Scout Camp

It seems I am getting worse and worse at writing here. I go gung-ho for awhile and then I seem to quit. I guess I am at least writing a little bit here as time goes on. Oh well. I'll just have to work on getting here to write more often.

At work I am doing a lot of analysis work. Of course in this last little while I have been getting involved in a couple of fixes that need to take place, so that is taking my time to do the coding. There is a lot of analysis work to be done for a new system to be working on the data warehouse side. It gets boring after awhile of looking at manuals to try to figure out what all of the needs are to send data to another place. I then will need to look to see if we have all or part of the data in the warehouse as well as on the mainframe system. In the long run, we are hoping that a particular problem that we have been having with getting data out will be automated and a lot less problematic. It may also make it so a couple of people don't have too much to do, and this is one of the main reasons this hasn't come to the forefront before now.

In my personal life, not too much has been happening out of the ordinary. That is a part of the reason that I don't write things here, because I really don't feel that there is too much to say (although once I start typing, I usually come up with something to say). The only thing of significance that I can think of to write about was Scout Camp this past Friday and Saturday.

On Thursday I picked up a Scout Uniform so I could have it for the Scout Camp. That was $40 down the drain (I'm supposed to be more enthusiastic about it probably). That night, I had my daughter start to sew on a bunch of patches. We don't have a sewing machine, so this has to be done manually. She was a good sport about it, so I let her do it. She got most of it done, and my wife finished up one number patch for her (it was getting too late for her to be up). It was while she was doing this that my son told me that she wanted a sewing machine for her birthday.

Friday was my day off, and I packed most of my stuff in the early morning while my wife had visiting teachers over. My wife joked about all of the stuff I have to take in order to go on a scout camp. I have my C-Pap machine that needs a battery and an inverter, and then for my comfort I put in an over sized cot as well as a camp chair (unfortunately the over sized cot was of no use because of the size of tent we had). My wife and I went to a nice lunch together and then, after arriving home, just cuddled up on the couch.

Soon after the kids arrived home, I had to go over to the church. Glen (the scoutmaster) was a little bit late because he couldn't find the key to the scout shed. There was five boys that I stayed with while we were waiting for Glen to arrive. He got there, we loaded up and we left. We went to the Jordanelle Dam for the camp. We could tell it was going to be a chilly night. There was still a little bit of snow on the ground (although it wasn't all over). We had the boys set up camp and their tents and get dinner going. My patrol (the Rams) had a simple dinner of chicken sandwiches (with precooked chicken breast) and the other patrol had foil dinners. Glen made himself two dinners and then offered me some of the second one (which I gladly took). We mostly hung around the camp fire because it was so cold outside of it and just gabbed and ate. We roasted some marshmallows and stayed up until around 10:00 (I actually stayed up till around 11:00). I had two sleeping bags and used one of them to help cushion the hard ground. I don't know what it is, but the older I get, the harder the ground seems to get.

During the long night (I didn't sleep all that well) my nose piece on the C-pap machine completely got messed up and I had to run to the public restrooms (in my long-johns) to try to fix it. I finally got that fixed and went back to the hard ground to try to sleep. I don't know what the temperature got down too, but there was a little bit of ice on any water that was around (so it went down to at least 32 degrees Fahrenheit. We got up and almost immediately took down our tent. We also had the boys take down their tent because three of them had to leave early, leaving us with only the two boys (Dallin and Chandler). While cleaning up the camp (there was supposed to be an inspection - which didn't happen) I was reminded of when I was a boy as I watched a few of them struggle with some of the things with the leaders gently urging them on. I remembered that I used to hate it when they would tell me exactly how to do things and yet, as an adult I see the wisdom in what they had done. I used to be one of those that didn't know what it was that I was supposed to do.

We went over to the flag ceremony and found out where we needed to go for our service project. We went over to the day use side of the Jordanelle Dam resort so we could prune trees of any shoots that were under two feet of the trees. We did this for about two hours, but we finished everything that we had to finish. The only frustrating thing about that was that they had told us to bring rakes, shovels and wheelbarrows. Thank goodness the ranger came around to us and had a couple of clippers to use.

We were able to finish everything and arrived home at around noon. I was a bit stiff but it wasn't too bad. That's really about all that we happened.

Over the rest of the weekend, my wife and I discussed our daughters birthday which is coming up this week (Wednesday). We pretty much decided on the sewing machine and were able to get a beginner one that we think is pretty good for $200. That's more than we wanted to spend, but we don't want to get one that will be lousy. We picked out a Bernette which is made by Bernina. I certainly hope our son was correct on what our daughter wanted for her birthday. I had asked her a bit about it and she doesn't seem like she will be adverse to it. Well, that's about it. I have nothing more to really say than I have already said.

Miscellaneous

It's been almost two weeks since I last wrote anything. There are only a couple of things of note that I will write about tonight.

The first thing I will write about is a traffic citation that I got. I was on my way to work early on March 27th. I had to go to the post office so I took a different route than before. The route I took was on 10400 South. Right after Bangerter, 10400 South changes speeds from 45 to 35 MPH. Part of the whole problem is, I don't know exactly where it was that the officer saw me speeding. He didn't say. It had to be between Bangerter and 2700 West though because he told me that I had slowed down to the correct speed after 2700 West. It was snowing and I really didn't ever see him. I turned on Redwood road and the next thing I knew there were lights flashing in my rear view mirror. I pulled over to the side of the road.

The officer came up and asked for my license. I went to get the registration but he told me not to worry about it. He told me that I had been traveling along 10400 at a speed of 51 MPH. I mentioned to him that I had noticed that I was going a bit fast and because of this slowed down. I thought it was just before 3200 West, but he told me that it wasn't until after 2700 West. What I don't know is if I was speeding the whole time until then or just at a particular time. I can't go back and see what the circumstances were for my going too fast.

He wrote out the ticket and I of course signed it stating that I would show up to court not less than five days, nor more than fourteen days after the citation. When I got to work I looked at the citation. I think I may have a way out of this one. He marked that I was Eastbound, but put the location on Redwood Road (which is North-South) at about the point where he had pulled me over. Not only that, he said that I was traveling 44 in a 35 zone. On Redwood road at that spot the speed limit is actually 45. He had lessoned the speed so it would cost me a bit less. Ungrateful as I am, I am going to fight the ticket anyway. My wife doesn't want me to fight the ticket because she thinks it sounds foolish to get off on a technicality. Not only that, I was speeding and should have to pay the consequences. I disagree with her. I think more people should show up to court on their tickets rather than simply paying them. Not only can they get lenience from the courts, but they can also learn a bit more about the system that runs this country. If I don't get off on the technicality, I will discuss how I didn't know what the circumstances were that may have caused me to speed up and I will use the troopers words that I had stopped speeding for over a mile before I was actually pulled over. I don't know if any of this will work, but I will try.

On Monday (the seventh), I went to the South Jordan courthouse for my appeal. I got there a little bit before court started and was third in line. Of course, you have to go through the metal detector and then fill your pockets back up with all the stuff you carry around. The first case was a guy who was driving without having a valid license. He plead guilty. The judge noted that he still didn't have a license and the guy told him that he had to pay a ticket to Salt Lake County first and that he would work on getting his license back in about a month. The judge fined him to $300 (out of the $600) and went to the next case (this is one of the reasons for showing up to court - to minimize the damage). The second guy also plead guilty to traveling 11 miles over in a school zone. His fine was just over $100 (I don't remember the exact amount) and the judge asked him if he wanted to go to traffic school to keep the points off his record. He said that is what he wanted, and was given a month to do so. I'm not sure if his amount was a reduced amount or not. I was next up and was sweaty and all that. I plead not guilty and the judge said that they would set up a pre-trial date for me. I asked if it could be dismissed based on the evidence before the judge and he said that had to wait for the pre-trial hearing. I needed to go out and wait for that printout to come. I did so. The first date that came up was June 3rd. I mentioned that I would be in Nashville that week. I had to wait some more time for another date. That date is June 10th. It certainly seems like a long time to wait for a pre-trial hearing. Whatever happened to my right to a speedy trial? This still isn't for the trial, it is only a pre-trial. Well, I headed back to work after that.

I wasn't at work long, when I had to go to a funeral. A childhood friend had passed away from a brain stem tumor. I wasn't extremely close to him or anything, but he was in my ward and we were scouts together as well as we went through high school and junior high school together. His dad is also my families Santa Claus. The guys name was Rick Keys. I got to the church a little bit early so I could go to the viewing. I told Wayne Keys that I was sorry about the loss of his son and that my parents wouldn't be able to make it as my dad and mom had to go to the funeral of my dads cousins wife (the funeral was the same time). It was a good funeral and they discussed a Rick that I remembered. My boss had the opportunity to speak at his funeral as they were good buddies that lived across the street from one another (as well as they went to the same high school too). A previous bishop of Rick talked about Rick coming into his office and telling him that he was not comfortable in the chapel nor in the bishops office, but get him to a bar and "I'm hooommme" (in the smooth way Rick always seemed to talk). He then talked about how Rick had changed his life over the past twenty years and that Rick was a faithful LDS person after all that time. It was a talk of repentance (the way I saw it). Well, that's it for the funeral.

I should mention that General Conference happened last weekend. I was able to watch all of it (minus about 15 minutes of the Saturday afternoon session). My wife mentioned to me that President Monson certainly seems a different person now that the mantle of President of the Church is upon him, and that you could just tell it was there. I agreed with my wife (what else am I supposed to do?). Seriously, there was a marked difference.

On Sunday, my kids and I headed to my parents home for the bi-annual ritual of having dinner at their house between sessions. My wife didn't want to come because watching that second session over there you don't get as much out of it because there are so many distractions. We had a good time and then got back home.

One other thing of interest happened today. I was driving my daughter to piano lessons when I took partial note of a truck that was a little bit far onto the road I was driving on. I didn't notice anything else at that time. I got her over to piano lessons and was driving back. The same truck was still there, but now I noticed that there was a guy that was slumped up against the drivers side window. I drove past it and wished I had a cell phone to call the police. Well, I couldn't just leave it at that, so I turned around and went back to the truck. I didn't dare go up to the truck and try to wake the guy up so instead I wrote down his license plate number and noted that it was a black Chevy truck. I went home and called the South Jordan police. My wife and Linda (she was having her hair colored) thought I should go back and see what happened. I too was curious so was not against going back. When I arrived, there was another car in front of the truck. It wasn't there before. I pulled over a little bit up the street and went walking back to the car sitting there. An older man (not too old) and a woman about my age got out of the car. They said that they had called the police and I told them that I had also. They also told me that they had been on the way to a baseball game (a diamond was close by) when they had come across this. They said that some people had jumped all over the truck to try to open the doors. Keep in mind, I'm pretty certain they were lying to me. Well, I got back in my car and waited for the police.

When the police arrived, the man and woman jumped out of their car and hurried up to the officer. They talked a bit to him and then the woman went around to the other side of the truck and asked if she should try to open the door. The officer told her no and she handed him the keys (I didn't register all of this initially). They walked back toward me and I must've had a confused look on my face. They admitted that the woman was the wife of the man and the man was her father. They said that he was diabetic (I think the part about him being diabetic is a lie because they would've tried harder if this was the case). They were glad that I had called because they said that they could now claim that I was the one that called to him. As it was, the man said that he had called so that his daughter wouldn't have too. I only talked to them briefly as the cop opened the truck and woke the guy up. The father told his daughter that her husband had glared at her. I felt like a third wheel as they knew more than what I would've known, so I left. I went back home. Another cop drove up as I was leaving.

After about 15 minutes of being at home, I had to go back and pick up our daughter. By the time I passed this same area up there was a fire truck and an ambulance added to the mess. The police had the man out and were giving him instructions to test him for alcohol consumption. I drove on by. My daughter was a little late out of piano lessons. When we went back again, we saw the last cop car leaving the scene as well as a tow truck taking the truck somewhere.

When I arrived home, I was informed that the police had called for some information on this. They didn't call back again for about 2 and a half hours after that. They just wanted to know what it was that I had seen. I told them all of what I have told here. I gave them the beginning time of 4:50 and said that I noticed brake lights. I was asked if I noticed if the truck was running. I told them that I couldn't say one way or the other. I was then told that he was extremely intoxicated and had been arrested for DUI. I guess I did my duty as a responsible citizen. It is a little scary all the information the cop had about me before he called me (things like my address and birthday). Well, that's my five minutes of fame.