April 2014 – Bus Driver Jim

Landing Spot

As the years go by I find myself wondering if my current life is the final landing spot, the place I grow old and die. Something inside me says I don’t know. I have a pretty good deal going on, a nice home, a good woman, a sweet cat and a job that lets me take the summers off and travel. I’m also blasting my arteries out every morning with a fruit smoothie from hell that may actually let me live a few years longer.

The question remains, is this where I choose to die and is this not the question we should all be asking ourselves? We should be able to sit in the rocking chair on our front porch and be content that this is the place.

I’ve made friends here and people respect me. A lot of people in this valley have trusted me to transport their kids safely over the years, and I have without fail. I think most of them would come to my funeral and say nice things.

But, is this what life is about? Finding a place to die with integrity? Or, should we be living our life towards the ultimate destiny that satisfies our soul?

(A little sketch I made tonight…)

Mangy Momma

I had just passed Steph’s Suburban Propane office yesterday afternoon when I spotted Mangy Momma hanging out in the field by the creek. I pulled over, waited for the traffic to clear, and then drove up, stopped in the middle of the road, and took this shot. You can see her baby hiding in the brush.

These two have been hanging out here for a couple of months. They were even spotted walking through the parking lot of the Family Dollar a while back. Do you have moose in your strip malls?

Garbage

It’s said that one mans garbage is another birds pleasure, or something like that… Actually this post has nothing to do with the handsome young magpie I spotted having breakfast in the Broulims parking lot this morning. I have a confession to make!

I’m an addict. I’m addicted to buying short domain names containing a phonetic h. I get a real rush when the five or six letter combination I’m trying out on Bluehost‘s domain purchase site comes back as Congratulations, xxx is available! Fifteen minutes later, after buying it with PayPal, assigning it to my primary account and then uploading a core template, I have a brand new website.

I need to get a grip. I have two new domains without any purpose yet, (pehpsi and cohke) and I just grabbed another an hour ago: sehxe.com (pronounced sexy :-)

The irony is that I don’t make a dime on any of this. I refuse to commercialize my work and these names run $11.99 a pop and a year later they’re $14.99 to renew. Combined with a static ~$150 yearly cost to run the host site, I’m spending a bunch of my hard earned money on this addiction! (current list here).

Hmmm, I wonder if garbahge.com is taken… (update: It’s not, stop me…)

Update: I emailed BlueHost asking them if I could reduce my costs, being a serial domain grabber and all. They suggested a 36 month domain hosting plan that would save me $108. I told them I was a really old guy and wasn’t sure if I’d still be alive and doing this for the next three years. I’m looking for a plan that will let me grab some cool domains at a decent price and maintain them for an ongoing decent price.

Tree Eater

We busted this lone tree eater from the kitchen window this morning. She’s a very efficient recycling unit, converting our tree branches to little round balls that Steph loves to scoop up in her spare time.

Rocky Spring

Just when I was getting used to green, it goes and does this. There’s a big snowmachine race happening up on the hill today and a lot of tourists are in town so this fresh powder should solidify our valley as a prime destination. So, let me be clear, I’m not complaining since it will be gone shortly and it’s good times for the city of Driggs.

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Soft Sites

I’m now the proud owner of pehpsi.com. It goes quite nicely with cohke.com don’t you think? It’s ironic I’m creating these sites since I don’t drink soda but I’ll figure out what to do with them shortly. I hope…

Big Ladder

Driggs finally found a use for their fancy fire truck. It’s a beautiful vehicle but it was the butt of a few jokes around here when they bought it. The Coulter Building is tall enough to need it now and it looks like the old sheriff’s antenna is coming down thanks to the big truck with the tall ladder.

Wes

I was parked in front of the Joshua Smith group home this morning with five of my six guys on board and I asked the gang “Where’s Mike”? In unison they all replied “He’s getting his legs done”. I asked what that meant and they said that Laurie was putting cream on his legs.

To be funny I got my whiney voice on and said “I want Laurie to put cream on my legs”, to which Wes chimed in “Maybe she’ll put some cream on your third leg”?

Honestly folks, I couldn’t make this stuff up. Nobody else on the bus got that joke but I laughed my ass off! Seriously, the best laugh I’ve had in a long time. Wes has been around the block a few times, even had a wife and kids before his accident, so his sense of humor shouldn’t surprise me. Have I mentioned I love these guys?

Ramblings

Favorite movies: The Old Man And The Sea, Midnight Cowboy and Easy Rider.

Favorite musicians: Steely Dan, James Taylor, Stephen Stills and Jennifer Nettles.

Why do some windshield wipers insist on doing one more swipe when turned off?

Jackson Lake and Palisades Reservoir are projected to be 100% full this year due to a great winter snowpack. I’ll get photos of both this summer.

This blog has 1165 posts, 2194 comments and 4510 photos.

We got a new dusting of snow this morning, sigh…

Geo Center

Man, it’s about time! I heard about the Teton GeoTourism Center and City Center Plaza (also known as the Teton Scenic Byway Visitors Center) when we first moved here nine years ago. Teton Valley is part of the Greater Yellowstone Scenic Byway and as such received a federal grant to build this thing but political and personal bickering just kept it from happening.

The building’s purpose is to provide a tourist stop promoting the Valley and Yellowstone Park along with 24 hour restrooms, and it’s finally being built!

Their mission: To create a geotourism visitor’s center, representing the unique life and lifestyle along the Teton Scenic Byway, providing museum-quality exhibits that educate, entertain and inform all ages. Our goals include: preserving our history, sharing our rich culture, enhancing visitor experiences along the Byway, sustaining our natural assets, offering educational opportunities, serving as a community gathering place, and contributing to a thriving economy.

It should be done just in time for Summer :-)

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Ants Down

Last Saturday I was soaking up some rays at the top of the driveway when the ants came. Half red, half black and big. They were coming up the driveway with the intent of invading the house. Steph had already discovered their fortress in the field across the street so we sprung into action.

I poured a bunch of pure undiluted weed killer in the crack between the driveway and the garage while Steph ran to town for some ant killer from Ace Hardware. It worked, the ants came up to the crack and stopped. When Steph returned I walked over to the ant hill and doused it with white ant killing powder.

I don’t like killing anything. I smashed a baby mouse with a shovel a few years ago and I still feel bad. I leave the killing to Steph (10 mice from the snow last week) but this time I’m sure a lot of ants died at my hand and a major shift in the force has occurred.

Oh well, problem solved…

Easther

I told the Joshua Smith gang the real deal last week, about Jesus going into a cave and coming out as a large bunny called Easter. I like to keep them informed. :-)

We cooked up a nice meal for my sister and my niece and her husband today, honey glazed ham with goat cheese spinach scalloped potatoes. I also deleted my sisters property management website that I set up for her years ago, and replaced it with a shiny new WordPress install. She can now maintain it herself.

Drop by the under construction page here. I told her to find tutorials on how to setup WordPress, and being a smart lady I’m sure the site will evolve nicely.

btw: Badass definition: The badass carves his own path. He wears, drives, drinks, watches, and listens to what he chooses, when he chooses, where he chooses, uninfluenced by fads or advertising campaigns. Badass style is understated but instantly recognizable. Like a Tilley Hat or a pair of prescription sunglasses: simple, direct, and functional. When major badasses greet each other they don’t say anything, they just nod. The nod means, “I’m a badass, and I recognize that you, too, are a badass”. (source)

Nuhts

I created a Google Custom Search Engine today, focused on this blog, and incorporated it into one of my new websites, Nuhts.

This is a real Google search but it just searches Posts on my blog. Each result goes directly to the specific post. Pretty cool!

Meltdown

It’s a nice Easter Saturday morning around the old homestead. The snow’s almost gone, Piper’s hunting mice and Steph is raking up Elk shit. The herd that wintered here kindly recycled our lower tree branches into little round pellets. The mice and the voles made mincemeat of the lawn and it’s time to hit Riley up for another handcrafted mailbox.

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Budge Drive

Our neighboring city of Jackson, WY has a major slide issue happening. Walgreens came into town a while back after much bickering within the city government, graded out a nice flat spot to build against the side of a hill, and now it’s all coming down.

The homeowners above are ultimately going to be alright, Walgreens insurance can build them nice new homes elsewhere, but the city is worried that the slide might break their water main that runs nearby, and flood the town of Jackson.

I’m sure glad I live on flat ground with no hills nearby.

Ooops, there goes the sewer line.

Ouch, here’s a house breaking apart.