Amplified

We finally made it out of the valley today and drove the 45 miles to the new Super Walmart in Rexburg. I like it, spacious, lots of reasonably priced stuff, and they have groceries. We stored our first shop in the truck and then went back to buy our food.

I got really pissed off at our local ripoff grocery outlet (Broulims) yesterday. Lots of people checking out, two lines, and I was stuck in the one with the fat mexican cow with attitude checker, and an old guy writing a check. I left my Chinese food rice, with juice, on the rolling thing and walked out.

I had a list of things I wanted at Walmart and got most of them. The coolest thing was an amplified speaker that I have now velcroed to the back of my scanner. The sound is so clear it’s like I’m inside the sheriff’s vehicle while he plays his music and scolds his deputies. I swear I just heard him fart while he was talking!

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Valentine Sucker

For all my whining and complaining about the commercialization of holidays, especially Valentines Day, all it takes is one little girl and a handmade card, to melt this grouchy old bus driver’s heart.

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Categorized as The Bus

Strange Trail

I spotted a strange contrail this morning south of Victor. It had a very Columbiaish look about it with the sharp diagonal to the left. I really don’t have any idea how this was created. As I finished up my day around 1600 it was still in the sky, a bit diluted and it had floated east over the Teton foothills.

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Categorized as The Bus

Skytrail

Hatches Corner keeps serving up nice sunrises, and I keep consuming them.

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Whore Frost

No, I’m not discussing Antartica hookers, thank you (if such a thing exists, hmmm…) It’s simply that magical winter wonderland time of the year around here when the fog freezes on the trees. These shots were taken on the back road to our base in Driggs. And yes, I know it’s spelled hoar :-)

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Categorized as The Valley

SB Stew

I’ve got this stew thing down. I start by browning lamb and beef stew meat together in olive oil, adding a little cajun seasoning and a few splashes of worcestershire. I pull the meat out when browned and use the juice in the pan to cook the diced onion, green pepper, mushrooms, cabbage and garlic. The potatoes and carrots meanwhile are boiling in a pot. When the veggies are cooked I add the meat back in.

The potatoes and carrots are drained and sliced and everything goes back into the pot with a couple cups of well water and slow-cooked for a few hours. The shot below is the meat and veggies just prior to hitting the pot.

I’ll add a finished shot later this afternoon. Go Seahawks, wait, Broncos!
Here you go:

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Ford

I love old Fords. I had three 1951 Fords in my early years, two flathead eights and a six. I was dropping off a client in Victor today and spotted this. It’s pretty close to a 51 and sitting on a mound of snow. Go figure…

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Floriston

I spent my younger formative years in a small town called Floriston, CA. It was located on the side of a Sierra Nevada mountain between Reno and Truckee. As best as I can recall it was between my fifth and eighth year of life.

My step-dad was a trucker and my mom a homemaker. We ran free and wild and attended school in Truckee, about 14 miles away. We had to walk almost a mile every day to and from Hwy 40 (now 80) across two major railroad lines. I learned to swim in the frigid Truckee River when I fell off a homemade raft.

The reason I thought about this place today is because I was telling one of my Com School kids mom this morning about attending school with Jimmie Heuga. She’s involved with the sport of ski here and had no idea who I was talking about. He was one of the first two members of the U.S. men’s team to win an Olympic medal in downhill, in 1964. He died from MS at 66.

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Harassment

I just took an online Harassment training course, remotely. My boss Amanda was kind enough to create an online space where I was able to login to the meeting as it happened down in Idaho Falls, see the charts and hear the video, and basically be there.

It worked well, as a tech guy I was impressed, very cool!

(and I didn’t have to drive to IF tonight!…)

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