Right now it is 2:30 in the morning and I'm at work. We have a very important delivery that needs to go out on Monday and as is usually the case, several setbacks have made us late. If I came in on the weekend and completed a few tests then we have a chance of delivering what we promised on Monday. So here I am. In between readings I thought I would take a few minutes and update my blog.
Several years ago when the kids were still small Halloween fell on a Sunday. To discourage the kids from going Trick or Treating on Sunday the church had a "Trunk or Treat" on the previous Saturday. All of the parents (and anyone else who wanted to participate) backed their cars into the stalls at the church parking lot and the kids went from car to car trick or treating. The primary had booths in the cultural hall where the kids could bob for apples and all that fun stuff as well.
Trunk or treat went over so well that we've had it ever since. In the years since I've noticed that fewer and fewer kids come to our door and more and more kids show up at the Trunk or Treat. I think a lot of the kids are inviting their friends and why not? You can hit the equivalent of dozens of house by walking around the parking lot and since you know everyone you don't have to worry so much either.
At first few people did much in the way of decorating their cars but over the years there have been some pretty well decorated cars. I decided that this year I should do something as well. I lined the back of our van with black fabric and set Lisa's nice marble table in the "cave" with a skull on it. I also hung a lantern with a candle in it. The light was so dim that I added a second candle next to the skull and a third one on the floor. For the candy dish I borrowed a Dutch oven and I kind of liked the results. Luckily science has come up with electric candles so I don't have to risk setting our van in flames to light up my cave.
I wanted to sit in the cave and hand out candy but I didn't know quite how I should dress up. I finally decided on letting my whiskers grow out (I needed a good week for that) and wear a white shirt and dark pants. I also wore an old hat. I didn't know what to call myself but some one said I looked like Indiana Jones so I'll go with that. It was so dark in the "cave" that many of the kids about wet their pants when they finally saw me in the darkness.
I think I like trunk or treat.
--------------------trivia--------------------
The number of stars that are visible with a telescope is ten times the number of grains of sand in all of the earths deserts.
When I talked about the occupy wall street crowd last time I mentioned that none of them could describe what their objective was. Well since then I've actually found a web sight where they do mention their objectives. I was a bit surprised to learn than some of their objectives I sort of agree with in a round about way. Most of them however would be completely destructive if they actually got their way. I thought I would go through their objectives one my one and describe what I thought would happen if they were actually able to get everything they wanted.
The "Occupy Wall Street" protesters have listed 13 proposed
demands from their website.
Demand one: Restoration of the living wage.
I thought we had this and it was called “minimum wage”. I'm not sure but I think a living wage is a minimum wage of $20/hr. If we had to pay the guy flipping burgers in McDonalds $20/hr then you can say good by the dollar menu. Everything will be much more expensive, we'll have higher unemployment especially among teenagers and if we don’t impose tariffs on imports then it would
result in a greater trade imbalance causing many domestic companies to go out
of business.
Demand two: Institute a universal single payer healthcare
system.
This would eliminate what is left of the free market system amongst health care and put a cap on the doctors wages. This would result in a shortage of doctors, longer waiting times and
eventually rationing of life saving procedures. Old people and the handicapped would be allowed to
die in order to give the limited resources to younger people. Since I’m now
considered “older”, I don’t like this.
Demand three: Guaranteed living wage income regardless of
employment.
I actually proposed this idea as a form of welfare but my “living wage” was
just barely enough to allow someone to not starve. If every citizen received a basic living allowance then this would eliminate abuse.
Demand four: Free college education.
I might actually be able to go along with this one. I believe education would solve many of our problems. I would use a voucher
system that is good for qualified programs (not something like ebonics) and if you aren’t passing your classes then you’re out of there.
Demand five: Begin a fast track process to bring the fossil
fuel economy to an end while at the same bringing the alternative energy
economy up to energy demand.
Unless you want energy costs to sky rocket you can’t end fossil fuels on a
fast track. I would encourage domestic energy (coal, oil and gas) and discourage
foreign energy with tariffs. I would definitely fast track alternative energy of all
kinds (wind, nuclear, solar, bio-fuels etc).
Demand six: One trillion dollars in infrastructure (Water,
Sewer, Rail, Roads and Bridges and Electrical Grid) spending now.
There goes our taxes again. If we had actually done this with the last
trillion dollars we spent (instead of bail out the banks) I think we’d be in a
lot better situation now though.
Demand seven: One trillion dollars in ecological
restoration planting forests, reestablishing wetlands and the natural flow of
river systems and decommissioning of all of America's
nuclear power plants.
Nuclear power is the only viable source of energy that produces no pollution
of any kind. I do think we should create more national parks but a trillion dollars may be a bit out of line.
Demand eight: Racial and gender equal rights amendment.
I thought racial and gender discrimination was already illegal. If we want
to put it in an amendment though I’m fine with that.
Demand nine: Open borders migration. anyone can travel
anywhere to work and live.
I fully agree that immigration should be VASTLY simplified but do we really
want to allow open borders to terrorists, drug smuggling, criminals and people
with nasty diseases?
Demand ten: Bring American elections up to international
standards of a paper ballot precinct counted and recounted in front of an
independent and party observers system.
This is one demand that I can completely agree with.
Demand eleven: Immediate across the board debt forgiveness
for all. Debt forgiveness of sovereign debt, commercial loans, home mortgages,
home equity loans, credit card debt, student loans and personal loans now! All
debt must be stricken from the "Books." World Bank Loans to all
Nations, Bank to Bank Debt and all Bonds and Margin Call Debt in the stock
market including all Derivatives or Credit Default Swaps, all 65 trillion
dollars of them must also be stricken from the "Books." And I don't
mean debt that is in default, I mean all debt on the entire planet period.
Huh??? That would be interesting. I’ll have to think about this one. I think
I could actually go along with this. Debt causes a LOT
of problems and personally I think we'd be a better off if we didn't have it. Just watch the price of houses plummet if you had to pay cash for them.
Demand twelve: Outlaw all credit reporting agencies.
Well if you don’t have debt then you don’t need the reporting agencies. If
we do have debt then you kind of need to know what your risks are or else
interest rates will sky rocket for everyone.
Demand thirteen: Allow all workers to sign a ballot at any
time during a union organizing campaign or at any time that represents their
yeah or nay to having a union represent them in collective bargaining or to
form a union.
As long as it is a secret ballot then I'm all for it. Unions are good when they're needed but if they're not needed then they shouldn't exist. I would not allow unions for public employees. Then you have the fox guarding the hen house. Tie public employees wages to the private sector and you'll be fine.
My highlight of this week was that Sarah came home for a few days. I guess UVU has a fall break so we took the opportunity to bring her home for a few days. It was a thrill to see her. We wouldn't normally bring a kid home with Thanksgiving and Christmas coming so soon after but she's been up there all summer long and we missed her and she missed us and we got a good deal on tickets so home she came. I think she really enjoyed being able to sleep in also.
We didn't actually do anything special but she did go to the temple on Thursday evening and did baptisms. Thursday of course is my shift and she used to go every Thursday night for most of her senior year. We would always have dinner together in the cafeteria and then she would go do baptisms while I went back to work. It was really fun to have her there again. Of course everyone on my shift was glad to see her again as well.
Saturday Ben and Sharley came down after Ben got off work so they could see Sarah as well. It was nice to see them again as well. Ben and Sharley's new apartment doesn't have a washer and dryer so they brought a few loads of laundry with them. Ben had to finish up freshman Geology class they wouldn't transfer over and then Fullerton has a required class that he couldn't take until after he completed all of this required classes so he's now taking those two classes and a couple of others that he added just for fun. Since he will be completed everything at Christmas time he's now in full interview mode looking for gainful employment starting 2012. He's had some pretty exciting interviews and opportunities. I'm quite excited and anxious to see what he ends up doing. I really hope he doesn't have to leave Southern California.
Since we had a special gathering we decided to go out for a Hodad burger. I haven't been so full since last Christmas and I don't think I ate more fat in one meal than I've had in the last month. It was wonderful. You'll have to excuse the blurriness of that last picture, the taking the picture was just a bit inebriated and he didn't focus the picture very well. I imagine the picture looked normal to him.
---------------trivia---------------
The median price for a house in Detroit is $7,500.
This was the most relaxing weekend I've had in a very long time. Lisa's Dad and Carol are taking a vacation in Phoenix and since Phoenix is a whole lot closer than Vancouver Island and I haven't seen Carol since Alycia's wedding (and even then we didn't get to visit a whole lot) we decided to whip over to Phoenix and spend the weekend with them. The drive out was really quite relaxing. It was only five and a half hours and we got left early so it was nice. When we first moved here I couldn't help but think what an ugly place the desert is. I was really glad that San Diego has lots of water brought in because we would truly be a desert otherwise. After having lived here however I've come to believe that the desert is really a very beautiful place. Don't get me wrong, I'm still VERY glad that we have lot's of water brought in but the desert really is beautiful. Harsh and rugged but still beautiful.
If my relaxing weekend started with the drive out, it only got better once we arrived. Grandpa and Nana already had the table set when we got there and after we sat by the pool and relaxed for a while we threw the steaks on and had a great barbecue. I decided a long time ago that as long as I don't have to work in it, I don't mind extreme heat one bit. I do need the shade or I will burn in no time flat but I can sit in the shade and relax just fine. Nothing better than laying in the lawn chair reading a book.
So Saturday morning after a relaxing breakfast we headed out to be tourists. I think the original plan was to make a wide and sweeping circle through the Superstition Mountains so we could experience the whole area but poor Lisa wasn't feeling well so we downgraded to a less ambitious plan. She wasn't up for a whole day so we went to see the Goldfield Mine. What a fascinating place. At one time the town of Gold Field was much larger than Phoenix. Who would have thought? There are still several operating mines at Goldfield but the main mine that started it all is now flooded. It was actually flooded once before when a flash flood swept through the area and filled the mine shaft completely full of water but they pumped that all out (it took them several months) and they kept digging. The next problem happened when they got down to around 1,200 feet deep and they broke into an aquifer. That they haven't been able to pump out and the mine remains full of water to this day. I guess the locals refer to the aquifer as the GoldfField River.
I learned some other trivia on this trip. Apparently the Sonoran desert is the only "Living" Dessert on the planet. Now in case you're like me and not quite sure what a "living" desert is, it is simply a desert with lots of plants in it. Any other desert has lots of sand and very sparse plant life. Somehow the Sonoran desert has been able to evolve a lot more plants that can survive in it. When you look at some of the pictures I took I guess you do have to agree. It looks rather green for a dessert.
Those are the Superstition Mountains you see in the background. Don't you love that name? Superstition Mountains. I like it.
Every once in a while as we were cruising along in the living desert we would see random buildings. It seemed very odd and you couldn't help but wonder what those buildings were. At one point in one of the more barren parts of the desert we came upon a fairly large complex of buildings. When we came up to the buildings we were quite surprised to see that it was an elementary school. How bizarre, there was an elementary school and there wasn't a single building within sight of it. I'm guessing the real estate was pretty cheap.
So after we were done with the tour we headed back to the house and jumped into the pool. I thought it would be wonderful to jump in a cool pool when it was 100° outside but even nice water is a major shock to an overheated body. It only took moments to adjust however and I can tell you, it is wonderful to be in a cool pool when it is hot outside.
So after good company, good food and a good book we finally had to come home. Thanks Grandpa and Nana for a wonderful weekend. I think you should do that more often.
--------------------trivia--------------------
The Saguaro cactus doesn't get it's first arm until it is at least 70 years old.
I just had to take a minute and state my disgust for the morons who are participating in this "Occupy Wall street" march. They have groups in all the major cities including San Diego. In case you haven't been paying attention I guess a bunch of unemployed and uninformed bums have decided to march against big business. The problem is that these guys don't even know what they are marching for (or against). All they will say is that big business is bad and the government should raise the taxes on rich people. Some of them are even claiming that the government should take over everything. What I don't understand is if we did as they want and got rid of big business, who they think will make their clothes and their shoes, and their cars and their razor blades and their cell phones and I think you get the idea.
Now don't get me wrong, I agree that there are major problems with lots of big businesses but most of those problems actually stem from the government. The best example is the government bailing out the big banks and General Motors. If a bank makes bad decisions then they should be allowed to fail. That way the good banks will survive and the bad banks will fail. All Obama did (and yes I know Bush started the whole stimulus package but Obama turned it into a two trillion dollar nightmare) was reward the bad banks and punish the good banks.
All I'm saying is that if the government would just leave the big businesses alone, get rid of all the loop holes in the tax code (or just go to a flat tax) then those evil big businesses would start investing their hard earned money and unemployment would drop very quickly.
In case you want to see just how clueless some of these people are watch this video.
--------------------trivia--------------------
A recent survey determined that a majority of Americans
think that Obama is as bad as or worse than than Bush.
This morning at about 0100 Lisa rolled over and elbowed me telling me that my phone was ringing. I always leave my phone down stairs because if it is upstairs and it rings Lisa is a very unhappy camper. Apparently I needn't have worried because she wakes up even if it is downstairs. I laid there trying to imagine who would be calling me at 1:00 AM when I suddenly remembered that Javier's baby is due on the October 8. I knew it had to be him. I ran downstairs and called the number of who ever had been calling me and sure enough. It was Javier and his baby had arrived at 12:31 AM. How exciting. Xavier de Jesus Valdez was 6lb 6oz and 19 inches long and he looks just like Javier. The delivery went well and Rosi is healthy and very happy. I thought about heading to the hospital right then and there but I knew Rosi's family would probably be there and I didn't want to overwhelm the baby and Rosi so we headed to the hospital this morning. We took Rosi some pretty Lily's. When we got there Javier had gone for breakfast so we tried to visit with Rosi. She doesn't speak a word of English and we only speak about five words of Spanish so did a lot of gesturing. We did pretty go though. Javier finally showed up and we hung out for an hour or two and then headed out.
The day only got better from there. This weekend is the Miramar Air Show and the Blue Angles are always the star attraction. In case I've not mentioned it before, Hi-Z is located directly across the street from the Miramar Marine Core Air Station so we have a good view of all the attractions. When I realized that the Angles were on I climbed onto the the roof and watched. While it doesn't do it any justice I took a few short video clips of what we could see from the roof of our lab.
Tonight we had the missionaries over for dinner. I always enjoy having them come visit and when you have a son on a mission it is even more meaningful.
Other than that I've just been enjoying a much slower and more relaxed life style with just Lisa and I at home. I rather enjoy it.
--------------------trivia--------------------
Once a man has children his testosterone levels drop dramatically and the more involved he is with the children the more it drops. Supposedly the testosterone helps him get a woman and then it drops so he hangs around to help raise the kids.
Lisa heard from a friend that there was a red tide at Torrey Pines beach. I knew that a red tide was an algae bloom and I'd heard that they can be quite pretty but I never realized that the algae in a red tide is bio-luminescent. According to Lisa's friend when the waves break and when they crash up on the shore they glowed. In my mind I imagined a faint blue glimmer that you might be able to notice if it was really dark or something. Boy was I mistaken. Tonight Lisa and I decided to go for a walk on the beach and see just how bright bioluminescent algae can be.
It is bright. I didn't bother taking my expensive camera because I didn't think it would be all that dramatic and it wasn't bright enough that I could take a picture with my droid but it was really bright. Especially when the waves first crash. I downloaded the picture above from the internet. This is pretty much what an average wave looked like but when they first break they are much brighter. It was really quite eerie looking. As we were walking on the beach we then noticed that every time we took a step the sand around our feet would flash. It flashed quite bright too. I felt like I was in a video game or something with flashing lights all around me. Maybe if the red tide is still around tomorrow I'll take my nice camera and see if I can get any pictures. In any case, it was a very cool experience.
---------------------trivia--------------------
People who live in cold environments have longer and
bigger noses than people who live in warm environments.
This has been a nice few days. Alycia is down for the weekend to be a bridesmaid in her friends wedding. Lisa picked her up in Long Beach. She flew in on Thursday evening so I was at the Temple and unable to go get her. She flew to Long Beach because she got a cheap flight but I think next time they get a "cheap flight" I'll give them the $78 gas money that we spend to pick them up and have them fly straight to San Diego. It'll be cheaper for us and whole lot more convenient. It has been great to have her here though.
Today has been a rather intense day. A very enjoyable day as well. It started off by me sleeping in until 9:00. It's been a while since I've done that. We had a relaxed morning with Alycia getting ready to go to the Wedding Rehearsal and then we headed off to Torrey Pines Beach for the Ward Beach Party. It was a rather cool and overcast morning so there weren't too many people at the beach but as soon as we got there the sun came out and it was a beautiful beach day. I decided to park in a different place than we normally do to try and get closer to the place where we were supposedly meeting. It would have been a good move too except that they were doing construction and the access to the beach was closed. This meant we ended up walking a bit further than we normally would have but it was OK because it was a beautiful walk on the tops of the cliffs and we enjoyed it.
The Beach Party was fun but I couldn't get Lisa to leave in time for us to meet our friends because tonight we were going to the Aztec / Washington football game. To compound the problem I thought it would be nice to return to our car along the beach and hope there was an access to the tops of the cliffs further down. Big mistake. We ended up walking all the way to the Del Mar beach and then walking back to our car. We probably walked three miles to get to our car that was perhaps a half mile from where we started. We enjoyed the walk along the beach and we certainly need the exercise but we got home around 4:20 and we were supposed to meet our friends at 4:00.
We got to the restaurant around 4:30 and had a good meal while the Haws watched us eat since they were finishing up when we got there. We then piled in our van and we carpooled to the stadium. Unfortunately the KGB Sky Show is getting so popular that this year the parking lot filled up and we were turned away. After running around the area for a good 15 minutes Brent guided us to a secret parking place he has. It is a great place to park and not a long walk away from the stadium. I'll have to remember it for the next time I go to the stadium.
The path we path we ended up walking on opened up into the stadium parking lot and to our horror it was all barricaded with chain link fence. We were beginning to see a theme forming here. We had done a lot of walking (and driving around) only to find barricades in our way. Our beach access, the stadium parking lot and now our walk way. It was only a beginning however.
The chain-link fence was to keep people away from the fireworks and we managed to get around it only to find that the ticket booth was closed. The Haws had free tickets Brent had won on the radio station but we needed to buy ours. Another barrier. We went to the people taking tickets and asked one of them where we could buy tickets. She pulled a bunch out of her pocket and said, I just happen to have a bunch of free tickets here, would you like them? I profusely thanked her and off we went. While the barriers through out the day had been frustrating they managed to get us a beautiful walk on the beach, free parking and now free entrance to the game. Not too bad eh?
The Aztecs thoroughly beat Washington and then it was the moment we had all been waiting for. The Haws assured us that the KGB Sky Show is the best fireworks we would ever see. KGB is a local radio station and every year they put on this huge fireworks shows after one of the Aztecs football games. The Haws have been going for a while but this was our first time. Have you noticed that at most fireworks shows they have a pretty nice show but then for the last minute of the show they light off a whole bunch of fireworks all at once? This big grand finale? Well imagine that grand finale lasting 30 minutes. That is what we saw tonight. The absolute most amazing fireworks show I've ever seen. I managed to record about five minutes of it for you to enjoy. Make sure your sound isn't too loud, this is amazing.
--------------------trivia--------------------
In 2008, for the first time in the history of mankind, the number of people living in cities surpassed the number of people living in the country side.
Now that I've settled in from another wild weekend let me share with you what has been happening. Let's go back to when Lisa and Sarah took off and left me alone for the third time this summer. As bummed as I was it was the sensible thing to do. First of all, Sarah and Lisa had several meetings that they had to attend regarding Sarah's school, second, Lisa has been begging to spend some time in the Genealogy library and finally Lisa found out that there was a big Pratt reunion on September 10th. It just didn't make sense for her to come home and then drive back up so she begged our good friends Mahonry and Molly Sanchez if she could crash with them and Sheba and I once again got to snuggle up in bed together.
I wanted to go to the Pratt reunion with Lisa and I'm always up for an excuse to see my kids so I decided to fly up on the 9th, attend the reunion on the 10th and then drive back with Lisa. If you buy your tickets in advance you can get a one way ticket for well under $100. It was getting pretty scary however on the night of the 8th when our power went out and Southern California was sitting in the dark. I tried to upload my picture from my android and while I think I could do it I was too tired to bother on that night. That is why I thought I'd shared my picture of me cooking dinner on my cool little camp stove. You can see my windup radio in the background. Power in the south part of the city started coming on around 9:30 and then it moved north from there. Claremont had power around 10:30 and La Jolla around 11:30 and then I went to bed. I turned off all of the lights except my bedroom light and then I turned the radio on full blast. I have a real tough time waking up.
At 1:00 the lights came on and the radio was blasting in my ear. I got up and checked taht my flight was still on time. I printed out my boarding pass and went back to bed.
Lisa was at the airport to meet me I spent the day doing errands at Sarah's apartment and Alycia's apartment. It was good to see them both. That night we took them for dinner at the Awful Waffle and since J Dawg's was across the street we went there for a hot dog. No one went home hungry.
Saturday was the reunion. We picked up Sarah and Alycia and off we went. After we registered and bought the new Pratt Biography we listened to several very cools stories about the Pratt's. Just in case you're wondering about our connection to the Pratts, after Lisa joined the church and started getting involved in her genealogy she learned that she was descended from Anson Pratt who is the brother of the famous Parley and Orson Pratt. Anson isn't too well known because he died early caring for his ailing mother. She eventually died from Cholera and then three days later Anson died from Cholera. The Anson Pratt descendants wore green name tags and there weren't too many of them.
After her dad died his daughter Jane Elizabeth walked across the plains with Parley's family so we feel a close kinship with Parley. Jane lived with them until she got married. Another interesting story that we learned is that Parley Pratt is that he was the very first Mormon Missionary to enter Chili. I guess Alex is there now finishing what he started.
So let me explain the hand. Sarah loves to draw on people and if she is ever in one spot for more than fifteen minutes she starts drawing. I on the other hand really enjoy a good massage and when Sarah is drawing on me it is actually a very nice massage. The only problem is that I end up with a hand that is embarrassing to have in public. You have to admit that it is a pretty good job. Perhaps Sarah should consider a career in Henna.
Everyone at the reunion (nearly 700 people) were asked to put a colored dot on the family tree. If take a close look at the tree you can see our dots on the Anson branch and the Jane Elizabeth twig. We're kind of out numbered by the blue and yellow dots.
So after the reunion we went to visit Aunt Nola. It is always good to see her. She is looking great as you can see from the pictures.
And then it was on to Provo where we dropped Alycia and Sarah off. We loaded up on BYU chocolate milk and then hit the highway. We originally planned on just driving to St George and crashing with someone but we were doing well so we just continued on arriving in San Diego at around 6:00. We slept until 11:00 (at least I did) and then we went to hear Alex Jafek give his farewell talk. He is going to Peru for his mission. He did great and he will be a great missionary.
Sunday night was pretty cool. Our Temple presidency will be release in a couple of months so they had a get together for all of the coordinators they've worked with at the temple. Spouses were invited. I've never been to a get together in the temple before. It was very cool.
Today I would like to remember the events that took place ten years ago on this day. It really did change the world we live in. I think it is interesting how that single event revealed so much about our world. It reminded us that evil is real and we can never become complacent. It also showed us that in a time of need we can come together and support each other. In spite of our many differences, on that day we were all united.
I hope as we move forward to the next ten years we can never forget that day. I hope we can forgive those who wish us harm, that we can recognize that true happiness comes from friends and family and not from material things. I hope we can be more tolerant of those who are different from us and wish each person the very best in their lives.
This afternoon at 15:40 I was talking to Lisa on the phone when suddenly my computer shutdown. I then realized that the power had gone out. Somewhere out in central Arizona the main high voltage line that feeds southern California was severed but so far no one knows why. Once that line went down the only other line feeding Southern California from the north quickly overloaded and it went down. The massive power surge automatically disconnected the two large nuclear reactors in San Onofre and the few remaining generators couldnt possibly meet the demand and all went of them went down. As I type this on my very cool Android phone everyone from the southern tip of the Baja of Mexico to the southern parts of Orange county and east to parts of Arizona are sitting in the dark. Of course I knew none of this so when I was talking to Lisa.
I told Lisa that I had to take care of my press and test stations because if the power came on I could do some damage to them. Once I took care of all my equipment i decided to head over to the temple for my regular Thu shift. Listening to the radio as i negotiated threw all the non-functioning traffic lights i began to learn the magnitude of this problem, 1.4 million people have no power right now. People are stuck on rides at amusement parks, people are stranded downtown because the trolly isnt working, the airport is shut down, malls are in the dark and it being a hot day the temperature is beginning to rise all over.
I continued on to the temple because i knew they had a backup generator. Once i got there however i learned that the generator keeps the lights on but doesnt run all of the equipment including the A/C.
They told us to go home and that is when i saw what was happening to the freeways. You'd think the freeway would be the one good place to drive because there are no lights but every exit has a light and with no power the traffic was backing up onto the freeway. Even still it only took me 45 min or so to get home.
I quickly filled several pitchers with water in case the pumps went down, i dug out my headlight and camp stove so i can cook dinner and read a book tonight. I dug out my windup radio so im sitting here listening to the news to see what is happening. I even fired up my ham radio to see what is going on but it wasnt too informative. My wifi has a back up battery so i still have an internet connection. My computer doesnt work (Lisa took the laptop) but my Android does. I charged up my phone in the truck so i can now post to my blog with my phone. You'll have to pardon any typo's because it isnt fun typing with my index finger.
I'm supposed to fly to Utah tomorrow so lets pray my flight still goes. They're saying some places won't have power until later tomorrow.
I think every neighborhood needs to have their trouble maker. We certainly have ours. Our neighbor across the street had an on going feud with her next door neighbor that lasted for years. At first they fought over their fence. It got so bad that they each ended up building their own fence so they now have two fences that are about four inches apart. The psycho neighbor even put up video camera's on the eves of her house and most of them point into her next door neighbors back yard. That would make me very uncomfortable. They've called the cops on each other several times. One time the police even came and interviewed mom to get someones else's version of the story. Finally miss psycho got so bad that she built a steel fence right across the front of her house and of all things she painted it red. She took a nice house and made it look real creepy. I guess in light of all of that, I shouldn't be surprised at what happened this weekend. I am very angry.
Last night I came home from work, picked up the mail and saw that I had a letter from the city. I can't think of a single good reason to get a letter from the city so with great trepidation I opened the letter. It was from the police department telling me that my Camry had been towed. I couldn't believe it. I went out front and sure enough my car was gone. Since Sarah had gone back to college I hadn't worried about the Camry so I didn't even notice that it was gone. Apparently it was blocking miss psycho's driveway but she couldn't be like a normal neighbor and walk across the street to let me know, nope she called the cops and off went my Camry. I called today to see what it would cost me to get it back and it would be $600. I think "Anytime Towing" just got themselves an old beat up Camry. Now we're trying to figure out what was in the car that we might need.
So I called the police today and I guess I can "dispute" this but I think it will just come down to the cops saying it was blocking the driveway and me saying no it wasn't. I'll keep you informed because I totally intend to dispute this as far as I possibly can. I won't be paying the $600 however since the cars window's don't work and the air conditioner doesn't work and it will cost a $1,000 to fix them and I would still have an old car with extensive front end damage.
It makes me sick though because I could have sold that car for $500 easily and now I have no car and no money. Bummer.
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In the desert more people die from drowning than from thirst.
I keep waiting for something exciting to happen so I can blog about it but all I get are a series of little things. None of them by themselves are worth a post but all together these last couple of weeks have been quite eventful.
August 24 was Sarah's birthday. She was going to make it a big and exciting event but in the end she decided to keep it small and just with the family. Ben and Sharley came down and we had a barbecue. It was fun. Sarah also invited a friend from Provo to come down for the week. Nate Crenshaw seems like a nice guy. I would have pictures of the birthday except Mom took the camera with her and I didn't get the pic's downloaded before she left.
August 27 and everyone left me. We loaded up the van with all of Sarah's laundry that she brought home and then we threw in a desk for Alycia and Trevor and with Mom and Nates luggage the van was full. I kissed them all goodbye and once again I was left here all alone. Ok, so I didn't kiss Nate goodbye but I found it much harder to say goodbye to Sarah this time. The last time I said goodbye it was for a few weeks, this time it will be months. I really hate this part of parenting.
Being alone with no responsibilities I can pretty much do what I want. Ben was singing in church on Sunday and Sharley was giving a talk so I decided to say goodbye to Sheba (and the turtles and Tom) and head up to Anaheim. Ben and Sharley moved on the 31st so with the pick up we hauled a load over to their new apartment and I got to see their new digs. The apartment is old but really quite nice. They have a little private courtyard (private from the neighbourhood but shared by the eight apartments) that is very pretty. Again I would have pictures but it was dark when we got there so no pic's. I don't think Sharley will be going for many late night walks by herself however. The neighbors look a tad bit rough.
After we unloaded the truck Ben took me to a little Taco truck that he found and I had some of the best taco's ever. Delicious. I had three taco's el Pastor and one lengue. I'm sure I spelled that wrong but it is a tongue taco. The tongue taco was delicious but the el Pastor is by far my favorite.
August 28 I went to church with Ben and Sharley. Sharley did great on her talk and Ben sang beautifully. He sang the bass part in a quartet. Him and the Soprano were excellent but the Tenor part was interesting. The guy tried hard. That evening was the Fantasy Football draft. I have no idea if I have a good team or not but it is fun drafting them. For anyone who may know or care the big players on my team are Matt Ryan QB, Roddy White WR and Ray Rice RB. Wish me luck this year. I don't why I always go up against Ben first but alas, that is once again my fate this year.
August 30 was moving day for Ben. I'd offered to come up and help again if they needed it and they really needed it. I left work at 13:30 and was at their apartment by 15:00. We finished after midnight. Sharley is an art major and has great taste in how she wants to decorate her home but her taste is heavy. When Ben and I finally got her TV cabinet on the truck I thought I was going to be crippled by my herniated L4-L5 disc. I then walked into her bedroom and saw her dresser. It made the TV cabinet look small. Thank goodness it fit on the moving dolly to get it out and by the time we hauled it up the stairs at his new apartment he had some help show up. I used to pick up and move anything not caring how much it weighed. That is probably how I ended up with a herniated disc. After living six months as a hunch back walking with a cane I've decided those days are over. I let the young guys haul that thing up the stairs.
Part of the deal for helping move was another visit to the taco truck. This time I ordered a Tripas taco and three more el Pastors. Again the spelling is certainly wrong but you may have guessed the tripas toco is tripe also known as intestines. It wasn't bad but I won't be ordering tripe again. Especially when the el Pastor is so good. If I ever make it back to the taco truck again I'll try the stomach and brain taco's. I'm sure my favorite will always be the el pastor but hey, you've got to try it right?
So that was about it. On Saturday I puttered around the house mowing lawns and what not and on Sunday I watched a ton of old Star Trek episodes. Let me share with you one of my favorite scenes. I saw this first on Nates blog but I actually saw the episode on Sunday. That Captain Kirk sure knows how to treat a woman.
Sunday Ben and Sharley came down with their friends Jose and Chardonnay. They decided to play around town today for memorial day. It actually rained a bit today so I hope that didn't mess up their day too much. It was a nice warm day in spite of the overcast.
I decided to go into work today because I'm going to be gone on Friday. Driving in to work I came across a firetruck and three cop cars at an intersection. When I got up to the intersection there was a bicycler in the middle of the road with a LOT of blood all over his head. I didn't see a car so I wonder if it was a hit and run. The guy was sitting up but very dazed looking. The paramedics were getting a back board out and a cervical collar. He looked in pretty bad shape. It makes me wonder about riding my bike on those roads. He was on the same road I take when I ride my bike. I hope he's alright.
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CERN scientists together with NASA have demonstrated that the temperature of the earth is dominated by the electromagnetic activity of the sun. When the sun produces a strong magnetic field, cosmic radiation is deflected away from the earth, when the magnetic field is weak cosmic radiation ionizes the earths atmosphere which seeds clouds an order of magnitude faster than normal. If there are fewer clouds the earth gets hotter. Their report states that human activity is a very minor part of global warming.
I come from a family with a lot of heritage. The Leavitt's and the Lybberts go way back and have been very prominent pioneers. I have inherited much from my forefathers and I am proud to be their descendant. One thing that I have definitely inherited from my father is his eyebrows. I love it and I am proud of my eyebrows but unfortunately they drive Lisa nuts. Especially my right eye brow. If my eyebrows were ever allowed to grow naturally as they were meant to they would look just like Spock's eyebrows. They have mutant hairs on the outsides that shoot out and up and just as soon as they start looking really cool Lisa grabs a pair of scissors and cuts them off. It is really quite sad.
As I get older it seems as if my eyebrows only get more distinguished. Also as I get older my eyesight seems to get dimmer. I need reading glasses to see closely and a good light has become more and more important. Lisa used to give me all kinds of grief as I would be hunting down a pair of reading glasses but now old age as caught up with her too. Now she too needs a good light and in order to see closely she needs to take off her glasses and use her myopia to help her see close up.
Now that I've shared this bit of background information you may understand why the "Baby Blues" cartoon last Sunday was so funny to us.
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Eyebrows evolved to keep sweat from getting into our eyes
I started working at Hi-Z in 1992 and the first person we hired after me was Javier. Javier and I quickly became very good friends. He has a very colorful past and I have encouraged him for a long time to start a blog and share some of his fascinating stories with the rest of us. He can go on forever. Javier is only a few years younger than I am so he is no longer a spring chicken and after being together for more than twenty years Javier and his wife still have no children and it isn't for a lack of trying. Imagine my surprise when he comes to work a few months back and tells me that he and his wife are expecting a baby. I was very excited and then I calmed down long enough to check and see if Javier was excited as well. He was and we've been talking about it ever since. Rosi comes from a very large family and she is the youngest of them all. Ever since the news her family has been coming from all over Mexico to celebrate with her. Javier finally decided to rent one of those places where you can invite all of your friends to watch an ultra sound on a big screen projector and he was kind enough to invite Lisa and I to join them. It was pretty cool. It was kind of like being in a movie theater watching the baby. I wish they did this when we had babies or even when Kira and Serene had their babies. So I would like to introduce you to Xavier de Jesus Valdez. Knowing his dad, this kid is going to be a handful.
Sarah has recently finished her summer semester at UVU and so came home for a week or so. It has been wonderful to have her here. Since Lisa has once again flown the coup it has just been Sarah and I for a few days. Of course there are many people who want to see Sarah in the short time that she's home but my wonderful daughter told me that I could have her undivided attention for one whole day. What a wonderful daughter I have.
Of course, with an invitation like that I made the absolute most of it. I asked her if my day could start Friday night and when she agreed I booked a camping spot. Friday I left work at noon and packed up the van and off we went to Dos Picos park. Sarah and I have camped quite a bit together and I believe this is the first time we actually arrived at the campsite in the day light. I was quite fun. They have a few hiking trails ( more like walking paths but still quite nice) and we checked those out.
On one of the trails we passed by a hill with the strangest wooden structures built on top of them. I have no idea what they were for but you can't have a tower like those without some one climbing them. They made a pretty tower for preaching from. Sarah looks like she's singing in one of the pictures.
Since we were out of the city we decided to head out on one of the trails after dark to get a better look at the stars. You can't see them very well from in the city but they were sure nice out there. Every year around my birthday the Perseid meteor shower comes around. I know it is late but we were hoping that we'd catch a few stragglers from that and we actually did see a few cool meteors.
I also had to try out a new app I got for my android called Skeye. You hold your phone up to the sky and it shows you a star chart. It isn't much use in town but it was really cool out there. I learned that the brightest star out last night was Vega. One of my favorite stars as a kid was Betelgeuse and I used to be able to find it but I haven't for years. I checked it out but unfortunately it hadn't risen yet. It is also a very bright star and I'm told a common one used for navigating.
As we were walking in the dark we learned that a lot of animals like to come out and warm themselves on the path after the sun goes down. We came across a tiny little snake and it freaked Sarah out. It didn't have a rattle but it looked just like a rattle snake. I believe baby rattle snakes don't have rattles and I also understand that they can be more dangerous than adult snakes because they haven't learned how to control how much venom they release when they bight. If they bight you they dump everything they have into you. We navigated carefully around him.
The next sample of wildlife we came across was a humongous wolf spider in a very intricate web that spread completely across the trail. The spider was dead center in the web. I felt bad destroying the poor guys web but we did need to get by.
You can imagine that I was watching the trail pretty closely at this point in case we came across any more wildlife and I watched Sarah step right over a big old tarantula. She didn't even see it. When I shone the flashlight on him she about died again. I have to give her credit though because she was completely game to keep going.
The whole time we were hiking we kept hearing a weird screeching sound and I couldn't figure out what it was. Suddenly a huge owl flew by us. I kept the flashlight beam on him and we watched him fly from tree to tree. We finally figured out that it was him that kept making the screeching noise. I thought they only "hooted".
We finally made it back to our beds and laid on our air mattress under the stars. This is the view we had but in the dark it was even more gorgeous. I love sleeping under the stars. Just laying there with the cool breeze blowing by and admiring the stars and listening to the sounds of the night is almost intoxicating for me. I'm so glad that Sarah was willing to give me this one last adventure.
As the sun came up and shone in my eyes I laid there once again soaking in the wilderness. Somebody was cooking bacon and that made be briefly wish that I'd brought some but I didn't want to waste any time cooking and cleaning so we enjoyed our granola. As we were eating some kid was climbing in the rocks and fell and broke his leg. He leg was severely dislocated and wedged so tightly in the rocks that he couldn't get it out. An ambulance came and they had to shoot the kid full of morphine before they could get his leg out.
After the ambulance left we loaded up our gear and off we went to hike up Mt Woodsen. That is actually a rather tough hike. It is only four miles to the top but it was hot and in places pretty steep. What a beautiful view though.
The trail starts out at Poway Lake so it is beautiful right from the start. I was so sad though because I was enjoying looking at the sky so much the night before that my battery died on the hike. I got some good pictures but they have a cool rock that juts out over a cliff and I really wanted a picture of me on that rock. Just so you can see the rock I downloaded some random dude standing on it from the internet. I did stand on the rock but I have no photographic evidence that I did so.
After racing down the mountain so that Sarah could use the bathroom we changed into our swimming suits and headed for the beach. It was almost eerie but as we headed out the parking lot there was another ambulance there. A lot of people were having a really bad day.
The water felt really nice after the hike but I was so tired I was ready to go home after twenty minutes or so. On the way home we stopped at Cotija's and order a Carnita's Taco for me and a Bean and Cheese Burrito for Sarah. Of course I had to have my large Horchata. You're not going to believe it but as we left the Vons parking lot there was another ambulance. I was beginning to feel like we were leaving a path of destruction behind us. At least we were having a ball.
The original plan was to relax and watch a movie but we had to go and represent our family at Chris Birds wedding reception. It was great to meet his wife and to see Ryan who just got home off his mission on Wednesday. He looks pretty good. We get to hear him report his mission tomorrow. When we did finally get to turn on our movie we were both so tired that we fell asleep. Not much visiting at that point but what a wonderful day doing all kinds of fun stuff with my baby.
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The spleen is the only organ in the body that scientists have no idea what it is for.
