Change of Gyms - Planet Fitness

In a long-overdue move, Dorine and I have changed gym memberships from Defined Fitness (DF) to Planet Fitness (PF), located on Eubank Blvd. north of Constitution Ave. (PF is in space once occupied by TG&Y, a dimestore in which I spent a good deal of my childhood and adolescence; thus I feel entirely at home there.) We'd been paying $32 each per month to belong to DF, which was the Sandia National Laboratories corporate rate and actually a "good" deal -- except that DF is much more gym than we needed and rather expensive for what we used it for. I'd put off looking into PF, thinking that the $10(+ tax)/month membership fee must mean it had cast-off cardio gear from other gyms; however, several people had informed us that PF's cardio equipment is actually new, of good quality, and plentiful, which convinced me to investigate.

As it turned out, PF had a sign-up deal going, under which it waived almost all of the first-year annual "rate guarantee" fee ($29/person otherwise), which in turn meant Dorine and I only had to pay ~$23 total to join and for the month of October. We've been to PF twice so far (Friday and yesterday afternoon), and the Cybex treadmills there are more than adequate. They don't have individual TV screens like the fancy Precor treadmills at DF, but, since I listen to music on my iPod Shuffle while running, anyway, that's a minor point. I was surprised (notwithstanding the fact that we went at non-peak times) to find so few members there, which tells me (a) that the word about PF hasn't really got out yet, and/or (b) that, for many people, going to the gym is still more about seeing, and being seen by, other people than about simply working out and staying fit. That makes me wonder about the viability of PF's business model (particularly in the Albuquerque area), despite the fact that it is a national concern, locally owned by a franchisee. Not that I want the place to be over-run by members -- I hate waiting in line for a treadmill -- but I do want it to stay in business, and thus I will tell other people about it.

[Update, 10/10/09: Of course, logically, it is easier to convince people to buy a gym membership that they won't use when it costs ~$10/month instead of ~$40/month. It goes without saying that most gyms count on having a certain percentage of their members not show up very often, but PF's business model may take for granted a higher percentage of such members than do other gyms.]

Cruising

I'm pretty jazzed about recent developments concerning our seven-night Caribbean cruise scheduled for January. My brother-in-law Mike was looking at his reservation on our cruise line's website and saw an option to upgrade his cabin -- for an apparent savings, no less. We agreed we should investigate by calling the reservation line and talking to an actual person. It turned out that we could actually upgrade by two cabin categories, and move up five decks, for less money than we'd originally committed to pay -- needless to say, we jumped at the "opportunity." The attached image shows the class of cabin we upgraded to, which is larger and has both a sitting area and a private veranda -- and Mike and I were able to get cabins that not only adjoin but connect! It seems weird to be able to get a better cruise package later in the game than earlier (other than on some last-minute deal through a broker), but I guess the economy is still pretty weak, which may be forcing the cruise lines to offer more and better specials. I can live with that!

Lonely Are the Brave

This image is a still-frame from Lonely Are the Brave, a 1962 film starring Kirk Douglas, which was filmed in and around Albuquerque and the Sandia Mountains. (It's set in "Duke City, New Mexico," which of course is a thinly veiled reference to Albuquerque [a/k/a "the Duke City"], and is based on Edward Abbey's novel Brave Cowboy.) The film recently came out on DVD for the first time in the U.S., and of course I had to buy it. Douglas plays Jack Burns, one of the last of a dying breed of loner cowboys, someone who carries no ID, rides his horse cross-country to get from place to place, and has little regard for civil authority. Burns, after visiting with his good friend's wife (played by Gena Rowlands -- see photo), for whom he harbors a mutually felt, but unrealized romantic love, gets himself arrested (following a disturbing, unprovoked fight with a vicious one-armed man in a nearby cantina) so that he can visit with his friend in the county jail, hoping to convince him to escape. The friend has been sentenced to two years in the state pen for assisting and concealing illegal immigrants (whom the script unabashedly refers to as "wetbacks" -- the mere idea of anyone's serving that kind of time for such a mundane offense seems laughable these days); however, the friend, not wishing to jeopardize his freedom (and his family's financial situation) further, refuses to break out with Burns, leaving the latter to flee by himself. The rest of the movie concerns itself with Burns's efforts to escape up and over the Sandia Mountains and down into Mexico. (The geography is a little out of whack, since hiking up and over the Sandias from Albuquerque takes one east, not south -- not to mention the fact that a couple hundred miles of increasingly hot desert would still separate him from Mexico -- but, hey, it's Hollywood.)

Walter Matthau, playing the local sheriff, organizes a pursuit but seems privately to hope Burns escapes. Burns, refusing to abandon his horse as he scrambles up steep, rocky terrain, barely makes it to the rim of the Sandias and into the forest on the other side, receiving a bullet wound to the lower leg in the process. However, the movie ends abruptly and inconclusively when Carroll O'Connor (who later would become famous in his role as Archie Bunker in the 70s sitcom All In the Family), hauling a truckload of toilets to Duke City, hits Burns and his skittish horse as they attempt to cross Route 66. The horse is euthanized and Burns is hauled off to hospital; we don't know whether he survives or dies, but it doesn't seem to matter either way, inasmuch as his way of life dies symbolically with the horse.

The movie was shot in black and white, but the cinematography, with its clarity and wide variety of tones, is outstanding in any case. The camera work in the Sandias is generally limited to (a) the lower part of the mountain in the Juan Tabo Canyon area, and (b) the upper part of the mountain near Sandia Crest (and the upper terminus of the La Luz [i.e., Crest Spur] Trail); however, the editing creates the effect that the mountain is alternately taller, and shorter, than it really is, which seems a little disorienting for someone who's familiar with the topography. It's fascinating to see what those areas looked like in 1962, when I was two or three years old. I do know that the crew constructed a trail for some of the lower-elevation shots, which is now known as the "Movie Trail" and has been extended up to a rock formation known as the "Prow," although that whole area is closed for much of the year, ostensibly to benefit nesting raptors.

Lonely Are the Brave was perhaps Kirk Douglas's favorite of the films he made, and I have to say that I like it a lot, too, if for slightly different reasons.

Albuquerque Youth Symphony Concert

The 2009-2010 Albuquerque Youth Symphony had its first concert on Sunday, September 20, in Popejoy Hall at the University of New Mexico. The kids played a very difficult program, which included The Sorcerer's Apprentice by Dukas, the Overture to Romeo and Juliet by Tchaikovsky, the world premiere of an orchestral arrangement of Kokopelli: His Flutesong by Michael Mauldin, and Aria in Classic Style by Grandjany. (The latter piece, a harp concerto, featured Bethany Roper, a member of our ward and Kiley's friend, as soloist.) I thought everything sounded great, although the reduced-in-size-but-still-loud orchestra backing Bethany in her concerto tended to drown her harp out a little. (A little amplification might have been in order, anathema though that concept may be to purists.) The photos above show (a) the entire group on stage, (b) Kiley with Bethany in the lobby following the concert, (c) Dorine, and (d) Kiley.

Kiley is in the last stages of selecting a new cello. It's essentially come down to either a Gaetano Colas or a Gunter Von Aue, although I think Kiley will settle on the Colas in the end. (The Von Aue is about 2/3 the price of the Colas -- and, in Kiley's words, it has "an amazing C string," which has kept it in the running -- but, within a certain limitation, price is not our overriding concern.) We've found, surprisingly and dismayingly for me, that the bow plays almost as big a role in the sound a stringed instrument makes as the instrument itself, so we may be upgrading there as well. We'll see.

[Update, October 12: Kiley eventually settled on a Jay Haide cello, which was more expensive than either the Colas or the Von Aue, but still in our price range. Kiley hadn't cared for the sound of the first couple of Haides that she tried out, but Robertson & Sons had two others when we went back down, both of which sounded much better to Kiley's ear. One, however, sounded more balanced in timbre and volume across all the strings, plus it seemed to suit Kiley's playing technique slightly better, so that's the one we bought. After Kiley took it to her first AYS rehearsal, I, perhaps feeling a little "proud" of the fact that we'd gotten her a better instrument, asked her if she'd received any comments from other kids in the orchestra. Instructively, her stand-mate (who, while not quite as accomplished musically as Kiley, obviously comes from a more-moneyed family) said that her 3/4 cello -- i.e., the cello she'd played as a young girl -- had been a Haide. Needless to say, that was a little deflating, but that's what I get for being smug; we simply don't swim in the same ocean as most AYS families.]

Tim Pierce, Guitarist Extraordinaire

I only recently became aware of the fact that Tim Pierce, a guitar player who grew up in Albuquerque and later played in Rick Springfield's band back in the 1980s, is still playing out in California and, in fact, is considered a studio legend. Pierce played lead guitar in Traveller, Albuquerque's finest bar band in the mid-to-late 1970s, which played at a lot of our church dances when I was in high school. (Even now, one of my favorite musical memories is Traveller playing Fleetwood Mac's "Tell Me All the Things You Do"; I remember approaching Pierce when he was on stage one time to ask which Mac album -- Kiln House, it turned out -- that song was from.) It really surprises me to know now that he and I are the same age, which means he must only have been 15 or 16 when he started playing with Traveller -- and he was good then. There are various videos on Youtube that show him playing guitar, either on stage or in his home studio (which, in the digital age, is where he does almost all of his session work). He isn't a master technician on the order of a John McLaughlin or an Eric Johnson, but his playing oozes a certain natural melodic genius; it's easy to see why he's known for being able to add the perfect guitar part to round out any tune.

[Update 9/18/09: I bought Pierce's 1994 solo album Guitarland on iTunes and now have it on my iPod. It's pretty amazing music -- understated in the main, flashy in places, and extremely tasteful throughout.]

[Update 2/13/10: I found this video on YouTube, which shows Pierce not only recording a few lead guitar parts but also talking about his career in music. It's very informative (note that he talks about liking Mutemath and Muse) -- and I guess he actually is a year older than I am, if he was twelve in 1970.]

Year-End at Work

Well, Fiscal Year 2009 is almost over at Sandia National Laboratories, and none too soon! I still have to wait until Monday to see what happens this week with the costs vs. recoveries on the "maintenance of capability" holding project that I now administer. I'm hoping to come in slightly over-recovered, so that I don't have to do much to "zero" the project out, but as my supervisor, John Brewer, says, it's like unwrapping a Christmas present and not having any idea what's inside. (Depending on which costs hit this week and who's gone on vacation, I could be $300K under-recovered, $300K over-recovered, or anywhere in between!)

I do look forward to the fall. Autumn has always been my favorite time of year -- spring without the allergies! -- and I look forward to having my "off" Fridays all to myself. (A couple of hikes and a trip to Vegas would be nice.) Dorine and I will have two new grandsons here in six weeks or so, as Heidi and Devery are both about to "undergo fission." We will have made what are, for us, significant purchases: (1) a 2001 Honda Accord, which our son-in-law Chris got for us at auction in July; (2) a new cello for Kiley (an investment that we hope will pay off in the form of a college music scholarship); and (3) passage on a Caribbean cruise in January to celebrate our 25th wedding anniversary.

I'm teaching Sunday School at church, and I've been assigned to be a veil coordinator at the temple on the "odd" weeks. (I'm already almost half-way through my two-year temple calling, although I often wish I hadn't said I'd work every week!) After Darren got home, I arranged for him, Jordan Roper, and Steven Brewer to do some "initiatory" at the temple in Spanish; I don't know how they liked it, but I enjoyed it very much -- I felt like it was the fruition of all the effort I've made to learn the ordinances in Spanish.

The Dark Side

Sometimes I can't help having very dark thoughts. I often wonder if I wasn't supposed to have died young (perhaps at my own hand), which in turn would suggest that I've been living on borrowed time for the last 30+ years. When I consider how messed-up I was in some ways as a young man -- lacking confidence or ambition -- it seems almost miraculous that I've achieved any kind of stability as an adult, in either career or marriage. Almost all of the people I knew as a teenager who had similar experiences to mine, growing up Mormon in Albuquerque, didn't stay active in the church, and, truth be told, I would have gone inactive years ago if I hadn't married Dorine. (Even now, due to my early experiences in the church, I feel incapable of achieving anything more than the Terrestrial Kingdom, regardless of my efforts or contributions. So what, really, is the point?) And if I were to choose, from scratch, a church to attend based solely on the people in it and their attitudes toward their fellow men, it's safe to say the LDS Church is possibly the last one I'd consider.

I've been pondering the idea of going to the gym and running on the treadmill to maintain some level of cardiac fitness; it's occurred to me to question just what I have to live, and stay healthy, for. In any case, I sense that my sleep disorder will cause me to die relatively young, probably due to the sort of heart issues that naturally arise from chronic insomnia. I certainly wouldn't have wanted to die while Darren was on his mission, and I think I owe it to my kids to stay alive at least long enough for all of them to find spouses and have means to live on their own. (I can remember thinking how devastating it would be for either of my parents to pass on before I had a wife and kids to live for.) I do love my wife, although I tend to wonder whether she might be happier with my life insurance proceeds and the chance to have a different kind of life. I don't even ponder the idea of retirement, simply because I don't think I'll make it that far.

So what would make life more worth living? It almost seems pointless to speculate, but.... More hiking. More camping. More physical love. More opportunities to go out of town on weekends (as so many other members of our ward do, regularly) and skip the unpleasantness of Sunday church meetings. It really wouldn't take much, but it appears happiness will always be a luxury that I can't afford.

Family Reunion in Colorado

Well, after less than a week at home, Darren had to go back to Provo to move into his apartment for fall semester at BYU, which starts today. He and I drove up on Tuesday, the 25th, and he moved into his apartment (reuniting with his old roommates David and Adam) on Wednesday. We hung out in Provo for the next couple of days, during which time I was able to see all of my brothers at least once -- including Kelly, who was recovering from back surgery and divorce. We saw Devery and Easton the first night, staying with them in their apartment; they got up early the next morning to drive to Albuquerque for a couple of days, and I continued to stay at their place in their absence.

On Friday, Darren and I drove from Provo down to Pagosa Springs, where Dorine and I had planned to have a family reunion of sorts. (Dorine's brother Don and his wife Margarita had the cabin that week, and we booked rooms in town, intending to spend time at the cabin during the day on Saturday.) I experienced a lapse of judgment and chose to drive through Grand Junction, Delta, Montrose, and Ouray, instead of taking the "normal" route through Moab, Monticello, and Cortez. Not only was it longer, distance-wise, but most of the towns we drove through in Colorado had traffic lights out the wazoo, and much of the route was mountainous (and thus slow going), and the climb south out of Ouray -- which is on a narrow, winding road with no shoulder and huge drop-offs -- nearly made me wet my pants. (I'll never make that mistake again!)

Anyway, we finally got to Pagosa at about 7:15 pm and met up with Heidi and Devery and their hubbies/kids, and later Dorine and Kiley showed up with Kristy's kids (Kristy ultimately couldn't come). On Saturday, we went to the cabin and spent some time there with Don, Margarita, and Margarita's sister Adriana. Then we drove to Treasure Falls (see photo), which is on the way to Wolf Creek Pass, and finally ended up back in Pagosa at the malt shoppe and the river. On Sunday, Devery and Easton drove Darren back to Provo -- and now he's gone...again. (Sniff!)

As is evident from the photo, both Devery and Heidi are with child, both at about 31-32 weeks along in their pregnancies, and both expecting boys.

Darren's Back!

Darren has, at long last, returned from Honduras. This video was shot by my brother-in-law Mike, although obviously he couldn't quite remember where Darren had served his mission. Darren's homecoming was an emotional experience for all, especially since his flight from Miami to Dallas was almost two hours late and there was a lot of doubt whether he'd make his connecting flight from DFW to Albuquerque. However, he got here all right, even if his luggage was left stranded in Dallas. I am extremely thankful that he made it out of Honduras without difficulty.

Me as a Senior in High School, Spring 1977

My mother took this photo of me right after I bought my Gibson SG electric guitar, just a few weeks before my high school graduation in 1977. I knew at that point that I was headed to BYU for college, and it was at about that time that I allowed myself to be talked into starting school in the summer, living with my brother Kelly and his wife and infant son at a small apartment complex in Provo called the "Hacienda," which I can't even place now. (It was located, I'd guess, at about 400 North and 200 East.) In retrospect, it was a mistake to leave home that soon after graduation, even though it did help bridge the gap between living at home and being on my own that fall.

This is the quintessential me as a teenager -- skinny as a rail; hair parted in the middle (sort of); wearing Levi's super-bells, Tiger (later ASICS) running shoes, and my favorite knit shirt; hanging out at home; sitting on the third of my dad's four Ford LTDs; and holding a guitar. I can't remember if I liked any particular girl at that time, although I had ongoing crushes on a couple of girls (one a cheerleader, the other a gymnast) at my high school, neither of whom I ever addressed in conversation.

Ft. Stanton Cave

Today I was pressed into duty, on two days' notice, to guide our 11-year-old scouts through the upper main passage of Ft. Stanton Cave. (Steve Plimpton, who had secured the permit and was to be the tour leader, had a bicycle accident this week in which he separated a shoulder, and I was at hand.) The route we took was pretty casual, as we went down the main passage, past Crystal Crawl (see photo), to the Lunch Room and then back out. (In the end I decided to steer clear of "Skinner's Squeeze" and what I refer to as the "Big Muddy" passage -- through which very long, beautiful extensions of the cave, including one called "Snowy River," have been discovered in recent years.) However, the kids all seemed to eat it up.

Going on this overnight trip were Andy Greenwood, our scoutmaster (and de facto 11-year-old scout leader, since we currently have no active deacon-age boys in our ward), Adam Greenwood, Ray Mocho, Lucas Smathers, and Onesimo Chavez. The cave is about 170 miles from Albuquerque and lies about five or six miles east of the town of Capitan.

Random Thoughts, Part 2

1. Menstruation is often referred to as "the curse," something that we men, obviously, don't have to deal with at any time in our lives. On the other hand, I've become convinced that there is a male "curse," which really only manifests itself later in life. It is simply that we retain so much of our youthful libidos way past our "shelf life" as sexual creatures. I wonder how much more agreeable life would be if our hormones diminished at the same rate as those of women in general....

2. I had a conversation recently with my father-in-law in which it became clear to me that membership in the LDS Church used to carry with it a much-stronger "brand" or sense of identity. It lay largely in the various sorts of recreational and social activities that used to be commonplace throughout the church: dance festivals, sports programs (including all-church tournaments), theatrical productions, the annual "Gold and Green" Ball, roadshows, the "Singing Mothers," regular ward and stake socials, etc. Somehow, in the push to strip church membership to its essentials (which is perfectly comprehensible in light of the growth of the church in the last two generations), that sense of identity has gone by the boards in large measure. Moreover, I'm not sure it's something that could be recovered at this juncture -- if, for example, someone in Albuquerque had the idea to stage a Mormon-themed musical like Promised Valley (as happened locally back in the early 1960s...my father had the male lead role for one of the performances), I'm highly doubtful that there would be much interest in it, from either an acting perspective or an audience perspective. Simply put, members like me are now so accustomed to seeking out their own recreational activities that social events at church (to the extent they still happen) tend to seem bothersome and annoying. And yet it was the social and athletic activities that once provided one of the church's primary missionary "hooks," especially for families.

3. I'm still somewhat mystified by the Obama administration's support of ousted Honduran president Mel Zelaya. The Honduran government has three supposedly co-equal branches, and the congress and the supreme court acted in concert to remove Zelaya from office for clear and blatant violations of the Honduran constitution. In fact, that document states that a president who takes any overt action toward changing the presidential term limit stated therein automatically forfeits his office, so by Honduran law Zelaya had, technically, already ceased to be president! So why, precisely, is our government so insistent about restoring him to office -- treating him as though he were the very embodiment of Honduran democracy -- and about not recognizing the new president, Roberto Micheletti? And why have our mainstream media been publishing a stream of stories about supposed agreements to reinstate Zelaya, when the Honduran government has apparently assented to no such thing? Does the rule of law have no meaning for "the big Oh" and his sycophants? The implications are positively scary.... (In the meantime, I keep thinking, "Let the stalemate continue for two-and-a-half more weeks, until Darren comes home!")

4. I've long since concluded that Democrats and others on the left are fundamentally unserious about their twin pet causes of combating "climate change" and "reforming" the country's health-care system (with the supposed aim of driving down costs). How do I know? First, no one thing would serve to lower (or at least limit) man-made CO2 emissions -- while serving the energy needs of the American people -- more than the immediate construction of dozens of nuclear power plants. Yet nobody in Congress would ever suggest such a thing. And second, two of the principal reasons why health care is so expensive in the U.S. are (a) the practice of what some have called "defensive" medicine -- the ordering of multitudinous tests and procedures to attempt to limit exposure to malpractice liability -- and (b) "jackpot" jury verdicts (or the threat thereof) in malpractice cases, the cost of which is generally absorbed by insurance companies and passed on in the form of higher premiums. Yet none of the various health-care bills floating through committee on Capitol Hill mentions anything about tort reform, because it would do damage to trial lawyers, a major Democrat constituency and source of donations. I understand it was H.L. Mencken who said, "The urge to save humanity is always a false front for the urge to rule it," which pretty much sums up my opinion of the Democratic agenda in this Congress.

The BYU 65th Branch, 1977-78

I just received the attached photo from my friend Jeff Aldous, which dates back to roughly September 1977. At first I thought it was a photo of the guys from the 7th Floor of "T" Hall in Deseret Towers at BYU; however, then I realized that some of these guys actually lived on the 6th Floor, so it must have been intended to be a photo of all the males in the BYU 65th Branch. (The 65th Branch encompassed the 6th and 7th Floors of "T" Hall for the guys, and both the 2nd Floor of "Q" Hall [at D.T.] and all of Young Hall [in Heritage Halls] on the girls' side. It held church meetings at Wasatch Elementary School on 900 East in Provo.) There were upwards of ninety guys in the branch, so the turnout obviously wasn't overwhelming for the photo shoot (I suspect I was in class or at the library); however, I still remember a lot of these fellows. My roommate, Bob Maes, is on the far right of the back row. Our buddies (and fellow KNOBs) Jeff Aldous and Galen Kekauoha are at the far right of the front row and third from the right in the middle row, respectively. Scott Hansen, who was Chuck Canfield's roommate (and sort of an "adjunct" KNOB), is on Jeff's right.

At the time, Bob's family lived on the west side in Albuquerque; Jeff was from Metairie, Louisiana; Galen was from Los Angeles; and Scott, like Chuck, was from Magna, Utah. Deseret Towers has now been completely razed (with the exception of the Morris Center [a/k/a the "Morbid Center," or the "Morose Center"], which once served as D.T.'s cafeteria, offices, and all-around gathering place, but which is now sort of a conference center), the thought of which brings a bit of a tear to my eyes. I was much too psycho about school ever to have had much fun during my freshman year; I think I went on two, maybe three, dates all year, one of which was a blind date to a stake dance, also at Wasatch Elementary, with the friend of a friend of Bryan Whatley, the guy on Galen's left in the photo. (If memory serves, Bryan was from somewhere in Oregon, as were his friend and her friend -- cute girl! -- who were just visiting in Provo.)

July 2009 Utah Trip

Dorine, Kiley, and I took Dorine's dad Lynn Wilson up to Utah on Monday, July 20, and we stayed in Grantsville with Dorine's brother Brian and his wife Dona, until today, Sunday, July 26. (Lynn is staying another week and will fly home.) This was really Dorine and Lynn's trip, and, as it turned out, I didn't really get to visit with my brothers, although we did get to spend quite a lot of time with Devery and Easton. On Tuesday, I got to go out to lunch with my friend (and ex-BYU roommate) Bob Maes, and then I spent a couple of hours with him at his office while Dorine and Lynn went around visiting Dorine's aunts Afton Woffinden and Frances Wilson. Later, we went to see Lynn's brother Bob Wilson (and his wife Marilu) in Holladay before going out to eat at the Marie Callender's restaurant on 3900 South; this was the first time I'd been at that particular Marie Callender's since Dorine and I ate there during our honeymoon in December 1984. Later that night, after we'd returned to Grantsville, it was decided to go down to the Maverik service station at the other end of town to get fountain drinks. I'd already taken an Ambien tablet to go to sleep, but I didn't think it would take effect very soon, so I drove. I was okay on the way out, but I started losing my faculties on the return trip, and I nearly ran over several mailboxes and a fire hydrant when turning around at the end of the cul-de-sac (before parking first on the curb and then out in the street). I think I can say with some assurance that it will be the only time in my life that I'll be "guilty" of DUI! Needless to say, I was the object of quite a bit of twitting after that.

On Wednesday, a bunch of us went to the open house at the new Oquirrh Mountain Temple (located in South Jordan near the intersection of Bangerter Highway and 11400 South -- see photo above). The group included (L-R) me, Devery, Easton, Kiley, Lynn, Dorine, Brian, and Brian's daughters Rhea and Olivia. Dorine happened to see my brother Roger and his wife Lynnea (and Lynnea's daughters Jenna and Andrea) there -- they went through with the group after us, but we were able to communicate by cell phone (not while we were inside the temple) and arrange to meet at a nearby Quizno's after the tour. It turned out to be the only time I actually saw any of my brothers on this trip, although I did talk to Kelly and Robin on the phone. Afterward, we drove Devery and Easton back to Provo, deciding to take the "back" route (through Lehi and past Sarasota Springs and Eagle Mountain) to return to Grantsville. That resulted in our biggest adventure of the trip, as we missed both of the two turns that would have taken us to Grantsville (while bypassing Tooele); consequently, we ended up at the Dugway Proving Ground, having to explain to the guards at the gate how we'd gotten lost, and then having to take the "long" way around, via I-80, to get to Grantsville ninety minutes later than expected.

On Thursday, Dorine and I went and did an endowment session at the Salt Lake Temple, which I believe was the first time I'd been to that temple in upwards of twenty years. (I'd almost forgotten what it was like to do a "live" session!) Kiley was able to do proxy baptisms there at that same time with her cousins Rhea and Linsey, after which they went to the Joseph Smith Building and the Gateway Mall, where we picked them up later.

On Friday, the big event was our going to see a matinee showing of the new Harry Potter movie in Tooele, and yesterday, Saturday, Brian and Dona conscripted their home teacher into providing his collection of kayaks (along with his trailer and his person) for a family outing at a reservoir near Grantsville (see photos). Devery and Easton had Friday (Pioneer Day in Utah) off work, and they came up and spent a couple of nights with us at Brian and Dona's house, so they were there for Harry Potter and the lake. Kiley, who didn't want to go to Utah in the first place (and who complained mightily for much of the time we were there), took along her cello and spent a lot of time practicing her Youth Symphony music in preparation for camp next week at Hummingbird Music Camp in the Jemez.

Now I get to go back to work. Oh joy!

My Dream Guitars

Here they are -- the guitars I would buy if money were no object. One, a shell pink Fender Stratocaster. (The one pictured was made in Japan; perhaps, if I were rich, I'd order a custom-made American Stratocaster, but it would have to be in shell pink -- man, I love that color!) Two, a Gretsch Double Jet. (The one pictured was made in Korea; again, if I were rich, I'd probably buy an American-made model, but I love the silver-flake finish.) Three, a Martin D-45 acoustic guitar. (The D-45 was the Cadillac of mass-produced acoustic guitars in my youth; nowadays, there are other brands that sell for as much or more than Martins, but I still feel partial to the D-45.) And four, a Gibson Les Paul Standard. (I would finally indulge my teenage dream of owning what most people still regard as the ultimate rock 'n' roll guitar. I might waver between a flamed sunburst finish or a gold-top finish [as pictured here], but it would have to have the standard-size humbucking pickups and cream-colored trim.)

Future Missionaries at Philmont, 2004

This picture is now five years old. It was taken on June 30, 2004 in Pueblano Camp at the Philmont Scout Ranch near Cimarron, New Mexico. Jordan Roper, the kid sitting to my left in the green shirt, just returned last Saturday from his church mission in Los Angeles, where his assigned areas ran the gamut from Compton to Malibu. (Jordan and I both spoke in sacrament meeting last Sunday -- boy, was he a tough act to follow!) My son Darren, the one in the middle with the camo pants and hoodie, now has only five weeks left on his mission in Honduras, which, given the current political situation there, are bound to be the longest thirty-five days of my life. Curtis Twitchell, the blond kid in the brown shirt, is now eight months into his mission in Peru, although now it appears likely that he will soon move over to Bolivia (the country he was originally called to) as the church starts sending gringos back there.

Looking at this photo makes me remember just what a good time we had at Philmont in 2004. Our crew got along extremely well together, and we wrung just about all the fun out of our trek that there was to be had. I want to go backpacking again soon!

More of My Favorite 60s Music

Sleep Disordered, Part (yawn)

I hesitate to devote yet another post to my ongoing sleep woes, in large part because of all the wishful thinking incorporated into my previous posts on the subject, but I am trying a few new things. One, I'm currently taking Temazepam every other night, except that it will probably work out to three times a week, with my taking it on Sunday, Tuesday, and Thursday nights. On the other nights I've been taking a whole cocktail of over-the-counter supplements or meds: melatonin, L-Ornithine, Valerian root, and diphenhydramine hydrochloride (i.e., benadryl). This "OTC cocktail" produces some fairly profound drowsiness while at the same time not inducing sleep, at least immediately, which is a strange sensation to say the least.

Moreover, even when I finally fall asleep on my "OTC cocktail," I haven't been staying asleep for longer than three-plus hours, and then I lie awake the rest of the night. I can't blame that on swallowing air from the "VPAP Adapt SV" machine, because I reduced the "EEP" (End Expiratory Pressure) setting on it from 10.0 to 6.0, which immediately alleviated the air-swallowing problem. (I've since raised the "EEP" gradually to try to find the point at which I start swallowing air again, and that seems to be right at or near 8.0; last night I set it at 7.6, which seems to be the maximum I can tolerate before I start swallowing what feels like gallons of air; I guess I'll find out over time how much of a breathing aid the machine really is for me at that setting.)

I'm also trying some "cognitive behavior therapy" (CBT) techniques to see if I can develop better, balanced (and hence more positive) thought patterns respecting sleep. I'm working on becoming more-optimistic that my "OTC cocktail" can take the place of heavier meds like Temazepam, and that I can ultimately drop the antihistamine ingredient in it and rely wholly on its herbal constituents. I would certainly consider it an acceptable long-term result to be able to sleep 6-7 hours on most nights through (a) using the "VPAP Adapt SV" at a setting that causes me to swallow only a minimal amount of air, and (b) taking only melatonin, Valerian root, and L-Ornithine.

I'm wary, for several reasons, of taking prescription sleep meds on an indefinite basis. One, it's not a pleasant feeling to be dependent on them, especially when various people (e.g., pharmacists, insurance reps) seem to regard you as only one small step removed from being, say, a tweaker or a crack addict. Two, most of them are controlled substances, which makes it dicey to get prescriptions for them in the first place. And three, it's easy to develop a tolerance for them and to require larger doses of them to get the same effect. Herbal remedies don't pose any of these concerns -- if I can get to the point where they help me sleep more than they do currently. However, that will require that I get my mind working for me instead of against me, which is where CBT enters into the picture.

Now we'll see....

Happenings in Honduras

Well, our hope that Darren would come home from Honduras without having to deal with civil unrest there has gone unfulfilled. The Honduran military, acting under order of the Honduran Supreme Court, ousted President Manuel Zelaya yesterday and carted him off to Costa Rica, igniting a great deal of controversy in the region. Predictably, the Obama administration immediately condemned the action, citing concerns about "democracy" and "constitutional order" in Honduras when it was obvious to anyone with half a brain that Zelaya was doing his chavista best to subvert those very notions, and that the legislative and judicial branches of the Honduran government weren't simply going to sit by and let him do it. (It's telling that Zelaya's successor in office is a member of his [Zelaya's] own party!) Just why else would a close ally of Crazy Hugo (not to mention of "Compa" Fidel) attempt to force a referendum on the question of abolishing presidential term limits -- when the Honduran constitution expressly provides that only the Congress has the power to initiate such a referendum (actually, due to the nature of the change, I understand it would require a full-blown constitutional convention) -- if he weren't angling to become another socialist "president for life"? I doubt that the Obama administration will use any real clout to try to get Zelaya reinstated, but what worries me is that Crazy Hugo is just crazy enough to start a regional war with precisely that aim in mind.

Of course, all of this is of secondary concern to me after Darren's safety. We received a call from his mission home yesterday after the ouster, and we were told that all of the missionaries have been ordered to stay in their apartments for the time being. It's conceivable that an emergency evacuation of American missionaries will be necessary, and in that case it is likely that Darren would simply come home earlier than planned. I can't say I'd complain about that, but it would be a disappointment to Darren, who truly has loved his time in Honduras.

Bouldering at U-Mound, II

This video shows me doing the left side of the "Brett and Jill" boulder at U-Mound in the Sandia foothills on June 27, 2009. (I was there on an outing with the 11-year-old scouts in our ward.) I hadn't climbed it in a while, so I was a little "sketchy" -- hence my having to grab the edge of the arete at one point, a move that turns what is otherwise a V1 problem (steeper than it looks from this angle) into a V0 problem. But at least I can still get up the thing. What strikes me most about this clip is the fact that I'm not quite as flabby, at least when viewed from behind, as I tend to think of myself. Watching this video also causes me to realize what limited range of motion (due to bone structure -- not, say, arthritis) I have in my hips, which explains why my running stride is so short and choppy, and why my footwork, when rockclimbing, tends to be less-than-optimal.

South Peak Hike, 6/26/09

John Brewer and I finally got to do the South Peak hike today that we've been talking about for some time. It turned out to be a pretty brutal route. We started at Canyon Estates up near the village of Tijeras, hiking up the South Crest Trail to the junction with the Upper Faulty Trail, which also marks the beginning of the CCC "route," an extremely steep trail that traces a pretty direct path to the South Peak area. That took a lot more out of me than I expected, as I was having to stop every 75-100 yards to let my heart rate go down. The Sandia hiking guide says that CCC "route" is only 1.8 miles from end to end, but John and I have a running joke going about "Forest Service miles" and how they always seem to understate the actual distance. (Anyone who's read Norman Maclean will know what I'm talking about.) From there we hiked up to South Peak, where we ate lunch and then dropped down off the back through the hidden little canyon there that has a thick stand of aspens. Then we descended the west side of the mountain, taking the Embudito Trail to Oso Pass and then heading west on the ridge route (or "Whitewash" Trail) all the way down to the top of Menaul Blvd. In many ways, the hike down was almost as hard as the hike up the back side, but we wanted a challenging hike and definitely found one; however, in the end I had a great time. The photos above show (a) me striking an heroic pose on South Peak, (b) the view northwest from South Peak, (c) me in the aforementioned aspen grove just off the back side of South Peak, and (d) John on the spur trail leading to South Peak.

National Public Radio

I got into the habit some years ago of listening to "Morning Edition" on National Public Radio (NPR) for twenty to twenty-five minutes every work day (i.e., while shaving, showering, and grooming in the mornings). NPR's news coverage gets a bit of a bad rap from a lot of conservatives for having a liberal bias. Some of that bad rap is justified in my opinion, but "Morning Edition" is diligent about presenting both sides of a lot of issues, anyway. On the other hand, a bland style of delivery (which NPR can afford, due to its being heavily subsidized by the federal government) isn't quite the same thing as complete objectivity. And, as many have pointed out, a news organization can be just as biased in terms of the stories it chooses to cover (or ignore) as it is in how it presents those stories. But I have to say that the one thing that drives me to distraction when listening to "Morning Edition" is NPR's utterly uncritical acceptance of the notion that increasing levels of human-generated carbon dioxide are warming the Earth and rapidly rendering it uninhabitable -- when, in the last ten years, CO2 emissions have continued to rise but global temperatures have not followed suit. In that light, one would think that a news organization without an agenda would at least start to ask questions around the margins of the accepted dogma!

Late June Family Update

Not much is happening right now, but I thought I'd write down a few things. Darren is now less than eight weeks away from coming home from Honduras, and the excitement I'm feeling is already growing unbearable. We've talked to Kiley about possibly getting her into a better cello in hopes that she'll practice hard this next school year and win a college music scholarship somewhere. She's still trying to decompress somewhat from her trip to Australia (see photo). Devery and Easton are still living in Provo, and now Easton has begun a summer internship with Oakland Construction in Salt Lake City -- which means that both of them are commuting by bus for the time being. (I mentioned to Devery the idea of their moving to SLC for the summer, but she didn't think it was feasible since they'd just have to move back to Provo when it came time for Easton to start fall semester at BYU.) They found out that the baby Devery's carrying is a boy, and the name they've tentatively selected for him is "Mason."

Heidi and Dion are still here in Albuquerque, and Dion's son Nolan is living with them for the summer. Kayla is now two-and-a-half, and Heidi, like Devery, has found out that she's carrying a baby boy (tentatively named "Tyler"); thus we'll have two more grandsons come October or November. Kristy and Chris are still living in our ward, and Chris's car-repair shop (which he operates with his friend John) has continued to do good business. Chris now has his car-dealer's license, and their plan is to acquire cars cheaply at the auctions, fix them up, and sell them. Nicole is about to start high school; Zach is currently playing on his Little League all-star team; Alexis will be going into first grade; and Maddy and Hailee are both walking now.

I continue to struggle with sleeping at night. I'm taking Temazepam every other night now, but the nights in between have been a marked contrast, and the usual over-the-counter remedies -- diphenhydramine hydrochloride, Valerian root, L-Ornithine, melatonin -- don't even come close to having the effect of a good prescription sedative. I'm experimenting with the settings on my "VPAP Adapt SV" machine, hoping to find a happy medium between (a) not swallowing so much air that I become nauseous, and (b) not gaining sufficient benefit from the machine, in terms of addressing my sleep-apnea issues, to justify using it.

On a happy note, I plan to go hiking in the Sandia Mountains this Friday, and I look forward to traversing the mountain, from east to west, by a relatively untraveled route -- up the "CCC" Trail and down the "Whitewash" Trail -- visiting South Peak on the way.

"Well, that explains a lot...."

The following comes from the Mayo Clinic website:

Narcissistic personality disorder is a mental disorder in which people have an inflated sense of their own importance and a deep need for admiration. They believe that they're superior to others and have little regard for other people's feelings. But behind this mask of ultra-confidence lies a fragile self-esteem, vulnerable to the slightest criticism.

This definition sure seems to describe a fair number of people of my acquaintance! I read where someone described narcissism as a very labor-intensive sort of condition: in short, its exemplars find it necessary to spend vast amounts of time and energy reinforcing their aggrandized image of self at the expense of, shall we say, "healthier" avocations and relationships in general. Someone else called these people "emotional vampires" -- I'd probably use a more graphic metaphor to describe them, but it serves to illustrate why they should be avoided, even if some of them are victims of a mental disorder that possibly is beyond their control.

[Update 5/19/10: I was just thinking about how people in the "mainstream" (i.e., leftoid) press were accusing Sarah Palin of having NPD after I wrote this post. I've never seen a clearer case of projection in my life -- if anything, it's the media who think they're superior to others and whose self-esteem crumbles under the slightest criticism.]

[Update 12/1/10: I read today that NPD, along with four other personality disorders previously recognized as such, will be omitted from the new DSM-V when it's published in 2013; I guess narcissism is the new "normal."  Jim Taranto of the Wall Street Journal's "Opinion Journal" website has implied that he believes the timing of this omission is not coincidental given the current occupant of the White House.  All I know is that the vast majority of the people I know who display the characteristics of NPD have significantly left-of-center political viewpoints, and they certainly regard themselves as normal, however nutty and unpleasant they appear to others.]

Kiley in Australia

Kiley is back from her Australia trip now, having had a great time with the other kids from the Albuquerque Youth Symphony. They performed a total of five concerts while "down under," including a charity fundraiser in the Sydney Opera House (see the group picture, above, taken across the harbor from the opera house -- Kiley is eighth from the right on the bottom row). Their itinerary was ultimately modified drastically due to predictably overblown concerns about the spread of "H1N1" influenza, which barred them from staying with Aussie families as was originally planned, but that meant they had time for additional tourist-y types of activities. One of the things they had planned to do, anyway, was to visit the Currumbin Wildlife Sanctuary, where the kids got to pose for pictures with a koala (see other photo, above). Overall, it was an expensive trip, but I'm glad Kiley got to have such memorable experiences.

As I expected, Kiley did make AYS again for next school year, although the group's three-year "tour rotation" will have them doing only a "regional" tour next spring, probably staying somewhere within the Four Corner states. (They do a "national" tour in the second year and an "international" tour in the third year.) Coincidentally, whereas the entire group (so far as we know) had "only" four LDS church members this last year, next year's cello section alone will have four LDS kids in it.

More On Our Colorado Trip

Here are a few more photos from our trip: (1) Dorine, Judy, Mike, and I at the Strawberry Park Hot Springs complex near Steamboat Springs, CO; (2) Mike and I at the Continental Divide on the Trail Ridge Road in Rocky Mountain National Park; (3) me at the Stanley Hotel in Estes Park, CO with a display of photos from the ABC miniseries production of The Shining, in which the hotel was featured prominently (and which I own on DVD -- the commentary on the DVD set indicates that the Stanley was where Stephen King actually conceived the story line for his book [notwithstanding the disclaimer he put in the introduction to the book], which I think is cool); (4) a pair of elk grazing in someone's front yard in Estes Park; (5) outside our suite at the Worldmark resort in Steamboat Springs; and (6) Dorine and I in front of the Stanley Hotel.

[Update 12/22/10: I might also add that the Stanley Hotel was featured in the movie Dumb and Dumber.  It -- at least the exterior, and I don't know about the "interior" shots -- is the hotel where Jim Carrey and Jeff Daniels stay when they get to "Aspen."]

Trip to Colorado with Mike and Judy

We're currently on vacation with Mike and Judy P_______ in Colorado. We first spent two nights in Red River, New Mexico, and right now we're in Steamboat Springs, Colorado; we'll spend a total of three nights here, and then we'll stay two nights in Estes Park, Colorado before heading home on Friday. It's been a fun trip so far -- we haven't done a whole lot, but just being able to get away from it all and relax means a lot to me these days. In Red River, we got to see a "classic car" show, which was cool, and we drove down to Taos, saw the Rio Grande Gorge Bridge (see photo above), and shopped and ate lunch. The drive up to Steamboat Springs was longer than I expected; we actually were snowed on in Leadville, Colorado while en route. Today we went to go see Fish Creek Falls, and we saw the town botanical garden; we'll probably find a hot spring to soak in either this evening or tomorrow. Kiley is in Australia at present, and from what we've been able to gather so far, she's having a good time.

The photos above show: (1) Mike walking on the Rio Grande Gorge Bridge (near Taos, NM -- where an important sequence of the most-recent Terminator movie was filmed); (2) Dorine and I on a bridge in Red River; (3) the four of us at Fish Creek Falls near Steamboat Springs; and (4) Dorine and I at the Steamboat Springs "Botanic Garden."

Darren's Last Area?

Darren is now serving in a part of Tegucigalpa (or Comayagüela -- I'm never quite sure where the line of demarcation is between the two) called "Country" (pronounced "cone-tree"), and his companion is a hard-working Guatemalan named Elder Polanco. This could very well be Darren's last area before he comes home; he wanted to serve in another small town before he finished, but possibly not at the cost of moving again so soon. His reports indicate that he and Elder Polanco currently have quite a few good investigators, and I'm sure he'd be happy to finish his mission with a few (or a bunch of) additional converts. This photo shows his district. Top (L-R): Darren, Elder Polanco, Elder Chuquimia, Elder Prescott; Bottom (L-R): Hermana Medal, Hermana Hernández. (Is it just me, or do those sister missionaries seem a little too attractive?)

[Update: I've been advised, with a chuckle and an elbow in the ribs, that just about any woman in her early 20s looks attractive to a 50-year-old man. Maybe so!]