never boring

One thing you probably know about me as you read my blog is that I live in small town Utah.

Real exciting, I know.

First of all, I can tell you that I live in what has been described as one of the most conservative counties in the US. Not only is this county nearly all republicans, it is also has a very high percentage of Mormons. Shocker, I know. Those two things alone make me stick out like a sore thumb. It can be tough to be anything even slightly left of the right around here, but when you are also a Unitarian Universalist, you are out there... and I am.

There is not a lot of diversity around here, and for that I definitely think the place suffers. Culture around here couldn't be more blah. We get a lot of Mormon related crap... "art." Let me tell you that you have know idea how bad music, or literature can be until its been inspired by the "spirit of god."

But besides living in a white bread conservative theocracy that produces such gems like Kurt Bestor and (uuuugh) really awful paintings of the 10 virgins, and having not one decent deli, this place can manage to be interesting.

Most places you say the word "Trojan" and people think of condoms and then of USC. Around here you say the word "Trojan" and people think of condoms and THEN a little place at the mouth of Spanish Fork Canyon on Highway 6 that happens to manufacture explosives (I should note that the company is now called Ensign-Bickford, but all the locals remember the big read sheds with the Trojan painted on the side), and then USC.

We compensate for our lack of culture and learning with mortal danger (although I suppose you can really get that anywhere. I remember one time when I was a wee lad, they had an explosion on a Sunday morning. My folks were gone so it was just us kids at the house. There was a moment where I actually thought the world was going to end. The sound of the explosion rolled across the valley in a way that put the fear of god into me and my siblings... we thought it was an earthquake and so we hid under tables and desks. I can still see my brother bracing himself in the doorway...

I know its not LA or New York, but exploding explosive plants have got to account for something, right? NO? Okay, how about what happened YESTERDAY:

Yesterday afternoon a truck on its way to Oklahoma (from the explosives plant) through the Canyon on highway 6 overturned while taking a corner too fast. Apparently, the 20 or 30 people who stopped to help were all relieved to see the two drivers escape the cab apparently unharmed until they heard what the truck drivers where screaming - "It's explosives! Get out of here!"

35,500 pounds of explosives to be exact. One driver managed to get about 75 yards from the truck but was still picked up and thrown to the ground by the explosion that left a crater that was thirty feet deep, 70 feet wide, and took out the highway, part of the canyon wall, the train tracks, and started a dozen or so brush fires near by. The explosion blew the truck 100 feet UP a rock cliff.

If the truckers had not been able to warn people of the impending danger, people could have been killed. Its bad enough that 6 people were injured--don't get me wrong--but the situation could have been much worse.

On a personal note, I get really annoyed by people who try to say things but can't. Like when they tell me something is a mute point, or say pacifically, when they mean specifically.

The one that is really bugging me now is when people say or write to all intensive purposes...

What the hell?!

... To all intents AND purposes, dumbass.

Like I can talk, I can't spell and I went to a private school. I suppose I shouldn't expect anyone with a college education to know something like that.