Will it stop raining so that I can ride?

Odd - I'm pretty sure I just moved to the desert and yet its been raining daily for two weeks. I'd REALLY like it to dry out for a while so that I have a good chance to go ride my motorcycle and mountain bike. I still need to find good places to ride each but I have a Spaceballs derived plan for that: COMB THE DESERT!
Apparently, there are some good mountain bike trails north of town so when I'm physically fit enough to ride up a hill, I should have a good time of it. Some co-workers have recommended Huntington Canyon as a good place to find twisty mountain roads fit for a motorcycle so I'll have to give that a try. Two guys at work ride Harley 883 Sportsters so I suppose I can put aside my "Hardley" prejudice and hit them up about a ride or two.
Next week, we're making a trip to Boise to grab the last of our stuff along with my truck and dirt bike so there will be one more two wheeled grin maker that needs put to use. One thing Price is NOT short of though is DIRT and HILLS for doing some trail riding, hill climbing, jumping, etc. I can pretty much just ride across the street for some dirt bike action but the hospital is across town so I'll have to take it easy for a while since I haven't done a dirt ride since late last fall (and I crashed pretty sweet then).

The Pursuit of Happyness

This is one of those blogs that's probably more for my children to read later than for anyone to care about now but, here goes...

Last night, the wife and I watched part of the movie "The Pursuit of Happyness" and it provided a good reminder of why we've just moved to Price. Thanks to Leslie finding a short term teaching job, my unemployment insurance and some savings, things were never bad at all during the three months I was unemployed but that doesn't mean it wasn't a scary experience.

Looking at Haylie and Zander each day reminded me that I was no longer able to provide for their basic needs.
- Would they have food to eat?
- Would they have warm clothes to wear in the winter?
- What if they were hurt and needed medical help while we had no insurance or income?
Thanks to great family and friends, I knew we wouldn't ever be homeless and out on the street but as a husband and father, its my responsibility to provide and not being able to do so was very stressful.

Initially, there were a lot of good jobs to apply for in the Boise area (and even the Salt Lake City area) but after two months, the economy was contracting further and there just weren't any jobs being listed. I interviewed for a few positions but was starting to hear back that most companies were getting 50 to 100 applicants (and sometimes more) for every position and there were a lot of overqualified applicants as well. The outlook became a bit more grim when jobs I had applied for (and in one case, even interviewed for) were no longer available because the companies were no longer hiring at all.

Despite the grim outlook, I had faith that things would be okay. When, through a friend and former co-worker, I heard about a rather promising job opportunity with Emery Telcom in Price, UT I was rather encouraged despite the prospect of a move away from Boise. I continued to look for work in Boise but was barely able to find two relevant job postings a week and wasn't even getting to interview for those.

There was a lot of agonizing over whether to take the Emery Telcom job or to hold out for something in Boise but I honestly believe the Lord was looking out for us and provided this opportunity for us. Price isn't the location we were looking for and taking a cut in pay isn't great but, so far, it looks like our family can be happy here and the job is exactly what I'd like to be doing. It is a HUGE relief to know that I can provide for our family again and that I won't need to tell Haylie why we can't buy clothes or stay in our home.

I have many friends who are or have been in similar or worse situations and I pray that they will find the employment and other opportunities they need to provide for their families and to not look at their children each day wondering how they'll get by.

Price may not be the most beautiful place we've ever been and I'm sure we'll continue to miss beautiful Boise, the many things to do there and especially the great friends we have there but for now, The Pursuit of Happyness for our family takes us directly through Price, Utah.

One Week in Price, Utah

It's now been one week since we arrived in Utah and became... Utarded (I believe that's the scientific, Latin derived term for a person who has become a resident of, or possibly even a transient of, the state of Utah).

I had a few first day observations that made me wish for some form of twitter telepathy (twilepathy?) so I'll go ahead and subject you to them now. These aren't necessarily specific to Price, UT but they just happened to be the first things I saw/did/heard/smelled/whatever.

1) A bumper sticker that said "honk if you enjoy peace and quiet" <- simple but amusing.

2) While waiting to take a pre-employment drug screen (aka, the whiz quiz) at SOS Staffing (they handle the pee for most companies here) two women came in to do employment paperwork wearing pajama pants and ratty t-shirts. What kind of quality employment are you hoping to find if you don't even put on actual pants and a decent shirt when looking for work?

3) You know you're in a small town when getting a storage unit requires you to visit either the GM dealer or the funeral home to fill out paperwork and pay your bill. I chose the GM dealer; I don't plan on paying a funeral home for storage until I'm much older and by then, I expect someone else will be picking up the bill.

4) I went to Subway my first night in Price (the wife and kids didn't show up until the next day) and already met someone to go trail riding with. I went to Albertson's the next morning to grab some breakfast and the checker (I believe he was the manager or assistant manager) closed his lane to go outside and see my motorycle (no, I didn't suggest it). There are some friendly and bike friendly people here.

5) There's a "Cloyd's Floor Store" on main street. I haven't seen Burt Reynolds or Ned Beatty yet but I'm sure they're hiding out somewhere around here.

Kicking off the Blog

Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, introducing.... Dave Holzer's first blog posting.

I'm generally an early adopter of technology (free technology at least - my budget doesn't allow for adopting expensive technologies) but I've held off for a long time on blogging, twitter and a few other aspects of social networking. I had to cave in some time and, with a new job and a new location, now seemed like as good a time as any.

So what's the point of this blog anyway?

Well, I don't presume to assume that anyone actually cares what I'm doing or what I have to say but, with any luck, my children will someday get to look back at this and get a better understanding of the person I am/was. In the event that I take some major hit to the head (sometimes a monthly occurrence) and loose my memory (that hasn't happened yet that I remember) I can take a quick read through this as well to find out who I am.

Many of the posts will just be quick snippets or observations (twitter style) and few will likely be very serious because I do tend to find myself amusing and enjoy inflicting my wit (or lack thereof) upon others.

Gentlemen, start your engines. Ladies, start your gentlemen. Let the blogging begin!