Alaska?

When we were moving to Utah in 2006, I would ask people to guess where we were moving. They either said Utah or Alaska. So how fitting is it that I got to travel to Alaska this week for a business trip?

I flew through Seattle to Fairbanks, Alaska. Fairbanks, for those who don'e know, is way inland. It's a small town of 90,000 people that's a three hour and twenty minute flight from Juneau, the state capital. It's WAY in there.

I had been looking up the temperatures in the days preceding the trip to see what I was in for. It had been ten or fifteen degrees earlier in the week but was going to dip to SIXTEEN BELOW for the two days I was there. I could not wait.

I arrived in pitch darkness at 6:15pm and took a taxi to the hotel. I had meetings on Friday with a bunch of people and so I went to bed early. Friday turned out to be one of the most memorable days I've had in a long, long time.

I was there with three other people. One women is from Orange County, CA and the other two are from Washington D.C. The four of us stuck together most of the day. Anyway, at some point early on, the woman from Orange County struck up a conversation with some man she had met there. We were going to have the entire afternoon free and she wound up actually asking this man if he would show us around. To make a long story short, this amazing man took us in his pickup truck with minus-ten degree temperatures and drove us on a two and a half hour tour of Fairbanks. What a guy!! I'll give him props. Click here to see him. It turns out he is a state representative and never told us! I just Googled him when I got home. What a nice man. He showed us the Alaskan pipeline, took us to the town of North Pole and showed us some cool air force bases there. We were just a 45 minute plane ride from Russia, so naturally there are large bases and a large military population there.

We went to an amazing dinner that night and when we left the restaurant, it was twenty-four degrees below zero outside. To describe when that felt like would do it a disservice. My pants (I was wearing khakis) immediately stiffened up and the wind literelly pecked at my face. Breathing was difficult and I started to suffer brain freeze after about sixty seconds. I felt like pounding my head against the side of the car to rattle my head a little bit. It was certainly a strange feeling, to say the least.

In Fairbanks, your car needs to be equipped with a special electric plug to the battery and oil pan. In sub-zero temperatures, you plug your car in to a standard outlet at night so the oil pan stays warm. When you go to start your car in the morning, the warm oil coats the pistons and helps get your car going. Failure to do this, or have a heated garage, will keep your car from starting until it gets warm again. Not good!

You can see some pictures and videos, as usual, right here. I hope to go back again someday...in the summer. The summertime brings 21 hours of sunlight per day and an average temperature of 70 degrees. Now, it gets light around 10:30 and then gets dark again around 4:30. They say it's going down to fifty below this weekend!!

Utah in a Nutshell

Have you seen the weather today? We got slammed with the worst storm we've had since we moved here. I was not expecting it to snow; had no idea at all. I woke up this morning and took a look on my deck and saw six inches on my table. Plus the snow was literally pouring down. It was 7am and I had to be at work for an important 8am meeting. Deb and the kids were off today for the holiday.

I quickly showered and threw on some boots to go dig out and start up my car. I planned on coming back in the house to gather some things before leaving for the day. I opened my front door and could barely see the end of the walkway with all the snow. As I neared the driveway, I heard banging coming from the pavement ahead. I could not believe what I saw next.

Standing there on my driveway with snow halfway up his calves, was my next door neighbor, Paul. The kids call him Mr. Paul. He's taken a liking to us since we moved here. He's not a Mormon but he's a Deacon for a Presbyterian church nearby and absolutely loves our kids. Plus, his wife's name is Leora, which is Hannah's middle name. Anyway, there he was, shoveling MY DRIVEWAY at 7:05 in the morning with a regular old shovel. He had already paved the way for me to leave and was in the process of cleaning off my car with a massive snow brush when I caught him red-handed.

"Mr. Paul...what on earth are you doing? Your house is over THERE," I said, pointing next door. His driveway had not been touched.

"Ha ha...I know. I just woke up this morning and took one look outside and said, 'There's no way Jordan is going to get to work on time today'. I'm just being a good neighbor."

Now, Mr. Paul is no spring chicken. He's 64 years old. And he was SHOVELING MY DRIVEWAY at 7 in the freaking morning!!

"I don't know what to say, Mr. Paul....I honestly have never witnessed such incredible kindness in a neighbor in my entire life."

I couldn't! All I had to do was start my car, pull out and drive to work. No shoveling required. Mr. Paul probably went back home and shoveled his whole driveway when he was done with mine. Amazing.

I was thinking how this would never happen in New Jersey. Back there, the neighbors make it a point to shovel their own driveways and DUMP THE SNOW ON YOURS.

There is a greater lesson to be gained from this as well....not to get all sappy on the Basement readers...but it's true...

I spent the entire morning and most of the day with a good attitude. I was smiling and had an extra skip in my step all day. Even though we were slammed with almost TWO FEET of snow and it was cold as hell, I spent the day with a smile. It's because of Mr. Paul. He get's the "Wattaguy Award" for the year so far. I don't know how to repay him.

I always tell the kids, do the unexpected. Everyone knows the saying, "Do what you've always done and you'll get what you've always gotten." Well, what about if you do something special for someone? Perform a random act of kindness. Pay it forward, so to speak. Not only is it good karma, but is builds self esteem and can really change the outcome of a person's day. Plus, everyone wins. I am sure that Mr. Paul had an extra hop in his step today too. How amazing is that? He got his butt out of bed at 7am to shovel MY DRIVEWAY because he thought it would make it easier for ME to get to work. ME!! What have I ever done for him? I think I remember a time last summer when we were at a street BBQ and I had to pass gas and I made sure I turned AWAY from Mr. Paul. Did he remember that????? Maybe he was repaying my courtesy?

I have a feeling this will leave a lasting impression on me. I also told the story in my morning sales meeting with my staff and to the kids when I got home. I don't know if he reads the Basement but, "Thanks Mr. Paul. You made my day!!"

My Biggest Fans

Since I started Jawdy's Basement nearly five years ago, there have been amazing upgrades and improvements made to the Blogger service. Some I am using like videos and pictures, and some I don't dabble much in because I am not an expert in coding websites and things of that nature.

Some of the coolest enhancements to the Blogger service are actually created by outside companies, such as the cool FlicR picture strip on the site. One of this cool apps is called Feedjit. They provide a service that allows me to see from where in the world people who land on the site are from. Of course, I don't get any personal ID information, just the city and state or country the person is in when they land on Jawdy's Basement.

Now, sometimes people land here as a direct result of them searching for a topic on Yahoo or Google. My site comes up as a hit for that search and, viola, here they are. The cool thing about Feedjit is that I can actually SEE the search tags that people type in on the search engine.

Several months ago, I started compiling a list of some of the most outrageous search engine searches people used that led them to Jawdy's Basement. Here are some of my favorites..

Now, keep in mind that the searches were typed in my the people in the EXACT format that you are seeing them below....

"When DYFS comes to your home"

"Suzanne Sommers Playboy" (I get this one a LOT - at least once a week)

"Stuck on Band Aid"

"Swallowed bone surgery"

"I hear flapping noises in my walls"

"Happy Birthday burrito"

"First trip to the urologists office"

"24 hour suitcase store in Utah"

"Photos of severed testes and penis"

"Sliced scrotum"

"vasectomy+double hernia"

People look for some really sick shit and I am more than happy to provide them pictures of my kids when they do this.

I am going to continue to compile the best of the best and post them here now and again.

By the way, the five year anniversary of Jawdy's Basement is on March 25th. Guess I'll have to do something special to mark the occasion. Maybe I'll just toss up a post with 25 or so vile and disgusting phrases so I can attract more traffic to the site!!

New Years with the Turers!

Click here to see pictures and videos of our week with the Turers here which culminated in a homeade pizza making New Years party!! We had a great time with our friends and were very sad when they left.

Happy New Year everyone!!!!!