Think More Better!

I went to Hill Field Elementary School during my childhood.  Each grade from kindergarten through 6 th  grade had three classes.  While I really had no complaints about the teachers that I had during those formative years, I always seemed to be assigned to the one teacher each year that did not take their students on a field trip.  My siblings all went on at least one field trip each year at the same school.  I even pleaded with my Mom to write a note allowing me to skip my class for a day so I could go on a field trip with a different teacher.  My Mom would reassure me that sooner or later I would get to go on a field trip with my own class.  Part of wanting to go on a field trip stemmed from my desire to ride in a school bus.  I had never ridden in one of those iconic big yellow buses, and I felt deprived.  Of course, the other reason was to skip a day of school and have some fun! Years came and went, and I was assigned to Mr. Mellor’s 6 ...

Twelve and thirteen-year-old boys are the goofiest creatures on planet earth.  I should know.  I was one.  From birth to age five, boys are cute and wonderful.  By age twelve, they have devolved into adolescent freaks of nature.  Me?  I was buck-toothed and wore thick-rimmed glasses on my hulking seventy-pound frame.  My metal-braced teeth entered rooms inches before the rest of my face.  Awkward doesn’t begin to describe me at that age.  The only hope for a twelve-year-old is that time will propel him on to manhood.  At age twelve I belonged to a scout troop in Utah that was connected to our ecclesiastical unit, or ward .  A man on military assignment moved into our ward.  I’ll call him Buck Baker.  I’ve changed his name to protect the guilty.  He was appointed to a leadership position in our clergy.  In his civilian occupation he was a f...

We live in troubling times my friend.  Yes, these are times of political woes, violence, wars, economic crisis and TV shows like the Bachelorette.  Perhaps even more concerning than all of this is the recent financial woes of Hostess Brands Inc.  On January 11, 2012, Hostess filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection to confront burdensome debt and labor costs that the Twinkies and Wonder Bread baker says have left it fighting to compete. HOW COULD THIS BE?!?!  The Hostess web site ( http://www.hostesscakes.com/ ) indicates that approximately 500,000,000 Twinkies are produced each year.  In addition to Twinkies, Hostess has come up with more home runs in the form of Ding Dongs, Cup Cakes, Zingers, and other tasty morsels made from magical ingredients that preserve the snack cakes in pristine condition for years.  I believe Twinkies have a half-life longer than Plutonium 239.  For the record, I want the world to know that I am  not  perso...

This summer, on the Fourth of July weekend I went spelunking.  That’s  cave exploring  for the uninitiated.  This was no ordinary cave we decided to tackle.  My brother and his friend came up from Texas to Idaho so they could join in the adventure.  Six more of my closest friends also came along and I want to give them due credit in this blog.  Their names are Joseph, David and some other guys I can’t recall.  We spent weeks preparing for this expedition.  By “weeks” I mean we thought about how cool this was going to be for weeks, and then we bought some food the morning of the expedition.   Actually, we did have to secure a permit, gather rappelling gear and pack critical supplies like toilet paper.  The plan was to drive to the trailhead just inside the Wyoming border, hike to the entrance of the cave, enter the cave, work our way to a distant exit some 5-7 hours later, hike down the mountain and drive home.  There are fi...