Your not leaving this house in those pants...

8/24/2013 Clouds                                                                      August 8 2013

...and why not they look just like all the "fake worn" jeans that everybody wears these days... but i been out digging potatoes and my pants are wet to the ankles from washing the dirt/mud off my shoes and the potatoes... and yes i did carry the dug up plants to the compost pile and i may have wiped my hands once or twice but that was on the back side of my pant legs... those pants are dirty!! no worse then the pre-washed jeans every body wears these days... never the less you are not leaving this house in those pants.
Wow!! this is all starting to sound like M&M logic to me...
"I'm concerned that the info didn't get put in the bulletin this week.... Is there a reason why?" ( i am a human a dult, at least the last time i looked at my birth date and in the mirror this morning...) well of course there is a reason... ididnotgettheinformationtothepersonintime.

M&M logic, heavy on the blue side... not sure exactly what that logic is but they sure taste good, a little on the bitter side, that's an acquired taste, for milk chocolate but that hard coating on the outside means they don't melt in your hands, unless you hold them in your clinched fist real tight, but they last in your mouth and melt slow through the hard coating, allowing time to think about the reason your eating chocolate in the first place... no day is a good day without chocolate.
I did change my pants and put on a shirt with a collar before i left the house. no more concerns, the info was in this weeks bulletin... and i am an a dult and i don't have to check the mirror... cause i "feel" like one.  i know i am a child of God.
CHEERS...

Clouds, a spinning sphere, bikes, more clouds...

Kanarraville clouds                                                                          August 2013

 The Family sun day away together, over the "hill" to the west... a hike up into the Kanarra falls/slot canyon... four kids and four adults, funny how all young people still in school i "see" as kids,  made the hike. i sat on a hillside above the parking lot under a tree, reading, viewing and listening to the unfamiliar surroundings of place, trying to get a feel of the place, which we normally just fly past on the freeway going to and from St. George. Small towns/cities abound in southern Utah, with lots still here and many gone... those that still have life can be found to have a mix of the old and new, all abounding with stories, secrets and questions. i find it hard to travel, or better said pass through and out of  places without taking time to discover who and what the place is about. We have one grand child who always referred to leaving her/our home town as going to "other worlds"...  what world is this she would ask?? How true that really is in many ways... the level of knowing and understanding a place, that must be part of why it feels so good to return Home.

The volunteer manning the solar scope at the visitor center this week commented... "i have to keep adjusting this telescope because the sun keeps moving." Now lets think about this one for a minute...
who or what is moving here?... i believe it's us, the earth along with us on it, thats actually doing the moving here. We are not the center... but are on the outside edge of this spinning sphere we call earth. If not for an eternal plan that includes this spinning along with something we call gravity... we would, if we existed at all with all our stuff, be floating out through space, and a different place that would be!
This observation came at the end of a very busy week of metaphors and aha moments...
some of the week felt like hanging on to a rope... then clapping...
the prophet Joseph in liberty jail... "O God, where art thou?..."
The Lord sees us in eternity... we only see us in the now.
The blessing of the Lord is knowledge... the unspeakable gift.

WWJDrive?  in our day and age?                                 

KOM line red canyon...                                        8/7/2013

• still walk...
• ride public transit...
• car pool...
• ride with Peter...
• tour bus
• an old ford station wagon...
• '69 chevy van...
• hitchhike...
• ride a bike...

Day of moving fish water about the yard...
bank, drug store, home , heavens opened...
stop fish water, mix, cool, bake muffins... 

Tour of Utah was the big deal effecting the first part of the week here in southern Utah. Watch the the stage 1 peloton move quickly by on 89 past 12 on it's way to 14 then on to Cedar City. i never rode a bike like that without a crash... with only a half dozen people watching there with me, outside of town seven miles, no cars or traffic on the road... all i could hear was the sound of a hundred plus chains moving over sprockets and skinny tires running along the road surface... the purrr of the peloton, here and then gone in less then ten seconds... something the cheering crowds in SLC did not hear later in the week! The next day the peloton passed through red canyon on Hwy.12, passed the visitor center through the twin tunnels snaking up the canyon past the first KOM at the top of the canyon and sprinting across the plateau toward the finish a hundred plus miles away... i surely never did, or will, ride a bike like that!!

Stage 2 peloton, red canyon                                                                                                                                             08/07/2013

That was my twenty seconds of watching the race live as it passed me twice...  the rest of the week i followed the remaining four stages watching the live stream on the computer from work and home, much more better way to watch a five hundred mile plus bike race. And there was surely a new vocabulary/terminology to be learned by listening to the live commentators!! For example these twenty somethings attack a climb straight up and over... they don't "paperboy it" like i did in my youth!! It's all a race of straight line riding as much as possible, shortest fastest line from A to B... straight... energy to peddle. Back to the real world of the visitor center once the bikes and  their support vehicles got past us, and the road reopened behind them. They say life is like riding a bike you never forget... but not like these guys do! The flip side of that saying... once you learn/accept the Gospel... don't forget it... period.

It's thursday and the week seems like it should be done...
meander about town on way to work, post office, dentist, fs office...
vc front desk dance till shift change, home early, ice cream & movie...

Summer in panguitch about over, road const starts in town...
schools start in a week, vc on cruse till the september rush...
yearly numbers way up, fs office, time sheet, home...

Blue bird skies... bright banks shining in the canyon... morning light...
despicable me 2... cartoon movie is despicably not funny... period
gwashington pieces still coming forward... fifteen bucks so far... great fun.

During a bursting season and after what feels like a very busy week, i get to thinking about what it's all about... This week got a bit deep at times, thinking wise, thought is some of my favorite food. I try to read my scriptures every morning to set the tone for the day, it helps me deal with me and all the different people i come in contact with each day, it grounds me and provides truth for me to come from. I also carry a Book  of Mormon with me in my brief case as a extra boost, along with whatever current book i may be reading over the course of time allowing. I have discovered that creativity is blue-collar WORK...
daily routine and ritual are critical to ideas, they come from all of my life experiences, some good some not so good. A journal/sketch book is a must have, it becomes a store house of ideas to clear the mind now for new to come and to recharge and remember at another time in the future. Writing as in this page for example is a process of venting to also clear the mind and get back to a clear page. Knowledge is a gift of God, i can not always explain it but try to use and apply it wisely every day.

Temptations are like fishing lures... they look great but avoid them... run
electronic scriptures are "funny"... world dependent... batteries are required...
i like them in hand... not in the "cloud"... truth should have heft...

Sunday meetings: concentrated packages of knowledge we must digest...
food for thought... sunday school: call to action... tools to work with...
priesthood...  backslapping brotherhood... to share with people in need.

GREAT sunday evening sunset sky show... good start to a new week...
thanks for sticking around and reading this far... 
take this fodder and chew for awhile if you like... life is an adventure test.

Panguitch sunset...                                                                                                                                                                 8/11/2013

Panguitch skies are more better then Kanarravill skies... but this is home
read a book with pen in hand... mark it up... scriptures are a book...
tip:" fix things you know how to fix"   idea: "associate mastery with optimism."


Cheers on your sojourns...

turn right and keep moving...

south bound river lane , Panguitch, Utah                                                                                                                     July 2013

Always... let something motorized or mechanical go ahead/pass you by so as not to get run over later... yield to them the the right of away... they always seem to be moving faster then i want to go at the time... then turn right and continue making images.

Draw then color inside the lines... think outside the lines

i feel outside the box the box today... radio on, dog at feet

watch the cloud show... pushed by the wind and imagination.

Sad Sack cartoon... honest!! all i did was goof off!!

cleaning marathon going... don't get in the way... i am helpless

try sacks favored thing, sleep... avoid the sarge...

I struggle with living this life most days... something must be right

hail... then rain... heavy for about 30 mins... no garden damage

fs rcvc report... post office... images made... turn right... keep going.

" It is true, we live to die, and we die to live again...

Thus, our faith now becomes part of our posterity's faith later."

Elder Russell M. Nelson May 2011 Ensign P.34

Morning read, Alma 31, V.10 "...continue in prayer and supplication to God daily

that they/we may not enter into temptation."

What a week, front desk dance all four days...

clean stinking restrooms... haul trash... breakdown box's

home to scattered showers... rainbow to the east!

Strange dreams all night... abstract shapes and forms?

patterns... traps... repeating in circles... confusion ??

two am milky way view... moon rise... dog urinate... me too.

New month... zig zag and right hand print... two home grown tomato's

home to panguitch... water garden as wind dies for evening... before sundown

new month... relearn cash register at work... confused and scrambled... !?/<<

"... it is impossible that ye should be ignorant... 

prepare your mind... unto faith and to patience..."

morning read Alma 34:2-3, cool partly cloudy.

Work by frustration this morning, by what others do or don't do...

all information and images to sign designer... now patience...

chicken at henrie's... ice cream at GEM... and the lone ranger with JD.

Birthday shoes for Alexis... orange with blue stripes... Toms one for one

george one dollar bill work... mask, stripes, zig-zags, red right hand...

nuff said, you will never see it on this site... +12percent bigger copies...

i struggle at living this life... therefore i am... 

i must learn to be obedient to the Lord and his gospel 

learn to make this life better... look for the good in struggle.

Write thoughts, ideas, insights... clears my mind for new...

dog flat on the office floor... wind moving leaves and clouds north

new purple haze water bottle... looking for colorful sunset this evening.

my world in change for a minute...                                                                                                                       August 2013
Dog out the house to urinate... i saw mountain blue bird... flash bye
back in the house to draw and color... blue streak...
Cheers... as i go back and work...

 

rehash of a trial... after a week of life.

RIALS #2

Just a follow-up to the last post, again still writing by assignment from Sunday the 21st of July. Even though i figured i had completed the essay, a hectic week of Family and work has caused much though on this matter of trials in our life, or better yet our life of trials...

The 23rd was national hot dog day and there was not a dog in town to be found...

Working the VC waiting for the RF tour to arrive four hours behind the times...

Rain arrived first with it's usual fanfare of lightning, thunder and wet...

Great wet monsoon weather this evening...

glow of the full moon through the night cloud cover...

a strange night of toss and turning dreams... what to do?

Cool almost clear morning, clouds starting to build early to the west...

pioneer day events in town, Casto & Losee wash's clear no water, wet spots

great evening/sunset cloud show to the south east, bright whites/dark grays

48degrees, wet, and sunny, doughnut Thursday, early morning buses...

reading: Alma29:3 ...i am a man,... i ought to be content with what the Lord allots me...

GWashington series #3 done "no heart"... flesh, sex, love, death.

Trials #2: when i come upon a "trigger" word that starts me thinking it usually allows me to see more clearly that which the word implies/means in my life at that given time: trials. Life quite simply is a trial to be worked/processed through... better yet... what in this life is not a trial of some sort? What appears to be not good or hard for me at any given time is assured me by the Lord to be for my good. Usually these assurances come through my daily scripture reading, it then takes some thinking and prayer to find/discover what the good of that trial is/was, and that comes in the Lord's time. The sooner i can become "swallowed up" in the Lord the better/easier this life/trial will be for me to accept. New better meanings to words that apply to me during a week of thinking. 

Trial: a test of faith , patience, or stamina, through subjection to suffering or temptation. A source of vexation or annoyance. 

Tempt: presenting of an attraction so strong that it overcomes the restrants of conscience or better judgement.

Temptation: a cause or occasion of enticement... especially to evil.

These words have come to my mind and understanding throughout this entire week as the result of my sunday school lesson at the start of this week, along with my daily reading throughout the week.

I am glad that life is a process and not a black and white change from one belief, understanding or step-up in knowledge to another. I am also grateful that i do not or can't become perfect in this lifetime, my second estate. I may have been a slow learner in my first estate because it is taking me time now to get through this life of trials/learning. 

Jolene and Siblings where clearing the Family Home this week, Home back to house...

i continue to work each day, waiting on visitors and a plumber to fix flusher valve...

fs office early today, time sheet complete and submit... Gem movie night, WWZ.

Cool cloudy saturday, week 26 prep sheet, thoughts and ideas for this space...

new additions to our home from house clearing... where to put it...

the smell of a cool rain coming through my open window...

Process debris...                                                                                  July 25 2013

 CHEERS

Life as a trial... test... challenge... and not just one.

RIALS

i write this post by assignment form my Sunday school teacher this past Sunday, 7/21/2013

there are some things that just nag at your spirit/soul... this is one of those

the sooner the task is done i will be able to get back to normal...

a trial: a person, thing, or situation that tests your endurance or forbearance.

a test: an event or situation that reveals the strength or quality of i/you under strain.

a challenge:a task or situation that tests someones abilities...

" Jesus allowed his will to be "swallowed up" in the will of the Father...

some presume we will lose our identity if we are totally "swallowed up"...

of course , our individuality is actually enhanced by submissiveness and righteousness...

it is sin that grinds us down to sameness - to a monotonous single plane."

                                                                                                                            Elder Neil A. Maxwell 1992

i have had and will, i am sure, have trials in my life, thank you very much. As can be seen in the definitions above situation appears to be a key word... "a set of circumstances in which one finds oneself; state of affairs" and i know circumstances are the result of choices made as i have gone through my life. Most of life from my point of view and belief is and has been that the glass is half full... not half empty. I prefer to see/view/confront trials as challenges... i have had this point of knowledge for as long as i can remember, even before my conversion to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints in 1976. So what i guess i am saying is trials, yes as difficult and trying as they are and can be, are just life as it comes at me each and every day, and this life was of my choosing. Not all challenges can be solved in minutes, hours, weeks, months or even years... but with my faith in the Lord and prayer that he is whom the Spirit testifies to me that he is... then this life is the test that it is meant to be for me. "Cowboy" up and get it done to the best of my abilities and talents.

I have had a 'blessed" life so far and i am sure there are greater challenges to come... do not by any way shape or form think it has been easy for me. Making a list of my challenges is of no value to me, like a notch on a stick... i don't believe i will be judged on how many, but on how i got through each one. I learned long ago, before 1976, that whatever challenge came my way, weather positive or negative, it was my task: work to be done, to transform the given task into something good and positive to the well being of myself and people around me. I did this through my everyday work and Art, most was successful in my eyes but i have also learned i am not perfect as yet.

I have yet to be "swallowed up" in the will of the Father and his Son Jesus Christ, but i work at this task each day, some days better then others. The greatest challenge for me right now is to read the scriptures each day and try to understand them and then apply them to my daily life... most days i get lost in the "world" and lose track of the test of mortality along with my purpose in life here. So i should be praying for more challenges from the Lord to help keep me on track/task.

Wow that was a great break, got my ears lowered, weekly red canyon report out, and one of the great loves of my life... a monsoon rain shower along with all its associated wet smells, flashes and noises for almost two hours now. It always takes time for my random access mind to incubate on ideas and thoughts... so here i go again maybe with a bit more sense.

Life is not fair... unless your on the Lords side then He always has your back. 
Life is a test... we must preform it to the best of our abilities.
Life has reason and purpose... thus trials must also have reason and purpose...
Otherwise how could the Lord teach us... without taking our mortal agency...
This monsoon shower we are having as i write... to some is a blessing and others a trial...
but it falls on all of us here in Panguitch this day. The Lord works with and uses the earth and all its elements that are around us each day to teach and try us. Trials are custom made and personal for each and everyone of us... even if they may come upon all of us at the same time, rain showers in town, they are intended to move us beyond the mark we are at today. The joy of learning is of great value to me and that's part of the reason i perceive trials as challenges rather then setbacks and hardships,  though they may feel that-a-way at the onset and as we progress and process through them. I take great comfort in "... for all flesh is in mine hands; be still and know that I am God." (D&C 101:16). 
With trials and hardships in my life i know that God is aware of me, cares for me, and above all loves me personally.

                                                CHEERS...

brown deck... growing garden... summer clouds... the best...

summer view... red window... stone coyote...                                   June 2013

The best part of summer, this year anyway, is getting my buttocks kicked painting that brown deck in the heat and between the rain showers. 

Work is always good cause you don't know what or who's coming in the front door next.

It's always fun to watch the garden grow, city water it till the showers come and watch the plants and weeds explode, with nitrogen charged rain water!! 

Then... those summer clouds, white tops and three shades of grey to the bottoms, small to none in the morning then building till after noon with dark gray bottoms emitting lightning & thunder along with late afternoon showers, then the smell and the cooling!!

brown kick butt deck...                                                                          July 2013

Sunday morning meeting routine, 3in3...
Home for lunch... outside with dog...
gopher wants garden... hose down hole...

dislike killing small animals... like garden better...
early evening cool down setting in yard...
g washington painted like johnny  depp,s movie tonto...

water day... moving about the yard no wind yet...
fs time sheet submit cloud cover wind up...
movie night... GeM "now you see me"... good thinker...

sunny, hot, fish water day done... out to red canyon...
last of EOS interviews... bingo!! this one, this one!!
Art washes away the dust of everyday life... picasso

reading Alma, Amulek & Zeezorm... prophets & a lawyer...
19 firefighters in Az gone... wind shift, burn over...
handicap signs in place... now teach people to read...

flag in yard... 237 years... fourth of July... remember
sweet smell of rain showers this afternoon... home 
panguitch park lawn... fireworks... good show...

eye on the sky...                                                    4 July 2013

red canyon... front desk dance... rain feels good...
home to panguitch... where did the power go?? dark
four $$$$ into storage bag, wind blowing still dark...

roar shock... test... confused sound...
santa on vacation... under dark cloud rain.
fasting... rolling thunder... for rain...

water garden first... then yard migration...
measure, cut, punch, sew... three buck bags
early supper...  GEM ice cream, then sit on porch.



warm AM... hazy, breeze blowing, up & down canyon
home early , second coat on brown deck... that hurt.
more deck to finish before rains again...

smoke red orange sunrise this morning... warm.
Alma 19-20 gossip creates contention among us...
the eyes have it... last of brown deck done!!

bird into window... bag it... freezer it... then stuff it ?!
doughnut day at the VC... cloudy & warm...
power outage in red canyon... shut down... review with DR

sunny, mostly cloudy, wet... looking for more rain...
wash in canyon did run from yesterday's rain... not much.
years of navy turd chasing pays off today... damage control!!

Levi, Bailey & Layla K. came for short visit then back to sky hoopie...
flash flood warnings up today... cool breeze through windows...
evening rain showers, rainbow to the east... prayer works.

wind, clouds... lightning & thunder as i finish this post...
i smell and hear the rain... dog sleeps... time to join him.
monsoons are the best summer variety... the wet feels good on my skin (-:

Summer at its best... hot & cool... visual variety... smell & sound...                                                                    13 July2013

Thanks for stopping bye... stop and smell the wet rain & sage...
                                             Cheers

The hEAt is on... and kicking me down.

car grill... road trip, pickings                                     June 2013

Hay... here's those grill pickings form the last post pinned onto the white pearl eraser... bound for the sketch book journal 

Well i can say this is a HOT Panguitch summer and it's only a couple of days old... summer that is. And i can also say that the heat has been kicking my buttocks all week long...  Cleaned the deck last Saturday past knowing the VC would be closed Wednesday & Thursday for parking lot project. What could it possibility take to paint a 500+ sq. ft. deck and all the railings  in 90+degree high desert, no humidly heat... well in my case about two and a half days for the first coat!! The paint was drying almost as fast as i could put it on...
even starting at 0730 it was too hot to go much past 1200... and maybe if the afternoon shadow got on the deck i could start again about 1630 and work till 2000 then soak myself with the water hose as i cleaned up. The heat just saps the energy right out of one even with a hat on and water to drink... you are left with no desire to eat anything or even drink much more. 

During my mid day deck breaks i would drive to red canyon to check on the parking lot progress. Yea hot sticky tar in hot weather, that made the deck seem like not much at all.

thirty-three spaces in black & white...                                           28 June 2013

And they got in done before i got the deck done... well they did have more then one person working on the same project at any given time, but they had an inspector looking over their shoulders... not me and the deck project... though i did, and expect to, have some good conversations with myself. Yes i know this is all, both projects, summer time work, but it could have been a bit cooler.

Then along with all this came the Panguitch Balloon festival, now these are the guys that can use some "hot air" though they do go up early in the cooler mornings before not much wind comes up. This really was one of the better weather years for the balloons. Lots of Family back to Panguitch this festival weekend... to visit the old timers that still live here by those who were born and raised here and have left. The numbers of people go up in town and go down at the visitor center, then we have the Fourth of July, our national holiday coming and then the BIG Utah State holiday on the 24th... if you didn't get home for the balloons you best be here for Pioneer Days... the whole nine yards is going on then. Those stories are for another day...
Balloons up early each of the three days... but the fun part for me is Saturday evening an night... walking the shut down main street lined with hot air balloons and more people then Panguitch ever sees, except for this one night in June. Take a short look...

first give away...                                                                              29 June 2013

They are here somewhere...       29 June 2013

Saturday night glow, main street...                                               29 June 2013

after glow at the GEM...                                       29 June 2013

So that my friends is a festival in small town Utah , not as big as some but we are glad when they all go home and we can get Panguitch back. We don't mind sharing, but we do know that Panguitch is one of those special places on earth and with only about 1,200 souls living here we do need to get back to living here... come visit when and if you can. The deck is screaming for it's second coat and we still have a hot week coming and the Fourth of July fireworks on Thursday at the city park!! Oh yea there is also a week of work at the VC bundled up in this coming  hot week, and if we continue to Fast and Pray for moisture the monsoons may start before the 24th of July... the seven day weather forecast shows a chance of showers most of the week... scattered and in the afternoons as the heat builds those clouds. O ya we do still live in a desert. Best weather predictor... keep your eye on the sky, if the ground is wet...rain, trees moving...wind, you get the picture. Remember: lightning first then thunder.

Cheers...