I am leaving tomorrow for San Diego. My sister is flying in from Georgia and I will drive down. Next week is my mom’s 86th birthday and my sister’s 58th. It will be fun; we are planning on going to Disneyland. I rent a wheelchair for mom and push her all over the place. With mom in the wheelchair I am pretty sure that we will be moved up to the front of the line on all the rides.

I am breaking the trip into two days both going and coming. With the blood clotting problems I have had I think it is the wise thing to do. I have been instructed to stop every two hours and get out and walk around. This will be my plan; I am in no big hurry. I have a room in Mesquite Nevada on the out bound portion. I should get there around 6:00 or 7:00 in the evening. Have a nice dinner lose some quarters in the slot machines and get good nights sleep. Depending on what time I take off from Mesquite I should be in San Diego early afternoon. My sister will not arrive until Saturday so it will give my plenty of time to convince mom that I have always been the best child and my sister was the one to cause all the trouble.

My daughter and her husband will drive down to San Diego late next week. The trips just seem to coincide. My sister will be able to see their daughter/my granddaughter. She has told me that she is looking forward to this. I’ll not be bloging for the next week. I should have some pictures to share and stories to tell when I get back.

Yesterday was a warm ,but somewhat windy day. This morning I woke up to snow almost belly deep to small dogs. It is still coming down

I drove out to the desert yesterday. I spent more time driving then I did in the desert. It is a three hour round trip and I spent at 2 ½ hours doing stuff. I spent most of the time shooting and a little bit exploring. It was good alone time. I find that I can connect with God a little better when I get off by myself from time to time.

I shot up a couple of pie pans. They just do not hold up to the .223 round, but it is great fun to make them jump all over the place.

I got home in time to take the bride out for dinner and tell her I was sorry about the pie pans.

It has snowed about five inches over night I am headed out to make a bunch of noise with the snow blower. Life is good

I am home alone with three dogs and one granddaughter. This in it’s self can be a dangerous combination.

Things were going well, Ava in her highchair just finishing the last course of her lunch before nap time. The dogs are outside running up and down the fence barking at the neighbor’s dog. Life is good, grandpa is in control. It had seemed like a long time since I had seen any of the dogs at the back door wanting to get in. I leave little Ava a in her highchair and step out back. NO dogs, I start to holler and one of the neighbors yells back that the dogs are in the front.

Chopper, my daughter’s dog is not a problem he will come when you call him. My two mutts will run and run until they are done playing with you. So I have three dogs out front and one granddaughter in the highchair. I am spinning around on the front porch figuring out which way I should go. Luckily most of the neighbors are chasing my dogs. Mrs. Rommer is standing by the door so I ask her to go in and watch Ava. That is taking care of. I call Chopper and he runs for the front door (good dog) I am down to two dogs on the loose. Both of my dogs run into the house across the street. They had left the front door open. Things are looking good. I see Mike coming towards me with Foxy in his arms. I get the leash on Foxy and Dusty makes a run for it. He is gone heading for yards that he has yet to explore. After a couple of laps around a house he gets trapped in a back yard of some people I don’t know. They are not home so I can be a little bolder going through their gate. Just because Dusty is in a backyard does not mean that he is caught. I try coaxing, chasing, pleading and bribing. He comes close and he is gone. I finally grab him. So I have a dog on the leash and I dog in my arms. Things should be good. Foxy is jumping at Dusty because I am holding him. Jealous little mutt, She manages to pull her head out of her collar. But she is following me to the house, and then Pico (neighbor’s dog) comes into her view. She is off. Mike manages to grab Foxy as she is chasing Pico around his legs. So now everybody is in the house and Mrs. Rommer can be relived of the Ava watch. I find out that Chopper pushed my gate open and started this affair. I get Ava laid down for a nap and keep the dogs in the house so I can go about boarding up the gate.

The gate is secure, Ava is sleeping and the dogs are too muddy to come in before I give them bath. I think I can relax now.

Tragedy in Utah

Trolley Square's winding hallways became a shooting gallery for an 18-year-old gunman in a trench coat who fired a shotgun randomly at customers, killing five and wounding four before being killed by police.

I am truly taken back by the brutality of this incident. It hits close to home for a number of reasons. Trolley Square is our favorite place to go in Salt Lake City. We wander down there at least once a month to have dinner at the Spaghetti Factory. We have been to or at least by all the stores mentioned in the news reports. As the bride and I sat and watched the story unfold on the TV we both could imagine being in the places mentioned. I have to believe that this murder will taint all of us in Utah for years to come. Like it or not Utah has always been perceived as a relatively innocent place to live and visit. That perception has changed, at least in my eyes. I know that going to Trolley Square will be different now. I thank God that there was an armed man to confront the gunman. He was an off duty police officer from Ogden. But being off duty he is no more then an armed citizen. I have to believe that he saved a number of lives last night. He is a hero in any sense of the word. To go up against a man with a shotgun armed only with a hand gun speaks loudly for his character.

I wonder how many of us would react if confronted in similar scenario. For those of you who don’t know Utah is a right to carry state. That means as long as you are a citizen with a clean record and have past all the back ground checks you will be given a permit to carry a concealed weapon (hand gun). There are many law abiding citizens of Utah that carry everyday. This is a good thing in my opinion, but I am surprised that there were not any other armed citizens at the mall. If there was I wonder why no one else confronted the killer. But again I don’t know how I would react if in the same situation.

My thoughts and prays go out to the families of the victims.

A lot of this stuff goes on in and around National parks on the border. Americans can not even safely enjoy our own country


TUCSON, Ariz. -- Gunmen confronted nine or 10 illegal immigrants in a vehicle along a known smuggling corridor northwest of Tucson, killing three men Thursday and injuring at least two other people, authorities said.

One man was found dead on a dirt road frequented by human smugglers near the Silverbell mine more than 20 miles northwest of Tucson.

Authorities later found two more men dead about 10 miles north in the cab of the pickup truck that had been carrying the migrants, said Rick Kastigar, the Pima County sheriff's criminal investigations chief.

Those two men were among six or seven people in the group who were taken against their will, officials said.

Investigators were not certain why the group was attacked. "Of course, there was human trafficking, and we're thinking it was possibly that they were attacked by bandits," sheriff's spokesman Sgt. Jim Ogden said.

Gangs of armed bandits have been known to roam border areas and prey on illegal immigrants as they cross into the country. Feuding among smuggling organizations also is not uncommon, where one group will steal a load of migrants from another, essentially kidnapping them and demanding ransoms from their relatives to gain their freedom.

Kastigar said the migrants were in a white pickup truck heading north when four men armed with assault rifles in a second vehicle forced it to stop.

During a confrontation, one man was shot and killed. Two people were shot and wounded: a woman who sustained a neck wound and a man who suffered a hand injury that took off several fingers, Kastigar said.

Sheriff's Sgt. James Ogden said the two wounded migrants had "very, very serious injuries." Both were taken to an area hospital.

Two more men who were not injured were taken into custody as witnesses and were questioned by investigators, Ogden said.

Kastigar said the confrontation near Tucson occurred about 12 hours after an incident more than 70 miles south, near the border at Sasabe, in which 18 illegal immigrants were robbed at gunpoint by four heavily armed men wearing ski masks.

It wasn't clear whether the events were related.

The bride’s sister is at the airport and on her way back home. It was a very nice visit and the sisters had a grand time. I am pretty sure that I am broke but they had fun.

It is imperative that I buy some ¾ inch plywood this week. My friend Nate and I are building shooting benches. Nate picked up the legs and I will pick up the wood. Any way I think that is how it is working out.

The bride and I were discussing relocating after we retire and we keep coming back to staying here. Utah has been our home for the past 28 years and we like it. I will admit that it is not very retirement friendly with their tax structure but all our friends and most of our family is here.

I was looking at real estate on the internet this morning and I found a wonderful house in Georgia. 4 bed rooms and 3 full baths for maybe ¾’s of what we could get out of the place we live now. So we could cash out on the house back there and put money in the bank. My sister lives in Georgia not to many miles form where this house is so I would have family there. It is only 386 days until I can retire, but who is counting? .

The bride’s sister is here for a visit. This is a good thing, she is a very nice lady and we get along very well. The bride has taken the rest of the week off from work and they are headed down to Gardener Village. Gardener Village is the ultimate “chick” place. It is a collection of old homes from around Utah moved to an old grist mill and turned into boutiques. You know the places where girls can buy dead weeds stuck in Styrofoam and call it a wall hanging. Anyway they have a great restaurant (Archibale's) and enough shops to keep the sisters happy all day.

A little history on this place, The grist mill was established back in 1850’s I believe by Archibale Gardner. He was a polygamist with a bunch of wives. In the restaurant you will see a number of pictures of his brides of the month. There is one picture that has captured my interest. It was wife number 9 I believe and this drawing of Mrs. Gardener looks exactly like me. I am not kidding about this one. It is weird but good for some laughs. I have sat under this picture a few times and it is funny to watch the waitress do a double take. All I can say about Mrs. Gardener number 9, she was a handsome women.