Archive for the 'Personal' Category

“For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace.”

You may have noticed that I’ve been “out of pocket.”

I’ve been very ill. Hopefully in recovery now, but posting may still be a bit slow.

Thanks for dropping by to my regular readers. I have been out of town at a professional conference and presenting a publication.

I will probably be a bit more regular with postings.

I’m recently back from a business trip and professional conference in Idaho Falls.  At the end of the conference I decided to do a bit of hiking.  I headed up to the Tetons.  Here is one picture of a less snow covered area.

At least the path is worn well enough that it can be seen.  Everyone else turned around a short time after this photo was taken.  I kept going, and seemed to be the only one up there.  On up the trail I passed a really nice Asian dude who talked to me and recommended that I not move forward unless I had AllTrails on my phone.  We happened to have connectivity where we were at the time, and he assisted me in loading it up, downloading maps and getting the right trail (there were some trails with similar names).  Soon I lost connectivity.  It’s a good thing (and providential) that I ran into him.  This was the next scene a few miles further.  The trail had utterly disappeared.  Were it not for AllTrails, I would still be wandering in the Tetons.

The snow was five or six feet deep in places, and while I could make decent progress at times staying on top of the pack, I was “post holing” a lot.  A few times I fell into tree wells and had to claw my way out.  That’s an awful lot of work.  The Asian dude had not only trekking poles, but snow shoes as well.

Also, I’ll comment that with more unenlightened among us sometimes I often have wondered why a man doesn’t just “swim” out of snow (e.g., during an avalanche).  Yea, that’s impossible.  Put your leg into snow hip deep and it’s like cement.

The trail was the Taggart and Bradley Lake trail in the Tetons.  I wasn’t properly prepared for the hike.  I did make it, but not without a slog.  I didn’t pack my trekking poles because I didn’t want the additional space and weight in my luggage.  That was a profoundly stupid decision but I didn’t know at the time that the trails would be in this condition.  Going up there without snow shoes made it very difficult.

The second day I decided to do something a bit tamer and stay closer to Idaho Falls (within about an hour of the city).

The Idaho and Wyoming area is beautiful country for sure.  But the Northwest had a very deep snow pack this year.  Be prepared when you go into the bush.  I wasn’t.  I could have gotten into trouble in the Tetons.

Thanks for all the notes.  TCJ was down for some maintenance.

Light posting tonight.  Please see PGF’s post on inflation.  Discuss other issues as you see fit.

I buried my mother today.  I’m not feeling the urge to post and analyze.

Be back tomorrow, maybe.

I hope you had a great Christmas and celebrated the advent of our Lord with your Family.  I also hope that you grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ in the coming year.

For one special reader out there – you know who you are and I won’t mention your name because you wouldn’t like it – I am left completely speechless and dumbfounded by the gift.  I am certainly undeserving of it, but that’s what grace is all about.  Being undeserving, having done absolutely nothing to earn it.  That is perfectly exemplary of Christmas and redemption.

Thank you.

I cannot say enough about the value of you and your wife’s friendship with my wife and me.

Info.

Food Poisoning turned out to be a MAD infection. His diabeetus didn’t help the issue, so they had to lop off his foot, then his leg, as the infection was/is spreading. They’re fixin’ to make it even MOR stumpy as the infection still isn’t under control. He’s in critical/ICU level condition …

Mike will need prayers.

Pinnacle.  With daughter and middle son.  They hike like gazelles.  But I kept up with them.  Mostly.  I was ready for dinner.

I’ve wanted to post this for a while, but just didn’t get around to it.  This is a double burger from Fletcher’s in Gastonia, N.C.  A full pound of beef.  It was awesome.  What a good day.