The state originally sued for $606,424 to recoup the costs the state incurred in fighting the fire. The settlement terms that I have been able to drudge up so far from local newspapers and the radio are for the most part a very good compromise. The terms that have been announced are as follows: the Greater Salt Lake Council will pay approximately $300,000 to the state, oversee the planting of 9,000 seedlings(not sure if it is only in East Fork or in general), develop specific training for troop leaders and videos/training for the scouts themselves and last the Great Salt Lake council admits no wrong doing for the fire. That last one is the one that I have to take issue with, the fact that the Great Salt Lake Council will not admit any wrong doing goes against the very ideals of the Boy scouts. Unfortunately, the Boy Scouts of America are not acting any better. According to the Deseret News article There is still a pending lawsuit between the BSA and the federal government for $13 million that they spent fighting the fire. Besides not admitting any fault of their own as far as I have seen the BSA has also filed a lawsuit that claims the “unknown Scouts, on their own free time” started a different campfire that then spread and started the 2002 East Fork Fire.

Now I am an Eagle Scout and today I am now ashamed of the organization from which I earned that rank. From both the Mission Statement and the Vision statement the BSA currently has on it’s website two lines that essentially repeat each other which would imply that it is important to them. “The mission of the Boy Scouts of America is to prepare young people to make ethical and moral choices over their lifetimes by instilling in them the values of the Scout Oath and Law.” from the Mission statement and “Instill in young people lifetime values and develop in them ethical characte as expressed in the Scout Oath and Law” from the Vision Statement. With all of their concern with instilling ethical and moral values in the scouts by not admitting any wrong-doing, they have shown their true colors. In my opinion they have lost their own moral compass by looking after their own ass instead of doing what is right and leading by example. One final note before I sign off on this post, Yes I know that if they do publicly and on the record admit liability it is possible for them to open themselves to other liability claims, but by denying it entirely they cannot profess to be setting a good example for the scouts that they are trying to teach these same values to.

I took pictures during a cruise to the Caribbean last year with my family and it has taken me until now to finally post them. So enjoy the show!

All of that brings me back to the original point of this entry. I know all of you cashiers/baggers handle many many loaves of bread in an daily basis. But please try to understand all of the work we go through. When you pick up that loaf by squeezing it’s sides in look at us cringing….trying not to show it. Or when you put the bread in the bag and then promptly drop 2 or 3 soup cans on top of it, please notice the anguish on our faces. Above all there is absolutely no reason to continually grope and reposition that loaf of bread, it’s just wrong!

The most important of these pictures of course is the gorgeous view.

I promise I will take more pictures once I have gotten things put away and given the condo a thorough cleaning.

Too often it’s easy to keep ourselves so busy running from place to place, event to event and crisis to crisis that we forget to take a timeout from everyday life. This past weekend I had the chance to attend a wedding of one my Pledge Brothers from my fraternity. It took place at Snowbird a local ski resort about 12 miles up Little Cottonwood Canyon. But even those 12 miles make all the difference in the world.

If it hasn’t already loaded in a few seconds a picture of the scenery surrounding snowbird will appear. I had forgotten how much I miss the smell of the trees, the sounds of the birds in the trees and the mountain air that is free from the smell of burnt gasoline(and at least 20 degrees cooler than the valley). Take a few minutes look at the picture, let them take you back to a similar place, and post your thoughts or describe your memories in the comments.