Eternal Sun Shining on a Spotted Mind

I just had a great conversation with my friend. One of those conversations where you find the depth inside the other persons soul and your own. I felt like the old wise man telling my young protege secrets of life. The words I used seem to move Zack everytime we converse, he's open minded and has respected my opinions since we met at Sheppard. The conversation inevitably led to religion. Eventually I corrected him on misconceptions he has on the Mormon religion. I always attempt this whenever I'm asked about the church. I'm not active but I do know more than others. I'm always amazed with the crazy, off-the-wall notions others have, and I always try to correct them. During this interaction with Zack, I actually ended up giving him a copy of the Book of Mormon (yeah, I do have a few). It wasn't to convert him, thats not my intention, but instead to let him make his own opinion. The fact that he was willing to do this amazed me. HE asked for the copy, I didn't offer it. It's good to see that there are some people who are willing to seek truth for themselves and not believe what the world tells them.



On a different note, I went Mtn biking today. I learned the lesson to always have a bike tool with me. Though, I only learned this after going over the bars on a steep descent because my stem was allowing the bars to move. Altogether the ride was good. Single speed is once again the way to go here. There are short technical climbing sections and I have yet to wish I had a lower gear. I guess my style is to stand up and crank through so it works well.

The Florida wildlife is different and is taking some getting used to, strange colored spiders (no banana spiders yet), little snakes everywhere, and pesky centipede alienish things that seem to love jumping onto me. At the least I'm more aware of my surroundings.



After riding today, I returned to base and set my slackline up behind the softball field on a couple of trees. My improvement is quick, and I have made a new goal...slackline Lost Arrow Spire.

When I was walking the line I got a visit fromm the Security Forces. Mostly because they were bored and saw something out of the ordinary. Two of them came over to me with their hands on their guns (I'm not sure why). They said I was damaging the trees and needed to take the line down. I proceeded in using my tongue a bit and telling them how wrong they were and how the precautions I was using to protect the trees fully comlied with the Sierra Clubs standards on preserving nature...(yeah, a lot of BS). It worked though and they let me keep it up. They were intrigued on what I was doing. The older, and wiser, one was amazed on how I could walk up and down the line. The younger, cockier one wasn't. He said it looked easy and that anything a California hippy could do, wasn't that hard. I asked if he wanted to try. Of course he said no, but his older wiser partner called him a chicken .....

This did the trick and the guy tried one time to stand up on the line. (I put the line up higher than most, about to MY waist) As the cop tried to stand up, his foot slid over to the opposite side, relieving all the weight on the line. NOw when this happens the line shoots up to its original heighth with a sudden snap. His legs were on either side of the line and the line shot up into...well, you know. He didn't feel to well. It was a good laugh for all but him. The cops left afterwards with the older laughing at the cocky young guy. I tried not to laugh, afterall he could see me around and give me a ticket or something. I told him that the same thing happens to me all the time, but it doesn't. Anyways, it was definatley a good day after that. Love y'all