Politics

Another week has come and gone. The United States economy is reeling because of the failures of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac (mortgage companies). Add to that AIG and Lehman brothers and you have one major mess on your hands. Currently, congress is trying to come up with a 700 billion dollar bailout for these companies because if they utterly fail, so does the US economy. President Bush had a 15 minute speech tonight to talk about some of the problems. While he feels that companies have the right to fail in this country, he also feels that we need to do something to fix this or all of our 401k's go down as well as everything else.

In the meantime, John McCain (presidential candidate) has said that he will suspend his campaign starting tomorrow until congress comes up with a solution to this problem. He asked Barak Obama (the other candidate) to join him and has asked that the presidential debate of this Friday be delayed until a future date. Barak says that a president needs to be able to handle more than one thing at a time and this debate is important. While I agree that a president should be able to handle more than one thing at a time, I also feel that it is better to work on this financial crisis first rather than prepare to do more than has to be done. The debate doesn't have to be done and it simply doesn't make sense to pour energies into it at this time. Yes, I am liking McCain a lot more than Obama. All of this stuff is making America nuts. The Dow Jones has been all over the board and there have been big losses and big gains. Anyway, people are calling it a bold move of McCain to drop out of the presidency race until things are taken care of. That just makes this election more interesting.

Another thing I wanted to mention in this entry is the time spent over at my parents house last night. After I got home from work, my wife and I went with our son to SLCC (Salt Lake Community College) where he is taking some concurrent enrollment while he is in high school. He has two instructors over there that we went to see. Our son had done a speech in one of the classes and the instructor said that he had done well. He did say that all of them need to work on animation and getting people excited about what they are talking about, but that with our son he could tell that he knew the material and did well. He got one of the highest grades in the class on his speech (which was 48 out of 50). That is all great for our son. Oh man, I got off track.

Well, after that, we went to my parents house because Eilene is in town from North Carolina. We went to see her. We saw some pictures that she had taken of the improvements she is making to her home and it all looked nice. Then there was some political speak around the house. Shelly mentioned that she really liked Sarah Palin as the VP pick from McCain, and my wife said that she really didn't like that pick. My wife feels that Palin doesn't really have the experience she should in order to be the VP (and possibly a president if McCain dies). Of course she feels the same way about Obama too. This was a little bit discouraging. At one time, one of the relatives said that they weren't a bigot. I mean they even knew some blacks that were good people. With a twinkle in my eye, I just said that I also knew some whites that were good people as well.

Things moved forward and another of my brothers started to talk about those who were voting for Obama didn't seem to be well educated. Well, at least in the issues. This was disturbing to both my wife and I. I mean, I am not voting for Obama either, but I didn't like what they were saying because I have heard the same thing coming from people on the opposite side as well. My wife also took something that I said in a negative light. She mentioned something about watching "The View" (a television program that is hosted by Barbara Walters and other women talking about various things) and I guess I said something to the effect of of course you got this from the view. I know I didn't mean it to be demeaning, but my wife took it to be so. I guess I have to be more careful about my words as well.

While it was nice to see my family, and especially Eilene, there were parts of that night that I didn't like. We did bring Lizzie (our dog) over for a little bit so some of the family could see her (they wanted too). She is just a darn cute dog. We had her trimmed that day as well, so she was looking her best.

Another event that happened this week was that I took my son up to the conference center so he could see what some of his responsibilities were going to be as an usher for general conference. While he was in his meetings I went around temple square and ended up in the Assembly Hall in a fireside listening to an acupella group called Eclipse. They were bearing testimony and singing LDS songs. That was enjoyable.

One other thing that made me proud as a father, was that my son actually got out and sold some cookie dough so he could make some money toward a trip that the school will be taking to Florida. It still has me nervous where we will get the rest of the money (it is going to be upwards of $1000), but at least we have a start of around $200.

Well, that's all for now.

Jamborall

Not too much has happened this past week to write about. My life must be basically boring. We are still working with our son to finish up the paperwork for his Eagle. I had a blowout with him on Sunday over that. He just needed a Scoutmaster interview (which he completed tonight) and then a few signatures. That's it. He can then wait until a board of review takes place.

On Friday, I had the day off of work. I spent some good time with my wife and we had a nice lunch at Chilies. It was enjoyable. I also had to get ready for the Scout camp for that night. I put all of my stuff together, and then when it was about time to go, was told that my daughter needed a few things so she could work on a solar oven for her school project. I hurried and got that. Glen (Thorne) called me up and was wondering if I knew where the Scout Trailer was. It ended up that it was in the garage of the person keeping it.

At 4:00 Friday, I met up with all the Scouts at Glens house. The boys had decided on eating Little Caesars Pizza for dinner so we decided to eat at Glens house rather than hauling the extra stuff in. After that, we drove the short distance to the South Jordan Equestrian Park. We had to park and then walk quite a long distance to our campground. I knew about this so brought a little handcart (one that is used by old ladies walking home from a grocery store with a bag of groceries) to carry my battery on for the CPAP machine. I was grateful for that, and it only took me two trips from the car to get my gear to where we needed it. It was still heavy. Our district (The Pony Express District) had a lot of people show up at the Jamborall. There wasn't a piece of real estate left for us to be able to set up. We tried to get into another area that had very few people there and were refused. We did get one to finally let us in. The boys decided against bringing in the tents as they were too heavy for the long trek. I got my tent all to myself since Glen had brought his son. I used one of the new cots that we had purchased (it was easier to carry) and it worked out pretty well for me.

The activity of the night was going around and getting pins for an Eagle patch that we all had. You have to trade your pieces for all the other pieces to the puzzle. I got that done after a while. I had a late start because I was setting up my tent.

That night we had a program. There was a band that I didn't think was very good. But then, they had Jon Schmidt play for us. That part was quite enjoyable. There were then fireworks. The fireworks were pretty impressive. I didn't think the Scouts would be able to do so well with that kind of thing. Well, with 3000 scouts, we knew it would be noisy, so I was grateful for my earplugs. The only thing I forgot to bring was a pillow. At 11:00 I put in those earplugs and if it hadn't been for the CPAP machine I would've been snoring. Whoever was on the backside of my tent snored though (I took out the earplugs around 3:00 AM). I woke up around 5:30 and went for a quick walk and then started to put things away in my tent. At 6:30 I started to take my tent down so it wouldn't be a problem later. I got it all down in pretty good time.

About 8:00 AM there was a flag walk. Any troops with flags made a procession and paraded around the whole area and over to the arena. We then had a couple of talks and then were released so the boys could play some of the "district games". Our boys didn't like them too well, so we decided we could leave after we ate lunch at 11:00 AM. It was a quick easy camp and the boys got one of the nights that they need for their camping merit badge.

After arriving home, my wife had me go check out our porch which Keith came over and fixed up the things we had asked him too. It looked good, and I'm glad that we have it all done.

Sunday was stake conference. I woke up with a headache and then we just didn't make it to the meetings. I think my kids liked that. We really didn't do much else on Sunday.

Tonight for Young Men/Young Women, we had a dinner from Panda Express. We then went to the movie Kung Fu Panda. It was kinda fun. Well, that's about it for the week.

Porch

It's been another week. Still, not much is going on. Keith finished our porch. I immediately noticed one thing that he had done and asked him about it. He said that it had been hard to get it exactly right and he ended up putting in an extra piece that is about 1/4 inch thick to correct it. It is sound, but we didn't know if we liked it. We had to order another piece from Lowes to finish one little piece. I returned what we hadn't used and bought one more 12 foot length of facing in TREX (we were only short about 6 or 8 inches). To do it right we needed 40 inches, so I was hoping for a smaller board that that. The thing cost $70. I picked that up tonight.

I was able to talk with Keith tonight about coming over to finish it out. I mentioned that one piece that we tried to see if we could live with and decided ultimately that we could only if we absolutely had too. Keith thinks we can fix it up. He will give me a call tomorrow about a time he can come over to do some work. It is getting dark earlier now, so he needs to get it done as soon as possible. The porch does look good. We just need to have these couple of fixes. We were also concerned in some splits in the risers. Keith said he tried to break them over his leg and couldn't, so we should be OK.

There really isn't much else to say about this week. It has been a pretty boring week. We just mostly did more of the same.

I should write more often

It is unusual for me to write things down. When I went on my LDS mission, my mom was concerned that she would not receive letters home from me. As a result, she never told me that I was writing too little for her to read. She was a little bit fearful that I would simply quit writing if she complained. I don't know that this is true, but my mom certainly knows that I can be pigheaded.

Unfortunately, it is also showing here. I don't write what I should or when I should. It will probably always be something that I need to work on. I'll tell you what though, if it weren't for computers, there would be no writing anywhere probably. So, at least I do this.

This last weekend was Labor day weekend. On Friday of last week, I went golfing with my work. I did put on some sunscreen, but did not get enough on my neck. I got burned there. I didn't ever feel it, but you could certainly see it. We did 18 holes at Mountain Dell golf course, and I lost a whole bunch of balls. My golf game isn't good, but that's not what we are out there for. It was fun since we really weren't worried about golfing good. My name got put down by Scott on the women's furthest ball hit. When awards were being given out, I told them that they all knew that wasn't true. I did win two certificates for eating. One is for $50 at Chiles' and the other was for $25 at an Asian restaurant (I can't remember the name right now).

My wife had gone up to Swiss days while I was golfing. She bought a bunch of stuff and then came on home. After waking up on Saturday, we grabbed a few things we needed from the store, packed up, and left home. Keith made it over to our house to work on our porch. I'm so glad that he is doing that. We are going to give him $300 instead of the $250 he asked for in doing this. I did have a few more headaches with Lowe's over this project. Hopefully, it will soon be over. For such a small porch it sure was a hassle.

Soon after arriving at the cabin near Midway, we went down to Swiss days. I really didn't do anything down there. I got a Snow Cone, grabbed a Navajo (Swiss) Taco, and then my wife and I went back to the cabin (with Melanie in tow). We had some good times with Melanie. I was so glad that nothing went haywire with her mental illness. I think she tried really hard all weekend to be good.

Crickets (or some green thing that sang like one) were in the cabin. They made sleeping a bit difficult. We had just enough ear plugs for the adults that were staying in the cabin. Our son and my father-in-law both slept in two separate cars in the driveway. Between the snoring and the crickets it made it hard to sleep for those without ear plugs. Pam and Zach were also with us the first night and then Anne came up for the second night.

It rained during the night and everything was fresh on Sunday. Pam tried to draw me into an argument over politics. I went in part way, but didn't say everything that I meant too. She was simply saying that John McCain's pick of Sarah Palin was a terrible choice because the republicans have been playing up on Obamas inexperience. I pointed out that before she was governor, she was also a mayor and before that was on the city council. These all had to make decisions and she still has more experience than does Obama especially given that he really doesn't vote a lot of the time but rather is simply "present". At least he has picked a VP who has 30 years of experience in the Senate (Joe Biden). What I didn't say, because I really didn't want an argument with my father-in-law and Melanie there, was that it was Hilary Clinton (of the democrats) as well as Biden who first brought up Obamas inexperience. The republicans are pitching off of that mound and agreeing with it. If it were just Pam, I would've taken a few more pot shots. Neither of us would've won the argument, but it would've been fun given different circumstances.

In the later afternoon, Brandon, Ben, Nathan and Collin all came up. Collin is quite young and enjoys playing with our son so he got stuck with him. I am proud of him for putting up with Collin. It was good for Melanie to have her son Ben to talk too. He hasn't been around much and really needs to come around more. They had dinner up with us and then went back home. They did want to go out on the Kayaks, but it was too rainy to do so. We were just hoping that it rained as much at our home as it did up there in the mountains (it did).

Not much else happened on Monday. We just visited a bit, played a few games, and then came on home. Pam, Anne and Zach left at about the same time as we did.

Keith had at least put our porch up to the house although it still needed work. We were glad to see that.

Tuesday evening, I went with our daughter on a daddy/daughter date. It was at the church and we played a game where we had to know something about each other. Both parties wrote their answer on a whiteboard and then you saw if you matched. We didn't get the high score, but we also weren't the low score.

Tonight, my wife and I went to a Chili cook off done by the Relief Society and the Bishopric. We talked to a couple of people who were there with a couple of our divorcees. It was an enjoyable evening.