Book on Tape / CD

April 24, 2011

The Five People You Meet in Heaven by Mitch Albom

And by the way . . .

I started listening to Tom Clancy's Without Remorse.  I didn't get very far before the language and adult situations made me stop.  Call me a tee-totterer if you will, but it was more than I wanted to have in my mind.

Books on Tape/CD

April 17, 2011

The Flight of the Phoenix by Elliston Trevor

April 16, 2011
Removing the Stump and the Testosterone Tool
The weather is nice so Mar and Lar have been doing a lot of yard work. We really like doing it because it is outside and generally you get to see results right away – I love instant gratification. However, our last project was a little bit frustrating. When we first looked at our new home during the search process, we noticed that there were a couple of dead trees on the property. Luckily, the former owners took them out without our even asking. All was well in dead tree land.
However, this weekend we started digging up a place for a garden and right there in the middle was – a stump. As we dug we realized that the stump was providing large roots, so in our vanity we choose to remove the main offender – the stump itself. Task one was dig around it , and around it , and around it and fight with the myriad of roots which the stump had sent out. We figured that if we cut enough the stump would loosen and we would begin to see movement and eventually we would be able to yank that big, bad baby out of there. An hour later and a pretty big hole dug and the stump was winning. It didn't wiggle in the least.

We called it an evening with a humbled heart and a hole – still ruled over by a stump. I pondered and fretted over this for the evening. In the morning I had a plan. I went to the home improvement store and bought "the tool". It was a six foot, 18 pound digging bar with a sharp point at one end and a 2 inch cutting head at the other. I figured this would not only allow me to dig better, but also work as a pry bar when the offensive stump started to wiggle.

 

Morning and I am digging again. Pick, bar, scoot out the dirt. There is another big root. Let the bar handle it. Two hits and it is gone. Pick some more. Use the bar some more, scoop some more. Another root. Whooee, that root was broken with just one swing. But alas, after all the sweat and swinging – the stump still wasn't moving at all. Not at all.

 

Frustration set in and I lifted and jammed that digging bar down on the top of the stump. Inspiration. If I can't dig it out, I'll just chop it up. And that is what I did.

I just split and broke the top 10 inches off of the top of that stump, and then buried the rest. Me and my bar were finally victorious. (Well at least we buried the sin.)

Reading list

February 18, 2011
 Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte

This is a book on the 501 Must Read list. I was at a used book store in Longmont (Barbed Wire Books) and saw this one. Realizing it was on the 501 list, I bought it and started reading it. Alas, after I had read it I found that we already had a copy on our bookshelf. Okay, so now I have two copies. And the second copy was not in vain because Mar's Book club is reading Wuthering Heights in April, so I had an extra copy to loan out.
Wuthering Heights is the name of house on the moors of Northern England. Wuthering is a word for gale, blustering winds, so the name indicates a forlorn, cold and isolated place, which it is – not just in the environment, but also socially and metaphysically. The antagonist of the story is "Heathcliff", who is really one of the most despicable, unlovable and cruel villains I have ever read about. He is wracked by an unrequited love, and swears vengeance on all who stood in his way of attaining that love after the object of his love dies. The metaphysical nature of his "beyond the grave" love, and how it warps his soul is the basis of the story.
It is a classic, the only classic written by Emily Bronte because she died soon after it's publication. It is not easy reading. One character speaks in an English dialect that I could not decipher (luckily my copy had footnotes which "translated" those passages. It is a good book to read, but it is not light reading. If you wanted to do a character/plot/scene evaluation of a book and goo deeply into theme and symbolism, this would be a good but challenging book to attempt.
I enjoyed it. Many people wouldn't.

Reading List

February 12, 2011

 Anne of Green Gables by L. M. Montgomery

This is a book on the 501 Must Read list. It is also a book that we had in out bookshelf (thanks to Breanne). So I took it and read it.
For anyone who has not read this book, I highly recommend it. Anne does change in the book – she matures and learns some valuable lessons. What is interesting is the way other people change I the course of the book, making it a really well written story. And in addition to all of that, it is just fun to read. You develop compassion and understanding of all of the characters. And it is just fun to read (yes I said that already.

Travels with Lar

March 13-18, 2011
Tempe, Arizona

 This was a business trip to teach a class in the Mentor Tempe office. It was specifically for one customer – Intel. I have been teaching a lot for Intel as of late. It was a customized class. The class went well.
On Wednesday I went to visit Ed and have dinner with him. It was just him because Michelle was in Southern California and Sandy and Jonathan were in Washington D. C. We had a good talk and a good dinner. I like going to Tempe so I get a chance to visit with my brother.
On Thursday I went to the Mesa temple.

My flight home was delayed over two hours. It was good weather in Tempe, and good weather in Denver, but the plane got delayed in San Francisco so everything down-stream got messed up. Still, it was a Friday night return, so I was happy.

Travels with Lar

March 6 – 12, 2011
Dallas, Texas

 This was a business trip to teach a class in the Mentor Dallas office. It was specifically for one customer – Raytheon. It was a customized class. The class went well.
The Mentor office in Dallas has changed locations. It is no longer in Addison, but is in Dallas – but still only about three miles from the last office building. The new building is associated with a mall, so at lunch there is a good place to go walking. It is a nice office with a nice training room. The hardest thing about the office is the parking lot – you could get lost in the parking lot. In fact, one time I did. I was trying to get out and suddenly I was going up in the structure rather than down towards the exit. One of the students gave me the best advice. "Just park on the first level and then take the elevator up to level five." That made it much easier because you could see the exit.
The only other thing important about this trip was that I got to go to the Dallas temple on Wednesday night.

And then I flew home on Saturday morning.