The park is a family environment. Please refrain from using the F-Bomb when you are at the park. Your kid may speak like that but I don’t want my kids talking like that. There is no situation outside the confines of your home when it is appropriate for you to use any word which cannot be aired on television or radio. If you don’t know what words those are google it.

The park is not your canvas. Please take the Sharpies away from your kids. There is not a surface at the Westgate Community Park which isn’t covered in graffiti. You have successfully put ten years of wear and tear on a two year old park.

Sincerely,

Your fellow citizen, although tonight I’m embarrassed to be a part of your community.

On Apr 17 we got three chickens. A 20 week old barred rock and two 6 week old Black Australorps.

They are fun to watch, because they’re goofy.

Three years ago we were awoken at midnight by fireworks and a chorus of imbeciles shouting “Happy F—ing New Year” which continued for about 15 minutes or so. Apparently they don’t trust their clocks so they wanted to be sure the New Year was really here. I don’t really know how these people can even yell so loud that it wakes me up inside of my house with all the windows closed, or why they think that is acceptable.

Last year we were awoken by multiple gun shots firing repeatedly from the house across the street. When I looked out the window and saw a group of 6 or 7 minors firing a handgun in the air repeatedly I called the police only to be informed that they had a list about 100 addresses long of people reporting similar incidents and that the would never make it to my complaint. Oh well!

This year we were again awoken by gunshots at midnight. I was unable to see anybody firing a weapon or you can bet I would have called the police to report it again. It blows my mind to think that there are people in my neighborhood who are stupid enough to shoot a gun straight up in the air who own a weapon. I become afraid when I think about the weapons they possess. I don’t know anything about guns but whatever this gun is it can fire off at least a dozen rapid fire rounds so fast I can’t even count them. There were two of these guns firing off so close to our home that it was frightening, especially when we heard something land on our roof. Within earshot, but not loud enough to wake me up, if I haven’t already been awake, there were another six similar weapons being fired. All of this went on for 22 minutes.

So what scares me about all of this: 1. What goes up must come down. Don’t these idiots realize that firing a gun in the air means the bullet comes back down at the same speed it left the barrel of the gun — Killing Speed. Rule 1 of gun safety, know your target. 2. These people are violent. A few months ago there was a shoving match in the street outside of our home which ended with a gun shot. 3. These people have tempers. We hear so much shouting and fighting coming from these houses that it is plain to me that tempers are flaring in these homes. 4. These people are drunks. During the summer months we fall asleep to raucous, drunken, yell fests coming from these homes multiple nights a week. Put it all together and you have New Year’s Eve.

Whatever happened to watching the ball drop on TV, or whatever it is they drop in your town. Kissing the one you love and going home to enjoy the New Year?

When did it become acceptable to make any kind of noise at midnight? — I don’t care if it is New Year’s Eve, Independence Day, or Labor Day fireworks make noise, people have jobs and it is not acceptable to make noise in the middle of the night. Set them off before 10 o’clock, then go inside and have a nice enjoyable evening that doesn’t disturb your neighbors.

Dear neighbors, please consider and respect your neighbors and their property. Perhaps we don’t want to be awake in the middle of the night. Maybe we don’t want you to fire your gun in the air and have the bullets come down on our homes.

I just did a quick search online (escrituras.lds.org) and it is impressive. When you search for a verb in the scriptures it will search for all the different conjugations of the verb. Super useful!

For example I just searched for “apacienta” and it produced one of my favorite scriptures in Spanish:

Juan 21: 15-17
15 Y cuando hubieron comido, Jesús le dijo a Simón Pedro: Simón hijo de Jonás, ¿me amas más que éstos? Pedro le contestó: Sí, Señor, tú sabes que te amo. Él le dijo: Apacienta mis corderos.
16 Volvió a decirle la segunda vez: Simón hijo de Jonás, ¿me amas? Le respondió: Sí, Señor, tú sabes que te amo. Le dijo: Apacienta mis ovejas.
17 Le dijo la tercera vez: Simón hijo de Jonás, ¿me amas? Se entristeció Pedro de que le dijese por tercera vez: ¿Me amas?, y le dijo: Señor, tú sabes todas las cosas; tú sabes que te amo. Jesús le dijo: Apacienta mis ovejas.

The search also returned verses with “apacienten.”

I was disappointed to see the new translation of this verse however. In English (KJV) the scripture reads:

John 21: 15-17
15 ¶ So when they had dined, Jesus saith to Simon Peter, Simon, son of Jonas, lovest thou me more than these? He saith unto him, Yea, Lord; thou knowest that I love thee. He saith unto him, Feed my lambs.
16 He saith to him again the second time, Simon, son of Jonas, lovest thou me? He saith unto him, Yea, Lord; thou knowest that I love thee. He saith unto him, Feed my sheep.
17 He saith unto him the third time, Simon, son of Jonas, lovest thou me? Peter was grieved because he said unto him the third time, Lovest thou me? And he said unto him, Lord, thou knowest all things; thou knowest that I love thee. Jesus saith unto him, Feed my sheep.

This reflects the same idea as the above translation. The old spanish translation (RV69) was:

15 Y cuando hubieron comido, Jesús le dijo a Simón Pedro: Simón hijo de Jonás, ¿me amas más que éstos? Le respondió: Sí, Señor, tú sabes que te amo. Él le dijo: Apacienta mis corderos.
16 Volvió a decirle la segunda vez: Simón hijo de Jonás, ¿me amas? Pedro le respondió: Sí, Señor, tú sabes que te amo. Le dijo: Pastorea mis ovejas.
17 Le dijo la tercera vez: Simón hijo de Jonás, ¿me amas? Pedro se entristeció de que le dijese la tercera vez: ¿Me amas?, y le respondió: Señor, tú sabes todas las cosas; tú sabes que te amo. Jesús le dijo: Apacienta mis ovejas.

Emphasis added to demonstrate the differences. In the RV69 translation Peter gives three distinct responses. 1. Feed my lambs 2. Take my sheep to pasture 3. Feed my sheep. This is great because it implies that first he should give nourishment to the little ones who may have little knowledge. Second, teach them how to nourish themselves. Third, nourish them still. This middle line (pastorea) is lost in the other two translations, but it is presumed that the Apostles have prayed and fasted over this verse and that the English and new Spanish translations better reflect the original intent of John’s words.

Why do I presume they fasted and prayed over these little tiny words? Story time: While on my mission Elder Oaks shared a story with us. He chaired the translation committee for the Book of Mormon. On one occasion the translators working on a Vietnamese translation of the Book of Mormon approached the leadership of the church and asked them if the Brother of Jared was an older brother or a younger brother. This did not seem important to Elder Oaks, but when the translators explained that in Vietnamese there was one word for younger brother and another for older brother and no generic term for brother he took the problem to the Quorm of the twelve Apostles and they fasted and prayed about it. They received an answer and the correct translation appears in the Vietnamese translation of the Book of Mormon. Every word must be correct.

I’m sure the same effort was put in to this translation of the Bible which is why I am anxious to read it.

Today while in Albuquerque I was behind a police car from Bosque Farms, whose operator clearly was not paying attention to his driving. For those of you who have no clue where Bosque Farms is, its about 15 miles south of Albuquerque. . . . Anyway, as he drove down the road, he missed the fact that the road split from a two way road to a divided road with a median and hit the median at (we’ll assume he was driving the speed limit) 30 mph. His two left hubcaps shot off into oncoming traffic to be run over and destroyed. Both drivers side tires blew out. His car swerved all over the road, he ran a stop sign, and pulled his vehicle off to the side of the road. He jumped out of his vehicle with a bewildered look on his face.

Now, since he was about 15 miles out of his jurisdiction, heading away from Bosque Farms, I can only assume he was headed home. Most police departments around here allow officers to take their vehicles home, and pay for their gas to and from work. My question is this: who pays for those two new tires, the hubcaps, and for someone to bring him another tire, because I’m sure he only had one spare? If I run my car into the median, I have to buy two new tires, I have to buy hubcaps, I have to find someone to bring me another spare or drive me to the tire shop. If I had a vehicle from work, I would probably still be responsible for something that was clearly my fault. If it happened often I would probably lose the privilege to bring home my car. I was unable to find the policy for any local take home programs, but I would venture to guess the taxpayer pays for this guys new tires.

I would be really curious how often this sort of thing happens, and not just with police cars, but what about city vehicles? federal vehicles? APS vehicles? I bet the taxpayer pays for a lot of bad driving.

You might say, what’s the big deal, you don’t pay taxes in Bosque Farms? But I read on their blog that they purchased most of their vehicles with funds appropriated from the state legislature where I do pay taxes.