Bad Things

I've been fortunate to do some great hiking in the ADKs, Colorado, Washington, Oregon and now New Zealand. My longest single day was probably 16 miles or so, and about 100 miles for a multi day hike. In the coming years I'm really hoping to explore more of Fjordland National Park which is in the bottom of the South Island. It's the most incredibly beautiful place I've ever seen.

I'm happy for him that he's doing well, but he was really wearing out his welcome here.

Great song, but I like this version better... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GfAMj5dZrMc

The day before I moved out to Colorado, my Uncle Horst left me with these words of wisdom... "Mark, don't let the little head think for the big head."

Maybe they're showing off EJ's skillset for a possible trade? (I'll just run away and watch from afar)

To be honest, I always thought the "Don't confuse effort with results" saying was a bit odd.

USA! USA! USA!

A lot of people are asking how gun control laws can come into effect. I'm not saying that this is the right way, and Lord knows I hate to use the Aussies as shining examples, but this is how Australia did it. (And from all accounts, it's been very successful.) http://edition.cnn.com/2015/06/19/world/us-australia-gun-control/

George Harrison reminds you of Jayden Smith, huh?

Yikes. What a mess!

"If everyone who had a gun just shot themselves, there wouldn't be a problem." - George Harrison

No offense, Chef, but... if things are that dangerous for your wife, why don't you move??

Jeez... what the hell is going on up there in America? (I feel like I'm constantly having to explain American culture to people down here.)

Thanks to everyone that supplied updates throughout training camp. It was (almost) all very much appreciated!

Thanks again, Astro!

+1

How about free stuff for the international fans?

yup

interesting

For you? probably not.

We won't be able to have a family holiday to Fiji this winter, because we decided to spend the funds on a new garage/workshop/studio.

Yeah, following my “revelation” on the mountaintop, I took it as a sign, and attended a series of Tibetan Buddhist classes. Although I haven’t ever considered myself a true Buddhist, I thoroughly enjoyed the teachings of the Dharma, which struck a chord in me. The complete lack of religious dogma was like a breath of fresh air and a real eye-opener, compared to my Christian upbringing. I understand what you’re saying about meditation. For years, I would do a daily lunchtime meditation in some of the old-growth forests near my work. Like you, I can also attest that this practice brought me a clarity to things that made me able to do many things that I wouldn’t have been able to do without it. (Our dream of moving to New Zealand had always seemed like an impossibility, but once we made the decision to do it, every piece of the puzzle seemed to simply fall into place. Next week will mark 10 years since we first arrived here.) Sadly, my practice has fallen by the wayside in the last few years, but I’ll try to use this thread as a catalyst to start it back up again.

Finders keepers!

OK, I'll share my story with you. It happened back in May 2003, when my family and I were living in Washington State, near the beautiful Columbia River Gorge. One Sunday morning, I planned to go hike one of my all-time favorite mountains. Dog Mountain. I left the house in the predawn, drove up the gorge, and arrived at the trailhead just as the sun was rising. After about a half an hour of hiking through dense pine forest, I heard some loud crashing and bashing in the brush ahead of me, below the trail. I stood my ground and smacked my hiking stick against the nearest tree, to scare away whatever was down there. The crashing continued and got closer and closer when all of a sudden, a huge brown bear burst out of the the trees and stood right in front of me on the trail. He looked right at me, and finally ran away up the mountain. It was incredible! I've always had an afinity with bears and have seem a few in the wild, but nothing like this. After I caught my breath, I continued hiking. One thing that Dog Mountain is known for, is its incredible display of wildflowers, and after another hour of hiking I emerged from the trees and found myself in one of the most gorgeous surroundings that I've ever seen. (The upper 1/4 of the mountain was just covered in solid flowers. I've never seen anything like it before.) When I finally got to the summit, I saw that there were already a couple people there that came up from the other trail. I didn't want to crowd them, so I left the summit and walked a distance through the flowers and found a private spot, away from the trail, where I could sit and have a bite to eat. I sat down and looked across the gorge. The snow covered peak of Mount Hood was directly in front of me, with a waterfall down below, in the gorge. Incredible. (Side note... a month or two before this, I began experiencing a bad back, so took the advice from a friend and began doing yoga. Something that I didn't expect from Yoga, was that it kinda opened up a spirituality in me that I never had before. I don't understand how or why, but it did.) All of the yoga information that I read, mentioned the importance of meditation which I've never done before, but I thought that this would be the perfect opportunity to try. So I did. There I was, on a mountaintop, in a field of flowers, when I opened up my soul for the first time and truly gave thanks. It was unlike anything I've experienced before. It wasn't like praying in church. It was direct, powerful and real. When I finally broke out of my prayer/meditation, I composed myself and again took in the surroundings. I took a sip from my water bottle and when I put it down, I noticed a little yellow thread of fabric by one of the flowers by my feet. Not really thinking about it, I reached for the thread to pick it up. When I did, I felt a resistance. Sure enough the thread was coming out of the ground. Huh? I pulled on it a bit harder and felt like it was attached to something in the soil, beneath the flower. Huh?? What could this be, I thought, a message? With my "prayer experience" just having happened, I was, too be honest, a bit frightful. I pulled harder on the thread until it began lifting something from beneath the flower. I kept on pulling until out came a clean, folded up square of fabric. My heart almost stopped. I slowly unfolded the fabric and was blown away. There I was alone in a field a flowers, near the summit of Dog Mountain with a Tibetan Prayer flag in my hand. How it got there, I have no idea, but it was surely meant for me.

I may have missed it, but when has he shown frustration about not getting the ball enough? Also... don't forget that when the Eagles approached Buffalo about the McCoy trade, they first wanted Woods and we said "No way. How about Kiko?" Woods isn't going anywhere, because it would be idiotic.