Barry McGuire

I met Barry while still a Freshman in College at Northern Arizona University. Let's see, that would've been 1972 I think. He was there for a concert. After the concert, I was invited to Jerry and Joanie's to a party and we met there. When we were in Memphis I invited him to sing at one of our company events in Tennessee. He came with Terry Talbot and they did a great job. Now we've invited him to sing and talk about his life at the company prayer breakfast in Anaheim this July. I'm very excited about the event and looking forward to seeing him again.

Error messages

I sometimes wonder where all these error messages come from and who thought them up. Do Geeks have so much spare time sitting around they can devise a new message for every situation? And then, I frequently get the same one over and over for all sorts of unique problems. Hmmm... Makes you wonder.

South Korea

Nancy will be leaving in a few days to fly to South Korea to visit Tyler. She and her sister Dee decided to fly out and have some fun with Tyler visiting the museums and beautiful spots in Korea. Of course, now I'm reading about flights being diverted to avoid potential missiles being used against flight going into to Seoul. Your prayers are appreciated.

B&B

Nancy and I stayed at this little B&B in Santa Fe on the way back from Tucson recently. It was charming on the outside, but on the inside, well... she had to put the curtains back up (they fell off), the bed was soft we couldn't sleep and kept rolling together in the middle, the metal on the heater made a big boom during the night every time it shut off, and the TV was the size of a postage stamp. A B&B can sometimes be a place where you give good bucks for poor quarters.

Attorneys

I've been dealing with attorneys lately at work on a rather challenging issue. Only a lawyer could write documents with more than ten thousand words and call them briefs!

But I like our attorney. He's brilliant. He didn't bother graduating from law school. He settled out of class!

Hatch

We recently ate at this lovely place in Hatch, NM. They have really good burgers and fries. The burgers are smothered in green chili and it leaves you, literally "breathless." But this place is the real deal and you don't want to miss out if you ever pass through here, because it certainly will.

NOTE: I hate restaurants where the waiters wear gloves. What's in the food that they're afraid to come into contact with? Notice the waiters on the roof aren't wearing gloves!

A fly in Warsaw

A fly landed on somebody's nose in Warsaw. Then it leaped onto another nose. It was the longest flight in history. The fly went from pole to pole in one jump!

Hey, this may not be a fly but it sure has a nose. I think they call this a snout beetle. Maybe it's from Warsaw. I did ask my father the other day a critical scientific question about all the research going on, related to insects. I asked him if he knew one scientist who can tell us when mosquitoes sleep!

Flying

Living close to Chatfield State Park has its rewards. Frequently we see balloons flying over the house and around the neighborhood. They often land in the neighborhood. They get close enough to the house that I can tell the seating is really pretty cramped in these things. Of course that reminded me of some of my recent flights. I ran into a tough airline on my last flight. They wouldn't seat you after the first ten minutes of the movie.

Hovenweep crow

This ruin in Hovenweep sported a crow perched on top. Just as I took the photo, he took off giving me an interesting shot. Maybe it's that noise a camera makes which spooked the bird at the right time.

Easter morning

We were with the Grand kids on Easter and enjoyed watching them find Easter eggs hidden in the back yard. I was amazed that even Eli, only about 15 months old now, figured out pretty quickly what to do. I saw it, that one is mine!

My daughter Noelle always amazes me with her creativity. Below is a "resurrection" tomb. On Friday the kids put a figure of Jesus in the tomb with some linen and then covered it up with a rock. On Easter morning they found the rock pushed aside an Jesus was gone! Nice lesson, I thought.

Snowing and no power

Got up this morning and there was no power and a couple of inches of new snow on the ground. Nancy sent me to Starbucks for coffee but it was closed and without power too. UH OH, NO COFFEE! The radio in the car worked and they said there were 18,000 homes without power. Now she wants to go to work but can't get the garage door open... No Power! So I go out and unhook it from the cable and open it. Off she goes. My guess is, she was actually searching for an open Starbucks.

Then I was reminded of this guy I knew at work. He's not a genius. When the power went out, he was stuck on the escalator for nearly two hours! Hooray for innovation.

Whoopeee! Power is on now at 8:14a nearly four hours later.

Lower North Fork Fire

A number of you have asked me about the fires in Colorado. I've been a little out of touch this last week because I've been in business meetings in Chicago. Now that I'm back, here is what I've learned. It has come within about 4 or 5 miles of our house, as the crow flies. So that wasn't a major threat, except that it was coming in our direction. We do have an open space of grassland between us and the timber in the foothills too, which is a nice barrier.

The fire is located just a mile Northeast of Waterton Canyon and has been about 70% contained going into today, and burned around 4,100 acres. Officials are concerned that if the wind kicks up again, it will re-ignite and begin to spread rapidly. In addition, when there are high winds they can't combat the fire from the air with bombers and helicopters. High winds are predicted today and tomorrow as a cold front moves in.

Of the 980 homes that have been evacuated, there are 180 which remain evacuated. 6,500 homes are under a warning of evacuation. We are thankful to God we have been spared this horrible event. The only minor issue is it smells like a campfire once in a while. A small price to pay.

Family in Dallas

I took this photo in Dallas of Nancy with Aunt June, her cousin Susie and sister Dee. We had a fun time catching up, eating burgers Tom made for us, and enjoying our time together. Aunt June has a great little place near Arlington and seems happy with her situation.

Dallas visit

We were in Dallas last weekend and visited Tom and Susie. Aunt June "June bug" came over and enjoyed the time with everyone along with a very nice Bar-B-Q. Tom and Susie's house is on the golf course but he doesn't play golf and he would prefer that golf balls not land in his yard, and he gets maybe 3 or 4 each day! The house is about 100 feet or so from the fairway, so I guess there are a lot of bad golfers in Dallas! They have more ways to slice than a delicatessen counterman!

What good are rabbits?

Below, Nancy is holding a Cashmere rabbit. The fur is used for women's fine clothing. But not to worry, they are usually just "plucked" never killed. Some producers will shear them. We had attended the fur festival in Pagosa Springs and this was certainly the cutest thing we saw.

New Toy

I got a new toy. This is my new iPad 2 with iOS 5 and iCloud. And since I went to NAU and I'm officially a lumberjack, I chose a log as my background screen. Each day I'm adding a new app for this and a new app for that. It's amazing what's out there. It's actually like a politician and is perfect in every way. If it makes a mistake, it blames another computer! Anyway, I'm really glad I have this one. My other computer has been down so often it had canvas burns!

More on rock art

A good artist draws the line somewhere. I suppose 500 year old rock art done by native Americans had similar criticism as art does today. Everyone has their own idea of what's good and bad art. Today an artist can paint a canvas in a day and a half and thinks nothing of it. Nor does anyone else. A sculptor once explained his art form to me. "You take a block of marble, a hammer, and a chisel, then you knock off all the marble you don't want." Hmmm... I can do that.

Can anyone tell me what this is?

Rock art

500 to 1,000 year old rock art done by native Americans is an interesting study. Much of it is linked to the Fremont and Anasazi Indians. Some of it is older still in the Colorado Plateau and goes back to the Archaic period. A petroglyph is an image which is cut or carved into the rock. Pictographs are painted on the rock using things like animal fat and plant oils. The petroglyph below is from a well known rock in Albuquerque.

Exploring the Southwest is at its best when you're hiking through the canyons and discovering ancient rock art and remnants of old ruins.

Morning after, the storm

Taken from my upstairs window, this photo of the neighborhood captures the beautiful blue sky after the weekend storm. The streets are beginning to clear and dry out and later this week it's supposed to be in the 40's! That will be nice, but where does all the water go? Nebraska, whoopee.

DEE Turned 60!

Yes, it's true! Nancy's sister Dee made it to 60 years. She said she went to the Doctor and asked him to see if he could tell her how old she was. After a quick examination, the doctor said, "According to the examination, I'm alone in the room!"

Nancy and her brother arranged for yard art to celebrate her graduation to the geriatric scene. She woke up this morning to this. Aging is a wonderful experience for Dee. What a thrill it is to learn that Polident isn't a beat up Parrot!

I assured Dee that aging isn't all that bad. Think of the trouble many of us would be in if wrinkles hurt. Anyway, she enjoyed the yard art and was on the phone with Nancy this morning by 6:30a wondering who was responsible for this!

Click here Dee for more help!