Ryan and Debi Cragun’s Blog

Caught this on one of the blogs I regularly read. Boy does it put the argument about gay marriage into perspective:

We bought a house; we’re happy. Start the deceptive junk mail.

Mortgage insurance providers are pretty smooth. They must have sent the first mailing within about 2 days of me closing on the home. It was, in fact, the first piece of mail I got. Deceptively, it looked as though it was from my mortgage company. They smartly include the name of my mortgage provider on the envelope (or through the window) to make it seem as though it is coming from my mortgage provider. Here’s an example:

Once you open it up they continue the charade of making it seem like this might still be from my mortgage provider:

Of course it’s not from my mortgage provider and clearly this is lucrative enough for about 40 different companies from all over the US to send me the same damn mailing. If so, that must mean it’s absolutely not worth it! I’m just wondering how many more are going to come…

I’ve received a bunch of other crap, but this next one is the only other one that has really bothered me. They, too, use scare tactics to make it seem like I desperately need what they have to sell. Little do they know that I know that tap water quality is extremely highly monitored and regulated. In fact, with few exceptions, tap water is cleaner and safer than bottled water. Bastards:

A couple of weeks ago Debi flew down to Tampa to interview for a job (more on jobs below). For cheap, last minute flights between Tampa and Cincinnati, US Airways has great deals. So, she was booked on US Airways. And, to make the flight as cheap as possible, she flew out of Dayton, which is about an hour from Cincinnati. Her flight to Tampa was relatively uneventful. But her flight back to Dayton, well, it never quite made it. She was delayed getting out of Tampa, which made her miss her connection. She was then sent to Washington D.C., where she was told that they could not get her to Dayton or Cincinnati that night. They claimed the problems were due to weather and air traffic, which she finally got them to admit was bullshit. Even so, they wouldn’t pay for a hotel or anything else. Additionally, she had a really important meeting the next morning and really had to be there for it. She finally got one gate agent to book her on a flight to Columbus, OH and I agreed to drive up to Columbus to pick her up. It was a 4 hour round trip and her flight didn’t get in until midnight, but she made it to her meeting. She was fuming at US Airways, who repeatedly lied to her and were not at all accommodating.

One bad encounter is enough, but for her second job interview, guess which company Debi flew with? Yep, US Airways. And, once again, they totally screwed her over. She came down last Friday morning for a job interview. The flight down wasn’t a problem - hooray! The return flight, however… She was supposed to leave Sunday morning for Cincinnati. She checks in, gets on her plane, and everything is going smoothly. Then they take off. Suddenly the pilot is on the speaker system telling them they have to return to the airport due to a mechanical problem - the landing gear won’t go up. They fly over the tower so the tower can confirm, then land. They pull into a terminal and a few technicians get on and fidget around. A few more fidget outside the plane (all this with the passengers still on). Then the technicians claim it is fixed and they taxi back out to the runway. They are already delayed enough that most are going to miss their connections, but they are going to try again. They take off and… here comes the pilot again, on the speaker system… The problem isn’t fixed; they’ll be returning to Tampa. This time they take all the passengers off, then cancel the flight. She took off twice for the same problem then had the flight canceled.

Once she gets inside the terminal, the gate agents who are trying to rebook everyone tell her they can’t get her another flight to Cincinnati that day. The next available flight will be the next morning (Monday). She ended up spending another night in Tampa with me (not complaining about that - but she did have to use up a vacation day at work). At least her re-scheduled flight went off okay… She is mad enough at US Airways to never want to fly with them again. I’m not sure what the problem is with US Airways (Debi’s brother-in-law, a pilot for Skywest, says they are just a sucky company), but they have some issues.

As for the job interviews… Debi had two in-person interviews here in Tampa. She ended up being offered both positions and spent the weekend she was here with me struggling over which position to take. She ultimately chose to join me at the University of Tampa in a contract position teaching genetics, even though the other job paid more and was a permanent position. She has always wanted to see what teaching college is like, and now she’ll have the chance. She’ll be a visiting instructor teaching genetics in the Biology department. So, she has a job now, too. We’re excited - we’ll be carpooling (or riding our bikes in to work together - it’s only a few miles from where we live to the campus - about a 5 minute commute!).

Finally, at the graduation ceremony last month there were some professional photographers snapping photos of the graduates. They then sent us out a mailing showing the photos and inviting us to buy them. The prices were, of course, ridiculous, but I decided to go ahead and get one of them (the others were pretty crappy). So, here I am, posed, in my robes:

I was tagged by Dave to post eight random facts about myself.

All right, here are the rules:

1. You have to post these rules before you give the facts.
2. Players start with eight random facts/habits about themselves.
3. People who are tagged need to write their own blog about their eight things and post these rules.
4. At the end of your blog, you need to choose eight people to get tagged and list their names.
5. Don’t forget to leave them a comment telling them they’re tagged, and to read your blog.

8 Random Facts:

• 1. I’ll start with a good one. On a dare at about age 12 I threw an aerosol can into a fire at a scout outing. I was fairly confident it would explode, but I had no idea what kind of damage it would do. Turns out, quite a lot. I was standing about 20 feet from the fire when the can exploded and, wouldn’t you know it, the bottom of the can literally hit me in the groin. I know, you’re saying I’m making this up, but I’m really not. Here’s the deal - the bottom of the can was circular and covered with soot. I was wearing a baggy white t-shirt that hung down past my waist. When it exploded I immediately felt something hit me and collapsed in pain. Everyone else was hiding and no one else was hit by anything from the fire. The bottom of the can left a circle on my t-shirt that, yes, ringed my penis. There was no hiding the irony - I was marked as having been hit in the penis for my stupidity until I was able to change my t-shirt. Oh, and as a bonus fact, I’m an Eagle Scout.
• 2. Another good one… The very first time I went through a Mormon temple endowment ceremony (which, for those who don’t know, is a series of rituals including handshakes, gestures, acting, and odd clothing - you can see a transcript of the ceremony here), I was flabbergasted. That, in itself, isn’t the fact. The fact is, I was riding home with my Mom, who was there with me, when I turned to her and said, “Mom, do we belong to a cult?” She had a response that appeased me at the time (it was patently false, but a good rationalization for a believing Mormon), but who knew that I really did belong to a cult (a.k.a. New Religious Movement with a charismatic leader).
• 3. Another compound fact… I love cooking. Really, I enjoy it a great deal. But here’s the fact: I’m not sure I know if people really like the food I make. I mean, I know Debi likes it - why the hell would she keep pretending after 7 1/2 years? But I often wonder if the other people who try the food I make really like it or are just being nice. If you’re reading this and have ever tried anything I’ve made, you can comment and tell me the truth (even commenting anonymously will work; I’d just like to know).
• 4. I like compound facts… I literally learned to drive a tractor when I was 8. Now, among many circles, I’m sure that wouldn’t be a big deal. But given my circle of friends, it probably is. The second part this fact is another story. I learned to drive a tractor at my Aunt and Uncle’s cherry orchard in North Ogden in Utah. I started working at their cherry orchard at 6 and worked two summers before they put me on a tractor. All of my older brothers worked there with me - we made up about half the cherry harvesting crew. My oldest brother, Troy, who was a rebel against the norms of Mormonism from a young age, taught me to drive the tractors. In doing so, he did a lot of crazy things (like randomly driving through the rows of trees just for the hell of it). But he also told me one thing that saved my life… The orchard was planted on a relatively steep hill and was in the shape of a diamond. There was a road that encircled the orchard and one that ran right down the middle of the orchard. The one that ran down the middle was the steepest way down, but also the fastest. And, for some reason, about 3/4 of the way down the road there was a 20 to 30 foot drop off where the middle road made a sharp turn. If you didn’t make the turn, you’d go off the drop off and, well… The first time I was entrusted with driving a tanker full of cherries down to the skimming area was shortly after I learned to drive a tractor. A tanker is a large trailer that hooks to the back of the tractor and is filled with about a ton of water and another couple tons of cherries. It’s used to transport the cherries to the plant where they are processed. I’d seen other people drive these up and down the orchard hundreds of times, so I knew it was possible to drive it down the middle of the orchard. But what I didn’t realize is that, because of the loose soil of the orchard, you couldn’t use the brakes of the tractor alone to slow your descent on the middle road. If you tried, the weight of a full tanker would actually push the tractor down the mountain. As I made my first trip down the middle road with a full tanker, I started going to fast and did what I always did when trying to stop - hit the brakes. I slowed at first, but then my wheels locked up and I began to slide. Then I started going faster and the tanker began to jack knife with the tractor. I was about 50 feet from the drop off and gaining speed. I was also freaking out - I was going to die. Then something my oldest brother said in passing popped into my mind - use the first gear on the tractor when going downhill and let the tractor’s engine do the work of slowing your descent. In a panic, I jammed the transmission into first gear and popped the clutch… Wouldn’t you know it, it worked! Immediately the tractor regained its traction and slowed my descent. I inched my way around the bend above the drop off, stopped at the bottom, and nearly passed out from an adrenaline high. Quite literally, an off-handed comment from my rebellious older brother saved my life.
• 5. Here’s a disturbing one… While a Mormon missionary in Costa Rica I saw a woman bludgeoned repeatedly with a large chunk of concrete. I was told by an immediate supervisor not to intervene and, ever obedient to authority (at the time), I didn’t. Amazingly, the woman survived (I still don’t know how), but the scene still haunts me when I think about it.
• 6. Another disturbing one from my Mormon mission in Costa Rica… My first companion and I had just finished hitting up a security guard in a housing complex about reading the Book of Mormon. The reason we spoke with him was because he wouldn’t let us into the complex otherwise. He still didn’t let us in to bother the people who lived there, but we left him with a copy of the Book of Mormon anyway (standard operating procedure during my mission). We started walking away when we heard a commotion behind us. We turned and watched a guy running towards a car shoot the security guard, then jump in the car. His driver then hit the gas and swerved towards us. We jumped off the road as he passed us, then ran back to the security guard. He was shot in the hip. We waited until someone had called an ambulance then left at the behest of the others who came to his aid. Smartly, they pointed out that we were foreigners and, since there were about 3 other witnesses, they thought it would be in our best interest not to get involved. (Costa Rica’s a beautiful country, mind you, it just has a lot of crime… At least, in the areas I frequented.)
• 7. A boring fact… I build my own desktop computers. I’ve built two now and am going to be building a third in a couple of days. I could probably find better things to do with my time, but I get a strange sense of pleasure fidgeting around with computers.
• 8. Finally, I went to graduate school believing I would find evidence to support my religious beliefs. That didn’t work out quite as I planned, but boy am I glad I went.

I don’t have eight people to tag for this. Most of the people who read this blog don’t have blogs of their own. So, unfortunately, this is going to die with me