My Truck

Here is a picture of my truck a few months ago. Looks good - I take care of it.Here is a picture of her yesterday on a lonely highway in Nevada. Out in the middle of nowhere after Ty rolled her four times. He is okay but the truck is gone.Shit.

Thanksgiving - St. George

Petting Zoo.

Petting is a strange term rarely heard outside of Utah and pretty much confined within the group of believers living there. I remember the first time I heard it when I was a little kid. Eavesdropping on a conversation my mom was having with another lady. They were talking about some teenager that was in some kind of trouble because he had been "petting" with his girlfriend. Well this sounded kind of crazy to me so I perked up my ears and feigned interest in other things and moved closer to try and figure this out. At least it wasn't "heavy petting" she says.

What the hell was this I wondered. Picturing a boy and girl petting each other - patting each others heads and stroking their noses. I didn't really see the appeal but what did I know. Heavy petting I guessed must be rolling over and giving a good belly scratch or something. Dogs like it so must be something teenagers like too.

As I got older and figured out what it really was I have to say it sounded much better than I originally thought.

I remember the tedious uncomfortable interviews with the bishop. Always had to ask "Any petting?" You could go two ways here - lie or admit to it. I just shrugged once and that didn't work any better. Some bishops were cool, some uncomfortable and some wanted to know way too much. Just doing their job I guess.

Anyway it turns out that petting was pretty fun, heavy petting even better and seriously they need a new term for it.

Next Generation

The next generation of Larsen athletes have arrived. Here is Johnny Bo at his baseball game. Ty and Sloan are producing a superior batch of kids. They are going to be good. You might wonder how you can look at a three year old and tell he is going to be a great football player? Well you haven't met Jett then. And Josie is just like her brothers. It's going to be good I tell you.

Hanging With Metallica

Sweden

I am heading off to Sweden on a business trip. One of the manufactures of our core drills is head quartered in Stockholm and I get a free trip to see the drill selection. Sounds pretty cool, although November wouldn't be my first choice of a month to do this. We fly to Paris and on the way back get a day there. The skirt is very jealous and I wish she could come with me, especially in Paris. But some other time I'm sure. I will be gone a week and that comes right after we move out of the Hayden Lake house. I am going to miss living there although I didn't spend much time there the last six months. We will be homeless for the winter which is freaking us both out a bit. All our stuff is going in storage up here in North Idaho. In the spring we will decide where we will live, Hayden or St. George. This Obama like decision is the best we came up with after months of discussing it. At that time we will go with the public option.

Yakutat

Just got back from a few days in Yakutat Alaska. I had a great time. The weather was perfect and the fishing unbelievable. Had a fun time seeing Andrew and going out in his boat. We did a fly out in the bush in a small plane and had the best fishing day of our lives. See the fish in the picture, I caught him and about 50 of his buddies on a fly rod (which I broke) Out in the middle of nowhere and had the river to ourselves Just a great experience.

24 Hours In Elko

A day in the drilling game. Got up at 4:30 as usual. Stopped at our office in Elko and checked on the inventory (which I'm in charge of now for some reason) Drove the 45 miles to the mine for shift change. Got the crew lined out and underground. Did reports for four hours and then went underground to check on the 6 drills and crews. Had a drill broke down and helped the mechanics get it back up. Came out of the mine and stayed for shift change, left the mine at 7:30 got back to Elko at 8:30 Went to the Red Lion and ate dinner, was going to play some Blackjack but the tables were full, so I played 3 card poker for a while. (stupid ass game for people that can't count to 21). Lost 40 bucks and left. Got back to my room and talked to the skirt for a while and got to sleep at about 10:30. Woke up with a phone call at midnight, one the helpers got hurt and needed to go the hospital. Got up and met them at the office, took the dumbass to the hospital did the paperwork and dropped him off at home. ( Hurt shoulder my ass get back to work this is drilling not banking. ) Got back to the room at 4:30 slept in until 5:30 and went back to the mine, one of our drillers didn't show. Found out he was in jail, got pulled over the night before and had a warrant, tried to run and got tasered. We thought about bailing him out but decided to hell with him. Found out one of our drills is done out here for the year, have to lay off 6 people. I'm a little tired but don't remember why.