Wha, Pilgrim!

Well, I am back from the 2009 Mountain Man Rendezvous, and it was really fun! The turnout was a little low - only about 800 boys - but those who came really had a great time. I spent Wednesday through noon Saturday with six of the best Dutch oven cooks in Arizona. (That's me in the center of the picture) I didn't really belong there, not being much of a DO cook myself, but I did learn a lot.


I saw many old Scouting friends, including a couple of men who I had helped through Woodbadge 10 years ago, and another who I served with on Woodbadge. I got to be a judge in a Dutch oven cookoff using the secret ingredient of Vienna sausages (oh, boy! They are so good fried!). The boys could use them in a main dish (lots of Vienna sausage stews), a bread (yes, they baked them into a bread), or even a dessert. It is hard to believe, but I ate some pretty tasty desserts Friday night with those sausages in them, including peach cobbler and a couple of chocolate pudding cakes. My favorite was called Vienna mincemeat pie. It was really good! Mushed up Vienna sausages with raisins and other mincemeat ingredients, and deep fried as individual pies. One troop brought their entry (5-Meat Stew, made with javelina, elk, venison, quail, and Vienna sausage) to us in a big milk can along with a 6 foot pig trough lined with aluminum foil. They were going to pour the entire thing into that trough on our table, but we convinced them that we were eating the entries of 10 different troops, and that we could only take tastes of their entry. We couldn't eat an entire trough full of 5-Meat Stew.

I got home Saturday about 12:40, and by 12:45 Jan had shaved my beard off. I looked younger with all that grey beard gone, but now I look kind of funny to me - like there is something missing from my face. I may have to grow it back. We'll see if my grandkids prefer Grandpa with a beard or without. So what do you think, grandkids? Do you want me to have a beard, or not?

EMT's and Politicians

Imagine you are traveling in your car when you come upon the scene of an accident. You get out of your car to see if you can help. You see an injured person sitting on the side of the road, bleeding heavily from a cut on his head. Immediately you jump into action. Removing your belt, you wrap it around the injured person's neck and pull it tight, stopping the blood flow to his head. Almost immediately, the EMT arrives and tells you that you are doing the wrong thing. You sneer at him and say, "Those who would say I should have done nothing are just wrong. Something HAD to be done and quickly."

"But you are killing the patient!" screams the EMT.

"I do not ascribe to that philosophy," you reply. "That kind of treatment reflects the failed policies of the past."

Which is better in this situation: doing nothing or doing the wrong thing? Is the person who tells you that you are doing the wrong thing saying that you should do nothing? Obviously, the answer is no. If someone is doing the wrong thing, should you agree with the treatment just so you won't make waves? Are you mean-spirited if you say the belt around the neck will kill the patient? What if the person putting the belt around the neck of the injured person is black? If you disagree, does that make you a racist?

This is the level to which "political discourse" has fallen in this country. Our President (and I use the term loosely) demands that America will fall unless we put in place "reforms" that will kill what America has been and make it into a Socialist state that he has always wanted. He villifies those who oppose these measures as "wanting to do nothing." This is a false dichotomy. There are many other options besides the wrong option and "doing nothing." But in the haste of a false "crisis," discussion and debate are labeled as harmful. Really?

Those who oppose these measures are labeled as obstructionists or racists who oppose only because of political motives. Is it possible that they oppose because what is being done to "fix things" is the WRONG THING? Can someone tell me how placing Draconian restrictions on CEO pay will create jobs? Or how the complete makeover of the US health care system will create jobs? (Government beaurocracy jobs do not count)

Why is it that a person who gets an advanced education, works many long hours, studies and analyses business trends and builds a company to the point of success is evil if he/she makes more than $500 thousand per year? Why is it that a person who can throw a ball accurately and who makes millions of dollars per year is not evil? Or what about a person who makes a living pretending to be someone else and who makes millions of dollars per year? Evil? Not evil? Why does the President of the United States attack people who work for a living and say nothing of people who play or pretend for a living? Is it because they contributed to his campaign?

I hate to sound like a political nutcase, but I believe that the President of the United States knows NOTHING about how economies work. He doesn't understand where banks get their money - they get the money from US! We put our money in the bank, the bank lends it out to businesses or individuals who pay it back with interest, and they share that interest with us. It is that simple. If you add to the equation politicians who demand that banks lend money to people who cannot pay it back (which is what happened), the banks will lose money, and we all lose money in the process. This is what happens when you have politicians who think they know more about running a bank than bankers do.

The same politicians think they know more about the car industry than people who have spent their entire careers running the car industry. Politicians demand that car makers build cars that meet certain guidelines - but car makers want to build cars that people will want to buy. That is how they stay in business.

Politicians attack people who have retreats at resorts, but if everyone stops going to resorts, the people who work at those resorts will lose their jobs. Maids, desk clerks, reservation agents, chefs, waiters, lifeguards, etc - not exactly the highest paid people - will no longer be needed and their jobs will end. This is how politicians create the very problems they think they know how to solve. In reality, politicians know very little about anything except getting elected.

Instead of funding hundreds of billions of dollars to "stimulate the economy" by putting all of us, our children and grandchildren in debt to the Chinese, the President could have simply declared that no one would have to pay any income taxes this year. It would have been far less expensive to the United States and would have immediately given everyone bigger paychecks. That would have stimulated the ecomony, but it would not have made us all slaves.

We are seeing the dismantling of America by the very people who were originally elected as stewards of this nation. Perhaps if our President had spent as much time studying free market economics as he spent reading the writings of Karl Marx and other revolutionaries, he would have SOME IDEA WHAT HE IS TALKING ABOUT!

Sorry - I had to get that off my chest. Pray the God will deliver us from those who seek to destroy us, wherever they live. Killing us is not the only alternative to doing nothing.

Life Changes Quickly

Last Thursday, a dear friend of mine who is only 45 years old suffered a rupture of an artery in his head - an aneurism. Usually this is fatal. For some reason, his was not. He woke up Thursday morning dizzy and unable to stand. From there it got worse, until his wife took him to the Emergency Room Thursday night. There, another friend who is an ER doctor, told him he had had a stroke and air-evaced him to Barrow's Neurological Center in Phoenix. That airlift saved his life. It turns out that a large part of his cerebellum was damaged beyond repair. Saturday night he had surgery to remove the destroyed brain tissue and reduce the swelling. Jan and I went to visit him Sunday and his doctors told us that they expect a full recovery. We are thankful to God for preserving his life through wonderful medical knowledge.

It turns out the cause of this stroke was very simple - Wednesday night he had popped his neck as he often does. You know (are you reading this, Andrea and Cynthia?), he cracked it to relieve the tension in his neck. This caused the artery to rupture. The doctors told us that in the last two months they have had FOUR young people there with strokes who had just had their necks adjusted by chiropractors. The doctors said, "If you have neck tension, take an Advil - don't pop your neck!"

Anyway, here is a young man who had all sorts of other plans for Friday, Saturday, Sunday, and the next month. Instead of accomplishing those plans, he will be resting in bed - all because of a very simple thing that he has probably done thousands of times. He could have died - in almost any prior time he would have died - just from popping his neck.

It made me think about my life. I have thought many times since Friday about how anything I do could be the last thing I ever do on this earth. Not that I am paranoid: I just want to make sure that I don't do things that I know are wrong. I set a life goal many years ago not to die doing something stupid like bridge diving. I also don't want to die having just committed some sin.

This experience has not made me fearful. I am not walking around thinking, "Am I going to die right now? Right now? Right NOW?" It has, however, made me think about all the time I waste. What if I were do die playing Solitaire? Stupid!

Thank you, Heavenly Father, for preserving my friend's life.

Things I Do Not Care About

I don't know why I write on this blog, when no one reads or comments, but for the record, here is a list of things I could not care less about. I haven't written anything curmudgeonly for a long time, so don't complain.

1. Anything that involves "celebrities." This includes everyone who is famous for being famous, or who is famous because his/her parents are famous, or anyone who is famous for hanging around celebrities. So anything "newsy" about Paris Hilton, Lisa Marie Presley, Nicole Ritchie, or Cato what's-his-name just gets a big yawn from me.

2. Anything that has to do with movie or TV "stars" - what they are wearing, what cause of the day they are endorsing, what they eat, etc. Brangelina? Ho hum. Jennifer Aniston? Sarah Jessica Parker? The stars of CSI or Friends or The Office or any other TV show? Dull, dull, dull! And this goes TWICE for TV shows dedicated to the activities of celebrities and stars, like Entertainment Tonight or the dozens of knockoffs. Who cares?

3. Anything said by Harry Reid, Nancy Pelosi, Barney Frank, or B. Hussein Obama (or almost any other politician). As soon as they start telling us the truth about ANYTHING, I will consider listening. It was politically correct for a few days after B. Hussein Obama's annointing/coronation to say that we all hoped he would succeed. Now that America is beginning to see what the most inept President ever wants to do to us, I can openly say that I hope he fails miserably - I hope he is the greatest failure as a President in American history. When I get any sense that they care about me and my family, whether we succeed, I will start caring about whether they succeed.

4. I don't care about the opinions of Europeans about America - what we should do, how we should act, how our government should be structured, etc.

5. I don't care about people who rip off "the system" to get famous, like "Octomom."

6. I don't care about rock stars or professional athletes. I don't care who used steroids. People always say, "Well, Babe Ruth hit his homers without performance-enhancing drugs." But I have no doubt that he would have, had they been available. His "performance enhancer" of choice was alcohol.

7. I don't care who wins Academy Awards, or People's Choice Awards, or the Screen Actors Guild Awards, or Golden Globe Awards, or Grammys or Emmys or any of the other self-congratulatory awards that celebrities give themselves to enhance their fame and to make them feel better about the fact that they do NOTHING to improve the world. They make their comfortable living by pretending to be people who actually DID something with their lives, and this empty fact eats away at them. That is why actors get so vocal about things they know nothing about. It is an attempt to do something meaningful.

8. I don't care if companies that were mismanaged or have become obsolete fail. This goes for America's auto manufacturers. If they went under, and if every union official in America suddenly lost his job, I would not care.

9. I don't care about any TV show that uses "Reality TV" as a format. Ugh! Those shows are about as real as a $3 bill.

So there you go. This is my short list. Don't ask me questions about A-Rod or Bono or Brad Pitt or the rest of them. Don't ask me what movies or actors won Oscars. Don't ask me about Survivor Island or whatever it is called. Don't ask me. I don't know, and I could not care less.

The Ultimate Food!

There seems to be some argument as to whether or not man can live by bread alone. But I’ll bet you’ve never heard that accusation leveled against strawberry rhubarb pie. There’s a reason for this.

Think about it. You’ve got fruit – the fresh, luscious strawberries. Then there’s rhubarb, a fibrous vegetable, almost inedible raw. Your dairy group is well represented in the crust (if made correctly), in the form of copious quantities of butter. Plus you have, of course, wheat. Wheat is good for you.

So you have fruit, veggies, dairy, grains and fiber all brought together, miraculously, into the most sublime taste experience imaginable. If it hasn’t been done yet, I would like to officially nominate strawberry rhubarb pie for the title of The Ultimate Food.

I remember well where I was sitting the first time I tasted strawberry rhubarb pie. I was at the home of my friend, Jim Pribbeno, on Gilbert Rd north of McKellips, almost to the river bottom. His Mom offered me a piece of this pie I had never heard of. I have always been willing to try new foods (within reason), so even though I had no expectations, I accepted. Oh My! It was pure heaven.

Years passed before I had another experience with the ultimate food. This time Jan and I were at Pres and Bobbie's house in Fredonia. I forget what the occasion was. Anyway, Bobbie had made strawberry rhubarb pie. Jan had heard me talk of it, and didn't think it would taste good, but I encouraged her to try it. It was truly love at first bite. Knowing that I was married to what would become the world's best pie maker, I got Jan to ask Bobbie for the recipe. That was one of the smartest things I ever did in my life.

Over the years, Jan has made a lot of wonderful pies of all sorts. But she knows that my favorite now and forever is strawberry rhubarb - that king of foods, The Ultimate Food. I know at least one son-in-law who would agree.

Another wonderful treat is to save the sauce that is formed from cooking the strawberries and rhubarb and sugar together, and serving it over vanilla ice cream. If the pie doesn't finish you off, this will. Indescribably delicious!

(Now I have to see if I can talk her into making me one. Writing this has made me very hungry for Strawberry Rhubarb Pie!)

Happy Valentine's Day, My Love!

Well, it is Valentine's Day again. This is our 36th Valentine's Day together. Our first one was in 1973. We had been dating for seven months and engaged for just three weeks. We were looking forward to a lifetime together with great anticipation. I took you to a Valentine's Day dance at the MCC Institute; we left early, then we sat and talked (wink, wink) in the car for hours. You gave me that card with the two naked people embracing on the front, and I knew I was marrying the right gal. I tried to find that card to scan for this posting, but it has mysteriously vanished after all these years. Or maybe I just can't find stuff. Someone must have thrown it away! It's Gone.

Anyway, what I thought was love at the time we married was just a little drip in the vast sea of emotion. The last 36 years have taught me what real love is. Love is patience, patience and more patience. Love is forgiveness over and over and over and over again while you wait for me to grow up. Love is going through experiences that neither of us would have wished for, and holding onto each other for dear life. Love is the glue that holds us together when everything else seems to be falling apart. And our love will see us through the trials that lie ahead, and there will be many. Yes, my love was just a little drip in 1973, but now my love for you envelopes me and warms me and comforts me and sees me through every moment of my life. You are the heart of my heart, the center of my soul, my eternal Sweetheart. I hope and pray that I can make you happy every day of what remains of our life together.

Happy Valentine's Day, Jan!

P.S. Jan insists to this day that she didn't notice the couple on the card were naked. Yeah, what ev!

The Repentance Chair

Today in church one of the speakers talked about something she and her husband have in their home. It is called the "Repentance Chair." It is a chair, big enough for one child. Whenever her kids get into a quarrel or a fight (I know, this never happens in YOUR home), both children are placed in the chair and told that they must remain there until each can tell their Mother what he/she could have done differently to have made the situation/altercation different. There is no "he started it" kinds of statement allowed - each must recognize his or her role in the fight, and identify what he/she did wrong in escalating it. I thought that was a great idea. No blaming. No fault finding, except within yourself.

So often we are prone to see what the other person did wrong. No feeling in humanity is more common than the feeling that if someone else would change, everything would be fine. The Repentance Chair helps children see that they have a major role in any fight they are in. Great idea.