Dan Jones

Ramblings

Nick and Stacy were in town for a short while this weekend. It was a great time, sitting around playing XBox and drinking IBC root beer brings back old memories. We tried not to relive old times too much around the new guys, but it was tough.

While Nick was here I got the latest update on my motorcycle. I guess it broke down in a Lowes parking lot, and subsequently someone tried to steal it! They drilled into the ignition slot. I'm not even sure that would do the trick?

The biggest question though, is why would someone steal it. I mean, it's a 1980 Honda. Not exactly a hot bike. And instead of destroying the ignition, they could have just gotten 3 or 4 guys and PICKED IT UP and put it into a truck. Oh well, I'm not too worried about it. In fact, I may use it as an excuse to go visit Tom Potter and the Omaha crew.

On another note, here's an update on my mom's bout with cancer. She recently had an ultrasound so the doc's could see a tumor on her liver. After waiting around for a week she got the results. The gist of which were, "Well, we couldn't actually see the tumor, but everything else looked good." That's it! That's like taking your car to the mechanic to look at an engine problem and he tells you, "Well bud, I opened the passenger door and looked around. Couldn't see the engine, but the glove box looks good!"

Come on people! It's someones life, you'd think a physician would do a more thorough job than that. One thing I really hate is when someone does a piss poor job, excuse my wordage. Do it right or don't even start. To his credit, the doctor probably didn't even step foot in the room. It was probably done by some lab technician...

Back! For now...

Hi there. After a 2 week hiatus, here's the current blog entry. Stay tuned, maybe I'll blog again next week.

I'm getting settled into the school year and I've made a least one observation: I live a long, long way from any of my classes. If you check out the above image, that little red square on the lower right is where I live, Larch Hall. That little red square in the upper left corner is where my first class meets a few days of the week. I don't think I can possibly live on campus and be farther away. The other red square is where my other classes are, and the green square is where I used to live. Much closer, right?

I'm lovin' most of my classes though. Finally, after 3 and a half years of college, I'm taking classes I will use after I graduate. What am I taking? Con E (aka "Non E" by some...) 351 -Mechanical and Electrical Systems; ME 421 - Mechanical Systems and Control; ME 441 - Fundamentals of HVAC; and ME 335 - Fluid Dynamics. Neato.

I was reading just a little earlier and I ran into something really interesting. In Acts 20.24 Paul is saying goodbye to his friends, knowing he will probably never see them again. He tells them, "But I do not consider my life of any account as dear to myself, so that I may finish my course and the ministry which I received from the Lord Jesus, to testify solemnly of the gospel of the grace of God."

His attitude is what's so striking. He does not consider his own life as dear to him. It's not his own at all. He doesn't seek to preserve it or improve his conditions. Paul took more risks in one city, probably in one day, than I may ever take in my entire lifetime. The bigger question is, were they even risks? Does he really have anything to fear? He dies, he's in heaven. Risk? What risk?

I hold on to my life pretty closely, really. I wonder how close I'll be ever be to truly having that kind of attitude. Until next month...

West Yellowstone News

Erik Sautter recently blogged about a headline he saw in his hometown newspaper, something about an ad for a birthday party. Anyway, that reminded me of a something I was going to blog about when I got home. Nice how I got that reminder, huh?

We stayed in West Yellowstone, Montana for a few days last week. West Yellowstone is a small town that sees lots of tourists, but still manages to maintain it's small town-ness without getting overly glitzy, unlike Estes Park or Jackson. While we were there we picked up a town 'pape' and skimmed through it. I got all excited to find a "Police Blotter" heading. Now, while staying in Chicago, there was a loop area newspaper called The Reader. The Reader has it's own police blotter, which is usually filled with the highlights of downtown Chicago crime: burgleries, robberies, murders, and beatings. I wasn't sure what to expect from this little towns police blotter, but I expected to be entertained. I wasn't dissapointed. Some of the highlights included:

►a moose sighting
►someone reporting (EXACT quote) "[expletive deleted] loud downstairs neighbors"

The violent item was an old lady requesting a police escort while she picked up her granddaughter from her daughters ex-husband. Two articles also made reading it worth my while. 1.) A 2 page article about a tourist who lost his dog and the townsfolk who helped him find it. And 2.) an article about a border collie who could climb fences and had a knack for getting the town's females pregnant. Seems that this dog had terrorized the town for 4 years!

I think it was a good start for getting back into small town life after a summer in the big city...

How Long Will It Last?

Well I'm finally back from post-SALT vacation. My dad and I left the day after SALT was over for a week and a half visit to Rocky Mountain National Park, Grand Teton National Park, and Yellowstone National Park. I guess it was sort of a national park tour. For the last few years, I think every summer I’ve been at college, my dad and I have done this kind of thing. This last one is kind of special, as after this summer I’ll be living in the real world, lucky to get 2 weeks of vacation a year…

We spent most of our time driving around, but managed to get some flyfishing for trout in. If you check out the pictures below, there's a shot of me trying to squeeze a 15 inch cutthroat trout to death. It was squirming around so much I could barely hold it. I also caught a 17 inch cutthroat, which is the biggest trout I've ever caught.

Since my dad pretty big into flyfishing (and the west Yellowstone area is somewhat of a flyfishing mecca) we had to stop at a few of the well known fly shops in the Jackson area. While we were at these places we met some of the "rock stars" of flyfishing, guys who are famous on an international level among trout fishers. One of these guys, Jack Dennis, invited my dad into his office while they were talking. This is a guy who takes presidents flyfishing. Kind of ridiculous to me, but famous fisherman nonetheless. Anyway, enjoy these pictures. This may be one of the last entries of mine, as I contemplate following Earle Robert Magnum and Drencher P. Forrestsythe into the abyss...

I’m really looking forward to this coming school year. After not seeing most of them for a summer, being back among friends who are like family to me is sure to be sweet. I’ll be back in Ames on Saturday the 14th, so I’ll see some of you then.

Oh yeah, hey Tom (if you read this), when can I get my motorcycle back? I'm itchin' to go for a ride!

These photos definately don't do the high res ones justice, but I had to tone them down so they would load somewhat quickly on the dial-up at home...

Oh yeah, this may be just a ploy to get big comments (like Heathers post a few days/weeks past), but I implore you, no I beg you(same thing?), to say hello and leave a comment if you visit. It's always fun to see what unexpected person reads this...