I have a little Sony digital camera. In addition to being a great point-and-shoot camera, it can also take short video segments. So, I signed up for a YouTube account (they’re free), shot four really short segments of video while we were in Colorado Springs, and have uploaded them to YouTube. I’ve said that they’re private, so I don’t know how that exactly works. Anyhow, here’s the URL’s. Let me know if you can see anything or if I have to change the security settings.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YLBc0sT1BaU 1:18 in the RV in Colorado Springs
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2HH6sD84-fw 0:48 in the Garden of the Gods
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cL06Xypj4t0 0:20 in the Garden of the Gods
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q700-t7dxZQ 0:36 in the Garden of the Gods

We left last Thursday to drive to Colorado Springs at about 10 a.m. We arrived in Green River, Wyoming, to spend a few minutes with my brother Perry and his wife Chris at about 1:30 p.m. Perry let me know that the blog server was down. So, it was down the entire weekend. We got home about 8:30 p.m. tonight and I’ve reset the confounded Qwest DSL modem. It’s been locking up fairly regularly the past couple of weeks and, of course, according to the logs it locked up about an hour after we left on Thursday. Something has got to be done about this! More on the trip tomorrow.

Nina and Pam drove to Salt Lake to spend the night at Heather’s house before Pam gets on the airplane back to Cleveland, Ohio tomorrow morning. So it’s just Bradica (the dog) and me tonight. She’s not much company — in fact, she’s sound asleep on her bed in the family room. I expect in about a half-hour she’ll be in here with me, prancing around in hopes of getting her night-time biscuits. She doesn’t get them until about 10 pm when she gets put to bed, but she’s always hoping that we’ll get around to it sooner rather than later.

It’s been a very busy week and weekend. Last night Nina and I went to the first event of the season at the Performing Arts Center. George Winston put on quite a show on the stage — mostly with the piano but also including two guitar pieces and one on the harmonica. His ten-minute fantasy on “The Saints Go Marching In” left us both breathless and tired. I’ve never in my life seen anyone play the piano so fast and all over the keyboard. It was definitely the hightlight of the program! We enjoyed last year’s programs so much that we purchased season tickets for all the events at the center. Unfortunately we’ll miss the concert next Friday evening featuring the Orchestra At Temple Square. We’ll be in Colorado Springs but the tickets will get good use by some friends.

Nina will be back tomorrow evening and we will have one or two days of normality. Then we’ll leave on Thursday for Colorado Springs where some very good friends are celebrating (in a big way) their fiftieth wedding anniversary. We’ll take the motorhome and stay at the Garden Of The Gods Campground for the weekend. That just might be our last trip in the motorhome this year.

I had a few pictures from the past couple of weeks which are posted in the picture album.

Today was about 40 degrees cooler than two days ago. The clouds came in last night. The rain started mid-morning this morning. More rain is forecast for tomorrow as well. As I drove home from work, I looked east through the Portneuf Gap and first saw the clouds draped over the mountains and then I saw that there was –SNOW– on the tops of the mountains. Summer is finished. Winter is not far away.  I’m not ready for snow. Perhaps tomorrow I need to dig out the snow blower and make sure it’s ready for the season to come. I’ve just gotten used to summer and now it’s over. Dang!

Sometimes e-mail inbox includes a lovely surprise! This is one of them:

The accompanying note said:

It occured to me on my drive to Salt Lake that you were not using your camper to its fullest potential. I felt that this picture might give you an idea or two on how better utilize your camper. I firmly believe that it also offers an alternative to retirement….

Now that’s something worth thinking about!

Today is the tenth of September (not for much longer, however). The day between two poignant dates. Trevor was born on September 9, 1971 and had he lived, he would have been 35 years old yesterday rather than being forever 29. Although I had a very delightful day yesterday, he was on my mind during the entire day. I do miss him so very much. And, of course, tomorow is the fifth anniversary of the Al-Queda attack on the United States. That’s another day painfully burned into memory. But today is the in-between day. It has been a very pleasant day indeed.

I’m surrounded by females today. Most of them will be gone by tomorrow sometime. Some have already left. A bunch of folks flew into Salt Lake City on Thursday evening to go to “Time Out For Women”, a Deseret Book event held on Friday and Saturday in Logan, Utah. Nina’s sister Pam, Pam’s daughter Vanessa, and our daughter Dawnmarie came out for the event. Ashlyn (Pam’s daughter and BYU-I coed) and Nina met them on Friday and went with them to the event. They all came here late last night. Dawnmarie had to leave this morning at 7:30 a.m. to fly back home. Vanessa and Ashlyn will leave tomorrow morning some time. Pam will stay the rest of the week and we’ll have a good time with her. They seemed to have had a great time at the event and perhaps Nina will say something about it on her blog sometime. I enjoyed the very brief visit with Dawnmariel. She’s arrived safely back home.

Yesterday I drove down to Salt Lake and met up with my brother Perry and his wife Chris. Our main purpose was to go to the Recreational Vehicle Show at the convention center. As long as we were there, however, we could also do some other shopping (Ashlyn and Vanessa just brought me in some freshly baked brownies!!). We first went to Cabela’s to look at some camping and outdoor gear. We all spent more money than planned, but of course came away with some great treasures that will get a lot of use as we go camping. From there we went to Camping World to continue shopping. I needed a replacement shroud for the rooftop airconditioner on our motorhome. I also picked up a cover and a few other needed items. After lunch at Wingers we then headed for the RV show. It was mid-afternoon when we got there. I thought we’d be there a couple of hours at the most. Three and a half hours later, I needed to leave to head back north. There were some lovely vehicles there! Lots of dreaming … but none of those will be in our future any time soon. It’s always fun to be with Perry and Chris. We’re talking about a trip to Glacier Nat’l Park next year. That will definitely be fun.

So, the day is done, I’m finished, and life is good.

Every Thursday evening, as long as the weather holds, folks meet down at the Corner Market on their motorcycles at 6 p.m. and head off somewhere for a few hours of riding. I haven’t been able to go the past couple of weeks, so tonight was the night. Now the school has started, the weather has cooled down, and the days are much shorter, the number of bikes has decreased markedly. Tonight we had four bikes, but that doesn’t matter much as I was ready to go anywhere. We took the old highway east towards Soda Springs and down through some canyons I haven’t ever been through. Two hours and fifteen minutes later I was back home, feeling good. I really enjoy these Thursday night rides. I’m also kind of surprised at how many people in our neighborhood have motorcycles! Every Thursday night someone new (to me) shows up to go on the ride. My little car has been in the shop for the past week getting a sensor replace for the air conditioning, so I’ve been riding the motorcycle everywhere I’ve needed to go. That has also been fun. We should have decent weather for another month or more, so there should be several more Thursday night rides.

Grandson Michael has started up his blog. He’s put in two posts and I’ve enjoyed reading what he has had to say. Nina told me today that Stephanie also would like to have her own blog as well, so I’ll probably build that for her tomorrow night. The more the better. Life is good!