Blessings of the season

Looking back over Christmas I have been thinking of what was the best part for me. I am not one for Christmas anymore. It is a nice day and I respect what we are celebrating during the day but it has changed since I was a kid.
Having said that, the best part of Christmas is the fact I was able to spend it with my Grandparents. They are getting along in years and there is no guarantees that they will be around next year but I was able to sit with them and open presents with them. It was a most comforting feeling then to have cousins come over and have the Christmas meal with them was wonderful.
Another blessing was the fact that with a friend, we were able to fix the lighting in my grandparents house and also the lighting in their condo up at Elk Meadows. The gift of being able to help them with that was a feeling that I won't soon forget. My friend felt the same way. We did have a blast going up to Elk Meadows. He tried using an inner tube that was designed for water and being in a pool. That lasted one run and popped. It was hilarious. We were able to watch the Redskins/Vikings game on TV(way to go 'skins) then watch "Just Friends". I feel like this has been one of the best Christmases I have had in a long time and I will treasure this for some time to come.

Why do we need such a long preseason?

As the NFL is smack dab in, preseason. We are all tied to the TV and the websites to see how are teams will fair during this most important time right? RIGHT??? I guess not. Yet the NFL is trying to milk the preseason for what it is worth. Charging regular season prices for game where the 1st team is only on the field for a series maybe a couple but no longer than a half. Sounds like highway robbery to me!!! It is a blast to tune into a preseason game and see the stadiums fill all the way to, well, 10 to 15 percent capacity. I guess those few are just desperate enough to try to make it a memorable experience.

I can understand the need for a preseason. You need to work out issues of timing on the offense and this is a good way to tune but it is essentially a 1/4 of a season. You just try that in the NBA or MLB. I don't think that will fly. Another drawback to such a long preseason? Go to any sports website and check the injuries. You will see a number of players already out. Some are out the whole season. You could get by with a couple of games to help timing issues and evaluate some of the players on the bubble and that would help greatly. Somehow I don't think that will fly with the powers that be. Heaven forbid you take away all that revenue from the stadiums bursting with all those fans.

Rocks longest soap opera lives on.

When I first heard that David Lee Roth was to join Van Halen, I just about fell over. I thought to myself, this will be one kick ass concert!! I love the stuff the original members did, all the way from Atomic punk to Jump. Even with the synthesizers they were the best. Little did I know it wasn't going to be the original Van Halen. They seem to have forgotten one: Michael Anthony.

How could you decide that it would be Van Halen without him. I know when they toured with Sammy Hagar, I heard the argument that it wasn't Van Halen, rather Van Hagar. I understood their point of view but I still loved the band. Even the tour they did a couple of years ago I loved. But to replace an original member with your 16 year old son? What is this? The "Van Halen family values tour" with DLR just tagging along for fun? Don't label this as a reunion unless it has ALL the members the band.
Why isn't Michael Anthony along this time? Possibly because he has toured with Sammy Hagar? I wouldn't have blamed him one bit. At least he wasn't sitting on his butt before going to rehab.

To add insult to injury, the only members of Van Halen to show up at the Rock 'n' Roll hall of fame was the two members not going out on tour this time around. That is pathetic!!!

Eddie!! Pull your head out, get over the bitterness and make it an actual reunion tour with Michael. If you don't want Sammy around. That is cool. I can understand that also but give the fans,like me, a memory to really savor. As it is right now, I have no interest in going to any of the shows.

I feel like such a redneck

I am hoping to get a picture up soon but last night I went to the Washington County Fair. It was a blast. I was able to get in to the Demolition Derby. Nothing like watching a bunch of old cars smash into each other. Besides it is even more fun to see true redneck watching the thing.
They had a couple of heats to start things out. Several cars didn't last long at all. The impact were bone rattling but worth it for me.
During the derby, they had a rock climbing competition. The coarse was set up with two telephone poles, then a space of 10 feet then you had a 20 ft long pile of boulders about 4 ft high then another 10 ft of space finished by two more telephone poles. The competition was to get over the whole track the least amount of time possible. They had several Jeeps that tried it. One actually hit the rock pile and basically jumped onto the pile. He lost his drive line but one the contest. There was another Jeep that lost a tire and came in second. Yet another Jeep pick up got up on the pile only to roll, get back up and try it again. My personal favorite was a Ford Explorer that looked like it had been in a pretty bad roll over. He hit the telephone poles, caught air and smashed head first into the pile of rocks. He promptly left. We figure he had a nice case of whiplash. I should feel bad but I don't. I just couldn't stop laughing and wanted him to try it again.
After that, there was a really nice firework display. The nice part was there was a thunderstorm in the back ground. Not to bad to finish off the weekend.

A video that I must share.

This is a homemade video my friend did in tribute to his Grandfather. It is awesome.

Today, I am celebrating a small victory. I had a bet with a coworker about who could lose the most weight in a time period. The result? I won. I dropped 11 lbs and he dropped 7. He asked for double or nothing. I agreed so I am in another competition for 6 more weeks. It is totally worth it to me just for how I am feeling. I went bike riding for an hour and a half today and thoroughly enjoyed it. I was able to ride through the Washington Fields and enjoy the evening air.

Activities

Today I decided it was time to get out at get some exercise. I have been doing good but there is always room for improvement.

The decision? To do some hiking up in the Pine Valley Mountains. We got up into the mountains and it cooled off into the 80s. That is a promising sign.
The last time I hiked up there, things didn't go so well. I ended up fatigued and basically wounded to say the very least. That is when I decided it was time to lose some weight.
This time? I have dropped 15 pounds and it made a HUGE difference. Yea, I came back stiff and sore but not wounded. On top of that, it was a harder hike so I had to do more work. In the end, I feel good.

I know I am headed in the right direction.

From Kalispell to Flagstaff in a day.

That's right. At the buttcrack of dawn I was in a plan leaving the paradise of Montana headed back home to the heat. I had only one reprieve, head to Flagstaff, Arizona. Yup. I am now in Arizona for the weekend.

How that happened was my friend had a weekend show to do in Flagstaff and he needed a roadie. I just happen to volunteer for that job so I landed in St. George, repacked my bags and hopped in to a truck and headed out. I figure I have gone about 1500 miles today. I tried to take a nap but I think I am so tired, I can't even do that. Oh well. I am making the most of this vacation and I will squeeze this for every once I can.

Fireworks made fun

Last night I went out with my Dad to check out the fireworks. The have a neighbor about a mile away that does his own private show. I have heard good things about the show from my sister. I didn't think much about it because I know how Utah treats fireworks so I kept my expectations low.

Instead of a mini show, I was treated to a spectacular event. He had all sort of wonderful explosive devices. What made it even more impressive is that you are nestled in a valley with rolling hills all around. It makes for some killer acoustics so the explosions seem to roll back and for through the valley. I was blown away(figuratively).

We are headed out to the Flathead river to raft. I am really looking forward to that. But I know that tomorrow I have to fly back to St. George and to reality.
That bites.

Montana: Capital of Coffee houses and Casinos?

I just wanted to make an observation here. It seems like there is a coffee house and casino on every intersection. It's kinda creepy. I feel like I am in a mix of Seattle/Nevada here.

BTW, Happy Independence day to all.

Those sneaky Goats!!!

I have had a blast today. We took off for Glacier to see the sights. Last time I was up here, we couldn't get past Lake MacDonald due to forest fires and such. So this time we took off and started the climb.
We started up the road but found out soon that my Dad's truck had a little problem. It was overheating badly. We would have to pull over to the side of the road and let it cool. The we would go about another mile or so and pull over again. In other words, it was a long trip but I got some wonderful shots of the peaks. I am just in awe at the beauty around me. And in a sense, it was quite humbling.
We made it to the top called "Logan's pass." The parking lot was full but a Park ranger was understanding of the truck and just let us pull to the side and said as long as the hood was up, no one would really say anything. I hiked around a little bit up there and enjoyed the scenery.
On the way back down, we bumped in to some mountain goats that were just hanging out. Some where walking in the road so the traffic backed up quickly. As we got closer to a momma goat with her young I had my camera ready. At the last second she decided to head down the side of the mountain. I was 10 feet away but couldn't get a shot off in time.
Oh well.

Hello from Montana.

My vacation has finally arrived. I am such a happy camper. The best part of this is that I am able to spend time with my dad in Whitefish, Montana. Part of this wonderful trip is that my sister got me a round trip ticket from St. George to Kalispell, Montana which is about 15 miles south of Whitefish.
I got up this morning and made the quick trek up and I was in God's country by noon.
I love flying. I love most to look out the window and see where I am heading. So what happens? I get an isle seat. That just about broke my heart. I had to keep craning my neck in order to look out the window to check the landscape but that didn't stop me. I saw some really impressive mountain ranges on the way up.

This afternoon my Dad got out a canoe and we took it out to check out a lake. I get in and we promptly turned it over. Welcome to Montana. :) I didn't mind whatsoever.
I had brought clothes to get wet. After that, we paddled around for a bit.

Now I am staying in the Yurt. If you want to know what a yurt is, I will have pictures posted later on. It is a blast.

More to follow in the coming days.

Sometimes, this says it all.

Me likey!!!!

Time to check in.

I can't believe that it is already the middle of June. If you have a clue on where the time went, I am all ears.

Last weekend I did something totally original. I went camping. :) We started by going over to visit a place just east of Zion. One of my friends has friends that manage a dude ranch. It was really a nice area. We broke out the 4 wheelers and took them around to tour the place. At one point I had a race with my friend's dog. We got up to 30-40 MPH and she kept up. I was impressed. After that we started to climb a hill. I had a girl on with me and I climbed up the hill at a good safe pace. We only went about half way because we had assumed that there would be water for the dog. There wasn't. We turned around and started heading down. The girl wanted to drive so I was more than happy to let her. My mistake. This girl freaking gunned the machine down hill and it was all I could do to stay on the back of the machine. It was a tad bit insane and if I ever ride with her again, it will be to soon.
After that we headed up on Cedar Mountain to a little secret camping spot. It was gorgeous if not a bit cold. We woke up to a very chilly morning. It was a great way to get the blood flowing.
Of coarse we are back in town and it is getting warm. Tomorrow is supposed to be 106. Welcome to summer.
On to other news, my weight loss is going well. I started out at 270. Went up to 273. Now I am at 264. I am very pleased with that loss. Slow but steady. I am still drinking at least 64 oz of water. That makes for a miserable road trip when you constantly have to pull over to take a leak.
I am mixing in different activities for exercise. I am walking for an hour and now throwing in some jogging as I feel the urge. I also go over to a friends house and we use is "Dance, Dance Revolution" for a 30 minute workout. That really gets you going. I just have to keep it up.

The way to kick off summer.

To kick of the weekend, Eric and I decided to take off and camp up on Beaver Mtn. He had a delivery that he had to make in Beaver and we were just going to play off the cuff after that. We start climbing up the mountain in his truck and we found out how cold it was going to be. We decided to wimp out and stay at my Grandparents condo. It was nice for an overnighter. And in the morning, we went up on top of the mountains and got some sweet pictures of the area. I am still waiting on the email to get them. I'll post them as soon as I get them.
Anyway we came back down to St. George Saturday afternoon and I decided I needed to bum around town and do a whole lot of nothing.

Sunday comes and me and Eric decided to go up to Enterprise Reservoir. We invited a couple a friends and headed out to camp and fish. The fishing was excellent. I caught a healthy 2 lb rainbow. I was proud of that considering the dog that came with us wanted to swim wherever the line was and we have a fun time trying to control her. The best part was there was a girl with us that was helping with the fish as we caught them. Once we got them of our line and put them on a line to keep, she went to throw out the line but didn't keep hold of the end. We saw these beautiful fish flying out into the lake. Bummer. I had sandals on so I was volunteered to go out and get them. I was lucky, I got them back.

We got back up to the camp ground and started to clean the fish. One of the girls, a city girl, wanted to help gut and clean them. She said she was OK because she had dissected a fish before. That didn't last too long and we took over the duties of getting them cleaned. We decided to do an experiment, we took the fish and poked a stick right through them and cooked them over a fire. It actually came out tasty. We had some tomato and basil wheat thins and use the cracker with the fish. That was really tasty. We started to set up camp but it got windy and we wimped out(again)and headed home around midnight.

Today we went up to hike on the Pine Valley Mtns. The trail we took was called Mill Flat. It was a fun trail but long. On the way up, I apparently crossed a rattle snake. I even had a dog with me and neither of us saw it. Eric got into a battle with it after being surprised by it. I am a little shocked because it could have easily bit me or the dog once I saw where it was. Then about 1/2 mile further up. I was scared when a water snake blew past me. My nerves where frayed. We hiked about 8 miles round trip and I was TIRED on the way back down. I made the mistake of trying to cross a stream by stepping on rocks. I took a wrong step and went into the stream. The worse was to come. I ended up stretching my calf muscle funny and I ended up with a Charlie Horse. That was painful and I still had over 3 miles to go. I stretched out the best I could and hobbled down.

I made into town but even now I am stiff and extremely sore.
I came to this conclusion, the trouble I had today were in large part to my weight. I weigh just to damn much. Eric is going through a weight lost center that is also changing his eating habits. I need to change mine to make this work but I am resolved to shed off the pounds.
My goal is to get down to about 220 lbs, I am at 270. I have some work ahead of me but I am going to go over and get on the same program and see what I need to do to change. Wish me luck.

Back from Surreality.

Yup...I felt like I was in the twilight zone pretty much all weekend.
I did my job as a roadie for Eric and the band. The destination? California City, Ca.

According to the locals, Cal city is the third largest city in Ca. How is it you may have never heard of such a large city? Easy, because it is third largest in square miles, and there are a lot of empty miles in there. The actual population is about 8,300. It was strange, you would leave the "downtown" section. You would go out into the desert and there would be intersections that would just go off into nowhere. The city has roads planned but obviously no need to put those roads in. You could go about 5 miles and see a grouping of houses then nothing again.

We said about 10 miles from *ahem* city center at a place called the Silver Saddle resort. It was a nice place with greenery all around. You had pools, a mini golf course, shooting range and horse rides. The guitarist for the band said that it was supposed to be from the "wild west." My response was that we know there was many a time that there was a dispute settled on a put-put course. :)

Anyway we had to put on the show Saturday. It was a pleasant evening but it cooled off quickly there. I was caught without a jacket but survived. The show was fun but things got a little crazy with everybody crowding the stage. I think they may want to hire someone to keep the audience back just a bit.

Anyway I am back at home and relaxing before work hits me upside the head tomorrow.

While I have writer's block.

Happy Birthday Grandma.

We had the luck of being able to celebrate my Grandmother's Birthday. She had her 81st in the hospital. It is still a bumpy ride considering that a couple of weeks ago she had to be revived with the paddles. (Yea, that caused a lot of tears among the family)
I had an uncle come in from Beaumont, TX on his Harley to be here.
The hospital staff was very accommodating considering the gang that was there. Grandma was all smiles talking with everybody. Last year she was really not happy with anybody cause she didn't want to celebrate. This year was the best for her.
Now she in back in a rehab clinic to get her back up to speed. We are all pulling for her she is in my prayers.

I like outdoor stuff.

The weather has turned really nice since a couple of weeks ago. It is constantly in the 70's and I am loving it. No really. I am loving it.
Yesterday I had a friend call and asked me what I was wanting to do. I really wanted to go fishing. He wanted to go camping. The answer? Both. :) We took off from St. George to fish/camp up at Enterprise reservoir. We took along a girl that wanted to camp. She was interested because she had never been in that area. We took back roads and she was impressed with the scenery. It is always fun to play tour guide.
Anyway we get to Enterprise and guess what? It isn't really springtime up there. It was cold and windy. Heavy emphasis on the windy part. We ate a local fast food place and decided the camping was out but we'd still fish.
We get up to the reservoir and it was really windy. We still went fishing and had some success. The first fish on my line got away because of a snag. I said all the apropriate words you needed and proceeded to get my line rigged again. My friend caught one in the meantime and let it go. I brought in a nice fish and decided to keep it for dinner. I love the taste of fish. My friend caught another and kept it but gave it do me as he just felt that it was to much hassle to cook. We went down to St. George and rented a movie and hung out.
Today it was another nice day. We took my friends dog out to hike up Coal Pits wash in Zion's. It was amazing. We had a secondary goal. To teach the young pup to swim. She wasn't wanting to but we made a game out of it having her fetch a stick. We found some deep pools in the small stream and she got up to speed quickly. I hiked about 4 miles and I am plenty burnt now but it was worth everything.
Here is a picture after the hike. The dog doesn't look all that happy but it was because she had to get back in the truck and head for home. I can relate to that.

Today:

It snowed. It was actually snowing pretty hard before noon. The reactions where mixed on the snow. One of the sales reps from Wisconsin wouldn't even acknowledge the snow. Some tried to get the boss to call a snow day. That didn't work out all that well either. :)
Anyway it snowed enough to make the town look white. The white on the red rock really is something to see first hand and I never tire of seeing it. Sad part is that by noon, it was all melted.
The nice part is that we will be back in the 60's by this weekend so we can get out and play.

Weekend fun.

Well, despite that little storm that cooled things down for the weekend, we didn't let that slow us down.
My friend had a friend come down from the Orem area. We all had GPS units so what was in store? Geocaching of course. We loaded a couple of stashes to find and headed out.
My friend had always wanted to go for one called Sand Mountain overlook. It was in a spot that either you walk for 4 miles or take four wheelers. You don't want to take a vehicle in. You may be able to take a Jeep but that is about as much as you want to do. We loaded up the four wheelers and headed it out.
It was a NICE day. We were out in rocks, cliffs, sand dunes and sage brush. There were spots that where so tricky that we had to have one girl manage the four wheeler while both guys made sure to keep it stable. It was a total blast.
We spent the whole afternoon out on the desert and I am now feeling the sun burn on my face. It was well worth the day and it was a great way to blow off some steam.
I am thinking tonight will be a nice night to go out and camp under the stars.
I am ever grateful to live in an area that I have those options and to continue to have them throughout the year. Catch y'all later. :)

Good video from my good friend

My rant on Washington County

OK. Bare with me on this. I don't get political but there are times that two plus two equals one. For me, this is one of those times.

This weekend on our trip up to Baker Dam, I saw something that disturbs me. Along the side of the road, they have a paved trail for joggers, bikers, and anybody that wants to walk. It is a good stretch of trail from Snows Canyon on down, until now. The powers that be are letting it go to waste so that you can get another housing development in. Are they going to rebuild it? I don't know.

In the same vein, there are several of these trails around town. I like the idea and a lot of people use them. The sad part is a couple of years ago, we had the big flood come down both the Santa Clara and the Virgin Rivers. It destroyed the trails along with other property. What is the city/county doing? They are building new trails but seemingly leaving the damaged trails untouched. It would seem to me that you would want to rebuild that which was destroyed before building more. Yes they may be in unprotected parts but the reality of the river flooding like that bad is remote at best. I just don't know and can't see the logic in it.

Better weather, time to get out.

Today was a gorgeous day. It was almost 60 degrees here in town and when it gets that nice, it is time to go out and play.
Last night my friend and I were talking about going fishing. I was all for it. He wondered if it would be to cold up higher but I figured as nice as it is here, up higher wouldn't be that bad.
We took off with some firewood to make a day of it. We started off to Baker Dam. It is a little dam about 20 miles north of here. It is a pretty place and a tad bitter cooler.
We get up there and it isn't too bad. About 43 degrees but with the sun, it was downright toasty. The problem? The lake was frozen over but it didn't look like it would support ice fishing. Besides I NEVER thought that ice fishing would be fun. We decided to enjoy the firewood anyway and had a nice little fire and kicked back. After the wood burned out, we headed back into town. It was still early afternoon and it was either do something else or take a nap.
We decided to grab a GPS unit and do a couple of geocaches. We had a couple printed out and took off. The first one was easy and kind of disappointing. The second? That was more challenging. It was located just north of town in a wash. It was a challenge to get to because it was situated on the side of a steep incline. We got to it and checked it out. On the way back out, I ended up sliding down the incline on my hands, hip and knee. The body part that took the most damage? My knee. It isn't bad but it is plenty sore. I am hoping the ibuprofen will kick in soon.
I am sore but it is nice to get out and play. It is great stress relief.
Update on my Grandparents:
They are BOTH out of the hospital and in a rehab clinic. They are both doing well and they are happy and healthy. That is great news for everybody.
I have more but if I started, I would be rambling so I will get back here tomorrow night.

Kind of cold, isn't it?

Ok. So we were supposed to get this big storm last Thrusday. It was supposed to lay down 3 inches here in St. George. That would have been something considering how much snow we usually get. I didn't believe it because it has been a really dry winter here but at the same time, I had hoped because this area is really beautiful when it does snow. Friday came and the warnings where all posted. And the weather? It was cloudy but that was about it. Saturday, the still had warnings still posted. The weather? I saw about three or four flakes but nothing else. It laid an egg, just like the rest of the winter. I have to say that I am really disappointed.
Anyway Saturday night, I was invited to a bonfire. It was at a town north of here called Leeds. We went up there and it was COLD, like 10 degrees cold. We were freezing anything that could be frozen.
We helped start the fire. It help but there was a stiff north wind blowing. It didn't help the heat radiating from the fire. We would throw on a bunch a pallets and it would get really hot if you were facing the fire but the part that wasn't facing the fire would be frozen.
After a while the bonfire kind of felt like a church dance. I didn't feel comfortable at all. So we left and went to my friends house where will warmed up, hung out and played cards. Now that was good times.

Remember me?

I know it has been awhile since I did anything with this site. I need to get things caught up.
The month of December was a hard one. It felt like the whole family was in a yo-yo. My grandmother ended up getting some kind of virus and got real sick. She kept telling everybody that she was ok but for a whole week, she could keep anything down. Finally my aunt basically said either you go to the hospital or we call an ambulance. My grandma relented and went.
Since that time she has been in the hospital and still is there. There was fluid filling up around her lungs that they had to drain twice and then try to get nutrients to her cause she couldn't keep anything down. It was a daily thing and still is. One day she was doing well then another she wasn't. Friday, she was going to be released in a couple of day to a rehab center only to see that Saturday she was in the ICU. They say she is doing better and hopefully she will get into rehab and get better. I can only keep my fingers crossed.
The major issue we have now is that when we ask her how she is feeling, we hope that she is truthful. She kept saying she was fine because that is what we all wanted to her. Of course we want to hear that but we want it to be the truth. If she is feeling bad, we need to hear that too.
During Christmas, I was going to head up north to celebrate Christmas with my parents and my sister and her family. The Friday before Christmas, I came down with another round of stomach flu. That pretty much nixed any plans to go anywhere. I spent Christmas playing video games while trying to recover. My mom and sister felt bad but they realized it was better I didn't try to attempt the trip even if I wasn't driving.
Anyway, once again it was a trying December.