As The World Orbits

I guess it is finally time to post after an absence of a few months. It seems that I have completed another trip around the sun. This year I celebrated by heading up to Snowbowl for a day (of a half day) of skiing. Awesome day overall - quintessential spring skiing. It was crusty/icy in the morning and turning soft as the day progressed. No lift lines! At this rate, Snowbowl's days for the season are severely limited. The good news is I still seem to be able to ski. The bad news is I am not 18 anymore. Heck, I'm not 25 nor 30, nor 40 anymore. The other bad news is that I can tell I missed all last season, and all this season till today. The day ended with munchies, beverages, cake (made by my daughter and presents with friends at a local bar/restaurant.

Brotherhood

As many of you may have read, I spent a chapter or two of my life playing volunteer firefighter. The bonds that form between firefighters are strong, tight and unbreakable. I doubt they ever bend. This is even true among those who can not stand the sight of each other. A brother is a brother - or sister for that matter. The bonds between firefighters who become friends can not be measured and last long after they leave the fire service. Anyway, we received a call this evening informing us that one who was particularly close suddenly passed Sunday afternoon. Steve, you will be missed. You treated our daughter as one of your own and showered her with presents every Christmas. You played Santa at seasonal fire department functions, and Kim always knew it was you. We traded dog sitting duties when we took our vacations. You and Jan (also from the fire service) invited us and others to your wedding in Hawaii. You were a brother and a friend, a father and a dog lover, a firefighter and a backyard chef, an artist and a surveyer. After I finish this post I will pour myself a second glass of wine and wait for my other 2/3 to go to bed so they won't see a brother cry. Bless you. And Jan, your brothers and sisters are always here for you. We are family. The wine and tears await.

Thin air kills brain cells

We mountain dwellers tend to despise heat, so it is natural that we head off to Palm Desert with two other mountain dwelling families in late July for a week of vacation. Monday is supposed to be 114 degrees. Sounds like a good day to head off to legoland and cool off in the sub 80 degree weather.

Row, row, row your boat.

I have frequently wondered about the logic of heading to "the lake" for the day. I have always thought that being confined to a shadeless expanse of blazing sun was a form of torture reserved for international terrorists. I am not talking about fishing. Spending the day fishing makes sense to me, but just hanging out at the lake has often baffled me, so when one of our daughter's friends decided to have his birthday party at Lake Mary complete with canoes and kayaks, I feigned enthusiasm, dreading baking under the 95 degree sun for 3 hours. Besides, I had not paddled a canoe in over 20 years. Anyway, Saturday we headed off to the lake for a day baking in the sun for three hours. The result: After 5 (3 was not enough) hours paddling canoes and kayaks in the sun I have concluded I WANT A CANOE, I WANT A KAYAK, I WANT A TRAILER OR RACK TO HAUL SAID TOYS TO THE LAKE. I WANT A CANOE OR KAYAK. I WANT A KAYAK OR CANOE. I WANT BOTH! I WANT BOTH NOW! I am also pissed off that nobody ever told me that a day at the lake is fun. Nobody told me that one simply ignores the heat and sun. (is this enough sarcasm?) Maybe somebody could profess that there is logic in heading to "the lake" for the day.

Food and T.V. sets

Last night's dinner was amazing. We went to a friends house a few blocks away and partook in a semi pot luck event. One of the highlights was the sausage and apple stuffing made with three different kinds of sausage, bread and apples. It was unique and fantastic. The bird was great, and the squash, potatoes and pies were also extra special yummy. The rolls also went quickly. After overeating and imbibing, we headed on home so my wife could get some sleep before helping open one of the local big box stores at 5:00. She pulled an extra long shift (05:00 - 16:00) and her register pulled in over $32,800 during that time. Folks, that is ONE register at ONE Walmart. She has often commented how chaotic the crowd can be on "black Friday" and how they RUN through the aisles to get the item they want before it is sold out. This level of chaos became all too apparent this morning at another Walmart some 2,000+ miles to the Northeast when one of the openers was trampled to death when he tried to open the doors. According to reports, the doors were destroyed by the crowd in the process. It is nice to know that we value television sets, vacuum cleaners and mass produced DVDs of last years movies over life. This reminds me of crowds at rock concerts as well as parents in third world countries who sell their children into prostitution so they can buy some idiotic brain numbing appliance. We can no longer judge them, now that we are willing to kill in order to save a few bucks on a T.V. We need to get a grip and realize this is all materialistic crap, and refocus on the important things - friends, family, and health, including whatever spiritual health one chooses. F'ing IDIOTS!

The Revenge of The Gods

About a month ago, we had what was to be an extra four kids at our house evaporate into our being kidless for a night. I wrote that the Gods would exact revenge at a later date. That date was last night. With around 24 hours notice we agreed to take care of a friends 4 kids for the night so she could drive to Phoenix and pick her husband up at the airport. Since they would be getting home late, we agreed. She didn't mention until the last minute that the four of them were all in a week long state of rebellion. We had a ten year old girl K#1 who our daughter gets along with very well. We had a 6 year mildly special needs girl K#2 with casts on both feet from a recent surgery. We had a 4 year old boy, C and a 3 year old sassy bullet proof boy, B. For the most part, the girls were fine. The boys had less discipline than our two extra spoiled dogs. Submitted or your approval (or disapproval) is a snapshot of the next 18 hours.
C: Whats that?
A toy.
I want to play with it.
You need to ask our daughter, it's hers.
I want to play with it.
Ask Kim.
I want to play with it.
You need to as....
What's that.
It's a dog leash.
I want to play with it.
No.
I want to play with it.
Meanwhile, B is climbing on furniture
B! Get down please.
No.
B, you need to get down
No!
C: What's that?
It's an M&M dispenser.
I want some
Eat your... B, get down from there, NOW! ... hot dog
NO!.. / I want some
Eat your...
WAAAAH, I fall
see, I told you to get dow....
Get off of that
I want some.........
Then K#1 and K#2 get issues
Night falls, morning rises and the production starts again. Good times developed after the boys who weren't hungry and did not eat their pancakes got hungry and noticed ONE leftover donut and split it.
I want donuts
You ate the last one
I want donuts
There aren't any left
I want donuts, I'm hungry
Have a pancake, there are still some left
I want donuts
They're all .... GET DOWN NOW .. gone
I want / NO! / donuts / oops water spill
My wife then got to have a conversation with C about M&Ms and breakfast and hunger and pancakes. No M&Ms were dispensed, yet I feel the adults were still the losers in this conversation.
OH! Did I mention that none of the four add ons are used to dogs, and our dogs are not used to people who are not used to dogs, or that the pick up happened 2 hours after the phone call saying "We will be right over." making us late for the appointments we made right after the call saying "We will be right over." or that I love run on sentences.
I'm making an appointment for a second vasectomy... just in case. I also wonder if such an event qualifies one for a prescription for medical marijuana.

Would You Like Some Mercaptan With That?

My parents have commented that when they are visiting, we never fail to run into smebody I know no matter where we go in Flagstaff. I have argued this point, but have realized it is a losing battle. A couple of weeks ago, my wife and I went to the U-Haul place to fill the back-up propane bottle for the grill and were amazed to find only one other customer there. Usually the place is Flag's version of Grand Central with at least a 30 minute wait. As luck would have it, another customer arrived with his back up bottle to be filled and it wound up to be someone I know from one of the watering holes near town. I expect to run into folks I know at the mall, or even the hardware or grocery stores, but 9:00 at the propane place is quite unexpected, especially considering the number of propane dispensaries to choose from. Happy Grilling!

HOW TO TIE ONE ON

Soooo, Wedmesday night I made stir fry at home, Thursday I met some friends at for lunch at a Thai restaurant, and tonight my wife and I are meeting some other friends for dinner at another Thai restaurant. That may sound like a lot of Thai food, but I used to have Thai food for B, L & D for over two years. Aroy mahk!

Save The Buckets!

Another weekend is drawing to an end and I wonder how many people I was able to either humor or offend. I usually manage to inadvertently do both to the same person with the same comment. My friends sem to be disappointed when I fail to take the opportunity to monopolize on onothers comment, so I usually run with the opening. This almost always works out fine, but I have had to do some fast talking on several occasions whrn the seven-foot tall 325 pound logger/sawyer in the bar does not share my sense of humor and thinks my sarcastic comment was directed at him. This is when I refrain from comments about it being wrong that such a tough tree trunk has such a thin skin -- or was that something about a stump? Oh, well. I am also under the impression that the more opportunities I pass on , the greater the pressure inside and before one knows it we have a situation reminiscent of Mr. Creosote in "The Meaning of Life." I guess I'll continue to provide commentary and conserve buckets.

Drunk Amateur Astronomers With Machetes

The following is true and the names have not been changed to protect anybody.

"Don't worry about it, Becky. It's just something you do when you're drunk." Nick said as he walked out of the house carrying a machete.
How the house was able to carry a machete, I'll never know. But seriously, we needed the machete to "girdle" a eucalyptus tree in order to bring the rapidly disappearing moon back into view. Anyway, even although the tree survived, and astronomers called it an eclipse, you can thank Nick, Greg, and myself for saving the moon.