't understand what we were saying because they just kept hitting themselves. When it was all over it was really difficult to tell who won the fight.
92. In Brookhaven Miss. there was a guy from India that owned a gas station. The gas station doubled as a greasy spoon. The guy from India made some of the best hamburgers. We were talking to him one day and he said that he didn't eat beef because Cows were sacred and like Gods in their culture. I thought it was a little odd that he cooked up such a mean burger.
93. I have a Black Lab Named Angus.
94. My eyes are blue
95. When I was a boy I went fishing with my dad. We weren't catching fish so we had a rock skipping contest, after a minute my dad picked up a rock and bet me that he could skip the rock and it would never sink. I took the bet and he skipped the rock after two skips the rock stopped and floated. I was amazed until I realized that my Dad hustled me and skipped a piece of wood.
96. One year at a Fathers and sons outing my Dad invited a guy Named Hal and his boy to go camping with us. When we got to the camp site the guy was all chipper and singing songs and would get a little hurt when we would kill snakes and cut down trees. I didn't think that Hal was a very good camper. I don't think my dad did either because that was the only time my dad took Hal camping with us.
97. When I was working as a Telemarketer there was a 16 year old out of the closet homo that worked there. One day I was sitting by him and we were talking, I said dude you are too young to be set on being gay you should try dating girls,have you ever dated a girl? He said no, I said, man don't go making your mind up so soon that you are gay until you try dating girls. He quickly came back with well have you ever dated a man? I said hell no, and decided that I didn't want to go any further with that conversation.
98. When I first moved out here to my buddy and I stopped by a landowners house. Rumor had spread that Marathon had hired a Mormon long before I had gotten there. As we drove up to the landowner he yelled to my buddy: Is that one of those multi-wife mother effers. But not so cleaned up. I said, Yea, do you have any daughters? He went quiet looked down at the ground and said, no. We became good friends after that.
99. I love tools. I don't think it is possible for a man to have to many tools.
100. I am very happy to be done with my 100. I didn't realize that I was such a complex man.
77. I think that if your mid-drift is showing it must not protrude over the top of your belt buckle thus hiding the belt buckle. Unless you are a redneck and work in a scrap yard. Then it is allowable.
78. In High School, White Trash Jeff Orton took me for a ride in his sweet 88 Camaro. The car's body was beat up but he had just dropped a new 350 engine into it. We were driving down mainstreet listening to AC/DC while his dirty blond mullet flapped in the breeze. While he was chugging an Old Milwaukee he accidently ran a stop light. On the other side of the stoplight was a cop. The lights flipped on, and trying to impress me with his new engine, Orton gunned it, we turned down a side street and headed for the Indian village to hide out. Orton cop-slid around corners like it was the Dukes of Hazzard. He found a parking spot between a couple of other cars shut the lights off and tossed his beer. About 20 seconds later the cop car came zooming by. I was so relieved to have gotten away. I wasn't that scared of getting caught, I just didn't want to have to share a jail cell with Orton.
79. My senior year in High School I was walking down the hall next to my science teacher. He pulled the hat off my head and reactively (it was wrestling season) I put him into a headlock and began to give him a noogie. After I let him go, I realized that Science teachers do not like to be put into headlocks and noogied.
80. I love to get coal at the coal yard. Because it gives me other white trash to socialize with.
81. I love to cut wood.
82. I love lighters.
83. I am a pyro. I love to play with fire of any kind.
84. In college, one day my dog jumped out of the back of my truck and bit a kid. It wasn't an angry bite, just a playful fetch the kid bite. I was sick about it. I walked the kid home, and waited for his parents to come home wondering what kind of lawsuit I was about to get into. When his dad got home I was relieved when the kid's stoner dad gave him five for getting his first dog bite. The guy asked me to bring my dog over the next day so his kid could play with it so he wouldnt be scared of dogs. I took the dog over and in the 45 minutes that I was there he drank a 12 pack of beer. I became his new best buddy. He invited me and the dog in the house to look at his gun collection. While we were looking at his guns I noticed that my dog was peeing into his closet. I didn't say any thing because I didn't want to ruin our new friendship.
85. At the age of 12 on the way to a scout hike, I sat in the back of my scout leaders station wagon that had in-operable windows. I got car sick really easy back then and the Zion trip just wasn't doing it for me. As I realized that I was about to call Ralph. I told my scout leader that I had to puke. He said are you sure? I said yes I am sure. He asked if I was sure again, I said yes again. He asked if I was sure again and I blew chunks all over his car and on him. I think that was enough to convince him that I had to puke.
86. When I worked with my younger brother Gregg as a telemarketer, we were sitting next to this kid name Andrew. He was a Dungeons and Dragons dungeon master. Just messing with him we told him that Gregg was adopted and when I went with my parents to the orphanage to pick Gregg up, my parents told me that they would never love Gregg as much as they loved me. Gregg acted sad as I relayed the story to the dungeon master. The dungeon master rebuked me for my unkindness nearly casting an evil spell of warts upon my body. That day I realized that even dungeon masters have hearts.
87. One time my friend Todd and I started a heavy metal band called KRANK. We were pretty Hard Core. I wrote the Lyrics and Sang While Todd put the tunes to the Lyrics on the Guitar. We were kind of like a mix between AC/DC and Cinderella. We had a drummer that was supposed to be pretty bad A on the drums named Brent but he didn't have any drums. And when It came time for me to buy a microphone, I just didn't think that I was ready for that kind of committment. So we broke up.
88. One time I went to a Poison/Cinderella/Dokken/Slaughter concert at the Joint at the Hard Rock Hotel in Vegas with my wife and Mark Slaughter came out into the crowd and gave me five and I was like "you rock Mark Slaughter!" and he gave me a look like "yeah I know I rock, I'm Mark Slaughter."
89. One time I went to a Poison/Ratt/Great White/LA Guns concert in Salt Lake. LA Guns opened and they were all wasted and everybody started booing and I was booing until The lead singer held up a bottle of booze and then every one started cheering for the bottle of booze. That is every one but me. I'm a Mormon, I don't cheer for Alcohol.
90. One day at work I was out in the field working near an electric fence. It kept calling to me to mess with it. I inched closer and closer. I decided that if the fence didn't kill the horses that it housed, it wouldnt kill me so I touched it. It zapped me a little but not bad. Then I realize that my boots were preventing the power from grounding so I held on to the ground rod and then touched the wire. It shocked the hell out of me. I felt my heart almost explode. I sat there for a minute and realized how stupid that I really was for doing that.
91. On my High School Senior Trip at Universal Studios there were a couple of old Iranian guys that got into a fight. They were yelling at each other, We didn't know what they were saying but we could tell that they were mad and instead of hitting each other they would slap themselves, and the madder they got, the harder they would hit themselves. My friends and I kept yelling to them to stop hitting themselves and hit the other but I guess they didn't understand what we were saying because they just kept hitting themselves. When it was all over it was really difficult to tell who won the fight.
92. In Brookhaven Miss. there was a guy from India that owned a gas station. The gas station doubled as a greasy spoon. The guy from India made some of the best hamburgers. We were talking to him one day and he said that he didn't eat beef because Cows were sacred and like Gods in their culture. I thought it was a little odd that he cooked up such a mean burger.
93. I have a Black Lab Named Angus.
94. My eyes are blue
95. When I was a boy I went fishing with my dad. We weren't catching fish so we had a rock skipping contest, after a minute my dad picked up a rock and bet me that he could skip the rock and it would never sink. I took the bet and he skipped the rock after two skips the rock stopped and floated. I was amazed until I realized that my Dad hustled me and skipped a piece of wood.
96. One year at a Fathers and sons outing my Dad invited a guy Named Hal and his boy to go camping with us. When we got to the camp site the guy was all chipper and singing songs and would get a little hurt when we would kill snakes and cut down trees. I didn't think that Hal was a very good camper. I don't think my dad did either because that was the only time my dad took Hal camping with us.
97. When I was working as a Telemarketer there was a 16 year old out of the closet homo that worked there. One day I was sitting by him and we were talking, I said dude you are too young to be set on being gay you should try dating girls,have you ever dated a girl? He said no, I said, man don't go making your mind up so soon that you are gay until you try dating girls. He quickly came back with well have you ever dated a man? I said hell no, and decided that I didn't want to go any further with that conversation.
98. When I first moved out here to my buddy and I stopped by a landowners house. Rumor had spread that Marathon had hired a Mormon long before I had gotten there. As we drove up to the landowner he yelled to my buddy: Is that one of those multi-wife mother effers. But not so cleaned up. I said, Yea, do you have any daughters? He went quiet looked down at the ground and said, no. We became good friends after that.
99. I love tools. I don't think it is possible for a man to have to many tools.
100. I am very happy to be done with my 100. I didn't realize that I was such a complex man.
Thursday, February 21, 2008
100 things about me Continued from Continued
51. Barak Hussien Obama scares me almost as much as Hillary Clinton. I would think that the American people would be smart enough to be a little more hesitant to vote for a man with a middle name of Hussien.
52. I will vote for John McCain. I dis-agree with some of his policies and I don't like his personality. But, any man that spent 4 years in a POW camp for his country deserves to run it for 4 years. Even though I don't like the man, my personal opinion does not dispute the fact that he was an American hero. Plus I think that a pres. Hillary or a Pres Osama, would be the key that unlocks the doors to the apocalypse.
53. While working for Marathon Oil I shared an office with the guy that hired me. On many occasions we would cut the cheese and try to lock each other in the office. I don't think that was very professional conduct for a couple of engineers.
54. I get weekly calls to asking me to return to work for that company.
55. There are some movies that I could watch over and over again and never get tired of it. Back to the Future, Training Day, Rockstar, and Happy Gilmore. (edited versions of Training Day and Rockstar of course).
56. I like talking to people who think they are smart and try to portray how smart they are by talking about subjects that seem to be interesting to smart people, because deep down, even though I may seem like I am following the conversation, I more than likely am thinking about a Dukes of Hazzard episode.
57. Right now I am really thinking that I wish I would have only committed to writing 57 things about myself.
58. I hate working with negative people. People that are mopey booby, and p.o.ed. I think that it would be a good idea to put a person like that in a small room and filled it full of bananas and leave that person for a day. I think it is impossible to be in a bad mood when you are surrounded by a bunch of bananas.
59. There is a member of the Utah Highway Patrol, that If I saw him out of uniform and in the hills I would beat like a rented mule.
60. When I was a kid. I used to really enjoy burning ants with a magnifying glass. After a while I decided to step it up to gasoline, I would dump gasoline on ant piles and light them on fire. I thought that was good entertainment until I poured gas on a hot coal from an earlier burning and caught myself on fire. Then I decided that I better go back to the magnifying glass.
61. I think a good way to keep your neighbors dog from pooping on the lawn is after the dog has pooped, go out and pour bacon grease on the poop. The neighbor's dog will start cleaning up after himself.
62. I believe that if a person plays dungeons and dragons that person can be assured that he is a dork.
63. I believe that if a person is the dungeon master of his dungeons and dragons group that does not mean he is a cool dork, it means that he the dork source.
64. I don't believe that being a member of a fraternity makes you cool. Once in college, during pledge week I was hit up by a frat boy to pledge. He got to telling me about all the benefits of being a frat boy. I asked him, when was the last time he hooked up with a girl. He went quiet for a minute. I told him that was all I needed to know.
65. At a high school wrestling practice, the assistant wrestling coach got a little rough with the head coach so the head coach head butted the assistant coach, pushed him into another room shut the door, there was a rumbling around for a few minutes and they came back out. The assistant coach had his head down, looked sad and apologised to the team for his actions. I have always wondered what happened in that other room. Plus it was a pretty sweet head butt.
66. In college there was a little intra-mural wrestling tournament that I decided to wrestle in. There was this guy that showed up that was supposed to be a stud. He was a three time state champ and was wrestling for big college. Sure enough I had to wrestle him. He was just a higher caliber wrestler than I was. Right off I sunk a lucky head throw and pinned him about 30 seconds into the match. It was completely luck. I mean complete luck. The kid was infuriated. I shook his hand and told him good job. After the match he came over to me and asked me if we could have a rematch on the other mat. I lied and told him that I would like to, but I had to go home and help my dad. (I knew that kid could beat me any day of the week.) I told him that he put up a good fight and not to feel bad about it. I walked out of that gym very quickly with a big grin on my face. Why? Because that's just the way I roll.
67. When I was a little kid we had a camp trailor. When my dad would pull of the road to dump the sewer, my brothers and I would stand around and watch with excitement for giant turds to come flopping out. We really enjoyed that.
68. When I was a boy my mom would safetypin towels around me and my friend's neck so we could play superman. I used to think that superman could really fly until I jumped off the neighbors shed and did a bellyflop from 8 ft. After that I realised that there was no such thing as superman.
69. I believed in Superman up until I was 15.
70. When I was younger I was a swimmer. Back in the 80's when we were just learning about AIDS, my mom made the comment that the pool locker room bathrooms were gross and you could get aids from sitting on the toilets. I came home from swimming practice most days with belly ache. I hated swim team.
71. One day after swimming practice a kid started a fight with me in the showers. I ended up beating the crap out of him. Later in college he was my home teaching companion. I asked him if he remembered our fight in the showers. He said he didn't and changed the subject. I know he remembers.
72. One day my older brothers bike got stolen by a kid named squirrel. The cops caught him and my brother got his bike back. I think with a name like squirrel he probably should have got to keep the bike.
73. My favorite color is blue, and looking back I think my favorite color is blue because my dad's favorite color is blue, and If I'm guessing right his dad's favorite color was probably blue too. I hope my boys favorite color isn't pink or purple, because then I will have to wonder why his favorite color isn't blue.
74. When I was a very little boy I remember riding with my Mom and Dad and getting stuck in his old brown GMC. I remember suggesting that my dad put the truck into four wheel drive to get out. I remember my dad acting like he hadn't even thought of that and getting out of the truck and putting it into four wheel drive and driving us out of the mud. I remember sitting proudly saying that if it wasn't for me reminding him to put it in four wheel drive we would still be stuck. My parents thanked me over and over again for my help. They always made me feel ten feet tall.
75. One day on my mission I was driving with my comp. and a squirrel was in the middle of the road. My comp. sped up and hit the squirrel. It only wounded the squirrel, so my comp and I jumped out of the car, grabbed some sticks and and chased the squirrel up a tree. While we were trying to hit the squirrel this lady came out of her house and yelled, "what are you doing?" My comp. and I put on our sad faces and told the lady that we hit the squirrel and felt really bad and wanted to put it out of it's misery. She told us we were sweet, that most people would just keep driving. We said that we just felt bad. She was so touched that she invited us over to her house. I think she fed us Ice Cream.
52. I will vote for John McCain. I dis-agree with some of his policies and I don't like his personality. But, any man that spent 4 years in a POW camp for his country deserves to run it for 4 years. Even though I don't like the man, my personal opinion does not dispute the fact that he was an American hero. Plus I think that a pres. Hillary or a Pres Osama, would be the key that unlocks the doors to the apocalypse.
53. While working for Marathon Oil I shared an office with the guy that hired me. On many occasions we would cut the cheese and try to lock each other in the office. I don't think that was very professional conduct for a couple of engineers.
54. I get weekly calls to asking me to return to work for that company.
55. There are some movies that I could watch over and over again and never get tired of it. Back to the Future, Training Day, Rockstar, and Happy Gilmore. (edited versions of Training Day and Rockstar of course).
56. I like talking to people who think they are smart and try to portray how smart they are by talking about subjects that seem to be interesting to smart people, because deep down, even though I may seem like I am following the conversation, I more than likely am thinking about a Dukes of Hazzard episode.
57. Right now I am really thinking that I wish I would have only committed to writing 57 things about myself.
58. I hate working with negative people. People that are mopey booby, and p.o.ed. I think that it would be a good idea to put a person like that in a small room and filled it full of bananas and leave that person for a day. I think it is impossible to be in a bad mood when you are surrounded by a bunch of bananas.
59. There is a member of the Utah Highway Patrol, that If I saw him out of uniform and in the hills I would beat like a rented mule.
60. When I was a kid. I used to really enjoy burning ants with a magnifying glass. After a while I decided to step it up to gasoline, I would dump gasoline on ant piles and light them on fire. I thought that was good entertainment until I poured gas on a hot coal from an earlier burning and caught myself on fire. Then I decided that I better go back to the magnifying glass.
61. I think a good way to keep your neighbors dog from pooping on the lawn is after the dog has pooped, go out and pour bacon grease on the poop. The neighbor's dog will start cleaning up after himself.
62. I believe that if a person plays dungeons and dragons that person can be assured that he is a dork.
63. I believe that if a person is the dungeon master of his dungeons and dragons group that does not mean he is a cool dork, it means that he the dork source.
64. I don't believe that being a member of a fraternity makes you cool. Once in college, during pledge week I was hit up by a frat boy to pledge. He got to telling me about all the benefits of being a frat boy. I asked him, when was the last time he hooked up with a girl. He went quiet for a minute. I told him that was all I needed to know.
65. At a high school wrestling practice, the assistant wrestling coach got a little rough with the head coach so the head coach head butted the assistant coach, pushed him into another room shut the door, there was a rumbling around for a few minutes and they came back out. The assistant coach had his head down, looked sad and apologised to the team for his actions. I have always wondered what happened in that other room. Plus it was a pretty sweet head butt.
66. In college there was a little intra-mural wrestling tournament that I decided to wrestle in. There was this guy that showed up that was supposed to be a stud. He was a three time state champ and was wrestling for big college. Sure enough I had to wrestle him. He was just a higher caliber wrestler than I was. Right off I sunk a lucky head throw and pinned him about 30 seconds into the match. It was completely luck. I mean complete luck. The kid was infuriated. I shook his hand and told him good job. After the match he came over to me and asked me if we could have a rematch on the other mat. I lied and told him that I would like to, but I had to go home and help my dad. (I knew that kid could beat me any day of the week.) I told him that he put up a good fight and not to feel bad about it. I walked out of that gym very quickly with a big grin on my face. Why? Because that's just the way I roll.
67. When I was a little kid we had a camp trailor. When my dad would pull of the road to dump the sewer, my brothers and I would stand around and watch with excitement for giant turds to come flopping out. We really enjoyed that.
68. When I was a boy my mom would safetypin towels around me and my friend's neck so we could play superman. I used to think that superman could really fly until I jumped off the neighbors shed and did a bellyflop from 8 ft. After that I realised that there was no such thing as superman.
69. I believed in Superman up until I was 15.
70. When I was younger I was a swimmer. Back in the 80's when we were just learning about AIDS, my mom made the comment that the pool locker room bathrooms were gross and you could get aids from sitting on the toilets. I came home from swimming practice most days with belly ache. I hated swim team.
71. One day after swimming practice a kid started a fight with me in the showers. I ended up beating the crap out of him. Later in college he was my home teaching companion. I asked him if he remembered our fight in the showers. He said he didn't and changed the subject. I know he remembers.
72. One day my older brothers bike got stolen by a kid named squirrel. The cops caught him and my brother got his bike back. I think with a name like squirrel he probably should have got to keep the bike.
73. My favorite color is blue, and looking back I think my favorite color is blue because my dad's favorite color is blue, and If I'm guessing right his dad's favorite color was probably blue too. I hope my boys favorite color isn't pink or purple, because then I will have to wonder why his favorite color isn't blue.
74. When I was a very little boy I remember riding with my Mom and Dad and getting stuck in his old brown GMC. I remember suggesting that my dad put the truck into four wheel drive to get out. I remember my dad acting like he hadn't even thought of that and getting out of the truck and putting it into four wheel drive and driving us out of the mud. I remember sitting proudly saying that if it wasn't for me reminding him to put it in four wheel drive we would still be stuck. My parents thanked me over and over again for my help. They always made me feel ten feet tall.
75. One day on my mission I was driving with my comp. and a squirrel was in the middle of the road. My comp. sped up and hit the squirrel. It only wounded the squirrel, so my comp and I jumped out of the car, grabbed some sticks and and chased the squirrel up a tree. While we were trying to hit the squirrel this lady came out of her house and yelled, "what are you doing?" My comp. and I put on our sad faces and told the lady that we hit the squirrel and felt really bad and wanted to put it out of it's misery. She told us we were sweet, that most people would just keep driving. We said that we just felt bad. She was so touched that she invited us over to her house. I think she fed us Ice Cream.
Wednesday, February 20, 2008
100 things about me continued...
26. I just got a new Giant Hi-res Monitor for my work computer that is bad A.
27. About a week after my first date with my wife I was on a date with another girl (pre-cindy scheduling)at a Poison Concert and I had my date wait in line with me to buy Cindy a souvenier.
28. I don't think that being gay is a right or a privelege. I think it is a sin. Besides that I don't like how gay people talk.
29. One time when I was in the boy scouts, I was on a scout trip and had a leader that was always talking down to me and cutting on me. I was sitting in the back seat of his van on the way home and started licking a new piece of jerky then I stuck it out the window to dry then I offered the jerky to my scout leader. He took it and said thanks very sincerely, ate the jerky, and was nice to me the rest of the trip for giving him a piece of jerky. I almost felt bad for that.
30. I wrestled my whole life and don't think that I ever had a match that I didn't feel mental pressure.
31. I don't think that wrestling is a sport for girls. Not that they can't do a good job, just it grosses little boys out to have to wrestle girls.
32. I don't think that cheerleading and drill team is for boys. Even if you are gay. If you read this and are gay and offended please see number 28.
33. In the middle east men fight by pulling off their sandals and start hitting each other with them. I don't think that type of fighting is an effective way of fighting.
34. I think that in order for a person to collect a welfare check, that person has to pass a drug test. That welfare money came from people that payed taxes. The people that payed taxes had to pass a drug test, I think that is only fair.
35. I believe that child molesters and rapists should recieve the death penalty. I don't think it is curable.
36. At one point and time I believed that a Fourty ounce beer bottle in a paper sack was the state flower of Mississippi.
37. I still believe that the mosquito is the state bird of Mississippi.
38. I love Postum, and am saddened by its discontinuance.
39. I have a stockpile of postum and and am happy about that.
40. I believe that I can make a trip to bear country the scariest trip to bear country that a person could have.
41. I think that chitterlings should not be considered a food in any culture. They are hog intestines, you cannot cover up that flavor.
43. I hate hearing someone from another country in our country complain about our country. One day in college, a Japanese student went off on America after the movie Pearl Harbor came out. I told him to get the hell out, we didn't invite him.
44. I believe that the Labrador Retriever is all around the best dog to have. My Little bro bought a English Mastiff and for a while I started changing my mind because it is the coolest looking dog that I had ever seen. However I went back to the Lab because I realised that English Mastiffs just lay around, eat, look pretty and take Giant huds. However it would be a good dog to sick on someone.
45. I think that it is ok to play in Texas without a fiddle in the band.
46. When I was in school, I thought about becoming a pharmacist. But after watching a pharmacist count pills all day I wondered if I would be able to count pills all day without taking pills all day to deal with counting pills all day.
47. I played the Saxophone up through my sophmore year in High School. I think that I was pretty good. I did the pep band the marching band and the Jazz band. They even handed out Shirts that you could have your cool band nickname embriodered on it. At that time I really wished that I had chosen to play the trombone because I could think of a million cool nicknames that would go with the trombone. When kids started showing up to school with band letterman jackets and embriodered shirts that said "Saxastud", "Flutti Tuttie", "Clair-Annette", "Tubatoothpaste", and "French WHorn". My shirt just said Dave. I realized that band wasn't for me. Plus I wanted a Trombone nickname.
48. I wasn't a very nice kid in semminary and at one point and time my teacher told me that if I memorized all of my scripture master scriptures I would never have to come back and he would give me an A. I thought that was a cop-out on his part so I didn't memorise any of the scriptures and stayed in semminary to liven up the class. He only taught one year.
49. In the 8th grade I really liked talking and entertaining the class. So my teacher made me sit back in the very back corner in this huge desk for the rest of the year. I felt bad for a minute until Derek Heap brought me a swimsuit calender to stash in my desk, just in case I got lonely. I loved that desk.
50. I think that if a person is 15 years old and rides to school with his mom in her mini-van, that, that person is not a gangster and should have to pull his pants up.
50b. I don't know why but my blogger spell checker is not working so sorry, you will have to deal withhe mie misstspellangs.
To be continued.....
27. About a week after my first date with my wife I was on a date with another girl (pre-cindy scheduling)at a Poison Concert and I had my date wait in line with me to buy Cindy a souvenier.
28. I don't think that being gay is a right or a privelege. I think it is a sin. Besides that I don't like how gay people talk.
29. One time when I was in the boy scouts, I was on a scout trip and had a leader that was always talking down to me and cutting on me. I was sitting in the back seat of his van on the way home and started licking a new piece of jerky then I stuck it out the window to dry then I offered the jerky to my scout leader. He took it and said thanks very sincerely, ate the jerky, and was nice to me the rest of the trip for giving him a piece of jerky. I almost felt bad for that.
30. I wrestled my whole life and don't think that I ever had a match that I didn't feel mental pressure.
31. I don't think that wrestling is a sport for girls. Not that they can't do a good job, just it grosses little boys out to have to wrestle girls.
32. I don't think that cheerleading and drill team is for boys. Even if you are gay. If you read this and are gay and offended please see number 28.
33. In the middle east men fight by pulling off their sandals and start hitting each other with them. I don't think that type of fighting is an effective way of fighting.
34. I think that in order for a person to collect a welfare check, that person has to pass a drug test. That welfare money came from people that payed taxes. The people that payed taxes had to pass a drug test, I think that is only fair.
35. I believe that child molesters and rapists should recieve the death penalty. I don't think it is curable.
36. At one point and time I believed that a Fourty ounce beer bottle in a paper sack was the state flower of Mississippi.
37. I still believe that the mosquito is the state bird of Mississippi.
38. I love Postum, and am saddened by its discontinuance.
39. I have a stockpile of postum and and am happy about that.
40. I believe that I can make a trip to bear country the scariest trip to bear country that a person could have.
41. I think that chitterlings should not be considered a food in any culture. They are hog intestines, you cannot cover up that flavor.
43. I hate hearing someone from another country in our country complain about our country. One day in college, a Japanese student went off on America after the movie Pearl Harbor came out. I told him to get the hell out, we didn't invite him.
44. I believe that the Labrador Retriever is all around the best dog to have. My Little bro bought a English Mastiff and for a while I started changing my mind because it is the coolest looking dog that I had ever seen. However I went back to the Lab because I realised that English Mastiffs just lay around, eat, look pretty and take Giant huds. However it would be a good dog to sick on someone.
45. I think that it is ok to play in Texas without a fiddle in the band.
46. When I was in school, I thought about becoming a pharmacist. But after watching a pharmacist count pills all day I wondered if I would be able to count pills all day without taking pills all day to deal with counting pills all day.
47. I played the Saxophone up through my sophmore year in High School. I think that I was pretty good. I did the pep band the marching band and the Jazz band. They even handed out Shirts that you could have your cool band nickname embriodered on it. At that time I really wished that I had chosen to play the trombone because I could think of a million cool nicknames that would go with the trombone. When kids started showing up to school with band letterman jackets and embriodered shirts that said "Saxastud", "Flutti Tuttie", "Clair-Annette", "Tubatoothpaste", and "French WHorn". My shirt just said Dave. I realized that band wasn't for me. Plus I wanted a Trombone nickname.
48. I wasn't a very nice kid in semminary and at one point and time my teacher told me that if I memorized all of my scripture master scriptures I would never have to come back and he would give me an A. I thought that was a cop-out on his part so I didn't memorise any of the scriptures and stayed in semminary to liven up the class. He only taught one year.
49. In the 8th grade I really liked talking and entertaining the class. So my teacher made me sit back in the very back corner in this huge desk for the rest of the year. I felt bad for a minute until Derek Heap brought me a swimsuit calender to stash in my desk, just in case I got lonely. I loved that desk.
50. I think that if a person is 15 years old and rides to school with his mom in her mini-van, that, that person is not a gangster and should have to pull his pants up.
50b. I don't know why but my blogger spell checker is not working so sorry, you will have to deal withhe mie misstspellangs.
To be continued.....
100 things about me.
Miandmiksmom put me up to the challenge of writing 100 things about myself. So here goes.
1. I don't like Bums. We have a couple of Transients that have recently made a home in Sheridan and every time I drive by them I feel like throwing something out the window at them.
2. I don't like Hillary Clinton. It scares the pants off of me to think that she may become president.
3. I love hunting.
4. I love fishing.
5. I used to love fishing better than hunting until I got a hunting dog. After that I loved hunting more better.
6. I am starting to love fishing as much as hunting again.
7. I am a firm believer that sometimes giving someone a fat lip is the only solution.
8. I love Jesus. I don't think that he would agree with number seven or number one. But He may agree with me on number two.
9. In high school My older brother, me, and some of our friends used to wizz of the overpass onto oncoming traffic for fun.
10. My older brother and I have talked about things we did in high school and agree that now days we would be in councelling, and might possibly be considered terrorists.
11. I could eat seafood every day for every meal and never get tired of it.
12. I really like a good pocket knife.
13. I can go for a long time with out swearing but sometimes I will just have a day that I swear enough to make up for the long time without swearing.
14. I have never taken the Lord's name in vane.
15. The last time I said the F-word was 8 years ago when I was engaged. What can I say, 6 month engagement, kind of frustrating.
16. If I had a wooden leg, I think that I would attach a kickstand to it, just so I could say that I have a wooden leg with a kickstand.
17. I still think my wife is hot, and think that the only reason that I scored such a babe is because I am a good salesman.
18. Sometimes when I wake up early in the morning for work I am extra loud so my little boy will wake up so I can play with him at work.
19. I would always have my 3 brother's and Dad's back in a fight even if it meant going to jail.
20. One time in Elementary School I stapled Boner Bezanson's back. I still feel bad about that.
21. When I was a kid my German Shorthair ran away with my brothers German Shepherd. We went away for the weekend and came home and my brothers dog came back. Mine didn't. My brother said that he prayed all weekend that his dog would come back. I realized that I hadn't prayed at all that weekend that my dog would come back, and that was why my dog didn't come back. I still wish I would have prayed that weekend.
22. When I was a boy my mother made me take piano lessons. I think that I was pretty good, but I thought that the piano was for girls and homo's, so I hated it and never told any one that I could play the piano. I still can read music and I still don't tell people that I can play the piano because I still think it is for girls and homo's.
23. I think I will let my wife make my boy take piano lessons because I think it is good for the mind, and I don't think that my boy will think that the piano is just for girls and homos because I think he will be a nicer boy than I was.
24. I don't have a lot of friends, but the friends I do have I trust. If I don't trust a person I won't even pretend to be his friend.
25. My wife is a good enough friend that even if I didn't have any friends I could still be just as happy as if I had a whole bunch of friends.
To be continued.....
1. I don't like Bums. We have a couple of Transients that have recently made a home in Sheridan and every time I drive by them I feel like throwing something out the window at them.
2. I don't like Hillary Clinton. It scares the pants off of me to think that she may become president.
3. I love hunting.
4. I love fishing.
5. I used to love fishing better than hunting until I got a hunting dog. After that I loved hunting more better.
6. I am starting to love fishing as much as hunting again.
7. I am a firm believer that sometimes giving someone a fat lip is the only solution.
8. I love Jesus. I don't think that he would agree with number seven or number one. But He may agree with me on number two.
9. In high school My older brother, me, and some of our friends used to wizz of the overpass onto oncoming traffic for fun.
10. My older brother and I have talked about things we did in high school and agree that now days we would be in councelling, and might possibly be considered terrorists.
11. I could eat seafood every day for every meal and never get tired of it.
12. I really like a good pocket knife.
13. I can go for a long time with out swearing but sometimes I will just have a day that I swear enough to make up for the long time without swearing.
14. I have never taken the Lord's name in vane.
15. The last time I said the F-word was 8 years ago when I was engaged. What can I say, 6 month engagement, kind of frustrating.
16. If I had a wooden leg, I think that I would attach a kickstand to it, just so I could say that I have a wooden leg with a kickstand.
17. I still think my wife is hot, and think that the only reason that I scored such a babe is because I am a good salesman.
18. Sometimes when I wake up early in the morning for work I am extra loud so my little boy will wake up so I can play with him at work.
19. I would always have my 3 brother's and Dad's back in a fight even if it meant going to jail.
20. One time in Elementary School I stapled Boner Bezanson's back. I still feel bad about that.
21. When I was a kid my German Shorthair ran away with my brothers German Shepherd. We went away for the weekend and came home and my brothers dog came back. Mine didn't. My brother said that he prayed all weekend that his dog would come back. I realized that I hadn't prayed at all that weekend that my dog would come back, and that was why my dog didn't come back. I still wish I would have prayed that weekend.
22. When I was a boy my mother made me take piano lessons. I think that I was pretty good, but I thought that the piano was for girls and homo's, so I hated it and never told any one that I could play the piano. I still can read music and I still don't tell people that I can play the piano because I still think it is for girls and homo's.
23. I think I will let my wife make my boy take piano lessons because I think it is good for the mind, and I don't think that my boy will think that the piano is just for girls and homos because I think he will be a nicer boy than I was.
24. I don't have a lot of friends, but the friends I do have I trust. If I don't trust a person I won't even pretend to be his friend.
25. My wife is a good enough friend that even if I didn't have any friends I could still be just as happy as if I had a whole bunch of friends.
To be continued.....
Monday, February 18, 2008
Yeah, I'm going there.
At 18 years of age and about two months before my mission. A friend took me to a place just north of Minersville, Utah. I never thought about the name Minersville and where it came from until I was shown the numerous mines that surrounded the Minersville area. There was something intriguing about the old openings. Some openings went as tunnels into the mountain and others were vertical pits littered with century old mining paraphanalia around the entrance. I immediately wanted to explore the mines and was stopped short by the fear of my friend. My friend just didn't want to go there. I decided that I would have to go about the mine exploration alone.
The next morning I woke up early, grabbed a flashlight, some extra batteries, and a hammer (to chip out the gold of course) and headed for Minersville.
There was one mine that stood out from the previous day that I knew I had to explore. I drove around the Minersville hills for about an hour, lost trying to find my special mine, until I came across an equally intriguing mine. Only about 15 feet from where I had parked, and over a few sagebrush was a hole about 4 foot wide by 6 foot tall. I climbed out of my primer grey Ford Bronco II equipped with an 8-ball stick shifter (I had to throw that in so you could know what kind of bad-A I was back then), grabbed my flash light and hammer and headed into the dark adventure that was ahead of me.
As I entered the mine, I inspected the mine for safety, and with 18 years of experience of messing around in places that I shouldn't, deemed the mine safe for exploration. As I walked throught the mine, I looked closely at the walls for, perhaps a little gold that had been left behind. After about 200 feet of close inspection, I realized that whomever painstakingly chipped this cave out by hand probably made sure that he didn't leave any gold behind. As I explored deeper I came across a small cave-in that made me a little unsure of going any farther, but being the safety expert that I was, decided that I would be OK to venture on. I climbed over the rubble and headed deeper into the hole. After what seemed like 300 feet, I came to a place that looked like the earth had settled about 3 feet and I looked down at the settled area and found a vein of turqoise. I took my hammer and chipped away the vein and filled my pockets. After taking a minute to reflect on my success I decided to venture deeper into the cave. Turn after turn, straight-away after straight-away I walked deeper. There were little if any branches to the tunnel, and what branches I found, I explored, and never found any branch to go much farther than 100 feet. As I traveled deeper I came to a wooden structure about 2 feet tall blocking the mine and what seemed like the end of my adventure. As I walked closer and looked over the barrier, I saw that the shaft was no longer horizontal but vertical. The wooden structure was a support for a ladder system leading deep, very deep. As I shined my flashlight over the edge I couldn't see the bottom. I inspected the ladder system and though the system seemed structurally sound, I realized that the structure had been built probably 100 years earlier. I thought about climbing down the ladder, but thought I should perform a few safety tests first. I picked up a rock and tossed it into the hole and listened. I never heard it hit the bottom. I did however hear what I thought was a faint cursing in Chinese. I'll never know though. I threw another larger rock and listened for a landing and never heard it. That scared me enough to decide that it would not be in my best interest to not go there.
Today I want to go somewhere that perhaps I shouldn't go, but I would like to. First, I do want to say that truly and deep down. I am not a racist. I can say that at times ignorance has caused me to make judgements on people different than I, (Race, Religion, Politics, etc.) and in the aftermath of getting to know someone that fell into my ignorant prejudgemet, realized how foolish my un-educated pre-judgements really were. I think most of us are guilty of that sometimes. Maybe I am the only one, I don't know. As I have experienced being around people that are different than me, I have come to realize more fully that most of us are all struggling with the same problems regardless of Race or Religion. I do believe that there are some things out there that do more harm for their race in the name of helping their race. I want to mention some things that bother me.. Yes, I am going there.
1. I am bothered by the United Negro College Fund. I think that a college fund designed for people to ensure that their money only goes to someone of another race is racist. I don't even think it is proper to say negro any more? How can you have a college fund called that. Can you imagine the uproar If I started a United Honky College Fund?
2. I am bothered by The Miss Black America Contest. For the same reasons as above. " There she is Miss White America..... Just not happening.
3. I am bothered by BET (Black Entertainment Television.) Not just for the same reasons as mentioned, but I think that If a channel is going to only play shows with African Americans in them, they should have to take claim on Steve Erkel.
4. I am bothered by Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton. Any time a celebrity or politition says something derogotory or racially incorrect they have to apologise to Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton. Hell, don't apologise to Jesse and Al, apologise to who you said it too. If Denzel Washington called me a cracker, I'm not going to feel better if he got on National Television and apologised to Reverend Billy Graham. I want him to call me. I don't need it to be a national issue.
5. I am bothered by equal opportunity employment. I think this forces an employer to take race into account when hiring, instead of the most qualified.
6. I am bothered by affirmative action and its intent to promote access to education or employment aimed at historically sociopolitically non-dominant group. I think this ensures the labeling of a non-dominant group.
My list is by no means exhaustive. Those are just a few things that I think hinder a productive society.
I think as a nation we have come along way. Look at our presidential front runners. We have a White Woman, a Black Muslim, and an 80 year old White Guy. I think this proves that we have come a long way.
I think we, collectively as a nation, are getting over the bigotry. I just think that there are some out there (e.g. Jesse and Al) that wouldn't have a living unless it were still alive.
Perhaps I shouldn' t have gone here. I feel strongly about it and welcome any comments, critisms, or questions.
I guess sometimes when you don't go somewhere, you are always left not having gone there. And just as with my cave, I could go further, but I won't, because I am afraid.
The next morning I woke up early, grabbed a flashlight, some extra batteries, and a hammer (to chip out the gold of course) and headed for Minersville.
There was one mine that stood out from the previous day that I knew I had to explore. I drove around the Minersville hills for about an hour, lost trying to find my special mine, until I came across an equally intriguing mine. Only about 15 feet from where I had parked, and over a few sagebrush was a hole about 4 foot wide by 6 foot tall. I climbed out of my primer grey Ford Bronco II equipped with an 8-ball stick shifter (I had to throw that in so you could know what kind of bad-A I was back then), grabbed my flash light and hammer and headed into the dark adventure that was ahead of me.
As I entered the mine, I inspected the mine for safety, and with 18 years of experience of messing around in places that I shouldn't, deemed the mine safe for exploration. As I walked throught the mine, I looked closely at the walls for, perhaps a little gold that had been left behind. After about 200 feet of close inspection, I realized that whomever painstakingly chipped this cave out by hand probably made sure that he didn't leave any gold behind. As I explored deeper I came across a small cave-in that made me a little unsure of going any farther, but being the safety expert that I was, decided that I would be OK to venture on. I climbed over the rubble and headed deeper into the hole. After what seemed like 300 feet, I came to a place that looked like the earth had settled about 3 feet and I looked down at the settled area and found a vein of turqoise. I took my hammer and chipped away the vein and filled my pockets. After taking a minute to reflect on my success I decided to venture deeper into the cave. Turn after turn, straight-away after straight-away I walked deeper. There were little if any branches to the tunnel, and what branches I found, I explored, and never found any branch to go much farther than 100 feet. As I traveled deeper I came to a wooden structure about 2 feet tall blocking the mine and what seemed like the end of my adventure. As I walked closer and looked over the barrier, I saw that the shaft was no longer horizontal but vertical. The wooden structure was a support for a ladder system leading deep, very deep. As I shined my flashlight over the edge I couldn't see the bottom. I inspected the ladder system and though the system seemed structurally sound, I realized that the structure had been built probably 100 years earlier. I thought about climbing down the ladder, but thought I should perform a few safety tests first. I picked up a rock and tossed it into the hole and listened. I never heard it hit the bottom. I did however hear what I thought was a faint cursing in Chinese. I'll never know though. I threw another larger rock and listened for a landing and never heard it. That scared me enough to decide that it would not be in my best interest to not go there.
Today I want to go somewhere that perhaps I shouldn't go, but I would like to. First, I do want to say that truly and deep down. I am not a racist. I can say that at times ignorance has caused me to make judgements on people different than I, (Race, Religion, Politics, etc.) and in the aftermath of getting to know someone that fell into my ignorant prejudgemet, realized how foolish my un-educated pre-judgements really were. I think most of us are guilty of that sometimes. Maybe I am the only one, I don't know. As I have experienced being around people that are different than me, I have come to realize more fully that most of us are all struggling with the same problems regardless of Race or Religion. I do believe that there are some things out there that do more harm for their race in the name of helping their race. I want to mention some things that bother me.. Yes, I am going there.
1. I am bothered by the United Negro College Fund. I think that a college fund designed for people to ensure that their money only goes to someone of another race is racist. I don't even think it is proper to say negro any more? How can you have a college fund called that. Can you imagine the uproar If I started a United Honky College Fund?
2. I am bothered by The Miss Black America Contest. For the same reasons as above. " There she is Miss White America..... Just not happening.
3. I am bothered by BET (Black Entertainment Television.) Not just for the same reasons as mentioned, but I think that If a channel is going to only play shows with African Americans in them, they should have to take claim on Steve Erkel.
4. I am bothered by Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton. Any time a celebrity or politition says something derogotory or racially incorrect they have to apologise to Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton. Hell, don't apologise to Jesse and Al, apologise to who you said it too. If Denzel Washington called me a cracker, I'm not going to feel better if he got on National Television and apologised to Reverend Billy Graham. I want him to call me. I don't need it to be a national issue.
5. I am bothered by equal opportunity employment. I think this forces an employer to take race into account when hiring, instead of the most qualified.
6. I am bothered by affirmative action and its intent to promote access to education or employment aimed at historically sociopolitically non-dominant group. I think this ensures the labeling of a non-dominant group.
My list is by no means exhaustive. Those are just a few things that I think hinder a productive society.
I think as a nation we have come along way. Look at our presidential front runners. We have a White Woman, a Black Muslim, and an 80 year old White Guy. I think this proves that we have come a long way.
I think we, collectively as a nation, are getting over the bigotry. I just think that there are some out there (e.g. Jesse and Al) that wouldn't have a living unless it were still alive.
Perhaps I shouldn' t have gone here. I feel strongly about it and welcome any comments, critisms, or questions.
I guess sometimes when you don't go somewhere, you are always left not having gone there. And just as with my cave, I could go further, but I won't, because I am afraid.
Friday, January 11, 2008
Sad Sad Blog
My Sad Sad Blog. My poor blog has gone to pot. (what does that mean, gone to pot? does it mean like pot the drug or pot "the pot"?). At any rate it think that it could mean either or. I think that a better blog is on the horizon. My bridge project is slowly wrapping up and I can for see a lot more office time in the future. Which may mean, (if I write during my lunch hour, or before work of course.) that I will be dumbing up cyberspace once more. I do not know if I have any readers left. I saw a comment in a foreign language and figure that I may have a reader or two in some third world country that has nothing better to do than pick coca leaves and read my blog. To you my Colombian Friend, Gracias me amigo. Me gusta la coca, Tu coca es muy bueno. (just kidding).
I guess I will play a little catch up. Wyoming is wonderful this time of year. Below zero temperatures have even made it possible for a few select rancher ladies to grow some pretty fantastic beards. I know that sounds gross, but I am beginning to like a little beard on a woman, and have been urging Cindy to spend a little more time out in the cold. She is not up on that, and thinks it would be embarrassing if we ever went home. I just keep telling her that when in Rome well... Zachy is sporting a spotty mustache with a pretty full soul patch on the lower lip. I however, am still unable to successfully grow a decent beard.
The dog, well Angus doesn't quite get the attention that he receive pre Zach, but has put on a nice bit of weight with the leftover elk and deer that I have been giving him. It looks good on the old pooch.
Things are good here, work is good, home is good, all is good. My favorite part of the day is coming home to my wife and little boy. I love to pick up my little boy and ask him he has been a good boy, his reply is always a couple of quick nods followed by "ess".
I'm glad it's Friday. I have been sick and I think that I am going to buy a truckload of coal on the way home from work and settle in to a long week end.
I guess I will play a little catch up. Wyoming is wonderful this time of year. Below zero temperatures have even made it possible for a few select rancher ladies to grow some pretty fantastic beards. I know that sounds gross, but I am beginning to like a little beard on a woman, and have been urging Cindy to spend a little more time out in the cold. She is not up on that, and thinks it would be embarrassing if we ever went home. I just keep telling her that when in Rome well... Zachy is sporting a spotty mustache with a pretty full soul patch on the lower lip. I however, am still unable to successfully grow a decent beard.
The dog, well Angus doesn't quite get the attention that he receive pre Zach, but has put on a nice bit of weight with the leftover elk and deer that I have been giving him. It looks good on the old pooch.
Things are good here, work is good, home is good, all is good. My favorite part of the day is coming home to my wife and little boy. I love to pick up my little boy and ask him he has been a good boy, his reply is always a couple of quick nods followed by "ess".
I'm glad it's Friday. I have been sick and I think that I am going to buy a truckload of coal on the way home from work and settle in to a long week end.
Friday, December 21, 2007
TWas a Few Days Before Christmas.
Miandmiksmom wrote her version, so I thought I'd write my own version.
Twas a few Days before Christmas, I'm sitting at work.
I ain't bought a thing, I'm going berserk.
My Mexican Bridge crew went home for year,
I'm stuck in the office, bored to the tear.
Zachy's been sick, a bad case of the croups.
And the Mexican eatin' gave me the poops.
Cindy's been hustling, picking up my slack
baking and crafting and filling Santa's Sack.
The weather outside is snowy and cold.
I hurt my back and I'm feeling real old.
The 12 hour trip home, I don't think we'll make
Missing our families makes makes my heart ache.
Decisions Decisions, over a number of things:
From what job to take, to what Santa will Bring.
I'm missing the Christmas from when I was a boy,
anxious and sleepless over lots of new toys.
Missing the days with not much to buy
Missing my family about makes me cry.
With all the frustration I just about cave,
I'm loosing touch with that happy fun Dave.
When deep in my heart a pitter and patter
a warmth raises up above all the clatter.
A thought fills my mind that fills me with peace
The anger, frustration and sadness does cease.
The thought of a baby, back two thousand years
who's birth was for told by prophets and seers.
A babe that was perfect in every which way
Who would suffer and die and for sins he would pay.
Oh how would it be to look in his eyes,
to hold him, to hug him, to comfort his cries?
The thought of this birth warms up my soul
mends up my heart and makes it a whole.
So if your like me at the end of your rope
Think of the Savior and you'll find some hope.
With all the bustle, it makes me feel right.
so Merry Christmas to all and to all a good night.
Twas a few Days before Christmas, I'm sitting at work.
I ain't bought a thing, I'm going berserk.
My Mexican Bridge crew went home for year,
I'm stuck in the office, bored to the tear.
Zachy's been sick, a bad case of the croups.
And the Mexican eatin' gave me the poops.
Cindy's been hustling, picking up my slack
baking and crafting and filling Santa's Sack.
The weather outside is snowy and cold.
I hurt my back and I'm feeling real old.
The 12 hour trip home, I don't think we'll make
Missing our families makes makes my heart ache.
Decisions Decisions, over a number of things:
From what job to take, to what Santa will Bring.
I'm missing the Christmas from when I was a boy,
anxious and sleepless over lots of new toys.
Missing the days with not much to buy
Missing my family about makes me cry.
With all the frustration I just about cave,
I'm loosing touch with that happy fun Dave.
When deep in my heart a pitter and patter
a warmth raises up above all the clatter.
A thought fills my mind that fills me with peace
The anger, frustration and sadness does cease.
The thought of a baby, back two thousand years
who's birth was for told by prophets and seers.
A babe that was perfect in every which way
Who would suffer and die and for sins he would pay.
Oh how would it be to look in his eyes,
to hold him, to hug him, to comfort his cries?
The thought of this birth warms up my soul
mends up my heart and makes it a whole.
So if your like me at the end of your rope
Think of the Savior and you'll find some hope.
With all the bustle, it makes me feel right.
so Merry Christmas to all and to all a good night.
Tuesday, December 4, 2007
My Hunt
In my last entry I made a few predictions, I don't have a lot of time to tell the story but the short and dirty of it is that I was within 10 minutes of each prediction. The weather was mean and nasty and I didn't get my bull out until noon Saturday. These are pictures of my little bull and my little man. I will admit that the bull is not a big bull, but if you have ever been elk hunting you can appreciate that I shot it without putting more hours into the hunt than 2 hours. It was the last day of the hunt and I wouldn't pass up the opportunity. I have also included a picture of my little boy to compensate for my small bull. This pic was taken on the way to the barn to look at my bull.
Have a nice day.
Friday, November 30, 2007
Another Friday. Another Long Friday.
I guess it isn't too long. I am taking off at noon to go Elk Hunting. It is really cold today so it should make for some good hunting. It has been cold all week. In about 45 mins I will be sighting my 300 Ultra Mag in. In about 3 hours I will be aiming at an elk and In about 3 hours and 5 seconds I will be pulling the trigger on an elk and in about3 hours and 2 minutes I will be gutting and elk and in about 4 hours I will begin draggin my elk to the truck, and in about 20 hours I will have it to the truck, and then I will be done.
Oh yeah and It will be cold. It is almost noon at it is only 19 degrees F.
I hope everyone has a nice weekend.
I guess it isn't too long. I am taking off at noon to go Elk Hunting. It is really cold today so it should make for some good hunting. It has been cold all week. In about 45 mins I will be sighting my 300 Ultra Mag in. In about 3 hours I will be aiming at an elk and In about 3 hours and 5 seconds I will be pulling the trigger on an elk and in about3 hours and 2 minutes I will be gutting and elk and in about 4 hours I will begin draggin my elk to the truck, and in about 20 hours I will have it to the truck, and then I will be done.
Oh yeah and It will be cold. It is almost noon at it is only 19 degrees F.
I hope everyone has a nice weekend.
Monday, November 26, 2007
Pay it forward
I Just recieved a Southern Gift in the mail from Miandmiksmom, and I guess I better play the game as well. So here goes.
If you are one of the first three to comment you will receive a fun little gift from me! Here are the rules:You must be one of the first 3 people to comment requesting to join the exchange.The only thing you have to do in return is "pay it forward" by making the same promise to 3 people on your blog. (So, you must have a blog to participate.)
If you are one of the first three, please send me your mailing address to:dgr@entechusa.net
Get it on.
I don't know if I have 3 readers anymore??
If you are one of the first three to comment you will receive a fun little gift from me! Here are the rules:You must be one of the first 3 people to comment requesting to join the exchange.The only thing you have to do in return is "pay it forward" by making the same promise to 3 people on your blog. (So, you must have a blog to participate.)
If you are one of the first three, please send me your mailing address to:dgr@entechusa.net
Get it on.
I don't know if I have 3 readers anymore??
Wednesday, November 21, 2007
Iv'e been snowed out, so the bridge process will be on hold until after the Holiday. So I thought that I would post a few pictures of my bridge project so you can see what I have been up to for the last month. I have been enjoying the work and it has been nice to be out of the office. Perhaps I will even be able to post something with some substance later today.
Somedays we have bad days at the bridge.
Somedays we have cold days.
Somedays we have warm days. (This is the old bridge that we are replacing)
The view from the bridge site is spectacular.
Juan is the guy in the middle.
Juan+Snakes=No Bueno
Crane+Powerlines=No Bueno
Every day at lunch we have a Fiesta. I bring the Deer Meat, the crews bring the rest.
Crane+Powerlines=No Bueno
Every day at lunch we have a Fiesta. I bring the Deer Meat, the crews bring the rest. Mexican Fiesta+Dave=Bueno
I guess I didn't post many pictures of the construction. I will do that later. I have been loving the work. I have forgotten how long the days can actually be inside the office.
Thanksgiving
I don't imagine that during my absence that I have retained any of my blog readers but I think that I will write a few things that I am thankful for.
I'm Thankful for God. It amazes me that the Most significant of anything significant is aware of someone as insignificant as I am. It amazes me that He hears everything I say and is aware of everything that I do, and still manages to give me a certain feeling of peace and a certain feeling that tells me he loves me.
I'm Thankful for Jesus Christ who lived a life to give me a perfect example, loved me enough to suffer for my sins, and lived again so that I could conquer death. I don't understand it all but my feelings give me enough reason to believe in it.
I'm Thankful for my Family. I'm thankful for a Wife that is patient, funny, loving, a good mother, beautiful, smart, and a best friend who brings sunshine into the dark parts of my life. A wife that after 8 years I am still madly in love with. I'm Thankful for a little boy that lifts my heart every time I see him and helps me feel a love that I would have never comprehended before. I'm thankful for Parents that never gave me a bad example, never made me feel unloved, never fought in front of me, and never gave up on me even when I did. I'm thankful for Brothers that I can talk to, hunt with, fight with, and play with, Brothers who understand me, have my same ideals, and no matter what always have my back. I'm thankful for my wife's family who's love made it easy to become my family.
I'm thankful for the USA. I'm thankful for freedom, for the people who gave their lives for it and give their lives for it every day. One nation under God.
I'm thankful for Friends. I don't have a lot of friends. I guess I am picky, or perhaps the friends I do have are not picky. Either way, I am glad to have a few. The few friends that I have, I trust and I guess that's all that matters.
I'm Thankful for Life. I'm thankful for the ups and the downs, the ups because they are ups and the downs because sometimes the downs are the only way humble me enough to grow. There have been times that I have smiled so big that you could see it from the moon and times that even crying didn't make me feel better. I have had good friends and I have had bad friends. I have been a good friend and I have been a bad friend. I've had my touchdowns and I have had days that I felt like punting. But I can't deny the fact that I have had a good life and I am thankful for that.
My life is about as close to fairy tale as it gets. I don't know why. I am aware that where much is given much is required. I don't know how I will ever keep up.
Happy Thanksgiving.
I'm Thankful for God. It amazes me that the Most significant of anything significant is aware of someone as insignificant as I am. It amazes me that He hears everything I say and is aware of everything that I do, and still manages to give me a certain feeling of peace and a certain feeling that tells me he loves me.
I'm Thankful for Jesus Christ who lived a life to give me a perfect example, loved me enough to suffer for my sins, and lived again so that I could conquer death. I don't understand it all but my feelings give me enough reason to believe in it.
I'm Thankful for my Family. I'm thankful for a Wife that is patient, funny, loving, a good mother, beautiful, smart, and a best friend who brings sunshine into the dark parts of my life. A wife that after 8 years I am still madly in love with. I'm Thankful for a little boy that lifts my heart every time I see him and helps me feel a love that I would have never comprehended before. I'm thankful for Parents that never gave me a bad example, never made me feel unloved, never fought in front of me, and never gave up on me even when I did. I'm thankful for Brothers that I can talk to, hunt with, fight with, and play with, Brothers who understand me, have my same ideals, and no matter what always have my back. I'm thankful for my wife's family who's love made it easy to become my family.
I'm thankful for the USA. I'm thankful for freedom, for the people who gave their lives for it and give their lives for it every day. One nation under God.
I'm thankful for Friends. I don't have a lot of friends. I guess I am picky, or perhaps the friends I do have are not picky. Either way, I am glad to have a few. The few friends that I have, I trust and I guess that's all that matters.
I'm Thankful for Life. I'm thankful for the ups and the downs, the ups because they are ups and the downs because sometimes the downs are the only way humble me enough to grow. There have been times that I have smiled so big that you could see it from the moon and times that even crying didn't make me feel better. I have had good friends and I have had bad friends. I have been a good friend and I have been a bad friend. I've had my touchdowns and I have had days that I felt like punting. But I can't deny the fact that I have had a good life and I am thankful for that.
My life is about as close to fairy tale as it gets. I don't know why. I am aware that where much is given much is required. I don't know how I will ever keep up.
Happy Thanksgiving.
Thursday, November 1, 2007
My Degenerate Blog
To my friends in Blogworld.
I know that my blog, has of lately sucked something serious. I haven't meant to just drop off the face of the planet. I have been on my bridge project and have had to be on site all day, every day. I imagine that regular readers of my blog may have found that their IQ has made a major jump in my absence.
I guess that I could continue my writing at home, but I have found that when I get home from work, that the last thing that I would want to do is turn a computer on.
I will try to do better, but I cannot promise anything until I have a little stability in my project schedule.
Just so everyone knows, I love you all, I am happy, my family is happy and healthy, all is well, and I hope that everyone is happy too.
I've gotta say, the area that I am working in is absolutely beautiful. I will have to post some pictures.
Dave
I know that my blog, has of lately sucked something serious. I haven't meant to just drop off the face of the planet. I have been on my bridge project and have had to be on site all day, every day. I imagine that regular readers of my blog may have found that their IQ has made a major jump in my absence.
I guess that I could continue my writing at home, but I have found that when I get home from work, that the last thing that I would want to do is turn a computer on.
I will try to do better, but I cannot promise anything until I have a little stability in my project schedule.
Just so everyone knows, I love you all, I am happy, my family is happy and healthy, all is well, and I hope that everyone is happy too.
I've gotta say, the area that I am working in is absolutely beautiful. I will have to post some pictures.
Dave
Friday, October 12, 2007
TGIF
When I was in Grade School, I had a bus driver Named Frank. Frank was an older gentleman with dark hair and spoke with a New York accent coupled with a slight speech impediment. He had a medium build was about 5' 10". When you got onto the bus it sometimes smelled like cigarettes. (I think he had to calm himself before dealing with the rowdy disrespectful bunch that we were.) Some kids were worse than others. Nearly every one was rude and wild and disrespectful to Frank. I don't think every one came at that naturally, I think that it was the end of the day and we were all able to relax. Our bus was the oldest bus in the school district and if you sat on the back seat, you would be launched nearly to the roof at every bump. There was one sharp turn in particular on the way home that was always entertaining. Frank usually hit the turn hard enough that we all thought the bus would tip over. Some days, all of the kids would get on one side of the bus before the turn, and as Frank hit the turn we would simultaneously push all of our weight to the other side of the bus to try and make it tip over. One day I swear we got that thing on two wheels. The bus ride was always an adventure. Every Friday Frank would get on the intercom and say TGIF with his low funny voice. We always got a kick out of it not just because he talked funny but because we knew that he really meant it. We knew that he was sincerely glad it was Friday. Of all the games and the craziness I noticed that my older brother was never in on the fun. He always showed Frank Respect. I don't ever remember my brother getting crazy on the bus, and I don't remember a time that my brother didn't stop and tell Frank thanks for the ride. As small as it was I think that my brother being the way he was, meant something to Frank. I remember one Christmas my brother brought Frank a bag of Oranges. It wasn't much, but by the look on Frank's face and the tear in his eyes it meant something to him. It wasn't the oranges, it was the thought. I remember watching that and feeling a little sadness, and a lot of guilt for being the boy that I had been to Frank.
I'm sitting here, it's close to the end of the day and work week. I have had ups (Cindy getting a deer) and downs (fighting with contractors, that's another long story.) And I can truly sit back and say TGIF and mean it just as much as Frank did.
I crossed people this week that made me really mean TGIF when I said it, and I have crossed people who, with just the little things have made a difference to me weather they knew it or not.
The little things are easy, that's why we call them the little things.
I think that sometimes we forget that the little things are everything to someone who has nothing.
I'm sitting here, it's close to the end of the day and work week. I have had ups (Cindy getting a deer) and downs (fighting with contractors, that's another long story.) And I can truly sit back and say TGIF and mean it just as much as Frank did.
I crossed people this week that made me really mean TGIF when I said it, and I have crossed people who, with just the little things have made a difference to me weather they knew it or not.
The little things are easy, that's why we call them the little things.
I think that sometimes we forget that the little things are everything to someone who has nothing.
Tuesday, October 9, 2007
My Wife the Great White Hunter
After 8 years of pestering, last night my wife finally agreed to buy a deer tag and let me take her out to kill a buck. I hunt a lot. I probably hunt more than a man should hunt but I can't help it. I'm addicted. My addiction got worse and out of control when I moved to Wyoming. I think that as my addiction spiraled out of control my pestering and influence for my wife to hunt got worse. Last night she broke. I promised her something big and she bought a tag. I had to make a few shady deals in which if she shot a nice buck I would take a full Saturday and take her to scrapbook stores and spend all day scrap booking, and I would have to make a scrapbook page myself. (I know that is asking a lot but I was desperate.) With all of these big bucks around us, I needed my wife to take advantage of it. So last night we loaded up and went hunting. I took her to my best spot. I wanted so bad for her to kill a nice buck. I knew if I got her onto a buck she would be able to shoot it. My wife surprisingly, is an excellent shot. I don't know why she just comes at shooting naturally.
So we get to the hunting area and right off we were seeing bucks. Nothing up to my wife's standard. After driving around for about an hour we came upon a heard of about 8 deer, mostly bucks. I was spotting, and I saw him about 200 yards away. I could see that he was a big one. Cindy was looking through the scope sizing up the deer. I asked: "do you see that big dawg?" She said: "yeah" I said "take him." She said "he is facing me". I said "wait for him to turn broadside". He turned broadside. I said "TAKE HIM" in a loud whisper. "TAKE HIM" I said again. "TAKE....." BOOOM! I watched the bullet slam right into the heart. The buck dropped like a ton of bricks. I think I started break dancing right there. I pulled off a perfect robot and three cycles of the worm. What a shot! Perfect placement. After she shot him she asked me how big he was, I said "I'm not sure, but I know he is big". My wife said "it better not be a two point". It wasn't a two point. As we walked up on him we realized what a monster she had shot. I was like a little kid in a candy store. I wanted to make out. :) My wife thought giving her five and a hug would be more appropriate. (Sorry I get my feelings a little confused sometimes :)) I guess that was good enough.
Of all the deer that I have killed I don't remember enjoying it as much as enjoyed watching my wife kill that buck last night. I don't know why I got such a kick out of it. I guess you get my two addictions together (Cindy and Deer hunting) anf I get a little out of control. Cindy tried to play it off as cool as she could but I know deep down inside she was excited as I was. She may have not been break dancing but her smile told the story. We guessed the buck had to have weighed over three hundred pounds. We only had to drag it 200 yards but that was a killer. I had to get help from a buddy to load it into the truck. I hung it up in the barn and it broke three ropes. Finally I had to settle for a ratchet strap.
I'm so proud of MY wife, the Great White Hunter.
Also, I hope this is a lesson to everyone who has been invited out to a special "Wild Wyoming Dave Riddle Buck hunt" and didn't accept.
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