06-27-11 Intermission

Alright, taking a short break from Yosemite, let's go over some current events. I'm pretty sure my body isn't thrilled with me right now. First off, I almost died like seven times in one day. Yeah. Crazy.

Anyway, Wednesday started off with going swimming with the eleven-year-old scouts so we could go over the swimming / water rescue requirements. And being the young, disposable assistant scoutmaster I am, I got to be the practice victim. Really makes you question my intelligence, doesn't it? I just got rescued and brought to shore, and immediately afterward I swim out to the exact same spot and start drowning again. Smart, Ben. Smart.

Luckily, there just so happens there were three exceptionally able life savers ready to assist me. Kind of nice really. You can do all the stupid stuff you want, and you've got your own personal safety crew. I'll have to remember this.

Anyway, that accounts for the first six near-death experiences. The last one was when I almost bled to death on the bike trail, but I'll get to that in a minute. The YM went on their regular bike trip to In n Out, and as always, we ran into a couple mishaps. Before that happened, though, we had a pretty nice ride there. (Should have known something was going to happen... Well, actually I did, but again, I'll get to that later.) A few highlights: E Man, the ever awesome ninja, learned how to ride without using his hands, which I took a couple pictures of. (Missionary training: Learning to do everything I can while riding a bike. Seriously, being able to eat on the go is handy. And if they aren't supposed to take pictures while proselyting, doing it while in transit seems like a decent alternative. Just saying...) Also, I got to practice juggling while riding, which went surprisingly well. I got to a point where I could keep it up for about ten seconds, but beyond that I have trouble keeping a good idea of where the road is. (I usually stopped after five to make sure I was still good.) Yep, bike ninjas for the win.

One last highlight: We saw a guy on an Ellipti-Go, this really cool, almost scooter like thing. Someone basically hooked up an Elliptical to a chain and wheels, making it one of the coolest things ever. And when it comes to hills, that thing is a speed demon. We first saw it while stopped on the side of the trail, waiting for some others from our group. After waiting a few seconds, it occurred to me that I should take a picture of it, so I spent the next five minutes or so chasing him down. Seriously, you cannot catch that thing uphill. The guy was awesome though. We talked for a bit, and he even let me take a few pictures. Apparently those things can cruise pretty easily at about 14 MPH, but beyond that it doesn't go much faster. It's real advantage is on hills though, I'm telling you. They hardly seem to slow it down...

Anyway, at In n Out, we had a good time, made the mistake of looking at the nutritional facts, then spent the next ten minutes trying to be friends with our stomachs again. It took a bit, but they came around eventually. Shortly after starting the ride home, things got interesting.

So, there were these speed bumps on the road to the park where we connected up with the bike trail, right? And being the young men we were, we all decided to race over them. Great, right? You can see where this is going. Simultaneously, E Man had his chain come off and I went off of one of the bumps. I had been going at a decent rate by then, so I was apart from the ground for a second there– Apparently it didn't like seeing me again. I landed on my back tire, and everything looked fine. That is, until you took into consideration that my bike has rear suspension. The back end came back up momentarily, and when it did so, my bike tilted to the side slightly, so when my front tire landed, it was angled wrong. Long story short, I messed up my arm a little, and my front tire is pretty warped now, but other than that I'm fine.

(This is the seventh one, by the way.) Luckily, E Man happened to be there, prepared and ready with a first-aid kit. We limped over to the bathroom and started cleaning up while Bishop and Ethan saw what they could do with the rim. A quick bandage and an awesome pink bandanna later, I was as good as new. Thanks, E Man! Now, the rim. At first, it was almost warped out about four inches maybe? It couldn't even go through the frame, let alone the brakes. Ethan and I were able to snap it back a little, and by the time Bishop was done with it, it was done to about an inch or so, which would be enough to ride. The good news, a few of the warps came out while we were riding, so things were looking okay there. The bad news, E Man's chain on his bike was still acting up, and from what we could tell, getting worse. We tried to make some repairs, but they only lasted for a few dozen feet at best.

In the end, we rode up to the nearest road access and called for a ride. Yep, the young men have great luck with bike rides, don't we? I still don't think we've had an uneventful one yet.

Let me just say, though, that I thought this would happen. I love my bike. It's sturdy, it's dependable. It's never given me trouble before. But, just to be safe, and since I thought Mom would want me to, I brought a spare tube and some bike tools, just in case. It's cursed, I'm telling you. I've never had a problem before. Then, the first time I brought them with me, my bike starts rebelling and tries to kill me. Lesson learned though. My bike and I have made up, and I agreed not to carry tubes anymore. I trust it. And if something happens, heaven forbid, I'll walk it home and take care of it there.

Update: I spent a good bit of Thursday trying to fix the rim, but it wasn't until Friday that I came up with the obvious answer. A quick prayer later, I kept working, then got the impression to go outside and look at some of the old bikes we've been meaning to take care of. I stop, go out and check, and sure enough, one of them has a tire that matches my bike. The rim is a little wider than my old one, but it seems fine. I cleaned it up, checked everything, and just now put it on my bike. Lesson learned #2: Pray first. It saves time.

As far as I can tell, it's working great. I'll have to take it for a test ride later today. I need to check something out at the library and see if I can fix my account. It isn't letting me request books online at the moment. (And no, I'm pretty sure I don't have any overdue books. That's the first thing I checked.)

Going back to the recap, Friday Tom came over and helped us install some ceiling fans in the family room and office! Fun stuff! While we were working, we also talked a little about Team, something he's been pretty excited about. I wouldn't exactly same I'm excited, but it seems interesting enough. I don't think it's for me though. I've got my mission coming up, and I've still got my own questions about it before deciding if it's something I might consider once I get back. But really, it seems most suited for the ambitious entrepreneur or salesman, and I don't really fall under those categories. I'm fine working a regular job, and most things offered by Team are also offered through the church, with a more direct source– one that I already have a firm testimony of. As for Team, I haven't gotten any answer one way or the other, but I know that it's not something I should be worrying about at the moment.

Back to the fans. We took out the old lights, mounted some ceiling fan boxes, put up some drywall to cover the space where the lights used to be, and put in the ceiling fans. Pretty awesome. And the family room still has light in it at night now! How cool is that? During the day, the sky tunnel still gives plenty of light, but having the new lights up to use at night is great. Thanks, Tom!

Saturday. It started with setting up chairs for Stake Conference– Always a good workout– followed by helping Debi with her yard. Mom and Andrew helped her dump the old wood from her deck while I stayed behind and worked on digging up watering hose. Once they were done, they started working on that too, which turned out to be a little more interesting than any of us were expecting. The people who put the stuff in... made some weird choices. Anyway, it took a while to figure out, but things went pretty well over all. It was almost scary how excited we were to see pvc pipes.

Anyway, that was good. I got to add a couple blisters to my hand, which mostly either healed up or got popped the next day while taking down chairs after Conference. More awesome workout-ness.

And that just about covers it. Stake Conference was amazing, though. Saturday evening we learned a lot about joy and enduring trials without being weighed down by them. We also learned about labels and Alaskan zip lines, and swimming races, and the capabilities of the iPod Touch, and a whole bunch of other things. Then on Sunday, we had some more good quotes, like "One of my goals is to keep the commandments until I am safely dead." They were all good though. The Stake President talked about the twelve hundred sleeping bags story, and how he wanted us to use that same energy to become better about emergency preparedness and missionary work.

After the meeting, I even got to see an– not old friend, quite young actually. I got in trouble for that one... Let's just say a friend I haven't seen for a while. We got to visit, catch up. It was fun.

But that brings us up to speed. After Conference we had BYC, always an entertaining experience, and in the evening we played Loot and watched Gunther and the Paper Brigade, which apparently can be extremely distracting.

Now that that's done, I think I can go back to the Yosemite posts and finally talk about the actual park. See you in a bit!