You gotta see a game at the Air Force Academy

I have been to see the Utes play at Air Force twice before. When my son was very young and it was snowing sideways, and, Deb and the kids spent the game huddled in the Women's Restroom after a week of vacation in Colorado when the weather was nice.

The day before, we were at the, Cheyenne Mountain Zoo in shorts and t-shirts. I think it was 1997. And the next day, it was 27 degrees and snowing sideways. They had to cancel the, "fly over" by Air Force, because the weather was too bad.

The last time was four years ago. Just me and, Phil. Stayed with our friends, Kent and Laurie Dyson in Eastern Colorado and went to the game. Cold as hell is hot. Louie Sakoda won it on a last second Field Goal. But even when we won, it was a miserable experience. No fly over, it sucked.

Yesterday was SO different. We got there a couple of hours early with our friend, Kent and his daughter, Emmy. Had some drinks, smoked some good cigars. I was wearing shorts and a sweatshirt. Not cold at all.

Once you are in the stadium, you are in for an experience you can not have any where else.

About a half hour before the game, a HUGE transport plane flys over, drops some markers for the guys who are going to parachute later, and then flys off. You will not believe how SLOW a jet that BIG can fly. It's like watching Rice Eccles Stadium fly over you at five miles an hour.

Then, it comes back, and drops the parachutes. They are Air Force, so of course, they all land RIGHT at midfield. Except the guy in the Falcon suit. Give him a break, he can't see.

Watching the Cadet's march in and assemble on the field is an awesome experience. It brings a tear to the eye to see our best and brightest march in and form up by squadron. Then they all get dismissed to run like hell for the stands! It's pretty cool to see that.

And the best part? The, "Fly Over"! Four, vicious, loud, nasty, scary F-16's ROAR over your head, at what looks like a couple of feet over the press box, and then they all blast off in different directions at the North end of the stadium.

I have to think, that if I was living in a cave, or out in the desert somewhere in Afghanistan, or Iran, or hell, ANYWHERE in the world, and knew that I pissed, "US" off? That kind of a display, and that kind of noise, would scare the SHIT out of me!

The, "RUMBLE" almost took my hat off, as they came over!

Then the game starts. I can't imagine a better start to a college football game, anywhere. And I've been to lots of them.

So, if you want to have the best, patriotic, awe inspiring experience in all of college football, don't go to Michigan (even though that's great because their band comes down to the visitor's end of the stadium and play's OUR fight song, which is REALLY cool!) or any other place we've gone. Go to AFA. It's an experience.

I WILL shoot you!

It's 12:30 at night on a Tuesday. I live right next to the Jordan River. In the nine years I've lived here, I've heard sirens, police radios, gun shots, and helicopters. All in my back yard.

I'm OK with it, and I've learned to figure it out. If the helicopters are moving north/south and back and forth, someone fell in the river, or is, "wanted" by the Police and hiding on, "The Parkway". If they just go over east/west, either direction, it's the, "Para-magic's" saving someones life.

If my dog is barking at the doors? Either down here in the basement, or upstairs? I might have a problem of some kind in my back yard. And with all the stuff that happens in the Parkway? I listen to my dog.

Tonight, she went off at 1230. I have a HUGE gun safe full of guns. I was a Cop, after all. So I went and got the huge assed, Ruger .357 I always keep loaded in the gun safe, and went upstairs to make sure my family was safe. Took the big flashlight outside, checked the backyard. Nothing.

I walked all the way around the house, saw nothing out of order, but the dog was still nervous. I trust her. So I made sure all the doors were locked, and then came back here. She's down here next to me now. Asleep. So what ever set her off is gone. The gun is back in the safe (but, yes I have one upstairs too. I WAS a Cop remember? And a PO, to boot. Lot's of people hate me. I'm prepared for that. Always. Wish I could leave it behind, but I can't so I do the best I can).

I love the Parkway, I love where I live. But sometimes, I wish I lived in some less interesting neighborhood. So I didn't have to be on guard all the time.

Maybe it's just me. I'm paranoid from working as a Cop for so long. Probably. But you feel what you feel, and you have to be careful. Well, I have to be careful.

I should have been an accountant. Or bus driver. I'll have this fear all my life. But the Republicans took away our health care for doing the job. Go figure.

It's the weather, stupid!

This is, BREAKING NEWS! It has turned cold, wet, and windy here in Utah today, at the end of October! Utah Republicans have called a news conference to claim this PROVES that, Global Warming is a Left Wing, Liberal, hoax to destroy the Coal industry!

Was anyone besides me, surprised to see, Carl Wimmer, Chris Buttars and their ilk call a news conference the other day to tell people that they should vote AGAINST funding a bond for the Natural History Museum? After all, these moron's don't believe in evolution, so should we be surprised that they don't want science taught to people? Of course not!

Should there ever be a movement to build an, "Intelligent Design" museum, these dopes would be all over it! After all, they believe that, "Trickle Down Economics", where rich people get taxed LESS, will help poor people. WTF?

I really love it here in Utah. It's beautiful. Everyone I love is either from here or still here. But I am about at the end of my rope in dealing with the, "Stupid" around here.

Did you read about the folks in the right wing bunker that is Alpine and Highland in Utah Country wanting the school district to remove the word, "Democracy" from their mission statement? How screwed up is that? These people are morons!

They are insisting on a strict interpretation of, The Constitution. Yet they don't understand it at all!

I'm not a lawyer, but as a Cop, I had SO many law classes, that I feel like one. And I know what, The Constitution says about your PERSONAL rights, because I had to make sure I didn't violate any of them. Or I'D end up in jail! Despite what that crazy woman in Delaware thinks? Separation of church and State is PART of it.

I guess it won't change any time soon. So I have to live with it. I think I'll spend some time trying to figure out what college degrees, Shawn Bradley has that made him qualified to be a Vice Principal and, School Counselor in, Chris Buttar's private school that wanted to have vouchers that would take money from Public Schools in Utah. I don't think it will take long.

Satellite Radio Sucks, Even Though We NEED It!

I came down here tonight, to my basement, to do email, screw around on Face Book, look up some shit I wanted to find out about. The usual night on my computer. And for the 5th or 6th time since I've had Sirius/XM satellite radio in the last five years, I can't log in.

Not only can't I get in to listen, I can't get in the, "Manage My Account" page to figure out WHY I can't get in? Which account have they totally mismanaged (despite the fact that they are all on the SAME credit card) that shuts off not ANY of my many car accounts. My portable account. But ONLY my COMPUTER ACCOUNT!?

WTF?!

Terrestrial radio is dead. It sucks to the, "Nth" power. Ads for car leases and apartments punctuated by songs by, Lady Gaga or, Kenny Chesny is total crap. If you are totally poor. Like you live in West Valley City, or work in a warehouse. THAT radio is important to you. And you don't understand that the people who RUN that kind of radio think you're not worth a shit, and you will buy what ever they sell you. So you will listen to it.

And you'll vote for Republicans, even though you have NOTHING to be, Republican about, and you will NEVER, EVER get RICH, no matter how hard you try. You will still vote for them, because you don't want the RICH to pay taxes, because YOU might get there some day.

Good luck with that.

Sirius/XM is like that. They don't care about customer service. They don't care about me, or my four radios. They care about my credit card.

I'll keep the service. But I'll figure out a way to fuck with them. Maybe I'll change my card every year. I just might change it all to, American Express, which charges THEM more money for paying them.

I know they are not going to call ME to figure it out. Hell, I checked tonight and they had my email address wrong. It was right for the last five years, as you always billed my credit card. How you got it wrong now?

I'M NOT THE PROBLEM with satellite radio. THEY are!

College Football is Fixed

Utah beat Iowa State, a BCS, Big 12 School last night by 40 points. Yet, today, they drop OUT of the top 10 in the AP Poll, moved back by South Carolina, who already has one loss, and plays in the crummy, South East Conference! WTF?!

The SEC schools won't play anyone out west because they know they can't compete. Yet they have convinced most of America's sports writers that they have the best conference in the country. Check your records against the PAC 10 for national championships in ALL sports, then get back to me, SEC. You suck.

Two years ago, Tennessee lost at HOME to, Wyoming of the Mountain West a month before the Utes embarrassed, Alabama in the Sugar Bowl. Now, one of their perennial, "Also Ran's" beats, Alabama and is in the top 10? You have to be kidding me.

USC is going to lose at least two more games this year, probably 3. And Alabama is going to lose to LSU and Auburn.

No team from the SEC could finish first in the Mountain West Conference, because they can't beat Utah or TCU! Hell, they couldn't beat, BYU, and their having a rotten year! I'd like to see, Nick and his boys try to play in Laramie in November. They'd be lucky to beat Wyoming in a snow storm.

Pampered sissy's who play all their games in good weather, with all the TV sets in the world tuned in, and all the media in the country convinced they play good football. The SEC sucks ass, and South Carolina isn't any better than, Alabama, who lost the last time they played a MWC team, 31-17. And it wasn't that close!

I'll be glad when this doesn't matter next year, and we're in a BCS Conference, and BYU is a college football joke. But it still isn't right. If there is no playoff involving all 11 Conference's, then there is NO legitimate national champion in football.

I guess the alternative would be to have the polls run like the, Senate. Only two votes per state, regardless of the population and the number of TV sets. But since it's all about advertising dollars, THAT isn't going to happen.

College Football

Utah hangs 68 points on a, Big 12 team, and gets less than a minute of time on, "College Football Final" on ESPN, despite being ranked 10th in the country?

It's all about the TV's, and not about the football.

Iowa State has never been to a BCS Bowl Game, let alone WON TWO OF THEM, and in the last 52 years have had 13 winning seasons. But they are in the, Big 12, so they get a lot more national attention than WE do! We need a playoff!

Next week, we will make our last trip to Laramie. I can't say enough about how THAT'S a good thing! Yeah, I know: No more good meals at, "The Italian Cowboy" restaurant, never doing, "The Buckhorn Roll" again, and no more dancing at, "The Cowboy Bar" after the game on Main Street just off the railroad tracks that cut the town in half. But also no more rides home on Sunday in snow blowing sideways and a 30 mile an hour wind blowing out of the West!

Utah is not getting any love from the national media. It's all about Boise State and TCU. But that's because BSU was willing to play ANY night of the week to make ESPN happy, and TCU is in the Dallas TV market.

TCU is a good football team. But when we beat them next month, they will drop out of the top ten faster than a San Diego State University coed's panties at a bong party.

And Boise is about 15 years removed from being a Community College, so they don't have much of a tradition to fall back on. You might be playing some good football now, but when you've done it for 100 years, and you have a Medical, and Law School, and a Nobel Prize Winner, get back to me.

Oh, and lose the blue turf. It's a joke.

I'm thinking Utes in the Sugar Bowl again. I LOVED NOLA! So I'd like that. But the National Championship Game (which will NEVER happen because, Disney OWNS college football) would be great too.

TCU, if you beat US, you deserve it. Boise? You suck. You don't play any one after September. Go away. You're an impostor. Yeah, you beat Oklahoma a few years ago. But as they say in Texas, "You can't spell cocksucker without OSU!"

You Know You're in Utah County When...

This should be a Facebook game. Collect your, "Mo Points" and move on.

Saturday, my son had a soccer game in, "Merican Fark". The Murray boys won, 3-2. And we got there early since the, OnStar in, "The Bitchin' Camaro" took us right to the place in much less time than I expected it to take.

So, walking down the field to the, "Port O'Potty" I passed a woman sitting in an Infinity SUV, with all the widows down, blasting the radio, and listening to LDS Conference. From where she was, she couldn't see any of the fields where kids were playing soccer and lacrosse. But she was in her car, listening to what she was supposed to be listening to, and making sure, everyone around, knew she was.

There have been amazing advancements in personal electronics in the last few years. Like the, Sony Walkman that came out in the 70's! Or the transistor radio that came out in the 60's! So you could, in theory, take a radio with you, listen to your religious stuff, and STILL watch your kid play soccer or lacrosse.

But if you want everyone to KNOW that you are more, "Holy-er-than-thou", you make a show of yourself in the parking lot!

I didn't check the back window, but I bet there were stickers showing how many kids they have. The, "more the, Mormon-er"!

The one good thing about playing soccer in Utah County on a Conference Saturday, when, BYU played (and got their ass kicked) on Friday night, is that the, In N Out Burger next to the freeway was empty after the game. I don't like to spend money in Utah County, usually. But I parked, "The Bitchin' Camaro" right in front, and the place was so slow, we had our lunch in about ten minutes.

That's the last money I'll spend in that county for a while. If I can help it.

Ok, I want to hear your, "You Know You're In Utah County If..." Stories

Greece is AWESOME!

It seems like everyone speaks, English here. You don't even have to ask. Our hotel has a great view from the roof of the Acropolis. And it's all lit up all night. Too cool!

I have to load some pictures.

We have some history in the west, maybe, 200 years. We walked up to the, Parthenon the third day we were there. It's FOUR THOUSAND YEARS OLD! Wow.

Tomorrow, I'll try to load some pictures, and share them.