I hate working all night.

Left work after 4pm, got called back and made it back in by 5pm. Worked to 5am the next morning. On top of the 8 hours I had already worked on Friday. I am too old for this, I can't even think anymore.

The Moon Hoax - DARRYL CUNNINGHAM INVESTIGATES

If you ever thought or know someone who thinks that we didn't land on the moon, take a look at this comic. The ending applies to all kinds of conspiracies out there.

Celebrated Evan's 100th

Yesterday was grandpa Evan's 100th birthday. His daughters Jane, Harriet, and Catherine set up an open house reception for all of his family and friends to come wish him a happy birthday. The weather in Susanville was perfect, blue skies and cool dry temperatures not common for the high desert of Eastern California. Today I flew home with Allena after dad and Evan drove us out to the airport. He looks pretty good for someone who is 100 + 1 day.

Evan grew up on the Chappuis Ranch near Susanville, became a CPA and had his own accounting firm until he retired. He also, along with his brothers, operated the Chappuis Ranch until they all needed to retire. To service his customers all over Northern California and Oregon, he used his airplanes to get efficiently to them to do business and get home. He also used the planes to help spot cattle grazing on BLM and leased land so that he and his brothers could go out on horseback to move them. Evan first owned a Stinson, a Cessna 170B (my first airplane ride), and then finally a 1952 Beech C35 Bonanza. He totaled over 6000 flying hours, 4000 in the Bonanza. Besides business flying, he had many fishing trips to Baja California and to visit friends and family all over the west. In Susanville he was a School Board member and used his plane as an award to high performing kids at Lassen High School. When the EAA Young Eagles program started, he was one of the first to fly kids and has credit for flying 45 Young Eagles. A couple of these kids have gone on to become airline pilots. My daughter Allena was one of his last Young Eagles.

In 2005, I purchased Bonanza 44D from my Grandfather and am trying to carry on the traditions of education and community service that he has used it for. To say that grandpa Evan has been and is a large influence in my life would be an understatement.

WHY DID GOD CREATE ATHEISTS?

From Greta Christina. She lays it out pretty simply and straightforward.

"As an atheist, I have some really good answers for why people believe in God even though he doesn't exist. The human mind is prone to numerous cognitive errors -- and many of those cognitive errors make people susceptible to religion. We tend to see intention, even where no intention exists. We tend to see patterns, even where no pattern exists. We give excessive weight to personal emotional experience, and aren't good at applying critical thought to those experiences. We don't have a good intuitive understanding of probability, and tend to think events are more improbable than they really are. We tend to believe what authority figures tell us. We tend to believe what we're taught as children. We tend to believe what people we know and trust tell us. We're reluctant to question the things that everyone else in our social group believes. Etc., etc., etc. People believe all sort of things that aren't true... and from an atheist/ materialist viewpoint, that makes perfect sense. Atheism is not even a little inconsistent with the belief in gods who don't exist.

But the belief in God is very much inconsistent with the existence of atheists. I have yet to see a religious believer give a good answer for why God exists -- but not everyone experiences him or believes in him. I have yet to see a good answer for why God bestows the experience of his existence (however inconsistently and contradictorily) onto some people -- but not onto others. I have yet to see a good answer for why God is all-powerful and all-knowing and all-good -- or even anything close to all-powerful and all-knowing and all-good -- and still isn't perceived by everybody.

Does anybody have one?

(And if you say "Mysterious ways," I'm going to scream.)"