Friday, January 8, 2010

Snow, burning books, and white horses

We’ve established that my neighborhood gets a lot of snow. The thing I don’t get, though, is that the most oft-cited reason for people moving out of the neighborhood is the snow. Did they think they’d like it and now they don’t? Or did they just not realize how much there would be?

If the first, that’s understandable. Sometimes things we thought we really liked can get old and grate on our nerves*.

*Like the Killers. I downloaded one of their albums and adored it the first three times I listened. Now whenever one of their songs comes up on a playlist, I shudder, cough, and quickly reach for the skip forward button. My apologies to fans of The Killers—I really did like them at first. I’m hoping I don’t come to feel this way about Band of Horses, because right now I’m really digging their stuff.

But if the second, I don’t get it. Salt Lake City gets a lot of snow to begin with. The ski resorts get way, way more snow than Salt Lake City. The elevation of our neighborhood is closer to that of the ski resorts than the valley below. Did they come look at the house in the summer and think “oh, it’s nice and cool in the summertime at this elevation—I bet the winters are equally mild”?

I’m assuming they had to have looked at the house in the summer, because for six months of the year, the yard would have been covered in snow, and they’d have no excuse not to notice it. Of course, I shouldn’t complain too much about people not thinking the “cool in the summer” thing through to its logical conclusion—I come from a family of seven kids, and if my parents had thought things through during those sacred snooze sessions, it’s likely that I and/or several of my siblings would not exist.

It’s not like I’m shedding tears over most of the people that move out of the neighborhood. Because the people I like also seem to enjoy the snow. And though we’re not a majority, if it’s not obvious that I’m not in the majority and don’t care to be, you haven’t been paying attention.

Speaking of the local majority, I recently checked out an audiobook from the library that I daresay many of these folks probably wouldn’t agree with. As I pulled the first CD out of the jacket, I thought “it really wouldn’t surprise me if one of these CDs were intentionally scratched by some nutjob who thinks he’s doing the world a favor.”

I put the first disc in and pretty much immediately it started skipping. I popped it out and saw a scratch running hole to edge. It looked like it was put there with a car key. I haven’t seen any announcements, but I can’t help but assume these folks have got a book burning scheduled for the coming weeks.

We should be thanking them for their activism, however, because we’re all clearly doomed. In case you haven’t heard, the Constitution is dangling by a thread. A silken one. And it’s about to snap. But the wannabe governor of Idaho is going to get on his white horse and save it, thereby ushering in a new era of illegal wiretaps and foreign invasions made under false pretenses civil liberties.

23 comments:

  1. Nice. So odd that I happened to find this website today http://holyfetch.com/ and was reading the "white horse" prophecy when your post came across google reader. doomsday for sure !

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  2. I'm just glad to see that nutjobs don't reside exclusively in the Intermountain West.

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  3. hanging by a thread? sometimes pretty good is good enough. i'd say we're doing pretty good.

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  4. maybe you could say something about skiing or biking! or change your name to "ski bike and lots of boring posts junkie". your killin me

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  5. The snow I could handle, the Suncrest wind maybe not.

    I didn't need to hear about more conservative nutjobs and their fear mongering. My parents have "heeded the call". My Dad tried to get me to read Glen Beck's book. Up at my folks for Christmas I spotted the Sarah Palin book. They've been having constitution meetings with their neighbors. I'm concerned they're getting stirred up and agitated when things really aren't that bad. But what to do?

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  6. I really shouldn't feed the trolls, but this is too fun:

    Pat, did you mean to say "you're killin' me?" Or did you in fact mean to say "your killin me?"

    Because if the latter, I'm not sure what a killin is, nor was I aware that I had one. Please clarify.

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  7. 1. This is exactly why yesterday I just said boooooooooriiiiiiiiiiinnnnnnnngg!

    2. Didn't your mother tell you that if you don't have
    anything worth blogging about, don't blog at all?

    3. Lastly, degrading your standards to personal insults is unbecoming of you and you should be ashamed.

    post script, Trolls? really? Why do you say things you know will hurt me?

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  8. "2. Didn't your mother tell you that if you don't have
    anything worth blogging about, don't blog at all?"

    Last I checked, nobody was making you read.

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  9. Let me guess: "The Greatest Show..." right?

    When someone is reduced to book-burning/ defacing, they're saying "OK, my argument sucks."

    I think you should do a post about "pat t cakes."

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  10. Yeah dude blog about me! thats more exciting than water!

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  11. I love the White Horse prophecy.

    But I think really, it's just Pat hanging by a thread.

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  12. If Pat were hanging by a thread, it would have broken by now.

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  13. Oh, also, I listen to my Killers album only once in a while. It helps to abate that hatred that I could see developing.

    Thanks for the BoH tip. I'm checking them out now.

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  14. once again Mark, Why do you say things you KNOW will hurt me?

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  15. Pat, I like cycling, but there's more to life, and people.

    I'm curious why you cared enough to comment. A few sentences in didn't you determine this post wasn't interesting you? And if so, why not jump immediately to another blog / website that gives you what you're looking for?

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  16. If I may be so bold to ask, what was the audiobook you checked out?

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  17. I think its just a new phase Im goin through, Im just gonna start posting on everything. If its lame Im just gonna say "lame" If I enjoy it than I will say so too.
    But I still cant believe it only took three posts to result to name calling!

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  18. I mean, there is a drought of entertaining bike blogs in Utah right now, really, skiing to.

    I got up early strapped on my (ski's, chamois) shredded the gnar for 2.75 hours at LT, ripped the DH and then slaved away in the cube for 5.25 hours.

    That there is grand entertainment, whew, I'm exhausted.

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  19. Walter, I don't mind you asking. The book is Leaving the Saints by Martha Beck. I skipped to the second CD. It's an interesting book so far, though her ex-husbands review of it on Amazon states that's not how he remembers things happening. I find it quite fascinating how people can participate in effectively the same events and yet have completely different experiences.

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  20. Nice post. It's funny that those that scream about the Constitution being under attack (it always is, but to what degree?) are often the same ones that attack those very rights.

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  21. From reading the reviews of the book, I am not too surprised that some would be none to happy with the author. However, scratching a CD? That is juvenile and shows the level of book burners. Instead of promoting your ideas/beliefs, you have to (literally) destroy others to show how "good" your idea/beliefs are.

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  22. I was just about to leave a comment along the lines of, "karma will catch up to this CD scratcher and a dog will eat his/her Bible." Then I remembered that my dog really did eat my Bible.

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  23. RR, in Salem witch trial days, that would have been a confession.

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