Lonely Easter

I had a pretty uneventful Easter weekend. I studied, rode my bike, hit some golf balls, and went to church. It is getting pretty lonely around here without Brittney and Ella, I am glad they will be home Wednesday. This is what my Easter festivities consisted of, melted chocolate. My mom must have felt bad that I was home alone so she sent me these chocolates and the 90 degree temps melted them in my mail box. I stuck them in the fridge and they were really good. It was a little sad to miss one of the only Gillespie traditions, the annual Easter egg hunt in the orchard, complete with a weenie roast and egg war! I missed blasting Bart with eggs, I hope someone got him good.

I also took a picture of the house and that's my Volvo too. It has been a good place, we have enjoyed it. If anyone plans on moving to Alabama in 2 years, I'll sell it to you, or better yet if you have a house in Provo/Orem I'll trade ya.

Fire eyes

Dredging is scary. In fact, I have never been so scared in my life. I decided to hit the ponds tonight and do a little dredging. It has been a few months since the last time I was out. The ponds have really come alive since it has warmed up ( it was 90 degrees today). The sounds coming out of and around the pond were freakish, I have never heard anything like it in my life. This added a little spookiness to the adventure. So I get started throwing my dredger into the pond and pulling it out, not having as much success as I have had in the past. At one point I happened to glance up the bank and about died from what I saw. Two big firey burning eyes glaring down me. It was as if I was looking at the devil himself. I froze, fear set in, and I wished I had bought that 38 special a few months ago. I couldn't tell what it was but it was checking out my every move. It slowly walked away not taking its eyes off me. I did not move for about 3 minutes, just shining my headlamp at the evil eyes and I still could not tell what kind of wild beast I was dealing with. I decided right then, dredging is over rated. Needless to say I packed up my stuff very quickly and got out of there. I only came home with 30 golf balls but I didn't care because I didn't get mauled. I will not dredging again until next winter when it is too cold for anything to be alive.

If you think the woods in the southeast are harmless check this out http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/04/13/AR2006041302305.html

I did get out for a round of golf after school today and had a great time with the new clubs. The new sasquatch driver is amazing, I hit a few nearly 300 yards. I still stink at golf though, I've got a lot to work on.

Bigfoot sighting

This just in; there has been a sighting of a Bigfoot in Mt. Olive Alabama. It's no lie, I saw it, it was on my porch when I got home from school and now it is in my house! yeah, my Nike clubs came today. Nike Sasquatch driver(Tiger uses this driver), SV wedge and blue chip oz t100 putter. These are the clubs that were included with the ESPN golf school tuition. The golf school is still a week out. I went to Todds house and we hit a few out of his back yard. The driver was awesome, most of my shots were straight as an arrow. I am excited to get these things out on the course. These will make a nice addition to my new Callaway big bertha fusions. All I need now is a 3 and 5 fairway wood and my set is complete.

I hate walmart. I went shopping there tonight and it is just an aweful place, other than the 50 cent clearance golf gloves (I bought 8). It is chaos and pure misery shopping there. I miss the Harmons, Days, Smiths, even Macey's, anything that is not the arm pit shopping center of the world. Believe it or not, walmart parking lot is the cool teenager hangout here in Alabama. Do you think they are stuggling for things to do?

Good news, I got a 94% on my full exam practical.

Photo documentation

I took my digital camera to school today and took some sweet photos. I wasn't sure if it was going to work but they turned out ok. I was really excited. I haven't really found anyone that shares the excitement but maybe you are out there. At least everyone knows what I look at every day. About the photos, they are pictures of my friend, Matt Harper's retina. The circular part is the Optic Nerve, this is were all the neural tissue exits the retina and heads to the brain and also where the vessels enter and exit. Way cool stuff. The last photo is of scleral indentation that I talked about a couple of days ago. Thanks to my friends Casey Brown (patient) and Oakley White (hands) for letting me take this photo.















After school I got an hour bike ride in, put weed killer on the lawn, and took the missionaries out for a little mexican food. One good thing about Alabama is the weather. It has been beautiful, temps in the upper 70's and sunny, can't beat that.

I am glad today is over. I had my full exam practical tonight and it went well, I didn't poke my patients eyes out or anything(not that I ever have). It was stinking long though, an hour and forty minutes. It was more than a full exam it was a super exam, if I had to be in an optometrists chair for 1:40 for a real exam I would die. (ok, I sit as a patient a couple of times a week and I am still alive, barely) For those reading this, if you decide to come see me when I have set up practice in Utah, I can promise you the exam will not be 1:40. Other than the practical exam I studied, hit a few golf balls into my practice net in the back yard during study breaks, took another written exam, and got home at 9:30pm.

Here are some photos of a cool bridge I found while I was out riding on an abandoned rail road track last year. The two on top of the bridge are my parents and the dog, well its Alabama you cant go anywhere without a dog following you. And the last one is a photo of the bike I am selling on ebay right now. I bought it from the missionaries and fixed it up. You can check it out on little-climber ebay link on the side bar. If anyone is in the market for a road bike my dad has a sweet one for sale, check out peachking1 ebay link on sidebar.

The dog is fine

I got out and rode this afternoon and ran across the dog. He chased me again, I guess he didn't learn his lesson. I took some photos of the local Alabama scenery when I was out riding. enjoy.
The first photo is the dog I hit, the two run down buildings a few hundred yards down the road from where I hit the dog in Brookside Al. as well as the bridge. The last photo is of the golf course that I collect a lot of balls from. It is also a really fun course to play it is called mountain view golf course. you can click on the photos to enlarge them.

Chance to win a Lexus

After church I was out and about visiting some people and saw the local tornado damage. Apparently a tornado touched down in Gardendale about four miles from my house.

Since Brittney is gone I do not have any food in the house and Todd and Gina were nice enough to invite me over for some tacos with homemade salsa and all. They were dang good. I watched the masters golf tournament for awhile to see if I could pick up some pointers from watching the pros. I am going to ESPN golf school in a couple of weeks and am going have a chance to win a Lexus in a hole-in-one contest. It will be a 165 yard shot. I went out to my driving range and measured out the distance so I can start practicing. Wish me luck.