Well, that didn't take long...

As I mentioned in the previous post, the BSU gave me permission to buy a boat with the funds from the Avenger sale. Last night, (late) I brought home my newest toy! It's a 1979 Crestliner fishing boat with an 85 horsepower Mercury motor. And until last night, it was a 1-owner boat. It needs cleaned up and there are a few neccesary things I will have to do and several modifications I intend to do to it over the coming months. New seats are at the top of my list.

But I expect to have it registered and on the lake this weekend!

Pictures later!

Been pretty busy-

I got the camper all prepped this weekend which seems like more work every summer. I still have 1 tiny little water leak that needs some parts from the rv store tomorrow. But it's washed and filled and charged and ready to go. We were supposed to go this weekend but the BSU's been ill and so we had to let that trip pass.

I've also been dragging out all the parts to the Avenger project car out of the workshop and placing them under the carport because the Avenger has a new owner! Yes! I sold it Friday to a local motorhead that has decided he wants to finish it off. So all the parts- engines, floor pans and bits and pieces are on their way out of here!

And the spousal unit, after sleeping on the idea, has given me permission to buy a boat! So I've been boat shopping this weekend, looking at a couple yesterday and 3 more today. None of them have been acceptable so the hunt continues. But I'm planning on a boat!

Blogging again- hopefully....

I don't know what the dang problem is but I've been repeatedly unable to log in to Blogger from my 'puter for a week now. Resetting the modem and router seems to turn my connectivity back on for a time but then it goes away again.

I can still surf the interweb just fine, I just can't post on Blogger except sporadically. Maybe it's fixed this time...

Raptors baseball season has begun!

Last night was Opening Night of Raptors baseball and you know I was in attendance even though I left early from a corporate dinner and even though the BSU is ill. I figured she was asleep in bed so there wasn't much I could do for her by being home, so with her approval, I went to the ball game.

Sadly the Raptors ended up losing the game to the Orem Owlz, 7-3 but it was a fine ball game just the same. I didn't stick around for the fireworks due to the late hour but I did have a fine time even if I was there by myself. I did discover a change to Raptors baseball that did not make me happy though. It is spelled out in the following paragraphs that I emailed to the Raptor's front office this morning. There's a response from the team president below my email. Check it out-

MY EMAIL: Well I was happy as could be to be back in Lindquist Field last night for Opening Night. It is one of my favorite days of the year- the kickoff of the new season of Raptors baseball. My spouse and I frequently attend the games though last night I was alone and so I packed along my miniature radio so I could listen to Eric Knighton broadcast the play by play.

But, alas, Eric has moved on and apparently, the league has gone completely internet streaming for the audio for those of us who like to hear the play by play and color commentary. In my workshop when I am listening to a game from home, that won't be a problem but it will be a problem and disappointment when I'm in my car. Additionally, whatever file type is being used to stream the audio is not supported by my Apple iPhone and so I can't use that device's web connectivity to listen to the game.

Are you aware of any upcoming applications for the iPhone that will allow internet streaming of the audio? I know that there is an application for both watching and listening to MLB games for the iPhone, so I would really like to see a similar solution for minor league ball.<

Can you please pass along my concerns to the league to inquire if some portable solution could be implemented so I can catch many more of the games than I can attend? Thanks.

THE RESPONSE: Your concerns are mine as well. The fact is, we could not find a station that was even interested in broadcasting our games. There was one station willing but the prices were four times greater than we have paid for in the past. I guess the radio industry is doing okay but I simply cannot afford $600.00 per game.

We don't want to be on line only, and I hope a station will come calling here soon to volunteer their station
Dave Baggott,President, Ogden Raptors

There you have it; right now there's no radio broadcasting of the games and nothing in the pipeline to make it look like the situation will change. Bummer

UPDATE: I tried tonight to listen online using my laptop and that system isn't working! Good grief!

They have awesome farm trucks in Oklahoma!

Check out this Jalopnik post and be sure to scroll down to the video. The featured truck is just about the Webster's Dictionary description of "sleeper."

Resetting the router sems to have fixed my posting problems-

So stand by for little or next to nothing over the next few days.

I did get the front yard mowed tonight- finally, and the camper pulled out from its winter parking spot and uncoverd and the cover scrubbed and folded up and put away. I also bought a new battery for the camper and got it installed.

I still have to get it set up, water put into the tanks, the propane bottles filled and installed and the tires pumped up if I'm to take the BSU camping this weekend...

But Monday night is a Dr's appointment, Tuesday night is opening night for Raptors baseball and Wednesday night is a party at the pastor's house.

Easy stuff!

Is Blogger busted for everybody

Or just me? I'm having complete connectivity problems since last night.

Sent from my iPhone

Yesterday Friday was a very good day!

For some unknown reason I've been unable to post anything since Fridayfor an entire day.. Tonight I reset my router so hopefully it is working...

But- yesterday Friday, as I mentioned, was a very good day. First, I did NOT get a ticket for speeding on my way to work in spite of being pulled over for speeding, (which I was doing) but just a warning from the decent officer. So, lucky once.

Later, on my way home from work, I stopped to buy the first two tickets for the Ogden Raptors baseball season that starts Tuesday night. After I bought the tickets, I discovered that the front office has changed the way they are doing discount ticket vouchers this year. In previous years it was neccesary to purchase vouchers in advance and in packages of 10 or 20. This year the vouchers are free up front, available in any quantity desired and are paid for when you pick the games that you want to attend. So I have 20 vouchers in my pocket and the next 10 games I go to this yeat will be half price.

Half price! I like that!

Excitement on Flaming Gorge Reservoir!

This video was actually taken the first afternoon as we raced back to the boat launch when a storm blew in. The storms come in quickly out there and it is a big lake so storms really require attention. We were doing ok even though the wind kicked up quick but crossing the last big bay did get us splashed around quite a bit. We all got wet but we arrived at the dock safe and sound.

Finally, a fish video!

It's taken a while for me to get an actual video posted of one of us actually catching a fish but here's one so enjoy it. We didn't catch a huge bunch of fish this trip- the fish were scattered out and hard to find. But we did find some and when Jim grabbed his bouncing fishing pole, I grabbed the camera! Lots of excitement with this one!

Relaxing at The Vacation Inn

We ahve found a really nice place to stay when we go to Flaming Gorge- the Vacation Inn. Kenny found the place and we have stayed there twice now and I promise we will be staying there again when we go back. The management and staff are all really friendly and the cabin style rooms work perfectly for the 3 of us.

This video shows us relaxing out back getting our dinner started and enjoying the fresh weather that came in behind the storm that soaked us and sent us back to the boat dock.

How I spent my weekend- Fishing at Flaming Gorge Reservoir

I'm trying to get many of these videos from our fishing trip posted tonight. Needless to say, the three of us, Kenny, Jim and I had a terrific weekend of fishing and male bonding. When were weren't fishing, mostly due to the thunderstorms that rolled in each afternoon. When we weren't fishing we were eating and watching our favorite videos- The Quick and the Dead, Lethal Weapon, 2 Jack Ryan movies, Patriot Games and Clear and Present Danger and Madagascar. So it was a terrific trip.


Anyway, enjoy the videos!

Fishing Videos from Flaming Gorge!

I'll be trying to get some of the videos of my just finished fishing trip to Flaming Gorge with Kenny and Jim. Check out this first video for introductions.

On the road to Flaming Gorge again!

I'm in the back seat of Jim's truck and there are 3 of us headed out
for a few more days of (hopefully) slaying the kokanee salmon and
rainbow trout population of the lake. The weather forecast is Not Good
with thundershowers forecast for each day but if we get rained out,
we've packed our favorite videos to watch.

So no matter the weather, its going to be a great 4 days. I've packed
along my Zip camcorder so there might be videos posted later.

Sent from my iPhone

Enough already!

It's almost the middle of June. Utah is primarily a desert. So it should be getting hot with long, dry days perfect for scooter riding and lawn mowing and fishing. Instead, we've been trapped in a 10 day course of cold temperatures and thunder showers nearly every day. This weather pattern is beginning to get biblical in dimension and the weather guessers are having a field day recording new water records all around the state.

I haven't had to water the grass in more than a week. I've needed to mow the grass for half a week but every night its raining and storming and just 50 something degrees, so the Murray has stayed locked in the carport closet. Everywhere in town the roses bushes are having their best blooming season ever and our town has never looked better because of them. I intended to take the BSU out for a rose tour drive after supper but then the sky turned black and the latest downpour began anew. Maybe tomorrow night we'll try again.

But this weather is completely atypical for this time of year and I'm getting pretty tired of it! I blame OwlGore and his dammed Global Warming Powerpoint charts!

All right, I'll post a video!

Taken tonight in the shop. I was busy putting some new worm bedding into my worm box in preparation for this weekend's fishing trip when I had a visit from one of our cats, Uintah.


You will have to ignore the talking in the background. I had the radio on and wasn't expecting to take any video just then. But the cat showed up and volunteered to be a subject so I had to strike while he was willing.

My first video- and the inside of my workshop!

Except you can't see it.

I did get my Flip camcorder this afternoon and I've had just a little bit of time to play with it. It's no professional tool for upsetting Steven Spielberg's reign as a film maker but for my purposes, it's just dandy.

And I did make a video of the inside of my workshop and I even uploaded it just to figure how to do it. But I'm not going to show it to you because it actually shows a little more than I want the entire interweb to be able to see. So, trust me; it works. It makes my shop look bigger than it really is and the software tools are easily understandable and easy to use. It seemed a little slower than I might have guessed, but it works.

Now I just need to find some subjects to put in front of it!

This is how to destroy an engine!

I've seen some blown up car engines in my life time and I've even been sitting in the stands when a pull tractor like this one threw connecting rods out the bottom right in front of me. But I've never seen an engine go BANG like this one! Click the video!

I bought something I've never bought before-

and I'm excited as all heck for my new Flip Video Camera to arrive tomorrow! When I purchased this on Thursday it was actually even less expensive and I decided it might be fun to make some videos occasionally.

Pammy over at Lollygaggin bought one of these camcorders for her hubby a few weeks ago and she seems to have had a grand time recording her cats and the wildlife in her backyard. So when I saw that Amazon had these on sale, I decided I wanted into the fun too!

And it will be here in time for me to get familiar with it before next weekend's fishing trip! I'm excited!

Awesome video- Awesome revolver!

Check this out-

You can also see this video on the Taurus web page.

I actually know a friend that has a Taurus Judge but I've never had a chance to shoot it. After watching this video I might have to go visit him with a truck bed full of fruit!

Hat tip to Ride Fast for sharing this.

Well that was disappointing!

Yesterday I had the distinct priviledge of attending the commencement ceremony for my buddy Loc's daughter Thuy as she received her Dr. of Pharmacology degree from the University of Southern Nevada along with 83 more of her classmates. Thuy has worked really hard over the past 3 years to earn her diploma and when Loc asked me to attend her ceremony, I couldn't say no.

And I was surprised to see the name of the commencement speaker and pretty intrigued too because I recognized the speaker's name- Dr. Stephen Covey immediately. Stephen Covey's the guy that wrote
7 Habits of Highly Effective People, which according to his webpage, is the #1 most influential business book of the twentieth century. I haven't read the book or any of the others he has written, but I knew who the guy was so I was expecting an interesting commencement speech.

Dr. Covey might be a competant writer of books but his ability to give a speech is terrible! He had 4 major points to make, which he counted off on his fingers repeatedly but when he tried to expound on his major points, he rambled all over the place. He bragged about famous people that he has met and worked with, dropped names as if we needed to be impressed, wandered off topic completely talking about Native American talking stick communication methods and finally spent 5 minutes simply reading quotations from other people without even trying to tie them into the context of his major points! He insisted that everyone in the room needed to go home immediately and as a family, write a Family Mission Statement that everyone could buy into and respect! We learned about his training of diplomats to use the Talking Stick and how Madeline Albright commended him for his ability to get disparate groups to negotiate while using this technique.

As for his message to the graduates- he barely recognized them at all! He practically ignored the graduates, barely acknowledging their accomplishments, offering no encouragement except that they write their Mission Statements. He offered then nothing more than a recommendation that they buy his books or sign up for his online classes and networking site! It was really terrible.

If Steven Covey had given that speech in a USAF NCO training course, he would have failed. He was off topic, disconnected, his supporting points didn't support his main points and he missed addressing his principle audience. What a disappointment!

The rest of the commencement was very nice and the lunch with Loc and his family afterwards was a real treat.

Time to strike another name off the blogroll...

It's time to say good-bye to another blogger who is taking down his shingle and moving on to bigger & better things. Tom's been writing Functional Ambivilent for 5 years and he was one of the first additions to my blogroll. His opinions frequently were in direct opposition to my own but that never stopped me from reading and trying to understand where his opinions came from. Tom didn't flinch from saying what was on his mind and I always liked to hear his views on stuff.

But he's moving on to different things and is done writing at FA. So I guess I'll have to fix my blogroll this weekend. Be safe Tom!

What a fun time killer!

I never knew about "Literal Videos" on YouTube until a couple nights ago when I got turned on by El Capitan, starting with one that he posted and that I'm sharing here:

But there's a ton of literal videos on YouTube and many of them are funny as can be! Check out the links and sit back and have a laugh or two or three. I've spent an hour bothering the BSU's television viewing with my listening and laughing.

PJ O'Rourke writes the obituary for the automobile

It's called The End of the Affair.

Thus cars usurped the place of horses in our hearts. Once we'd caught a glimpse of a well-turned Goodyear, checked out the curves of the bodywork and gaped at that swell pair of headlights, well, the old gray mare was not what she used to be. We embarked upon life in the fast lane with our new paramour. It was a great love story of man and machine. The road to the future was paved with bliss.

As always, read the whole thing. Good Stuff and he really hits the mark.