My Breif Taste of Freedom Comes to an End

Tomorrow morning I go back to the pharmacy school salt mine. The break seemed to fly by, but it is probably a good thing it was not any longer or it would be even harder to go back.
I've made good use of my time though. I located the hard-to-find bushing for my tiller after stopping at four different places. Pam has been talking about getting her pea's in the ground soon so I gave our garden spot a first tilling.
The bathroom project moved along a bit more, and I finished off another of the books on my list. This one however was a sorry disappointment.
I have been a Louis L'Amour fan since I was a kid, and often people have suggested that I might like Zane Grey's westerns as well. So I decided to try these suggestions and found the ZG novel "Riders of the Purple Sage". It intrigued me because it was set in a small southern Utah border town around 1870. Without wasting too much time let me just make the issue very clear: this was not a 'western', it was a romance novel and an exposition for poorly researched and seditiously indulged rumors of the 'vile creed' that is 'mormonism'. The characters were inconsistent and many poorly developed. The landscape and relative positions of landmarks like canyons, homes, hideouts, etc would constantly shift and change in proximity and direction. And while Zane Grey exhibited a good vocabulary, he used it poorly and the writing was often choppy and of irregular flow. There were certainly promising elements of the story like horse races, indian hideouts, and daring escapes (conspicuously lacking in good gun fights though), but these were all wasted in poor portrayal and a story that constantly devoloved back into either the sputtering emotion of the female characters (and some of the men) or the blistering calumnization of those vile mormins. I give the book 1.5 out of 5 stars overall. The short version is, unless you're a simpering pansy, don't read it.

Project'n

I've been on spring break this week and using the time to get caught up on stuff at home. At first I was extremely good at honeydo projects and seemed to knock them out without any trouble... then I got married.
Seriously though, I've learned that certain projects have red flags all over them if one knows what to look for. Right after we bought this house, Pam and I started talking about remodeling the bathroom off the master bedroom. Two and a half years later I've finally got the plumbing and new floor in and started on the shower installation. Meanwhile other projects have been backlogged. We got the new windows in over last summer, but they still need to be trimmed and shuttered. My shed is up and organized with shelving, but it too lacks the trim and finishing that I had planned. It's all about function first, then finishing touches later...
That said, what I haven't mentioned is that I actually enjoy the work and though it irritates sometimes that there just isn't time to do it all at the rate I would like, it's still fun. Few things can make you feel more manly than strapping on a tool belt full of stuff you don't really need but it makes that satisfying clink-clank sound each time you step, and then acting like you know exactly what you're doing as you take a hammer to the wrong wall.

Dunks and 90 foot buzzer beaters...

A couple of good high school b-ball stories turned up today in a season that is usually dominated by college hoops.
The Montana team took a tough lesson in following the rules, but I think somebody should review that rule book. Get over it and let them play.
The last minute shot from the backcourt is truly amazing, but the repeat in practice later is unreal...

Gee, you really shouldn't have Mr. President...

This is an excerpt from yesterday's edition of the Patriot Post newsletter that made me laugh at first and then made me a bit depressed. A quick google search verified that the British people were not very impressed either. See what you think:

"British prime minister Gordon Brown thought long and hard about what gift to bring on his visit to the White House last week. Barack Obama is the first African-American president, so the prime minister gave him an ornamental desk-pen holder hewn from the timbers of one of the Royal Navy's anti-slaving ships of the 19th century, HMS Gannet. Even more appropriate, in 1909 the Gannet was renamed HMS President. The president's guest also presented him with the framed commission for HMS Resolute, the lost British ship retrieved from the Arctic and returned by America to London, and whose timbers were used for a thank-you gift Queen Victoria sent to Rutherford Hayes: the handsome desk that now sits in the Oval Office.And, just to round things out, as a little stocking stuffer, Gordon Brown gave President Obama a first edition of Sir Martin Gilbert's seven-volume biography of Winston Churchill. In return, America's head of state gave the prime minister 25 DVDs of 'classic American movies.' Evidently, the White House gift shop was all out of 'MY GOVERNMENT DELEGATION WENT TO WASHINGTON AND ALL I GOT WAS THIS LOUSY T-SHIRT' T-shirts. Still, the 'classic American movies' set is a pretty good substitute, and it can set you back as much as $38.99 at Wal-Mart." --columnist Mark Steyn

Gun update

This week has been test heavy at school. After studying since 4am for therapeutics and a pharmacology test today I decided I needed a little non-pharmacy fun time so I stopped by the gun store on my way home and picked up the brush attachment I've needed for the 270, and some cleaning resin. I had to pull myself away from drooling over their Colt Old Army revolvers, then came home and spent some quality time with the family and the 270 after the kiddies were in bed.

Unlike other more scientific gun enthusiasts who have very strict routines for gun cleaning, I approach cleaning a gun based on how many star trek episodes it takes to get the gun clean. Tonight I watched "Dagger in the Mind" and "Journey to Babylon" while working on my gun and figured that was a pretty decent job. It was definitely a good way to recover from a heavy week at school!

I tried to take a picture of the bore but was not very successful. It is somewhat clear in the two pictures I posted here that the bore actually looks really good but the external surface of the end of the barrel is pretty rough. I did manage to get the shoulder strap cleaned up with an abundance of saddle soap, so it no longer smells like smoke and dead cats.

I think I'll try to get it down to a gunsmith I've got a connection with and see what his recommendation is from here.

Insights from Gospel Doctrine Class Today...

My lesson for Sunday school today was on the restoration of the priesthood. The thought that has lingered in my mind from the class, comes from section 84 vs 19-21; particularly where it talks about evidences of God's power being manifest in the ordinances of the priesthood. I asked myself: What is manifest to me from the ordinances of the priesthood?
As I sat observing the priests and deacons administering the sacrament and the other people in the congregation around me I considered: what other authority or power on earth can be given to a group of young men, which when exercised, reconciles all recipients who have prepared themselves back to the originality of their individual baptismal covenants with God and avails a renewed remission of sins? All other earthly authorities may try to imitate the act, but without the restored priesthood, the ordinance is empty and only an outward shadow of a much more powerful and personal communion with our Father in Heaven.
It's fitting really that the "power" of God evident in the priesthood ordinances is, like his voice, still and small by earthly perspectives. To those who prepare themselves spiritually however, that power makes possible healing, blessings, and promises that can be obtained in no other way (and it happens every week!). The security of a family sealed together beyond the reach of mortal death, the right to constant companionship of the Holy Ghost so long as we remain faithful and the countless spiritual gifts associated with that companionship (Moroni 10: 5-18, 1 Corinthians 12: 3-11), are each just a few of the things that become abundantly available with the restoration of the priesthood.
The last thing I'll add to this line of thinking comes from section 110: 11-16, where additional important keys were restored by those ancient patriarchs who held them in their own dispensations of the gospel: Moses, Elias, and Elijah. Each key restored in this section alludes to additional roles of the priesthood which are now being exercised. In the context of all these considerations, it is much clearer to me what the Lord was trying to teach when he said back in section 84, "Therefore, in the ordinances thereof, the power of godliness is manifest."