Some say the world will end with fire.

Others say with ice.

From what I've tasted of desire

I hold with those that favor fire.

But if I had to perish twice,

I think I know enough of hate,

To say that for destruction ice,

Is also great and would suffice.

Robert Frost



"YOU CAN'T FIX STUPID" - Ron White



"Good things come to those who wait, but, only the things LEFT by those who hustle." - Unknown (at least by me)



"Life is wonderful, without it you are dead." - Hy "Pete" Peterson - Park City and Kenecott Miner



"Don't worry about those people in your past---there is a reason they are not in your present." - Unknown



"Life's tough - it's even tougher if you're stupid." - John Wayne



"The only place success comes before work is in the dictionary!" - Vince Lombardi



"If you aren’t living on the edge, you’re probably taking up too much space.” ~ Attributed to Jim Whittaker by Doug ‘Swani’ Swantner, Alaska Smokejumper and Air Attack Base Manager (Ret.)

About Me

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I am married and have seven children and twenty grandchildren. I retired January 1, 2010 after working 39+ years for the Forest Service...NEW CHAPTER IN MY LIFE HAS BEGUN!

Saturday, August 25, 2012

BUSY TIMES


The last two weeks have been really busy for us. I went to the 270,683 acre Rush fire just outside of Susanville, CA for 7 days. When I returned Inklings had found a car in a northern city that met all the things I wanted in a car we would buy so she came up to the airport and picked me up. We spent Monday night with our daughter and her husband so we didn't have so far to travel the next day to buy the car.

We had been gone from our daughter's house about thirty minutes when we got a call telling us that the lady we were buying the car from wasn't going to be able to do the sale until the next day. We decided that would be OK and that we would spend Tuesday night with one of our daughters and a granddaughter. So we continued our trip north.

When we got there we visited with two of our daughters and found that they were taking a memory trip with their girls in a rented Mustang convertible to the beach at a nearby lake. They asked us to go with them so we did. They didn't have enough seat belts in the Mustang for all the girls to ride in it at once so they took two cars. That made it so that we all traded around and rode in both the cars and visited with all the little girls and each of our daughters. It was a fun but tiring trip for me and for the little girls. We got home and went to bed quite quickly as I was very tired.

Wednesday morning we got up and took our daughters child to her baby sitter and then went to the agreed on location and bought the car. (The lady wouldn't sell it to us until after I looked at it even though it was a car that met all of our needs and, in fact, was one of the cars I was looking at buying.) As soon as we bought the car we went to the courthouse and purchased a temporary license and paid the required taxes. As soon as that was done I headed for home in the new car and Inklings was going to follow later after she did some shopping in the old one. I was to stop at the daughters house that we stayed with the first night so she could see our new car. I stopped and visited for a while but got nervous because Inklings and I had not discussed if she was going to stop there or not so I headed for home. Inklings got there about half an hour later and had a good visit before she continued the drive home. We both got home about dinner time and had a great trip.

Thursday Inklings did my fire laundry and I repacked my fire bags and got everything ready to go again. After that we picked the vegetables from the garden, weeded it and found some neighbors that were interested in taking some of the produce off our hands. It was good to get the garden taken care of since it had nearly got away from us in the two weeks it didn't get the care it should have.

Friday I took our old car to our mechanics who had asked about six months earlier if we were going to trade for a new car soon. We told them we were going to try to get a new car this fall if I made enough money from the fires. They told us they would be interested in buying our old car for a loaner at their business if we could agree on a price. When I got there I told them what we had decided was a fair price for the car---they agreed and wrote me a check on the spot. We went home and took the title back to them and closed the deal.

Saturday I slept in and wasted most of the morning. We went to the yard sales but didn't buy much. One sale had a heavy tanned lamb fleece coat with the wool on the inside for sale. I have a tough time passing up any good deal on a coat so ended up buying it for $20.00. That is actually a really good deal for it but I have felt guilty all afternoon for buying it. I need another coat like I need another hole in my head.



I FEEL A LITTLE GREEDY FOR BUYING THE CAR BUT AM REALLY HAPPY TO HAVE A REALLY RELIABLE CAR FOR THE FUTURE.

Wednesday, August 1, 2012

SUMMER'S FLYIN' BY

Since my last post I have been to the 4358 acre Rhyolite fire in the west desert about 250 miles outside of Salt Lake City. It was a fun fire with lots of trainees running it. It is always fun for me to watch these young people grow through their actions on a going fire. This one was no exception, the first night there was an error made and there was no food of the fire fighters except for the MRE's they had in their rigs. This is a terrible thing to have happen to people that are working so hard to protect the wildlands of our nation. We got that fixed the second day and the food was great the rest of the time. The trainee running the fire learned pretty quickly that it was good to have someone, other than him, making arrangements and chasing loose ends to make sure that the fire fighters had everything they needed.

I got home and cleaned up my gear just in time to start visiting Inklings family at their yearly get together. They all come out to a small town where her parents live and spend a week just visiting and fishing and puttering around. We drove over every day and had a great visit with all of them. Was really fun to see some that I hadn't seen for seventeen years.

Lightning Strikes and her family, including her new Great Dane and cat, came to visit and we went over so her husband and kids could meet Inklings family. It was a good trip and I really enjoyed having them here. I took her husband and two kids shooting and we had a lot of fun. I like to see little kids learn respect for and how to use a firearm. I really get a kick out of seeing their little smiles when they hit the target.

This week I finished putting up the doors that we hired a guy to do 2.5 years ago. He got the doors and put many of them in but had left two unfinished. I got them taken care of and am really sore. That is the reason I hired someone else in the first place is because I am not really good at that type of thing and for sure my legs aren't in good enough shape to get up and down as much as you have to when doing this type of work. I am glad this job is done and the doors are a huge improvement in our house.

I have also had dentist appointments for a checkup and to fill a cavity, two doctor appointments, and two physical therapist appointments during this time. I don't know if they can fix this old guy up or not---time will tell. Oh yeah and I just got scheduled for a colonoscopy on August 8. Can't hardly wait for the seventh. :-(

LIFE IS GOOD