Sunday, July 31, 2011

I went to church today; the Nebo loop has mysteriously reopened over the week. Ryan and I thought to head up and survey things generally, so that we might get out of the valley and enjoy some atmosphere over at a cafe in Payson called Joe.
Nebo was beautiful, and the alpine meadows superlative in their greenery from this season's above-average rains.












The geology up there is as varied as it gets, though certainly not in a way that is extremely out-of-the-ordinary for this stretch of country. There are many places in Central Utah with red rock at high elevation, but this area has some limestone hoodoos sporting low-grade marble and red rock formations at around eight to ten thousand feet in elevation.
Beautiful stuff.








The loop meanders from Salt Canyon between Nephi and Sanpete to Payson, with views of the Uintahs to the north east, Mary's nipple to the south (and the Henrys on a clear day) and the environs around Mount Nebo and Bald Mountain above Santaquin.



























There are a few overlooks along the way, and on a day like this, they're a fine place to get out and photograph oddities and things that look much more stunning at this altitude and in this setting than they would otherwise.



























We spoke of things eternal and temporal, of God and gods, to subjects transitory and others more hopeful, but on the whole, it was a morning well spent and with girth to be built upon.

Saturday, July 30, 2011

At the lake yesterday, we took the time to hang about, talk and generally just laze. We got a late start, out the door at around 11:30 with cumulus clouds billowing to the south; I didn't think the good weather would last, but it did. Showers came and went around us, but we were happily unaffected and doing our thing on the lake and its shores.
That doesn't mean that all was halcyon for Mr. Grumpy Pants. Plenty of generator-spinning, tot-sized two-stroke motobiking trailer toters all about the place. Here's just one photographic example of our mates at the lake:








I'm formulating a post about real estate and current practices, so suffice to say that this sort of idea gives me waves of nausea. To take advantage of people, right or wrong in their own 'real estate' (read: home buying, not to be confused with damnable investment or speculation, though the three often cannot be divided to many current American minds) decisions makes me angry. Grrr.
Enough of that for now.
The kids have so much fun at the lake; they catch critters and make friends all day long. I think Jerusha and Jesse enjoy the kayaks the most, while Brynny enjoys the camaraderie of running the canoe around the water. Diedre, though much of her time is spent running to and from the restrooms with the wee girls, sits and rests as much as she can. That's a good thing for her.
What ceremony else? Though the kids didn't quite understand why Terry wasn't manning his post at LotsaMotza (he's not wasting his time down in Sanpete this summer, better employment digs up in Provo), we enjoyed consuming at our lusts three XL pizzas and much billiards-antics at the pizza house in Manti.



A good day out and about.
To the Republican Representative Jason Chaffetz:
In general, I find your ways of legislating and voting on legislation reprehensible and extraordinarily self-centered.
Your exhibited skills of critical thinking and issues weighting exhibit a flair for the circus-tent and high school class governance mannerisms.
Please consider legislating for the good of people and the nation in general, not only for special interests and stubborn, money-loving, security-craving, ignorance-bolstering far-right illusionists.
This Debt Ceiling debacle and especially the congress' deportment during said issue absolutely disgusts me.
Thank you or whomever skims over this for your time and consideration.
Adam Burningham
Sent on 30 July 2011
8:27 am

Ah well. At least I am trying to stay engaged. I know it's terribly general and lacking in any solutions. At this point, I feel that anything constructive is blown off. I just wanted to express my disgust without just saying 'you disgust me', or anything so absolutely juvenile.
It feels so disenfranchising to live in this part of the nation, and really, the world, right now.

Friday, July 29, 2011

My dad's visiting right now.
He's making the kids happy and falling asleep on the couch, listening to incessant chatter and enduring tours, show-and-tells, and quickly executed plans and trips to the lake.
Yesterday evening, he sat and visited at home while I attended a county-encouraged public meeting on the topic of a 'buffer' zone to be enforced around Spring City using development and business interest-formulated county zoning laws, very few of which are suited to the desires of most of Spring City's (or, I might daresay, most of Sanpete County's) inhabitants. It's a losing battle using nomenclature and ordinance ill suited for people fed-up with incompetent and self-centered government actions.
At any rate, the county doesn't want to be bothered with paying for development near the cities, but they're cloaking their desires with the expressed purpose of 'opening up dialogue and enabling the desires of the town's residents by asking them what they'd like for individual buffer zones around each of the county's towns'. Really, the county's 'master plan' was drawn up by business and development interests with the aid of some planning and infrastructure experts, and therefore, this is part of that master plan.
Another expressed interest of the county was to prevent 'sprawl' and patchy, disorganized development away from the cities. Again, the tools presented by the county include five, one and other fractional acre lots and uses limited to business, light industrial, residential-agricultural, residential and some vague 'sensitive area' designation that might prove useful. The interests of Spring City aren't much served by these designations, especially since leaving things at five acres precludes them from inclusion in any 'buffer'. Sprawl will not be discouraged by this, rather, it will be encouraged and services will be pressured upon the cities rather than county as speculators build on the outside of 'buffer zones' where land prices will inevitably be lower than those closer into the towns.
Yeah, enough of that. So my dad sat and enjoyed the kids and company while I attended the stupid gab session, let my opinions on sensitive lands and idealistic, though ultimately workable, methods for reducing or eliminating sprawl. All we need to do is take power back from monied interests who would rather attend meetings and ensure revenue streams than spend time under a tree with their families.
What a tradeoff, no? I hope we can balance this human species out one of these days, but it won't happen very soon, it would appear.

Thursday, July 28, 2011

Not just renewal; resurrection!

Thanks are in order here; my blessed and willing brother, Ryan-David, spent who knows how much time and brainpower migrating, moving, addendizing, transforming, and reconfiguring this old blog and various attempts at rebooting it, and in the end brought forth the reconstituted, revivified and revitalized Bloggenpucky.
Thanks, RD.
Now what? SO many things fomenting and percolating in my mind these days; too many to start off in any cohesive manner. I've a few outlines and ideas that I'll shoot toward this blank space in the next couple of weeks. Hopefully they'll provoke thoughts or even welcome ideas within a few who might take the time to reacquaint themselves with this forum...
Glad to be back; thanks to all who've encouraged this return and especially to you, RyanDavid for all of your work and pep-talks.