Grandma vs. Moose

I went over to my Grandma Aanerud's house last night to watch a basketball game and just hang out. Since my family has abandoned me and gone on vacation I've been feeling pretty lonely. While I was enjoying my freshly bought Subway sandwich G'ma casually said "I was almost done in by a moose the other day."

Firstly you kind of have to know my Grandma A. She is tough as nails and probably has more common sense than most of the rest of us put together. She is about 5'7" or close to it and is 81 years young. She hasn't slowed down one step and keeps several steps in front of most of us.

Sometime during the 2nd quarter of the basketball game we were watching she drops that line on me. She really isn't one for melodramatics or shock value so I asked what she meant. She said that she had been out walking her miniature schnauzer along the Bear River walkway when she came upon a cow moose and her calf. She was walking around a section of the path that loops through a field and then comes back to the main path. When she came upon the moose they were close to where the loop meets the main path almost blocking the way out and there was no other way to get back on the main path. But they had moved a ways off by this point so she thought that she might be able to squeak past unnoticed. She said that she made it about even to where the moose were (which from the sounds of things was probably about 150' away, when the cow put her ears back, lowered her head and started charging.

If any of you have ever seen a moose in person, they are magnificent creatures. They are gigantic and generally speaking their bellies are about at my eye level, which would probably put their heads at around 8 or 9 feet. I never cease to be amazed with how large these animals are. She said that that moose was covering that ground at what seemed like 50 feet a second. This next part is what amazed me, because frankly I would have been trampled and needed a change of britches.

My grandmother raised her arms high above her head (making herself appear as big as possible) and roared like a lion and when the moose had closed in on her and was about 20' feet away veered off to the side and went back to her calf.

I couldn't believe how fast thinking she was while being charged by an angry moose. I can almost say with certainty that I would never have had the presence of mind to act the way she did to literally save her (and Molly the dog's) life.

The whole thing kind of brings new light to the song Grandma got run over by a reindeer, or moose as it were.

But this is just one example of why I look up to my grandma and really enjoy her wisdom. I am extremely glad that she out-foxed the moose that day and is around to tell the story. And now if you are ever charged by a moose, you have at least one idea of how to get out of that situation.

fin

Evanston Town Meeting - Follow Up

A few people have asked me to follow this up. As you know I organized a town meeting with a friend of mine held on December 16th. It went well and we ended up having approximately 50 people in attendance. Before you make fun of that number, you should know that our senators and congresswoman don't do any better. Not to mention the unavoidable scheduling conflicts of Christmas parties, school functions and life in general. We accomplished what we set out to do, which was to learn more about a candidate for governor and some local issues. If you want to check out the video I posted it on another blog here.

We are considering trying to organize a candidate's debate but that would likely be in the beginning of June as the filing deadline for candidacy for governor is in the end of May.

I couldn't get the Mayor's bit to download properly so it isn't uploaded to the other site. (Sorry Mayor Davis!)

Eric's Town Hall Meeting

So I'm having my own town hall meeting on December 16th. Yes, you are right, that is the anniversary of the Boston Tea Party and my parent's anniversary (shout out). But the purpose of my town hall meeting is not to raise a ruckus and send people away without having accomplished anything as has been the case with a lot of "tea parties" and town hall meetings and rallies over the past year.

It has been my observation that the growing level of tension in our country has a lot to do with misdirected or undirected frustrations and a lack of understanding of the root causes and solutions to the problems. So my goal is to provide a means whereby people can get more information, truthful news and ways to act before this whole thing culminates in violence.

I have been fortunate to get a few speakers including our mayor, Will Davis as well as candidate for Wyoming governor, Ron Micheli.

I suppose that I believe that if you are going to reserve your right to complain about the government you had better be doing something about it. Everyone here knows that I do my fair share of complaining about the government, and in fairness I have been talking to everyone I know about issues that are timely and timeless. But I have been motivated as of late to take it to this next level and reach out to a broader base of people.

I want people to understand both here and there that I am nothing more than a concerned individual. I have no real credentials for doing this. I am not representing an organization or a program. I don't necessarily even endorse the other speakers. But information is the way to truth and if you don't have the information you cannot make a real decision.

But for those who are concerned that I have no idea about which I speak....well, I do have some idea. While I do not consider myself much of a reader I have been able to get through a few titles this past year. Those are:

The Law - Bastiat

Many are called but few are chosen - Anderson

A foreign policy of freedom - Paul

The Revolution: a manifesto - Paul

End the Fed - Paul

What has government done to our money - Rothbard

The case against the fed - Rothbard

For a new liberty - Rothbard

The creature from Jekyll Island - Griffin

The theory of education in the United States - Nock

Educaction: free and compulsory - Rothbard

5000 year leap - Skousen

All the shah's men - Kinzer

Century of war - Denson

Dumbing us down - Gatto

1776 - McCullough

Economics in one lesson - Hazlitt

Austrian economics: a personal view - Paul

Speaking of liberty - Rockwell

I am currently reading Blowback - Johnson

I'll keep you posted and we'll see where this thing goes.

I wish I knew more people named Floyd.