The Land Of Many Fires...

 We spotted the field fires last fall, not so many, but enough to notice that we are living in a different place now, a place of fires.

They've started back up this spring.

This place brings up so many memories.

I grew up in Farmington, named--I imagine--because there were numerous farms in the area. Even when we moved there in 1970 there were still numerous farms remaining. Now...not so much. In fact, almost all land in the city limits have been converted into living space, not for horses, cows, pigs, and chickens, or for orchards and vegetable gardens, but for people. There's a good reason for this--it's a fantastic place to live and raise children.

We lived up on the hill, not the highest house on the hill, but high enough to see much of the town. I remember seeing field fires all the time. I'm no farmer or chemist or specialist in why it's good to burn fields, but from what I understand burning fields replaces nutrients into the soil. I know forest fires are nature's way of cleansing the ecosystem. I assume the same can be said for the advantages of smaller versions.

We're again on a hill...not as high up as before, but we can see much more of the valley, and other valleys. I snapped a picture of a fire the other day. We expect to see more as we live in the land of many fires.

Ten Years Ago, There Was Bob...And Uncle Sam

 Tonight, I'm sitting in front of my computer and I wondered about the past--more specifically, what I was doing ten years ago. I think about this type of thing from time to time, so I pulled up the blog post I wrote April 20, 2011. I don't know why I decided to look back exactly one decade ago from today, and not five years, or last year. No, ten it was.

I remember the day--or part of the day--very well.

It was the day Bob and Uncle Sam came to town.

The event was an expo for the Davis County Chambers of Commerce. I still think the idea was genius. My friend Bob, who runs a financial planning institution, wanted to have a visual demonstration of what happens (or can happen...) to your money, your investments. We hired an actor to portray Uncle Sam to take a PayDay candy bar and divid the bar into two sections. We gave one portion to the expo attendee and the other portion went into a toilet. 

The expo was an all-day affair. I only attended near the end. As I recall, it went okay. In my opinion they just didn't have the people attending. 

That expo took place ten years ago. I blogged about this when it happened and you can access the blog post: HERE, if you're interested, that is. As far as the part-time job went, it ended shortly after--I can't remember exactly when it ended. I don't think the company ever attended the expo again, or even if the expo took place. Too bad...it was fun when Bob and Uncle Sam hung out.

"On Adventure With Dad"...A Fantastic Instagram Account

 Imagine, you're a new father and you're home with the baby. You get a text or a call from your spouse with a simple question, "How's the baby?"

If you're Kenny Deuss, you get creative.

And you make an incredible Instagram account.

The account is: OnAdventureWithDad, and you can access the almost one-hundred pictures by clicking: HERE. If curiosity hasn't taken hold yet, basically Kenny photoshops his child in dangerous situations and they're wonderful. Many have written about how the site came to be. To get some background, you can access one such story by clicking: HERE. 

It's amazing how some people's minds think. And because we have the miracle of the internet we have access to these people and we can see what the create, even if they live in Antwerp, Belgium, or they live in your own house.

If you're a new parent, or even if you're not, check out OnAdventureWithDad. It will/should make you smile.

Give Thanks...Happy Coincidences

 Friday morning three different things happened to me. Had not one of those things happened exactly as it did, I would not have the following anecdote to relay. At each point, I made choices that, when combined, created the story. It began by me picking up trash and ended with someone buying me breakfast.

You see the above trash can. That's snow from the remnants of a storm. The wind was blowing south and the snow stuck to the can. What you don't see is the recycle can that had blown over. You also don't see various pieces of trash that blew out of the can and down the street. I left the house to go for a McDonald's breakfast run. I saw the trash and picked it up. It took some time, but I didn't want to have our trash in everyone else's yard.

When that was done, I climbed into the van and headed the mile south to our local McD's. It's a Drive-Thru only restaurant with two drive-thru lanes. Thus began the eternal question...which lane? I usually chose the outside lane because, if for whatever reason I want to leave, the outside lane gives me that option. On this morning, there were three cars in the inside lane, and two trucks in the outside lane--each truck had a long trailer behind it. I decided to follow the trucks. Sure, it might take longer...the shorter cars could sneak in before the longer trucks make the bend, but I thought...what the heck.

The first truck ordered and moved forward, then the second truck (with the longer trailer...) left. He wasn't in line at all.

Score!

I leap-frogged at least two cars. I ordered and snuck in behind the car ahead. Had I chose the inside lane, I'd be two cars behind, at least.

I pull up to Window #1 to pay and the attendant hands me the receipt. "You don't owe anything," he says. "The car ahead of you paid for yours."

Score, again!

You hear about cool things like that happening, and I should take more opportunities to do similar things for others. I thought it was such a nice gesture of the stranger ahead of me, I asked how much the bill was for the car behind me. He said, $2.14.

"I'll pay for him," I said.

As I drove away, I thought of all the things that had to happen exactly the way they did for me to have some nice person pay for my meal and for me to pay for someone else's. Had I not picked up trash, had I picked the other lane, had the truck before me left...it would have been some other person getting a free breakfast...

And I'd have a different blog post for today.

I'm grateful for little things like this--for happy coincidences that make life beautiful, or at least, more fun.

I Love Thrift Stores...But This One Not So Much

 You move to a new town...a town where you've never lived. You look around, check things out. You see where things are, stores, shops, parks, city offices, fairgrounds. Moving from a a major metropolitan center to a town of a few thousand people can be an adjustment. There's no sushi places, no movie theaters, no Costco.

But, there's a thrift store...

Sort of.

I mean, it's a real store, and yesterday--for the first time--after trying to enter the store for six months, I actually opened the doors and went inside. One of the first stores I visited when we moved was the thrift store on Main. It was locked, and when I returned and tried again, I was always locked. I even called the phone number and no one ever answered. I wondered if it was just a storage place for someone and they were selling things on-line.

The past couple of times I'd driven by, I thought things looked different so yesterday I parked in front of the store. I saw a couple actually enter the store. I got out of the car and followed them in.

Over the years I've been in a lot of thrift stores. We're lucky in our area to have some run by the LDS church. They're big and clean and, for the most part, organized. These are words I would not use to describe the thrift store I visited yesterday. In short, it didn't feel like the place had the walk-in customer's interests as its first priority. It had stuff, but a lot I couldn't even reach because of things on the floor. And, there was a sign at the register desk that said basically, "Cash Only."

Now, I only have my observations to go by. I have no idea of who owns the business, or what issues they are dealing with, so I don't want to judge too harshly. But, as a business concern, it's pretty rough.

Thrift stores pay an important part of a community. They're places people can go who can't afford new things. They're also a place for people to donate things they no longer need. In my opinion, they're win-win situations, something this--and all--communities need.

I Mean...They Keep Coming Anyway

 58 new e-mails...

58.

I didn't open my computer today until well after dinner. I had 58 e-mails waiting for me. Of those, I had maybe three that I wanted to read. I heard a podcast once that recommended getting rid of all spam e-mails...not just deleting them, but formatting your e-mail accounts so you stop spam from reaching you. The podcast centered on writing, but the advice is for anyone wanting to remove clutter and interruptions from their lives.

Great idea.

I'm sure I could do more serious research on how to stop these e-mails from arriving. Normally, I just delete them and get on with things. The other day, I thought about trying to lessen my interruptions. I blocked a few accounts thinking--incorrectly--that the e-mails would stop. You can see in the picture the e-mails continued, but now they have a nice red circle with a line through it (the universal sign of something being banned...) to differentiate between unblocked e-mails and blocked e-mails.

Maybe one day I'll figure out how to block them for good, and not only figure out how, but to go through with it. Until then, I'll keep deleting the e-mails, both the blocked and the unblocked ones.

Why In The World Would I Snap A Picture Of This...?

 I snapped this screenshot of my phone sometime between 5am and 6am this morning. By just looking, you see a conclusion of the last Solitaire game I played. It wasn't my best effort--I was almost four minutes off the best time (I have no idea how many games are considered in these numbers...). I was two moves off tying the fewest moves.

The reason I snapped the picture really, is because of the win streak...12,345 games in a row. Combine that with the % of games won and you reach the obvious conclusion...

I've played this stupid game too many times.

So, why take a screenshot? Why "remember" the moment? It's a pretty unremarkable moment. I'll most likely never return to the picture. There's no real meaning behind it. It's one of over 30k in my digital library.

And that's probably why I snapped the picture.

It wasn't because I was waiting for the time when I could get up and go to work, but more because modern photography is digital...a picture is almost nothing. Adding almost nothing times 30k, it becomes something. I have so many pictures just like this, pictures I'll probably never see again, and if I I don't see them, there's no way others will, either.

This picture will mostly likely sit in a cloud somewhere (and now on this blog post, for as long as it exists...). These were some of the things I thought about as I couldn't fall back to sleep and waited for the work day to begin...a silly little picture is now the subject of a silly little post.