Near miss...

As I read the stories in the papers today, I realize that things could of been much worse...



Let me explain from my point of view:



Around 10:45, I was in our back yard staining the deck and getting the ground under the deck ready to build a rock patio. Isaak, my 4 year old son and Tillie, my 7 year old daughter were in the house watching Hanna Montana or something. Wendy and my 9 month old son, Jonah, were running to Home Depot and Target in Centerville.



Our neighbor, Ashly, came over and told me that Wendy was almost in an car accident and called but couldn't get through to us. The phone was inside and the kids didn't answer the phone.



I called Wendy on her cell phone and she was very shaken up. She and Jonah were alright but she said that she narrowly missed a very serious accident. http://www.sltrib.com/news/ci_6491661


Wendy and Jonah are in this story, but their names do not appear - Wendy was the south-bound driver that had to swerve out of the way as the vehicle that crashed came directly at her at an increasing speed.

Wendy told me that she tried to get out of the way to the right but the car kept coming so she ended up going into the oncoming lane (knowing that nobody else was coming in that direction). The other driver looked slumped over and the passenger appeared to be trying to grab the steering wheel. The silver car then struck a large metal power pole and then struck the man working in his yard.

Nobody knows why the car came into the Southbound lane and then veered all the way back to the other side, but it looks like there may have been a medical condition.

Wendy and Jonah were safe - but it was a near miss, and a frightening experience. Our mini van wasn't touched, but a can of deck stain spilled in the vehicle.

I for one am happy to clean the deck stain out of the carpet in the van when I think of what could have happened.

Items found while cleaning out my In-laws house

My wife has been spending a lot of time lately at her parents house. Her parents have decided to sell the home where they have lived for the past 31 years. After 31 years in the same place, some people accumulate a lot of things. Not my in-laws, they have accumulated a lot of things times 10.
Wendy has been a good sport in helping them get ready for the move next week. Most of the time has been spent sorting through old papers from 4 deceased grandparents, one deceased great-aunt and about 20 years worth of random papers.

I have helped out a couple of times. Mostly I have carried boxes to the garage, but I also got up the guts to help sort papers.

Here are a couple of things I found this past week:
Dog tags from Wendy's grandpa worn in WWII
Copy of "Stars and Stripes" announcing the end of WWII
An amputation kit from WWII (Grandpa Nelson was a doctor too)
30 zippers still in plastic from around 1920
7000 Yen
75 Canadian dollars
$250 in gift certificates to Gastronomy restaurants
An un-opened birthday card from 1984 with $5 inside

Ok, so some of this stuff was pretty cool - but for all of the good stuff, I found heaps of stuff that went right into the trash or a recycling bin.

Luckily, Wendy hasn't inherited the saving gene, but I think it skips a generation as Tillie saves absolutely everything.

So, I guess I am jumping on the Blog bandwagon.



I have been reading blogs for a couple of years and there are several that I read all the time. Unfortunately, some of them have stopped blogging or have gone on hiatus. Either way, they are no longer posting. Hopefully I will stick around for a while - even while I may be the only one reading this.



Anyway, I just started responding to a few comments that others have made (mostly my siblings that have blogs) and then I got tagged. I am not sure if I would have rather been tagged by Brian on a Sunday afternoon at mom's while standing around waiting for dinner or get tagged online. The former probably is more immediate pain, so I will stick with the online tag:



In much the same way that the Neff Gang changed up the questions, I will change some of them...



Places lived:
Salt Lake City, Utah
Sevilla, Cadiz and Malaga Spain (for a couple of years)
North Salt Lake, Utah
(I know - not much of a variety except the mish)


3 places where I would like to be right now:
beach in El Palo, Spain - with a bonfire and eating roasted fish
On the top of Monte Cristo - several thousand feet about Snowbird
Wandering through Disneyland with my kids



3 guilty pleasures:
cheeseburgers - any kind, anywhere
Vanilla coke
Sunday afternoon naps


A few of Jobs I have worked:
DJ for a little radio station at the U of U
bicycle bag inspector
selling gumball machines on the phone


Places I would like to see sometime in my life:
South America (Tierra del Fuego & the Andes mountains)
Jerusalem
Tahiti (funny how my wife has been to two of these before we met)

Wild foods that I have eaten:
Tripe
Octopus
blood sausage

Most memorable trips:
1. Oahu 1993 with friends, snorkeling gear and a convertible
2. Cross country bus trip for 3 weeks in 1987
3. Spain in 1992 with parents (watching mom & dad get detained for two hours on the Gibraltar - Spain border was priceless)
4. Chicago 1998 - wandering around seeing the architecture and eating deep-dish pizza


Food I love to make:
Grilled tri-tip
Mexican tortas
Risotto
Spanish tortillas


Food I wish I could make (or will learn someday):
Beef wellington
Ratatouille (looks like a fun dish to make)
Creme Brule (anytime you get to use a mini-flame thrower to cook has to be a good thing)


TV shows that I like - but don't admit to liking:
Hell's Kitchen ("That is horrible - Shut it down")
What about Brian? (probably not going to be a 3rd season)
How I met your Mother


Worst movies I have seen in a theater:
Pet Cemetery
Titanic
City of Angels (sorry Wendy)


Dream jobs:
Question (or is it answer) writer for Jeopardy
Own/run a lunch counter in downtown SLC
Historical Fiction writer


Places where I would love to live but never will:
Marbella, Spain (would love to be Sean Connery's neighbor)
Zihuatanejo, Mexico (Are Tim Robbins and Morgan Freeman still running a deep-sea fishing company?)
Palermo, Italy (or just about anywhere else in Sicily)


Movies I love - but you may not have seen:
Cinema Paradiso
El Mariachi (Desperado before Antonio Banderas)
Reservoir Dogs (hopefully you haven't seen this one!)


People that should do this:
Julie Knaphus
my mom and dad (wanna help them, Dee Dee)
Jim Neff