Day 7

Today I got up at 6:30 and did my laundry, talked to Ruth and the kids, and got ready for the day. I walked up to the clothing store to pick up my dress blue uniform pants. They ordered the wrong size, but they now had the right size in stock so I just traded. Next I went next door to have them altered. My jacket was ready but I asked if I could just pick both up at the same time, which will be next week. They said that would be fine. I also left my patrol cap there for them to sew the rank on the front for me.

After that I went to the commissary to get some food for the weekends. It didn't all fit in my backpack, but almost. I just had to carry a couple of bags in my hands. I'm not sure how far it is, but it takes about 40-45 minutes to walk there. Probably ~3 miles.

Ruth sent my bike last week. It should be here by Tuesday. It will be really nice to have since we have to walk at least 3/4 a mile to get anywhere on base from our dorms.

My roommate has to go to a museum tour this afternoon. I'll have to do the same next Saturday. I'll probably just relax the rest of the afternoon.

I need to call the Chaplin to see where exactly we meet tomorrow for church. I think it starts at 8:30 and I've already got my clothes all ready to go.


The front of some of the officer housing.


The back



Some enlisted housing, I think.


Here's the...(see photo).


This is a huge PX. It's like a big convenience store. It even had a little "mall-type" place and food court inside.


This a building for the nursing program here.


Here's a view of downtown seen from the commissary parking lot. Note the "space needle". The famous river walk is also down there.

Day 6

This morning we got up early and ran as a battalion. It was at a good pace and actually pretty fun. The only bad part was that they told us to be up at the field in formation at 4:15, but we didn't actually run until 5:45. Yea, that's a long time of standing.

Just classes today. All morning we had a guy talk to us about communications. He then spoke about writing, and giving presentations. The way he was talking made it sound like he was going to assign us a project, but he never did. Maybe later. He also gave me the impression that he is LDS. I didn't ask him though. He had very clean language, had some "suspicious" metaphors and stories and at one point he said, "if you're listening to a session of conference...I mean congress..."

I had meatloaf for dinner tonight. It was really good!

My roommate and I aren't going anywhere tonight. I think we'll just take it easy and recuperate.

Day 5

Today we had a bunch of classes. Those that passed the APFT are going to learn Army combatives (hand-to-hand combat).

We're all split up into our little groups. It's basically like The Church or the mission.

Tomorrow we're supposed to show up for a group run at 4:30am. Should be fun. I've heard we're all supposed to run together so it will be pretty slow.

I've got a couple of different groups I either sit, eat, or walk with: the guys I met when I came here (Marco, Bryan, Greg, Raja, and Bryan Choi), the O.D's (67f's as they're called), and a couple of LDS guys I've met (Darren, Chris, and Sobek).

Day 4

This morning we had our APFT (Army of physical fitness test?). I got up at 3:45 so that I could get up to the field by 4:15. Everything went well. I needed to get:

38 pushups......................................I did 54
45 situps..........................................I did 61
and run 2 miles in 17 minuets.....took me 15:05

I'm glad that's over with. Today we had a class called "Army 101". It's a pretty basic class about the Army and is a common one they give to newcomers and their families.

This afternoon we got to march around a little bit. It's actually kind of fun. Especially since our drill Sargents are pretty nice to us.

One of the commanding officers came and talked to us this afternoon and after that we had a little brief on HIV/STI's.

The big event of the day, besides my physical fitness test, was the handing out of our class schedules and our course packet (a ton of power point slides). Classes start tomorrow, so I finally feel like we're getting starting.

Day 3

Today I slept in till 6:30. I never heard my roommate leave so at first I was worried he hadn't gotten up for his PT test. He had, and he passed. I go tomorrow.

We got inprocessed with the financial office and personnel today. After lunch we had a presentation on personal finance from the on-post bank. In my experience banks tend to be very liberal when it comes to debt, but these guys were very good.

Today I sat next to LTC Pattan. He’s in the OBLC course with all of us. He’s an OB/GYN and residency director with around 10 years or experience in private practice. He’s a direct ascension. Later I sat by 2LT Sobek. I noticed on his forms that he had 4 kids. He noticed the same about me. Guess what? LDS. Served is mission in the Philippines. I also met three more OD’s today.

After that we got split up into platoons and headed over to some banquet where we met some (or all?) of the commanding officers. They had some heavyh'orderves and a cash bar. I took at least my fair share of h'orderves and called that dinner. I was home by 5:30.

This is my roommate Marco Benito. He's a nurse.

This is the building where I'm staying. I'm on the third floor.

This is my desk and our lovely bathroom can be seen in the background.


Marco's desk and the view of our kitchenette.

My bed and closet.

Our floor lobby.


My hall's laundry room.

Some barracks just across the street from us. There are thousands of soldiers here being trained as medics and what not. They are all enlisted. There are 60 soldiers to a room there. I don't think they each have desks with internet and a flat screen TV either.

Day 2

Today we did a lot of walking. Only because everywhere we go is quite a distance away from where we've been. This morning we did some paperwork and listened to a couple briefs on getting started here. This afternoon we learned a little about marching, but it was pretty quick, dirty, and laid back.

After marching I met a guy that I knew from BYU (Darren Bingham). He went to optometry school at SCCO and is now here in doing OBLC with us.

After our classes we went over to the clothing store and I was able to get most of my dress blue uniform squared away plus a few other little things I needed for my other uniforms.

Tomorrow I don't have to show up until 8:30! Half the group is doing their physical training (PT) test tomorrow at 4:00am and the rest of us are doing it the day after tomorrow.

Overall our leaders are all very nice and respectful. My roommate did basic training last summer as an enlisted soldier so he thinks it's pretty funny how nice and laid back everybody is. It might not stay that way, but for now I'm thankful.

There are 377 people in the class. It is extremely diverse: age, race, sex (except for the fact we're all in the health care field). My roommate is a nurse. The other guys I've met are dentists, PA's, and MD's. Although it seems to me that the majority of the students are not doctors (either nurses or PA's).

I'm dirty and stinky and it's time to take a shower and go to bed.

BEGIN LOG of OBLC

Day 1

Today I left Ruth and the kids. They drove me to the airport and I was very sad to say goodbye to them. I think all of us were on the verge of crying, and like laughing, it's very contagious. I found out just as I got to the airport that my connecting flight had been canceled. I used to have a 40 minute layover, now I have a 5 hour layover. Oh well.

I'm currently at the Dallas airport (enjoying that 5 hour layover). I talked to Ruth on the phone and she correctly pointed out that this will probably be the easiest part of my training.

I will try and keep you all updated with pictures and text, but I'm not sure how much free time I will really have.

For pictures of my departure this morning please visit our family site.

Money Well Spent!

WE'RE HOME!!!!!!!!!

After almost 7000 miles and a month traveling the country we're finely home! The kids did great (considering) and I think we all survived. In fact, we had a great time and enjoyed seeing everybody.

We heard on NPR that between work, the economy, and gas prices only 40% of people surveyed were planning on taking a summer vacation this year. I admit we don't have a lot of money, but we did have a lot of time as my job with the Army won't begin until August 3rd. Therefore I consider ourselves lucky to have been able to take such a long trip and see so many of you.

Some may say that our trip was a little extravagant or expensive; however, if you do the math, it only cost ~$15 per person we saw on our trip. Well worth the money spent!

My big regret was not being able to see Ammon, Rachel, and Wendy Young, and Adam and Sherrie Drais. Plus, that would have lowered our average dollar-per-person seen as well! It's also too bad that we missed Keith and Julienne. I guess they're in Utah or Idaho right now. Oh well, next time.

I'll be in San Antonio TX the next two months and hopefully I'll get a chance to see Paul and Cindy while I'm there.

Still traveling...

Yep, we're still on the road. Wednesday we're off to Oklahoma via St. George.

See my previous post for a look at our map.

Some Fun Little Pictures

Clark getting a little too close to the computer

Clark watching the model train zoom by from the museum in Cedar Falls IA

"Llamas for Obama" at the Cedar Falls parade yesterday
I wonder if Obama aprooved that message.

Since I've never been seen mad, this photo that Cal took of me today is very rare.
He just laughed and took more photos.

My Craigs List Bargain

About a week after graduating from optometry school Windows on our computer crashed. No biggy, Daniel said he could put Linux on there which sounded fine. We didn't get around to it for a week or so but when we finally did the screen had died too. So, bad hardware, bad software, time for new computer - but no money.

For my OBLC this summer in San Antonio it will be convenient to have my own computer there. So, I hit Criags List every other day or so to see what had been posted. About 3 weeks ago I found this little guy for $100.




It was slightly mis-advertised, the battery doesn't work, and I had to reinstall Windows to get it how I wanted it, but still a "deal" nonetheless.

A little follow up on my running

As you may have read about a month ago, I was following a running schedule that Sheldon made up for me. A couple of weeks ago I finished up and Sheldon and I had our little race. He also bought me a board game for completing his "program". It worked out really well and when I did my race I ran my fastest 2 miles ever:

14:14

Here is the game I picked out:

A Day at the Fair

Here's a little video I had animoto make. It's pretty fun.

I'm supposed to be able to put it directly in my blog but for some reason it wouldn't let me. Until I figure it out, here is the link itself.

Enjoy:

http://animoto.com/play/ndqNfb9874AVbz4vc56MKQ

Stop checking all your blogs one by one and get a READER!

I used to be one of those people that checked other people's blogs only to find out they hadn't even updated them. Then I read a blog entry by Alex Hachtman (an old BYU roommate of mine) that talked about Google's reader for blogs (or any website for that matter).

Basically the Google reader has a side bar with all the websites you "subscribe" to. You choose. I've obviously only chosen blogs of friends and family, but you could put any website there that you want.

If the blog has been updated it shows that it has and how many times. Then you just click on it and the selected blog shows up in the space next to the previously mentioned side bar. It is great and it saves me a lot of time. I just go check my email and then I click on the "reader" link and check my "subscriptions".

To use this wonderful feature you will need a gmail account. I don't see a problem with this since everybody should get a gmail account. Just go to www.gmail.com and you can sign up. I don't even have any money invested in Google (dough!) - maybe I should buy a few shares before I publish this on my "widely read" blog.

Please, get a reader and start saving time.

Special thanks to Alex Hachtman

a long trip, but not quiet coast to coast

I think the trip we are on qualifies as epic.

Yep, 6,595 miles! Let's just say that our kids are loving their car seats. Ruth will be leaving more details on our family blog if you're interested.

We're excited to see everybody and so far the trip has been great. We haven't even had to pay over $4.00 for a gallon for gas yet.

If you don't live in one of the destinations below we're not visiting you. Sorry, we had to set the limit somewhere.


View Larger Map

National Board Scores Are In!!

I passed Part III just fine, so I'm all done with the whole "National Board Thing"!

Now I just need to pass that Nevada Law test. I'll be doing that July 8th in Carson City Nevada.

A new-found vexation

As many of you know I only speak Spanish to my kids. I am probably the hardest person on my Spanish abilities but I would still say that I'm 70% fluent in speech and 95% in comprehension.

For 90-95% of my conversations with the kids I can say what I want to say in the way I want to say it; however, occasionally my kids will ask about something or how something works that I have a difficult time explaining in Spanish.

This is VERY frustrating for me! If I've learned something from speaking Spanish to my kids it's that they have an amazing capacity to learn vocabulary. Therefore, it is even MORE FRUSTRATING for me when I see somebody take a much less than worthy effort at giving an explanation in English when it is comparably so easy.

So yea, take a second explain things to your kids. Use big words. IT'S OK! THEY'LL UNDERSTAND YOU!!

Just in case optometry doesn't work out...

Just as a point of interest, this is across the street from Lee's Gas Station and both are on Robertson Street.

Pretty crazy!!

Cal's Birthday!!

Yep, Cal is 3!!!

He was super excited about all the decorations, pretty train cake, and presents!


Here's the Cake that Ruth and I made. I cut out the pieces and she made the fondant and put it all together. Cal was really excited to see it with candles!


I think Clark was almost as excited as Cal.

It was pretty funny, Cal was very serious and focused as he opened his presents. Clark kept asking him what was inside and Cal would say with an almost annoyed tone, "I don't know Clark!"

Our Family Blog

RobertSons & Daughters has been updated recently and many of you have made comments that suggest it doesn't load correctly on your computer.

So, I decided to take a picture of it and put it on my blog.

Sandbox

Today I took all the grass and a couple inches of dirt out of an area on the lawn where there was a black plastic ring from an old fire pit. Anyway, I ripped it all out and laid some plastic down and filled the hole with yummy sand.

Clark was so intent on using it that he went outside right before dinner began after Ruth asked him several times to stay in. He ended up going to bed a little early tonight.

Anyway, both boys love it. They've been playing in a dirt pit on the side of the road in front of Mom and Dad's house for the last few weeks. Not the best place for little boys to play.

The Old One


The New One!

Off to Missouri!!

We've been waiting to find out where we're going for our first Army assignment for a few months now so Ruth decided to email and ask the Colonel if he had any information. Well, he called and left a message while we were at a Ward activity tonight. I called him back and he was very apologetic. He said he had emailed all the students a few weeks ago about their assignments. We've had a known email problem for the last year but we've been getting his newsletters recently so I figured our email problem had been solved.

There is a back-up email that is used by the Army to reach me that I don't check very often. Well, I checked it today and for some reason didn't notice the email titled: Assignment Information. Anyway, we got the email 10 days ago and it says where we're going.

I'll have to email the Colonel and tell him that I did get it at my other email address.

On the Run!!

For the last few weeks or so I've been running 2 miles 3 days a week to try and get in shape for my Army training. I usually start out by doing my sit-ups and push-ups, then I stretch and run my two miles. I need to run them in 16:something, but my goal is to do it in 15 minutes. If I take it easy I can do it in 17 minutes and if I push my hardest I can do it in 15 20.

Sheldon ran on his high school's cross country team and when he came home last weekend he set up a running schedule for me. I'm supposed to run everyday, alternating easy and hard days. This week the hard days are 3 miles and the easy are 2 miles. For the next 3 weeks the mileage will go up each week. For example two weeks from now my hard days will be 5 miles and the easy ones will be 4 miles.

When Sheldon gets back in 2 1/2 weeks we'll do a 2 mile time trial to see how fast I can do it.

So far so good. Especially considering I don't like running.

A Change of Plans?

I've been waiting to get my National Board scores and to hear from Nevada about my state license. Yesterday I got a letter from the Nevada State Board of Optometry and unfortunately it began with a "We regret to inform you..."

Luckily they weren't talking about my National Board scores (which I don't think are out yet) but they did inform me that I didn't pass their law test. I needed a 75% on it and scored a 73. Rats!

I wasn't extremely surprised as it was one of the harder tests I've taken, but I was disappointed. To take it again I have to take it in Carson City and pay the fee over again. Double Rats!

For the time we're in the Army I don't need a license in any particular state, I just need a license. So, I need to look into some of the other states I had my national board scores sent to. Most other states only require a free take-home law test, so we'll see.

Clark's First Bike!!!!

Yep, Clark is old enough to start his future bike-riding career. He has been able to pedal a tricycle for at least a year or two and ride a 2-wheeled scooter. So, I'm hoping he can combine the two skills and learn to ride his new bike.

I found it on Craig's List. It is a chrome Schwinn with 16" wheels. It looked pretty good in the pictures and the asking price was $20. When we got to the house to pick it up it had quite a bit of rust around the lower tubes an bottom bracket. It was also fairly dirty and I could tell it was going to take some work to get up to par. I gave him $10 for it.

I spent all day yesterday overhauling it. I had to clean and repack all the bearings. The biggest project was getting all the rust off. I eventually gave up on the rust. I did get most of it off, but time-involved/results ratio was not looking good.

Overall, I think it looks pretty good and Clark was really excited about it. He even had a go at riding last night. He actually did pretty good until his nerves got the better of him. We'll keep trying.

Camping!

Last night Clark, Cal and I went camping! It was the annual Father and Son's outing here in Ruth's parent's Stake. Dad (Grandpa) and Sam (uncle) came up later and slept in the tent with us.

It was pretty funny. Clark and Cal are pretty picked with food and all they had was spicy jumpalia w/ coleslaw and french bread (which was delicious by the way). Well, I knew that Clark would probably only eat the bread but Cal can be a little more adventurous so I gave him some of everything. Well, he said it was all "spicy" even the bread (due to garlic I guess). Anyway, I thought there was no way he would like the coleslaw but boy did his face light up with joy when he savored his first bite..."not spicy!" he said, relieved.

He ate all his and mine!

They had a great time and Clark said he wanted to live there forever. With a request like that you can guess he was pretty traumatized when I told him we had to go home.

On a separate note, I've been looking on Craig's List for a good used bike for Clark. He'll be five this summer and I'm hoping he'll have a desire to learn to ride it. I'll post a picture when we find it.

"State of the Union"

I've been thinking lately about our country's money situation. Not so much the government, but we the people. As we all know, debt has become a rampant plague that has been speedily growing in prevalence. The "average American" portrayed on TV and in movies must make much more money than the average American really makes.

Over all, I think America has done fairly well to ignore the salesman's plea to upgrade. When he says we need the "bigger & better" we say "no, this one is fine", but when it comes to barrowing money, we have failed to use the same wisdom with the salesman at the bank.

Unfortunately we have believed what the bank says we can afford, not our bank accounts.

It seems I've been tagged...

Four Movies I could Watch over and over: (I usually only see a movie once, but here's a few)
1. Charade
2. Wait Until Dark
3. Any Star Wars movie
4. The Parent Trap

Four Jobs I've Had:
1. Bike mechanic (Sportsworld; Ed's Mobile Bike Shop)
2. Trail surveyor (U.S. forest service)
3. Library worker (Southern College of Optometry library)
4. Market research (Phone surveys - I HATED IT)

Four Places I've Lived:
1. Ely, NV
2. Ometepe Island (look it up)
3. Memphis, TN
4. Whiteville, NC

Four of My Favorite dishes/foods:
1. Food City's Chocolate Velvet ice cream
2. Warm homemade bread with butter and homemade jam
3. A great stake or pot roast
4. Cold cereal

Four T.V. Shows I Love: I rarely watch TV, but here's a few I try to see...
1. American Idol
2. House Hunters
3. CNN Headline News
4. Almost anything on the History Channel

Four sites I visit daily:
1. Gmail
2. Vanguard
3. Friend's blogspots
4. Google

Four Places I have Vacationed:
1. Germany and surrounding countries
2. Nauvoo, IL
3. Hawaii
4. Washington D.C.

Four Places I'd rather be right now:
1. On a date with Ruth
2. Mountain biking
3. Sledding with friends
4. "Here" is a great place to be

Four books I’ve read lately:
1. Percy Jackson series (Riordan)
2. Eragon
3. Harry Potty #7
4. Angels and Demons (There were 3-4 pages that somebody had taped construction paper over which I didn’t bother to remove)

Four Bloggers I'm Tagging:
1. Alex Hachtman
2. Nathan Robertson
3. Sheldon Bartholomew
4. Jeff Heit

Graduation!

Ten years, 1 two-year mission to Nicaragua, 8 years of school, marriage to the woman of my dreams and best friend, and 4 beautiful kids later I'm finally done with school! It was a great reunion for both family and friends.

Thank you Mom and Dad R. and B., Lena, Mike, Lois, and Jeff for coming!

Here are a couple of pictures my mom took after the ceremony. Check Robertsons & Daughters for more info and pictures.

Also, my brother Kent and his son Tyler took a trip to Moab and Fruita to ride some of the trails there. Check out this link to see some pictures of their adventure.

I'M DONE!!!!!!!!

Yes, it's true. I just finished my last test(1). Sunday morning I took a 2 hour-long test where I performed various clinical skills and procedures on different patients while an examiner stood behind and me and nosily scratched down comments on his clipboard.

Monday I took a 4 hour written test which asked various questions regarding 40 different patient cases (127 pages).

Today I took my Nevada law test. Most states just have you take an online, or mail-in open-book law test. Not Nevada. Nope, they mail you the actual chapter regarding optometry in the state a month before hand to study and then give you a 100 question test filled with pointless details and malicious tricks. Not very lawful if you ask me. Anyway, at least it only cost $75 instead of $625 like the other two.

Well, let me just say it again...I'm DONE!!!!

(1) - Tests: referring to examines associated with Southern College of Optometry and state licensure, but not excluding any tests required by the U.S. Armed Forces such as the Officer Basic Leadership Course, continuing education courses required to maintain a valid state licence, drivers license renewals, voting, hardships, adversities, or anything related to normal everyday activities that could be portrayed as a "test".

Ignorance is bliss

The other day I was at the local grocery store to get a few items and as I walked by the magazine section I noticed several magazines of the same issue spread out over the entire periodical section. Out of the corner of my eye I could see that it had a woman on the cover that appeared to only be covered by some flowy see-through material like a toga or something...Wo, time for the blinders.

Anyway, when I got up to the cash register the same magazine was all over there too. They really could have picked a better magazine to cover up all the trash you see there by the candy and what not! What i***t spread those magazines all over place I don't know, but I do know he may be crossing the river Styx in the future.

What caught my attention even more was that the magazine was entitled Sports Illustrated!! Ok, I'm not that naive. I know S.I. does an annual "swimsuit edition" and was counseled as a youth that it wasn't appropriate to look at. Thankfully I'm always taken that counsel.

Just one question...

What have they done with the swimsuits!!!!

I could post a picture of what I'm talking about but that would be silly.

March ANGER!?

Yea, I know it's supposed to be March Madness, but I didn't want my readers to confundle the different meanings of the word "madness".

So all year I've been keeping up on BYU's basketball team yet never being able to watch them. They had a great season being ranked in the top 25 most of the time. Nevertheless, I never got to watch a single game!

This year in the NCAA tournament they got an 8 seed spot to play the 9 seed Texas A&M. They were scheduled to play last night on CBS. Finally, a chance to watch them play and hopefully move on in the tournament for the first time in a long time.

Well, a certain friend of ours let me come over to watch it on his big-screen/hi-def TV and they're showing the blasted Duke/Belmont game!!!! Well, at least they're showing the score to the BYU game...it's tied the whole time the Duke game is on.

Well, the Duke (2)/Belmont (15) game is turning out to be quite the game. In fact Belmont takes the lead with a minute to go....

Long story short they make an error on an in-bound play, lose the ball, which results in a lead change which is never recovered...AHHHGGG

Oh well, they're actually going to show the last 3:50 of the BYU/TX A&M game. When it comes on BYU is down by 4 and they never catch back up...

Madness...anger...March...whatever...

"There's always next year"(1).

1. Lee Robertson said this to himself March of 2007.

I just finished my big paper for school today. I'm always surprised how many times a paper can be read (by different people), and fixed, and there still be errors. It's a review of herpes zoster ophthalmicus (eye and forehead shingles). There's an interesting part in there about the chickenpox vaccine and how it will affect the occurrence of shingles outbreaks in the adult population. You can read my paper, but just know that if you've had chicken pox you need to keep getting exposed to it to keep up your immune system's ability to fight it. As fewer kids get chickenpox this will be more difficult. So, don't be afraid of those pimpley chickenpox kids; being around them just may keep you from getting shingles a little longer.

If you are over 60 years of age, please go get a chickenpox vaccine! They are approved for you and will hopefully prevent you from getting shingles!

Now that my paper is done I really need to focus on part III of national boards. I basically have to do an extra long eye exam broken up into 4 different stations, 30 minutes each. I would say that 60-80% of it is stuff I do on a daily basis and will not require much practice; however, there are a few tests/procedures that I need to practice. Plus, the whole setup is different than your classic eye exam in that I don't write anything down, I just say out-loud what I'm seeing and what I would write.

FUN!!!!

There is also a written part the day after where they give you a bunch of patient data / pictures and ask you a few questions about it - like what is it?, how do you treat it?, what's the prognosis?, etc... I think there are 4 cases like that.

Then, the next day I take the Nevada law test - Double FUN!!!! At least it only costs $75 instead of $625 like the other.

Walmart vs. Target

I just wanted to comment on my last polls before I change them.

It's pretty obvious that most of you shop at Walmart but nearly all of you would rather shop at Target.

Is it really that much more? Ok, if it's substantially further away, then don't waste the gas. However, if it is equidistant either way, then please lets all do our small part to snuff out the giant.

Phoropter: The Latest in Eye Care Technology

I'm not quite sure how to take this, but since here at the VA I've had at least 4 patients say something along the lines of:

"Wow, is that a new piece of equipment? I've never had that done before!"

For those of you who don't know, the phoropter is the tool we use to "refract" our patients so that we can come up with a suiteble eyeglass prescription. I'm not sure exactly how long it's been around, but I'm guessing about 50-60 years.

Nothing but the newest and best for our veterens.

Flower Mishap

For Valentine’s Day this year I came through like a good husband and bought Ruth some pretty flowers. I don’t think we have a vase or even a cup sturdy enough to hold flowers so I splurged a little and got a nice little arrangement of roses complete with a vase.

It was raining out side and I rushed to get in the car and close the door. I had a bag of things in my right hand and the flowers in the left. I tried to close the door with left hand and bring the flowers in before it closed. I didn’t realize until the door had completely closed that the flowers seemed to be a little too stationary. I was pretty mad at myself. I opened the door to see the damage and luckily only the top central rose had been damaged. I was going to hide the flowers and show them to Ruth the next morning (Valentine’s Day) but considering that one rose would probably be dead by then I opted to reveal the gift as soon as I got home.

Ruth is very practiced at loving imperfect things and so she loved the flowers in spite of their “weakness”.

A New Fork

There are not many things that I’ve owned for more than 10 years that I still use on an almost daily basis. In fact, I can’t think of any except my bike. I built it up piece by piece in 1995. By 1997 I had a new frame and wheels, but the rest is virtually unchanged (except for tires and tubes of course). Over the last 2 years my front suspension fork has been slowly dying. I have been ignoring it due to the fact that 99.9% of my biking has been on the road. I think I’ve been mountain biking about 5 times since I moved out east for school (at least two of those times I used my brother Kent’s bike when we went out to Nevada for a visit).

Shortly after moving out here I noticed my fork had kicked the bucket. Thirteen years of dedicated service; well worth the large percent of my teenage yearly income spent. The type of fork I would like to replace my old one with cost much more than the available funds. Needless to say, I found a decent fork for sale on e-bay last month. It is 4 years old and lightly used, but in good condition. Those of you familiar with bikes know the joys of changing forks – cutting it to the right length, taking off and re-installing the lower headset bearing cone, etc.

I did have to borrow a pipe cutter to get it to right length but other than that all seemed well until I went to put the brakes on. The new fork was obviously set up for disk brakes so it had no posts for mounting my v-brakes. Luckily it did have holes where they could be installed and luckily I had some on my old forks (both are made by Rock Shox). Last Saturday night before going to bed I started to finish my little bike project by putting on the brakes.

The hand-crafted hollow titanium brake posts from my old fork didn’t fit!!

I had to drive the car to work on Monday, which with stop lights and not-so-great parking arrangements at the VA, probably took longer than with my bike.

After work I went to a bike shop to see if they could help me out. He called Rock Shox for me and found out that all forks from 1997 should be the same (mine was born in 1995). The guy there, however, couldn’t help me and told me to leave one of my posts with him to see if he could find a match. I went straight over to another bike shop I knew of and asked if they had the key to any future bike-riding. The guy there said he did and went and grabbed me two of them. “How much?” I asked. “Ah, nothing, I’ve got a whole bucket of them.” Sweet! They weren’t exactly like my old ones; in fact, they looked and felt like they were made from old recycled dump trucks. No matter, they were free and I raced home to see if they would fit.

They did!!

The travel on the new forks are quite a bit more than my old ones which really changes the geometry of my bike. It felt a little weird riding it the first couple of days but now I’m getting used to it. Now I’m saving up my spending money to get some knobby tires so that I can try out some of the trails here before we go.

Pictures to follow shortly….

I made this sign for Cal. The big day of potty-training starts tomorrow after Church. I have Monday off, so we are going to celebrate our freedom and stay at home and help Cal become a big boy.

Mountain Home VA

Well, it has been a leisurely 2 weeks here at the VA in Johnson City TN. The town itself is very nice and has everything you would need. Technically there are only around 55,000 people here, but with all the surrounding towns it seems like were in the big city sometimes.

The VA is pretty nice. The first buildings were built in the early 1900's. Most of the buildings are pretty old, although there are several fairly new ones (the main hospital being one of them). The eye clinic is not actually in the main hospital but will be moving there this summer. We are currently in a smaller building with orthopaedics and....somebody else....can't remember. Not nearly as important as eye's I'm sure.

There are 3 full-time doctors here, 2 Residents, 2 ophthalmologists, and 2 interns (me and a girl from the school in Pennsylvania). Every week I work off the schedule of one of the full-time doctors. Ninety-nine percent of the patients are geriatric Caucasians. One hundred percent are very nice. I guess they ought to be since they're getting free (or close to free) health care, but there are plenty of things here much worse than what the average person complains about.

So far all the doctors I've worked with have been really nice. They of course have they're own way of doing things but you learn as you go and you recalibrate.

It's been great living so close to work again. Not quite as close as we did in Whiteville, but it's only a 5 min ride on my bike. The hours are nice too. I'm actually working about the same amount of hours as I did in Whiteville except I get an hour lunch and I start earlier (and thus get home much earlier)!

There are some pretty mountains / foothills nearby which I'm excited to explore either with the van or the bike. I need to see if there's a good bike shop in the area that could steer me toward any trails.

Some mountains near by...


Some more mountains near by

Johnson City and ETSU at night

Our Library!

New Computers and Old Cars

Well, the polls are in for the computer and car survey. It appears that there are two times of computer owners: Most of you have computers that are only 1 year or less old, the rest of you have really old computers.

Only 2 people have cars with fewer than 50,000 miles. The rest of you have old cars, the majority having between 100,000 and 150,000 miles.

Another Battle Scar Presented by:

Cal!


Here's a picture of Cal's little 3-day-old shiner, a result of falling down the stairs here at Grandma and Grandpa's.

...two days later his eye had a much more vibrant green, violet, and black appearance.

...four days later it is finally starting to look better instead of worse.

Off to Johnson City TN

Well, we've committed to an apartment in Johnson City. It was the only one we could find with a with a short lease. We were able to get ahold of the bishop there and ask him about the area. He was very familiar with the apartment complex and surounding neighborhood. He said it was nice and that he couldn't think of any reason why we wouldn't want to live there.

Tomorrow is Ruth's Birthday! We'll be having a lot of yummy food and hopefully playing some games. Next week we'll need to go through our things and figure out what excatly we can and can't take. We've decided to just take our van and whatever we can get in it. Should be interesting.

Some More Time Saving Tips!

1. Don't punch 30 seconds into the microwave, try 33 and taking it out with 3 seconds left. That way your finger doesn't have to go all the way from the 3 to the 1.

2. Don't type a whole blog for the "First Set of Saving Tips".

3. Always run where ever you have to go and always skip steps when going up stairs.

4. Live next door to where you work

If I save enough time using these tips, I'll try and type another entry to this interesting blog.

Back in Memphis!

I'm here in Memphis taking part II of my national boards. I was supposed to fly out of Raleigh at 3:00ish Tuesday morning. Ruth decided to help me out by checking me in online so I wouldn't have to do it at the airport. Well, she was doing it just as I was getting ready to go to the office, as I was going to work half the day. Just as I got my shoes on and was ready to go she said, "Lee! We need to go now or we're going to miss your plane!!" They had changed the time of the flight and moved it up to 12:30! It was 9:30 and it would probably take us 2 1/2 hours to get to the airport. Luckily I had packed up the van earlier that morning. Ruth just needed to get her stuff together really fast and put the kids in the car.

We were off the the airport in good time and had no setbacks on the way there. No bad traffic, no flat tires, and no cattle stampedes. When I got to the airport I didn't have to wait for anything. There was virtually no line to get through security. I actually got to the gate half an hour early. So, after all that rush, I ended up waiting anyway. I had a 3 hour lay-over in Atlanta. When I got to the airport Ben Winters for school picked me up. I didn't have to wait since Ruth emailed him about the time change.

Ruth and the boys spent the day at Amy's and Grandma's. The boys had a good time playing with Ila, Lizzy, Anthon, and Rachel. I assume Shanna and Haley had a great time playing with each other like always.

The Winters have been super nice. They've let me stay in their parent's house just 2 houses down the street and they've fed yummy meals.

Our test today was one of three sessions. Each session is around 3 hours long - depending on how long it takes you to take a test. I think they're actually scheduled to last 4 hours, but I can't imagine anybody spending that much time on them. I finished before Ben did so it was fun talking to everybody that I haven't seen for so long. Tomorrow we have the other 2 sessions. One in the morning and one in the afternoon. After that I signed up to go to a dinner/presentation on private practice and running a small business. Should be pretty good - especially the food.

I miss my family. Last night on the phone Clark asked "Why are you far away?" "Will you come home tomorrow?" I wish I could have told him "yes".

A Few Words of Wisdom

Those who understand interest earn it;

Those that don't, pay it.

The first step to saving money over the holidays is to not buy a Thanksgiving day paper.

Oh, and the BYU / Utah football game had a slow start with a very favorable ending.

A Few Comments on the Polls

The current polls have been up for about a month now and the votes were very interesting. This was especially true regarding the first poll: What is the best state for mountain biking? Therefore I thought I would enlighten the many voters (10) and non-voters (6.5 billion -10) alike on this very important issue.

The results were: Utah (5), Nevada and Hawaii (2 each), Colorado (1???), and Arizona (0????)

I am aware that many of you voted with your hearts and not your heads; nevertheless, these polls are extremely important and should not be taken lightly!

I am very surprised that only one person voted for Colorado. It has to be in the top two or three as far as mountain biking is concerned. Hawaii was of course a distracter! It is a fine place to mountain bike and does have a bike company that named all its bikes after Hawaiian indigenous kings; however, it is very far away and most people would rather visit it's beaches than its trails.

The most surprising of all was Arizona's lack of votes. In my personal experience I would have also placed it in the top three. The International Mountain Bicycling Association (IMBA) ranks it #1: http://www.imba.com/news/news_releases/10_03/10_07_report_card.html

Utah is a great state for mountain biking, but number 1? I think not. I do agree that it also should be in the top three; nevertheless, it's most popular places are too overcrowded to qualify as good biking spots.

Nevada for me is a great state in which to mountain bike because there are hundreds of miles and trails and mountain ranges. In fact, Nevada is the most mountainous state in the country ( http://www.blurtit.com/q689713.html ). Best of all, very few people know about these trails which gives the rider a great closeness with nature.

"The Basin and Range region is the product of geological forces stretching the earth's crust, creating many north-south trending mountain ranges. These ranges are separated by flat valleys or basins. These hundreds of ranges make Nevada the most mountainous state in the country." ( http://www.nps.gov/grba/planyourvisit/the-great-basin.htm ) http://www.blurtit.com/q689713.html )

Undoubtedly, there are many great places to ride all over the country. It would take a lifetime to experience them all and to really know for oneself which is the best.

So, please check my blog a lifetime from now to see what I found.


Now, in regards to the second poll: What is the best way to keep in touch?

The results were: Email (5), Phone call (3), Blogs / Facebook (1 each), and USPS (0).

I think these results are about right; at least I agree with them. I did think that somebody would have voted for USPS as Ruth and I are always more excited to get a letter in our mailbox than in our inbox.

Notwithstanding these results, I will continue to post blogs and mountain bike in Arizona.

An interesting Ad on our refrigerator magnet:

I just thought the business type and the street name were a little conflicting...or maybe not.

My son prefers condiments to real food

Lately I've been trying to decide what my oldest son's favorite food is and I've come to a frightening realization: he'd rather eat what goes on his food than the food itself.

Here is a list of some of my son's favorites:

Mayonnaise
Ketchup
Salt
Butter
Syrup
Honey
Cheese
Sour cream
&
Cool whip

Try some! You just may prefer them to real food too.

Is my van allergic to me?

We got a tune up right before we left Memphis. It worked fine all the way out on our move to Whiteville NC. The first time I drive it after we drop off the moving van it sputters on acceleration and starts to mis-fire! Ruth said that was the first time she noticed it. It ran poorly all the way back to the house and the next day when we started it up it ran perfectly. It did this same thing off and on over the next few weeks. When we went up to Mom and Dad's in Clayton we had a friend of theirs look at it. He found some things that looked fishy with the spark-plug wires and did his best to fix them. It worked fine for a little while but, like usual, on the way home it started sputtering and wanting to die on idle. I decided to just change the wires myself and if that didn't work I'd take it in to a shop that Dr. L___ recommended to me. It didn't work. So, I took it to the highly recommended C___, a really nice mechanic here in Whiteville. I also told him to change the timing belt while he was at it just to be on the safe side.


One month later - to make this long story slightly shorter - our van is still in the shop. It was declared "fixed" several times, only to sputter and die one or two short in-town trips later. Because of this, poor C___ wouldn't let me pay him until I could use it long enough to be sure the problem was fixed.

My trip to the contact lens seminar was coming up and we needed our car to go to the airport and for Ruth and the kids to drive up to Mom and Dad's while I was gone. The van wasn't fixed yet, nor would we have trusted it if it were, so we were just going to try and find me a ride to the airport. I asked at church if anybody happened to be going to Wilmington and one of the guys said he was and that he could take me when I had to go. He called me the next day and told me that we could just borrow one of his cars that he doesn't use that much. He brought it by and it was a very nice 2002 Buick LeSaber.

Since we were going to be gone for several days the mechanics would have a good chance to make sure it was running good. The first Monday after getting home we called and he said it was ready to go and that I could come pick it up. He finally let me pay him. Less than $400!! Did I mention he changed me timing belt too!? I was getting ready to let him swipe away $1000 from the old magnetic strip. When I started it up it idled funny - like it was revving up and down. I showed C___ and he asked "is this van allergic to you?" He got in and played with the gas a little and listened and told me that it was probably just from sitting so long. When I put it in drive the revving was strong enough to lurch the van forward as the idling fluctuated. I almost turned around but decided to give it a try. After a few minutes it seemed to stop; however, on the way home I noticed a strange banging noise coming from inside the van. I looked back and saw that the plastic brace that holds one of the rear fold-out windows closed was broken! By then I was late for work and just kept going. The next day I brought it back and told C___ about the revving and the broken window. C___ has tried the last two weeks to fix the idling problem and has given up. He said it only does it for the first few minutes when you start it up in the morning so it's hard to catch it doing it long enough to see what's causing it. Anyway, he's working on the window now and we'll probably go pick it up on Monday (never to take it back again).

I'd like to leave a special thanks to S___ W___ for lending us his car for the past month. Also a special thanks to C___ for having the patience to work on our van for 5-6 weeks. He really is a nice guy and I would recommend his services to anybody.

Monday morning we will find out if allergy season is over.

The First Presidency

As you many already know, the former First Presidency of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints consisted of Gordon B. Hinkley as president, Thomas S Monson as first counselor, and James E Faust as second conselor. Many of you with small children may also know that Gordon, Thomas, and James are all main characters in the "Thomas the Tank Engine" stories. Late this summer president Faust passed away. This month we had our semi-annual general conference of the church and we all anxiously awaited the name of the new second counselor. We were all pleased to hear that Henery B Eyring would be taking his place. Not only has he been, for me especially, one of the most inspiring apostles, he also is the only apostle with the first name of one of the main characters in "Thomas the Tank Engine"!

Interesting...don't you think.

Clark, Lee, Haley, Ruth, Shanna, and Cal

Whiteville House

Shanna and Haley ~5 months

Whiteville NC

More than a year has past since my last post. A lot has happened. For one, my wife gave birth to number's 3 and 4 (at the same time)! Twin girls, Shanna and Haley, were born on May 2nd of 2007. They were both over 7 lbs and breached. Ruth of course had to have a c-section. Everything went really well. They are very different from each other, which is fun. Soon after that I started my 4th year at SCO. The last year consists of 3 rotations: 1 at the school, and two away. I was at the school this last summer and am now at my first rotation. It is a private practice in Whiteville North Carolina. The practice is a state-of-the-art full-scope practice. Most of our patients are over 50 and have both ocular and systemic disease. There are also a decent amount of contact lens patients and just patients of all ages. But overall, a lot of disease, foreign bodies, and eye injuries. The proctor is very nice and all of the employees are very kind. The proctor lets us live in an old house next door to the practice for free. There are 4 bedrooms and 3 bathrooms. The yard is really big and the kids are in heaven after being in an apartment their whole lives.

After this we are off to Raleigh for Christmas and then to Johnson City TN for my second and final rotation. That one will be at a VA hospital. We still need to find a place to live so we plan on going up there over the Christmas break to see if we can find something.

Es una prueba solamente

As a side note, I think I finally need to start wearing a watch.

After Johnson City we'll go back to Memphis for a couple of days for graduation. After that we'll go back to Raleigh and live in Mom and Dad's upstairs for the summer. For the last half of the summer I'll be at Ft. Sam Houston TX for my officer basic course. Sometime in September of next year we'll start our first tour - 3 years.

After a career in the Army we plan on going back to Ely NV. I looked at a lot of different places to live and all their pros and cons, but Ely just seemed to be the best.
I looked at:
Population
Number of Wards
Distance from a Temple
Population to optometrist ratio
Mountains / scenery
Mountain biking
Distance from family
Crime rate
Growth
etc....

Anyway, Kent is the only O.D. in Ely, plus another 60-100 mile radius. He is building a new building and business seems to be going well. It is far from a temple and from Ruth's family however. Ruth's family makes a great effort to see each other though so we'll see her family no matter where we live. My family on the other had almost all lives in the same state and probably only sees each other twice a year - if that. Overall, there are a great many places we could go and be happy. Ely is one of them. I'm not closed to other places but we haven't really found anywhere better.

I'm still speaking Spanish to my kids. It is going pretty well. It is always a challenge for me as I don't feel like I can explain everything I want to in all situations. The kids don't like to speak it much either. They have fully fluent comprehension and are great translators from Spanish to English. They never speak complete Spanish sentences but they do interject a lot of Spanish words into their English sentences. Like I said, it's been a challenge and I'm not sure I would do it again if I could go back, but I can't to back now after the progress I've made.

Maybe when I'm done with school I can devote a little more time to perfecting my Spanish. I'd also like to spend some time mountain biking and of course spend more time with my family!!