Mountains, Gandalf, Mountains!

Last Monday my son took the day off work and we climbed Mount Princeton.  That is the 9th 14er for me, and it was a good day spent together.  Here's a little look at what much of the trail was like:

(That is Jack above me)  Yeah, sometimes trail-finding was a little hit-or-miss.  However, the views from on top were pretty spectacular.

On the way back down we got snowed on for about half an hour.  The temperature was in the 50's, and it definitely wasn't snowing hard enough to stick, but it made me very nervous.  The upper part of the trail follows a ridge line, and I was afraid of lightning, so I voted to stay below the ridge line.  Unfortunately that meant we were on very loose rock.  At one point a whole bunch of rocks shifted under my feet, causing me to take several stumbling steps forward before I caught my balance by falling against a different rock.  No, I will not show you the bruise on my shoulder.  But on the second stumbling step one of my (brand new) poles got stuck between two rocks, and...

Oh well.  It was a great day overall.

Random Gripe and Observations

Maybe you have to be an engineer to be bothered by this, but this is a sign in the open area near here:

It establishes a general rule: "Faster users yield to slower users".  That is fine, engineers approve of rules.  Then it lists some specific rules.  Are these examples?  Special cases?  They don't create a hierarchy, and the last one violates the general rule!  Aauurrgghh!  Yes, it is tough to be an engineer.

On a happier note, here is a picture I snapped close by the last one:

You may need to view this full-size to see it, but just above the middle of the picture you can see that one branch of the cottonwood tree has yellow leaves on it!  It is still August, but at least some leaves are starting to change color!  I may yet survive another summer.

Yesterday I taught a lesson to the Elders' Quorum in our ward.  About half-way into the lesson a brother raised his hand and said he wanted to hijack my class for three minutes.  I raised my watch, pushed a button as if starting the stop watch, and said "Go!".  He actually had a very good topic, which occupied something close to three minutes.  When he was done I said I wanted to un-hijack my class, but he thought it should be re-hijack.  I am not sure we ever settled that.

The Midnight Visitor

So, we have been having problems with a raccoon getting into the dog food at nights.  I try to remember to close the side door to the garage at nights, but I am not 100% faithful.  A neighbor loaned me a live trap some time ago, but the raccoon was able to open the back of the trap and escape.  Nevertheless, I left food in the trap just because.  Well, Saturday morning I went outside and discovered:

Now, this little (!) guy was not necessarily friendly.  I had the idea of trying to push him back into the trap, so I grabbed the broom you can see to the left of the door frame and poked at him.  It now has teeth marks on the end of it.  Just moments after I shot this picture the raccoon managed to pull himself completely out of the trap and ran off.

Just for reference, this is what the trap looks like "after":

He actually managed to break some spot-welds and some clips that were holding the mesh on the front of the trap.  I have no idea how long he was there before I found him, but I suspect this will not discourage him from future midnight forays into my dog food.

Life Is Stranger than Life

So here I am, anxiously watching the lawn, willing it to grow, so that I will need to go cut it...

Wait a minute!  Is this John Reading, who hates yard work of every form, and who has never in his life wanted to mow the lawn?  Yes, it is, but as usual, there is an additional detail that makes the story make sense.

Last Friday the lawn was ridiculously long, so I went out and mowed it and it all looked nice and pretty.  However, on Saturday while I was at Home Depot I decided to buy a new electric lawn mower.  Self-propelled, no less.  So now I have a beautiful new toy with no reason to use it until the lawn gets a little longer.  Life is so tough.  I believe the technical term for this is "First-World Problems".

Incidentally, I bought the old mower in Southern California, so it is at least 21 years old, and probably a few years older than that.  Although various pieces have fallen off over the years it still works just fine.  I feel a little bad for having bought a new one when the old one still works, but I suppose I will survive.

Of Temples and Garages

This week I have managed to spend much more time in the temple than usual, between personal attendance and my assigned shifts as a worker.  I have noticed that this has left me feeling better about myself and my life, and closer to God.

So what does this have to do with garages?  There is a statement which I have heard associated with church attendance that says that just as sleeping in the garage does not make you a car, so attending church does not make you a disciple of Christ.  While that statement is true, spending time in the temple is different.

I guess in the first place you have to make yourself worthy before attending the temple.  Neither garages nor places of worship levy that requirement.  Each time you present your recommend at the recommend desk in the temple you are attesting to the fact that you are worthy to enter the temple.

In the second place, the temple is literally the house of God.  I have never seen His physical presence there, but I can feel it.  The Celestial Room is explicitly the symbol of being in God's presence, and so it is easy to concentrate one's thoughts on Him and His covenants while in the temple.

Finally, all time in the temple is spent serving others.  When I attend as a patron my time is spent in the service of those individuals for whom I am acting as proxy.  When I attend as a worker my every action is directed toward serving the patrons.  I certainly seek for learning and understanding while I am in the temple, but my efforts are focused on others.

In the last General Conference President Nelson was quoted as saying, and then directly asked us, to give up other activities in order to spend more time in the temple.  I have tried to respond very actively to that counsel, and I am feeling great blessings as a consequence.  I am grateful to live so close to the temple and to be able to attend so frequently.  I am grateful to God for allowing me these opportunities.

Primary Class

For the last few weeks we have been meeting with another Primary class, and discipline has been something of a problem.  Today it was just our 5 kids, so things went a lot more smoothly.

I asked the kids to write from memory the sacramental prayer on the bread.  I don't know if any of them got it all right, but they all did quite well.  But then I talked with them about whether we listen to the sacramental prayers out of habit, or whether we pay attention and think about what the words mean.  I discussed the significance of to whom we pray, and in whose name.  The kids were well-focused, and were giving very good answers.

That was not the assigned lesson, which was about Jacob and Rachel.  I did not mean to spend the whole lesson on the sacrament, but as so easily happens I took too long to get back on track.

I did ask them about the difference between "honesty" and "integrity", and got a very good answer from one of the boys.  I had taken a 1909 dictionary for them to look up the words.  They were fascinated by the dictionary.  I wasn't sure that kids were taught to use a dictionary now, but these kids had been.  "Honesty" did not have its own definition, it was a sub-entry under "honor", and when they finally got to "honesty" I would have said it was more the definition of "integrity".

Brownies

I was determined that I was going to take sufficient brownies to the temple that they would not run out.  Consequently I baked 4 9x13 pans of brownies.  There were a few left over at the end of the evening!  Success!

I officiated on the 6:30 pm session.  As I mentioned earlier, my attendance at the Tuesday morning session did not yield the spiritual experience I was seeking.  One of the principal problems was my lack of preparation.  So that was on my mind as the session started last night.  Of course, my fervent prayer was that I be able to do all in my power to help the patrons to have a positive experience in the session.  As the session progressed my thoughts turned to the joy that is implicit in the endowment ceremony.  As each covenant was described I thought about the joy that those covenants bring.  As the session approached the end the thoughts and feelings of joy filled my heart, and I was so excited for the patrons and the things they were receiving.  It became a very powerful and moving experience for me.

Springtime Reflections

This is a hard time of year for me.  While I will freely admit that Spring is beautiful, what it means to me is that Winter is over, and that is difficult.  So I am grateful for days like today when it is 35° outside and there is a skiff of snow on the ground.

I'm not sure if it is related, but I went to the 8:00 am session at the temple this morning.  I am trying to go to that session each week in response to the repeated invitations in General Conference about making more time to attend the temple.  However, I slept late, then had to rush to get there on time, so although I enjoyed the experience of being in the temple, I did not feel that I got the full spiritual benefit of the time.  Still, as I try to increase my spiritual maturity, I have to recognize that it is not going to come all at once, and I need to be patient when I fall short.

Yesterday Delkys decided once and for all to stop teaching at the end of this school year.  I am excited.  I look forward to seeing what plans we may make.

Charlie's New Bed

Charlie has had a little bed not quite as long as he is for several years.  Although it seems small in comparison to him, he can curl up in such a tight little ball inside it that it is hard to see if he is there.

Well, that bed is out in the garage right now, because Delkys bought him a new, much bigger bed.  The current theory is that he likes it.

Windy

I just checked the weather.  It says wind gusts up to 15 mph.  I'm not sure it is hard to stay upright in 15 mph winds  I would guess 25-30 sustained and gusts up to 50.  I just got back from walking Charlie.  Normally I would consider 52 degrees a little on the warm side for walking, but with high winds it was actually a little cold.  At one point I was going to reel him in since we were passing another dog, but the wind was crosswise to us and blowing so hard that the spring on the leash wasn't strong enough to pull the leash in.

As it turns out, I don't really like strong winds.  So I am glad that most of the time the weather is pretty calm in Denver.

Culinary Adventures

I decided to try a couple of new food things this week.

The first was microwaved scrambled eggs.  The idea was suggested by a character in a book I was reading.  I reasoned that, even if the story was fictional, the idea may not be.  I searched online and found a simple recipe.  It turned out pretty well.  There is nothing too spectacular about the scrambled eggs, but it is a way to make scrambled eggs in two minutes without getting a pan dirty.

The second was buttermilk.  Someone once suggested that as much as I like eggnog I might also enjoy buttermilk.  I do recall trying buttermilk once as a child, and thinking it singularly repulsive; but, I reasoned, neither did I like eggnog as a child.  So yesterday I purchased a quart of buttermilk.  My 50-year-old memory of the flavor was remarkably accurate.  Yes, the consistency is wonderful, but the taste is awful.  So I tried making pancakes with it this morning.  As it turns out, Charlie thinks they are OK.

So microwave scrambled eggs are in, buttermilk is out.