Thursday and Friday
I spent the past two days doing my best impression of the legendary John Henry. With a shovel, a hammer and a pick I dug through dirt and sand. And rocks. A lot of rocks. Unlike John Henry, I didn’t have to worry about beating a steam shovel; my only opponent was time. Fortunately, the weather was good. Not “middle-of-summer” hot, but it was warm enough to work in a t-shirt – and even without it – for a while. (Getting to work on my tan was an added and unexpected bonus.)

We got to Moab around 11:30 Thursday morning. After dropping off our bikes and personal gear, Rich and I headed to the job site. This job was installing sub-grade ductwork in a new single-family home. (Translation: We were digging trenches and laying 10″ and 14″ pipe.) We dug… and dug… and dug some more until the sun set. We were on-site with Ed and Bill, a couple of plumbers, so we had to be careful not to get in each others’ way. We packed up for the day and headed to Moab Brewery for dinner. Not only do they make good hot wings, they make a pretty mean burger, too. And beer. Tasty malt beverage. This time, I tried the Black Raven Oatmeal Stout. C’mon. It’s a beer with “raven” in its name, how could I pass that up?! It was good – it reminded me of Guiness. By the time we got to the house, we were both tired and ready for hot showers. I’m not kidding about the “tired” part, we were ready to hit the rack almost as soon as CSI went off the air.

Bright and early Friday morning, we were at it again. Ed was back and Steve, the concrete contractor, was there with his crew. More digging. And we laid the ducts. And dug. And laid ducts. And… well, you get the idea. Ten hours’ worth. We went to Smitty’s Golden Steak Restaurant for dinner. (I’m not 100% sure, but I’m willing to bet that the name is a play on the “Golden Stake” that united the Intercontinental Railroad at Promontory Point, UT in the 1860s.) Chicken fried steak never tasted so good. After a couple of much-needed showers, we watched a Monster Nation and a special on the history of the F-14 Tomcat (my second favorite modern aircraft). I channel-surfed for a short bit after that. And then, it was time to sleep.

Saturday
Back to the site for clean-up and to move the leftover pipe back to Coyote Run (the site where we were last time I was here) for a job in two weeks. We were going to go riding at Klondike Bluffs for some slickrock biking, but Mother Nature decided to have a bit of a laugh at our expense: It was raining this morning. So, we went hiking in Moonflower Canyon, instead. It was a box canyon next to the Colorado River. And I also touched quicksand for the first time. I’m almost done with the pictures from this – and the last – trip; I should have them up tomorrow night.

We came back home and I didn’t do much until it was time to go bowling. and Justin met us there. Tonight’s high score was a whopping 167. My other games ranged from 106 to 152, I believe. Post-bowling breakfast was good, too.

Tomorrow: Football
Dallas at Baltimore
1:00 PM (EST)

Stray Toasters

  • I’m sure that it has something to do with the fact that we’re up at O’dark Thirty, but there seems to be something “different” about the way that time flows in Moab. After all, short being sick, drunk or seriously jetlagged, me being tired and ready for bed by 9:30 is unheard of.
  • Friday night: I didn’t know who was upstairs, but they had at least one kid (although it sounds like they had a small herd of them). And this kid apparently had one setting: “Run with Stompy Doom.” *twitch* It was not conducive to sleeping. Or trying to sleep. Or even wanting to go to sleep.
  • This time next week, I’ll be within twenty-four to thirty-six hours of the wedding. I’m pretty sure that the house will be full of angst. But, I’ll be at home.
  • Wolverine versus The X-Men?
  • On tonight’s Megas XLR, they did a take-off of the anime Captain Harlock character named… Captain Warlock. Funny.

I’m sure that there was more that I wanted to add to this, but I’ve been up since before 7:00 AM. I’m tapped.

Namaste.