Pictures of Randomness

Adam has a pretty cool blog of some of his pictures and I thought that I would copy him by putting up some of my pictures that I like. Some of these are ancient and some are not so ancient. These don't include any people, just landscapes and such.

What 24 looks like

I'm 24. Like the popular tv show, but with less terrorists. This weekend the parents and I went camping at pinnacles to celebrate. After some time we realized that we hadn't been camping in SIX years. While sitting around the campfire we got to reminisce a little about past trips. Sky camp with sheldon and jason coming up and then playing mission in the tall grass, lost coast with adam blazing the trail to prove his manliness, I thought of coast camp with our offpath adventure that resulted in poison oak fun, Camping with the Baley's and I carried my own backpack (with just my coat, mind you) until someone carried me on their shoulders the rest of the way, buetano with the slugs, manresa beach with bikes, chain lakes with mosquitoes and so on and so on. I guess being very old makes you reminisce about the good ol' days and such.

On Friday night it was perfectly quiet in our campground

and we were in an open field. It was perfectly still, and it seemed as though the world had stopped. A nice feeling when my week consists of work and then nearly immediately to an activity or choir practice every night except friday. It felt GOOD. We also used the campfire to respectfully dispose of an American flag, as well as garments. I remember two times before where I was one of the color-guards retiring the colors, back in scouts, and it moved me to think about what that flag stood for, and how much has been sacrificed for it. Pretty cool experience, and it was one of the opportunities to realize how much has been given and sacrificed just so I can live a life of my choosing. It crazy to see the unrest in the middle east and currently in Egypt but usually when I hear a report about the unrest or the violence, I don't really allow myself to grasp the import of the situation and think about all the individual lives that are being affected by that crisis. Sorry, I'm not trying to make this a political blog, but sometimes I get carried away in my rambling, as I'm sure all of you know very well. haha

The weather was very warm when we got there but that quickly changed as the sun went down. The fire proved invaluable even for a springtime in California. Now this next part is somewhatshameful for me, but here you have it: it was a COLD night. Due to the frost and

ice on the tents and the campsite, we estimate it was around 28 or so to give it that good of a frosting. I, going to school in Idaho, thought that I was impervious to cold and that anything above 15 is nothing. Well, its only nothing when you're wearing the right clothes and your sleeping bag is decent. All of us woke up several times due to the cold and the less than ideal sleeping conditions, but it was still a lot of fun and proved to be yet another experience that helped me be more grateful for what I have.

Change is Good

I've had an opportunity to reflect on some things recently, and one of those things that I have been thinking about lately is change. Change is usually a scary word that invites feelings of fear of the unknown, uncertainty about the future, and so forth. This last week and these past weeks have been a lesson to me that change is not bad, and is often a very good thing. While this list of recent changes seems to be very simple and almost unimportant, I view this events in a different perspective that goes much deeper.

Weather

This picture is not a mistake. This is what the sky looks like this morning, and my purpose in sharing this is not to rub it in. For about the past three weeks or so, nearly every morning the valley has been covered in fog. Not the nice little fog that burns off by 10 but the kind that sticks around all day and never lets the sun out. It was kinda depressing but maybe thats just because I'm a spoiled california boy that likes his sun in the winter. Recently the fog has been gone and we have been having some sunshine around here, which makes a world of difference. So thats a good change.

Apple Tree

This is sadly what is left of the Granny Smith apple tree in the backyard. Dad, Eric McCray, and myself spent saturday morning and part of the afternoon cutting it down, and then removing the stump. While it is very sad to not have this delicious tree anymore, it was very clear that the entire tree was diseased and would not be the productive tree that it has been in the past.

Another thought came from the roots, themselves. While the actual task of digging a trench and cutting the roots was no easy task, I was rather surprised that it wasn't harder to rip the tree out of the ground. We left the trunk and a limb on the tree so we had some leverage, and the tree came out much easier than I thought it would or should. There was no taproot. No singular, strong root that was at the core of the supporting root system. Again, this observation goes deeper than taking down a tree.

Temple

I guess I'll end my unnecessarily long post on this item. Yesterday the three YSA branches went to the Sacramento temple. The Oakland temple is undergoing renovations and cleanings and such so our normal temple wasn't available for our monthly temple trip. Thankfully the Turlock branch arranged for us to go to Sacramento to do baptisms. This was my first time doing baptisms there, and it was a very enjoyable experience. It was a new temple, and a different experience than what I was used to. Afterwards I was able to snap a couple of pictures, including this one. Not a great shot, but still helps me remember the feelings of that evening.

So change isn't a bad thing, and is often a necessary and a great thing. Its a wonderful thing to know that our lives are being led by a benevolent Father that wants us to become like Him, and has provided a mortal existence for us to start that journey. I've had some recent insights on being led, and they are a continuing reminder that I am just a mere child and have yet to understand a great many things. I'm not worried, and I look forward to the future and the wonderful ( and not so wonderful) changes that await me.