THE WRETCHED SEASON

This is the roughest time of year. The weather teases us with a day or two of great weather and then snows again by the end of the week. This isn’t too different from fall weather in Color Country but there are other activities to keep your mind occupied (hunting, fishing, hunting, and fishing). The weekly respite of pro football is no more, spring baseball is still far enough out that it hurts, and the frenzied pace of rivalry games and March Madness are close but not close enough. In late winter everything just seems to be in a holding pattern until...

Tyrel has finished his last basketball game. Here is a summary of his season. The CAVS won some games. The CAVS lost some games. The CAVS learned some basketball skills. The CAVS learned some basketball concepts (but the seemingly simple concepts of spacing and timing remain abstract). But most importantly, the CAVS had fun and got tired in the process! I have learned a tired 10-year-old may be the most advantageous.

NORTH FROM SAN FRANCISCO

Work recently took me to northern California. After seeing things I had never seen I must admit I was stunned at the scenery and amazed at the stark contrast to southern California. In additional I partook of strange food in an atmosphere and portion of San Francisco I would never have found myself lost in.  

Our final destination was Eureka (Humbolt County). For those of you wondering, you can’t get there from southern Utah- you have to go to about 5 other places first. Mapping our route by car would take 17 hrs and took us only 16 ½ hrs to fly.

While at Fisherman's Warf we stopped for a while and watched this street man earn his money. Check it out here.

Smart planning allowed us 2 days to get to our destination, but because of the nature of the trip it was an epic, single day journey back. The travel portion of the trip quickly lost it's charm.  With a Rock Star or two later we arrived back home.  Here are some photos of the sights.

“IT’S UNSANITARY!”

I had an experience like no other to this point in my life. In hindsight the general theme of the message the narrator was conveying was spot on, however, the delivery was comical. So with no disrespect intended to the unnamed narrator let me enlighten you.

The Robinson tribe made a pilgrimage south to witness, and participate in, a baby blessing. For those of you familiar with these events, let me remind you these blessings typically occur on fast Sunday.

The testimony portion of the meeting began when a ward elder (denoting generational age rather than office) took the pulpit to recount what he had witnessed on TV sometime prior.

This gentleman relayed with intricate detail what he described as an “open mouth” kiss. Apparently this TV scene degenerated to a point where he told his wife to take note of what was happening. Obviously appalled and maybe slightly confused, she asked her husband what the two were doing to which he replied, “It looks like they’re trying to eat each other!”

About this time, I was struggling to stifle my laughter, but wasn’t quite sure if it was just me and my mood am was in or if this gentleman had gone off script even by the ward’s standards. A quick glance around the chapel led me to believe this type of pulpit discourse was par for the course. This did little to help me keep my laughter inside.

Finally, this seasoned citizen enumerated the woes of such a kiss the first of which was it is extremely “unsanitary”. I’ll concede the remainder of the points he made.

I could no longer contain myself. After the meeting I told Amy we needed to make an appointment to see the doctor and get a shot. The rest of you clowns better get in line behind us!

STREET NAMES

Nicknames have been a part of my life since I could remember. I probably developed this affinity for terms of endearment while working with Grandpa Tuffy. He had nicknames for everyone we ever seemed to talk with- some good and some otherwise. We were among this list of seemingly endless names. For some unknown reason I was Little Joe.

I have taken it upon myself to give the Robinson gang their own nicknames as I know of no self-respecting gang who does not have a solid nickname. Amy is a bit upset with the publishing of these names because I don’t seem to have a nickname. She didn’t have much of defense when I pointed out it she was derelict in giving me a nickname. After all, it is a party foul to give yourself a nickname. Let me introduce the Robinson gang:

DERBY MANIA IN THROWBACK STYLE

The time honored, and church sanctioned, mania of pinewood derby has come and gone once again. For whatever reason, this event seems to find itself in our schedule at inopportune times. If it isn’t one thing it is another that seems to prevent Tyrel and I from starting this little project without having to rush.

This year was different- in a bad way. Tyrel reminded me the afternoon of the race that he needed a pinewood derby to race. Rather than go into a panicked frenzy to make a car in a couple of hours it was decided we would race on a throwback theme this year- race a car we have raced in years past. So Tyrel loaded up all of his cars and didn’t decide on what car to race until scouting out the competition.

This story has a happy ending as Tyrel had the fastest car of the day.

All derby tomfoolery aside, Amy and I were more proud of his Cub Scout awards and accomplishments. At this pack meeting, Tyrel received his Weblos patch, Arrow of Light, his final activity pin (he earned all 20 pines). Make no mistake about it; this is the end result of the hard work of good Cub Scout leaders. We owe Joan Young and Linda Russell and huge “Thank You!”

2010 Starts a Bit Rickety

We didn’t make it very far into 2010 before we had our first event of note- an earth quake. It rattled the light fixtures at work and made most of us peer into the hallway out of curiosity and amusement, but little else thank goodness. Amy and her co-workers barely broke stride and our kids were oblivious. Tyrel had several questions revealing the hidden fact he is generally enamored with the idea of an earth quake- typical 10-year-old boy. Erin was more concerned her kindergarten teacher didn’t sound an alarm so they could practice their earth quake drill. Just to find some peace, I had Erin demonstrate several times what to do during an earth quake. She demonstrated the finer points so many times that even her 6-year-old brain deduced I was having her repeat and explain for less than genuine reasons. Oh well. Here is an article on our first unplanned excitement of the year.  

FINISH IN STYLE

We finished out the 2009 year in grand style. Although there are certainly things that were absolutely wrong, we will list our favorite good things that ended 2009:

1. We celebrated Christmas as a family
2. Santa found the Robinson kids- they got things they needed and some of what they wanted
3. Nobody was sick for Christmas or New Years
4. I didn’t have to go into the work on Christmas
5. The kids witnessed their first moon dog on New Year’s Eve
6. Amy and Ryann got plenty of sleep New Years Eve

Now we’ll see where 2010 takes us.