March 27th 2009

(continued from the previous post). At 5:30 A.M. Freddy starts walking around loudly on the wood floor in the next room. Sounds like he was frantically pacing back and forth, loud enough to wake me up from a deep sleep. I called him over and petting him a few times before falling back to sleep. Freddy goes back to his pacing and then I hear him groan and whine while pacing. I asked him if he needed to go outside. Freddy, who understands English quite well, started jumping on me like he was saying "Damn right I need to go outside! It's about time you understood what I was asking you dumbass!" Freddy had a strange look of eager anticipation of relief while he jumped around excitedly as I walked toward the back door. Freddy bolted out the door like the house was afire and immediately took a 5 minute long piss. He then dissapeared into the back yard beyond the porch light to do the "other" thing.

I thought "Screw going back to bed", I'll enjoy the luxury of having 1 1/2 hours to get ready for work!" Freddy came back inside a few minutes later and was so happy that I was capable of understanding that he really had to go pretty bad. Freddy is one hell of a good dog!

Not being in a hurry in the morning was nice. Wish I could fall asleep at 10:00PM so I could wake at 5:30 every morning. I made some fine Darjeeling tea, had a bit of toast with cream cheese and smoked trout (smoked trout is much cheaper than salmon, if you can find it), listened to the news on the radio, took my time getting ready in the bathroom. Got dressed, then briskly walked to school in the cold sunny morning, feeling like I was on top of the world.

The first couple classes went well, but my 4 1/2 hours sleep the previous night was to haunt me for the rest of the afternoon. The students were lively as they usually are on Friday, while I was dazed but patient as I served out the rest of the day's sentence.

I got home in the blazing 39 degree sunny afternoon. Freddy was very excited to see me as usual, so I nixed my plans to take a nap, played with Freddy, then brought the big red beast out of the garage and started it for the first time in a week. Unfortunately my "beast" is a large dirt bike and I really can't ride it in town. After the bike warmed up I thought up a route to the nearby convenience store riding mainly in parking lots, with bits of sidewalk riding to get from lot to lot. I throttled up the beast and the noise shook the walls of my house as I eased her out of the back yard. I took off carefully, since the bike would prefer to do a "wheelie" if allowed to have it's way, and weaved my way though the buildings and old parking lots, occasionally getting to spray gravel while quickly holding back all it's mind numbing power and glory. I had to leave her running in front of the store, because I didn't want to have to kickstart a semi-warm engine and risk a vapor lock, not to mention that I like hearing the bike go "thump, thump, thump" from inside the store. I flirted with the nice, hot looking, older lady (blond, mid 30's) behind the counter, grabbed my quart of Tecate' beer, and threaded my way home, without driving on the street whatsoever.

Logan came back from a job interview and was dressed pretty nice. Usually he is wearing some form of teenage shirt with writing and at least one skull or devil printed on it. He might just get this job after all. Funny how many teenagers hate to read, but like to wear clothing that require reading.

Spent the rest of the evening, tending to my EBAY auctions, watching TV, and sleeping. Hopefully tomorrow will be warm enough to go fly fishing, bike riding, or something fun. There lurks a mean snow event in the Gulf of Alaska which is heading our way.

March 24th - 26th 2009

March 24th PAYDAY! (or so I thought). Since my account said I had been paid on "Pay Day", I went to buy those things we have been needing, but didn't have the money for. I also paid several bills I have been holding off on.

This week is the opposite of last week with highs in the low 30's and lows around 10 degrees, with snow daily from Monday thru Wednesday, which melts in the afternoon.

When I got home I checked out my bank statement and found out that "Wells Fargo" makes extra money by giving your deposit a "PENDING" status. This means that WF did get your money from your employer, your money is right there when you check your balance, but it takes a day or two for that money to perhaps: take a shower, get a nights rest, maybe go out for a couple drinks and see a show. After breakfast, your money tells the receptionist to hold all calls and requests because it is "PENDING" for the next day and a half, and that if anyone attempts to get money, to send the sorry bastard a $35 fee for just for asking. My money was on "pending" status for well of a full day before I could use it without being charged. Their "Pending" times are sure getting longer. I just assumed that since the money was in their bank, I should be able to use it. Bad idea for yours truly folks!

Turns out that I tryed to use MY money, which was loafing about in MY bank, and got charged several fees which amounted to $170!!! This my friends, is why Wells Fargo is doing well. They steal from average income and low income people. It's the seeing all that money posted into your account, but getting a hot check fee for trying to use it, that gets me. Why post that the money is in your account before you can use it in the first place?. Other banks I've used would actually put checks on hold, if they arrived one day before you were to get paid. WF does the opposite and worse by dragging out this "Pending" process longer and longer each pay day, and using your own money as BAIT in order to get fees. People warned me about this before I even got the account.

This makes Wells Fargo even worse than Walmart. Walmart makes mistakes which cost you money and aggravation. Wells Fargo, merely steals from the poor, under the guise of fine print on a contract, baits you with a high balance, then rips you off by claiming your money isn't quite ready ("pending") to be used, and fining you $35 each time you try to use your money that is sitting in their frickin' bank! ARRRGGHHHHH...

March 25th, my paycheck was still "Pending" but I had to do some laundry, so I broke out the change jar and found enough quarters to do two loads of mine and Logans laundry. As I mentioned before; I love doing laundry with my son. I will not buy a washer and dryer while he lives in my house. The weather was quite strange. When we left the house it was 35 degrees outside and snowing freely, but the snow would melt as soon as it hit the ground. We went to the laundromat, put our meager two loads in the washer, then drove to McDonalds after scraping up the 2 dollars for 2 double cheese burgers. The McDonalds employee had a look of pity on his face, while sadly watching me count out nickles and dimes to buy Logan and I dinner for the night (meanwhile several grand lays "pending" in my bank account), but we had a good time with it, and the hamburgers were a good after school snack. By then the snow was coming down in big wet snowflakes, that were so waterlogged they kind of looked like domestic turkey's being dropped out of a helicopter or something. We returned to the laundry place and hung out in the camper while watching the freaky snow gather its forces and within a few minutes the ground was covered white with the wet dying snow.

Thursday the 26th was a nice day. My paycheck was finally available. School was great, the sun was out in full force, and the therometer never went above freezing. Quite cold for being 4 days away from April. I made a curried pork chop casserole for dinner, which Freddy enjoyed as much as me. It's nice to have another family member to cook for. Since I got these thick boneless pork chops for $1.49 a pound, Freddy gets served as a dinner guest tonight.

Al's Curried Pork Chops:

Rub curry powder all over your pork chops. Then mix in some soy sauce, some brown sugar, and some tabasco sauce (the amounts are up to you). Marinate as long as you want, then brown the chops in a frying pan, but don't cook em' just yet. Chop up a large onion not too fine but not too chunky and scatter half of the onion across the bottom of the casserole pan. add some olive oil down there as well. Place the pork chops neatly on top of the onions (I used 4 pork chops) then pour the remaining marinade on. Pour a one pound can of Bushes baked beans across the top and down in the spaces between the chops, then top with the other half of chopped onion. Bake in oven at 350 degrees, for 30 mnutes to an hour.

After eating all that Freddy and I slept like babies for nearly the rest of the night.

March 18 - 23, 2009

Not much all at to right about, the weather was great for 4 days. Highs hitting 60 degrees. It's nice to sit in a chair in the back yard and read.

I'm reading "The Appeal", by my favorite Modern author, James Grisham. Reading a great book in a warm afternoon in Cache Valley, hearing the birds and traffic, with the radio playing Frank Sinatra, cold beer in hand, is one of the things I live for.

Been eating lots of steaks, since t-bones/ribeyes/new york strips, were $4.49 a pound. Fresh aspharagus was $1.49! I like to slowly grill a t-bone using only salt and pepper, while sitting outside late at night, then cut small pieces off it while the steak is cooking. This process involves a small charcoal fire, and lasts about an hour. The dog likes it when we eat steak this way, I send him a tough piece every once and a while for which he is grateful for. I love being outside with my small grill at night, when traffic dies, and most of the world is sleeping.

Logan went snowboarding on Friday (no school for students) after spending a night in his friend "Johnnies" cabin in the resort area of Bear Lake, which is near the ski area. Johnnys father is a bishop of the Mormon church, from what I can tell, this has little effect on Logan.

Saturday, Logan and I drove around to find a place to ride my new to me, dirtbike. Although, all the snow was gone from the valley, the snow was much deeper 1000 feet up into the mountains, where we went.
I got the chance to ride the bike a mile before hitting the real deep snow, which caused me to turn around and come back to the truck 10 minutes later. Damn this bike is FAST! The engine roars as it unleashes 50 horsepower to the back tire. I better respect this beast if I wish to live. It is faster than my mom's souped up Infiniti hotrod!

Sunday, nice weather is over. Cold rain, highs in the 30's. Never left the house, but nice to get lots of rest.

Today, there was an inch of snow on the ground. Students all day bitching about the snow which continued to fall slowly all day. This is not a snow event, just an unloved afterthought of a long long winter.
Two more weeks before Spring Break, then 6 weeks until the summer. I can hardly wait.

March 18th, 2009

Had a great day, casted 15 pieces of Jewelry after school, all turned out quite well. I also made great progress carving out a wax figurine of "Quetzalcoatl" (The Aztec Feathered Serpent). I'm going to use the carving for an end cap for the Celtic "Torc" I am making. The Ancient Celtic Chief tans, would wear a twisted, thick, rope made of bronze, silver, or even gold (depending on their wealth), with end caps depicting stylized figures, like falcons, lions, snakes, etc... Mine will have an Aztec Quetzal for one end cap, and the stylized rattle for the other one. I plan to cast the end caps out of silver with sapphires for the eyes. I should be finished in a couple weeks.

Got home at 4 PM, which is late, and fell asleep for TWO HOURS, which is a record after work nap. Fortunately one of the kids next door woke me up by knocking at my door. The kid kicked her ball in my back yard so I went and got it.

Logan and I took Freddy up to Providence canyon to scout out a place to camp this weekend. It was getting dark when we climbed the Hell Bitch to an altitude of 5400 ft, we were the only ones up there, it was like being in another world, with plenty of snow on the ground still.

Freddy was soooo excited, and since no one was around, I turned him loose and let him go exploring, which he ecstatically did. Freddy was running hither and thither, jumping in the icy stream, jumping into snow banks, and paying careful attention to mark every tree in sight. When he would get to far, all I had to do was whistle and he would come running back to me with a huge smile on his face and in his eyes. Logan who was wearing a t-shirt opted to stay in the cab since the air was 15 degrees colder than down in the valley from whence we came. I did have a beer (just one), while waiting on Freddy to get his fill of scenery, Logan had one also (just one). Damn that boy is growing up, he's 18.5 years old now, and enjoys a beer on occasion. I sure hope his thirst for beer never comes close to mine. Although, living up here in the great white north, and since I'm older, I don't care for drinking nearly as much as in the old days. Too much fun stuff to do up here I guess.

March 12th - 17th

After three days of lack of sleep, accompanied by copious amounts of coffee, I became a zombie. I not only couldn't get much sleep I had a massive headache that lasted 5 days. I also ran out of blood pressure medication.

I took Monday the 16th off, got some more blood pressure medication, went swimming, avoided all forms of caffeine, and caught up on some well needed sleep. Tuesday, was much much better and the headache started to go away. It sucks being in tune with the rising and setting of the sun. It does come in handy, because I can usually tell what time it is without using a watch.

Tuesday the 17th, I withdrew half of my gold and silver savings from my deposit box and bought a 1999 Honda XR600r, which is a very well made dirt bike, which I will use as a shuttle vehicle for the Hell Bitch (truck and camper), for my journies this summer. This bike won the Baja 1000 many times, and can climb straight up a wall. Now I need a platform hitch so I can attach the bike to Hell Bitch, when Freddy and I go camping. Hopefully Freddy will be good in the camper when I go riding. I can't leave him chained outside because our local mountain range is full of mountain lions, and Freddy could become their lunch!

March 11 2009

(utah state capitol)


Five Degrees this morning. I hated to put the dog out for the day. Funny, I have never seen Freddy in his dog house and I always worry about him, or walk home during my off hour to let him inside to warm up. But every since this past snow event, I noticed a well worn trail of dog tracks leading into his dog house. I guess Freddy knows where to go to get warm.

After writing yesterdays blah blog (I do make a point to keep things honest), I saw an interesting story on Yahoo internet news: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090311/ap_on_re_us/states_of_happiness

Guess which state ranked first in overall happiness? You guessed it! Utah is ranked number 1, with Hawaii and Wyoming second and third.
The deep south didn't fare too well, thank god I got out of that part of the country. Utah is a very happy place indeed.

March 10, 2009

Cold day for March, never got above 25 degrees. The ring that I was making came out bad, due to excess slag in the crucible. Walked home in the snow feeling defeated. I'll just have to make a better ring tomorrow.

Still not adjusted to the daylight savings time so I have been dragging ass all week.

Went to the gym to swim but all the lanes were full at 7:00 PM, usually the pool is empty at that time, I guess I'm not the only one off schedule.
The outdoor jacuzzi happened to be vacant, so I got to sooth my tired muscles from the previous days weight lifting session. Nothing like a hot jacuzzi when the air around you is 20 degrees. Plus the view of the mountains from the jacuzzi was incredible.

Freddy and I drove back home and I managed to heat up the "Koshari" that we ate the day before. As with many things; koshari is better on the second day.

Although I was dead tired, I couldn't get to sleep until 2 AM, I will be dead again tomorrow. It wasn't really a bad day, just not a very good day.

March 9, 2009

Nearly all the snow had melted by Sunday night. My driveway was finally clear of snow and ice, and the BBQ grill has been in use the past two nights. I woke up this morning and there was 8 inches of snow on the ground, by the time I got off work there was 12 to 15 inches. This is the most snow I've ever seen fall in 1/2 a day. The dog loves it even more than Logan and I! Freddy leaps up high in the air and hits the snow with a swan dive then pounces up and down like a ferret trying to catch prairie dogs or something. (check back later for more).


After 20 minutes of shoveling snow in a snowstorm, I had to drive to the utility dept. in order to pay the ole electric bill. I brought my dog Freddie with me (did I tell you how much he loves the snow?). After threading my way through the police station parking lot, in the screaming blizzard, w/o hitting a single police car or cop, I managed to pay my bill!

Then we barely managed to get out and nearly nailed a cop car this time while leaving the parking lot. Some people drive like shit in the snow. Freddy and I didn't want to go back home in this interesting weather so we decided to go to the gym, way up in North Logan. I entered the gym, scheduled a tan, then proceeded to dress for the weight room, since I left my swim skivveys in the snow-buried Volvo, which was inundated by the bloody snow plows during the night. I lifted and worked my legs out mainly, my upper body is strong enough due to all the swimming I do. Tanned for a full 20 minutes and now am looking like a respectable light skinned Mexican!

We drove on home, Freddy still being cool about getting to watch the truck cab for an hour.


Now it's time to make the Koshari, that I bought the ingrediants for a few days ago, before all those steaks made it into my fridge. Here is the recipe that I am making tonight:

by Shirley Elmokadem
Egyptian recipe for Koshari'
I love eating Koshari' when I stay in Egypt. It's made of lentils, macaroni, chick peas and lentils. It's a perfect vegetarian fast food. Try this simple recipe.
Ingredients 1 cup black lentils 1 cup white rice 1 cup of chick peas, (these can be bought in a tin or soak some overnight) 1 cup uncooked macaroni 2 onions 2 tablespoons olive oil 2 cloves garlic, crushed 2 cups tomato sauce Pinch of chilli powder or teaspoon of hot sauce. ( Add according to taste. I like my sauce hot!)
Simmer the lentils and chick peas, (if uncooked), on a low heat for about thirty minutes or until they are tender. Cook the rice and macaroni. Then mix all four together in a large bowl. Fry the onions, ( save some for the topping), and garlic gently in the olive oil. Add the tomato sauce to this mixture and heat until boiling. Then remove from heat. Put the lentil mixture in a dish and cover it with the sauce and onion. Mumtaz!


This is great stuff, many people leave out the chickpeas which I will probably do next time. I used Classico pasta sauce, and put a layer of it between the layers of rice, lentils, and pasta. I also used a lot of cayenne pepper and curry powder with the lentils. Logan ate a ton of this stuff. I'd make it more but it uses a lot of pots and pans, which I don't like to clean.

March 7th and 8th

Saturday, I drove logan to the highway that the ski resort is on. I dropped him off and he hitchhiked the 27 miles to the lifts. It only takes a guy with a snowboard about 3 minutes to capture a ride from fellow snowboarders. Nothing like my younger days hitchiking around Texas and England.

I ate a bagel with lox at Einsteins, and it was pretty good. The bagel and large cup of excellent coffee was about 7 bucks. I could get a cheaper cream cheese and fruit bagel for 3 dollars less. It was my first time at the bagel place, and it looks like a great place to hang out and read the paper for an hour or so. Lots of cool cheap coffeehouses to go to around here. In Texas I mainly hung out in bars, now I do the laundromat/coffeehouse thing. Life is good here.

I drove home and slepped the bagle off for a couple hours then decided to take Freddy with me and run some errands. Some dum ass (me) left the headlights on and the truck would not start. So I put the Volvo's new battery in and had to back up through my snow covered front yard at a good speed so the wheels wouldnt get stuck in the hard crusty snow, in order to avoid the big truck that was now blocking my driveway.

The shop I had the Volvo at a few months ago said that "all the car needed was a new battery and it would run good again". He was mistaken. Freddie and I drove north for a few miles and I stopped for gas and a well needed carwash. My engine died in the carwash, but I managed to get it restarted and after an hour I got it running good enough to crawl out of the gas station and try to make it all the way home. While coasting in neutral, while applying the gas in order to keep the car running, while modulating my speed with the hand-held emergency brake, I was able to cough and slink my way home.

So now I have the Volvo in the street and it really can't run, and a truck in my drive with a flat battery, and my battery charger and extension cord in my other truck, which sits in a field 7 miles away. I was down to the motorcycle for transportation. It got me through the not so warm day.

That night I drank a little tequila and lime, while cooking rib-eyes on the grill at 22 degrees, while watching the star filled sky. Logan caught a late movie, so I ate two 12 oz steaks, which reeked havoc on my too full stomach the entire night. One should only have so much protein I guess.

Sunday,

Logan and I walked to another coffee place (and one of the few places open downtown on Sundays. The singer/guitar player sounded like a bucket of cats in a clothes dryer so we ate outside in the balmy 35 degree weather. No wind as usual, and we never got cold.

Hung out in the house the rest of the day, doing nothing, a little cleaning maybe, till I spent 2 hours making grilled pork chops and my special baked beans.

Bean recipe: chop up an onion into long narrow strips. Spray oil in cooking pot, grill the onions slowly until brown. Add crushed red pepper and a tea spoon of curry powder. Add a can of Bushs origional recipe and pour 4 tablespoons of dijon mustard, and pour a bit of A1 Steak Sauce into the mix. Stir and simmer for an hour. We marinated the pork chops in italian dressing the night before and let it sit in a ziplock bag until ready to grill. Damn good dinner we all agree!

March 6th 2008

Left for the field trip at 7:45 AM headed toward Provo town! As the bus slowly chugged its way up "Sardine Canyon" pass, I noticed on my watch/altimeter that we went from 4200 ft elevation up to 6020 ft at the top of the pass. Cache Valley, were I live was still covered with snow, but after Sardine pass, we careemed down to the giant "Utah Valley" where the snow was pretty much gone. Utah valley from Brigham City (in the North), to Provo (to the south), is about 100 miles of nearly solid citys, towns, and suburbs. Utah Valley contains most of the populus of the entire state. The Great Salt Lake is a few miles to the left of the Northern Utah Valley. Seismologists say that if the next earthquake reaches a magnitude of 7 or more, much of the Great Salt Lake will spill over and flood this valley. The "Wasatch Fault" runs along the East side of the valley, and usually moves every couple thousand years or so. It is currently overdue by a few hundred years.

After 1 1/2 more hours of driving we finally reach the Springville Art Museum where the state-wide high school art competition is being held. My god some of these Utah students are talented and creative. Much of the work is as good or better than College level or even than many professional artists. I guess this is due to the fact that most high school Art students haven't been ruined by having too much Art History crammed down their throats.

The Jewelry display was abyssmal, with my top students pretty much dominating the rest of the jewelry entrys, and the only one that won an award. We have another competition next week, and I'll be able to show off more of my student's work!

Got back home at 3:00 P.M. and was too beat to go anywhere else. Hung around Logan and Freddy the rest of the evening, made some steaks and beans (I forgot to buy potatoes which to me go better with steak), then washed it down with some local "Provo Girl" beer!

Went to bed around 10:00 PM. I plan to wake up early so I can get things done.

March 5th 2009

Nothing too eventful happened on Thursday, March 5th. Finishing on my latest jewelry endeavor, which is a silver ring inlayed with a piece of blue abalone shell. Hope it turns out ok, I'll add a pic next week when completed.

School went great, had to stay after school in order to get ready for tomorrows field trip down to "Springville" which is just past the great town of "Provo" Utah. Provo is the home of Brigham Young University, named for the man who settled Utah in the 1840's. I watched a historical video of the History of Utah, and Young pretty much settled the entire state all by himself. At one point he faced down the entire army of the United States. Brigham had lots of courage, and lots of wives. Anyone willing to put up with more than one wife has my greatest respect.

Went shopping for ingredients to make the national dish of Egypt called "Koshari", which consists of layers of rice, lentles, chickpeas, macoroni, with layers of a spicy tomato sauce and topped with grilled onions. Egyptians eat this meal every day, where are Koshari restaurants and fast food stalls all over the country from what I hear. Hopefully, I will make the trip someday.

So I was shopping for some chickpeas, lentils, and onions, and walked out $120 poorer. Seems that T-bone steaks and rib-eyes were only $4.49 per pound and thick slices of pork loin was $1.99! Combine that with some other stuff I really didn't need, and a $5. grocery trip became quite expensive. Oh well, at least I have enough meat to last until June.

March 4th 2009

Drove the bike to work in a short sleeve shirt today. Man it's getting to be quite the sweat box around here. 45 degrees this morning and the afternoon should be around 55..... Then the shit will hit the fan! We are slated to have three back to back snowstorms, first one hitting tonight. Shouldn't get too cold though with afternoons in the mid 30's.

Went to the Wednesday morning pointless department meeting, it was nice and short. Then I loaded up 5 molds to bake in the old back up kiln and now have to manually adjust the temperature every hour till we reach casting temperature (1350 degrees). The smell of a baking jewelry mold with wax evaporating permeates my classroom as we speak. My broken brand new, state of the art kiln was much nicer. Just set it in the afternoon and it bakes all night on its own, while ramping up the temperature by itself. The ceramics teacher helped me diagnose the problem the good kiln was having, turns out that it is a two dollar on/off toggle switch, which I can replace easily. Next firing will be much nicer.

Gawd this day keeps getting better. The kids were all in positive moods and nearly all of them had jokes up their sleeves. One of my most talented kids couldn't help singing obnoxious songs, which he thought up as he sang them. This particular student seems to do well at everything he does, without being conceited about it. He can draw, write, sing, do math, is athletic as hell, and seems to love everyone. He is funny as anything and all the other students find him most entertaining. I'll just call him Leonardo De Vinci, as he is the most multi-talented kid I've had the good fortune to meet. People like Leonardo, help cut through the daily bullshit, and just seem to infect everyone to enjoy life. I just hope he never realizes his genious and becomes an asshole or something.

After work I went home and cleaned Freddy up to go on a small road trip to the gym. Swimming 500 yards isn't much, but it makes my day and night a happy one. After swimming, and tanning, I made macaroni and tuna for dinner. This is one of the simplest high protein meals one can possibly make. No recipe really, just make your mac and cheese and add tuna, black pepper, a bit of lemon pepper eliminates the tuna funk, and I put in a liberal dose of cayenne pepper, just to piss off Logan!

All the while my perfect dog lays on his kitchen rug and watches every move I make, until he gets to clean out the bowl. Freddy seems to understand English quite well, and is becoming my best friend. He has stopped the bad behavior and follows me closely everywhere I go. It is nice to have his adoration, and I return it by giving him the best life I can possibly offer.

Later we hung out in the camper. He loves to lay down by the heater. Tonight there was a gentle rain landing on the roof of the camper as I listened to the National Public Radio broadcast and had a couple glasses of cheap French wine. The radio stops every hour (battery saving device) and I just listened to the rain, watched the rain drops cutting through the fog on the windows while different colors of car lights entered and left each window at random, and my mind started drifting toward old poems I had written. Here's one:


My love crys out to you.

Across the broad expanse of Western skys it screams!
Borne in the ocean tide and stuck to your rubber soles.

It glistens in the moonlight before it scatters.
On a long and boring day it always returns.

But tonight my love is neverending,

it sings thru the wires and flashing lights
while it calls out to you across the waves
as it flows hither and thither and smashes into you
crashing out good fortune as it thunders out joy and freedom.

The gentle rains continue to fall.
And all is right with the world.

March 2nd and 3rd 2009

I missed a day, must be that either Spring is coming, or I have ran out of things to talk about.

Yesterday was a short day at school. The classes were only 30 minutes long and the school let out at noon. But teachers had to return from 4:30 to 7:00 in order to "Meet the Parents". As usual we had the grill going outside with refreshments, the ceramics teacher had parents making pottery with their kids. Doing this wasn't really possible for the Painting and Photo teachers. But we all had fun anyway. Wound up having the night from hell after I got home. Every time I went to sleep it seemed that something new would drag my tired arse out of bed. First there was the hunt for the cell phone charger (my alarm clock), then 30 minutes later, a smoke detector started beeping every 5 minutes to let me know the battery was old. Imagine, being nearly asleep for an hour while a loud BEEP would sound every 5 minutes. The worst thing about it was that the detector was positioned 10 feet above my head and I had to think about how I was going to reach the bastard! I tried ignoring it for a long time, before getting up and standing on a couch, trying not to fall, while unscrewing the damn thing.

After all that, I was wide awake again until 3 in the morning.

March 3rd: 6 AM!!! Wakey Wakey Time!!!! my alarm cruelly announces. I dragged my tired self out of bed, did the three "S's" and made some mean thick coffee to wash down my eggs and toast.

Leaving to school in a sweltering 40 degrees was odd. Spring apparently has arrived with a vengeance. School went ok (I took a nap during one of my off hours), then I headed home.

My dog was covered in mud again, and I hated to even allow him into the utility room. I napped for another hour and drove my little motorcycle down a busy main street in order to go to the gym. At 55 degrees in the afternoon, riding through traffic without a care in the world tasted like Freedom! My hands didn't even freeze.

Got back home, did some cleaning, hung out with the smelly muddy dog for a few hours, and decided to catch up on my writing. This is where we are right now as I type.

March 1st 2009

Sunday again. Blah. Logan and I did a months worth of laundry at the "Wash Tub" laundromat! Had lunch at Subway, then returned home to clean the house for an hour. Picked up a few pound of dog hair with the vacumn. Spent the rest of the night playing "Mobsters" on the internet with Logan. Thats it. A pretty good Sunday compared to most.

Feb 28 2009

Our two organs. When we moved into the house we had no furniture for the main living room, so we went to the D.I. (deseret industries, a LDS goodwill store) and bought the Baldwin organ in the background for $30. Two weeks later I picked up the 67' Hammond classic for $250.

Logan has been practicing every day and is starting to sound pretty good. I taught him the basics and showed him some neat sounding chord progressions.

Feb 27 2009

Grand Teton in the mist...

Going though the pictures of my recent trip I found this one. It's nice living 200 miles from the Grand Tetons. Friday was fun. Called a few old friends after school, had big T-bone steak dinner, played on the computer with Logan, then went to bed. Nice that my back yard stayed frozen today, so the dog is clean and I don't have to leave him in a room for hours while he drys out.

Feb 26 2009

Another warm day, nearly 40 degrees, the snow depth of my front yard is only about 6 inches of hard crusty icy crap. At least my sidewalk was clear of most of the ice, since I had to unload a carload of Mormon packaged cans of grains, beans, and other stuff. It would suck falling on my ass while carrying 35 pounds of food. After making 5 trips from Mrs. Lloyd's car to my living room, I now have one years supply of food, stored in cans designed to last 30 years or more.


Mrs. Lloyd is a semi-retired Art teacher, who pushes me to stock up on food storage. She works with a group of people from her church and they actually can the grains, suck out all the air, add an oxygen absorption packet, then seal the can. And the prices are quite reasonable. 5 pounds of canned dry pinto beans, with all the air sucked out, for only $4.50. I am really excited to get the onion chips, and oats with this shipment.

I love Mrs. LLoyd, she is very down to earth. She's like the Jewish mother that I never had. She is an incredible artist too. Her oil paintings are wonderful. She also does ceramics, drawings, plays the organ at church, and sings in a top ranked choir at the university. A true genius of the West she is! Of course Judy is a Mormon, like I said, "Mormons rock! Whats nice about her and most Mormons, is that they never preach to me or invite me to their church. She knows I'm a Taoist/Buddhist but it's all good, Judy's love is UNCONDITIONAL.


Nothing too wonderful happened aside from all the food I invested in.


Today was the big championship game for our basketball team. The school gave free bus rides to any student who bought a ticket to the game. The game was 2 hours away from here. So since so many students weren't in their classes, the smarter students that didn't go to the game, ditched school, rather than be stuck in lame ass classes, watching movies and doing nothing.

I know of three kids who got bored, left the school and got busted by the cops for truancy. Well since half the school got "truancy wavers by going to the game" I hope the police go easy on my son and the two other "truants" he was riding around with.

Unfortunately my son was wearing a belt buckle with a real set of brass knuckles attached to the front, and the cops didn't approve of it. The good news is that an 18 year old man, cannot be charged with "truancy"! I can't believe the dumb ass would go out in public with a 10 dollar belt buckle with some Chinese made brass knuckles stuck to the front. Hopefully, this lesson won't be too expensive for him.


Freddy was black from all the mud and had to spend a couple hours in the utility room before I could let him in the kitchen. It's so sad that I have to leave his muddy self in there for so long. He feels that he is being punished or something.
Freddy is quite emotional. I made it up to him by spending the next 3 hours with him in the kitchen, and in the camper: I think he is past it now.

That's about it for today my friends.

Feb 25 2009

Mormons!

Rough day, not enough sleep. Rained in the afternoon, the snow is melting fast, the dog is covered with mud, and everything is bogged down. I miss the cold when all the water was ice or snow and not WATER!

Came home and crashed for a couple hours, then went and sprinted 500 yards in the pool at the health spa. Even laid in the tanning booth again.... (Heather)!
I may be a big, hairy, 280 pounds of man flesh, but I look way nicer when not as white as a corpse! Got to give all these faire Mormon ladies something to fight over....(hehehe).

I like the Mormons quite a bit. They are very family oriented and tend to have many kids. Most LDS (Mormon) children are very happy, loved, and well adjusted compared to children from broken homes. I also learned about the wisdom of food storage from the Mormons.

Hung out in the back of the "Hell Bitch" for a few hours with Freddy. You know the story, this is a happy place to hang out. I plan to stock up the "Hell Bitch" with 6 months supply of food, gas, and bullets, just in case shit hits the fan.

Many Mormons practice advanced food storage techniques and I must admit that I follow the wisdon of this. Lets say disaster happens, like a great depression where there are millions out of work and roving the land looking for food like in the 30's. The ones that are prepared, will have food and enough bullets to hunt with or protect their food supply. Many suburbanites would get invaded by huge mobs of hungry, desparate, inner-city people, and probably get killed or starve. I would merely jump in the Hell Bitch, hide way up in the mountains and ride out the storm.


I am not a survivalist or a gun nut, but the Mormans have been prepared for over a hundred years. Utah has historically a dicey place to carve out a living. Most of the state is a dry desert. In bad years the Mormons would dip in to their food storages and, live through crop failures better than the unprepared. So the tradition still exists strongly today, to hoard food. The main grocery store here has a giant wide aisle dedicated to large cans and barrels of food to stock up with.
85 percent of all American households only have enough food stored away to last for a month. Nearly all Mormon families have at least 6 months of food stored.


I have over 70, 5 pound cans of food staples, including powdered milk, oats, beans, sugar, oil, rice, wheat, and flour. I could last for more than a year with this, plus we have a huge stock of canned soups, veggies and other food.

Many events could cause food unavailability: Natural disaster, nuclear war, oil embargos ect... Storing food should be a top priority for everyone. If the super volcano known as "Yellow Stone" erupts again (it is thousands of years overdue), the resulting amount of volcanic ash, would cool the earth down for 4 or 5 years, and crop failures would be rampant. Hate to seem like a "sky is falling" sounding person, but it is smart to be prepared.

Feb 24 2009

PAYDAY!

With my bills doubling since I moved into this house, I feel the thrill of Payday once again.

It was feckin' 40 degrees this morning with light rain floating down. I can't remember a morning this warm. The downside is that much of the snow is melting in the backyard and Freddy will be quite muddy with I get back home.

Today went well, except that I had to cast 1 1/2 hours after school. It was fine and the casting went great.

I whizzed around town on my dirtbike to run errands in this hot tropical weather, and was most grateful for the beautiful day. Freddy had to spend a couple hours to dry out when I got home at 5:00 PM. Cooked up some porkchops w aspharagus/leek/requeson (mexican cheese) concoction and added way too much chicken bullion, which ruined every thing. Logan and I choked it down while wrapping the salty shit in flour tortillas and eat till we became adverse to futher gastrnomic endeavors.

Spent the rest of the evening listening to classical music over my new-vintage wooden radio from Grundig which occupies much of our tiny kitchen table. When I got bored with that, I watched the "Andy Griffith Show" on TV land for an hour or so.

I love these old sitcoms. Beverly Hillbillies, has the best acting and funny writing. The Brady Bunch disturbs me since I know what most people know about the cast. Now that I am older and much more understanding about kids, families, and schools; Leave it to Beaver is my favorite. The writing is insightful, if not incredible! The writers have child and teenage logic down to a T. Things weren't that different with childrens psyche's in the early 60's then they are now.

Night all..

Feb 23 2009

Warm rainy day, up to 36 degrees, feels like spring is here.

Logan had a sprained neck this morning, he couldn't turn his head. He looked better in the afternoon and even went out to hang with friends.

Good day today, which turned into a great afternoon. Spent the evening swimming, doing laundry, driving at night, with Freddy (he really dug getting to see the night view of Logan City! I love this dog but he sheds quite profusely, if he rubs up against your leg, the part that he touched looks like a fur coat. He's worth it though, I guess...

Had Sambar (thin Indian soup) with three toasted tortillas for dinner. Tortillas are great when warmed on on a dry frying pan. The Sambar was uneventful, like Campbells, only with a curry flavor.

I will leave you now,

Al

Feb 22 2009

Sunday, what can I say? Sunday is the most depressing day of the week to me. Although I don't have to work, a since of doom permeates the entire day and coats it with a twinge of sadness. Nothing terrible or too depressing, but I lose the since of freedom that I had since Friday afternoon. Most people hunker down with their families, and ride out this desparate day in their homes, as if the land was to suffer a great swarm of locusts or something.

I woke at 6:00 AM, ate breakfast, did some stuff on the computer, fed the dog, then went back to sleep until 2:00 PM. Sundays suck, might as well catch up on some lost sleep. When I re-awoke I read magazines, computed stuff, and began making my Asparagus, Leek, and Potato cremey soup.

Finely chop up a couple Leeks. Fry them at low/medium in butter, with bayleaf, pepper, curry powder and salt/pepper. Add a quart of chicken broth, add chopped potatoes, bring to a boil then simmer for 20 minutes. Check flavor, then add a handful of finely chopped celery, 4 oz butter, and a pound of asparagus cut in 1 inch segments.

Simmer for another 20 minutes until the asparagus is tender.

Add cayenne, and any other flavor that you choose, I put in some thymne and rosemary. Wait a few minutes for the flavors to marry before adding 16 ounces of sour creme and stirring. Wait a few more minutes and add 4 oz of Mexican or Italian blend of cheese. Stir, simmer a few more minutes and serve.

This was great stuff!


Logan came home at 5:00 from snowboarding. He couldn't find a ride so he hitch hiked to the sky slopes. I use to hitch alot when I was his age, and it was an excellent experience.

Feb 21 2009

Not much going on today. Took Freddy on some errands, even went to the gym, to swim laps for an hour or so. Usually my swimming is a 500 yard sprint which takes about 15 minutes, but I went for a tan after swimming today, leaving Freddy in the truck for a long time. This was a first experience at tanning and I loved it. I love going to the sports academy, but since the pool lanes are clogged with swim teams during the week, I will probably give up my membership and start swimming at the University.

I felt bad about leaving Freddy in the truck for so long today, but he doesn't seem to mind being left in the truck during cold weather. Maybe he feels like it's his cave or something. He looks happy when I get back to the truck. Dogs like to drive around and see more sites than their backyards.

Afterwards, I bought some groceries, including trout and leeks. I found a great trout recipe for dinner, tomorrow I'm going to cook up a Leek and Aspharagus soup!
Today I made a recipe called "Trout, Asian style", which was a great way to cook the fish. Just pour some soy sauce on the fish, then take white pepper, garlic powder, ginger, lemon pepper, cayenne pepper and rub it all over the fish. Let sit for 10 minutes while the skillet heats up to medium high (spray with oil first). Let the fish cook on each side for a few minutes, then eat it. Simple.


Spent the rest of the night playing the Myspace game called "Mobsters" with Logan. Funny how some of these people take this game too seriously. We usually play mobsters once a months, so our characters save enough money to put our enemies on the hitlist mega times. And our virtual enemies get quite angry. Hahahaha!

Feb 20 2009

2 degrees this morning. Apparently I stayed up too late the night before and woke up in a daze. This was a giant cup of coffee morning. I hated to put the dog outside, but he has a doghouse and a warm straw filled chicken coop if he gets too cold. But I never see him use these warm places. I started worrying about Freddy around noon, because the temp was still under 10 degrees, fortunately the sun came out and it was a scorching 30 degrees by 2:30 PM. So I got out of school and drove the bike 3 or 4 miles to get some much needed supplies for tonights party. I soon realised the wisdom of wearing gloves in sub-freezing weather, but the sunshine and the Russian hat, kept me warm enough.


Took the "High Bird" dirt bike to school this morning, which was ok, since I only have to go 1/4 mile. The Chinese "High Bird" starts easily at zero degrees, which is much better than my Honda xr650l would do. Funny, I bought this bike brand new including shipping (partially disassembled in crate) for a thousand dollars last June, and the bike runs flawlessly. I did take the time to research these bikes on : www.chinariders.com and took their advice on how to properly break in and set up the new bike. Yes some aspects of the bike are cheesy, but much much better than I expected in the performance dept. I've already put 800 city and backcountry miles on the bike with few problems. I've done some gnarly mountain climbing and was quite impressed that this "Chinese" 200cc motorcycle could haul my big ass up to 8000 ft in a rough mountainous trail without complaint or break down. I've also jumped it on several occasions and got some impressive air and easy landings.
I was saving for a Japanese bike, but I believe I'll put the money in my "new truck" fund, since my truck has 270000 miles on it. This bike should be good for a few more years.

Not much else happening, but I want to give a shout out to my newest follower: Melissa, who is Chucks partner and a heck of a nice lady. She is a mudlogger at the same drilling site that Chuck works at. She just started a Blogger account today, that should be pretty cool.

Feb 19 2009

My classroom is right next to a mountain stream. The stream is beautiful but I have to walk past a gang of ducks every day. It sure beats the scenery of the last place I worked. I'll take a gang of ducks over a street gang any day.

Busy day at school. After school I hung out with Logan for a while then, hung out in the camper and found this awesome "oldies" station! I've discovered this station months ago and I love the plethora of music they have to offer. They played things as diverse as Louis Armstrong, Joanney Mitchell, Dean Martin, Engelbert Humperdinck, and many other fantastic songs, many that I have never heard before.

Of course; I had to bring Freddie, my evergrowing, well mannered and polite dog. This dog is so polite and correct I'd swear he was a large poodle. Freddy constantly watches me and tunes himself to my moods. He always seems to be aware of how close or far to keep his proximity, whenever the mood or circumstance, Yet Freddie seems to be always nearby. When I got him Freddy weighed about 45 pounds but he keeps GROWING!! Freddy takes up the entire floor of the camper now it seems. He weighs around 70 pounds now and shows no sign of getting any smaller. But he is fairly graceful and stays out of ones face for the most part. Freddy is quite the large gentleman. His head is approximatly the size of a bowling ball and about the same weight. If he gets much larger I'll have to pull a trailer just to hold him. I feed him the high dollar fare, with ample leftovers and many treats. He is from Auzzie Shepherd and Rottweiler blood lines. Both are large dogs.

After the heated died for lack of propane, we both left and went back into the house. The weather is wet and colder than usual.

I hope all you loyal readers to have an excellent night.


N

Feb 18 2009

Great day today. Walked to school in the snow to catch an un-necessary meeting at 7:30 AM: The streets were frozen. After hanging out with the Art Department for a year or two it seemed, a few of us realized that we were "Meeting" just to proclaim that we were "meeting", so we ajourned. I bore easily with meetings without urgency or substance/meaning. But all school districts do this and I give kudos to my district because they allow us to meet during the school day, rather than after school. I do like my fellow department teachers, so it's more like a fun early morning social occasion. I love Wednesdays, since the classes are 15 minutes shorter to accomodate these important "Meetings" each week.

WAL-MART, calls me at work and promised to straighten things out. They asked for my bank card number (which I grudgingly gave them)and by the late afternoon, I had my one hundred and fourty nine dollars and eleven cents back! (of course last week they did this, then took it all away so we'll wait and see).

When I got home I got a message from them telling me that I need to go back to Wal@Mart to get my "WE CRAPPED ON YOU FOR A WEEK, WHILE TREATING YOU LIKE AN ASSHOLE, WHILST EVERY FUCKTARD YOU SPOKE TO HAD no IDEA HOW TO HELP YOU, AND SENT YOU TO ANOTHER NUMBER; WHILST, LEAVING YOU WITH FOURTY DOLLARS TO LAST FOR 9 DAYS!, THEN FIXING--AND UNFIXING THE PROBLEM 2 DAYS LATER; COMBINED WITH THE GENERAL LACK OF INTELLIGENCE, WHICH LEFT YOU EXASPORATED, WHILE FALSELY ACTING LIKE "WE CARE", BEFORE STEALING FROM YOU SOME MORE, AND BREAKING ALL PROMISES, AS IF THEY NEVER MEANT TO KEEP THEM IN THE FIRST PLACE. FINALLY, SOMEONE W/O HIS HEAD COMPLETELY UP HIS ASS, WHO PUT A TOP PRIORITY TO GIVE A SHIT FOR ONE OF THEIR LONG TIME CUSTOMERS".....prize........... in the form of a twenty dollar gift card!

That last manager, should be the CEO of Wal-Mart. He really did give a damn about customers. He was sincere. And was behind my $20 gift certificate that he gave me with an apology. Apology accepted! They did the right thing.

So I bought exactly $20 worth of stuff, used up the card and left.

Freddy's behavior gets better each day. He follows directions quicker and better than any dog I've ever had. I can teach him a totally new thing in 5 minutes. Those Australian Shepherds need to work at Wal&Mart and then the place would move like a one-legged man on buttkicking night!

I wrestle with Freddy often, and place him on his back each time, in order to show him that I am the leader. Now that he accepts this: he follows each command like a valued soldier. He doesn't rebel when I am away so bad, and never trashes the inside of the Hell Bitch (truck camper), when I am not there. I think Freddy and me will be friends for a long long time.

We spent a couple hours in the camper and fell asleep. Athough I keep a window open when I run the heater, I woke up an hour later with a true "low oxygen" headache. Note to self: Never turn the heater up high with a window only open 4 inches. This is a catalytic stove which produces little to no carbon monoxide, but it is a user of oxygen nonetheless. In a tiny space like a small truck camper; this principal can be quite deadly. I better watch it, this was scary.

Screw Walmart part II

Snowing like HELL all day, prolly about 4 or 5 inches of wet stuff. Utah is known for it's high quality dry snow, but with the balmy 30 degree temperature, the snow came down wet and thick all day long. The streets are fairly snow free, which is great cause I had to go to Walmart. As you may recall, I spent last Monday trying to reclaim my $150 that the Logan, Utah Walmart took from me. They passed me around on the phone from the local manager to the corporate office and back, just like a fickin ping pong ball. The next morning one of the charges dissappeared from my bank statement, and everything appeared to be ok.

Last Friday I checked my bank statement and sure enough.....Wally World stole the $150 from me AGAIN! ARRRRRRAAgggghhhhhhhhh! So I got $40 to my name which is supposed to last for the next 9 days.

I called the store AGAIN this morning and the nice manager "Bill" told me to simply show up at the store after I get off work with my receipt and bank statement. I did this and guess what! No one in the @$@$^$%^ store had the power to reemburse my @#$%$& money. Bill was no where to be found. I did get passed on to a semi-intelligent asst. manager who was genuinely sorry for what his company did. Of course he was powerless to help me, but he did loan me his cell phone and recommended I call my bank's corporate office. My bank is going to credit my account, and will remove the charge once I fax the receipt. I plan to take Walmart to small claims court and sue them for my wasted time and aggravation! Like I said "ARRRRRRAgggghhhhhhh"......

Boycott WALMART! Damn right. Remember back in the 80's when Walmart only sold American Made products? That was the Wally World I liked. Now; much of what they sell is cheap Chinese made shit. The entire American economy is bad, but Walmart continues to make big profits. Walmart employees (many which are unemployable elsewhere), aren't allowed to work full time, so they get no benefits: Therefore, the public has to pay for the medical bills of all their non-managerial employees. Too bad Sam Walton is no longer around, cause it used to be a decent place to shop. I am boycotting Walmart, and I hope everyone I know does the same. This beast of a corporation needs to be stopped.

Enough bitching and I will try not to bore you with this again. But I do plan to honestly relay my experiences every day, and sometimes one just has to bitch.

Today did go quite well overall. Freddy's behavior has been immaculent. I took Freddy to Wally world with me and left him in the Hell Bitch (my truck) for at least an hour. He was so glad to see me, which is one of the qualities I used to like about my children back when they were younger. We drove around thru the snowstorm and had a great time. I found out if I make howling sounds, that Freddy will start howling with me. Howling with your dog driving around in a snowstorm might not be for everyone, but ya just got to try it once.

I might add more later, Freddy and I are going to hang out in the camper for a couple hours. I'll be sure to let you loyal readers know if anything interesting comes up.

Feb 16th 2009

Look closely. Note the two icicles sprouting from the windshield at a 45 degree angle? This happened after 3 hours of sunshine melting the ice off my window. Things like this are most fascinating.

Zero degrees at 8:00 A.M. Logan's friend "Eric" woke me by knocking at the door. Seems that Logan made plans for snowboarding today, which make it the third time this week Logan gets to snowboard! Damn he loves it up here in the cold cold North.

I ate a little breakfast, fed the dog, and went back to sleep until 2 P.M. . What a lazy bastard I have become. I tend to be a night person and if unfettered by artifical schedules such as working, I tend to stay up late deep into the night since it's the best time to think.

My son "Logan" came home around 5 o clock and was totally beat after 2 days snowboarding. I let him drink some cocoa, so he could get his core temperature back up, then sadly informed him of our dire need to do some laundry. Seems like going to the laundry mat is about the only quality time my 18 year old son and I get to spend together. This could explain why I don't buy a used washer and dryer which I could easily afford.

We drove a few blocks to the tiny, lonely, ancient looking laundry mat in the south side ghetto part of town, then loaded up a few machines with our way too nasty clothing. Poor Logan looked like I was forcing him to go to a funeral. I knew he was way to tired, but wearing the same clothes too many days in a row is a bad habit for the both of us. While the clothes were washing we ran to McDonald's for a "Big Mac" fix. I'm not a big eater of fast food, but the Big Mac sure does hit the spot every once and a while. Logan actually volunteered to pay for the check! The magic of McDonald's seemed to brighten up his spirits. He sure is growing up to be a fine young man. I'm very proud of my son.

When we got home Freddy was ecstatic since I gave him the rest of the ham and potato soup from Friday. It's nice to have a dog again, since I hate to throw out leftovers. Freddy and I spent the next two hours hanging out in the "Hell Bitch", just listening to the news and reading the Smithsonian my dad sent me. When in the camper, Freddy automatically calms down and seems to be at total ease. This could be due to the cave-like atmosphere that canines in the wild so much enjoy. Maybe that's why I feel the peacefulness in there also. Perhaps a 100,000 years ago, my ancestors used to huddle in caves with a warm fire and draw on the walls, safe from the pressure of everyday life, with a "Big Mac" of some form in their stomachs, and a can of brew in their hands, while their dog huddles near the fire, and all is right with the world.

Feb 15th 2009

(This should be yesterdays picture of the Thai restaurant across the street from my house)


Nice blanket of snow this morning, Logan left early to go snowboarding. Freddy woke me up around 8:30 so I could let him outside. Since it was only 4 degrees, I let him back in the house 10 minutes later. I cooked up some grits and coffee, then laid back down and watched the "Beverly Hillbillies" on TV Land for a few hours. I'm quite the lazy ass this weekend.

(more will be added later)

Feb 14 2009

Valentines day. Not much romance around here. Logan and I did eat Thai food at the restaurant across the street. Having "Thai food front property" is pretty cool I guess. Afterwards I ran some minor errands bringing Freddy with me. Freddy loves to ride in the truck!

Nothing much happened the rest of the day. I did cook steaks and roasted new potatoes for a late dinner. I wish the day was more exciting. We did get a few inches of snow today which was nice.

(Here is a picture of "Dead Indian Pass" which is located between Redlodge Mt. and Cody, Wy.)

Feb 13th 2009

Nothing much happening today. Everyone seemed kind of bummed out at school, seems like the high of 20 degrees failed to cheer anybody up. I worked on my new ring all day and it's starting to look refined and professional. The kid who made the wax origional was pleased with his accomplishments. This kid has a promising future in the Jewelry business.

Freddy threw another fit today when I was gone. He flung his food and water bowl in the back yard, out of protest that I dare leave him outside during the day. I will get some time to spend with him this weekend and hopefully we can work this impasse out. My last two dogs were "outside only", so I might have made a mistake in spoiling him. Time will tell of course.

Hung out in the camper again and the heater got the camper heated up lickety-split! Hell, It was only 15 degrees above.

Dog was good and seemed to like the cave and fireplace thing.

Called Chuck and Dan Aptekar. Chuck and wife are going back on the job, and Dan was quite fun to talk to as aways. Dan has the most laid back personality and knows much interesting information.

Feb 12th 2009

Incredible day. I found out that one of my students has been awarded the highest honor than any other piece of Jewelry submitted by a high school in the state of Utah! I commissioned the same student to design me a University of Texas class ring which I got to cast today.

My modern kiln is on the fritz so I had to cast using the ancient kiln that hasn't been used in two years. This kiln is small, and requires the teacher to ramp up the temperatures manually, which means I can't program it when I leave school, and be ready to cast in the morning.

Aside from all that, I had to take an ounce of 24 carat gold, and mix it with an ounce of mixed copper, silver, and assorted 12 carat gold broken jewelry pieces, including one of my mothers old crowns.

I was worried about the casting, since 1 and 10 casting molds blow up or fail in some way. I was imagining $1200 worth of gold getting splattered around my casting studio!!! (Yikes)!

After casting the first mold, I placed mine in the centrefuge and let her rip. The ring came out a bit dirty, with some bubbles; But the overall casting went quite well! I finished up staying 2 1/2 hours after school, and most of the casting molds came out excellent.


From 5:00 PM till 9:00 PM, I filed and refined this ring, and it's starting to look incredible.



Freddy is behaving much better today, he seems to have lost his "Alpha Male" problem, which caused him to be a pain in the ass yesterday. I hope to take him camping tomorrow night, if I can find a place that is open.

Feb 11 2009

Checked my bank account this morning and noticed that Walmart had fixed their mistake! I also noticed that the $300 check I deposited yesterday, to keep my account from bouncing, was not there.... No record of the deposit was on my account?? I drove to the bank, walked up to the teller that deposited the check and politely told her what happened. She acted like she didn't remember me. I told her I was probably the last customer of the day, and reminded her that she led me into the safe to access my safety deposit box.

She went through a small pile of checks and found it, then checked my account and put the deposit into my account. At no point did she admit fault or apologize. What is wrong with people nowadays? Seems like most people are too cowardly to admit when they are wrong, and few will apologize for they're mistakes.

Took Freddie up into the mountains today, he got so excited that he forgot how to come when I call him...again. I don't blame him, but something has got to change or I can't take him out in the wilderness. I might try a dog whistle or even a shock collar. Freddie also tore away at the backdoor during the day, flipped over his water and food, and tore out all the bedding from his doghouse. Freddy is clearly challenging my authority as the alpha male. I'll read some of "The dog whisperer's" techniques and apply them today if he still needs it.

In the evening, Logan and I went to the underground pizza place nearby and watched WTC(?) boxing and wrestling. It was fun.

Feb 10 2009 (Late Nite)

After finishing the Atomic Enchiladas and listening to Wolfie's (my son) crazy organ music, I read a little more from the Steinbeck book "Travels with Charley".

Steinbeck get very introspective once he hits his hometown of Salinas California, and reveals much of his true thoughts and wisdom. The book no longer is a fun adventurous road-trip like when he started. He talks of the locals he had known that treat him like an outsider and he quotes Thomas Wolfe, saying that "home has ceased to exist except in the mothballs of memory".

My take on it is that his controversial book "The Grapes of Wrath", and his rejection by some of the rich farmers from his own valley, who called Steinbeck a "communist" and shit, have forever estranged him from his native place. He moved on from Salinas then crossed the Mohave desert and began to philosophize.

Some of his quotes from the Desert chapter were quite profound. "and there are true secrets to the desert. In the war of sun and dryness against living things, life has it's secrets of survival." and goes on to state: " I find most interesting the conspiracy of life in the desert to circumvent the death rays of the all-conquering sun."! Damn that man could write!

Steinbeck goes on and adds: "The desert, being an unwanted place, might well be the last stand of life against unlife. For in the rich and moist and wanted areas of the world, life pyramids against itself and in its confusion has finally allied itself with the enemy... non-life. And what the scorching, searing, freezing, poisoning weapons of non-life have failed to do may be accomplished to the end of its destruction and extinction by the tactics of survival gone sour."

John Steinbeck shared the concern of the worlds destruction with others such as Einstein and Oppenheimer and many, many others. But John Steinbeck proposes that the inhabitants of the deserts....being used to such harsh extremes and tribulations could possibly be where the survivors of the destruction would come from.

He writes " The lone man and his sun-toughened wife who cling to the shade in an unfruitful and uncoveted place might, with their brothers in arms....the coyote, the jackrabbit, the horned toad, the rattlesnake, together with a host of armoured insects---- these trained and tested fragments of life might well be the last hope of life against non-life." then adds this poignant sentence: "The desert has mothered magic things before this."

Curious how after his initially his trip sounded like a personal blog or even a tourist guide book, then turns into a personal journey. After Steinbeck visits Salinas, the book turns inward-then on to profound philosophy. Steinbeck seems to be searching for something. Unfortunately the book is almost over when he gets to his desert ideas. He is only halfway finished with his trip yet the book is nearly over. I think he lost interest after the heartbreak of visiting his home town.

Life is all about "heartbreak" and how we deal with it. There are many types of heartbreak and millions of ways to address it or accept it. The heartbreak of being rejected by many of his old friends and neighbors is a tough thing for Steinbeck to live with. I suspect that he was so far beyond those people in his writings and ideas, that he tended to make those folks quite uncomfortable and his old friends had no choice but to reject him and his ideas. People reject things out of fear or misunderstanding, or a perceived need for self-preservation: This causes people like Steinbeck to travel to the desert and contemplate existences.

Feb 10th 2009

SCREW WALMART! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sGjrCZpj5j0&feature=related

Remember the stuff I told ya I bought yesterday? I unfortunately bought it at Walmart. When paying with my card yesterday, the checker told me that their system was having problems and then she swiped my card again. She told me that I needed to pay cash, since their system was down. I happened to have the money and I paid cash. This morning I noticed that I was charged twice from my bank card and that my account balance was minus $100.00!!!! I called the store, who passed me to the corporate office, who passed me back to the store again! Then once more to the corporate office. So far nothing has been resolved.
Arrrrrrrrrgggggghhhhh......


On the bright side, it was a bright sunny day with 4 inches of new snow on the ground, and cold enough to freeze my backyard. So the mud is now frozen and covered with snow. Freddy is one clean puppy! I ran some errands and Freddy was happy to go for a ride with me. Tonight I plan to make some "Al's Atomic Enchiladas! I use ground beef, cheese, and sour cream for the filling, combined with an exquisite mixture of Pace Picante, tomato soup, and Tabasco Habenero sauce. This is quite a labor intensive dish, but should help me keep my mind off the Walmart situation.


I cranked up the new $49 Bissel vacuum cleaner before cooking and gave it a workout. This thing has some big power and sports a clear window to show you all the filth that it sucks up! The Bissel sucked up enough dog hair to weave a sweater and 40 days worth of dirt. As much as I now dislike Walmart, I have to admit that $49 for a kickass vacuum cleaner can only be found there. This thing is way more powerful than the old Kirby's I used to sell for $700, back in the early 80's. I will still shop at Walmart, but not as much, and will only pay with cash.

Chuck, who I just toured the northern Rockies with just called. He snowboarded Monarch Pass and Wolf Creek, and is presently near Roswell, New Mexico. He's traveling fast so he can see his lady that he missed for the past two weeks. Chuck is the best tour guide for anyone wanting to see cool places between Terlingua, Tx. and Alaska. He has crisscrossed the Rockies many times in all the Western states and Canada as well. Chuck knows where to go when out west. He has also traveled to many Countries and on all continents except for Europe.

I'll try to write more later and add a picture or two, so remember to always check back with me.

Feb 9th, 2009

I finally found my damned cable that allows me to upload my pics from my Nikon D-60 to my computer. Unfortunately I had my camera set to "Dumb ass Mode" or "Automatic" which tended to over-expose my pictures due to the increased light in a snowbound world. I plan to educate myself and learn how to fully use this camera, but it will be quite the challenge. I confess I didn't get the camera out much, especially around town, since the thing weighs as much as my SKULL!

In the future I will get a smaller digital (Canon makes an excellent one for less than $200), that will allow me to get easier in-town shots.

I will try to get some of the pics I did take ASAP. It is a good idea to reread my posts a few days later, as I am constantly updating them and adding things.


Today I went back to school in order to ascertain the wreckage that forms when leaving the classroom in the hands of a substitute. Fortunately my Sub was hand-picked by me for her easy going nature and her general success in relating to kids. "Jen" did a heck of a job! Funny how any reasonably intelligent person, with no training could do my job as long as they can relate to young people. Teaching is a great career! don't ya know??? But you gotta love young people, and you got to be able to deal with craziness and stress.

My teachers aides helped Jen take over the helm for three days, which is the longest time I've been away since moving to Utah. Jen is a heck of a gal and my students seemed to like her alot!

Freddie is having a tough time dealing with the unseasonable warmth we've suffered with in February. The temps get up to nearly 40 everyday but with the snow and rain my back yard is a total mud hole. Freddy plays all day in the cold mud, but cannot come into the house in the afternoon, since he is so wet and nasty! Today, I put him into the utility room for three hours to dry out, before I could brush the filth off of him. He is also shedding copious amounts of long, fine, fur, which covers the interior of our house.

Today I bought a more effective vacuum cleaner and a serious doggy brush. I plan to brush him daily, and try to use the hose attachment on the vac to suck up as much hair as possible. My older robotic vacuum cleaner is excellent at cleaning the kitchen tile and living room wood floors when I'm not home. I love the "Roomba", but getting fine dog hair off the carpet, is no match for robots, I needed a new weapon!



Inside/outside dogs take a heck of a lot of care, but it is always worth it to do things for others. Freddy is a hell of a good dog, so I can live with the effort and expense. Freddy shows his appreciation for my efforts many, many, times each day, Freddy is truly "mans best friend".