Recession Party

We are having another recession party next Saturday. Invitation is open to anyone that R.S.V.P's. We are going to have fish tacos, beans and rice. I am looking for people to sign up for items since we are too poor to buy our own food for our parties. The rules will be the same as last time, "No more than $2.00 per person" We have the fish, a customer of mine supplied me with it, so there was no cost. Anybody spending more than the $2.00 per person will be kicked out (we are that mean). If anyone wants to team up on the $2.00 items with another couple or friends they can. If you would like to use your $2.00 to bring cards that is fine. Please call and coordinate so we don't have 20 sets of cards. If you have friends that you want to bring they are welcome, single people are also invited (Such as Heather unless she wants to bring a date ((please read previous post item #8 and proceed at your own risk.)). If you have entertainment options please let me know, we would love to have all appropriate forms, (Sorry Machelle, no belly dancing). We have 1 week to prepare, you will not get an invitation in the mail, since stamps are too expensive.

What I learned from a big family.

As part of Reviewing all that is Mecham, I decided that maybe it was time to talk a little about the Mecham Family that I grew up with on Comb Circle. Don't worry Machelle, I am not going to reveal any of the embarrassing stuff, just a few things that people that didn't grow up in a huge family would not understand.
1) Clean Socks are everything. I don't know how my Mom ever kept up with the laundry, I mean think about it 11 kids 1 outfit per day per boys, 3 outfits per day per girl. I washing machine. Pants, shirts and underwear are territorial, and it was understood that they were meant to be worn only by their owner, socks, that is a whole different story. We had a huge sock basket that all the socks ended up in. Tube socks had stripes, and unfortunately there was only 2 pair of each. If you were lucky enough to find a matching pair you got to wear shorts, if not, long pants in the middle of summer.
2) Be on time for dinner. If you were late, you probably had to find something else.
3) Never go out to dinner with the whole family. I hated to go out to dinner and have people from across the room sit and count.
4) Birthdays don't count. I don't mean from Moms standpoint, but I think I know the quarter of the season of the year that everyone was born, but when there is a birthday a week, it kind of gets old to celebrate.
5) Just because there are five seatbelts in a vehicle doesn't mean that it is a 5 passenger car. Sitting on laps, riding on windows, maybe once in the trunk was acceptable.
6) Don't forget to count often. Especially if you are a road trip.
7) At Christmas, Nobody sleeps.
8) Never, I mean Never... bring home a boyfriend or girlfriend. It doesn't matter how bad or wonderful they are, once they leave life gets brutal.
9) Find good hiding places. If you have girlscout cookies and they are found under the drawer beneath the bed buried behind a pile of clothes, it is your own fault that they were eaten, you should have hid them better. The same applies for love letter, pictures, loose change etc...
10) Being oldest has it's advantages. It means no hand-me downs, getting the best seat at the couch, and having complete control when Mom and Dad leave.

I could probably come up with more, but I think I will stop there and see if any of the other Mechams or anyone that came from a family the size of a small town can come up with their own items for the list.

The things you see from behind the steering wheel

Today as i drove around from bottom of pool to bottom of pool I noticed some very interesting things. Las Vegas has got to be the cradle of civilization for people watching, and if you are not looking around while driving, you are missing out.

This morning in Green Valley I noticed a guy picking his nose. No big deal, right? No, I have never seen anybody pick their nose like this guy. He was using the "reverse thumb hook dig method", and was very proficient at it.

At first glance I thought, "hey that guy is picking his nose". after about two minutes of picking, this guy was still going at it. He was twisting the thumb all the way up to the knuckle, all the while scooping and scratching away at the inside of the nostril closest to the window. This guy was not just casually loosening or removing, he was full blown mining. I thought maybe I shouldn't be watching, but how could you not. It was like one of those fishing shows that you see on t.v. where you watch to see how big of a fish they land. I thought, what if he sees me watching, and then I realized that he was probably a nose picking exhibitionist. If he were not, he probably would have used the opposite hand pinky scratch, or at least got tinted windows. About the time that I was going to find out if he had something on the line, or was at least going to make a lunch out of it, the light turned green and the results of his digging expedition are now left to my imagination.

Later in the day I was pulling out from one of the Hotels and saw a group of Russian looking people in Cirque outfits. Imagine people in skin tight spandex from head to toe, wearing white inline roller blades, carrying huge banners on long poles (much more pleasant to look at than Mr. nose picker). I assume that they were promoting one of the 300 Cirque shows that are now on the strip. It really is a sign of the times when you see some of the shameless promotions that are going on just to fill seats in the downtown shows.

Finally on the way home I observed a rather large lady in tight red spandex stretch shorts, that were being consumed by her butt crack. As I sat waiting for my turn to pull out onto the street, I had to wonder how much fabric was actually missing. Were her shorts possibly long pants when they started out in the morning, furthermore, would they end up as a thong by the time she reached her final destination.

Tomorrow as you are driving around you have two choices, notice what is happening outside of your car, or at least make sure that you are not doing anything that people might be watching you doing.

What they did this week.

This week the kids were busy. This usually means that the Mecham taxi shuttle service was running full bore. Jeff and friends decided that it would be fun to hike Lone Mountain in the dark. He went with a group, but ended up walking up with two girls (brilliant) while the rest of the group ahead. They made it most of the way up before the girls decided that it was far enough. This is a picture from their hike.

Tim went to a bench press contest for the high schools. His coach is determined that he is going to build a winning team and has required that all the kids are involved in track and weight lifting in the off season. He is pushing quite a bit of weight for a Freshman, so I imagine that by his senior year we should hear quite a bit about him in the papers.

Mandy had a regional cheerleading competition. They won their division, and had lots of fun. We also are in the beginning phases of looking for a new Violin. It is interesting to look around at the different options. They all have different tones and characteristics. I have received a pretty good education on what all is involved in finding a good instrument. Who could have thought that bows can run thousands of dollars?

Mandy ultimately wants to pick her own violin, she says that since she is moving to a full size instrument, she will have this one for a long time and wants to make sure that it is one that she loves. It was also surprising that most of the good violins are not new, but have been around for a while and have been somewhat aged. Some of the prettiest ones that I looked at were not the best sounding, while some of the ones that appear to be beat up a little bit can be the more expensive ones with the better sound. I am going to be checking into a kidney donor program to see what I can get for one of mine. I may need it to help pay for it.

Jake had another soccer game. His team won, when the other team forfeited half way through. They complained that we were to aggressive, I think it might have had something to do with our kids outplaying them. Jake was also picked to go compete with three other boys in his grade at an elementary Olympic event. The kids are paired up with kids from the special Olympics and are assigned to help them. It should be a good experience. This is an older picture, but he is still a soccer maniac and loves playing.

Kathy got an A in her first Math test. She was worried, but ended up with the 2nd highest score in her class.

Me, I worked in the bottom of swimming pools.

How did that happen so fast?

A couple of years ago I flew into Salt Lake to meet up with Kathy and the kids. Mandy was at Violin camp, and Jeff was at a camp at BYU. While we were there we ran into some friends of ours that were there dropping off their son for his first semester at B.Y.U. The Mom was so funny because she was a mess. Although she had older daughters this was her oldest son, and he was moving away from mom into the dangerous college world of the Y. Later that evening Kathy and I went out to dinner with Jen and Nate and ran into them again, her eyes were all red and swollen and if you even mentioned her son she struggled to contain her composure. Maybe I have a bit of a twisted sense of humor, because I thought that it was hilarious that she was having such a hard time with this, when the reality was that he was less than a 5 hr drive away.

My twisted sense of humor might be finally be catching up with me. This morning Jeff had to go off to Volleyball practice and I was put in charge of trying to getting his housing assignment for the fall semester at B.Y.U. . Registration began at 8:00, but due to such a large volume of students trying to get a dorm assignment the servers crashed for almost an hour. I finally got in, registered, and everything was alright (I hope).

Sometime around 1:00 it hit me that Jeff if going to be moving away. I knew that some day he would be old enough to move out, and start his own life, I just wasn't expecting it to come so soon. As I drove around today I reflected on some of the things that I will miss about Jeff when he is gone.

1) His music. Jeff is very musical, sometimes this is good, sometimes not so good. It is good when he sits down and plays a song that rings through the house and adds a special calm. It is not so good when he is bored and is experimenting with a new song and doesn't care if it is slightly out of his range, or how hard he bangs the keys until he gets it right. He occasionally writes songs, and some of them are my favorites. I remember one time that he sang a song that he had written and composed. One of the cousins was over with a friend of hers, when Jeff finished the song I looked over at the friend and she was in tears because of how touched she was by the music.

2) His willingness to serve. I can't tell you how many times I have come home to find him at the dining room table with someone that is struggling with a subject. I laugh when I watch him do homework. The cell phone, text, I.M. everything is constantly going off from friends that he is helping with homework. When I say helping, that is what it is. He does not cheat, instead he helps others learn the subject so that they can understand it for themselves. He is a natural teacher and can explain things so that it make sense.

3) His goofy hats. Jeff has a couple of hats that I absolutely can't stand, but they are his style and it is an extension of his personality.

4) His sense of humor. He can find humor in just about anything, and has a very unique laugh.

5) His spirituality. He has read the B.O.M through I don't know how many times. I am teaching his Sunday School class and am blown away at how well he (and all of the kids in class) know their scriptures. I find that I constantly learn from his example.

6) His interaction with his brothers and sister. Every since he was little he has had a special relationship with all of them. Mandy used to like to cuddle up next to him when they were watching t.v.. Tim and Jeff like to wrestle and compete. When Jeff drives to Seminary, I have heard that Tim sits shotgun and occasionally rocks out in the front seat.

Jake idolizes him and loves it when they get to spend time together.

7) Sports. I used to go watch him play soccer and thought that it was fun to see him play. One of his earliest coaches was a young husband and wife. a couple of years ago I was sitting at Baja Fresh waiting for my order. There was a couple with a new baby that I was watching. I kept thinking how happy they seemed, and how lucky they were to be starting with a new life. When they walked out of the restaurant I realized it was the couple that had been Jeff's coach. I chased them out to their car, and startled them when I walked up next to the window to get their attention. At first they were confused why I was standing at their car. When Omar rolled down his window I explained that I thought they looked familiar and asked if they were the couple that had coached Jeff when he was little. When I told them I was Jeff's dad Brenda's face lit up. She told me that when she found out that we were moving across town and he would not be playing on the team the next year she went home and cried. She remembered him from all those years and was happy to hear that he was playing still. Jeff now plays Volleyball, and was the setter for the team last year, as well as team captain this year. Last year Centennial went to state but lost to Vegas, this year should be just as exciting.

8) Taxi driver. I can't tell you how much help it has been to have a third driver.

9) Friends. Jeff's friends are fun to have around the house. I doubt that they will continue to come by once he leaves.

10) His frugalness. It makes me proud (it drives his mom crazy) He can stretch a dollar further than any other kid I know. A big part of this is because he does not want to put a burden on the family budget by constantly spending money.

Anyway, as much as we will miss him, we are excited to see him maturing and growing into such a good person. We know that when he leaves us he will be a positive influence on other. I don't worry about him going off and running wild, but I hope he has lots of great fun experiences as he starts out on his own.

I think the funniest part about the feelings that I have had today is that he still has the remainder of his senior year, and a full summer before he leaves. Hopefully this will be enough time to get my estrogen levels in balance so that I can deal.

(side note, this is a soda in his hand)

The intersection from Hell.

I wrote a while back about Kathy running out of gas on the off-ramp on the freeway a couple of months ago. Tonight on my way home I was sitting in the same exact spot that she had ran out of gas, the wind was starting to pick up and it started raining. While I was sitting waiting for the light to change a huge gust of wind came up and lifted the back of my bed cover up and out of it's hinges. I went to jump out of the car and thought that I could just push the cover back down into place, no such luck. The wind in that area was so strong that I could barely lower the cover, when I finally did, it was out of alignment and I could not get it to lock. I was able to get the lid down far enough that I thought I could pull into a parking lot and put it back together, no such luck. The wind picked up, the cover raised up, and almost tore it from the two shocks that were holding it from falling off.
I got my truck off to the side of the road, and continued to try to manipulate the stupid lid back on, but the wind was so strong that every time it cracked open it was like a parachute pulling it wide open and further out of place. All the cars that passed just looked at me like a moron, my shirt was blowing up over my head, my butt crack was probably showing, but nobody stopped to help. Finally out of the passenger seat of one of the cars, a lady jumped out and came to my aid. We were able to get the cover back in line, out of courtesy to the other passengers, I pulled my shirt down and I locked the lid back into place. So to all the people that sat in their cars and laughed at me as I pathetically tried to fix the cover, Thanks for nothing. To the lady that jumped out and came to my rescue, I don't know who you are, but thanks for going out of your way. Tomorrow I will try to pay it forward and do at least one good deed.
As far as the intersection on the off ramp at Craig and 95, it is haunted, and I suggest that everyone stay away.

How much is a trillion.

When we were kids it was not uncommon to discuss how much money some things would cost. It never failed that we would begin with real numbers such as $100.00. To one up the next guy we would move to the thousands, millions, and then billions. When we finally ran out of real numbers we would have to begin making up numbers, like kaziliion, petrillion, buzillion and who knows what other illions a kid can come up with. These numbers would keep going up until finally the infinity number was thrown out. This always seemed to end the discussion, (unless you were with a poor sport that would use infinity time 10).

Now as an adult it seems like we are living in a world with a government that is spending kazillions of dollars that don't exist. Just for kicks I googled the word "how much is infinity" and found some amazing examples that puts this staggering amount into perspective.

So here it goes.

1 trillion dollars

"If you stacked a pile of $1 dollar bills a trillion high beginning from the dawn of civilization, which is about 6000 years, and spent $1 per second till now, you would still have almost 80% left!" (source unknown)

"...this plan will cost taxpayers the equivalent of a million dollars a day for the next 3,000 years to fund a long wish list of items that won’t create jobs." (U. S. Congressman Michael McCaul)

Just to put a trillion dollars in context, if you started spending the day that Jesus was born and you spend a million dollars every single day, you still wouldn't have spent a trillion dollars. This is a lot of money," (Sen Mitch McConnell)

"A million dollars a day for 2,000 years is only three-quarters of a trillion dollars. It's a big number no matter how you slice it," (Temple University math professor and author John Allen Paulos.)

"A million seconds is about 11½ days. A billion seconds is about 32 years, and a trillion seconds is 32,000 years," Paulos said. "People tend to lump them together, perhaps because they rhyme, but if you think of it in terms of a jail sentence, do you want to go to jail for 11½ days or 32 years or maybe 32,000 years? So, they're vastly different, and people generally don't really have a real visceral grasp of the differences among them."

$1 trillion would be enough money to buy about a 1,000 boxes of Girl Scout cookies for every person in the United States. A trillion barrels of oil would — at current consumption levels — fuel the world for about 33 years.
Author David M. Schwartz

As a small business owner, that is struggling to make a living in this tough economy, I have found that by managing the dimes and dollars, I am able to continue to survive. I have learned that in order to make it through the tough times it is necessary to be as lean as possible and make due with what I have. Over the past several months, I have taken inventory of everything that we own within the company, to make sure that there is absolutely no waste. If there is a fitting sitting in one of the trucks, it is cleaned up and put to use. Instead of buying new equipment, we have fixed up what we have, if it is too expensive, we have rented or found a way to trade work or equipment with some of the other contractors out there. Recently I had a discussion with one of my competitors about trading out some of the in-house work that we do with some of the in-house work that they self perform in order to keep as many of our employees working and keep costs low. The other thing that has changed is that I have gone back into the field doing as much of the work myself as I can, and guess what, things business wise seem to be improving.

I have always remembered the examples of my Grandpa Stubbs and Mecham. Grandpa Stubbs raised a large family during the recession, but still managed to work a full day and keep the family farm from falling into foreclosure. It must have been tough for him to get up well before sunrise, and go to bed way after dark, but it is what he had to do to support his family. The thing that impresses me the most of his example is that he did not turn to the Government for support, or anyone else. The family was required to pitch in and work hard to eek out a living, and many sacrifices were made from everyone in order to get through the depression in tact.

Now back to the Trillion dollars. Why is it that our Government is so determined that the only way to get through tough economic times is by spending everything that we don't have. Bailouts do not work, they only reward the people and businesses that made excessively risky decisions by saving them from ruin, at the expense of those that were more conservative in their living and investments. Just this week I had an experience that puts this into perspective. I have a good friend that was in the market to buy a home. He had 100% cash to pay for this house (investment). The house that he wished to purchase was listed on the market for less than 1 day. It was sold on a short sale to the first bid. The agent and the bank accepted this offer immediately without considering any other offers or waiting to see if there would have been any activity on the listing. If this were a home that was being sold by a private party, they would have entertained as many offers as possible, and let the market establish the true value of what the house was worth. Instead, the bank (that had taken bailout money, and has a promise by the government to purchase troubled assets) took this offer, losing possibly tens of thousands of dollars. How does this affect us? The money difference is somewhere in this trillion dollar bailout. The neighbors are now subjected to lower comps in their neighborhoods, making their houses worth less. At what time will we wake up and demand that the government stop trying to solve our problems. I am confident that we as a nation have the ability to solve our own problems. It may be difficult, and we will definitely have to sacrifice or maybe start over, but I am confident that the answer to our problems lie within the walls of our own homes.

During these times families can pull together, neighbors can help neighbors, and companies can form alliances to ensure the survival of their businesses.

One of my favorite scriptures is in the Doctrine and Covenants 42:42 it says
Thou shalt not be idle; for he that is idle shall not eat the bread nor wear the garments of the laborer.

Grandpa Stubbs lived into his late 90's. My memories of him are of him working in his garden, or preparing food that he had grown himself, in the home that he build. On his farm there were fences that were built with his own hands, a tractor that was kept up by himself parked in the apple orchard that he planted, harvested and watered by the sweat of his brow. I wish that the Government could have taken a field trip to Parrowan to visit Grandpa, to see what it took to manage during a financial downturn. Maybe if this were possible, they would turn off the printing presses, and roll up their sleeves to truly find the real answer to surviving a recession.