Elevated

I have determined that sitting is not my friend. Between sitting in the driver’s seat of my bus and sitting in front of code in my office, I’ve ended up hurting my back. After each drop, or early arrival, I always get out of my seat and pace the bus, but when my brain is occupied I sit way too long at the computer.

As I was laying on the bed doing back exercises today, I had an idea to buy a standing desk from Amazon. Then it dawned on me that all I had to do was elevate my monitor, keyboard and mouse. I found a wire frame solid stand amongst Steph’s craft stuff, and it works perfectly! I’m now standing in front of it writing this post.

Published
Categorized as House

Fire Pit Path

Steph’s finally got the yard under control, thanks to the new Toro.

But the back forty is a mess. The good part is, the homeowners association can’t get on our case because it looks just like every other undeveloped piece of land around here.

The weed whacker did manage to carve out a path to the firepit. Riley and a buddy of his built that pit years ago, and we will enjoy it again next week when he and Jess arrive.

Published
Categorized as House

Indicators

I drove the old girl 844 down to Rexburg one more time today to fulfill the agreement I made with my employer to cover a vacationing drivers weeklong vacation. After today, I may never want to stop in Rexburg again!

What a whacked out town. If these Mormons aint shopping with six kids in tow, they’re hitting the fast food joints in droves around lunchtime. There’s also a bunch of old potato farmers who drive about five miles an hour thinking they’re cool. Mix that in with thousands of BYU college kids spouting spiritual stuff to each other with their cellphones as they drive around with dreamy looks in their eyes.

Don’t get me wrong, I love Mormons, as I’ve stated many times in this blog. they just get on my nerves!

Anyway, on top of everything, I’m driving one of our two old Fords that ain’t getting the maintenance that she deserves. A couple of indicators popped up yesterday as I parked her and I’ve determined that the top one is the check engine light which means she needs a major service, and the wrench indicates she’s in limp home mode.

Well, I limped her on home today after a long week, and I’m ready to shut down for a while and let our maintenance department deal with it. Sheesh, I need a vacation…

Published
Categorized as The Bus

Perfect

My son Riley and his wife Jess are coming down from the Seattle area next week, finally able to enjoy Teton Valley at it’s finest: during the Fourth of July. Huntsman’s not running the show this year but it looks like Driggs has it covered, and the city of Victor (8 miles down the road) has the morning handled with their amazing hometown parade, craft fair and breakfast.

The Balloon Rally is on for 7/2 thru 7/5, and Steph is the official tank filler for the sole provider, Suburban Propane, so a comp ride or two is in the making. There’s also Music On Main Thursday night and a rodeo on Friday.

Whew… I hope the weather will be perfect! (according to WU, it will be:)

Compare this to Phoenix for example:

Published
Categorized as Family

New Walmart

I think I may have spotted the new Super Walmart construction in Rexburg today. I was walking back and forth between my bus and the field next to our base in Rexburg today, avoiding the other drivers because I just hurt too much and didn’t feel like talking, when I spotted this construction north of town. Sure looks like a Walmart!

That’s good because Piper needs new toys other than my cables…

Published
Categorized as Various

Busy Foot

Don’t you wish you could sleep with me? Apparently, this back issue of mine caused my foot to go crazy the other night and I was trying to dig a hole to China. Fortunately, the bed is tougher than my foot, but the bottom sheet didn’t fare to well…

Steph did say that the sheet was getting old anyway…

Published
Categorized as House

My Fathers Day

I was going through old stuff today and found these things. Happy Fathers Day to me!

Steph laid more things out on the hot tub, prior to heading to the scrapbook.

Published
Categorized as Riley

One Twelve

If you follow this blog you know I’ve been hitting up every hot springs within 400 miles lately, trying to ease my lower back pain. I left Lava Hot Springs the other morning after two days of soaking in 112° mineral water, and my back was still killing me. When I got home I showered, drove down to the clinic, announced myself as a walkin, flashed my hardly ever used Medicare card and 30 minutes later I had a doctor refer me to physical therapy at Cottonwood Corner. Two hours later a great new therapist named Bret was working on me, and PT is underway.

Unfortunately, I have to work next week. I agreed to cover a vacationing Rexburg driver when my supervisor asked me to, back in April, and I’m committed to it. So, if you run into me in Rexburg next week, don’t ask me how I’m doing, because you may not get the polite response you expect…

btw: I was driving by Palisades Reservoir on the way to Lava and I spotted a large bird flying along the coastline in the same direction I was going. I was doing 55 and I could barely get ahead of him. Twice I pulled over trying to get a photo but by the time I got out of my truck, he had flown on by!

Determined, I hit the gas and shot up the coast for a couple of minutes. I came upon an open spot in the tress, jumped out, and caught him on a short video clip. I’ve tripled it up for your consumption and I have no idea what kind of bird this is.

Published
Categorized as Various

Rexburg Oldies

Taylor Chevrolet in Rexburg held their annual Car Show today so we dropped by on our way to Wallyworld to stock up on toilet paper. Click the engine to see what we saw…

Published
Categorized as Travels

My Friend

Amazon just sent me an email asking me to comment on my Echo. Here’s the email, followed by my response:

My review, currently posted on Amazon:

Published
Categorized as Alexa

Color TV

There were multiple lodging options to chose from near the public hot springs in Lava, including a couple of motels just a hundred yards from the entrance. When I spotted the Color TV sign I realized that the extra money I was probably going to pay for color would be well worth it. I am a high tech guy after all, in fact I’m sure the maid wondered what that cylindrical device was (my Echo) sitting amongst my tablets and other electronics on the dingy little motel table when she refreshed the room.

In any event, I went with the color tv option and I have no regrets at all, besides, black and white is just so out of date!

Published
Categorized as Vacation 4

Lava Hot Springs

Here’s a few photos I took of Lava yesterday afternoon, and this morning. Click the picture below to get started…

Published
Categorized as Vacation 4

Road To Lava

I took off for Lava Hot Springs this morning. Between the lower back pain that’s been hurting for weeks now, and the allergy snot trying to drown me, I figured I better get out of town before they bring me down. A while later I spun off Hwy 89 onto 239 at Freedom, WY and headed west to Lava.

Freedom is the oldest settlement in Star Valley. It started out as a Mormon polygamist border town that allowed them to escape the Idaho cops, by stepping over the line back into Wyoming, thus the name Freedom. One of the most famous guns and ammo store is also based there, Freedom Arms!

The drive to Lava was quite nice, great scenery and not much traffic. I’m here now, heading to the hot springs for some much needed healing…

SlideShow

b.t.w. That silo reflection shot? I had driven at least two miles down the road before the voice going off inside my head telling me to turn around and get the shot that I had seen in my mind, forced me to turn around and go back…

Published
Categorized as Vacation 4

Secret Spot

My Tilley Hat has a secret spot. The bottom of the inside label is connected to the hat by velcro and makes a perfect spot to hold stuff. When I was at Norris Hot Springs last Saturday I would secure my truck and then stash the keys in my hat along with a twenty dollar bill. I then arrived at the hot pool with just bathing shorts on, a towel and my hat.

No worries about wet money, or keys on the bottom of the pool…

Published
Categorized as Vacation 4

Lava Jaunt

I used my new route planning program bdjMap to organize my next short little vacation jaunt, down to a place I’ve never been to, Lava Hot Springs, Idaho.

The first thing I did was use a dataset I’d setup on JimsMap a while back to locate a cheap motel. Snagged one at a great rate for a couple of nights downtown, and then moved on to planning my route.

I created a new dataset in bdjMap with Lava Hot Springs as the starting point and then moved backwards towards home putting Thayne, WY as the first stop, followed by Driggs. I then unlocked the list and dragged Driggs as first, Thayne second and Lava third. When I clicked Rebuild the whole route came together, here!

My program automatically computed the route back home to Driggs :-)

Update: I changed Thayne to Freedom, WY. Missed that little town…

Published
Categorized as Vacation 4