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

Steadying the Ark

I love the Old Testament, it is so full of vengeance and violence. It's my favorite book of scripture.  This weekend I was reminded of  a story from the  2nd Book of Samuel.  If you aren't really up on some of your bible stories, I'll give you a little refresher.


Do you remember the Ark of the Covenant?  You know, the one Indiana Jones searched for? OK, well that was actually made my Moses, and the Levites who had the Priesthood where the only ones who could carry the ark or touch it.  The ark was small enough that it was carried with two posts through each side and a Levite at each corner.  It was carried by the Israelites as they wandered through the desert for 40 years.  It was covered while they transported it, and when they camped it was in the Tabernacle in the Holy of Holies and approached only by the head of the Levites. It contained the tablets that Moses brought down from Mt. Sinai and possibly the rod of Aaron and a few other reliquaries.  It was created after Moses came down and found the Israelites had created the Golden Calf, the Israelites needed a symbol to be carried before them, so Moses was commanded to make the Ark to remind the Israelites of the covenant they had made as the chosen people.  Hence the name the Ark of the Covenant. (short and not the full history of the Ark, you really should read the entire Old Testament to get to know the Ark for yourself)


Anyway, the Ark was taken before the army and used to clear opposing peoples.  It moved all over and when David went to move the Ark after he became King they placed it on a cart.  As the cart moved the oxen shook it and a  man named Uzzah stretched forth his hand to steady the ark, so the Lord "smote him there for his error". Poor Uzzah assumed that the Lord needed his help, even though he knew that he wasn't supposed to touch the Ark.


Sometimes in our own lives we think we know when the Lord needs us to steady the ark. In reality, the Lord hasn't asked anyone to steady the ark, all he has asked is for us to do our jobs.  See we think we know way more than we actually do, the Lord wasn't going to let the Ark fall, and He just needs us to do whatever he asked us to do.  No need to take on the rest, just do your little piece of the puzzle.


The Savior said, "Come, follow me" NOT "why don't you go ahead and clear the path".

Beware The Story That Grows

Have you heard about the guy that worked at the EPA and managed to convince his supervisors that he was actually working undercover for the CIA? First he was a "Climate Change Expert" and if that isn't suspicious enough, with out any verification, he managed to convince his bosses that he was undercover for the CIA and spent up to 18 months at a time away from his desk job.  Not only did he stay away from his job, he actually ran up expensive travel and luxury hotel stays, for close to 20 years. Plus, he managed to collect bonuses!




Nice Work if You Can Get It!




See, no one wanted to ask him for verification, because they didn't want to appear to not be in the "in" crowd.  If they actually asked, it would look like they didn't know.  And no one wants to be that guy, so everyone just played along.


 Well just like that -  what isn't true appears to be true.




This weekend I encountered a story that seemed to grow more and more fantastical each time it was told.  It was kind of like the story your child would tell you about how the alien came down, warped time, broke the window, went back in time allowed it to get fixed and then the dog managed to re-break the window, and you can't really ask the neighbors if anyone was out playing ball in the street, because they all have amnesia from the aliens...so don't ask them.




Got that? Yeah, that was kind of the story that happened this weekend. Anytime people begin to add things to their story you should be suspicious.  Information and change should be able to stand all by themselves without bringing in the fantastical stories. Anytime big names are thrown around and people nod like, "you just don't know because you're not part of the inner circle" you should ask REALLY? I would like to see some verification.




Never assume that just because someone says something with confidence that it is true. That includes me...find out for yourself and ...beware of any story that gets bigger