And in the beginning…

It was the first week of July in 1978.  I was fresh out of high school and my dad had painfully pointed out that sitting at home waiting for that Bank Manager job to call for me wasn’t going to put gas in my car.

The ad was in the Help Wanted section of the Salt Lake Tribune; “Driver wanted for pizza delivery”.  Hey, I liked driving, been looking forward to it since I was 4.  And I liked pizza.  Whatta deal.

I got dressed in my best t-shirt and nicest Levi’s, put on my shoes with the least number of holes in them and drove down 939 E. 2100 South.  A dusty little store in the corner of a car dealership-turned-auto parts store.

The first thing I remember seeing was a 4 foot-nothing 20-something lady standing on a stool putting a pizza in an oven that was way too high up for her.  I think her name was Jo.  I told her I was there to apply for the driver job, she handed me a menu, flipped it over and told me to write my name, phone number and some other info I can’t remember now.

A few days later, it was a Friday night (July 7^th the records told me later), I got a call sometime around 3 in the afternoon.  It was Mike, from Free Wheeler and he wanted to offer me the delivery job.  Yeah, ok, haven’t heard from the bank yet, so why not.

“Can you be here at 5?” 

Tonight?  What?  Are you kidding.  I figured I’d still have a week of slacking before the interview and paperwork were all completed.

“No problem, I’ll be there.”

A career was born.

Eat your vegetables (or other plant foods).

So I was going to be really funny and do a “used vegetables” post for this theme.  I went up to our property this weekend and planned on getting a bunch of pictures of the evidence all the animals leave around.

I got evidence, but it was leftovers, not post-use.  Well, except for the last picture which I decided to include anyways.

Ok, so technically, it’s not a veggie.  It’s more of a cone or leaf or something like that.  But it’s still a plant that mammals (albeit rodents) eat, so I’m going for it.  This little one had dinner right on the steps to our shed.

This was some sort of nut cluster that yet another rodent ate, sitting on top of a rock overlooking the whole valley.  I thought it was really cool how he or she popped it open and left it relatively intact.

And here is the “post consumption” photo.  We rarely see any animals on the property, they do a good job of staying away.  But you can’t walk more than a couple yards without seeing evidence that they were there.  From deer to squirrels, they don’t bother to flush the toilet.

Hmmm, just a little bit better.

I just figured out the gas mileage for Lil’ Blue on the trip out to the Salt Flats and back.  Compared to what I was driving before, I’ll be saving a smidge of money.

See what I mean.  Probably wasn’t worth the trouble.

Someone gets it.

Wouldn’t be so funny if it weren’t so true.

Glass in my ------- house.

As I’ve mentioned before, there is stuff all over my house.  Pictures, old cans, camera equipment, old electronics and glass.  Everything has a story to it.  Here are some of my glass stories.

Remember when milk was delivered to your door in glass bottles?  It’s been a long time, but here is one I found when I first moved into my house.

We sold this energy drink for a couple of years at the Chevron.  The other workers and I were amused by the name and the color of the bottle.  (If you have to ask, I’ll tell you.)

Dr. Pepper, used to be my favorite drink before my A1C skyrocketed.  This is an old bottle I picked up at a memorabilia store.  I don’t know if you can tell from the photo, but I knew it was an old one because that’s not a twits off top.

After 13 years of teaching at Junior High schools, I was hired on at Granite High.  My siblings and their families threw me a surprise graduation party for my promotion from Junior to Senior High.  They caught me completely by surprise because the graduation concept never even occurred to me.

My mom passed away from cancer in 1988, in 1974 she went through chemotherapy.  With a hint-hint, wink-wink her doctor simply informed her of the theoretical benefits of medicinal marijuana.  This is the medical equipment my mother used to take a medicine that helped her a lot with the symptoms of chemotherapy.  Remember, as ugly as it is in the year 2011, it was ten times worse for people in the 1970’s.

Ever flown from Salt Lake City to Disneyland with 75 fifteen year olds?  One other teacher and I did, with the help of a half dozen parents.  Keep in mind that parents are great with their own children and a handful of their friends.  But with large groups of other people’s children there’s a big difference between teachers and parents. (Not that their help was not highly appreciated)  All in all, it was a memorable and enjoyable experience, even though I got the group that broke a bed, knocked an EXIT sign off the wall and discovered that it takes 2 full rolls of toilet paper to clog a hotel toilet.

This is not something you see that often anymore.  No, I’m not talking about the glass telephone pole thingy.  I’m talking about the “MADE IN THE U.S.A.”  Even most of the cars made by that American Icon, Ford Motor Company, are mostly made on the other side of the border.  Yeah, they may be assembled in the U.S.A., but the last Ford Crown Victoria (grandson to my beloved Ford LTD) to roll off the assembly line had just over 50% of it’s parts produced here.  Whether good or bad, it just doesn’t mean the same thing as it used to.

I had an old shed in the back yard when I bought this house.  It must have been built in the 30’s or 40’s and even though it had a bad case of rot it almost pulled the bumper off my 1966 Jeep Wagoneer as I tried to pull it down.  Well, somebody back then didn’t know that somebody else in the family was heading out to the work shed for a little nip of whiskey once in a while, because I found  a couple of old bottles, still corked with some alcohol in the bottom, stashed in the wall.  For a third of a millisecond I was tempted to taste it, but decided against because I didn’t have any good mixers in the house.

For more good “glass” pictures, click on the banner below.

 

Perspective on the Land

Using topographical maps, Google Maps, Macromedia Fireworks and Google Earth, I came up with these “aerial” photos.  The border lines to the property should be pretty accurate and I really liked the perspective on them.