I have many goals in life. Some are honorable and intended to help me grow, others are, shall we say, odd. One of my more odd goals in life is to see a mountain lion out in the wild in person. I may have achieved that goal this week.

Friday afternoon, I was invited to a campfire up Green Canyon. In attendance were several ladies, a couple guys about my size, and a couple brawny, muscular fellers. Ya know, the kind where if something tragic happened, they would be the ones people turned to for help.

Anyway, as darkness settled in the canyon, and we were a good ways up the canyon, past the more crowded and loud areas, people began to scare each other. A small group of us even headed down the dark and wooded road in search of another campsite to scare, though we failed to find one and only ended up scaring ourselves multiple times. After plenty of noises that startled people around the fire, I hatched a plan with one of the men of larger stature. There were over a dozen of us there, so I would quietly slip away with my hoodie and stand off in the trees in the dark. Then, he would say he heard something and shine his light on me. A dark, hooded figure in the trees, coming seemingly out of nowhere, would freak everyone out, including, by his own admission, the guy who wanted to shine the light on me. As I took a step back to casually leave the fire, I heard rustling in the leaves behind me. At first, I believed someone had already taken my idea and was going to jump out of the trees at us. The rustling got louder. Another member of the group heard it as well and stood up to look around. Assuming it was still a person who was terrible at sneaking about, I shone my light. My heartbeat shot up when I saw two, bright yellow eyes glowing sharply back at me from about twenty yards away. They seemed small, so after my initial taken abackedness, I picked up my fire tending stick and, as everyone else backed away, I walked up the hill towards the trees where the eyes were. When I got within about eight feet of the animal, which I now thought to be a fox or lost domestic cat (it did not occur to me I was miles from anywhere a domestic cat would reside), I stopped. The beaming yellow eyes reflected my light back and we just looked at each other for a few seconds. Neither of us seemed afraid of the other. We were both curious. Perhaps the animal was more curious than I, because he began to move around the small cluster of bush and trees that separated us. As he turned to the side to walk, my illusion of a small fox or kitty cat vanished instantly and a bit of terror entered my body as I saw his three to four foot long body which was now approaching me. I backed up a bit, then started screaming "It's coming! It's coming! It's coming!" as I barreled down the mountain toward the rest of the group, who were gathered below watching me. Already on edge and half scared to death from the earlier events of the night, they wasted no time in reacting. As I ran down towards them, I saw the funniest sight I have seen in a while. The group, who, mind you, saw little more than eyes and part of the animals head, were in a complete state of panic. It was every man for himself. People were throwing each other out of the way, tripping over themselves, scrambling in sheer terror, with arms flailing, and shrieks piercing the night as they ran for the safety of their vehicles. When I reached the fire, nothing remained but a cloud of dust and me. I knew I had kind of overreacted and I had really wanted to see what kind of animal it was, so I turned around from my safer distance to shine my light, but, alas, the panic from the group had scared our guest away. The group returned to the fire, all of them hilariously huddled on the side of the fire so their backs were not to where the animal had been. A couple minutes later, the big macho men, who we discovered had little bravery after the sun sets, decided "it was getting late", and they left. To the group's shock, I walked back up the mountain with a hot dog offering in the hopes my friend would return, but, he was probably long gone, never to be seen by me again.

Based on what I did see, I believe the animal was a young mountain lion. He was obviously not in search of eating us, because he was blatantly obvious in approaching our campsite. I think he was just walking in the area, heard some noise, and went to see what was up. I hope he was as amused by me as I was by him. Though if he understands humans, he too is probably telling his family and friends the story of how he scared a bunch of young adults half to death.

I ran through a small microburst that caused a sandstorm today. A couple weeks ago I ran through modest sized hail. A week or so before that it was stinging sleety ice. Apparently, whenever I run, bad weather happens. Today's microburst was rather awesome, despite the discomfort of it.

The sun was abundant throughout the day until this evening. As I prepped for my run, the clouds blew in and the wind picked up a little. Throughout the valley, you could see areas where dust was blowing around. As I got about a mile from home, I could see a few good dust clouds blowing above the route home. The closer I got, the more the dust blew. Then, out of nowhere, the wind went from a nice 5-10 mph to out of control. I estimate it was a good 50 mph or more. Trees were bent down about 45 degrees, metal signs were banging around, and for every 10 steps I took running hard, I only moved about 5 feet. I fought my way forward and looked up and saw a rather alarming sight. A wall of dirt and dust, the sandstorm, completely obscured the road ahead. Like a fool, I ran into the wall of dust. Visibility was a few feet inside the mayhem, which spanned a good 30 yards through. On the other side, I emerged out of the thick of things only to find more dust blowing for another block or so. Exhausted and somewhat disoriented from all the sand in my eyes, ears, mouth, and now runny nose, I stopped my run, regained my wits, snapped some photos, and walked the last half mile home.

It was exciting, I'll admit, though probably a bit dangerous. The sandstorm was caused by all the loose, dry dirt from a house construction site at that particular spot. Fields of hay or wild weeds cover most of the undeveloped areas along this running route, but the area of the sandstorm has a dirt road plus no vegetation as a result of the construction. Two cars that seemed to have been caught right when it happened drove through the 30 yard sandstorm, everyone else actually pulled over and waited for it to let up a bit before passing. They likely thought, as I did, of the sandstorm in Nevada a few days back that caused similar conditions over a larger span of road, which resulted in a 27-vehicle pile up and took a truck driver's life.

Aside from needing an immediate shower, I was ok and now have a good story to tell. Here are some pictures I snapped. The microburst was past by this time and while there was plenty of dust about when I took these, it is nowhere near the sandstorm I had just run through.

A not so great panoramic of the area..ironically, the area with all the light just above the horizon is right where just minutes before a microburst blew sand to create zero visibility

Crazy clouds going on

Lots of dust as the sun set

Song of the Day is..."You'll Never Walk Alone"...because it talks about walking through a storm :)

This evening I had the opportunity to do the "Bigger or Better" scavenger hunt trading game with friends in the ward at church. The game is simple. Divide into teams. Each team is given the same small item, such as a paper clip, or, in our game, a toothpick. They must then go out and trade the toothpick for something bigger or better. The goal is to continue to trade up your items to attain the best possible treasure in the allotted time. Our trades went like this: We traded the toothpick for a 12 inch glass fish bowl. The bowl was traded for a huge fall wreath. The wreath was traded for a full framed window. The window traded for an outdoor patio umbrella. The patio umbrella gained us our final treasure, a hand-embroidered decorative tapestry from South America, traded by a retired journalist who got it decades ago and had no use of it anymore.

The tapestry

The evening was fun, we met some great people willing to trade with us, and we ended up gaining quite a nice treasure. But, of course, as seems to be my way, after all the fun and games, I looked back on the experience and a life lesson was learned.

The entire experience only happened because my team members made a choice. I was on the fence about going to the activity tonight. Ultimately, I decided to go. The other members of my team made the same decision and we all ended up together. If you were to remove one single member of our team, the entire outcome of our trades would be altered. Had I not gone, we would not have had to clear stuff from my car to fit people, and thus we would not have traded for the fish bowl from my house. The wreath was from my neighborhood as well and the team would not have been there if I was not there. Now, assume I still went, but, the girl who chose to direct us to the house where we found the wreath did not. We would not have gone to that home if not for her. The entire outcome is altered. Keep thinking. I still went, that girl still went, but the guy who lives in a wealthier neighborhood did not. On our way to his neighborhood with our wreath, another girl directed us to the house where we got the window. Remove either one and our direction would have changed, and the outcome is altered. Every member contributed to the exact course of events that only came together as a result of all of us being there. Now I would like to apply this to your life.

Do not ever suppose that you do not make a difference. Your very existence alters people's lives. I promise you that the difference you make is significant. You can be the difference between a bad day for someone and a good day. You can be the difference between someone making a bad purchase and a good investment. You can be the difference between someone finding reason to live when they felt they wanted to take their life. Every one of you matters. There are no nobody's in the world. Remove any one of you and thousands of lives are altered.

I am grateful for everyone in my life, for every single influence that has miraculously come to me and led me to where I am today. I have been fortunate, but there are so many who are less fortunate, who have not had as many people be the difference for them. We need to be that difference that helps someone go from a tiny wooden toothpick to a beautiful masterpiece of art.

The cool, wetness of spring is starting to dissipate into heat and abundant sunshine. Yes, summer is almost in full spring in Cache Valley. So far, I have been to a couple cook-outs, a couple campfires, played frisbee a few times, hosted some outdoor movies, been climbing, hiking, canoeing, played many games of bocce ball, improved my jumping serve playing volleyball, and, of course, I have run a good few miles. All in all, it is a great start to the summer. Next weekend is the first demolition derby, and only two weeks to Ragnar!

I don't have tons to say today, but here are some pictures from a recent hike up the beautiful Crimson Trail.

Mountain stream cascading towards the Logan River

Logan Canyon

Many gorgeous flowers along the trail.

Me being dramatic in a group photo.

It irks me to see a president who appears to care little for the nation I love. It irks me to see high-level government officials, people who have power and influence around the world, refuse to take responsibility for their actions. It irks me to see people not willing to keep trying to make a life for their families. It irks me that the word family no longer means what it used to. Dining rooms and tables sit decoratively in homes, no longer used for gathering the family to dine and converse together. Children sit in their own rooms playing video games while parents go about doing their own business. No forts of couch cushions are visible in living rooms. No fishing poles sit by the door waiting for a father and son to use them in the coming weekend.

I refuse to let the modern world become my world.

My family will have picnics on the lawn and stay out until dark to lie under the stars while we ponder the deeper meanings of life together. We will hike, bike, run, swim, and camp together. We will stand firm in our beliefs and resolved in our purpose. We will not let power deplete us.

It hurts to see the world I live in allow so much corruption. We need to hold ourselves to a higher standard.

I know I am not perfect but I do strive each day to represent Christ. Are my actions acceptable regardless of who sees me? Will I stand up for that which is right at all times and in all places no matter what? I know that each day we need to reflect on where we are and where we want to be and work to get there each moment of our lives. We have the opportunity to be an example to the world. I pray that we will stand for that which is right and remember who we are. I love this Gospel and am grateful for who it is helping me become. Each day I try to do better leads me to feeling just a little happier then I was the day before because I am striving to be that much closer to God.

I started pretending to be a runner a couple months ago and joined a Ragnar Relay team. Since that time, I have pushed myself to run at least 3 times a week, as many as 11 miles in a run, training on flat roads, uphills, downhills, in rain, in snow, in wind, in heat, and more. Excited about running, I signed up for a few other races both to keep me motivated and to challenge myself in as many situations as possible.

This morning, I ran my first race. The Smithfield Health Days 10K. My usual daily run is on average at least 6 miles, so I did not feel to unprepared for the physical part of it. The mental part was different. I like to succeed. I like competition. In competitive situations, my mind goes nuts. I hate being passed and I can get so prideful, I can easily push myself until I literally collapse. Not exactly a good thing. Thankfully, today, I did not collapse, but boy did I push myself.

This race runs uphill the first half, then turns around and comes back down, taking a small uphill up above the canyon for the last mile before dropping back down to the finish line. Uphill, I average about an 8:30-8:40 mile. Downhill, if I run all out, I can do a 6:30ish mile, but usually it is closer to 7:00. This race was officially timed with a timing chip, but I also tracked it with an app I use on my phone so I could see what my mile splits were. When I run about 6 miles on flat roads, it typically looks like this: 1st mile- 7:21, 2nd mile- 8:11, 3rd mile- 8:39, 4th mile- 8:19, 5th mile- 7:53, 6th mile- 7:49. I start fast and after I get past that first couple miles I mentioned before of fighting the urge to quit, I settle into a pace and then the more settled I get I run faster again. Today, keep in mind the first half was a decent steady uphill and the second half down, here are my splits: 1st mile- 7:03, 2nd mile- 8:05, 3rd mile- 7:53, 4th mile- 6:29, 5th mile- 6:30, 6th mile- 6:25.

In the end, I came out 13th out of 164 runners. At first it said 14th out of 144, but once the race was completed they updated it to the final results. Here are my complete results:

Overall Place: 13 of 164
Gender Place: 11 of 83
Male 19-24: 3 of 7
Total Time: 43:51
Chip Time: 43:49.7
Total Pace: 7:03/M

Another summer is on the horizon and that means a whole lot of things. Campfires, hikes, sunsets, swimming, stargazing, demolition derbies, and so much more. I love winter a lot, but I firmly believe that summer was intended to be the better season. Of course, I'll take that back at the first sign of 90 degree weather when I'm dehydrated and sunburnt to a crisp, but I am looking forward to all that this summer has to offer and the great friends I have to share it all with.

As you may have been made aware, I am once again deactivating my Facebook account. The explanation is fairly simple. Here is what I said about it on Facebook:

In January, I deactivated my Facebook with the goal of reconnecting more personally with people. The result was far greater than I anticipated and my life was greatly improved. The ONLY drawback was less people read my blog, which I link to here when I post. In February, I reactivated my Facebook account, though I stripped it down to the bare minimum. Since that time, even despite continuing my goal of being a more personable person, I have noticed how majorly Facebook alters so many aspects of life. For the most part, Facebook is not bad, but anyone in my generation who says Facebook has no effect on their social lives and how they connect with others is sadly misled. I did not miss out on any great social opportunities during my hiatus from social networking. The world did not end. I lost no friends. In fact, I had better social opportunities to spend time with friends and I made more friends. And so I have made a decision. On Monday, I am going to deactivate my Facebook for the duration of the summer. I am not anti-Facebook. I am not doing this as a statement. I simply feel that this summer has an abundance of experiences to offer and I intend to be out there completely and totally immersed in the opportunity. My blog will continue to offer my sharing of things I have done and lessons learned doing them, and I appreciate everyone who follows my blog. To keep up with me, go subscribe to the blog, and if you ever want to talk, I have a cell phone, or come knock on my door, there will always be a place at my table for friends.

Anyway...my first race is next Saturday. It is a 10k up a canyon here in the valley. I'm excited, but I have to get used to running early in the morning, which I am not so good at currently. Mostly just need to be able to have fuel in my body for running so early. 

That's all for now...I'm tired, it's 10:00 pm and I work at 5:30 am and I still need to watch at least one Donald Duck before lights out. 

The past couple weeks have been kind of bleh. I am definitely ready for a vacation day. With me doing the early morning stuff at work, I generally work every day. The last day I had off was March 20th (not counting Sundays). A day off for me is a half day, where I work at 6 or 7 am, then go to class at 10:30-11:20, and then I go home.  It works for me because I like and need to work, and, as I was realizing the other day, there are two kinds of time off. Days off and vacations. A lot of people seem to think that a day off during the week is a relief. It is, but not because you get a day to just loaf around. Days off, at least for me, are days to take care of important things pertinent to life, such as laundry, cleaning, registering your car, seeing the doctor/dentist, and so on. Having that time during the week is vital, so if I have at least one half day, I am good.

 The other kind of day off is what I call a vacation day. It is a day of no obligation where the sole purpose is to unwind, de-stress, and reboot. When I can, my vacation days include a trip to Provo to see my brother, or going to my grandma's in Murray. With school and work, I have not had a vacation day in months. With steam outage week coming up, where we will not be able to cook for the week of May 6th, I hope to have a vacation day among the days of cleaning and organizing we will have where I can release four months of built up stress. I am not a highly stressed out person, but it all adds up over time and pushing that pressure relief valve is vital to not burning out and losing focus.

Outside of the work world, things are going well. I am learning a lot about myself through running. It takes immense amounts of will power and dedication to run. For me, the first mile and a half are the hardest. Even with stretching and a warm-up, I feel the strain on my legs and feet as I run that first ten minutes and my body naturally would prefer to not willfully experience discomfort. Almost daily, during that beginning mile, I have to focus all of my strength on pushing forward and not stopping. It would be so simple to stop, turn around, and go home; to free myself from deliberate strain, yet each day, I press on and each day, I push myself further. One thing I have realized is that my potential is far greater than I believed. I have been running for just over a month now, getting about three runs in a week. In that time, I have increased my distance by several miles, decreased my time significantly, and today, I tackled and achieved my end of May goal of running from my house to the top of the massive uphill in a subdivision on the mountain (the locals call the spot Make Out Point). The 2.5 miles from my house to the bottom of the major hill is all moderately uphill, then, the road up to make out is straight up, as steep an angle as you can have for about a mile. Already, I am planning to run the hill a second time, this time taking the much harder approach from the north, which has a 1.5 mile climb that takes you almost as high as the massive hill before the road turns down for a quarter mile and takes you to the bottom of the massive hill. Doing that run will certainly take me a few weeks to work up to as it is a solid 2.5 miles of very difficult climbing.

Anyway, as I was saying, I have learned a lot about myself from running and as I see how much I am capable of beyond my expectation in running, I am motivated to push myself even further in other aspects of life, which, if you remember, is the whole purpose behind all I am doing this year, to challenge myself everywhere I can with the goal to learn and grow. Thus far, I feel good about where I am and where I am going.

This evening I tuned in to hear the latest news conference on the search for Suspect 2 in the Boston Marathon bombing. Essentially the search was fruitless and they were allowing people to go back into the streets and removing the lock down. Within a half hour, shots were reported fired and I tuned back in to live feeds. As the area was locked down, through reporters that ran to the area, we learned that the suspect was possibly found hiding in a backyard. Over the next little while, it was revealed he was hiding in a boat at 67 Franklin Street in Watertown, MA. I pulled up a live feed from foxnews online, flipped between CNN, NBC, Fox, and MSNBC on the tv, and had CNN, Fox, MSNBC, Drudgereport, and a couple Boston news outlets I was monitoring online. Foxnews had a reporter near the scene reporting developments. CNN had a reporter there too, but he was behind on info and his phone kept cutting out. As we waited, we learned a lot. Suspect 2 was injured from last night's shootout. Suspect 1 was actually questioned, I believe last year, at the request of another country's government.

The news was not giving me much, so I pulled up the Boston police scanner online and began to listen in. I heard FBI officers directing local police to areas around the inner perimeter. It was interesting to hear how the cops spoke to the FBI. It was obvious the FBI were the superiors there, with lots of "sirs" in the responses by the locals. Here is what I heard:

The FBI directed some officers to Franklin Street, but were unable to get there and met up with an agent at Birch and Walnut.

The house where Suspect #2 was holed up. You can see the boat trailer in this photo. Other map sites show a winter photo and you can see the boat itself.

Agents requested shields from anyone who knew where anymore were. One officer responded there was one in the bearcat (click HERE for a pic of a bearcat).

My sister and I were listening together and talking via facebook. We could tell they were about to move in on the suspect because after moving cops around and asking for shields for the agents near the house, we heard some media had set up on a roof nearby. Officers were dispatched to remove them, but then a higher up said to stand down because they might be making another move on the boat and didn't want to distract from it. The next thing we heard confirmed my suspicions that action was near. The FBI got on and asked the CP (command post) to make sure all officers held their current positions and no one moved. Immediately following that order, CP told all officers to stay away from the scene and that the scene was "HRT only, repeat, HRT only". Straight from the FBI site: The TS/HRT is the United States Government's counter terrorism tactical unit as outlined by US code and national policy. More on them HERE. Very shortly after CP said the scene was HRT only, my sister and I concluded they were definitely moving in. Sure enough, all of a sudden, we heard over the scanner "suspect in custody". Immediately following they called for medics. Over a minute later, foxnews reported that applause was making its way down the street and then CNN said the same and said they confirmed the suspect in the boat was in custody. Later, we saw the video taken of the escorted ambulance carrying Suspect 2 to the hospital.

Listening to the police scanner and following it live was almost as if we were there. I had maps pulled up and could envision where officers were based on both news and the scanner. It was a serious thrill.

Other things heard on the scanner:

Before the suspect was caught:
- A suspicious bag was in front of a house on another street and a team was sent to clear it.

A few minutes after the suspect was in custody, dispatch got on the radio to all Boston-area police officers informing them that the second suspect in the Boston Marathon bombing was in custody.

After the suspect was caught:
- Officers who received a shotgun from a certain spot were directed to a location to return it.
- Police choppers on the scene had landed and took back off to return to the scene for a new mission.
- Units were cleared from certain areas, but the outside perimeter was being held.
- Several congratulations came over the radio, several congratulating the CP, and other general ones including the following direct quotes:

"Way to go Yankee Team 3!"
"God bless you all"
"High fives to everyone"
"Boston strong!"

 I kept listening for a good half hour or more after the suspect was in custody. Residents of Birch Street were allowed to return home. The weather got bad and a helicopter returned to Lawrence. Light towers from the perimeter were moved to 67 Franklin. Most of Franklin Street remained locked down.

The last thing I listened to, and perhaps one of the moist poignant moments of the night was an officer who asked that all officers say a prayer for fallen MIT officer Sean Collier, and for a speedy recovery of injured transit authority officer Richard Donohue. "Absolutely, God bless" came the response.

"Only a life lived for others is a life worthwhile" ~Albert Einstein

"I slept and dreamt that life was joy. I awoke and saw that life was service. I acted and behold, service was joy." ~ Rabindranath Tagore