I am the walrus

Since it's been like 10 days or so since I posted, and I know so many of you live vicariously through me, (it's ok. I'm a pretty cool guy.) I have decided to post again. Bear with me if this post is riddled with spelling errors, I'm typing on a keyboard that doesn't work all that well at the SLC Public Library. (But why not type on your computer? More on that to come.)

I guess I'll start where we last left off. Two weekends ago, Ben, Al and I went camping in Moab, UT. It was pretty flippin sweet. It's right down by Arches National Park and Bryce Canyon NP. So the scenery was gorgeous. We camped, and went biking too. Al and I are what could be called "novice" bikers, so we stayed away from the hard stuff, like hills with 12 percent grades. It's also a climber's paradise, but Ben didn't bring along his ropes or anything, so we'll have to save that until next time. Moab is only a 4.5 hour drive away, so it's not that far to some pretty cool stuff.

When I got home, I discovered that I had a four day trip on my schedule starting the next day, into my favorite of all places, Southern California. (Sarcasm)It was fun, and my captains were pretty sweet, so it went by pretty quick. No complaints there.

Last weekend Ben and I went hiking in the rain to a place called Doughnut Falls in Big Cottonwood Canyon, which is just a little south of the city. It was pretty cool, and we did a little hiking through uncharted territories around there. All in all, pretty sweet, I'll have to go back when the weather is better.

As to why I am not writing on my own computer: my hard drive blew up. Or, rather, it nearly did. About two weeks ago, I noticed that the hard drive was starting to get louder. About a weeke ago, the whole thing started slowing down. Taking alot of time to do things that before only took a few seconds. Nuts to this I thought. Pinky suggested I take it down to the local Apple store and get it looked at. Smartest thing Pinky ever said. Mind you, and this time he was high on peanut butter and wearing Bermuda Shorts, but apparently, it makes him think better. Anyway, I took it in, and they said I needed to have the hard drive replaced before it melted/blewup/died. We backed up all the information that I had on the thing, and then he told me that it would be $300 bucks to replace the thing. "Not so!" said I, "For I purchased the Apple Care Protection Plan when I bought this thing two years ago, which extends my warranty up to three years!" So what did I end up paying? Zilch. Nada. Nothing. I'll have my computer back in good working order by Thursday afternoon. Woot.

People have sometimes asked me why I would bike up canyon roads, go rock climbing, hike up waterfalls, spend the night in the north woods in a tent when the temp got to below freezing. I was having a hard time with that one myself, but Pinky helped me out, with the words of a country song:

Daddy's belt, momma's drapes
Standing tall on the backyard shed
Looking cool in my Superman cape
I told the neighborhood girl
Said, "Hey y'all, watch this!"
My fate was a broken arm,
My reward, one big kiss
When Daddy asked me why I did it,
I made him laugh out loud when I told him,
"Cause the chicks dig it!"

Scars heal, glory fades,
And all we're left with
Are the memories made.
The pain hurts, but only for a minute
Life is short so go on and live it
Cause the chicks dig it!

No, I'm not going country, and I'll have pictures posted as soon as I get my computer back.