Hi y’all. Here’s just a reminder to update your blogs more often. Don’t you know we’re waiting??? Don’t you know we want to know what you’re doing and thinking? Don’t you know we miss you when you’re away?

Also, if you think your blog may not be on my list, pls list it here by posting a comment.

Rim to Rim. 23 miles. 14 down, 9 up. About 7,000′ deep. Temps ranged from 55 with monsoon-like rain to 105, but sometimes with a breeze and it didn’t feel that bad. I was surprised how much water and green is found along the trails. I sure wanted to spend more time in the water!

And the Colorado…incredible! I really wanted to stop there longer, climb down to a beach and stay for hours, but the whole ascent loomed before us and the day wasn’t getting any cooler.

Later on it got cooler, though! When the downpour began. Before the rain, I was dunking my cap in the stream at every crossing and pouring cold water down my back. When it began above Indian Gardens, it felt refreshing. By the time we reached 3 mile House, we were well chilled and the place was packed tight by everyone who hadn’t brought rain gear. We pulled ours out and headed up again.

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I just read an article about more universities considering offering 3-year degree programs to ease students’ financial burden. My recent experiences teaching at Utah Valley University and observations, over the past decade, of critical trends in politics & discourse in our country, make me wonder if this is such a good idea.

The problem: people don’t seem to know how to think anymore. Would shortening time in universities compound this problem? It could - both directly and indirectly.

You can point your finger in so many directions for ample evidence.

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…ask yourself what you would do if you weren’t afraid.

Do that.

I was just finishing up an essay I’ve been revising for a writing contest and came up with that. I like it and decided to share.

http://comics.com/jerry_holbert/2009-05-18/

Made me laugh.

Friday night I went camping with the scouts in the dunes - Little Sahara, about an hour southwest of here - and had a surprisingly good time (considering that we couldn’t bring motorcycles).

We drove to a secluded camping area Friday afternoon, played flies up, hiked around and enjoyed the golden sand against the dusky sky, had long-jumping contents down the dunes, made dinner, and never stopped moving until, as the saying goes, somebody lost an eye.

Not actually lost, of course. When night fell, we set up the steal the flag course using little glow sticks as the midline marker and brighter sticks for the flags. There was no moon and you could barely see others walking or crawling around.

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Here’s the video I made from everyone’s photos and video from our Moab motorcycle trip this March. It’s my first project with my new Adobe CS4 software.

Enjoy beautiful scenery, steep climbs, sand, jumps, and broken bikes and bones. My fav part, naturally, is where I drop 6 or 8′ off a cliff. I’m afraid that wasn’t terribly good for my bike, though!

SST Moab Spring Training 2009 from Shaun R on Vimeo.

If you’re ever in the neighborhood of the world wide web (and you know you are), then here’s one spot you should consider paying a visit:

http://www.straightfromthehose.blogspot.com/

It’s my friend Mary’s blog. I hope she doesn’t mind me advertising it. Smart, concise, poignant, funny, well-illustrated, cute. You’ll thank me for the tip.

In other news, I’m kinda sick. I still rode motorcycles at 5 mile pass yesterday evening, in case the fresh air would do me good. It’s nice being “the adult” and not having rules like “If you stayed home from school, then you can’t go play.”