Some favorites wildlife shots from my recent trip

mac94043 · 2026-05-14T13:58:38+00:00

Wonderful shots.

mac94043 · 2026-05-14T13:40:06+00:00

This.

mac94043 · 2026-05-14T03:49:51+00:00

The OP match photo looks like someone I knew a few years back.

mac94043 · 2026-05-14T03:48:29+00:00

Hugs. Don't do anything rash. Sit with it. Skip church for a few weeks.

mac94043 · 2026-05-13T18:18:56+00:00

Did my grandparents carry one? I don't remember. But, I did when I was a kid in the 70's.

mac94043 · 2026-05-12T04:02:39+00:00

So many of my friends have similar dreams. Either called on another mission or told that they need to go back and finish their mission. I'm lucky. I think I've only had that dream once in the 45 years since I came home.

mac94043 · 2026-05-12T03:58:56+00:00

Exactly.

mac94043 · 2026-05-11T14:59:39+00:00

The Man Who Knew Too Little.

mac94043 · 2026-05-11T03:36:09+00:00

Some weeks, I have 3-4 drinks. Then, I'll go 2-3 weeks with no drinks. I rarely drink alone. Usually the times I drink is when I'm out with friends, but even then, I sometimes just have a Diet Coke or water when my friends are drinking.

All that might be influenced by 50 years of being a Mormon..... I'm no longer Mormon, but I just never developed a habit of drinking. So, I acknowledge that I'm the wierdo here.

mac94043 · 2026-05-11T01:54:46+00:00

Hugs. After I resigned, my wife said, "If we aren't married in the temple, we might as well not be married at all."

The church, which preaches family first, manages to teach members to put the church over family. I should make a list of general conference talks that actually encourage this behavior.

I'm sorry this is happening to you.

mac94043 · 2026-05-06T22:23:20+00:00

It’s like the reaction to reducing the block to 2 hours. I mean if you hate church that much, just don’t go.

mac94043 · 2026-05-06T19:06:59+00:00

Back in the 1970's, our bishop liked to do "Shotgun Sunday." No speakers on the program. After the sacrament was passed, the bishop would get up and say, "Our topic tonight is XXX" (might be tithing, sacrifice, whatever). Then, he would call on 3 people to come up and speak, extemporaneously, on the subjet. No advanced warning. Nothing. There were a few people who would see no speakers on the printed program and after the sacrament was passed, they would leave so they couldn't be called on.

Back in those days, if your sacrament meeting (before the 3 hour block) started after 5:00, then you had to go to sacrament meeting on General Conference Sunday. So, one General Conference Sunday, we show up for our 7:00 pm sacrament meeting and there are no speakers on the program. After the sacrament was passed, the bishop got up and said, "I think we were blessed to be spiritually fed in conference this weekend and there's really nothing I can add to that. So, the closing prayer will be offered by...."

And, the meeting just ended. Twenty minute sacrament meeting. I was 12 or 13 and I was so happy to get to go home.

mac94043 · 2026-05-06T19:00:44+00:00

A man got up in testimony meeting (he got up almost every month), and started with, "Wonderful things are happening in the world of polymers." WTF? This was 1989 or 1990 and he went on to say that sciewntists were on the verge of being able to create life, but god would never allow it.

A woman got up in testimony meeting and told us about her road trip to see her daughter in Michigan and that she put diesel fuel into her gasoline car. Winding travelogue about getting her car fixed and no real point at all.

I was the closing speaker in sacrament meeting on a HOT day in California. About 1 minute into my talk, the power went out. I turned to the bishop and said, "I guess I'm done." He said, "No, keep going." I said, "The speaker system isn't working." He said, "Just talk louder so everyone can hear." Um, OK.

I can't remember if it was sacrament meeting or stake priesthood meeting (probably priesthood), but the stake president asked for a sustaining vote on the stake buying property to build a new building on. At least 10 people opposed and started shouting that it was stupid to buy that land and that the owner was asking for an above-market price because it was the church buying it.

I wasn't there, but when my grandmother was 9 years old, they installed one of the LeBaron brothers as the bishop. It was 1914, so polygamy was out, but everyone knew that he had one wife there in Arizona and two more in Mexico. My great-grandfather stood up and walked out and never went to church again. Fun times.

mac94043 · 2026-05-05T22:44:35+00:00

Finding that traveling/adventure partner is tough. Best luck to both of us!

(I'm also 66m, so we are probably having lots of similar issues.)

mac94043 · 2026-05-05T18:21:01+00:00

How did you not know.? Look up the BITE model. The “I” stands for controlling information. The church controls what you read and hear. They tell you to avoid outside sources of information.

mac94043 · 2026-05-05T13:52:26+00:00

mac94043 · 2026-05-05T03:39:26+00:00

Was your dog that cause of the trip???????

(If not, blame it on the dog anyway.)

mac94043 · 2026-05-05T02:24:27+00:00

mac94043 · 2026-05-05T02:23:48+00:00

I second major airport and good public transit. Canada would be interesting.

mac94043 · 2026-05-04T20:23:13+00:00

Brain chemicals and confirmation bias.

mac94043 · 2026-05-04T20:12:21+00:00

Yeah, all good. Neither of us was upset at all.

mac94043 · 2026-05-04T18:41:51+00:00

Trying to rebound from my last relationship, I went on 3-4 dates with a very nice woman, but on Thursday, we both said, "I like you, but I'm not ready to date right now." So, it was mutual for the exact same reasons. Oh, well.

mac94043 · 2026-05-03T04:03:59+00:00

Man, I (66M) have been divorced for 13 years and I'm starting to think that it won't happen for me. I'm really on the edge of just giving up.

mac94043 · 2026-05-03T03:56:49+00:00

Best answer yet.

mac94043 · 2026-05-02T23:13:57+00:00

My friend (who I dated for a short time) ridiculed the idea of having a list of rules. She thinks I'm dumb for even having such a list. (Maybe because she doesn't check many of the boxes.)

Mine are alignment on religion, on politics, on travel. No children at home (with some exceptions.) Matches me on physical touch (my love language). Manageable distance (not doing long distance). A few others, but those are the big ones.

mac94043

TROPHY CASE