Once Again...

While I may not need to have blinds on my windows living out here, the down side is still my erratic internet service. Nevertheless the blog posts still never stop, so this morning when I discovered that it was up, I posted 8 pending blogs. You can't imagine what a relief it is, like after drinking a big gulp and driving from Grand Junction to Green River (you know before the interstate) 😓

Who Are You First?

Scooter works up at the VA, and since it is pretty widely known that he is LDS the chaplains regularly call on him to give blessings to patients that request an LDS blessing.  Scott has taken heat for this once in a while from his superiors, but since he arranges to do the blessings during his breaks or during lunch there isn’t really much they harass him about now.  The chaplains know Scott and he is usually their first call.  Scott does have several other LDS co-workers, some of which are or have been Bishops.  Recently Scott was in the middle of a crisis and knew someone needed a blessing, so he stopped by one of the LDS doctors offices to ask if they could help out.  The LDS doc was with another newer LDS doctor and after Scott asked if they could help out the response was, “Well, that probably wouldn’t be a good idea. It might present a conflict of interest. What if we end up with this person as a patient?”

WHAT?????

My sister had over 1,000 surgeries (yes, really) and one of her doctors/surgeons at the University of Utah was James Parkin, who was head of Otolaryngology, he helped develop the cochlear implant. He was also a Stake President.  Whenever Ellen felt the need, she could ask him for a blessing, and sometimes it was right in the operating room.

 So this conversation makes me ask two questions, how important do these fellas think they are? And second – Who are they first? Are they bearers of the Priesthood of Melchizedek or are they employees of the federal government? I know who my husband is, his job was threatened and he continued to serve with the Priesthood that he carries, now I know how truly small these men really are.

Makeup &Plastic Surgery

So less than three weeks after being informed by a 4 year old that I was “like a 100 years old” I was working with some Wolf scouts when I was asked the following questions.

Why is your hair so short?

Are you sure you’re a girl?

Do you want to be a boy?

Do you try to look like a boy?

Are you sure?

 

Oh yeah, that hasn’t affected my self-confidence at all.  So I think I need to get some girly enhancements and probably increase the makeup budget so that I can start wearing it everyday

Wounded Warrior

Do you want to see my husbands head explode? OK, be in the room when a commercial comes on the air for Wounded Warriors. Especially the ones that seem to indicate that disabled veterans are completely abandoned by the government and have absolutely zero benefits.  Then add a distraught spouse who indicates that they “never would have made it” without Wounded Warriors. Then if you want to see him have a seizure, show a news story about some famous person going on a fishing trip or sports event with these same desolate soldiers.

Now look, I am sure that this program does indeed help disabled veterans with everything from emotional outreach programs to prosthetics. BUT… trust me when I tell you that they are not abandoned.  My husband (also a veteran, although not combat) spends well over 50 hours a week in a facility dedicated to help.  A facility that spends millions of dollars to provide every type of service from dental to psychiatric to job placement and more.  Nope they don’t have cool commercials, they don’t have celebrity spokespeople, and they won’t mail you a special edition coffee mug if you give $25. They just give quality care to the best of their ability. 

Most of the people that work at the VA are veterans themselves.  One of the problems that plague the VA is the same problem the plagues the rest of the government – bureaucracy! Plain and simple.  So while it may make you feel better to send them a check, remember to put a little common sense into the whole idea that these soldiers were dropped off and no one ever cared again.

Random Comment?

As many of my friends on FB may have noted the other day…I got a speeding ticket on my way home from fetching my little engineer want to be. Apparently there are no 75 mph stretches between DIA and Avon – I was less than 3 miles from Avon. Anyway, Mr. Eagle County pulled me over (selecting me out of a pack of others coasting at the same speed) and after spending quite some time with his laptop and my license gave me a ticket.  And a lecture.  My husband – a former cop - told me you get to do one or the other but not both, but it was obviously my lucky day because I got both! Plus, as a bonus he informed me that “we” needed to be extra diligent on the weekends because there were so many people trying to get to the ski runs, and “we want them to all get there safely”.  So either he was a super mind reader – or after Googling my name he might have read a few of my posts. Reguardless – I mailed the check off on Monday. Also, guess what? My opinion of skiers didn’t get any better.

unconcious intolorance

This is one of the many reasons I take a sleep aid.  The other morning after it had worn off I did drift back to sleep for a little bit of time and had this dream.  I had gone to Wal-Mart to get something and there was a pregnant young woman walking around putting signs up all over that said, “Minimum Wage isn’t a Living Wage” I grabbed one of the sings and tore it down, when she came over to me, I said, “Minimum wage isn’t supposed to be a living wage”. She rubbed her tummy and asked me how she was supposed to care for her baby on the minimum wage that Wal-Mart was going to pay her, by this time a crown had gathered and I said, “You’re not supposed to raise a baby on minimum wage, give that baby to someone who can afford it!”

Hmmm….I’m even intolerant in my dreams

Friends in other places

If I have recently un-friended you on FB don’t worry – it wasn’t a mistake. FB for me is about entertainment and keeping up with family and friends.  However, recently I have noticed an up-tic in the number of “Shared” pictures and videos.  If you regularly post shared pictures or videos that I find personally offensive, I un-friend you.  I give a three-strike rule, but then you’re done.  By the way, I also pay attention to where you found your “cute” picture, so if you share a picture from someplace that has a disgusting name, that is also a strike against you. If you regularly use certain swear words, that too will get you marked of my friends list, it would be hypocritical of me to say I don’t swear – but there are a couple swear words I have never used nor will I. Using the Lord or the Savior’s name in vain will also result in a strike out.

Now, before you get all high and mighty with me hear me out.  I’m certainly not saying you can’t post all the stupid things you want, nor would I ever dream of attempting to silence your precipitous postings with any type of censure. However, I don’t need to see or hear you.  While I would not purchase a magazine with a disgusting picture of a naked man who has a woman holding his privates – I don’t want to see it on FB either.  Oh I know, it was to promote some type of cancer awareness, or feral cat kindness week, or struggling with bulimia Hollywood starlet focus WHATEVER! I don’t care. You will be unfriended.

Yes, I have had people ask me why and I have been blunt.  Most of these people would never show you in person the pictures they post on FB. Nor would they say half the things they “like” or post, so why in the world do they think it is OK to do it behind the screen of FB? Make you own call, I have made mine.  In the final analysis I’m pretty sure FB has made a lot of angels have extra time on their hands, they don’t really have to take notes on what we are doing…they just have to look at your FB page.

An Expensive Gas Bill

$197.50 – for gas! No, not the kind that goes in El Presidente, and not the kind that my furnace can burn either. Let me back up, last week we did the Cub Scout Blue and Gold Banquet. Since I had to work and we had assigned the boys to just bring a covered dish, I suggested that we just cook a couple turkeys.  After all, is there anything easier to cook than turkeys? Plus they are pretty cheap for how much meat you get out of them.  Anyway, since I work at a pretty chill job, I’m well known for bringing in a crock-pot or roaster when I need to deliver a meal on my way home or take to an activity.  Unfortunately my co-workers don’t get to sample what ever they get to smell all day. So, the turkey got cooked at work, the dinner went off without a hitch, and after it was all said and done there were two turkey carcasses with quite a bit of meat left on them. 

Now- before I go any further, yes, I know I could boil them down and make turkey soup, yes, I know all the ways you can take left over turkey and use it in dishes – but to be perfectly honest no one at my house would eat it and mostly I didn’t want to.  And I wasn’t the only one, because the other sister who had made a turkey was wondering if it would be all right to go ahead and throw it in the church dumpster so it wouldn’t stink up her garbage cans. I of course had the brilliant idea that there is a whole pack of dogs that live on my street who would love the opportunity to eat turkey.  So I took both carcasses home and gave one to Marley on Thursday night and the other to my dog Tina on Friday morning before I left for work. Yeah, yeah I know – dogs aren’t supposed to eat cooked poultry bones, but these are ranch dogs, they eat everything and it wasn’t even the 10^th turkey carcass I had fed to Tina, but probably the 20^th. Friday night Tina was a little off, Saturday night she started throwing up a bit, Sunday she was really sick.

Great! After lecturing my sister last fall about the responsibilities of pet ownership I couldn’t just ignore the damage that I might have done. So bright and early on Monday I made an appointment with the vet. I had to lift her in and out of the backseat of my truck and then I explained to the vet about “a neighbor that had thrown a turkey carcass away and the dogs had tipped over the trash cans” (I only lie because I am really good at it, which is a curse). The vet took x-rays and determined that Tina had a very inflamed intestinal tract, but it looked like it was only gas.  Of course Tina started acting like she felt better as soon as I started writing the check.

Evolution

Yeah, that word, that one word can make the hair on the back of some peoples necks start to raise.  It used to do that to me to, a long time ago. I took an evolution class in college (back in the day) for two reasons – one is a family claim that the woman I share a name with Aliceson Jane Darwin was a descendent of Charles Darwin (to which we have no verifiable facts) and two I was curious about what the whole commotion was about. Well, the truth is at the end of the course there were more questions than answers, and even the professor said, “That’s why it is called the Theory of Evolution”.

 A week or so ago I saw on several of my news sites a story of a three-hour debate about evolution and creationism between Bill Nye the Science Guy and Ken Ham. Apparently they debated for well over 3 hours, and guess what…probably no one changed their minds! This was surprisingly apropos because this week in Primary, the sharing time was about the Jesus creating the earth. Which I believe he did, although how I do not know.

 Then I thought about one of my hero’s BH Roberts who back in 1930s attempted to publish his book “The Truth, The Way, The Life”. This book discussed at length the concerns about attempting to reconcile scripture and science.  The result was a very serious conflict with Joseph Fielding Smith and Elder Roberts.  It became such a problem that the President of the Church Heber J. Grant, and the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles got involved. As a result of this obvious public conflict, the Quorum of the Twelve allowed both men to present their evidence. While there is no record of exactly what was presented, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints has to this day never adopted a Creationist point of view.  In fact a letter from the first presidency at the time stated, “Upon the fundamental doctrines of the Church we are all agreed. Our mission is to bear the message of the restored Gospel to the people of the world. Leave geology, biology, archeology and anthropology, no one of which has to do with the salvation of the souls of mankind, to scientific research, while we magnify our calling in the realm of the Church.”

In the current state of world affairs, sky rocketing debt of this nation, politicians ignoring the rule of law, the constitution being disregarded, world geo-political conflict, I can only wonder why we must continually waste precious time, resources and trust on this issue. I love the Gospel of Jesus Christ, I love the Old Testament, I love Science, and these loves are certainly not exclusive from each other.  This is a tangled ball of string, which I for one am content to put on the shelf and not worry about.  There are enough thoughts raging in my brain vying for time and attention - I think I’ll take on more solvable issues – like world peace