A Triathlete's Perspective on Bob's Vertical Challenge...

 Another week, another reminder of the Vertical Challenge coming up next February. This week I chose to highlight a friend from years past. Jeff Gelder Lewis is a pretty remarkable guy. As I get older, my body protests more vigorously when I try to exercise. But Jeff, he keeps on going. Who better than to comment on what the Vertical Challenge means to someone who's really in shape?

Thanks to Jeff (and thanks for allowing me to use his Facebook photo--I mean, the guy looks like a model...). If you're interested in the Challenge, go: HERE for more information. Thank Jeff!

Jeff Gelder Lewis is an active guy. For fun he runs extreme distance races and participates in triathlons. In the summer Jeff can be seen either running or biking along Utah’s roads. In the winter, Jeff teaches snowboarding at one of Utah’s incredible ski resorts.

So how does Bob’s Vertical Challenge measure up to someone who is used to pushing himself physically and mentally to the limits?

“Last year, I had a blast at the Vertical Challenge. It was so much fun! What I liked about the Challenge is there is so much potential to really work hard. I wore my heart meter during the event and if someone is really skiing hard, they can easily burn upwards of 2000 calories or more on the slopes. The Vertical Challenge is a great way to enjoy a day of skiing for a good cause while having a lot of fun doing it.”

You don’t have to be a triathlete to successfully complete Bob’s Vertical Challenge. If you pace yourself, you do it. Of course, if you want to be the Kings of the Mountain in 2013, you’ve got the whole day of skiing or snowboarding on one of the country’s premier ski resorts, Snowbasin, to reach this goal.

For those of you who’ve been with us in the past, we hope to see you again on Tuesday, February 26, 2013. For those who we haven’t seen and are thinking about going, you will not be disappointed in the experience. All proceeds go to the Trapper Trails Council of Scoutreach, the charity arm of the Boy Scouts of America. Please consider Bob’s Vertical Challenge for a corporate event, family event, or just an excuse to get together with your friends and have a blast on the snow. We’ll see you there!

The Photo Finals Project...A Short Story

The Weekly Writing Prompt

It's time for another writing prompt and I had fun with this one. It's kind of wacky and wacky's good, most of the time. This week the photo is posted by Nicole at her website: HERE. 

Anyone can participate in the weekly writing prompt. The rules are simple. There's a 500 word maximum, the story must be written by next Tuesday night. If you want to have others read your story, just post it to Nicole's site. The short story needs to incorporate the above picture, and it needs to use these five randomly chosen words:

Parking Meter

Stomach

Magazine

Chart

Olive

Last week a friend of mine took me up on the challenge and wrote a wonderful story...her first. Maybe this week you'll give it a shot. Either way, I hope you like this week's story.

 The Photo Finals Project

Jenny had exactly 57 minutes until her class final in her university photography 101 class was due. "Why?" Jenny screamed to the sparse crowd at the Common. "Why do I always wait until the last minute on these things?"

She had planned on doing her final project earlier in the day, and it would have worked, too, but the call from her sister Olive disrupted her world, like only her little sister could. "Okay," Jenny said when Olive called. "I'll come over, but I can't stay long. It's finals week and I'm already behind. Really, Olive? Stomach flu? You have the worst luck of anyone I know." Jenny hung up the phone and spent the next two hours across town comforting her only sibling.

Things didn't improve as she left Olive's apartment. "Crap!" Jenny yelled as she noticed the unmistakable yellow paper attached to her car's windshield. "I mean, come on! I fed the parking meter! I can't believe this!" Jenny ripped the ticket from the windshield and jammed it into the back pocket of her jeans. A quick look at the clock on the dash of her car as she started the engine told her just how late she was.

I've got just under 90 minutes until my project's due, Jenny thought. That means, as long as I take the pictures in the next 30 minutes, I'll have just enough time to download and photoshop them and hand them in. I'll work. She drove following an internal chart in her mind of where she needed to be in order to accomplish her scholarly goal.

After parking the car (this time safely at a student lot to which she had a parking pass...), she headed off across campus. "What the...?" Jenny said out loud as what appeared to be a modern sculpture caught her attention. That might work.

Jenny snapped a few pictures, checked the results in the small digital viewer attached to the back of the camera and was satisfied with the magazine of pictures she captured. The photos made her smile. "I could do this," Jenny said to herself. "Yeah...I could be a professional photographer, unless, of course, they have to keep deadlines."

Word Count: 365

I'll Have Not A Blue Christmas...

 When you think of "Blue Christmas" you're probably thinking about the song...Elvis singing about how Christmas will stink without him (so basically, everyone's had a Blue Christmas for the past 35 years...). 

 

But  Blue Christmas has a different meaning to my boss...to him, it's a BYU Christmas. Yesterday was our staff meeting and the theme was: Blue.

We had a meeting, then had lunch, then played a few games. I don't know if "Put shaving cream on all the guys and make them look like Santa violates any HR rules--good thing they don't know about it...). Our team has epic staff meetings. Yesterday's was no exception.

Then came the distribution of gifts. My boss got what every BYU fan would love...BYU stuff. A pillow, some root beer, a bucket with a big blue "Y" on it You know, the basics.

Today I sent my boss a picture of me wearing my red. For me, Christmas just can't be blue...

A Six-Year Return...A Short Story

He was sure the Christmas lights would be on and when his old Corolla rounded the corner on the cold December night, his feeling was confirmed. The blinking lights and colored hues brought a flood of childhood memories back to the young man's tired mind.

"Funny," he said aloud. "It's like I never left." It had been six years since Tom drove away, leaving his family after the latest in a long line of arguments boiled over until something gave and the 17-year old high school dropout grabbed the keys off the kitchen counter and left, slamming the door behind him. Cursing, he gunned the engine of the car, a car he had bought only three months earlier, a car which he had only made one car payment in those three months. "He didn't need this," he yelled as he raced through the sleepy roads of his home town. "He thinks he knows everything--he thinks he can tell me what to do! Just because he's an old man who's stopped having fun, doesn't mean I have to!"

But that was six years ago, and things have changed. At least, that's what he thought until he stopped the car at the curb and stared at the scene before him. The lights, he noticed immediately, were the same ones he and his father put up years ago--even years before he left. Same old dad...doesn't buy anything new. The flashing stars. He couldn't believe they still worked. And he saw that they still had that string of little Santa lights, lights his father bought for him to give to his mother for a last-minute Christmas present. And as he exited his car and walked the short distance to the home's front door he couldn't, for the life of him, remember why he had ever left.

Theater...Or Discotheque?

About 24 years ago, I was part of a university singing group that toured England. We had a great time. One of the highlights was seeing Les Misérables a year after it opened in the West End. Regret? Not taking up an offer of a free ticket from our choir director to see a lesser known show, only the original London cast of Phantom Of The Opera. Oh well, you win some, and the others you lose.

While on the trip, another theatrical experience involved only a few of the choir members as we  headed out for an adventure. I don't know how we found the place, but we ended up at a discotheque in London that was once a theater complete with a stage and everything. Even though my memory is fading, I remember Dorothy and Bob were there with me, and maybe even Crimson Cath (we called her that because she was part of the U of U's drill team, the Crimson Line before she joined the choir and had a lot of fun...). I might even have pictures stashed somewhere in my basement of the event...probably not, though.

Last Friday night, the tech crew at the show informed us that after the show, they were going to put on some music for the cast to "enjoy." We did a great show. The entertained audience filed out, then the lights went wild and the music was cranked. And even though only a couple of songs were played, they turned the place into a really nice disco. Maybe if this theater thing doesn't work out, the building could be modified. I can see the neon sign now:

Centerville's Best Disco!

Of course, an executive decision on the appropriate age of patrons would need to be established...

My Best Christmas Pageant Ever...

 

Last night we gathered at the church, some to prepare food, some to put on a play, but most to eat. We came together as a group of people to celebrate the season. My family, we were part of the performers.

The costumes were borrowed from a family that have puts on a Christmas pageant in their barn. Four of us were angels (I was Gabriel...), one son was a shepherd, and my youngest son helped gather up the donated food for the food bank.

The entire production was put together in about an hour. Few had their lines memorized (I was not one of them...). 

The manger consisted of a picture on a vinyl background with a small wooden crib in front. We tried on costumes that fit poorly, and the lighting and sound effects were figured out literally minutes before dinner was served.

 

 

But, even with all of this, I had an amazing experience--this is because of the story. We listened to the narrator tell us something we all knew, but wanted to hear again, the story of Jesus's birth.

And even though our Baby Jesus was a one-year old girl and the wise men hailed from Farmington and not the Far East, to me it was the best Christmas Pageant I've ever done.

Tantrums And Tannenbaums...

I should have seen it coming, but I didn't. Oh, the things we learn. Yesterday we loaded up the van and headed to the Christmas tree lot we've been going to for the past several years. Last year we didn't have to shop for a Christmas tree. The wind blew over my neighbor's big blue spruce and so we lopped off the top of it and stuck it in our living room. That was a great tree...

This year, no big wind storm, and even if there had been a big wind storm, there are far fewer trees now. So, we decided to help stimulate the economy by buying a tree. 

 

A little history here...we have a smallish house, and because of that, we have a vaulted celing in the main room to make the home feel bigger. It works. I'm pointing this out because with a smallish house and a high ceiling we want to take advantage of this and get a tall tree. The only tall trees we can afford are the skinny ones. Personally, I love tall skinny trees. After searching the small Christmas tree lot, we found two trees that were acceptable. The problem came with half the family wanting one tree, and the other half wanted another. 

 

Now, the last thing I want is to be transporting a tree that half the family doesn't want, so I decided to go home treeless and wait for a time when just me and the Mrs. could go get a tree. 

 

A couple of hours later my wife and I drove to the next closest lot and saw trees we loved, tall, skinny...but pricy. They were all over $100.00. That's way too much for us to spend so as we left, a worker suggested we try another tree lot a few miles away.

We drove up and hit the jackpot! The place had so many tall trees and many were priced the same as the tall trees at the first place we went to. It's the tallest tree we've ever had in the house. We would not have gotten such a great tree had the kids disagreed. So, did they learn from their parent's actions, or did the parents learn from them?