Family: July 2008 Archives

Today marks another episode in what is quickly becoming the never ending InvisibleSHIELD saga. When we last left our hero he was anxiously awaiting the conclusion of his wife's InvisibleSHIELD installation training. I was anxiously looking forward to having an iPhone that had been sealed for my protection. And although I had no intention of ever running my keys across the iPhone it would be good to know that I could without having to worry about whether it would be scratched. As Trina finished installing the film she brought the iPhone to me to make sure everything was cool. She was carrying it as if it contained nitro glycerin. I was really hoping that the instructions did not include that I had to carry my phone in that manner. Being a typical guy, I just reached out to grab the device and begin messing with it.

It seems like every year the summer gets shorter and shorter at least as far as the kids are concerned. I seem to remember back in the dark ages when I was a kid that we didn't actually go to school until after Labor Day. We always got out the week before Memorial Day. So I have no idea what happened. Now the school year starts for our kids on August 4. They still get out of school the later part of May but somehow we just moved the calendar up a whole month. You would think that with an entire extra month of school that we would be churning out some kind of kid super geniuses. I have been around my kids and their friends enough that I can assure you that is not the case. If anything we are raising an entire generation of idiots. Ok, that's not exactly right, some of these kids are pretty smart. They have to be, they are dealing with parents like us.

Recently I wrote about the InvisibleSHIELD over for the iPhone 3G. I spoke at length about how cool I thought it was and how well it would protect my iPhone. I bought on-line because I could not find one of the covers locally. After reviewing the web site and watching the installation videos I figured that I could handle the installation myself. I'm a college graduate; I mean how hard could it be? I looked at the package and reviewed the graphics and the instructions. By about the second paragraph I figured there was no way I was ever going to be able to do this. Not because it was hard but because I have absolutely no patience for stuff like this. So I did what I always do in times like this, I asked Trina for help. She told me she had time. That was Thursday.

Ever since our return from vacation, I've noticed that my son Dakota seems to be obsessed with the mail. Usually it is like pulling teeth to get one of the kids to go down to the mailbox and retrieve the mail. You would think that I was asking them to do battle with Big Foot or try and cure cancer instead of going down to a community mail box and get envelopes from a small metal box. Oh sure their reluctance may have something to do with the concrete being fairly close to the temperatures of the sun. But it's not like I am asking them to walk down there in their bare feet. As I said, for the last week Dakota has not only volunteered to go down and "get the mail" he have actually taken it upon himself to go down to the box and check the mail several times per day. One or two days of that and as a parent I begin to get suspicious. If I didn't know any better I would think he was trying to get to something before his parents had a chance to see it. Perhaps I am just being paranoid. Still my parent spider sense was definitely tingling.

While we were at the Hallmark Ornament Premiere Trina happened to ask me what I might want for Christmas this year so she could start planning. I briefly considered suggesting that she get me a 2008 Corvette or put me on the list for a 2009 Camaro SS when they are released. Trina could see the wheels of my demented mind spinning and before I could even utter a sound she added the qualifier, "Remember, you've been good but you haven't been THAT good." Ouch, that smarts. There is nothing like a reminder from your wife that you haven't quite been the model husband. I have a theory on that. Yeah I know, I have a theory on everything.

When we left Idaho last week I had hoped to stop by the Harley-Davidson dealership in Salt Lake City Utah and also the dealership in Sandy Utah. My goal was two-fold. First I love to see the various dealerships and how they are displaying their bikes and accessories. Second, and more importantly, I was hoping to pick up a dealer pin from each of these dealerships. I am going to attempt to collect the various dealer pins from around the country. When we got to Utah I realized that I didn't have a chance to look up the addresses or get directions to either of these dealerships before leaving Idaho. I attempted to get the information via my iPhone while on the road but driving while surfing seemed like a really bad idea especially during Salt Lake City rush hour traffic. For a second I thought about asking Trina to surf for me while I drove but knowing her technology limitations I figured that was probably well beyond her expertise. I therefore skipped the two Harley dealerships instead making a note to stop there during the next trip I might make.

Vacations are great. They give you an opportunity to get away from the daily activities that seem to just drain the life out of you. They replace the mundane with exciting new opportunities to live life differently. No matter what you do on vacation, it is just different from the daily grind and different is always good in my book. In most cases people will take vacation away from home. That is not always the case and this year with the skyrocketing prices of gasoline some people are spending their vacations at home. Even so, your routine is disrupted as you are not getting up and going to work so hence different. In our case we were gone for nearly two weeks and arrived home yesterday afternoon.

My parents have always been an extremely important part of my life. They have been role models that I have looked up to and tried to emulate. They have successfully raised three children and considering our personalities that in itself was a herculean feat. And while they have been devoted to their children and subsequent grand children, they have been even more devoted to each other. Throughout my life I have had people talk to me about my parents and it is always a consistent theme. They obviously love each other deeply and no one has ever seen two people more devoted to each other than they are.

It seems like only yesterday that we had arrived to begin our vacation and yet today marks the beginning of the end. We are to leave Idaho today to begin our trip back to Arizona. It is with mixed feelings that I am leaving. On the one hand it is always difficult to say good-bye to those that you love. My parents and grandmother are not getting any younger (they love when I say that) and I always regret having to leave them not knowing exactly when I may be seeing them again. Likewise Mallorie will be remaining up here for a little while longer as she is not quite done with school. We are leaving our daughter Tiffany as well. She will be staying with Mallorie until school is out then the two of them will be travelling back to Arizona together. Trina's mother and sister also live here and we'll be saying good-by to them as well. The hardest part though is that this is also the final resting place for our daughter Lindsay. She would have been 23 this year but she will always be my baby. I've never quite gotten over losing her even though it happened so long ago. Trina and I don't talk much about it but it is always on my mind. The emotional baggage I bring with me on this trip at times seems larger than the luggage we have with us.

We had multiple reasons for going to Idaho on vacation. We had to, it would take multiple reasons to drag me back in time to be here. It is not that I don't like Idaho, it is just that my lifestyle does not meld well with that of this state. I tend to be someone who is always connected and interested in new and adventurous activities. Unless these adventures take place in the great outdoors, Idaho is definitely not going to be confused with state-of-the-art. So what were the reasons for us being here? Well our daughter Mallorie is going to school at Brigham Young University - Idaho so we did want to make she was surviving (especially since this week is finals week for her). My parents are celebrating their fiftieth wedding anniversary this week as well so we wanted to be her to wish them well. My mother has been going through chemo-therapy so I also wanted to see her and make sure everything was progressing well (they are). Finally, my grandmother recently celebrated her 90th birthday and I wanted to see her.

My parents' fiftieth wedding anniversary is this upcoming Friday. It is hard to believe that they have been married half a century. This is obviously a big deal and I have been wracking my brain trying to think of an appropriate gift to commemorate such an occasion. I had drawn a complete blank. At one point I considered going through their photo album and select important photos to commemorate their life together and having Trina make a photo quilt for them. When I suggested this Trina was very excited but when I talked to my parents to ask for their help in deciding which pictures to use I was met with apathy. I decided that perhaps something else may be better and I decided to perhaps go a different direction. The question was, what could I do especially given the short time frame I had before the actual event.

Today is Saturday July 12 and that can mean only one thing, it is the Hallmark Holiday Ornament Premiere. Does the Hallmark Corporation have any idea how strange that sounds? Here we are in the middle of summer. The backyard grill still has the remnants from the Independence Day BBQ and we're still trying to decide if we can get away with one more night of setting off fireworks before the cops come over and confiscate our remaining bottle rockets. In the midst of all that we are supposed to get in the mood to select ornaments for a Christmas Tree that will remain stored in the garage for another 5 months. I was ballistic when I went in Wal-Mart the other day and saw them starting to prepare aisles for Halloween costumes now I am being asked to decide what decorations I want to see on my tree. That just seems really messed up. I'd love to be able to blow off the premiere but I've been down that path before and it is not good. The saddest part is that I have no one to blame for this but myself.

We have now lived in Arizona over 14 years. A lot of our family still lives in Idaho and Utah. As a result we find ourselves making the trek from Arizona to Idaho quite often (more often than I would like that's for sure). We have gotten to where we have a fairly well mapped out path from point A to point B and back. This path is the result of trying just about every different roadway that goes between these three states. And what I have learned from all of this is that there really is no good way to get from Arizona to Idaho without subjecting yourself to a lot of small highways or back roads. I don't so much mind driving the back country but it does have its drawbacks. For example there are large stretches of road that have absolutely nothing on them. Driving from Flagstaff Arizona northward for example takes you across Indian Reservations that barely have phone service let alone rest stops or places to get something to eat or drink. Even cellular service is spotty. Digital phone service is impossible and analog roaming is even questionable. This situation remains in effect through part of southern Utah as well at least until you can get near the Interstate when there are at least some cellular towers to give you adequate phone service.

Today is the first official full day of vacation. I know I should really count yesterday since that is when we left Arizona but since that did not occur until after the baseball game and technically I am classifying going to the Diamondbacks as work (I love my job if that's the case), then today would truly be the first full day of vacation. And since this is my blog and my life I feel like I am empowered to define things however I want to. Wow, that sounded kind of like the time I got a new ball and decided I got to make the rules to the game or else I would take my ball and go home. That didn't work out too well as the ball went flat and we all had to go anyways so hopefully this time that attitude will work better.

We completed our packing and we were finally ready for our vacation. On Diary of a Diehard I discussed a little of what goes into summer vacation at our house. The planning is more representative of a large scale battle plan for a world war than it is for a family to go on vacation. I think a lot of that is as a result of having a house full of women. With just Dakota and me to represent the male population we are quickly outnumbered by the estrogen gang. Discounting the computer equipment for a moment, there is a substantial difference between how women pack for a vacation and how men pack for the same amount of time and same location. Take for example my son Dakota versus my daughter Whitney.

After my computer store excursion I had to go into stealth mode. Trina had returned from out of town and I was already in trouble for the handiwork she did know about. You would think that a wife would be grateful that her husband would do things around the house but not my wife. Of course her ideas for home improvement and mine seem to be diametrically opposed. She sees things such as landscaping, house painting, and minor repairs as at the top of the list. I am more inclined to think of rewiring the house with optical cable, running Ethernet over power line, or adding home automation devices as home improvement. I mean seriously who doesn't want to control their lights from the comfort of the computer or be able to set the thermostat from the Internet? Still I guess she does have a valid point. Our house is filled with technology goodness but my backyard still has not been fully landscaped since we moved in 14 years ago. I blame the electronics industry. If they would come up with cool landscape technology I would be all over it.

Growing up the Fourth of July was the highlight of our summer. We lived in a relatively small town in eastern Idaho. We were a mere 90 minutes from Jackson Hole Wyoming or a little over 2 hours away from Yellowstone Park. Being that close to the Wyoming border is not especially impressive or noteworthy and would normally best be left unsaid. There was a brief time each year that was of importance to us. That time was around the Fourth of July. In Idaho we were allowed to have some types of fireworks but it was limited. We could have sparklers, cones, and ground blossoms. In Idaho we were not permitted to have firecrackers, bottle rockets, roman candles, or anything that went airborne. Wyoming had a much more liberal look on fireworks. I often wondered what it must be like to be in the state legislature in the cowboy state. That had to be kind of like being a sheriff in the wild west. They seemed to pass just enough laws so that the citizens didn't kill themselves but they did not seem to mind arming the people with weapons of mass maiming. As a kid, that makes you just about one of the coolest adults on the planet.