Wednesday, August 31, 2011

Old Abe

I've been thinking about writing this one for a while. And I'm in quite a writing mood at the moment so I'll tell you this tale.

Once upon a time, this very lovely lady (and when I say very lovely, I mean the loveliest of the lovely ladies) came up to me and said something like "here I got this for you" in my hand she placed a penny. Just a regular old penny, nothing special about it or anything."what's this for?" I asked. She probably just grinned at me then said "to put in your left shoe". So a little confused, I did as she told me. She never said anything about it after that. I was terribly puzzled, but I decided that I would wear it in my left shoe every day. after a few days the penny began to grow on me. I came to love it (for after all, it was a gift from the loveliest of the lovely ladies).  Now let us skip forward 8 months. Today it just so happens to be my most valued possession, no joke. To me this penny is worth more than any riches I can or could obtain. "But it's only worth one cent" you might say. Well friends it is worth everything to me. In fact, it's in my shoe at this very moment. The day I lose this penny is the day part of me dies. And I pray that day never comes. For I plan to wear it in my left shoe til the day I die. Of course I also request to be buried with it. Now who is this lady? well I shan't tell you. Cause it's way more interesting if you don't know. If you try to guess, all i'll tell you is: she is a mighty fine woman.
Strange gifts from mysterious women...quite intriguing isn't it?

Tuesday, August 30, 2011

Origins: Dressing Up

"Why are you dressed up" and "what's with that weirdo" are two phrases mine ears have come to hear frequently. So, I figured I may as well talk about them....rather than doing the homework I ought to right now. As a young child, I used to always put on makeup and dress up with my cousins when we were bored at grandma's house. But that really has nothing to do with my wardrobe or state of mind these days. It truly started out in 7th grade at Centennial. I have never really believed in the fashion industry at all. I think it's stupid that people try and be in style, specially since they spend tons of money doing it. It just seems really self conscious and insecure (though maybe I'm wrong). Anyways, I saw a lot of richy rich kids at centennial wearing $100 designer jeans and ridiculous stuff like that. I also witnessed quite a few less fortunate kids being made fun of for what they wore or what they didn't. So I decided it would be really really entertaining to dress up crazy to make fun of people that care so much about fashion. To say Screw you to the whole fashion and social clique thing. Turns out I was right. The problem was back then I didn't have as much freedom in what I could wear (nor was I as daring then). However, I quickly became famous for my orange pants (a different pair than I have now) as well as some old teal ones I had. I also would dress up sometimes so that I would be wearing no two colors alike. For example: green shirt, blue pants, one white sock, one black, one purple shoe and one orange. People  would give me the strangest of looks and tell me that my shoes weren't matching. and I'd reply "What! Really? oh crap! sorry, I'm colorblind." Just like freak out and make a big scene. Good times, Good times. I'd wear leather jackets and crocks sometimes, just stuff like that. 

Skip forward to my Walden years. At walden, I quickly came to realize I could wear whatever the heck I wanted when I wanted and the administration wouldn't care. That's when It really began. It's so funny to me that people still ask me "why are you dressed up" guy, you should know by now: I just feel like it. Which is true too. I wake up in the morning, walk over to my arsenal of clothes and say "I want to wear that, and that, and that" so I do it. Last year, I went to D.I. to get some more whacky clothes for my wardrobe. That's when I found the Pink Turtleneck sweater I have. I immediately purchased it for the sake of making fun of guys that wear those ugly sweater vests and just sweaters in general. Little did I know at the time it was actually a women's sweater, but that sure doesn't bother me!

Now it's time for some of my favorite costume highlights: 
  • First day of school last year, I wore the white tux. (the main picture on my blog is actually from that day)
  • Just after I  shaved my head, my Grandparents came home from their mission and we went to meet them at the airport, so I wore the pink sweater, my round glasses, and the long blond curly wig. Airport security was giving me all kinds of looks. Fortunately that was a sunday, so I wore it to church right after....they had no idea what to think!
  • Then of course there are the few dresses I've worn to school, often with that same wig.
  • Let's not forget that huge long dress coat thing I have, the one that goes to my shins and weighs 10,000 pounds.
  • Of course there was that time when I walked across all of provo in my newly purchased Pink Pants and long fluffy shirt. got some really great looks with that one.
  • And my most recent: Wearing my Kilt yesterday (had to top last years first day of school)
And you all thought I just dressed up for fun. Nope, though it's part of it. I do it to: make fun of fashion, satisfy my crazy impulses, sometimes throw people out of their comfort zone, challenge gender stereotypes, be a bit of an attention whore, and cause it entertains me.

Thursday, August 25, 2011

Walden Walkabout 2011

Warning: the following story is 100% true with no exaggeration. I am writing it for historical purposes...and so that I hopefully won't have to tell it fifty times. Also no Pity parties please.

For those of you that don't know what the walkabout is, It's a back packing trip Walden does every year for the first week of school. This year it was arranged a little differently than past. anyways, I signed up for the boys long hike. The trip began this Tuesday 8/23/2011 where we all met up at the school and then headed off for Salt Lake. Our hike began at Brighton ski resort and would end at Aspen Grove, following the Great Western Trail. So in other words we were hiking from Salt Lake to Provo, an estimated 25 miles. Our group leaders were: Josh Graham, the new teacher Skyler, and previous walden student Alex Washington. Our group consisted of twenty people. We hit the trail at about 10:30 a.m. and passed a big moose that was laying forty feet from the trail. We hiked up and over the mountain to the back side, went down it, and right up another mountain, down that, then up another. It was super strenuous and really hot too. At about that time, (around 4:00 p.m.) most of us had run out of water. But Josh said there was supposed to be a lake within the next mile. So after hiking roughly three miles we still hadn't found the lake and it was looking kind of grim. We made it to Pole Point, a junction of roads and trails, there the sign said 2.5 miles to Forest lake. By then, I'm pretty sure everyone was completely out of water. But we had no other option, so we pressed on. Up to that point, I had been feeling great all day. Not even tired. 

I made it to the turn off to head down by the lake, and ran into Karl there. He and I hiked down together and I started feeling really ill. So we stopped for a little while and then I started vomiting. The Problem was I really had nothing in me left to puke up. It was really terrible. Karl stayed by my side for a while, and said a prayer. After probably twenty minutes of being stopped, Karl grabbed my pack, threw it over his shoulder and headed down the trail to the lake. Not long after, I got up and began to continue down. On the way, I met another saint, one by the name of Ethan Dutcher. He was running up the trail carrying water for those that were still behind. He gave me a bottle and ran on past. Fortunately I was really close to the lake and didn't have to hike too far. When I got there, Josh Graham gave me some more water and started quizzing me on how I was doing. I sat down on a stump and sipped water. Problem was all the water that went down came right back up. I was dehydrated and also probably suffering from heat exhaustion. The thing about me when I get sick, Is I keep cracking jokes. In fact, my sense of humor probably even gets better, but who knows. So I sat around sipping water, laughing, and puking for an  hour or so. By then it had gotten dark and I had to try and hike to the other side of the lake where our camp was set up. Ethan Grabbed my pack and walked with me. Then Josh Cockrell came down, stole the pack from Ethan and told him to go keep working on dinner. 

At camp, Josh Graham got all my sleeping stuff set up. So I went and layed down. He, Skyler and Alex, were having a conversation about what to do, talking about me. It was really weird, cause it felt like they were talking about me as if I were dead. The plan was: Skyler would sleep near me and I was to holler if I started getting any worse. If so, they would have life flighted me out of there. I was completely exhausted, but not sleepy. So I just lay there trying to keep some liquid down with very little luck. Then Ethan and Jairen came over, they layed out their sleeping bags next to me and said "we'll help watch over him". It was a really touching moment. I would have cried...but I didn't have enough liquid in me to even shed a tear.  The two of them layed there and told me jokes while everyone else was partying around the camp fire. Then at roughly midnight, we heard a strange rustling in the bushes. All of us immediately thought Bear! Then the noise went away. Though an hour later it returned, and much closer. I sat up and a few people turned their flashlights on to discover it was a dear in the middle of our camp, eating through our trash. We tried to scare it away, but It wasn't ever frightened. Finally someone chased it off. then It returned a few minutes later and was eating Doritos. So they tried scaring it off again. It was great, That deer made me smile.

The night was pretty awful. I spent the whole time puking. (over the whole trip, I puked at least 40 times) I also started shaking really badly, but not because it was cold. Then I had the most awful cramps. I remember saying something to Ethan and Jairen like "If this is what being pregnant is like, I'm sure glad I'm a man". At most I slept a collective amount of 2 hours throughout the night. The only thing that sounded even remotely good was blue Gatorade and coke. But come morning I was feeling a little better. Then we had to decide what to do, cause it was pretty apparent there was no way I was hiking any further, also Karl threw up during the night and was feeling pretty awful. Josh Lebaron was in a similar situation as well. So Josh Graham took a cell phone and ran back up the trail a ways and contacted Diana. Who in turn called my parents to come rescue us seeing as they would probably have the most knowledge of the area. By then I had stopped puking, but I couldn't get up, so I just lay in my sleeping bag talking with all the gang that came over to check up on me. "What a way to start my senior year huh? Best first day of school ever!" I said. At about 12:30 we figured out that we would have to hike the 2.5 miles back to Pole Line to be picked up. So I got out of bed and started packing up what I could. Then I had to go over and take a pee. And what a glorious pee it was, cause it meant that I was obviously able to keep some liquids down. Ethan Grabbed my pack, strapped it onto his chest, with his pack on his back, and headed up the hill. Skyler, Jairen, Colman and I made our way up the treacherous hill at a super slow pace with tons of rests. I felt like I was going to die. and wanted to vomit the whole time but couldn't. Ethan ran down past us back to the lake with a filter and probably 15 water bottles to refill for everyone.

Back at the main trail, we paused there with everyone else for quite some time figuring out who else was going to go home and such. Finally we got on the trail again. Colman, Karl, Cael, Josh L, myself, and Alex were the leaving party. Alex took my pack with specific instructions to take great care of me. The whole way back I wanted to puke. Eventually I did. We were taking a break at one point when suddenly I heard a horn honk three times. I instantly recognized it to be our Suburban. That sure helped to lift my hopes. Prior to that I was on the verge of just taking a step to the left and tumbling down the mountain to my death....that sounded like a really great thing to do at the time. 

Finally we made it to the car.  I just walked over, hugged my mom, then tried to puke again. That was by far the hardest 2.5 miles I have ever hiked in my life. How I made it, I don't know. Let's just say there was a lot of divine intervention going on. My dad told us "one of the new girls in the other groups had a seizure and she was going to have to be rescued". My heart sank when I heard that news. I feel really bad for her. Obviously My experience pales in comparison to hers. I just hope and pray that she'll be okay. Then All of us jumped in the car and raced off towards Midway in order to get drinks. After I had some of that blue Gatorade and coke, I started to feel a bit better.

When I got home, I walked right through the door, to my room, turned on some Grateful Dead (it helps me when I'm sick) and fell asleep. woke up roughly two hours later, took a shower and discovered I had some pretty lovely sun burns. Then I had my father get me some pepperoni Pizza, cause it was the only thing that sounded edible to me. I had to slices of that, and went straight back to bed. Woke up at 9:00 a.m. this morning, wasn't hungry. talked to my siblings, then went back to bed. I had my mom get me a bean burrito for lunch since that sounded tasty. 

Now here I am sitting here typing this novel. Sun Burned, Tired, Bruised, Blistered, and too weak to even unscrew the lid of my coke bottle. But hey, I'm alive! I just want to say thank you to all of the great people In my group. Without you guys, I believe that there is a very high likelihood I would not still be here. In the end, I really wish I would have been able to finish the hike (I hate not finishing things). Though I don't regret what happened. It has truly been an amazing spiritual experience.

Man, I could use a lot of sleep and a great big hug right now.

Sunday, August 21, 2011

Literary Ventures

After finishing my summer reading books a few weeks ago, I realized I'm in a reading mood. The problem was I didn't have any new good books to read. so a day or two ago the thought randomly popped into my head "Jane Austen". I was like "what? that's strange. but heck, why not?". So yesterday I headed to Borders to find a few books at their crazy sale. After walking around for roughly an hour, the only thing I had found was one Jane Austen book: Persuasion. I'm convinced it was the very last Jane Austen book in the whole building. To get it, I had to run, jump, and fend off a few crazy old ladies. But at last the book was mine! Yet I was not satisfied. Soooo I drove to Barnes and Noble. There I found precisely what I wanted. So here is what I got: Sense and Sensibility-Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice-Jane Austen, Wuthering Heights-Emily Bronte, and The Picture of Dorian Grey-Oscar Wilde. I had all the books collected when sage said "oh look you should buy these versions they are way more cool". I thought about it, (they had all the exact books I had in my hands) checked the price tag $20 a piece. I told myself "wow that's crazy! I'm getting all of these books already for the price of one of those!" So there I was standing in the line to purchase my books when I realized one of the covers was a little torn. so I ran back to grab a different one and returned to the line with the fancy versions of all the books. And guess what. I bought them....spent a total of $101. yeah. Quite a gamble seeing as I haven't even read any of them. But these books were hardcover, with cool designs on them, and they are also first edition prints (they haven't been revised 10,000 times). But they add to the feel so much more. Make the situation so much more romantic/epic reading the stories out of a cool looking book. Now back to the Jane Austen part. Secretly I love romantic literature and movies....but don't tell anyone! not to mention I have a growing fascination/obsession with Victorian Era England. I truly was born in the wrong time. Should have been the child of some duke or something. I would be very respectable, romantic, and of course I'd have a great excuse for wearing all the super super sweet clothing they had back then. That would have been so great. I suppose I'll just have to make do in this modern time. Basically, I'm really excited about reading all these books because of all the previously mentioned stuff (mainly the romantic bit, plus I love the way they talk) and of course I highly enjoy reading classical literature. looks like I've got my reading cut out for me for a while.

Wednesday, August 17, 2011

Peculiar Conversations

Let me tell you a tale. A truthful one mind you. It goes like this: 
once upon a time I became engaged (at least according to Facebook). To a fine young woman. one whom I have sadly not seen since 6th grade. So obviously I'm just as single as ever. Anyways, She was a good friend of mine growing up all throughout elementary. Alright alright, so "good friend" is partially a cover up for a romantic interest, Though we also were good friends.  But that is not the point either, so continuing on. I chatted with her the other night via the interwebs. We planned out our wedding, colors, date, honeymoon, all that fun stuff. It was actually a really entertaining conversation  and kind of cute. But during it, all of a sudden it hit me "wait a minute! I could be doing this for reals in the next few years!" It was super super strange. Then I thought about it some more. "how strange would it be if I actually did get married to her". That would be ridiculously crazy and oh so hilarious. But at this point, I highly doubt that. I mean we haven't even seen each other in like seven years. guess we'll just have to wait and see. So there you have it, a random little secret story from my life.

Saturday, August 13, 2011

I Don't Care too Much for Money

I've been thinking about this for a few years. figured it's finally time to write it down. Money seems to rule the world. Greed. I've known many a person captivated by money. They spend all their time slaving away to make as much money as possible. Material possessions are what they're seeking. And that's not necessarily a bad thing. Personally I don't care at all for money. Yet at the same time, It's convenient and nice to have. I must say I'm certainly glad to have a job and all that, but there are more important things. More powerful than CEO's, Professors, Politicians, money and everything else: Love. The most valuable possession we could ever have! and I'm not just talking about love for a partner. Love for your family, Friends, Neighbors. Love for that random stranger standing on the corner that waves at you as you drive passed. Love for the smiling faces you encounter throughout life. There is no sum of money worth that. makes me think of this song: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SMwZsFKIXa8 Often times it seems like we get so wrapped up in the pursuit of wealth and other things that we take  love for granted. If any one of you came to me and said "you have two options, I'll give you a million dollars, or instead you can see me smile once every day for the rest of your life" I can honestly say that I'd refuse the money. Maybe I'm just crazy, but that's what I believe. Also I just realized that I'm cutting up an old credit card while I'm writing this. haha, good stuff. I didn't even notice I was doing that. quite appropriate for the topic though. So there you have it, that's my money rant. maybe I should be a motivational speaker or something.

Friday, August 12, 2011

And Now to Address the Topic of Flirting

when you think about it, Flirting is really a silly thing. People doing a lot of stupid and show offy stuff to try and impress the opposite sex. You'd kind of think that by now we would have developed a different method of wooing someone. but then again, if it works, why fix it? Tis good entertainment though to watch a guy doing everything he can to impress some girl. Especially when she isn't interested. I've had many a good laugh over such a sight. I've also had some pretty great laughs at myself on the same topic. When it all comes down to it, I'm probably a terrible flirt. But at the same time I'm great. though usually when I'm a great flirt is when it's completely accidental. Not meaning to flirt at all. Now thats where the real good comedy comes from, entertains me anyways, trying to figure out how to get out of the mess I put myself in. I've been trying to be a lot more careful about it lately though, cause if you flirt with tons of girls you don't actually like then you're a douche bag. And I certainly do not want to be one of those! working at the Quarry and looking older than I actually am has always been interesting. Tons of college girls that come in to climb always try and flirt with me. sometimes I'm like dang it! wish I was older, oh well.
Another thing that entertains me is watching people that I know really well flirt. Watching them use their certain techniques. Sage is probably the funniest (but don't tell her I said that). Such much drama can be caused by flirting and so many people make a fool of themselves doing it. Some are worse than others, and often times you just have to feel bad for them. makes me wonder if we are born knowing how to flirt, like it's an instinct or if we subconsciously learn it in our childhood. Also if different styles of flirting work better on certain people. I'd imagine so. One thing I do know is: God is sitting up there somewhere chuckling at us. Can't blame him.

Wednesday, August 10, 2011

Many an Anniversary

Today marks my first year anniversary of driving. It's been a pretty good one. Still alive. No accidents, or tickets (knocks on wood). But lets talk about some of the crazy things I've seen! These are things you most likely should not do while driving: put on makeup, eat cereal, text, make out, have a lap dog thats far too big for your lap, take pictures, and smoke pot. Yep I've seen people doing all of those things in this past year whilst they and I were driving. Just random strangers and their daily routines. But enough of that, on to bigger things.

Today August the 10th also marks the 43rd birthday of the  Bearded wonder aka my father. We kicked off the day by smuggling captive children down the wild and raging rapids of Provo River. Alright Alright, so they were actually my siblings not captives, and you probably can't even call those little bumps on the Provo river rapids, but Hey, I can dream right? The rafting was mostly uneventful. Meaning nothing dramatic or exciting really happened. The Children loved it though. From there we rushed home, change, ate lunch, and ran off to see the Final Harry Potter movie. It was more epic than I imagined it would be. I thought they actually did a pretty good job (then again it's been like 4 years since I read the book). From their the Birthday man and I ventured out to conquer the golf course. Surprisingly the course was not teeming with wealthy stuffy old men and their polo shirts. So we took our time. It was fun. We've both had better days though. Back to home is where we went next. Ate Pizza, opened presents and here I am. It's been a day of many adventures

Tuesday, August 9, 2011

Gross

Growing up is Gross. It feels like the fun in life is gone or at leas diminished. Graduation feels like the death date on my tombstone. I don't know why I'm so unexcited about it though. to some degree though I figure it'll be hard to beat Walden. I've had such good times there. But in not too long I'm going to have to worry about college, then eventually getting married, selling my soul to work, potentially raising a family and all that other ridiculous stuff. and of all that stuff, the only bit that sounds fun is getting married. But then it seems like the fun of romance will lessen once you have to worry about children (guess I'll find out?). Feels like life has gone too fast, that I haven't had time to enjoy enough of it. Though I think I grew up too fast too. When I was a child, I always preferred to sit around and listen to the adults talk rather than to go play on the trampoline or whatever. I'm going to be an old man at 30! One of those wise old guys that sits on his porch all day trying to decipher the universe. nahh, I sure hope not! The question is how do I stay young and lively all my days? Heck, I hardly even know what I enjoy doing! sometimes you just have to think "It'd be nice just to die, then I wouldn't have to worry about all that business". But don't worry, I'm not suicidal. I just think about the future way too much. I've decided this school year though to just party and not worry about it (least not too much). I have to say, that Peter Pan fellow had it figured out!

Photo From the Vault

Been a long while since I've done one of these. The date of this photo is 10/22/2003. I was nine years of age. and Eli sitting on my lap there was eleven months.

Friday, August 5, 2011

Brain Splurge

Every once in a while you just have to let it all out at once. Open the flood gates.

The Mind is a terrible place. A place where we ofter second guess ourselves and live in doubt. It can wreak havoc on us. Yet it can be such a beautiful thing as well.

Sometimes you say things you really shouldn't. Happens to me a lot. I start saying crazy things that can be a bit out of place, not dirty things or profanities, but "Why did you say that" kind of things. Gets me into trouble quite frequently. 

Plan to record an album this year...hopefully it will actually get done.

Broken Hearts are the worst. I hate it when people have broken hearts. It's so sad, hurts mine to see a friend or just anyone with a broken heart. I've only ever had one...and a half myself, but they were sure terrible.  I'd gladly die for the sake of all broken hearts being mended.

I'm pretty sure I watch movies in my sleep. Our netflix account keeps showing recently watched movies that are pretty crazy, but no one knows who is watching them. A few of them are ones I've thought of watching like super dramatic thriller movies. Wouldn't surprise me too much if I did watch them in my sleep but who knows. 

17 feels so old. But I was 14 only three years ago. And that  is really strange to think about.

Senior year, It's just about here. I've decided I'm going to make it the craziest year ever. Time to Party. Let know one get me down. Gonna go out there and have a good time. Trust me, you'll get to hear all about it on this here blog.

The future still scares me But I'll just roll with it

Monday, August 1, 2011

Roadtrip to Redneck land

Our journey began Friday evening at precisely 6:30 p.m. The crew consisted of Captain Morgan, With Sir Michael at the wheel. We set out on our mission to conquer a distant land. We traveled 3 hours as the modern day crow flies, traipsing across vast wastelands. nearly 10:00 we arrived at our destination: The middle of nowhere, often times referred to as Redneck Land, aka Vernal, Utah. A sad strange little town or city (I'm not quite sure). A land where every bumper is littered with phrases like "I heart drilling" and all drivers are required at stoplights to say "Oil, Hell Yeah!".  We were greeted by our gracious auntie Merri. Sir Michael and I chatted it up with her for a while before heading off to bed. I drew the short stick and ended up in the haunted room. Now you are probably quite curious about this haunted room, so I will now proceeed to tell you all about it. At first glance it Twould seem that this was just and ordinary boring old room. But upon second observation, you would realize the strange carvings on the walls. Peculiar designs and the occasional pentagram. Keep looking around and you would be unfortunate enough to realize "umm, that spot there isn't red paint!" oh yes, blood spots on the walls. "Surely this must have been the bedroom of the Axe wielding homicidal maniac (previous owner)". Next I thought, "well you can't see blood spots in the dark so I may as well turn in. But you see, that's where the terrors really began. One flip of the switch revealed many things that can not be unseen. Glow in the dark paint in strange patterns and shapes covered the ceiling and walls. You have no idea the fear I felt.  Once under the covers, I began to hear strange noises, unexplainable noises. Fortunately I live my life thinking "well if it's my time to go, It's my time to go". So I didn't worry all too much and soon fell asleep. The next morning we spent jumping on the trampoline with our three little cousins. Then the lot of us shipped off to go see Uncle Joseph's demolition derby cars (the ultimate reason we had set out on this venture). The next thing I knew, I was behind the wheel of an old V.W. Bug painted to look like Herbie. Quite exciting. My first experience with manual transmissions. Though there was one problem....no brakes! The only method of stopping was the emergency brake. After that adventure we headed on over to the Rec Center for some swimming. They took our money and set us free. Sir Michael and I quickly came to the realization we were at least twice the age of everyone else...including the lifeguards. It was a happenin place though for the middle of nowhere, water slides, diving boards, the whole lot. After becoming nice and pruney we set off for home and then the derby. Now that's where the scariness really began. Redneck land proved it's namesake instantly. Round 5,000 of them, everywhere! But I must say, even among rednecks, there are some elegant women. The excitement was great, Who knew crashing cars into each other could be so entertaining? Little Herbie made us proud, and the crowd truly loved him. The lot of us returned home (with much haste) to escape the rednecks. I slipped off to bed, this time without turning on the lights, so as not to encourage any demonic drawings. Awoke to head off to church. I had forgotten to pack and sunday clothes, so I went in me red pants and a grey shirt. Got some looks for that, but I've worn crazier things to church such as: A long blond wig with sunglasses and a womens pink turtle neck sweater (but that's a different story). After Church we went to the lot where the fierce derby cars were parked and showed the children. They cried to see Herbie in such a bad state. A few hours later after eating and hanging out, Sir Michael and I set off for home. We had had enough. A large enough dose of rednecks to last us a life time. We made good time, after we finally got passed all the trucks hauling hay. 2.5 hours through rain and wasteland. anyways, that was my weekend.