Christmas Guest

I hope you have a Christmas guest...


Merry Christmas from Plumb and Square!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy Thanksgiving! May God bless you and keep your families safe.

Here are some good Thanksgiving Day quotes

Thanksgiving is a season that is very much in accord with the themes and teachings of Jesus Christ.
John Clayton

To give thanks in solitude is enough. Thanksgiving has wings and goes where it must go. Your prayer knows much more about it than you do.
Victor Hugo

Christians were instructed to serve others, and the thanksgiving was for the grace of God and the fact that God offered a way for man to return to a positive relationship with Him.
John Clayton

My whole problem is that all of my favorite things at Thanksgiving are the starches, and everyone is trying to go low-carb this year, even a green vegetable has carbs in it.
Ted Allen

My cooking is so bad my kids thought Thanksgiving was to commemorate Pearl Harbor.
Phyllis Diller

If you think Independence Day is America's defining holiday, think again. Thanksgiving deserves that title, hands-down.
Tony Snow

Thanksgiving dinners take eighteen hours to prepare. They are consumed in twelve minutes. Half-times take twelve minutes. This is not coincidence.
Erma Bombeck

Gratitude is the inward feeling of kindness received. Thankfulness is the natural impulse to express that feeling. Thanksgiving is the following of that impulse.
Henry Van Dyke

A lot of Thanksgiving days have been ruined by not carving the turkey in the kitchen.
Kin Hubbard

Dear Lord; we beg but one boon more: Peace in the hearts of all men living, peace in the whole world this Thanksgiving.
Joseph Auslander

I celebrated Thanksgiving in an old-fashioned way. I invited everyone in my neighborhood to my house, we had an enormous feast, and then I killed them and took their land.
Jon Stewart

It's like being at the kids' table at Thanksgiving - you can put your elbows on it, you don't have to talk politics... no matter how old I get, there's always a part of me that's sitting there.
John Hughes

My favorite meal is turkey and mashed potatoes. I love Thanksgiving, it's just my favorite. I can have Thanksgiving all year round.
Cindy Margolis

Thanksgiving, man. Not a good day to be my pants.
Kevin James

Thanksgiving is a time when the world gets to see just how blessed and how workable the Christian system is. The emphasis is not on giving or buying, but on being thankful and expressing that appreciation to God and to one another.
John Clayton

There is one day that is ours. Thanksgiving Day is the one day that is purely American.
O. Henry

Amendment 62

This amendment to Colorado's Constitution states the term "person" shall apply to every human being from the beginning of the biological development of that human being. So essentially you have the right to life and be not aborted.

I am a pro-life guy, to me it is a simple choice. The opposite of pro life to me is anti-life or death (one of the reasons I am not to fond of the death penalty either, but that discussion is for another time). I don't believe we as humans need to be making those choices. Those choices should be left to God.

There is the argument about health of the mother, rape, and incest and how the family will not have a "choice" to abort the baby in those cases. Less than 1% of abortions are because of those reasons. The answer to me simple if God wants a baby to be born, he makes one we do not.

For me and my family we will be to voting YES on Amendment 62.

Craftsmen of Honor - Chi-Chi-Chi-le-le-le

This month's Craftsmen of Honor goes to the 33 Chilean miners and their rescuers. The miners were underground for 69 days and at least at first were living off meager rations, in cramped quarters. At first the miners had to be wondering if they would ever be found. Once they were found they had to ponder their fate even as they rose up in the rescue capsule. Those miners working as a team for those 69 days, not knowing your own fate, is truly honorable.

The rescuers also deserve this award. There were hundreds (thousands?) involved all over the world to free the miners. This was truly remarkable how many people with many different skills and cultures did everything they could to free these men.

A special honor of note: Manuel Gonzalez was the first rescuer to be lowered into the mine via the rescue capsule and he was the last man pulled from the mine. It takes incredible courage and honor to be lowered via an untested capsule, 1/2 mile down a newly drilled hole, not knowing if you you will survive or the rescue, all to save your fellow man.

Watching the men as they arrived at the surface was an awesome sight to see. One in particular choked me up a bit. The second man removed from the mine, Mario Sepúlveda got to the surface and went into a bag he brought up with him from the mine and started pulling out rocks and giving them to his rescuers and the Chilean President. All I thought was this man has given them all he could give, all he had was rocks and he gave them to the rescuers. A very touching site.

The last thing that I noticed as I watched the rescue efforts through out the day was the patriotism of the miners, their families and the rescuers. I don't think I could have seen any better examples of honoring God, family, then country. I know much will be written about this event (as should be) but let me start by saying...

Chi-Chi-Chi-le-le-le

Larry Hunt October 12, 1921 - September 28, 1981

Today I drift away from politics and into the personal for a post. If you have noticed there is a Black Panther on the right side of the blog page. That is the unit that my grandfather was a member during World War 2. If you click on that picture you can read a post I wrote about an event which happened to his unit during the war.

Everybody has a mentor and some sort of hero. Larry Hunt (Grandpa) was mine. I was very young when he passed away, but I still think WWGD (What Would Grandpa Do?) when I make decisions.

Grandpa was very quite and a very hard worker. He was wounded on June 20th just after the war with Europe was over. He was wounded by an accidental shooting in the barracks while a fellow Panther was cleaning his rifle.

Grandpa was an Ombudsman for Public Service (remember Public Service?) and when he wasn't working or "on call" with them he hauled oil to and from Brush, Colorado and Denver. In his "spare time" he was a volunteer fire fighter. He never stopped. Ever.

I was always in awe of the work he did. I've seen him shimmy up a power pole in seconds with spikes to install a light. He gave me a personalized trip to the yard where his truck was stored. I got the privileged to ride with him in his truck from the parking space to the fueling pumps. It wasn't a long trip but a good one.

On the weekends when he wasn't working, and I am sure exhausted, He would take "naps" in on the living room floor. He would rest his head in his arms, his knees on the floor and his grand kids would slide down his back.

I remember a move my family made from Montrose to Sterling (about 400 miles). It was the middle of winter. Grandpa drove that U-Haul truck over Monarch Pass in the snow to Sterling. We unloaded the truck and he drove it back to Montrose the same day. I was in awe.

So this is just a post to say Happy Birthday Grandpa, I miss you.

Virginia Ironside - OK to smother child

Talk about a moon bat. This lady seems to think that it is OK to smother your child with a pillow if it was really suffering.



I just can't resist saying my piece here. First off, children are not "just a couple of cells" as this nut job says. They are people, and more importantly YOUR CHILDREN!

If you actually thought that the murder of your child was the correct thing to do to stop their suffering, why would you use the method of murder that causes the most suffering?

The third thing I would like to note is the reporter actually did some reporting, stopping her introduction of another guest to ask additional questions of moon bat lady. American reporters would just "gloss over" the statement.

Lastly a question of you mothers out there; how many of you could smother your child with a pillow? This lady thinks "any good mother would". 

They are playing our song - Happy Anniversary

Eight years ago today the love of my life became my bride....

Plumb and Square News

Over the past 10 days or so life has kinda got in the way of blogging. It has been both good and bad...

To begin with; our water heater went out causing me to buy and install a new one (I looked for the one that released the most greenhouse gasses). This is not normally earth shattering except I had to replumb pipes around the heater because evidently they like to increase the height of water heaters over the years (even though it is the same amount of gallons and the same manufacturer). So that killed two nights after work and caused some very cold showers.

Just a little hint of humor... to people who say hot water heater...it does not heat hot water it heats cold water so why don't you say cold water heater?

Then I spent an evening getting my daughter all signed up for college, loans applied for excreta. Another night spent, not blogging. But seeing her so excited about attending college, it was worth the trip.

My wife accepted a new job that will require her to travel out of town to get trained for a week. So we spent an evening talking and preparing for that excitement. I can't cook like Gene over at Living The Grand Life so I spent some time trying to find that recipe for Pineapple Upside Down Beans that I made when I was single, then decided I would just stick to sandwiches and "instant" food while Mrs. T. is gone. That way I won't have get a rider for my health insurance that will cover me if I eat my own cooking.

Another night we spent talking about an event my wife witnessed, that occurred in the neighborhood. One of our neighbors got upset at another neighbor for some kind of financial transaction (something about a car title) and extracted his revenge on the first neighbor. He beat him up pretty bad (broke his jaw). Mrs. T. called 911 and the sheriffs were very quick to react.
She was pretty shaken up after the event, not being the kind of thing you see everyday. Hats off to the dispatcher that talked to my wife, she did a good job of keeping her calm during the event, and to the Mesa County Sheriffs Officers for arriving so quickly.

Then of course there is my job where I spend 50 hours a week. It is our busy season and evidently the windy season. The wind has been causing a ruckus this last month. Every couple of days the wind would kick up to 40 miles an hour; making painting on the motel difficult as well as having to put everything back together after the wind blows it all apart. I've got 20 % of my crew on vacation pretty much during July (OK, so that is only 1 guy, but it still matters).

Evidently some guy who shot a woman in Twin Falls, ID decided he would visit town. A major part of my job is also security, so I got to spend some quality time getting information for the local policemen, so they could track him down... (Captured July 8).

So all in all it has been a very busy time. I think it has all settled down now so maybe I can get back to blogging a bit more frequently. Thanks to all my regular readers who probably wonder what happened to Plumb and Square. So now you don't have to wonder it is just a one word explanation....life.

Spring Cleaning Motel Style

I thought I would give a little insight into my "other life", you know the 3D version of life. For those that don't know or haven't figured it out yet; blogging and politics is not my primary employment. I pay the bills by working as a Maintenance Engineer at the West Gate Inn in Grand Junction. Essentially that is the manager of all the maintenance stuff for the motel, restaurant and lounge. I have 5 employees that do the real work, I get to just lead the way.

You might be asking why we would have so many employees to unplug a toilet or change a remote control battery? Unlike chain motels that do room remodels every 4 or 5 years for all the rooms, we are remodeling all the time. We paint, replace carpet, replace wallpaper, etc... when the room actually needs the work completed not on a set schedule.

We have regularly scheduled maintenance of rooms as well, where we check every item in a room make sure it functioning properly and looks good. We shampoo the carpets in the rooms regularly and yes we deal with all regular requests that pop up from time to time from the customers. We have 100 rooms at West Gate so that keeps us pretty busy.

Then comes May....

I like May in the motel business because that is when stuff starts to get a little busy for the Maintenance Department. May is the month that we spend a lot of our time getting ready for the busy summer season. There is a lot of outdoor stuff in May that we get to play with; getting the swimming pool ready, starting the irrigation for the season, grass has to be cut and all the mud of winter washed away outside. Then of course there preparing the swamp coolers (for those in wet climates that is a cooler that uses water to cool) for the season, getting the outdoor patio ready and planting flowers. During the slower winter season we shut down sections of the motel so we are not heating empty rooms, May is when we start them all up again.

During a normal year all of items we try to have wrapped up by Memorial Day. This year however, we are trying to get done by the 20th, which just so happens to be the day that Cabela's has it's grand opening...

Shameless Plug.....

If you happen to be in Grand Junction, Colorado for the opening of the Cabela's store and are looking for a nice place eat, sleep or drink, visit the West Gate Inn or Otto's Restaurant and Lounge. Only 2 miles from Cabela's and I hear they have a friendly staff as well.

End of shameless plug

I have always like doing the "behind the scenes" jobs, where you know the only thanks is knowing that a customer is happy and comfortable. I am blessed with a good crew of employees which makes all of this work a lot easier. So the next time you happen to stay at any motel and everything looks good and works right, take a second and fill out a comment card or tell the folks at the front desk about your stay, a little appreciation goes a long way in motel maintenance.

So now you know why I may not post as much or respond as fast to comments on Plumb and Square during May, but it will get back to normal soon so bear with me...

For Sale: One Yard or Garage or Whatever

A few weeks ago we got a notice from our HOA that the weekend of April 16th and 17th would be "Yard Sale Weekend". The suggestion was that everybody in the neighborhood have a yard or garage sale. The idea is that with all those yard sales going on, we would get more "customers" as well as get to know your neighbors. Mrs. T. and I discussed it and thought we would give it a try and put the notice on the refrigerator so we would remember the event and have time to prepare.

The note hung on the fridge, staring at me every time I grabbed a sandwich and I kept thinking "I should get ready for that thing." So last night I saw the "reminder notice" of the yard sale and realized that the weekend for the sale was this weekend. My first instinct was to just bail out of the deal and keep those "valuable" possessions for another 10 years. But after some thought I decided to give the yard sale the "ole college try." All well and good except, I never attended college so giving something a college try is not really in my vocabulary.

So bright and early this morning we started collecting all the marginally valuable stuff in our house. That is when I read the yard sale flyer about the dates of the sale. That is when I noticed that the sale was actually was for Friday and Saturday, not Saturday and Sunday. So to start with I was already one day behind in all this community fellowship and great sales opportunities. Now the pressure was on and I only had hurry up and get all my "Quality Merchandise" ready for sale.

So after 3 hours of digging for stuff, moving stuff, improvising tables, cleaning of stuff, and pricing we were all ready for big sale. I would like to tell you it was all ready by 7am for the first flood of customers. Nope we were ready by 10. We had our first sale by about 10:05 and I was all excited an ready to go. I had figured at this rate we would have everything sold by noon and we could pack it all up. I know now that was just a fantasy.

The first hour went pretty smooth and we had about a half dozen customers. The second hour we had one customer and it went down hill from there. We did notice that we were the only folks on our block that actually had a sale going on, so I guess the meet your neighbors thing was out. I love talking to Mrs. T. , So that is how we spent our afternoon...Talking, doing yard work, washing my car. What we did not do is sell anything.

After the sale we got to spend another couple of hours putting away the junk we tried to sell. Cleaning up the driveway, and picking up the signs. That is when I came to the conclusion that there are few things in this world that I dislike more than having a yard sale, but right now I can't think of one.

What I do know is I got to spend the whole day with my family, no TV, no computer, just us talking, laughing and enjoying each others company. I know we are going to be doing more of that, without the yard sale.

Yard sale supplies...$10
Total sales ...$42....
Spending a Saturday with Mrs. T..... Priceless!

Slow Down!

The United States is the most productive country on the planet. Productivity is part of the American culture. Our children are rushed from one place to another, as moms try to "get things done". At work we are rewarded for our productivity, often being paid by the piece. The more you get done they more you get paid. We are in such a hurry that some people even run for entertainment (that is scary). We are linked by telephone, computers and television all of us rushing to learn the newest thing or get the latest information. We buy everything on credit because we just can't wait to earn the money needed for the purchase.

I believe that the time has come to slow down. The last time you drove between Denver and Grand Junction how much wildlife did you see? I doubt you saw too many because we are so focused on the road, because you are going 75 miles an hour (or 85 in some cases), you don't have a chance to look out the side windows too. When I was a kid I remember the trip to Denver taking 6 or 7 hours (and it seemed like months). But on every trip we saw something cool. Such as a waterfall, mule deer or mountain goat.

There was a time that I was being very productive at work. I could outproduce my co-workers, and I often did, two work orders for every one that my co-workers completed. Time was coming for my review and I knew that I was going to get an awesome review (hence an awesome raise). The when my boss gave me my review all I saw was average marks. I was confused and I asked "why all the average marks, I outproduce my co-workers 2 to 1?" My boss told me a couple of things that I have never forgot: He told me that he agreed that I could outproduce everybody on the job, but the review was not a review of them, it was a review of me. He reviewed how well I could do, so essentially I was not doing the quality that I could potentially be doing (even though I could out work the rest of the crew). The other thing he told me was that I needed to slow down. "You go too fast and speed leads to sloppiness or mistakes."

"Measure twice and cut once." comes to mind, when talking about productivity. Essentially it means take your time and do it right the first time or face a more costly repair later. Just ask the people at Toyota if they think rushing to build a car is a good thing. The cost to their reputation will be devastating for that company, for years to come.

The American people are trying to teach President Obama and the Congress that rushing bills through Congress without reading or debating them could be hazardous to your career (if they learn the lesson is a different story).

This recession has forced a lot of people to slow down already. I think the rest of us need to do the same. Take your time, notice things, make less mistakes. You will be more productive in the long run.

Most of us will walk around on this "big blue marble" for less than a hundred years, so lets not rush to the end. Take your time and live life to it's fullest. Getting to the destination is not as important as the journey to get there, so slow down and enjoy life.

Dedication: I dedicate this posting to a lost friend... Jen, we love you and we will miss you. Todd

Tim Tebow and Mom

BREAKING NEWS - A mother loves her child, film at 10!

Role Models

I was looking at recent events, thinking about role models. I'm talking about the people you looked up to between the the ages of 5 and 10, when you are very easily influenced. Mine personally was the Lone Ranger. The TV series had been off the air since the 50's, but I was watching re-runs of the show in the 70's.

I remember one Christmas, my family was living in Montrose and they had Santa reading letters from children on the television, after the news. I sent in a letter requesting a Lone Ranger action figure. When the letter was read on the air, I knew that Santa would be asking the Lone Ranger for an action figure just for me. Because you know that Santa and the Lone Ranger "hang out" together.

The Lone Ranger was always the good guy. He never killed anybody on his show, his sidekick was always there to help in a tight spot, and even Silver was a faithful steed.

But let's come back to today's role models. Do we even have any? Let's go to sports first: Mark McGuire hit a bunch of home runs....while on steroids. Barry Bonds....the same. Tiger woods great golfer.....terrible husband.

OK, so maybe we need to go to our current crop of pop culture celebrities: Brittany Spears from Micky Mouse Club to rehab. Chris Brown from singer to felony battery. Paris Hilton from ??? to spoiled rich kid (or was she always just a spoiled rich kid?).

Maybe cartoons can produce a role model? We have South Park character, Cartman, defiantly not a role model. Simpson's characters....nope. The talking underwater sponge....really?

My point is we seem to be lacking in quality role models lately. What happened to the wholesome people that brought us things like:Maybe every generation has a group of "bad apples" and I am just being over-sensitive. In the 70's we had our share of role model failures: Richard Nixon, Pete Rose, and most child stars from that time.

Maybe we should just make a standard, and if you pass the standard you can have the "role model" title thrust upon you. Like in baseball if you can break Roger Maris's single season home run record, without the use of "performance enhancing drugs", you get the job. In Hollywood you would have to have a whole year without getting divorced, arrested or have naked pictures of yourself in any venue.

It just seems lately as if every cultural role model, makes too many mistakes, bad judgements, and in general, is human. Maybe if we just need to turn the job over to: "A fiery horse with the speed of light, a cloud of dust, and a hearty "Hi-yo, Silver!", The Lone Ranger!

9 Principles and 12 values

9 Principles

1. America Is Good.

2. I believe in God and He is the Center of my Life.

3. I must always try to be a more honest person than I was yesterday.

4. The family is sacred. My spouse and I are the ultimate authority, not the government.

5. If you break the law you pay the penalty. Justice is blind and no one is above it.

6. I have a right to life, liberty and pursuit of happiness, but there is no guarantee of equal results.

7. I work hard for what I have and I will share it with who I want to. Government cannot force me to be charitable.

8. It is not un-American for me to disagree with authority or to share my personal opinion.

9. The government works for me. I do not answer to them, they answer to me.

12 Values

Honesty
Reverence
Hope
Thrift
Humility
Charity
Sincerity
Moderation
Hard Work
Courage
Personal Responsibility
Gratitude

All Hallows Eve

Halloween is on the bottom of my list of quasi-holidays that is celebrated. I think I would rather celebrate the holiday as All Saints Day. I have many reasons for my dislike for the "holiday"...

My first off the whole premise is to be something you are not. The general dishonesty kinda bothers me.

Second...We spend all year telling our children that taking candy from strangers is bad and that you need to do for yourself and not rely on anyone else. Then we tell them it is OK to go up to total strangers doors and beg for candy. I guess it is not so much as begging for candy as it is extortion.... Give me candy or else! What a strange premise.

When I was "trick or treat age", my family did not have much money, so we went trick or treating as the "Holy Sheet", you know, ghosts cut out of sheets, I was really embarrassed. It was like advertising ..."Hey look at the poor kid!" while the "rich" kids got to dress like cool Star Wars characters.

Lastly....In my youth I was kinda a hell raiser. Halloween reminds me of those times. I lived in a very small town in Nebraska and one Halloween me and my friend set tractor tires on fire on Main street and rolled bowling balls down the highway. Even 25 years later the guilt is there, I get a bit antsy every Halloween.

Even though I have reservations about the "holiday", I am not like a anti-Halloween crusader. I let people have their fun.

I just hide in the shadows..........waiting..........watching..........WHA, HA, HA, HA...

What's Happening with our Kids?

I read or watch the news everyday and more and more lately it has become apparent that there are serious issues with this nations children. From a threat at Palisade High School to a murder in Chicago of a child by other children. It has gotten out of control.

I have been trying to think of all the possible reasons why this is happening to our children and here's what I came up with:

1) Removal of prayer from schools. If you take away God you have nothing. No morals to follow, no guidelines to live by.

2) Criminalization of spanking children. When I was in second grade I made the mistake of kissing the girl holding the door as our class was being lead into the school. The teacher noticed and I was yanked from the line(literally)and was taken to the front of the whole class, once back to the classroom. The teacher then brought out a ruler and slapped my hands with it on my palms. I do not remember any pain (though I do remember her breaking the ruler). What I felt at that time was shame. So much so I never wanted to do it again. My punishment was not complete though because when I got home my father had also heard about the incident and I got another spanking then and sent to my room for the evening. From this I learned to respect authority and follow the rules the best I could.

3) Television. During my generation in the 70's was the start of children being raised in two income households. When both parents work parental guidance is left up to a day care, a babysitter or simply the television. The television is not a good parent and our children are gathering their moral values from television personalities.

4) Video games. Yes I believe that as children are allowed to play games which graphically depict murder and the use of murder to get "to the next level",it is training for children that is OK to kill someone to achieve your goals. Even on a lesser level that it is OK to "stomp" your peers to achieve more. What happened to helping people can't we depict that in a game. How about a game where our goals are to actually follow the 10 commandments instead of destroy them.

5) The creation of the Department of Education. We have removed all the control of our children's education from the hands of a more local government or state government to the hands of our federal government. This was one of Jimmy Carters poorest decisions (and he had so many). The education of our children should be left up to our local school districts or even better, the parent.

6) Not teaching history. I am not just talking about what you are supposed to learn in schools (of course that is good). I am talking about history of people the children know. It is much more affective if grandpa tells about his time in the military or mom talks about the time she got into trouble with grandpa and got her bike taken away for a week. I think children need to learn we too are human and have made mistakes. I heard children say "Why do we have to learn about what somebody did 200 years ago? How is that going to help me? My answer in a nutshell is if you do not learn what was done then you will repeat their mistakes an their problems.

7) The phrase "I didn't do it." Every day I deal with that phrase. It is the phrase everybody and I mean everybody uses to shuffle the blame from themselves. When you work maintenance all day you encounter problems that are; shall we say, "Human created". The first thing out of the mouth of the human involved is "I didn't do it." 9 out of 10 times when I hear the phrase it makes me cringe. If people take responsibility for their actions it makes my job much easier. Let me explain with this example: A customer's child flushes a large plastic toy down the toilet, the toilet backs up and the maintenance crew is called in to fix it. They ask what happened, the customer replies "I don't know what happened it just backed up." The maintenance crew spends an hour or two trying to remove obstruction using plunging or chemicals to no avail. After much strife the toilet is removed and quickly a plastic toy is located and removed. A situation where our crew spent 1 or 2 hours trying to unclog a toilet the conventional ways could have been eliminated if the crew knew what actually happened. The job would have been complete in less than 30 minutes.
So I guess I said all that to say this: We need to teach our children to take responsibility for their actions.

I know I don't list much in the way of solutions here and I am sure I don't have all the problems listed (I didn't even have time to go into the teacher unions). I do think we better take a real serious look at the problems, because if fail our children we have no future.

Grand Junction to Denver and back

Yesterday I made a quick trip to Denver and back. It is the annual opening event of the "Great Kid Relay". Every summer it is done in families all over the country, you go here drop off a kid then come home or shuffle the child off to another location. I had an important leg this time, the first leg of the year. I was to take my son to Denver, where he gets to go to his Uncle's house via Grandpa and Grandma's house. Because I was the first leg of the relay I got the usual warnings from all the female participants (Pam and my mom-in-law) in the race; make sure I check the oil, and don't fall asleep a the wheel, etc...

By 8 am, Mike and I were off to hit the road. We, of course, had to stop off at the Clifton McD's for a breakfast sandwich. I do not understand what happens when I drive that I have to stop and eat at about every place in route. When at home my first meal of the day is lunch. But for some reason I have to have junk food when I drive, maybe it is a link to pioneer times where they stock up on food for the journey.

On the trip to Denver, Mike and I talked about everything and about nothing. We discussed who was a bigger tramp Brittney or Paris. We talked about merits of what was better the McGriddle or the McMuffin. For the record; I favor the McMuffin, Mike the McGriddle. No trip is complete with the counting of licence plate locations. We got two good ones (New Brunswick and Maine). We try to see if we can see 1/2 of the states by Denver, we only made it to 21 different states. I also like to tell historic stories of different areas, some from my history some general history. I sure treasure these times, with Mike.

Upon arrival in Denver, we had a tasty lunch ad Denny's off Kipling (a family favorite). At lunch my brother-in-law had the waitress keep filling our sodas. Normally I wouldn't mind that, but I had a 4 hour trek back, and didn't want to stop every hour.

So after eating lunch and drinking about 4 gallons of soda, we prepared to part ways. The family back to Nebraska and me alone to Grand Junction. We shuffled stuff between cars. My Mom-in-law is always on the look-out for books for me, at the Salvation Army where she works, when she sees a good one and she buys it up and gives it to me the next time we meet. This time was one on the 24 hours around D-Day. It looks like a good one. After we transfer all the stuff around we part ways. I wish we could have visited longer but that always happens when I get with my in-laws they are good people.

On the journey back I saw something interesting. I have been driving (or riding) this trip to Denver my whole life. I have made the trip about 10,000 times. I have seen mountain goats before, but on this trip was the first time I saw them on the shoulder of the road eating. There were about 8-10 nannies and 2 or 3 kids eating something, I couldn't see. There was one ram. The ram was standing between the heard of goats eating and an 18 wheeler parked on the side of the road. I didn't notice any humans, but this ram thought that the truck was a major threat and didn't look to happy. I thought it was interesting that the ram was worried about the parked truck and not worried about hundreds of cars whizzing by at 50 miles an hour, just 10 feet from the heard. Kinda like humans they worry about something that is no threat and avoid the real threat 10 feet away.

After a couple of rest stops (I knew I shouldn't have had all that Diet Coke), I found myself outside of Glenwood passing a slower truck and I glanced in my mirror and see a Jeep with child barley old enough to drive, using both hands to text. She was "nice enough" to get her Jeep within 18 inches from my car so that I would realize how important she was, and how big of a rush she was in and let her pass. I have been in 3 fairly nasty car accidents and had 3 speeding tickets. So I don't speed. I go the posted speed limit on the spot. No more no less. I let her pass and "waved" politely, and for expedience sake (I know she was in a hurry) I only used 1 finger.

My favorite part of any trip where I come into town from the East is seeing the roller damn and the corner that goes over the river by the first Palisade exit. It is like Grand Junction is telling me "welcome home".

Grand Junction Strip Club

As part of a cultural outreach, The Grand Junction is opening a new strip club, oh am I excited....NOT! I have heard the arguments for a strip club and I understand them; freedom of speech, I approve of, or I wouldn't have a blog. Last time I was in a strip club, the dancers didn't do much speaking though, just dancing. Capitalism is the next, you want to invest your money in an enterprise to make money go right ahead, your money, risk, your reward or failure.

What I have a problem with is the basic immorality of a strip club. Strip clubs invite bad behavior. I lived in the small town of Elko in Northern Nevada for 10 years. This is a town where prostitution houses and gambling are legal. Casinos have awesome security so there was seldom a problem with them, and when people went to a prostitution house they didn't just hang out all night getting drunk and rowdy with their friends. They went, did what they were paying for and left, no drunkenness, no rowdiness. Don't get me wrong I DO NOT approve of prostitution either, but because it tears apart families and degrades women, not because of the drunken rowdiness of the business.

The problems in Elko were at the strip bar. Drunken jealousy, over a woman they can't have, turns into a fight. Or patrons would get "worked up" and try to do something inappropriate with women that did not want that done, often at a neighboring bar once the stripping stopped for the night. Or just the basic thinking that a strip bar is a immoral type of environment, so they did drugs or sold drugs in the open, then there was the underage drinking problem.

Another problem I have with the new strip club is that it is going to make my job a bit more difficult. You see I am the Maintenance Engineer at a motel less than a mile from the new strip club. Part of my job is the security of the motel property. I will do everything in my power to insure that the patrons of this new establishment will not become a problem around our establishment. I must plan for the worst and hope for the best. I will have direct line to the GJ police department so I hope they can keep up.