Gettin' ready to travel again!

Yep, this time I'm going fishing in California at Lake Shasta. I'm leaving next Thursday and will be there for a couple of weeks all told. Last year I only went fishing one time all year so a week of fishing will be nice. Of course seeing my buddy's Bob and Dennis will be making it a good trip, no doubt. I always like getting together with those guys and we always have a lot of fun. It used to be that we had a lot of fun together at work but now all of us are retired and living in different parts of the country.

Another good thing about my upcoming trip is that I get to see my daughter Tracey and my grand kids. In fact, I'm going to try and make the rounds and see Colleen, Sue and Bill all on that same trip.

The weather here in Idaho has moderated some, it snowed yesterday but there have been some warm sunny days since we got back last Saturday and most of the snow on the ground is gone now from the winter. There is still a small pile at the edge of the driveway where I piled it up when I was shoveling. Karen's pond was frozen over for too long and she lost all her fish, which is a shame since she had some sizable koi in there and they are quite expensive to replace. I keep waiting for global warming to kick in but I think another ice age is upon us instead. To be honest about it, human kind would do much better under a global warming scenario than they would under an ice age one.

Mengel Pass

Here is a little video of us going through Mengel Pass.

It was in pretty good shape compared to other video's I have seen of it.

Back from the warm desert

Well, we got back from the desert on Saturday evening after a nice 2 week trip. Unfortunately the weather could have been much better for both of us but it wasn't bad all the time. The first night it snowed on us and the first picture is what it looked like in the morning when we woke up. I was really hoping that wasn't going to set the pace for the rest of the trip and it didn't so that was good. It actually warmed up later in the day and I was even able to walk into Darwin Falls with my shirt off to get some sun.


I was planning on doing a blog update from Furnace Creek Visitor's Center since they have free wifi but the laptop had a battery issue and we didn't have enough juice to be able to do much of anything. Oh well, that's the way it goes. We did some pretty gnarly 4-wheeling and we got some video of it that I might post here next time. The Jeep was great and the short wheel base really helped maneuvering around the many rocks and other obstacles. Like I told Karen, we took the worst roads I knew of in the park on this trip and never had a problem.

One funny thing was that we ran into a guy in a campground in Death Valley that looked familiar to Karen and indeed he should have since he was the guy who drilled her well in Greenville. Talk about a small world, huh? We finished the trip in Saline Valley at the hot springs where we stayed for 3 nights but Karen wasn't too thrilled about the nudity there. The weather in Saline was in the 80's and that was nice but the last night a storm blew through with the worst winds I have ever seen out there. The drive out Steel Pass was uneventful and the road was like I remember it, not too bad.

Gettin' Ready

I have lots to do today and tomorrow getting ready for our trip. I have to work a few hours on Friday so I need to have most of my stuff done by then. Poor Karen continues to work long hours but at least she got off fairly early last night and we were able to go to our prayer group and visit with our friends that we haven't seen much of lately. We also had the opportunity to break the news to them that we are getting married but like we suspected nobody was very surprised to hear that.

It's warmed up a little around here and even rained a little last night which is a pleasant change from the cold and snow. It looks like California is still having unsettled weather that might continue into next week as well and could impact our trip but we will be prepared for that. When I used to go camp in my truck I didn't care if it rained or not but with a tent you need to be prepared just in case.

Moles?

Having moles removed... oh what fun! It really wasn't that bad but now I have 6 little sores on my back. I'm hoping they heal up fast since they are a little itchy now. My doctor took off all the ones she thought looked suspicious, wow, I didn't know I had that many. A done deal now unless I need to have any redone and I won't know that until they heal up.

Next week we leave for a little trip to a warmer climate. We are first heading to Greenville for a little overnight stay at Karen's cabin and then the next day we are heading down 395 to Death Valley. I have plans to take her to all my favorite spots and some I have never been to like the Barker Ranch where Charlie Manson was captured. Somebody burned the place down last year so the house won't be much to look at but it's a spot of interest that I have never been to. We will be giving her Jeep a workout on that drive since we are going over Mengle Pass and that pass is a little rough. We should be down in the desert for a couple of weeks and the warmer climate will be a nice change for both of us... I can't wait!

She said YES!

Well, I asked Karen to marry me on Valentines Day and her answer was yes. I have been telling anyone and everyone that my goal was to get her to marry me and now I'm a happy guy! I think I have called just about everyone in my family and told them but if I missed anyone and they find out about it through this or the grapevine, I'm sorry. We haven't decided on when just yet, but the first step was to make the decision and that's done.

I've been doing the happy dance all week, but then I needed to do that to stay warm too since we are still locked in winter up here. It was 4° this morning and the high for today was around 30° but the sun has been out all day, and it looks pretty out there. Fortunately for me my boss gave me the day off today so I don't have to work again till Tuesday. The tax business is a little slow in our office right now so I've had a break from doing tax returns for a few days now. This time of year the folks coming in have a little more complex tax situations and they take a little more time and maybe even someone with a higher certification than me, so I have to be careful about which ones I start getting into. But for now, I'm off for the next few days and I'm enjoying that.

My computer wouldn't start a couple of days ago and I think I have it narrowed down to the power supply so I bought another one but it won't be here till Monday. The other thing it could have been was the motherboard and that would have been a major overhaul so I'm glad I only have to change out the power supply. One way or the other I'll have it up and running as soon as the part gets here.

So, for better or for worse... could be in the marriage vows, ya think?

For better or worse...

When I think about perspective I always marvel at how your outlook on just about any subject can change by gaining another perspective. I've pondered this issue many times as I was riding my bike alone in the woods or laying on a rock somewhere working on my sun tan.

When you put things in perspective, or merely put them in a different perspective than you have previously viewed them in, they often take on a totally different meaning. Sometimes the meanings are better for you and sometimes they are worse, that depends on your perspective.

So when life has dealt you a blow in one way or another, a lot of times it helps to try to look at it from a different angle and re-assess what it actually means to you. Often that reminds you that things could be much worse and your issue is nothing more than a minor bump in the road of life, to use an old cliche'.

For better or for worse, the decision to interpret that rock you just hit in the road is totally up to you. (By the way, I personally haven't hit any rocks in the road recently, so don't assume so)

Now that saying, "for better or for worse" also has some different connotations , again depending on your perspective... but that might be a subject for further discussion.