On your mark . . .

I've tried to restrain myself from posting pictures of my grandkids on this blog. Partly because their parents have their own blogs, and partly because - well - it seems a little too "grandpa-ish." However, here's a kind of cute trio of Grant photos. I'll do right by the others in future blogs.

Get Set. . . .

Grant looks as if he's scoping out a plan. Actually, his plan is to run a much as he can, pick up as many eggs as he can - and not go home till long after it's over. This I know having been him myself at one time.

Go!

You can just barely make Grant out in front of Pam. It's a good thing she's a runner. He keeps her in good motion.

I will gladly pay you Tuesday for a hambuger today

The moment I've been waiting for has at last arrived. My plan was to get in line and be one of the first burger-buyers when this place opened. But there was no warning prior to today's announcement in the morning paper. And I had to go pick up Melody from the airport and then go to the temple. (let's see, pick up my wife - or get an In-N-Out burger, hmm, difficult choice but I want you to know I did right by her)

So I had to wait until after my meeting tonight to swing by. The cars were lined up clear out to the street! But they were moving quickly and it was only ten minutes until I had my prize and was on the road again. I was hungry by that time so it was gone before I got home. Yumm...

Geocaching at it's best

For those of you who haven't heard of Geocaching, it's a hobby where people hide containers (some as small as a hide-a-key, some as large as a military ammo can) with little trinkets in them and a log book, then record the longitude/latitude coordinates with a GPS unit. The coordinates are posted on the Geocaching web site and anyone with a GPS and a little treasure hunting in their blood can go try to find it. Monday I took a friend's family with me out to the old Camp Beale training area (now the Spenceville Wildlife area) where several of these are hidden in and around pill boxes used during WWII to train the troops.

This is the view from outside one of the pill boxes looking in. We had a great time hiking from bunker to bunker and looking around these fortifications. The kids got a big kick out of finding the trinkets the cacher had hidden.

This is the same bunker as the one above, looking out the machine-gun hole to where I was standing when I took the first photo. One of the added pleasures for me was to chase the cows that are grazing on this public land. (I really think I ought to buy a ranch, I like moving cattle so much.)

In both of these photos you can get a feel for how pretty it is this time of year. The day was gorgeous! Of course, in the Summer it will be dry, brown and full of stickers - oh, and the rattle snakes will be out - so this is the best time of year to go.

This is maybe the most interesting view of one of the bunkers. You see how they were designed with an interior wall to protect others form ricocheting bullets and grenade blasts. The roof being caved in makes it real easy to get in and out of them. There are doorways too for the unadventurous. The walls are about 7' high.

It was a fun day. We had a blast and found all of the caches we were looking for. Remind me to take you guys out there some time.

Oh, I could write a sonnet about your easter bonnet

Surely you recognize the lyrics to the great Irvine Berlin song (ok, none of his songs were not great) written for the Judy Garland movie Easter Parade. Fred Astair, too, what more could you ask for?

So I'm getting in the mood for Peter Cotton-tail's arrival (before going out to mow the lawn and go running) and I colored some Easter eggs using a home-made dye of vinegar, water and food coloring. I like the vibrant colors, not the "pretty pastels" and since Melody is in AZ I get to do as I like. (Just don't tell her) You see the results below.

Another cool thing I don't often get an opportunity to do is teach a Sunday School lesson to my students at school. The other day several of them asked why we were getting Friday off so I took a few minutes and explained Good Friday, Ash Wednesday, the crucifixion, the resurrection and whatnot to them. I didn't take too much time, but they know more about it now (especially the Sikhs, the Jewish boy, and the infidels [did I just say infidels? No offense intended, I just mean those who never heard the story before]) than they did before. Without Easter there would be no Christmas.

Goin' Down the River

The releases from the dams are at a low (trying to save water for the growing season) and the Spring melt hasn't gotten underway yet, so the river is WAY down. These photos (taken with my phone, Mom has the good camera in AZ) show rock outcroppings and water falls 5 feet high where usually there is only a stretch of rough water.

I rode my bike down the riverbottoms trail about 5 mi. south to Boyd's Pump. Spring is the only time you can do this. Winter it's under water or at least partially so and Summer it's too sandy and you can't pedal through it.

It was a beautiful day, not just because tomorrow's a day off, but because it was just a perfect day to ride down in the river bottoms.

These two photos are pretty rough, but if you can imagine it, this is usually completely covered with water. No falls, no rocks showing.

Watership Down

No, this is not about the classic children's book. You know me better than to assume I have any culture other than the kind that grows on old cheese. This is a little film clip I made from some photos that were sent to me of "a series of unfortunate events." I think you'll get the drift.

I also appreciate the comments on the Joseph Smith photo below. This is, according to the Church's news service, a strictly undocumented daguerreotype (maybe even of one of Joseph's sons rather than him). I'll probably remove it soon - I just thought I'd get everybody's take on it.

Hoppy Easter!

Don't you wish you could drive like this?

I thought it might be fun to show you what I do in my classes. Well, not every day, but since I work my students pretty hard most of the time, when the rare day comes along that I can lighten up on them I often show show short video clips such as the one below. I'll post more of these over time just to fill in the gaps of my otherwise uninspiring life.

Great One-liners

When I was at the California Association for the Gifted Conference in Anaheim a couple weeks ago I spent some time in the vendor's arena (not something I usually do). But this time there was a lady selling T-shirts with these great one-liners on them.

I had a hard time making up my mind between the many choices, but decided to go with. "What part of q(12+p/67) cosine x(wt-126) don't you understand?" Very funny - plus it was on a black shirt. I like it.

My second favorite was a diagram of all of the ages of the earth (jurassic, tertiary, cretateous, etc) and several layers down (indicating several millions of years ago) it's noted: "The last time I was wrong." Also very tempting, but only on white. I have enough white shirts.

If you're interested go to mfolz.com and have a look see. They're great.

The scene is clear, I have gloves on!

Yesterday I re-took a course in CPR. It's been a few years since if renewed my certificate so I thought it would be a good thing to do. I was told it would be from 9-12 Saturday morning, and even though I had a hard time imagining how they were going to stretch it into a 3 hour gig (I mean, how long does it take to learn that you give 2 breaths then 30 compressions and repeat?) I set the time aside and dove in.

SIX HOURS LATER! I'm finally done with the the course (I'm reminded of Pam's great line: "All I can think of is bad words") Those of you who know me well (and you all do) know that probably my greatest weakness is not being able to suffer through unexpected time delays. I was trying somewhat unsuccessfully to smile through it all. This turned out to be a full blown First Aid/CPR certification class. And we didn't even break for lunch. So on the way home I swing through the drive through to get a hamburger (I love hamburgers, they always make me feel better) and get stuck behind the one person in a line of ten cars who has trouble with their order. Arrrgh.

Well, the rest of the day got better from then on. How could it get worse? I'm happy to have my CPR certification renewed, and I will continue working on my attitude.

Oh, the title for this post comes from the first words we were supposed to say every time we performed for our instructors. Remember to be safe - and always wear gloves.

Yada, yada, yada...

Just thought I'd add a bit for today. The weather here has been beautiful and I ran 3 miles while I worked out some thoughts for Ward Conferences this Sunday. We have two scheduled so it will be a full day.

We just bought a pizza at Papa Murphy's and are taking it over to Grandma's place to cook for dinner. (garlic chicken - yumm!) She needs a light bulb replaced (no, her mind is still bright, the bulb is for her laundry room) so we are inviting Rich and Joanne and we're going to party -till at least 8:30 pm! Don't laugh, I'll bet most of you wish you could be done with the day's responsibilities by that time.

Anyway, hope you enjoy the photos and videos I posted yesterday. Next Saturday I'll be in a CPR class all morning with Bruce George. : 0 Maybe I'll get more pictures there!

This week in review, or at least in the rear view mirror

I've been pretty busy this week. So has Mom, but at least she didn't have to call 911 at work this week (she called three times last week). So I can't think of much else to relate.

We have had real nice weather all week. Everything is blooming and it's been great running weather. The ground is still soft, but the skies are clear and warm.

Since I can't come up with anything exciting from the present, I thought I'd re-visit the past just bit. The video clips below are from the famous "The Showers Are Free Today" beach camping trip in 2000 - as are the small photos at the right. Enjoy these for what they are. Chris was in the Boston Mission at the time, having that special kind of fun one only has while on a mission.

It's MAGIC!

Pam was so funny this whole trip. If you don't remember, it's the trip where she and Kim did the "Ice, Ice Baby" routine. We titled this trip "The Showers are Free Today" because eveyone who went to the restrooms came back and said: "hey, did you know the showers are free today?" Anyway, what a great walk down memory lane.

Kim's Eating Disorder

This was one of the best trips to the beach I think we ever had. It was where we discovered Kim's "problem."