Up early after more fitful sleep.
Then Wendy and I are off snowshoeing around Round Valley. Takes more energy putting them on and off, than the hours snow shoeing. It’s freezing cold and blowing a gale, but we just about survive.
Now with two snow shoe trips under my belt I think I can safely advise on the following three rules:
1 Slacken off all your gear ready to put on in the comfort of your home.
2 Take a pair of thin glove to wear whilst trying to put them on.
3 Last, and the most important, be the last in the group to get the benefit of compacted snow. Breaking trail is for pioneers and the eager young.
Evening we’re out for dinner with Joe and Donna at a new place called Hearth & Hill. I enjoyed my meal, but the menu was weird and sparser than strip clubs in Tehran. Expensive for what it was. Acid test, wouldn’t go back.
A somewhat premature and overly optimistic statement. Will we ever escape?
After a lazy morning I’m off to join the gym and get some exercise. Really nice gym and free Pickleball with my membership, all for $36 a month.
Oodles of snow today – proper weather.
Wendy was at the Christian Centre all afternoon.
Joe couldn’t make the gun club but I ventured forth. Despite the snow I made it all the way to the gun club car park and was defeated by 2 foot of snow. Too lazy to clear it – I thought they had more oil in the can than that.
Laurie and Mike come round for drinks after dinner. A pleasant and fun evening comparing travel sagas.
European Unions Crazy Laws:
* Banana’s should not be too bendy.
* Waters does not hydrate you.
* Prunes are not laxatives.
* Turnips cannot be labeled “swedes”, except in one place.
* Eggs cannot be sold by the dozen.
* In a move which is bound make pro-Brexit people and clean-freaks angry, the EU has passed a new law meaning vacuum cleaners might not be as powerful.
Wendy and I set off for more snow shoeing. Problem is that there’s that much snow, most of the car parks haven’t been cleared yet. Can park at Round Valley but it’s howling a gale and seems so cold. End up at Willow creek and spend just over a hour doing the loop there, half of it’s tracked the other half isn’t. A really good workout. Wendy’s powfagged. This seems more energetic than skiing – no gravity benefit.
In the afternoon I go down to Salt Lake to try out the indoor archery range. Sadly you can only rent out recurve bows, no compounds. It’s a challenge and a tad more work than a recurve. One good thing is my target hasn’t too many holes it so I can use it another time.
Then it’s home for a quick change before setting off to the Blue Boar for a valentines meal with Janelle, Mike, B & M. I’m designated driver so no alcohol. Pleasant meal in awesome surroundings with good company. They have an awesome collection of antique crossbows on the wall. Driving back is a nightmare of rain, then sleet, then snow. No street lights. No cats eyes. White lines are obscured by snow and slush.
As always, along with 10 Americans throughout the whole of mainland USA, I watched the State of the Union speech – wish we had one in the UK, would be pretty terrifying at the moment. The version had a few times when it just cut out, with a black screen as if it had lost the signal. One of the cut outs occurred in the bit where Trump said “….America will” black screen cutout ” be socialist”. I couldn’t believe my ears, so rewound and played it again, but still got “….America will be socialist….”. OMG what’s happened to the USA you’ve caught the European virus. Still not believing my ears went to another youtube version and pleased to see sanity still rules “….America will NEVER be socialist….”.
The other good news is despite jet lag and a bottle of red I managed to stay awake through it.
Lazy start to the day. It’s been raining overnight and it’s all frozen up. A death trap out there, just sheet ice everywhere – slick as the colonials say.
Wendy’s off to the Christian centre and I’m ten pin bowling with the Newcomers. Then in the afternoon I get to play Pickleball at the gym. What fun it is. Tennis / badminton / table tennis for geriatrics. I’m only a beginner but no one cares, it’s just a bunch of older geezers having fun. After just over an hour I’m cream crackered. Sadly have to go and pick Wendy up, but I’ll be back.
A quiet night in for a change. By 20:00 we give up trying to watch TV and go to bed. Then I wake up and fritter away two hours on the internet.
Tucker Carlos on crazy American politicians – AOC. See, we are not alone in the UK in having loopy politicians.
Mountains had 8″ of snow overnight, thats 20″ in the past 48 hours. Wake up to a sunny snowy landscape – awesome. Back to sub zero temperatures, thank the Flying Spaghetti Monster. And there’s no sign of temperatures above zero for the next 10 days, plus plenty of snowy days.
I’m off to the gun club for my weekly fix. Try a Canik TP9 with red dot sights. Wow, makes you realise how much your hand shakes. Only problem is it takes awhile to zero in the sight and worst of all makes me think I’ll have to give up drinking.
Then I walk up to Freshmarket and back to meet Wendy doing the weekly shop and to go to the all important liquor store. Have to get stocked up, they’re closed for the next two days.
In the evening we’re off to B&M for dinner with them and Janelle and Mike. Bobs cooked his awesome eggplant Parmigiana. I’ve been looking forward to this for the past 6 months, best food I’ve had all year. Great evening.
Anna and Leon arrive about 22:00.
Just a Few Of The “Life After Brexit” Predictions:
- Lorry parks on the M25.
- Planes crashing into each other in mid-flight.
- Thousands of passengers – those who survived the collisions of course – will be stranded and unable to go back to work.
- UK citizens living abroad will be locked up and have their pensions confiscated.
- The NHS will run out of insulin and Band Aids.
- The Queen will have to move to Switzerland or possibly Uganda.
- Our ports will shut down and ships’ captains will simply dump their cargo into the sea.
- Our squirrels will infect everyone with rabies.
- Condoms will explode….
I can hardly wait to hear what else is going to happen.
Lazy start to the morning. Then we’re off down to Wassatch State Park to meet up with the Newcomers for a Snowshoe. It’s disorganised chaos. There’s only one other light bulb changer (man) the rest are women. No one seems to know who is leading or where they’re going. Then we keep stopping to wait for the slow comers. You can tell how bad it is, at one stage Wendy’s leading and setting the past – lost and leisurely. Never mind we get a good 2 hours exercise.
In the evening B&M along with Janelle and Mike come round for dinner. Ironically Janelle and Mike are the owners of this place, we tell them to make themselves at home. Good food, good company and of course good wine.
After two weeks I’m settling into a no ski routine:
Monday – walk in the morning; Pickleball or Gym in the afternoon.
Tuesday – snowshoe in the morning; Archery in the afternoon; out for dinner somewhere in the evening.
Wednesday – walk in the morning; gun range in the afternoon.
Thursday – snowshoe in the morning; quiz at teatime; out for dinner somewhere in the evening.
Friday – ten pin bowling in the morning; pickle ball or gym in the afternoon; TGIF with the PCMSC in the evening.
Saturday – snowshoe in the morning; shopping evasion tactics in the afternoon; possibly out for dinner in the evening.
Sunday – walk in the morning; apres ski with PCMSC in the afternoon.
Unbelievable Anna decides she’s going to take a day off skiing – must be getting old – and go to the Outlets of course.
Then they hear we’re going snow shoeing and decide to join us. We drive out to Wassatch State Park and take the two mile trail to the Huber homestead. It’s just a perfect day. Trail is crispy and Wendy manages without snow shoes but the rest of us use them for a workout. What a good workout it was.
Then it’s back for a quick lunch followed by the inevitable trip to the Outlet stores. Wendy cons me into going by telling me they have some thermal vest – a shore sign I’m a decomposing geriatric. They don’t have any. I’ve be well and truly duped into a shopping expedition. Nor does any of the other stores. I find it somewhat ironic that they all have these vests that “keep you cool”, none that brag about keeping you warm, yet here we are in a sub zero ski resort!
Then back home and get changed for Ten Pin Bowling evening. There’s about 13 of us but we can only get a lane for 8, but we cope. Then it’s off to the Red Rock Brewery for dinner. We despatch an advance party of those not bowling to get a table – just typical they don’t accept bookings. Despite the hordes everywhere it’s not a bad evening.
Stop defending Islam as a ‘religion of peace’
People need to stop defending Islam. It’s one thing to condemn violence, hate and prejudice against and/or by Muslims, but it’s another thing altogether to claim that Islam is a religion of peace, while at the same time deriding people of other faiths for their backward beliefs.
There are over one hundred verses in the Quran that call for war or violence, many of which are directed specifically at nonbelievers. Some of these verses are quite graphic, such as verse 5:33 which states, “The punishment of those who wage war against Allah and His messenger and strive to make mischief in the land is only this, that they should be murdered or crucified or their hands and their feet should be cut off on opposite sides or they should be imprisoned; this shall be as a disgrace for them in this world, and in the hereafter they shall have a grievous chastisement.”
Another verse (8:12) says, “I will cast terror into the hearts of those who disbelieve. Therefore strike off their heads and strike off every fingertip of them.”
There is no possible way to take verses like these figuratively or metaphorically. It is quite evident that Allah, according to the Quran, calls quite literally for the mutilation and slaughter of all those who oppose Islam.