Drive Time

In Idaho, during my teen years, I used to drive a delivery van for a local office supplies place and had a route from Rexburg to Idaho Falls, which is about a half-hour drive one way. To stay awake, I often took a large bag of baby carrots and graham crackers to munch on. At one point, I even tried listening to audio tapes of the Book of Mormon (didn't Mark Twain once call the Book of Mormon "chloroform in print"? The audio tapes didn't do much to change that--maybe they should have Jim Dale read it...). But most often, I would play what I guess you could call the "even sum game" with the license plates, which in Idaho generally had 5 numbers or so, and, off to the left, a one-number and one-letter abbreviation that would tell you what county the car was from. I would try to add the numbers to two equal sums. Exciting.

Nevada, unfortunately, has license plates with three numbers and three letters. Doesn't make for exciting math (or math that's far too advanced for my brain). So, I've turned to word games. I've been fascinated with palindromes for a long time, regardless of how nonsensical and weird they are. I even bought a collection of them, called "I Love Me, Vol. I", which happens to be a palindrome. Here are some of the fun things I've noticed while driving:

While not a palindrome, the local shopping center Boca Park spells (albeit poorly) "Krap a Cob" backwards.

If you switch two letters in the street "Anasazi", you could spell the much more menacing "As a Nazi."

A very Las Vegas palindrome I found: "Casino: On is A/C." And, since it's 105, that is almost always appropriate.

This one doesn't make a lot of sense, but it talks about different types of cars that people drive: "Navajo? A Toyota. O.J.? A van."

A memo to Avon about a likely opportunity to sell more makeup: "Avon. Re: Pus Supernova."

I wrote this one tonight: "'Tis I! So, cat....Tacos, is it?" I like this one--probably because I like the idea of someone talking to their cat about what might be for dinner.

One of my co-workers commented, after I had told her excitedly about my palindromes, that "you like all the weird stuff about English." I guess she's right. But at least it keeps me awake while I drive.

Synchronized Sleeping (Part 3 in a series)

They're at it again! Of course, when we were in Idaho for about a month, it was harder to pay attention to their particular sleeping positions, what with them being in sleeping bags and me passing out every night from a reunion-induced food coma. Yeah--notice, dear reader, if you will, the lengths they went to to wear matching shirts this time. Also notice how their hands are placed under their chins in the exact same way. Weird. Whose kids are these? (That might sound weird if you don't know me. They're mine.)

Supergirl

I knew I would be a total sucker when we heard that baby #2 wasn't going to be a boy. Holy cow, I love this little girl.

Weather

Just got back from round one of family reunions up in Idaho. We hit Bear Lake with the wife's family, then were up with my parents for a while before spending a weekend with my dad's extended family at the grandparents' cabin in Island Park, Idaho. A great time was had by most. What we loved most (next to being with family, packing and unpacking the car, and not getting enough sleep, of course) was the cool Idaho nights and the relative coolness of Idaho summer days. Really, when the alternative is 110+ Vegas days and 85+ nights, almost anything is preferable, but the Idaho weather was just gorgeous.

One night in Bear Lake (July 3rd?), we were outside around the campfire when a huge storm blew in. I think I always say this when it comes to rain, but I don't think I've seen it rain that hard--at least not in recent years. Every time I thought it was the hardest I'd ever seen it, the intensity would pick up and it would rain harder. I've seen good storms in Denmark, and since living in Vegas we've had some impressive monsoon season rains, but this storm had waves of thick sheets of rain. Best of all, the lightning storm passed by very close to us, and I was able to get some fun lightning shots--I didn't want to run out to the car to get the tripod, so most of them were hand-held (I think I counted about a one minute exposure on each, or until a lightning flash came up). I braced myself against the door of the cabin, under the only overhang I could find that would protect me from the sheets of rain. You can even see that I wasn't completely protected, as the rain spots in a couple of the shots will testify.












Then, after arriving home and experiencing what my car thermometer said was 120 degrees, we had some stormy afternoons, the only benefit of sitting around in the sweltering heat. We went to my brother-in-law's place to swim, and I looked up at the pool lights and the night sky, and wanted to take a picture. By the time I had gotten around to it, the winds had kicked up and cooled us off a little. By the time we got home, a storm was a-brewin', and I tried to get out to get some more lightning shots. It was different this time, since there were so many nighttime lights in Las Vegas--my exposures were only about 30 seconds, and then pushed down to 15 when I was trying to shoot with the Stratosphere in the background. I think lightning shots are my version of the fisher's story--you should have seen the ones I missed when I was pointed the wrong way just slightly, or I was reviewing the pictures for exposure or on the wrong side of the house. I am happy with what I got, but I wish I would've gotten those others.

Our house is feeling blue.

Laura and I have been wanting to get the house painted for a long, long time, and we've run into some troubles. (Okay, the troubles haven't really been for us, what I mean is that we've had some difficulties finishing the project). Case in point: one of our neighbors has been doing odd jobs around the neighborhood--in fact, he painted the brick wall in front of our house--and he'd offered to paint the house for an incredible price. We, as usual, took our sweet time getting things ready and deciding on a color of paint for the place. Let's say it took us a month. Or maybe two. Anyhoo, we decided to bite the bullet and finally call the guy. I left a message on his cell phone, telling him we were ready to have our house painted, and, when you get a chance, could you give us a call?

A couple of days later, his girlfriend calls us back to inform us that he has had a stroke, and probably wouldn't be doing any physical labor anytime soon. I told her that I was extremely sorry for what had happened, and I hoped he got better, and, as you can imagine, it was an awkward conversation.

Later, as frequently happens in our neighborhood, a roving band of laborers came through and left a business card--this time, along with a color sampler for us to choose the color. We've gone back and forth between brick red (Laura's choice) to a two-tone combo of greens (my choice), but we were both able to agree on a nice blue. Laura was away at camp, and the band of laborers came back and talked to me. I arranged to have the house painted on the Monday I left for scout camp. I called Laura at one point during camp, and she said, "The house is blue. Really blue."

By the way, does anyone really know how to pick the right color from a tiny color swatch? Our house was supposed to be a darker, slate-ish, more gray-ish blue, but we now look like 1980s BYU Cougar fans. Our office, that's supposed to be a teeny bit olive green? Apple green. We've had great luck so far.

Thankfully, we both like how it turned out. It's probably just the relief of finally getting it done.

Synchronized sleeping (Part 2 in a series)

My apologies for the underwear. These kids are AMAZING!



Another view:

For my brother, Sam.

You knew it all along, didn't you?