Every year has its fair share of ups and downs. 2009 was, in that regard, not much different. I saw this image online and thought it would go nicely with this post. In my case, there’s no hair left to be pulled out.

Picking one frustration is impossible. So, I thought I’d make a list, in no particular order. Just because something comes earlier on the list doesn’t mean that something else lower on the list isn’t a higher frustration!

1. Traffic in and around Salt Lake City. It’s not that there is too much traffic, it’s that everyone seems to drive as though they’re fifteen minutes late and still have fifteen minutes of driving left. I’ve often thought that Mormons of all people should be the most courteous drivers. However, I remember many General Conference Priesthood Meetings where at the end the attendees were reminded to observe traffic laws and be polite and courteous of other drivers. On the other hand, my frustration may come from the fact that as I’ve gotten older, I’ve slowed down a bit!
2. Meetings starting late to wait for potential late comers. This drives me up the wall, actually. The message that I receive is that my time is not as important as someone else’s who isn’t there yet.
3. Health Insurance. The system is broken. Fix it already!
4. Elected officials whining. The other day I was reading an article in the Preston, Idaho newspaper about the county hospital board’s reaction to the failed bond levy in the past election. The measure required a 2/3’s majority to pass and failed by a 2/3’s majority. According to the board, the voters “didn’t understand.” So it’s the voter’s fault? Not so. If the voters didn’t understand, then whose responsibility was it to educate them?
5. My weight. Why can’t the pounds just go away? Exercise actually doesn’t help very much. It seems that to lose weight, one must eat less. To maintain weight, one must exercise. I don’t like that situation.

Ta ta for now!

I had to do a bit of research as to what books I’ve read this year. I did reread the first 11 books in the Wheel of Time series by Robert Jordan in anticipation of book 12, The Gathering Storm, being released in November. Robert Jordan (a pen name), died last year without being able to complete the series. Jordan’s widow (and editor of the previous books) hired Brandon Sanderson to complete the series. Finishing the series requires three more books of which The Gathering Storm is the first and follow-on books will come in November 2010 and November 2011 (if all happens as planned).

I finished Jordan’s book 11 and immediately started on Sanderson’s book 12. Yesterday I put it down in disgust on page 362 at the end of chapter 23. I was furious at the direction the story had taken. My first thought was, “Jordan would not have written this into the story line!” Since then I’ve remembered that Jordan had a fairly detailed outline of the story all the way to the end, had written much of this book already, and had dictated a whole bunch more into a voice recorder. It probably is the direction he would have gone. Nevertheless, I’m not happy with it and the book will sit for a while before I pick it up again.

So, at the moment, The Gathering Storm is NOT a candidate for the “best book”.

I’ve also read a couple of other books this year that seemed to have potential. I’ve always liked Arthur C. Clarke’s science fiction. I’ve also enjoyed Frederick Pohl’s work as well. When I saw that they had collaborated on a “New York Times Best Seller,” The Last Theorem, I bought the book to read. I finished it with great difficulty, only to be able to say I read it all the way through. It is science fiction fluff. Another non-candidate for the “best book”.

Clayton Christensen’s best seller The Innovator’s Dilemma was another of the non-fiction books I read this year, along with Brian Greene’s The Fabric of the Cosmos. Both were excellent books, although the Cosmos book was deep reading in places and I had to take it slow, occasionally re-reading whole chapters to make sure I understood what was there. While neither are bedside reading, they were excellent and I learned a lot from both of them. Both of these books could qualify for “best book”.

I’ve also plowed through a couple of computer books, primarily to help with some of the web work I’ve been doing. Because of their nature, I don’t consider them to be candidates for “best book”.

In October I decided to get my ham radio license. That also required some reading, all of which is documented in another blog getmyhamradiolicense.com. Those books were successful in that I passed the licensing exams.

My wife Nina is a voracious reader. She usually has two or three books going at a time (I’m not able to do that) and probably has a long list of favorite books for this past year.

So, do I have a “best book” for 2009? The answer is “No.”  None really “rocked my boat.” Maybe next year!

Ta ta for now!

We don’t go to the movies very often. Nina would go more often, I think, but the movie selection hasn’t been all that great. The two movies that stand out for me in the past year were “Up” and “Star Trek”.

We enjoyed “Up” a lot. It’s a good movie, well done, and with a good message. As soon as it came out on DVD Nina bought a copy of the movie. It’s definitely a great movie.

However, the best movie of 2009 has to be “Star Trek”. We saw it three times in the theater and then again in Heather’s home theater in full surround sound. We both jumped at the same spot in the movie every time. I’ve got it downloaded on my iPhone and have watched it again on that little screen. It’s definitely the best movie of 2009 for me.

We’re going to the movies tomorrow afternoon to see the new Sandra Bullock movie, the name of which I can’t remember. Some say it’ll be Sandra Bullock’s Oscar performance. That’ll be good for her and I’m sure we’ll definitely enjoy the movie.

It won’t be as good as “Star Trek”, though.

Ta ta for now!

Continuing with the idea of looking back on the past year, it seems necessary to talk a bit about food and restaurants. I like to eat (as if that wasn’t noticeable) and enjoy eating out with Nina from time to time. For a while we were trying to have dinner out at least once a month on the first Saturday of the month. Lots of things seemed to get in the way of making that schedule work, but we still managed to get out to eat fairly often.

Pocatello doesn’t have a large number of what I would call “good to excellent” restaurants. However, in the past year or so, a few new ones have opened and we’ve had either dinner or lunch there.

My favorite restaurant in Pocatello at present in Ruby Tuesday with Applebee’s coming in a close second. Ruby Tuesday has a great atmosphere and is very conducive to good conversation. We’ve been there several times and a coupon came in the mail a couple of days ago, meaning that we’ll be back there in the next week or so.

When we’re traveling we do eat a lot of restaurant meals. Some are OK, most are just average, a few are really bad. Not very often does one raise to the top.

However, this year the best restaurant and best meal was one we had on the road, and was a take-out meal besides. We were staying in a campground near Hammonassett Beach State Park. It had been a long day of sight seeing and playing. We decided to get pizza and bring it back to the campsite for dinner. Dawnmarie’s family were with us, so Kirk and I drove back to the main highway and stopped at the first pizza place we saw and ordered pizza. It was to die for. For no other reason than that, we’ll return to this restaurant on our next trip to Connecticut just to verify that it was the best pizza we’ve ever had. And there you have it: my pick for the best restaurant for 2009.

Ta ta for now!

We definitely didn’t stay home during the past year. We made several trips, some lengthy, some rather short.

The drive we’ve made most often this year is the 55 mile drive between our home and Soda Springs, spending time with dad and with mother. During this time the road between McCammon and the Iron Bridge towards Lava Hot Springs has been under construction (which probably won’t finish until sometime next summer). We’ve enjoyed watching the construction and have been very impressed at how well it has gone with very minimal traffic impact. In any case, these drives can’t be considered “trips”, so they don’t qualify for the “best”.

Because of dad’s condition, we spent most of the spring somewhere between Pocatello and Soda Springs. Nina’s niece Ashlyn got married, which took us to Rexburg and Logan. My nephew Bryan’s newborn daughter died, which necessitated going to that funeral. Again, these don’t really qualify for the “best”.

In April we made a day trip to Yellowstone National Park. This was the opening day for vehicular traffic in the park. We had a delightful time … and this one does qualify for the “best”.

We made several trips to North Salt Lake and Heather’s house. Most of the time these were because Heather’s house is a convenient place to spend the night while we’re doing something else. We did go down a couple of times just to be with Heather and her family, with the time spent over Thanksgiving being a highlight. I think the Thanksgiving trip does qualify for the “best”.

In June we made the Really Big Trip out to Connecticut and back with several stops along the way. We got to see (although sometimes very briefly) family whom we’ve not seen for quite a while. This trip definitely qualifies for the “best” category.

We got home in time for another funeral, this time Aunt Marj. That required a trip to Tooele, Utah, which is definitely not a garden spot (sorry, Tooele fans). This trip probably doesn’t qualify for the “best”.

In September we made another visit to Yellowstone National Park. We stayed in the park and took very nice trips outside the park to places like Cody, Wyoming and Red Lodge, Montana over the Bear Tooth Highway. After all the activity involved with dad’s death and funeral in August, this trip was a very nice, relaxing time and qualifies for the “best”.

We went to Chandler, Arizona in October to spend some time with our daughter Jaelene and her family. We had a great time with them and really enjoyed the time we spent there. This trip definitely qualifies for the “best”.

And there’s yet another trip in our near future. We’ll leave on Sunday, December 20th to make our way to Pennsylvania to spend Christmas with Dawnmarie and her family. We’ll come back in early January. This trip would also qualify for the “best” (and perhaps the most exciting, depending on the weather).

However, since we haven’t made that last trip, I’m not sure I can pick the “best trip” of the year just yet. Of the trips we’ve taken so far, they’d probably line up in this order:

1. Trip to Yellowstone in September
2. Trip out east in June
3. Trip to Jaelene’s in October
4. Thanksgiving with Heather’s family in November
5. Trip to Yellowstone on opening day in April

I may update this post after we get back from our December trip across Wyoming, Nebraska, Iowa, Illinois, Indiana, and Ohio and back. It should be a great time!

Ta ta for now….