Boy...I Suck At Pool

If you play pool, you may notice something in the above picture. There's the cue ball, of course, then all the colored and numbered pool balls.

Last weekend we drove a few counties over to visit friends we haven't seen for too long. We talked, caught up, and when I took the tour of their new-ish-for-them home, they cleared off the pool table. 

Ah, pool. 

It's a game I'd love to be good at.

Growing up, ours was not a home that had a pool table. I had friends with pool tables (and other toys, like boats and trampolines...), but I don't remember playing a lot of pool as a kid.

I once lived in a house that had a pool table. In college me and a few friends rented a house a couple of blocks from the University of Utah. Roommates would come and go and one roommate moved in and he brought with him a pool table. We set it up in the main room.

It was great.

Many have seen those amazing pool shorts made by professionals where they make the pool balls dance and shimmy and go exactly where they want them to go. Understanding how to master the game seems simple--it's all angles and force applied. Doing that, is a completely different story. 

At my friends, we racked up the balls and played a few games. The pictures you see are of the game almost done. It's almost over because all but one of the striped balls is on the table. The rest--all the other colored balls--they're solids, and they're all mine.

I'm okay with that. I had a blast playing. Sure, it's frustrating knowing where I needed to hit the cue ball so it would strike the other balls and go where you want them to go. But, I don't have a pool table in my home so I don't get to practice those shots.

One day, if we ever do get a pool table, I might find myself playing a game with a friend and I may be up on him/her to the point where I have one left and they have several. 

That'll be a fun day.

Another Dark Day In 2020...

Looks like 2020 has claimed another victim, a dark, delicious victim.

At least, I think so.

The other day, when getting lunch at our local gas station, I looked for my favorite candy bar, Milky Way Midnight. I looked and found none. I wasn't too worried because in this insane time in which we live, it's highly possible they were out and didn't have a box to replace the empty one.

I think I bought a Snickers.

The next time I went in, I looked again. My search netted the same results--no Milky Way Midnight. But, I did see a 2 Bar special in another box near the check-out counter. I grabbed one and went to pay for my stash.

"Oh, you found out discontinued box," the attendant said. I asked what she was talking about. She said they weren't getting any more Milky Way Midnight bars. 

Oh, the horror...

I've done some light research to see if the bar is gone for good. I've found nothing to confirm the attendant's claim. It's possible they're discontinued, and if so, I'll be sad. Then again, it's most likely for the best that they're gone--one less bad thing for me to eat.

Yes, 2020 has been bad in many many ways...looks like another reason has been added to the list.

Time To Start A New Photo Album...I'm Up To 18

Yesterday, I posted a picture of a cake my mother-in-law made and brought over for our Independence Day dinner.

It was the two-hundredth photo I posted in a Pic Of The Day Facebook Album. That album was #17, meaning, I have posted a daily picture on social media two-hundred times in seventeen albums.

That's a lot of photos. 

Each album contains two-hundred pictures because when I started posting daily photos--back in 2011--the albums reached their maximum capacity at two-hundred. Now, I think each album will hold much more, but I'm not sure exactly how many.

Last Wednesday, I started a new personal journal, I'm up to #71. It's almost impossible to comprehend what has happened in the past six months. When I started my Pic Of The Day Photo Album #17, the first picture is of Christmas lights. I've posted a photo each day through Christmas, the impeachment, the virus, the lockdown, and the race riots. It's been insane.

Today, my first picture for the new album is one I took at church. It was the first time back in months. Funny, how the first picture of the last album and the first picture of this one have a religious theme.

For the next one-hundred and ninety-nine days, I'll be posting a picture each day. I sure hope the next two-hundred days are better than the last.

Time will tell.

Making Independence Snowmen...

Today we saw something I don't believe we've seen before...

The Assembly.

We've lived in the same small town for over twenty-three years, and that's the last time we moved here. Before that, my wife and I lived her for a couple of years in an apartment, and before that, I lived here for another almost twenty years.

We're aware of many traditions that take place here--this year many have been canceled. But today, we saw that another town tradition was not canceled--the building of a snowman at the corner of 6th North and Main Street. That's where someone hauls down a truckload of snow from up the canyon (though, I'm not 100% sure the snow is from Farmington Canyon...) and at that corner a snowman is built every Fourth of July.

This year, my wife and I caught the frozen snow assemblers in the act.

That's rare.

For whatever reason, the builders put together not one snow person, but a second. Hey--the more the merrier!

I don't know who they are, but I'm glad they do it. Maybe next year we'll catch then in the act again.

One Of My favorite Scenes...

The scene--the part I videoed on my phone, that is--lasts 43 seconds. It's from the film, Field of Dreams, and it's near the end of the film, the pay-off from an hour and a half of twists and turns, mystery and a splash of the supernatural makes the scene all that much more powerful.

The scene where the camera dollies toward Archie "Moonlight" Graham, a.k.a. the fantastic Burt Lancaster, after he's been called out by Shoeless Joe Jackson...gives me goosebumps every time I watch.

I've studied film, more than a history than anything, but I haven't studied too much the mechanics of filmmaking. Since filmmaking and cinematography are highly evolved art forms, I know there's specific reasons the scene was staged, was shot, was presented that way it was. For me, all that hard work succeeded to evoke a response, a powerful one.

There's so many amazing things found in Field of Dreams. I've focused on just one, one of many. If you're looking for a great film to watch this weekend, you can't lose with this one, and that scene before Moonlight disappears into the corn (sorry--spoiler alert...), is one of the best ever.

A Darn Good Meme...

Okay, some of you have possibly seen this meme. It's hard to know what has reached others. I also apologize I do not know the creator so I cannot give credit where credit is due. I saw it after my friend--who happens to be named Garry--posted it on his Facebook page. 

Apart from the obvious humor, just seeing the meme made me wonder about things.

For example, I've often wondered how different people were a couple of millennia ago. The way I see it, I doubt people have "evolved" much since there. There have always been and there will always be jerks and there will always be people who are just the opposite (of course, each of us at times can be jerks and non-jerks...). So, reading the text, I can definitely believe people acted that way.

In other words, yes--Gary (or someone who was "the worst"...) was most likely hanging out at a sermon.

Then, there's Jesus. It's interesting how we project what we believe Christ was like based on our own experiences. He's like a blank canvas--if we're a communist, then so was Jesus. If we're Pro-Second Amendment, then Jesus'd be packing. I'd like to think Jesus would have one fantastic sense of humor.

All in all, a classic meme, and one definitely worth a blog post.

One Day...One Day

One day...

One day we'll awake from this drunken orgy of hate and realize some basic truths, truths about ourselves and the world that surrounds us.

We'll wake up and realize we've maligned, spit on, screamed at, wished to die people who did not deserve to be treated that way. We'll wake up and realize we believed and acted under the direction of people who used us to further their own power, their own ideology...

Their own hate. 

When our fingers are tired of pointing at everyone else and our voices are gone from screaming hate, we'll realize that through it all, we forgot about God. We forgot about the simplest of commandments--to love one another.

We'll wake up and realize love and hate cannot exist within the same soul.

Of course, by the time reality hits, we'll wake up and mourn the death and injury of innocent people. We'll look back and wonder how we could have become slaves to the hate we cultured, we nurtured we allowed to grow in our hearts. We'll wake up to a world we could not have possibly imagined because hate overtook us, controlled us, caused us to defame and destroy and wound and kill.

There are no winners when hate rules. Hate is not bestowed only one one group. Hate cares not for race or skin color or age or intelligence--it only lives to destroy.

As I've grown older, I've wondered how societies could turn on each other, how educated, rational people could see people different from themselves and condone their destruction. Watching us tear each other apart, I'm beginning to see how it can be done.

Today marks the beginning of the second half of 2020. Will the hate we feel is justified lead to more death and destruction, or will we follow the admonitions of Christ, humble ourselves, and love God with all our hearts...

And then, love our neighbor as ourselves?

Time will tell.

One thing's for sure--we'll one day wake up to a world created by our actions...

And a world we deserve.