The Heist, The Brake Job, and The Redemption

The dead of night, a faint howling in the distance, a weak streetlight...  Joe Q and I slowly cruised past the Ace Hardware...  Yes!  Two beauts chained to the store, but not for long.   We backed up to the front, I hopped out with the bolt cutters, and snip, snip and huff, huff, they were loaded on the back of Joe's truck.  Then for the getaway...clean, swift, easy...  and up the canyon in a cloud of dust, choking the moose and raccoons.   Now we were safe, and soon our booty was installed...

Now we were ready for the weekend.  Bring on the steaks, the marinated chicken breasts, the elk, the fish, small children...  Dinner is served!  And breakfast, too!

Later that day, a junk yard run...  out with the old!

So with bellys full, the weekend's festivities began.  Lots of music...

The infamous Bobby D showed up (after a long absence from tequila driven excess) with his buddy Sid.  Then there was  the payoff to one perpetrator of crime.

Alas, perhaps due to some bad karma, the revenge of Ace Hardware, festivities were interrupted for emergency vehicle repairs.    And back to Ace Hardware/NAPA, for parts. (Paid for parts... I think...)

Still, for others, it was more celebration...  Ah, the corruption of youth...

Sunday morning found us all wallowing in guilt for our drunken, thieving, wanton, lustful ways...  and seeking redemption for all our sins.  But first breakfast...

There were a couple of hangovers...

Sunday services began with sacrament...  ah, that multi colored blood of christ...

Soon we all gathered for Church...  led by our favorite gospel duo...

Some were saved...

Some were still skeptical...  

But soon, overwhelmed by the "holy" spirit (or more tequila), we all turned into butterflies.

Thanks to the Berts for another great weekend.

Piano Man

Recently I hosted a competitor in the Gina Bachauer Piano Competition.  Miriam was in France for the month, so I was hoping to host a hot East European babe.  Thinking that request would disqualify me, I was surprised to be assigned, well,  a young man from...  yep, Eastern Europe.  Vasyl Kotys is from Ukraine, now living in Germany.  So with some trepidation, knowing I'm not the most social animal around, and finding that Vasyl was fluent in Russian and German but not so much in English, we spent two weeks bonding over the NBA finals and the World Cup.

But first, on to the competition.  What an amazing pianist!  I'm not much into classical music,  but I sure enjoyed Vasyl's practicing on our OK, but not Steinway, baby grand.

Speaking of Steinways, thanks to the folks at Daynes Music, especially Matt who could speak some Russian, Vasyl was able to practice on the super Steinways in the Daynes recital room.  Even more special, Vasyl also spent some time playing Van Claiburn's personal Steinway, on display in the store.  He even received a certificate confirming this experience.

Unfortunately, Vasyl did not make the advanced rounds of the competition (a wrist injury probably was a factor, considering the quality of competitors, but his amazing second round performance is available on YouTube).  So we had some time to explore the Salt Lake area.  Since he was fascinated by the mountains surrounding the valley (Ukraine is more like the US midwest), I took him to the top of the tram at Snowbird.

Vasyl also wanted to see the Great Salt Lake, so teaming up with Rodney and his photo equipment, we headed to Antelope Island.  Some of my shots of the crew:

We had to wait around quite awhile for the sunset so Rodney could get his pic...  and he sure did.

Unfortunately, I did not get a pic of the nachos fest at the Wasatch Brew Pub in Park City.  Sure was fun turning someone on to their first 'merican bar treat.  He ate 'em all including the jalapenas and hot sauce.  Good man!

Vasyl insisted SLC was the most beautiful city he had ever seen.  Since it was his first visit to the US, I can kind of understand that.  SLC, surrounded by the mountains, really is beautiful once you step back from the cultural melieu of this place.

Anyway, Vasyl Kotys is a fine young man, and I wish him the best in his performance career.  Hopefully we will see him back here for the next Bachauer competition.

Real Great Salt Lake Photography

Well, my photo action has been upstaged, big time.  No NatGeo work for me...

Rod Daynes took this pic, capturing the infamous green flash from Antelope island.  The bugs ate him alive, but he got the shot.  Check out his photos sometime.

Dropping Into the Great Salt Lake

The sun, that is...  I took a bunch of pics of a sunset from the beach on Antelope Island (and I did drop on Antelope Island once, but that's another story).  National Geographic Magazine needs to hire me as staff photographer (speaking of photographers, the individual seen on the shore on some shots is Rod Daynes, taking his own photos).   A few of my shots have been Photoshopped just to see what could be done.  Hey, I'm admittedly an amateur with a camera and with the software, but I'm having fun.

(Click on the pics to get a larger image)

Smoke Blues Band Web Site

The Smoke Blues Band, popular in Salt Lake City around 1970, now has it's own web site:

http://www.smokebluesband.com

The CD is available from CDBaby.  

Memorial Day Weekend at the Ranch--Tequila Edition

Fighting rain, sleet, snow, mud, tornado (sharkanado!), earthquake, and general pandemonium, we managed to have a great time at the ranch over Memorial Day Weekend, at least until the floods washed us out.

Most of the above is a lie, of course, but Saturday's rain did create some problems, mostly with the road,  But for those of us who made it up on Friday, we spent a very pleasant evening and missed the mud.  Click on following pics for a larger image.

Animals Rescued, Animals Lost

Saturday's wet and chill was hard on lambing...  and one in particular.  Thanks to Patricia for rescuing this poor little lamb, and to Jeff for returning the lamb to the sheepherder.

Alas, we lost a beaver...  the presumption is someone shot it...  and someone may therefore get shot.

Merrily, Merrily Gently Down the Stream

It was very dry at the ranch...  no pond, no stream flow.  We hiked quite a way up the stream bed to find water.  Here's a pic of the flow, with the "stream" disappearing completely.  Where did it go?

The rain on Saturday didn't seem to help any as far as the stream was concerned.  Yet by Monday morning, praise Jesus!, we had a flowing stream and a nearly full pond!  The sacrament worked (keep going...).

Rosemary's Hair Salon and Porn Shop

Sunday was a very weird day.  That's all than can be said.  The weirdness probably started with the before breakfast tequila tasting and went very downhill from there (but we never hit rock bottom...  or did we?).

It all started with modern living with aluminum foil...  thank you Reynolds...  Amazing how easy it is to "warp" foil...  

Curlers before and after:

Then things got weird...   nice beret from an aluminum wig...

and weirder...

and obscene...

The whole sick crew...

Some dude was emasculated...  a dick on a tiki torch?

Music Restoreth the Soul

Being a Sunday, we decided to have church services...  some gospel tunes and communion.  So all gathered around...

Of course, sacrament was a bit different for this spiritual gathering...  blanco blood of Christ and nan the body.  But nicely presented!

Communion inspired community consciousness...  time to rake the now dry road so more musicians could make it to camp.

And more music arrived...

Our plaintive cries to the gods and goddesses worked!  We were greeted Monday morning with a flowing stream and a filling pond!  Halleluia!  As we all gathered to admire the water, one lonely onion peeler was left preparing breakfast.

After breakfast we discovered the empty tequila bottles...  a sign it was time to break camp and go home.  Thanks to Bill and Julie for another terrific adventure.