What is so wrong with being descriptive? -- (questions on the world series)

My 5 year old daughter has a fascination with the Spanish language, every time she hears a Spanish word or a person speaking the language she points out (usually in a loud voice) “They are talking Spanish”. The other day we were at the store and she heard some people speaking Spanish and did just this and my wife and my immediate response was to tell her not to point that out so loudly as it can be offensive.  This is the same child who a few days prior while we were in a restaurant said loudly “That dark brown girl has a beautiful necklace, mom” we also responded not to talk about the color of a persons skin.

Both of these incidents along with others made me start to think about what kind of society we live in where using descriptive terms to point something out good or bad is taboo. The black waitress had dark brown skin, this isn’t a bad thing nor a racist thing it is just a fact that gives us a way to describe the person who she was talking about, and the people speaking Spanish were speaking Spanish and it has nothing to do with something evil or wrong but in our society this is deemed as on the verge of being racist and bigoted to even point it out. It seems as though we are more afraid of being a seen racist/bigot than we are at being rude to others directly. I have no solutions to this or do I know if it is necessarily a problem per say but it is the world that we live in and at some point we need to decide what if anything should be done about this.

Camping in a Cave with girls

Friday night my friend Mason and our eldest girls (Maci and Kahlan) went for a short trip to Lakeside just to get away from the world. We spent Friday night in a large cave while avoiding drips from the roof. Saturday morning we woke up early and for the first time ever Mason was out of his Jeep before I got out of my sleeping bag. After breakfast we headed across the rail road causeway and checked out the pumps that were put in to help with the flooding in the late 80's and then went up to Hogup cave to check it out. From there we headed out the way we came and picked up parts of my jeep that had fallen off on the way in. Great trip with a good friend and the girls had a blast.

The cobbler didn't cobble my boots this time

So my last experience with a cobbler left a nasty taste in my mouth and I knew I would never go back to Steve's. This time I took my boots into Tony of Tony's Shoes and Repair Tony took the time when I came in with my boots to make sure that we had the correct sole even calling up Vibram on the phone to check on some different options. Tony also told me upfront that there was a 10% chance that the glue wouldn't actually hold onto the foam rubber that the sole had to attach to, but that he was willing to give it a try and if it didn't work that I wouldn't be out any $$. So a week later I called and he said he had them ready, once I got there he informed me that he checked them one last time and the glue didn't work. Annoyed that I had driven into Magna to get them I went home only to receive a Text from him later that he had gotten some different glue from another cobbler in town and that he was not giving up on my boots. In the end everything worked out great and he even came in on Saturday so I could pick up my boots.

End result, I got new soles on my $300 boots for $40 thus extending my boots life hopefully another 2.5 years.

Sunday morning hike to nowhere

Well not really nowhere, the intent was to go to a opening in the side of the mountain by Lakepoint that I have been wanting to go into for years. From I80 it looked like a decent mine opening with prospects of being somewhere to go in and explore. Unfortunately it was just a small test hole that went back about 8 feet. Sam Tacoma and Myself were all supposed to head out at 6 this morning but Tacoma pussed out at the last minute. I picked up Sam from his house and headed over to Lakepoint to start the hike. The wind brought the balmy 31 degree temps down dramatically as we walked into it along the train tracks. Anyhow here are some pics.. it was a good way to start the day no matter what and now I know when I look at that opening that nothing is there.

Interesting along a rock wall that we passed were a bunch of RR spikes stuck into the wall, There was also a Rock climbing bolt on the wall (not that I would have trusted that rusty beast)

The hole to nowhere.. really just a animal den now

Saw 6 head of elk up on the ridge here.. unfortunately I don't think my little camera has enough zoom