It is HOT in Texas. I have to say it is a little less humid here in Dallas than it was in Houston but you still sweat when you do anything out doors. I just checked the Houston weather; it's 85 and 76% humidity. Right now in Rowlett at 9:45 pm it is 86 and 53% humidity, but the weather bug says it feels like 89. That's kind of like the wind chill in reverse.

As I was leaving the office this afternoon I'm sure the temperature was up around 95, the high for the day I saw this squirrel lying spread-eagle in the shade. He kind of raised his head up to look at me as I walked by, but when I went back to take this picture he didn't move a muscle. I'm not an expert on Squirrel behavior but I've never seen one do this before. The only thing I can figure is he must have been trying to cool off. The temperature of the dirt in the shade must be a little cooler than the air temperature.

Utah Trip

Our recent trip to Utah was eventful to say the least. We had planned the visit for some time, but Mom taking a fall on the sidewalk walking home from Harmons kind of changed the focus of the trip. Gratefully she seems to be making a pretty good recovery. I caught a virus Wednesday and came down with a raging sore throat and sinus infection, as anyone reading this already knows. Actually I probably should have said "the only person reading this" I think Ben my be my only follower. Anyway, I had Scott give me a blessing before we left. I prayed earnestly for a miracle cure, but said if that wasn't possible could I at least be blessed with the strength to make the trip home. By the time we left Saturday I was feeling quite a bit better. I remember thinking as we stopped at our hotel that night in Albuquerque, that I was feeling surprisingly well. Robin did most of the driving anyway while I mostly slept. When we got close to home somewhere up around Denton and McKinney the pain came roaring back with a vengeance and just really hit me hard. My sore throat back worse than ever and I really started feeling poorly. I was so horse all I could do was whisper. I could not help but feel the the Lord had answered my prayer for enough strength to make the trip home for which I am very grateful. I called in sick monday and tried to go in on Tuesday but my boss and co-workers told me in no uncertain terms to leave. I did not feel like arguing. I did not go to work the rest of the week. Scott said this was a two week ordeal. Today marks two weeks and I'm still not 100% If I could just get the cough to go away. I do not know how Scott ever survived this while working every day! No way I could have done that.

While we drive up through West Texas and Albuquerque and southern Utah, we enjoy some of the interesting landmarks, scenery and small towns. I have been kind of intrigued by Nocona Texas. The main industry there until recent years was the Nocona boot factory. I actually don't know what year it shut down but when I was in high school Nocona boots were right up there with Tony Lama. There is still a company that makes high end baseball gloves by the Nocona name. I don't know if it is the same company but they are definitely not making them in Nocona Tx. The factory sits empty now.


There is not much else to see in Nocona but a few miles up the road we passed a home that had a vintage early 70's Cadillac convertible parked out in the driveway with a couple of mannequins wearing bathing suits waving to the traffic. I should have stopped then and taken a picture but didn't. I was hoping to get a shot of it on the way home but it wasn't out. We decided to take pictures of some of the other interesting things we saw on the trip.

We generally spend the night in Albuquerque and while looking for a Taco Bell we had to drive through some residential neighborhoods near the University. We were amazed by this very unique house (or houses).



There is a Service station we like to stop at a couple of hours south of Albuquerque. It's not a Buckees but it has a very cool classic car museum. I have loved 50's thunderbirds ever since I was a little boy and Ivo Peabody gave me a ride in his 1956. Here is a really cool 57 at Russel's travel center.



I have to add this next photograph because it is a car we actually owned. When My friend Fred Tuttle went on his mission he sold his 1953 pontiac Chief to Dad. Fred's was black with a white convertible top. If I am not mistaken the hood ornament had a plastic indian face that lit up when the lights were turned on. I had the car at Utah State for a while and I think mom drove it to work every day while I was on my mission. When I returned home Dad sold it. We never should have done that!



We stopped for gas in Cuba NM. Not sure what kind of place Cuba is. The topography reminded me somewhat of Eastern Oregon around Bend and Sisters. There must be some kind of old counter culture/hippie populace for a business by this name to exist. I did not notice whether or not it was a going business or not.



I've driven past Hole N the Rock three times now and never realized what an awesome place it is, until I got home and looked it up. There is a 3,000 sf home carved out of the base of this rock mountain. It's for sale along with the petting zoo and gift shop!




My last curiosity is this huge sandstone mountain just north of Monticello. Looks like maybe someone tried to carve out a home out of this one too. I'm sure it has an official name, but we just call it the cupcake rock.



I guess we'll have to take a different route to Utah next time we have to find some new interesting things to take pictures of. I would like to tour the Hole N the Rock house though.

Pants go First

This morning as I was getting dressed while Claire and Megan were snuggling in bed with grandma I decided to start getting dressed byputting on my socks since I wasn't going to take off my pajamas at the moment. Claire watched me intently for a moment as I put on my socks while still wearing my pajamas and she hopped off the bed and said grandpa, pants usually go first.

The Resurrection of Snow White

I was watching Snow White with Claire. When snow wWhite ate the Apple Claire looked at me and said it's alright she gets resurrected.

The Hubble Deep Field: The Most Important Image Ever Taken

Hubble Ultra Deep Field in 3D

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Just Bad Luck

Some people say everything happens for a reason. That may be right but I can't think of one good reason for this crash. It's not really an accident because it resulted from someone's negligence. Inattentiveness to the task of driving can result in logical consequences.

Still one can't help but ponder questions like; what if I'd left the store just a few minutes earlier or later? It could have been another person who got hit. What if the driver of the other car had not been texting or talking on his phone or fiddling with his radio. I don't know why he wasn't watching the road but for what ever reason his actions resulted in serious consequences. Still it could have been worse. Just think of the timing. What a difference a few seconds would have made. If I had passed through the intersection just a second or two sooner he might have missed me altogether. A second or two later and he might have hit me squarely on the front end resulting in more damage and possibly injuries. So it wasn't as bad as it easily could have been.

Since this happened in the evening before a holiday I could not get a rental car. Not a big deal I thought since I still have the van to drive to work. I did not go anywhere on the 4th. If I had I would have noticed that the van had a flat tire before I walked out to go to work Friday morning.

Generally a flat tire while an inconvenience is not a huge problem. But when you can't get your spare to lower from it's holder under the truck it becomes a bigger issue, and that is exactly what happened to me Friday morning.

It took me all morning to get the rental car arranged for and delivered. It took me about half a day yesterday to get the tire fixed. It needed a new valve stem.

I think of that old saying "If it were not for bad luck, I wouldn't have any luck at all"

Car Crash

I think by now most everyone knows I was involved in an auto accident Wednesday evening as I was driving home from Costco in Rockwall. All the freeways in Texas have what they refer to as feeder roads. These roads parallel the freeway on both sides. The on and off ramps from the freeways are accessed from these roads. The road I was on passed under I30. There were two left turn lanes to the feeder road and two lanes that went straight on Goliad (205) St. As I came out from under the roadway passing the feeder road a car came blasting down the feeder and T-boned me on the right side. the impact was at the rear door and quarter panel. The impact spun my car completely around, over the median and came to rest facing in the opposite direction. All of the side curtain airbags deployed. It was the most surreal experience. I remember seeing the vehicle coming at me out of the corner of my eye and thinking Oh crap! and then spinning around completely out of control. I was not aware of the airbags but it seems like the car kind of filled with white smoke. The impact must have pushed me sideways against the center console because my right side hurt and has gotten more painful. cracked or bruised ribs possibly, but other than that no injuries. When the car stopped moving I just sat there for a minute and thought, "what do I do now?". The voice on the navigation system said "initiating 911 call" I remember thinking I wonder how that works as there was no further sound. I got out of the car and my head started to spin and I had to sit down on the curb. The driver of the car that hit me, a young man, late teens early twenties came up and asked if I was alright. He apologized and said he did not notice the light change. Another young man was there who stopped to assist. He said he was right behind me and we clearly had the green light. I asked him for his name and he said he would stay until the police came. He did and gave his name to the police. The other drive came over and sat down and said he would get his information and made a call on his cell. I asked him if he was calling the police and he said he was calling his insurance. I took my phone out and dialed 911. As soon as the operator answered she said is this regarding the accident at I30 and 205? I said it was whereupon she said we are already on the way. the police did arrive within just a few minutes. I'm a little embarrassed to admit that as an insurance guy I did not do a very good job gathering data at the scene. I never did get the other driver's insurance information or even his name. A female officer arrived first and said that the traffic officer would be there in a minute. Then the paramedics arrived, because of the airbag deployment. I did not feel like I needed to go to the hospital. The traffic officer came and collected our insurance and drivers licences. My car was not drivable and a wrecker arrived fairly quickly. After they had concluded the investigation and said I could leave I told the first officer that I needed to call for a taxi or something as I had no one to come pick me up. She then said she would give me a ride home. I had bought a hot roasted chicken at costco and some apples. the chicken was thrown around and made quite a mess, and there were pieces of apple all over. I left those in the car and took the rest of the stuff and rode home in the back of the police Tahoe.

I am very sad about loosing the Flex. I filed a claim with State Farm, but as soon as I get the police report I believe we will proceed against the other driver.

Here are the pictures I took of the car yesterday at the tow lot. The SF adjuster said that it would be repairable based on their check list of damages so I went over to clean out the chicken and apples so the car would not stink if they really do end up repairing it. After seeing the car again I really don't think it will be repairable. I guess we will just have to see.

Getting Ready to Move

I don't know if anyone besides Alison reads this blog, but I will write this post as if there were other readers. So those of you non offspring readers may not know Robin and I are getting ready to move to Dallas, TX. I have taken a new job with State Farm in a new operation they have started in an office in Richardson which is just a little north of Dallas; between Dallas and Plano if that makes it any clearer. This job comes with a relocation benefit so we are going through the process of getting our house ready to sell and finding a house in the Richardson area. I think this is the most stressful thing I have ever done. What makes it even more stressful are the decisions I have made to procrastinate completing some of the renovation projects I had started or needed to start.

We were in the final stages of remodeling the master bathroom so that was pretty much done. But while we were at it we went ahead and bought a new counter top for the hall bathroom and hired one of the employees of the counter contractor to build a vanity cabinet to match the one I built for the master bath. That was back in February before we went to Seattle. It took him a month after we got back to finish and install the cabinet. Then I had to stain and finish it in place. Then I interviewed for and got the new job. Everything changed.

I have to start my new job on May 13. That did not leave us much time to get the house on the market and buy another one up there. We were supposed to get it on the market within two weeks. That deadline passed last wednesday. We had to have two market analyses and two appraisals done. Problem was that we were in the process of completing the incompleted projects and the values came back lower than they would if everything were done. now we have to try to make adjustments.

The list of stuff we had to do in two weeks was pretty long; Replaced the soffit and fascia on the front of the house, tile the kitchen floor and finish the drywall repair I started in there six years ago. also had to replace and repair some of the bead board wainscot, and remove a hole in the wall created for a doggy door. We had to get the counter top in the hall bathroom, and re-tile the floor. Oh, we also got all the trim painted; it is 90% finished. We had to move the washer and dryer out because the tile also extended into the laundry and the pantry. I hired a friend to do the exterior work, and another member of the church who is a contractor to install the tile in the kitchen. I did the bathroom work. I also hired a painter who is also a member to pain the trim. I have worked until 10 pm or later many nights. Yesterday I painted the ceiling in the kitchen and the bead board wainscot. I worked right up until priesthood meeting and wore my overalls to the meeting. Everything has turned out great, but it was really really stressful. Delays, people not showing up to work when they said they would. Every day I would wake up overwhelmed and think I can't do this. I still have a little more trim to paint on the wainscot. the sidewalk and deck need to be power washed and the house need more de-cluttering and staging. The cargo trailer is full of stuff including our food storage that was stored in the laundry room. Anyone want to buy a Bowflex? I'll make you a good deal.