Showing posts with label School. Show all posts
Showing posts with label School. Show all posts

Thursday, November 13, 2008

Creativity

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I thought I'd post a simple update as well as pose a question. Seeing as the few who actually read our lethargic blog are immensely creative as well as some of the smartest people I know, I thought I'd pose this question:

When you have to generate it, how do you approach important writing? Do you have a process? Or is it seemingly closer to Andy Ludwig's, offensive coordinator for the Utes, process which apparently utilizes a blindfold, some darts, and a play list covered board?

I know how to write....well...mostly. I've never excelled in English classes, I guess that's why I didn't choose it as my major. Though I enjoy reading, and comprehend it, I'm slow at it. Grammar work, as well as a class sized discussion of 'what really lies inside the Heart of Darkness' was as good as NyQuil for me. Normally, when I sit and write, there is little process to it unless it's for work or for school. I have a template for engineering memos, I have a format for corporate license agreements and MTA's, but is there a proper way or process to write important, yet creatively driven and completely open-ended pieces?

The reason I posted this is I'm down to the final bullet I have to check off before a wave of my law school applications can be sent in - The Personal Statement (now is when you gasp and the dun dun dun occurs somewhere off set). It's a 2 page opportunity for an applicant to say whatever it is the admissions personnel can't glean from the rest of your application...which isn't much, by the way. The application consists of your LSAT score, your degree and cumulative undergraduate GPA, any other schooling you've completed, an extensive work history (all the way back to high school), and a one page resume that encompasses these jobs as well as any other achievements you can squeeze onto an 8x11 sheet of tree pulp while still making it readable. I've got some vague ideas I've generated for my personal statement, experiences I want to include, but is there a 'preferred' method of laying them out, tying them together and making the whole boat float, or shine? ..if you get my drift/horrible metaphor. As of now, I think I'm just goint to utilize my standard - an outline of sorts, but filling in the gaps is proving difficult.

As far as updates go, which I've thus far neglected, I'm proud to say we are alive and well...er...at least alive. I've spent this week fighting off a rather unique and bothersome virus. Rach has spent it rejoicing in the fact that 5.5 more weeks and she's out of the hardest semester she's come up against to date. I'm about 3/4 of the way done with the basic components of my applications, which will move the process to proofreading and submitting each one, and then completing a set of applications one at a time by completing all their supplemental forms. I have a list of 15 or so schools I'll be applying to. Rachel is getting her applications ready for 5 or so of my schools' PhD in Statistics/Biostatistics/Bioinformatics programs. She's incredibly busy. Otherwise, I'm neck deep in lab research, still trying to get my thesis writing moving faster, working at the technology commercialization office at the U, and I just picked up an LSAT tutor student who is getting ready for the December test. Elvis and Hanna are defiant teenagers (17 months old) who now sport their training collars all day long because they're pretty...not because I need to shock them through the window all day long because they are misbehaving ;).

I plan on posting more old updates for your entertainment as some time frees up, but I have a feeling that it's a date not prior to the date all my applications are complete.

Thursday, September 4, 2008

Batting Clean-Up

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Wow, so Rachel took over the posting responsibilities there for bit since she will likely disappear for the next 4 months now that school started. I've been fighting the technology age old battle of PC versus Owner....and subsequently PC v. Owner's forehead....on the screen. Buy a mac people.....buy a mac. Speaking of which, we just bought Rach one out of necessity for her program and it's sure great to finally have 2 computers again, one of which runs like a champ.

I figured I'd bat a little clean up and fill in any gaps that we may have missed. So yes, the semester is running now at full steam for both of us, and we're grateful for it to be here, but sad that Summer is over. We did have a really good Summer, much better than the last one. Our goal was to PLAY, even if we did it the cheap-o student way. Last Summer that was the goal, but we ended up roofing my parents cabin for 3 months. The most difficult part was the very end, putting up a stove pipe that is 12 feet tall and weighs A LOT. Did I mention that this was to be done without damaging its shiny...soft....finish, without damaging the roof, while hanging off the roof that is too slippery (because it's metal and covered in dust from the road behind the cabin) to walk on...yep, we're pretty proud of it. We finished it finally this May.



What am I even more proud of? My official life decision not to become a metal roofer of A-frame cabins... :-)
What does all this roofing lead to when it's done? A wet Elvis...

and yes, you're right...German Shepherds really weren't meant to be wet (ugly Elvis), but we're sure not going to stop them!


We sold the Mark Twain finally! Yes, for those of you who don't know, let me recap a story for you:

  • We got a boat for free from my Aunt (it was her late husband's), we helped her move, we found it on the side of the house.
  • We rehabilitated it, fixed, polished, cleaned, painted, and tuned up all that was necessary to make it a great boat.
  • We tested it out on Deer Creek to make sure that everything worked.
  • We took it to a boat shop for work, who also gave it a clean bill of health.
  • Family members took their children on it fishing.
  • We finally got up for a big trip with it and my dad's boat to Lake Mead....and sank it...er...nearly sank it (sitting in the middle of a lake a mile from shore in 100 feet of water while water rushes in and is already at knee level).
  • we saved it...after much stress and fast action, forklifted it at the lake to tow it home, then pulled it into pieces and put it up for sale.
So, now you are informed if you weren't previously. At any rate, we finally got it posted for sale in May, and the trailer and boat sold within hours....all we have left is the motor and controls, and it will be posted soon as well.





Well, there's the hole where the motor nearly fell off...no worries, we saved everything.

What Rachel failed to mention was that while she was making and writing tributes to new friends, I was in the background with my old friend. We'll post more about a trip to San Francisco later, but we hooked up with Doug and Mariah before they headed off for the bay. You can tell who the businessman is and who the lazy one is! We're so proud of Doug... ;-)



We like our friends!

Well, we went to Moab, as you've read from Rachel's posts. We had such a great time down there. I only wish I had figured out a way to get Rach a mountain bike so we could have done some biking. I think she would have been grateful for a nice bike ride as opposed to the trauma we put her through in the Jeeps.

So, we went saw Newspaper Rock, which is some really cool hierogliphs (petrogliphs?).


After elephant hill, there's a fun little section that is nice and narrow, I hope the following pictures can adequately show that. Keep in mind that Jeeps are rather narrow vehicles compared to trucks, Hummers, etc.

I like the scratches down the wall, apparently people try to fit trucks down here because they think that theirs is somehow more narrow than the other trucks that are called out as being too wide on the sign leading into this area. I wish I was there for that!

Of course, when it's 105 degrees outside, you look for shade wherever you can find it.

She ran out once I told her I went in looking for what was making that suspicious rattling noise...

And finally, we're on our way back down. This part is about 100 yards from the parking lot at the base of the hill...so it's the first and last thing you get to see on your trip. All in all, tons of fun, and worth every non-airconditioned minute.


So this is the last bit of Moab we'll make you deal with. I thought I'd throw in just because it's pretty, and we all like to look at pretty things, right?
I can't remember the exact name of this canyon, but I think it's something like 'The Boulevard' since it looks like a bunch of skyscraper buildings lined up. What's really cool is that you can see the different layers of formation on these sheer walls (of course that's a little too much nerd to expose in yourself, so only admire it secretly...I'll wait).


At the foot of Delicate Arch...


And finally, chillin on Main Street Moab with los padres. Yes, it had been a long day, and yes, that is my blue bandage of LSAT death on my knee. Note to all those still reading: do not put away roofing knives the night before one of most important tests of your life....you will accidentally slice your knee open and end up with stitches and a horrible reaction to the tetanus shot in the ER. All this took place in June.



Well, I think that I'll have to call it quits on this rambling soon. I must apologize for any spelling or simple grammatical mistakes, I'm working on some lab work at the same time, using blogging as a distraction during which I've convinced myself that I'm actually 'thinking' and therefore being productive.

I hope this rambling finds everyone doing well! Hopefully....more to come. Cross your fingers!

Tuesday, July 1, 2008

Rob's Feigned Graduation

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Wow, So it's been a long time, eh? Yeah. It's ironic how much extra time you are supposed to have in the summer, and yet how little time you end up having. I guess what I'm trying to say is that we really have no excuse for the lack of posts, other than the old adage 'Where did all the time go?'. The real benefit to this situation is the fact that we've had a lot happening over the summer, we've been more diligent in taking pictures, and my memory seems to still be functioning for the past couple months. I hope this is an equation which equals out to many posts to come that are interesting, not just what I'm feeling/pondering for a given day (although I'm sure those could be interesting too!).

So I graduated...well, sort of. The proof:
I think I've probably said that 100 times so far since May. It is my feeble attempt to describe the ever morphing situation that is my life. My schoolings has become an ongoing affair with a fleeting mistress.

Case in point.
#1: I have a letter from my department which I use to gain employment that states 'Robert has completed all the requirements necessary to be awarded a Bachelor's degree in Mechanical Engineering'. No degree awarded yet due to my involvement with the combined BS/MS program.

#2: I have pictures from a graduation ceremony in which I was walking with my fellow BS/MS students for the completion of said degrees. However, no ground up tree pulp as of yet garnishes my wall. Blasted parsley at the Cheesecake Factory mocking me on my plate... :-) Seems I have a knack for unfinished finished things. A status update, to date, I have finished all my BS requirements, all my MS coursework, billed the minimum required number of thesis hours, but am aforementioned thesis short of completing my MS. I will be done with this in the Fall and thus will be officially given my wall decor December of 2008.

#3: I have way too many classes...interesting predicament to have, eh? What does having around 215 hours at a university give you after you've completed your MS? Answer, you are one course away from a PhD in course load....oh and that pesky thing called a dissertation. If you take the cope out road....like I probably will, you are awarded the silver medal, i.e. an Mphil. A masters of philosophy in Mechanical Engineering. A PhD minus the dissertation component. So worst case, I'll have that May of 2009, but my profs would like me to take a hiatus for law school and work on the dissertation during my summer and Christmas breaks.... Comments? Don't know that I really want that, but it won't increase the number of years of school I have since I'll have it done in a couple summers.

One thought I've had about all this is that I think it's a father-son thing. I've learned that I'm genetically predispositioned toward education. My Dad places a high value on education. Not just at a university, but in everyday life. He is probably the oldest guy at all the conventions, the only guy I know that asks for textbooks for Father's Day, and that goes jeeping in Moab and takes his geology textbook to look at rocks.

I think that's why I'm in no hurry to start my life long career and terminate this lifestyle as a student. Lucky for me I've got the wife that agrees. She supports my hippie views on life and what it's really about. It also helps that she's smoking hot...lucky, I know.

Happy Anniversary Babe :-)

Just as a clarification, for those of you that think I sound disgruntled at all, you are sorely mistaken. I'm a cynical person, I've learned to accept that. I love my life, my wife, and my school....ife. I'm excited for the future, but not overly in a hurry to get there. Why bother, according to Regis and Kelly I'm going to live to be 140 years old....

Don't forget to celebrate!

Wednesday, February 13, 2008

Christmas Update Part Deux

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Thought it would be nice to start things off with a little bit of Elvis....
It's so funny, they only look like German Shepherds about 10% of the time. I think it's because we're all so used to seeing police dogs and pictures of adults that we forget that they go through this really awkward phase in the middle......Anywho.....

Alright all.... I'm back. I don't know where the drive to get this whole thing caught up came from, but I figure I need to capitalize on it just the same. Not that I'll be able to document everything that's happened in our short married lives, but I can at least take a good stab at it. So, for anyone who reads this and finds it redundant....sorry....and tough beans. :-)

So Christmas was filled with fun, friends and family. Oh, and all the experiences that come with it. A lot of people came into town for Christmas, which made it really nice. Jim and Kathie came in from Baltimore, MD and it was great to catch up with them. They've really become digital friends. It's sad that we don't get to hang out anymore, no more football games, no more movie nights, no more backyard BBQs, but it's great to know that we can and do still stay in touch. When they came in for Christmas, we were able to steal a couple hours from their busy schedules to go out to dinner. We forced them to pose for some pictures since we just had gotten a camera and needed some practice using it!





It's always really good to catch up with old friends. It always makes me feel slightly disappointed because I wish we would have had BUSHELS of more fun before they left. Oh well, a PhD is only like what.....4 years away? Not to shabby. Actually, Rach and I brag about our friends the Gwilliams @ Johns Hopkins U all the time.

The next major group of visitors we had consisted of the number 2. Rachel's grandfather DeTar and his new beautiful young bride came into town for Christmas as they always do. They are from Tallahassee, Florida. Mr. DeTar was a professor of Biochemistry and a couple other things at Florida State U and so is always good for an academic discussion. PLUS, he's got great advice for students dealing with the bureaucracy that is higher education. Don't let those Deans and Profs push you around, you pay their electric bill....well....with the cost of tuition at most institutions, I think we also pay for their mortgage, the vacation cabin in Aspen's mortgage, the loan on the yacht, and maybe even that daily jaunt to the links for a quick, 4 hour long, break from us. HA HA, oh the life. Anyway, it's always great to see the Floridian Grandparents.

PS... Yes Rachel, I know you don't like this pic, but you're gonna have to take one for the team since it's actually the only one with both Grandpa and Carla in it that we have.... MUHU HA HA.


Oh, and one of the Jolley Family dog, Copper, just for kicks. Hey, he needs some spotlight too, right?

So I'm starting to see why it's necessary to just stay on top of this blog thing. Everyone of my posts is nearly a novel....a couple problems with that. I don't remember what I've already written about in this blog at the top, adding pictures is a pain since I have to copy and paste them into the right slots, I get so lazy by the bottom that I have no desire left to spell/grammar check, and it's time consuming..... OH well, I don't need to go to class today, I have very little school homework (although I have pounds of LSAT homework) so I might as well start a few more chapters today, eh?

We had the Poulsen family Christmas party as well along the way. As is tradition, we force the grandkids to be our little dolls and play nativity scene dress up....classic. I think this was a remarkable year though, not only did baby Jesus' head not get popped off, but I don't think there was even a fight over him at all! WOW..... That was definitely a first. I've included a couple pictures below of the whole wonderful fiasco.



And yes, Bryce still loves Harley....and I think Harley might even love him back, despite the squished look on his face....PS, I think he's just about half a second away from taking a big licking taste of Bryce's leftover food storage on his face.

Other than all that, it was just a standard, good white Christmas. If you haven't gathered it by now, yes, my family does love it's dogs.....some one has to take care of all the mutts in the world, right? One day, we'll have our little dog, cat, horse farm/family compound and then we won't have to be the neighborhood rednecks anymore....we can just be rednecks... HA HA.



A couple questions are answered in the above pictures... Yes, you can fit us all in a very small room with lots of other stuff in it, and Yes, you can get a family picture with 4 dogs in it that are 95% doing what you want them to. Maybe that's because they're well behaved, or maybe it's because every one of them is in some sort of pain, or looking at what they thought could be the next meal......the cat walking underneath the camera... I guess we'll never know, will we.



And yes.... I still have a hot wife that hasn't divorced me yet! In my defense, I warned her that this whole marriage things was FOR-E-VER, but she said yes, and now she's stuck forever!

One more thing, before this epic ends.... you never know when your picture is being taken anymore... I bet you're already on YouTube.....no? You don't think so? Well, I can take care of that then. Anyway, smile!


Tuesday, February 12, 2008

Christmas Update

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Yes, yes, I know... It's like 2 months after Christmas and I'm just posting. The overall rate at which I post is steadily increasing though, right? I can see why most people post weekly/daily/bi-weekly or somewhere in between... I can hardly remember Christmas! Doesn't even feel like it came and went. Well, where to start? Rachel and I spent most of our Christmas break with 2 goals in mind... Find time to relax after the incredibly rough Fall semester and get everything caught up and ready for the Spring semester so that we wouldn't be so stressed. Thankfully, we accomplished both of those reasonably well. We had left a bunch of little, unimportant things on a to do list because we just couldn't get to them during the semester....well....when you do that, for an entire semester, things really pile up.

So, where to begin?

I think the most major thing that happened over Christmas was the fact that Rach and I got a digital camera finally.... yes, we are finally into the 21st century with everyone else. As sad as it is, I think we were the last people in the modern world to get a digital camera. This makes posting pictures much easier! For those who don't know, this was the necessary outcome of some stupid thief. I don't just mean he/she was stupid because they stole my camera while we were on vacation, I think they're stupid because of the whole pile of cameras, mine was definitely the cheapest, non-digital 35-mm there.... At least go for the digital, right? Anyway, so now we can post pictures without having to scan them in and the whatnot.

insert random picture here.....



Something that had to be done, but wasn't all that fun, over the break was Corey's house flooding..... twice. So the first time it flooded and killed the laminate flooring in the kitchen. We ripped it out, and laid tile. Then the laminate in the living area was doused (both due to the poor plumbing of a refrigerator line by the crappy previous owner) and that floor was ripped up, partially replaced, and laid back down. So, moral of the story...... when buying a house, ask the owner to list EVERYTHING that they did themselves. Then, immediately inspect and fix these things. Especially if the owner was under 30 years old. Check out the tile we laid though, we were pretty proud of it....If anyone needs tile that you know....let us know, we're pretty cheap too!



Also, one of Ryan's mom's bathroom just for measure.

Rach and I did a little seclusion exercise after the semester ended....it was great. We went to Daniel's Summit Lodge for 2 night before Christmas. Wonderful. There were only 4 rooms filled when we were there, so we pretty much had the run of the place. Since it's geared toward adults, it has a separated spa/pool area that is open 24/7. Oh, and cell phones don't work there very well.... especially when they are turned off! ha ha. So we slept about 14 hours, watched several movies a day, went to the pool, hung out at the restaurant, and tromped around in several feet of snow. It was so perfect. I think after each semester we're going to implement this practice. Find somewhere to go that gets us away from everything. We could've just done that at home, but we wouldn't have.... we have to force ourselves to do nothing by putting ourselves in a place where we can't do anything.... it's great.

Rachel also got her wedding 'storybook' for Christmas. She loved that, it's been on our to do list forever, but her mom and the photographer got together and really did a nice job on it. Unfortunately we didn't have our camera yet, so I don't have any pictures of her opening it....sad.
Another major event that happened was my dad earning his scouting wood badge and another award. These are pretty big time scouting awards, taking years in leadership positions to earn. He really changed the scouting program here in our home ward.... basically from non-existent to thriving. It's all related to the potential number of eagle awards that could be obtained verses the number that are obtained. Anyway, I thought I'd throw in a couple pictures of that because it was really neat to see all the people who came to support him... mainly, his friends, which I haven't seen for awhile in a setting other than the deer hunt or at the cabins....so that was really cool.



Well, I think the next blog is going to be focused on everyone that we saw over the break, and I'll get it up soon. As for now, I'm off to judge an elementary school science fair!

Thursday, November 29, 2007

It's Been A While

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So I think this will be the title of many blogs to come, but hopefully not. It's been since the semester started that we've posted anything. This is mostly because we've been so busy that the last thing on our minds is writing about the chaos that is our lives. So, some things that have happened since the last post made....

We rented out the condo to a professor from British Columbia that is now teaching Music at BYU. If you've ever heard the name Ord, that is them.... Their daughter has a few CD's at Deseret Book apparently and every one of their kids is a pretty good musician. Hopefully the Y likes them so that we can have some long term tenants. They are in their 50's, and it's only him and his wife so they are perfect. I think our condo will be nicer than it was when we bought it when they're done. We were incredibly blessed to find tenants to fill it within 12 hours of our first post on Craigslist. I had to turn down several people in the week that followed, so I think we have a nice little investment.

Rachel is treading water but moving in her program at BYU. I think her nose is just barely above water, but with 3 weeks left in the semester (last day is the 21st of December), she can see the light of Christmas at the end of the first semester tunnel. She'll be way better in the second semester now that she's figured out the system and we set her school Macintosh TEX environment up at home..... And her professors said it couldn't be done, HA! They underestimate the power of the UTE Engineers. Anyway, She loves her field and that's what's keeping her in it. Since everyone except for her and her cube-mate are from BYU, they are the two that like to stir the pot so to speak and create some noise when the program takes a turn for ridiculously humorous.

Rachel had a tonsillectomy one week to the day before Thanksgiving, which made for some fun times over the break. She's healing well, but it really takes its time with adults. She is still sick in the mornings and incredibly tired, but getting better by the day. This is another reason her semester has been so difficult. Her tonsils were both the size of her doctors distal phalanx of his thumb....PS, he's the 6'8" father of an ex-BYU/Alta basketball star.....big thumbs. I told her to look on the bright side, she loves to sing, now she has a TON of more room in her mouth to help her out (not being a singer, I really don't know if it would actually help). Her professors, as intelligent as they would like to appear to be, think that it's "surgery that only little kids have" and "takes no more than 3-4 days to fully recover." Interesting people they are.

I no longer work at ATK, which is a huge relief. Trying to finish up my master's this year and taking grad level courses and working 40 hours a week was a little too much. I think I've learned my lesson a couple times now about overstretching myself. So I applied and got funding through NIOSH (National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health) so now I'm just a bonafide grad student. It feels really good actually. I really came to a quick knowledge that manufacturing engineering was definitely not what I got my bachelors to do. I worked around great people though. Currently I'm working on some side consulting projects for ConocoPhillips, and working in the lab taking and analyzing data for a Becton Dickenson study. I really enjoy the combination of engineering and human interface. I can crunch the numbers and run the formulas in all areas, but to actually design something at the request of someone in order to eliminate the risks and strains they experience on the job is very satisfying, very application based as opposed to theory based engineering.

Rachel and I have moved through our progression one full step. I told her when we got married that when she could take care of a plant, we could get a dog, and when she could take care of a dog, we could get a kid....ha ha. Well, she killed her bamboo plant, but we moved on to a dog anyway, well, they found us. We were camping at Aspen Grove and found two German Shepherds sleeping in a tunnel under the road. After leaving them there thinking they were someone else's for a couple days, we decided to talk to the local sheriff and the townsfolk and then take them to the pound. After giving them 3 baths and feeding them a ton, they were too snuggly to drop off and the family decided to keep them. Now they are 45 pounds and 5.5 months old and just part of the family. Elvis and Hanna. Elvis looks like the nice gremlin and is long haired. He is Elvis because something attacked him in the wild and tore his left lip up pretty bad, so his lip is permanently curled. He's a tank. Hanna is the standard regular coat shepherd, and since they were found in Hanna, Utah, that's her name. She is much more petite than Elvis. The vet, search and rescue, and policemen we've talked to have all said that they look pure bred and Elvis will be around 100 pounds, Hanna around 70. They are incredibly loving and mature for their age since they had to live on their own (off a deer carcass) for about 6 weeks according to the vet. We found them at 12 weeks old. Let us know if you need to borrow a guard dog or two... ha ha.



We went to my Minnesotan family reunion as well. This was a great experience. Rachel finally got to meet that side of the family, and get another state on her list of places she's been. It was a great time. We then drove down and over to Milwaukee, Wisconsin to visit Rachel's brother and his wife at MCOW medical school. It was a great drive as we planned a lot of sights along the way. These included the Wisconsin Dells, Hastings, Red Wing, right along side the Mississippi river for half the drive, the Mall of America, and many other sights (not in any order).



So as you can tell by my novel, I'm fearful of when I might be able to post again. I have 2 finals next week, 1 the following. I have 2 big projects left to finish in that same time. Rachel....well.... she's swamped. She'll be done the 21st and starts again the 6th of January....not a very long break. Apparently her teachers assign "hour" values to her homeworks and projects....currently, she has 130 hours of homework due by the end of next week.... plus she works 20 hours a week for the department teaching labs, overseeing help sessions and doing any research that comes her way. So again, Christmas will be a great time for Rachel.

Anything else? hmmm...... We spent most of our summer at my parent's cabin. We made a goal to get outside more this summer, and we sure did....just not in the fashion we were thinking. The roof on the cabin was leaking and my parents got a bid for putting on a metal roof. Really cool I think.....I loved them in Texas. They are supposedly leakproof for a lifetime and incredibly low maintanence. Downside.....$1500 in parts, $7000 in labor.....yeah....no fun. SO, needless to say, I saved my dad 7 grand. All it took was about 5 weekends, a rock climbing harness, a toolbelt, and same slippery shoes and blessed knee pads. If you haven't seen the cabin, I'll have to post a pic when he develops them.... it was pretty nuts. I had to tie off to my truck on the other side and belay off the other. It's an A frame, that is steep enough you can't stand on it without the aid of the rope. add loose gravel and shingle chucks since they were 30 years old and it made for a fun show..... the neighbors thought I was the best entertainment going. So we shaved off the old shingles and trim, tar papered over the rest (hanging upside down from my rope), and then drug 20 15 foot long, 3 foot wide pieces of 12 guage steel up the roof while belaying with one hand and screw the sucker down.....that was just one side.... yep.... fun. Anyway, it really turned out nice and was a great experience. I got a nice set of funny tan lines too. It got really fun when the mountain west of the cabin caught fire. I would wave as the praying mantice like helicopter would barely overhead every 15 minutes to suck water from the lake in front of our dock.

We did hike to some fun places. The pictures I post below are from Arta Lake above Stillwater. It was a tremendously fun hike in a very light rain. We made raincoats out of trash bags and had to follow little pink tree tags because the trail got so little use it never really made a good showing.



Well, I think I better stop this blog now or it will never end. Hope everyone is doing well and keeps it that way. Until next time, good afternoon, good evening and good night. (Truman)