Hey all,
Life has been full and amazing lately.
I promise to fill you all in sometime soon.
Probably tomorrow.
I hope all is well.
-Brad
5.20.2009
5.10.2009
Nice to meet you unborn alien brother, how's my driving?
Hey all,
I hope all of you are well on this fine Sunday afternoon.
Do you know what today is, by the way? It's Mother's Day!!!
Sadly, I'm not home to be with my mom. I'm a little bummed out on that one, but life goes on.
Anyway, I got to thinking...where did Mother's Day come from? What's the history behind it? So I did some research.
This is what I found:
Mother's Day was founded in 1907 by a woman named Anna M. Jarvis to honor her own mother, Ann Maria Reeves Jarvis. She had to solicit to government officials and a lot of business men, but the idea caught on, and we now have the nationally celebrated holiday. The very first observance was a church service, and the day of the week has stuck since. World wide, the second Sunday of May is the most popular day to celebrate Mother's Day, although there is some slight variation.
Anyway, I just thought I'd share that with you.
So go honor your mom, and leave me a comment about how you spent your Mother's Day.
Now, some news.
I have come across a few interesting stories...this first one concerns the great city of New York. It's common knowldge that in large places like Denver, or Albuquerque, or New York, there is a hefty amount of homeless people. To help out with this issue, a lot of big cities will set up homeless shelters. Well, it looks like New York City officials are going to start charging rent at homeless shelters. This decree will only affect those that actually make money, but at this point, it looks like they may be charged up to 50% of their income. Initially, I thought about this and decided it was a bad thing. Then I looked at it again and thought maybe it was an okay thing. I went back and forth, and now I have decided to ride the fence. On one side I can see that this could be a good deterent for those people that exploit the situation and bum a free night's sleep...it would keep the lines shorter for those that actually need a place to stay. On the other hand, if there are people staying at homeless shelters till they can get back on their feet, you know, save up some money so they can get an apartment and feed themselves and possibly a child, I think that they are being placed at a disadvantage by this proposal. It really reminded me of the 2006 movie The Pursuit of Happyness, staring Will Smith. For those of you who haven't seen it, the basic premise is this: We have a man who goes from entrepanuer to homeless in the blink of an eye. He sleeps in homeless shelters with his son till he gets back on his feet in the most inspiring sequence of events. It's an excellent film, and the fact that it's biographic shows that sometimes these things really happen. I just don't know what to think about this situation. More here.
Here's a trailer from the movie.
Okay. Enough sappy stuff.
Apparently there was a minivan stolen from a Sarasota, Florida water treatment plant a couple nights ago, and when the employees showed up the next morning they noticed it was missing. Okay that was a really dumb sentence, but I'm going to leave it. :)
Anyway, a few hours later, in Manatee county, someone spotted the minivan speeding around town, topping 100 MPH at one point, and said person decided to call the number on the "How's my driving?" sticker on the back. The driver was aprehended shortly thereafter and arrested. The minivan suffered no damage, and no one was hurt, but I find this story absolutley hilarious for two reasons: For one, who wants to go joy-riding in a minivan? Secondly, I think it's awesome that someone turned him in using the "How's my driving?" sticker. It just cracks me up. The whole story can be found here.
Lastly, I have a very strange story for you.
The man to the right is named Gavin Hyatt. He is an ex-firefighter turned plumber. He is 30 years old, and in very good health. He is one of the most average guys on the planet, but Gavin recently had something very rare and traumatic happen to him...he gave birth to his own twin brother.
How?
Well, it turns out that in the third or fourth week of his mother's pregnancy, his twin brother died in the womb. Gavin's own fetal body absorbed his brother's body, where it stayed for the next thirty years. Gavin had been examined by multiple doctors to see what the little lump in his abdomen was, and there were never conclusive reports. Most doctors thought it was a minor cist, or possibly a badly in-grown hair, and he was otherwise a very healthy man. One day on the job though, he began to suffer from intense abdominal pain, and before he knew it, there was something actually being forced out of his stomach. He drove himself straight to the hospital (what a tough dude) and was promplty treated. Medics thought it looked like something from the 1979 film Alien. They reported back that the growth was Gavin's parasitic twin (which I think is a terrible name by the way), his 4 centimeter identical brother. Needless to say, Gavin was stunned at this news.
Gavin now keeps his brother in a jar, and calls him "Little Gav." Of the experience he said, “Then one said it could be my undeveloped identical twin that I absorbed at a very early stage. I feel absolutely fine now but it has not sunk in yet that I could have had a twin brother. I have him in a jar at home and I call him little Gav. I haven’t told many people. I feel like a bit of a freak.”
Gavin's doctor had never seen anything like it before, but has announced that Gavin is in just fine condition. I say good for him. I don't know what I would do if I had a dead baby pop out of my abdomen one day at work. Mad props to you Gavin.
More here. Photo credit: The Sun
Now I present you with The Grand Canyon Adventure, Chapter 3:
The next morning came early. 4:30 AM in fact. We packed up camp, drove to the backcountry office and caught a bus over to the South Kaibab trail head. At this point it was just about 5:15. We filled up our Nalgene bottles and Camelbacks and after a quick picture, taken by a pair of very nice European women, we started off down the trail. At the moment, it felt like the adventure of a lifetime...a feeling that didn't go away anytime soon. The initial leg of our hike was a seven mile switchback laden drop into the main canyon. Going downhill never really appears strenuous, at least not till you do it for seven miles straight. About 4 miles in my quads were burning like someone had thrown them on a charcoal grill. You know, not a searing burn, but a slow, steady, constant one. Anyway, after we got to the bottom, it was 115 degrees outside. We stopped at Phantom Ranch and decided to grab some lunch, one thing that could have not been better at the moment.
After lunch time was over, we decided to scout out our options for the next leg of our journey. One option was to up-climb the box canyon on Phantom drainage. The other was to ascend to the Tonto layer, and manuever around the box canyon and drop back in at the top. We tried out the first option first...and about 6 steps into the scouting expidition, I fell into the creek. My camera was in my pocket. It was a sad time. Anyway, we got about a mile in and found a 40-some year old woman lying on a rock, tripping mushrooms. We talked to her for a bit, and met her son, who was also tripping. I became slightly afraid when she wouldn't let go of my arm and kept telling me I had "good energy." After a little more conversation, we scouted a bit longer and decided to take the other route, as this one would be pretty hard to do with full packs. We said goodbye to our tripping friends, and headed back to Phantom Ranch.
We took a nice nap which was a welcome change of pace, and decided to tackle what we thought was going to be the last 3-4 miles of our day. The initial ascent was a butt kicker. It was very similar to summitting a mountain top, if you know what I mean. It was at this point that I began to hike in my underwear and a bandanna. The heat was incredible. We soon came to a place called Piano Alley, which gets its name from the curious formation of all the rocks. You guessed it! They are all shaped like grand pianos. It's a really awesome sight...huge slabs of sandstone that have flaked off the canyon walls, all in one shape...one of those things that you have to see to understand.
We left Piano Alley after a brief snack and headed out across Utah Flats. This is a place where it's red, and flat, and apparently looks like Utah. Anyway, this is where we began to realize that all of the maps/park service literature that we had recieved was wrong about distances. We were supposed to be at our destination, but from what we could tell, we still had 5 miles to go. It was getting darker by the moment too...what a doozy. We walked and walked and walked. Then it actually got dark. We had no choice but to go on. (Oh yes, I forgot to mention, this is an unmarked route that pretty much no one takes. Just a side note there.) We had to break out the headlamps at one point, but then the slight excuse for a trail took a downhill turn. This had to be it.
The three of us started to scrabble down the slope. Running into prickly pear and agave plants, we could not stop. It was dark and unpredictable. After another hour or so, we could hear moving water. We knew we were in the right place. As I approached the edge of the creek, I looked down at my pedometer and was blown away by what it read - nearly 20 miles. It was also 11:00 PM. Needless to say, it had been a long day.
The rest is to come.
Here is a slideshow of the pictures I took.
Wow. This has taken me two hours to write. Goodness. I hope you like it. :)
Lastly, here is your YouTube entertainment for tonight.
Bye. Have fun. Don't die.
-Brad
I hope all of you are well on this fine Sunday afternoon.
Do you know what today is, by the way? It's Mother's Day!!!
Sadly, I'm not home to be with my mom. I'm a little bummed out on that one, but life goes on.
Anyway, I got to thinking...where did Mother's Day come from? What's the history behind it? So I did some research.
This is what I found:
Mother's Day was founded in 1907 by a woman named Anna M. Jarvis to honor her own mother, Ann Maria Reeves Jarvis. She had to solicit to government officials and a lot of business men, but the idea caught on, and we now have the nationally celebrated holiday. The very first observance was a church service, and the day of the week has stuck since. World wide, the second Sunday of May is the most popular day to celebrate Mother's Day, although there is some slight variation.
Anyway, I just thought I'd share that with you.
So go honor your mom, and leave me a comment about how you spent your Mother's Day.
Now, some news.
I have come across a few interesting stories...this first one concerns the great city of New York. It's common knowldge that in large places like Denver, or Albuquerque, or New York, there is a hefty amount of homeless people. To help out with this issue, a lot of big cities will set up homeless shelters. Well, it looks like New York City officials are going to start charging rent at homeless shelters. This decree will only affect those that actually make money, but at this point, it looks like they may be charged up to 50% of their income. Initially, I thought about this and decided it was a bad thing. Then I looked at it again and thought maybe it was an okay thing. I went back and forth, and now I have decided to ride the fence. On one side I can see that this could be a good deterent for those people that exploit the situation and bum a free night's sleep...it would keep the lines shorter for those that actually need a place to stay. On the other hand, if there are people staying at homeless shelters till they can get back on their feet, you know, save up some money so they can get an apartment and feed themselves and possibly a child, I think that they are being placed at a disadvantage by this proposal. It really reminded me of the 2006 movie The Pursuit of Happyness, staring Will Smith. For those of you who haven't seen it, the basic premise is this: We have a man who goes from entrepanuer to homeless in the blink of an eye. He sleeps in homeless shelters with his son till he gets back on his feet in the most inspiring sequence of events. It's an excellent film, and the fact that it's biographic shows that sometimes these things really happen. I just don't know what to think about this situation. More here.
Here's a trailer from the movie.
Okay. Enough sappy stuff.
Apparently there was a minivan stolen from a Sarasota, Florida water treatment plant a couple nights ago, and when the employees showed up the next morning they noticed it was missing. Okay that was a really dumb sentence, but I'm going to leave it. :)
Anyway, a few hours later, in Manatee county, someone spotted the minivan speeding around town, topping 100 MPH at one point, and said person decided to call the number on the "How's my driving?" sticker on the back. The driver was aprehended shortly thereafter and arrested. The minivan suffered no damage, and no one was hurt, but I find this story absolutley hilarious for two reasons: For one, who wants to go joy-riding in a minivan? Secondly, I think it's awesome that someone turned him in using the "How's my driving?" sticker. It just cracks me up. The whole story can be found here.
Lastly, I have a very strange story for you.
The man to the right is named Gavin Hyatt. He is an ex-firefighter turned plumber. He is 30 years old, and in very good health. He is one of the most average guys on the planet, but Gavin recently had something very rare and traumatic happen to him...he gave birth to his own twin brother.
How?
Well, it turns out that in the third or fourth week of his mother's pregnancy, his twin brother died in the womb. Gavin's own fetal body absorbed his brother's body, where it stayed for the next thirty years. Gavin had been examined by multiple doctors to see what the little lump in his abdomen was, and there were never conclusive reports. Most doctors thought it was a minor cist, or possibly a badly in-grown hair, and he was otherwise a very healthy man. One day on the job though, he began to suffer from intense abdominal pain, and before he knew it, there was something actually being forced out of his stomach. He drove himself straight to the hospital (what a tough dude) and was promplty treated. Medics thought it looked like something from the 1979 film Alien. They reported back that the growth was Gavin's parasitic twin (which I think is a terrible name by the way), his 4 centimeter identical brother. Needless to say, Gavin was stunned at this news.
Gavin now keeps his brother in a jar, and calls him "Little Gav." Of the experience he said, “Then one said it could be my undeveloped identical twin that I absorbed at a very early stage. I feel absolutely fine now but it has not sunk in yet that I could have had a twin brother. I have him in a jar at home and I call him little Gav. I haven’t told many people. I feel like a bit of a freak.”
Gavin's doctor had never seen anything like it before, but has announced that Gavin is in just fine condition. I say good for him. I don't know what I would do if I had a dead baby pop out of my abdomen one day at work. Mad props to you Gavin.
More here. Photo credit: The Sun
Now I present you with The Grand Canyon Adventure, Chapter 3:
The next morning came early. 4:30 AM in fact. We packed up camp, drove to the backcountry office and caught a bus over to the South Kaibab trail head. At this point it was just about 5:15. We filled up our Nalgene bottles and Camelbacks and after a quick picture, taken by a pair of very nice European women, we started off down the trail. At the moment, it felt like the adventure of a lifetime...a feeling that didn't go away anytime soon. The initial leg of our hike was a seven mile switchback laden drop into the main canyon. Going downhill never really appears strenuous, at least not till you do it for seven miles straight. About 4 miles in my quads were burning like someone had thrown them on a charcoal grill. You know, not a searing burn, but a slow, steady, constant one. Anyway, after we got to the bottom, it was 115 degrees outside. We stopped at Phantom Ranch and decided to grab some lunch, one thing that could have not been better at the moment.
After lunch time was over, we decided to scout out our options for the next leg of our journey. One option was to up-climb the box canyon on Phantom drainage. The other was to ascend to the Tonto layer, and manuever around the box canyon and drop back in at the top. We tried out the first option first...and about 6 steps into the scouting expidition, I fell into the creek. My camera was in my pocket. It was a sad time. Anyway, we got about a mile in and found a 40-some year old woman lying on a rock, tripping mushrooms. We talked to her for a bit, and met her son, who was also tripping. I became slightly afraid when she wouldn't let go of my arm and kept telling me I had "good energy." After a little more conversation, we scouted a bit longer and decided to take the other route, as this one would be pretty hard to do with full packs. We said goodbye to our tripping friends, and headed back to Phantom Ranch.
We took a nice nap which was a welcome change of pace, and decided to tackle what we thought was going to be the last 3-4 miles of our day. The initial ascent was a butt kicker. It was very similar to summitting a mountain top, if you know what I mean. It was at this point that I began to hike in my underwear and a bandanna. The heat was incredible. We soon came to a place called Piano Alley, which gets its name from the curious formation of all the rocks. You guessed it! They are all shaped like grand pianos. It's a really awesome sight...huge slabs of sandstone that have flaked off the canyon walls, all in one shape...one of those things that you have to see to understand.
We left Piano Alley after a brief snack and headed out across Utah Flats. This is a place where it's red, and flat, and apparently looks like Utah. Anyway, this is where we began to realize that all of the maps/park service literature that we had recieved was wrong about distances. We were supposed to be at our destination, but from what we could tell, we still had 5 miles to go. It was getting darker by the moment too...what a doozy. We walked and walked and walked. Then it actually got dark. We had no choice but to go on. (Oh yes, I forgot to mention, this is an unmarked route that pretty much no one takes. Just a side note there.) We had to break out the headlamps at one point, but then the slight excuse for a trail took a downhill turn. This had to be it.
The three of us started to scrabble down the slope. Running into prickly pear and agave plants, we could not stop. It was dark and unpredictable. After another hour or so, we could hear moving water. We knew we were in the right place. As I approached the edge of the creek, I looked down at my pedometer and was blown away by what it read - nearly 20 miles. It was also 11:00 PM. Needless to say, it had been a long day.
The rest is to come.
Here is a slideshow of the pictures I took.
Wow. This has taken me two hours to write. Goodness. I hope you like it. :)
Lastly, here is your YouTube entertainment for tonight.
Bye. Have fun. Don't die.
-Brad
Long time, no talk...
Hey all,
So, I haven't made a post in ten days. For that I apologize. I have been all over the place. Since we last spoke, being April 29th, 2009, I have done a number of things worth noting:
- Study for finals
- Took finals from Friday, May 1st till Tuesday, May 5th.
- Tuesday was hellish. I started with Spanish at 7:30 AM. I finished with
History at 10:00 PM. What a day.
- Moved our of my dorm on Wednesday, May 6th.
- Headed to Fort Collins to see some old high school pals.
- Now I am in Windsor for the night. What fun.
Anyway, after I got here today, I played with my cousin Jack for quite a while. He's 11 years old, and is just full of energy and pep. We played with sidewalk chalk, and some whiffle balls, and made paper airplanes and all sorts of fun things. It made me realize that I hadn't drawn on a sidewalk in nine or so years. But I fixed that.
That's life right now. This coming Thursday I'll be taking my first plane ride out to Tennessee to see my cousin Sheridan for her graduation. It should be a fun time. Speaking of which, you can read her blog here: http://littlebitathis.blogspot.com/
So, I don't feel like doing news tonight. I'll do it later today.
I'm going to sleep now.
Bye, have fun, don't die.
-Brad
So, I haven't made a post in ten days. For that I apologize. I have been all over the place. Since we last spoke, being April 29th, 2009, I have done a number of things worth noting:
- Study for finals
- Took finals from Friday, May 1st till Tuesday, May 5th.
- Tuesday was hellish. I started with Spanish at 7:30 AM. I finished with
History at 10:00 PM. What a day.
- Moved our of my dorm on Wednesday, May 6th.
- Headed to Fort Collins to see some old high school pals.
- Now I am in Windsor for the night. What fun.
Anyway, after I got here today, I played with my cousin Jack for quite a while. He's 11 years old, and is just full of energy and pep. We played with sidewalk chalk, and some whiffle balls, and made paper airplanes and all sorts of fun things. It made me realize that I hadn't drawn on a sidewalk in nine or so years. But I fixed that.
That's life right now. This coming Thursday I'll be taking my first plane ride out to Tennessee to see my cousin Sheridan for her graduation. It should be a fun time. Speaking of which, you can read her blog here: http://littlebitathis.blogspot.com/
So, I don't feel like doing news tonight. I'll do it later today.
I'm going to sleep now.
Bye, have fun, don't die.
-Brad
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