Famous People

Do you know any famous people? Every meet any? How about rich people? Put both characteristics together and you get the rich and famous. So how about it, ever meet, make friends with or otherwise come in contact with someone in a higher social class than yourself?

I have. More than once and a few are even people I consider my friends and would gladly welcome in my home. My reason for this has nothing to do with their notoriety or public life. Famous people are famous by definition because a large number of the general public know who they are. To me this isn't a big deal. People may know who you are, so what.

I have met some people on the national political scene. On the state and local level there are politicians that take my call and see me when I ask. I am acquainted with a number of people that have considerable more money and influence than I.

The larger the person's public status or their alleged wealth the greater the number of other people that seem to feel they have a right to the details of a intimate nature. In some cases, like persons seeking political power, certain details involving character are very important. For some reason the human race likes to "get the dirt" on others. In most cases its a matter of morbid curiosity and a deep seated desire to see someone with a slightly better life take a shot in the chops.

Three people come to mind right now. The first is a guy I know and had a negative experience with. He died and it's made international news. I was asked to attend the funeral. I declined. One is a friend of my wife. He's famous right now because he murdered his ex-wife and now has the attention of a news starved public. He'll soon slip from public attention but the damage his rage caused will rock our circle of friends for years to come. The last is a couple I "know" in a superficial way. They really aren't into the celebrity scene but they have a small amount of public attention. Recently some unfortunate events have happened to their family. When that information became public it turned into an opportunity for some mud slinging.

For some reason people like to see other people hurt. The more affluence, fame, or "Christian" that person is rumored to be the juicier the story and greater the glee in the feeding frenzy.

Here's the deal as I see it. You wouldn't care one bit about so and so's divorce, murder, legal problems, untimely death, kid turning out bad etc, if they weren't famous or richer than you. The issue isn't that some people with good lives have problems. The issue is some people take a special kind of satisfaction in seeing harm come to those perceived as their betters. Which is worse?

Here's the Deal

We have to act fast on this.

Those of you, and you know who you are, that NEED to get a whitewater fix, need to drop me an email right way.
Gore Canyon is going to be open soon. Saturday rafting opportunities are limited to a maximum number of people per day. This is THE COLORADO WHITE WATER TRIP! I've been jonesing to do this trip ever since I discovered it existed.

Gore Canyon, the Colorado Classic. Gore Canyon takes you through five Class V rapids, such as the 12-ft. Tunnel Falls, pictured above. The flatwater paddle into the canyon provides stunning views of the craggy Gore Range mountains while your crew gets tuned up and ready to paddle together. After entering the canyon, there is no turning back. Many rapids await you, like Scissors, Kirschbaum, and Tunnel Falls, where scouting the falls and anticipating the drop is all part of the fun. A gourmet deli lunch is your reward after completing the Canyon. If you want to get your adrenaline flowing, this is the trip for you. Gore runs 8-11 through 9-2. Don't miss the best Class V rafting in Colorado!

Video can be found here.


Here's the deal, we need to book this trip fast if we're going to get it in this year. I want to make a decision and reservations by the end of the week. Drop me an email, phone call or a line in the comments. We'll try to do all the normal pre and post trip fun stuff but right now we need to book a date and put down the cash to save a spot on the river. Friday is the dead line to let me know if you want to go.

More info on the trip here.

Fishing

This has been one busy summer. I've been swamped with projects. On the 4th I did manage to get away for the day. I went to do a little fishing and enjoy some time in the mountains.

These are lupine and some other white mountain flower that I don't know the name of. June is usually the best month for lupine but this year they stayed into July. Mrs. Ipsa and I try to get a trip in to see them at least once a year but this year she didn't feel like making the trip, secretly I think she wanted me to have a day off just to fish and unwind.

A young cut throat trout, he's only about 10 inches.



Our church has been without a minister since last fall. The last two quarters I've been filling in with the teaching and preaching on a regular basis. This helped motivate me to serve on the search committee. I think we found the right man. He's been published professionally and I for one am looking forward to some one on one instruction . I think he's a great man in the pulpit too. You gotta admit he's got a cool hobby.

My other full time job is Daddy. I've been investing a lot of time in this project. We play games. "Daddy chase the ball", "Airborne baby" and "Baby drop" are favorites. Other games are being discouraged like; "Turn the knobs on the stereo", "Stick stuff in the VHS and DVD player" and the most recent favorite, "Crawl as fast as you can, then rip all the books off the shelf and start crinkling them up". I'll be investing in kiddy proof locks for the drawers as soon as I remember to buy some when I'm in town.

Speaking of home improvement projects, I put in new steal garage doors and I'm working on a drip irrigation system. The garden needs major weeding and I haven't weed whipped the yard since April, and it shows. I made it out to shoot pistol league once, that night they called it off for the 4th. That was just as well, I decided to get in some practice and I sucked. You've got to pull the trigger regularly if you want to be any good. Life is busy but fun.

I haven't been around on the blogs much. I'm still working in the field. I used to have a blog topic pop into my head and since I was sitting near the computer I'd dash off a post. Now I compose posts in my head and forget to write them up at the end of the day. I hope your summer is going well and I wish the best for you and yours.

Police Comments

I wish I was a cop. Not really but it would be fun, in a cold, nearly evil sort of way to shoot off #1 as a one liner sometime.

These 16 police comments were taken off actual police car videos around the country:

#16 "You know, stop lights don't come any redder than the
one you just went through."

#15 "Relax, the handcuffs are tight because they're new. They'll stretch after you wear them a while."

#14 "If you take your hands off the car, I'll make your
birth certificate a worthless document."

#13 "If you run, you'll only go to jail tired."

#12 "Can you run faster than 1200 feet per second? Because that's the speed of the bullet that'll be chasing you."

#11 "You don't know how fast you were going? I guess that
means I can write anything I want to on the ticket, huh?"

#10 "Yes, sir, you can talk to the shift supervisor, but I don't think it will help. Oh, did I mention that I'm the shift supervisor?"

#9 "Warning! You want a warning? OK, I'm warning you not to
do that again or I'll give you another ticket."

#8 "The answer to this last question will determine whether
you are drunk or not. Was Mickey Mouse a cat or a dog?"

#7 "Fair? You want me to be fair? Listen, fair is a place
where you go to ride on rides, eat cotton candy and corn
dogs, and step in monkey poop."

#6 "Yeah, we have a quota. Two more tickets and my wife gets
a toaster oven."

#5 "In God we trust; all others we run through NCIC."

#4 "How big were those 'Just two beers' you say you had?"

#3 "No sir, we don't have quotas anymore. We used to, but
now we're allowed to write as many tickets as we can."

#2 "I'm glad to hear that Chief [of Police] Hawker is a personal friend of yours. So you know someone who can post your bail."

#1 "You didn't think we give pretty women tickets? You're right, we don't. Sign here."


One last one:

I've had a REALLY bad day! I rear-ended a car today.

I tell you, It was a REALLY REALLY REALLY BAD DAY!

The driver got out of the other car and he was a DWARF!

He looked up at me and said, "I am NOT Happy!"

So I said, "Well then, which one ARE you?"

That's how the fight started.

It's Driving Me Crazy

OK, some of these I get, some I've learned by trial and error. Some make no freaking sense at all. If you can, explain #41 to me, as well as how you figured out the right answer. Be warned this can take up some time.

The Impossible Quiz

Feel free to post helps and correct answers in the comments. It might be cheating, but I think its ok this time.

Can You See Me?

Extra points if you know the subject of this pic and post without scrolling down or enlarging the pic.

Can see me?

Can you hear me?

Touch me?

Feel me?

We'll I couldn't see him, not until he moved. I didn't hear him, because he made no sound. I did feel him as he struck and sunk two fangs in. I did make it a point to reach out and touch him with my brand new shovel.

It was just under 100 degrees at work today and this little guy was shading himself under a bit of plastic tarp that was supposed to be anchored down. I was hurrying trying to get done so I could get my work truck serviced in town before quiting time. I was walking up to my location and as I put my foot down I saw a snake strike. He hit the toe of my boot and retreated under the plastic. Then he rattled a warning. Freaking retarded snake didn't even know he was supposed to rattle first. Fortunate for me, my Danner's have steal toes. The rattler just chipped his tooth on my boot. This didn't keep me from mashing his head with a about three good wacks with the shovel. He wasn't as big as this guy. He came in at just 32 inches, and had 9 buttons on his tail.

If you look careful you can see his poison pouch and a fang, you'll have to enlarge it to see. Its on the upper right of his head. My job may be different than yours. The snakes at my work can kill, and they'll giver a try once in awhile. On the other hand, I can kill all the snakes at work and it won't have the human resources department running around trying to recruit more middle managers.