Thursday, June 30, 2016
Bowling
So my buddy Greg Mauger has a group he goes bowling with and had invited me to join the group. Tonight was the first night out. One in the group was not going to make it. I have so much going on right now that I was on the fence and wasn't sure I wanted to go. Then I decided I needed to go. I pray for missionary opportunities at times and this was an opportunity. I was working out in the yard and came in with a few minutes to spare. I invited Clayton to come along. He did. Greg came with his neighbor who is one of the other guys in the group - Gabriel is his name. Anyhow, we had a good time. I didn't bowl the best or the worst of my life. Stayed pretty consistent in the low 100's. That is good for me. By the third game my arm was spent but I just did the best that I could and managed my second best score of the night. It was a good time for sure and I will have to go back again. I think Clayton had a good time as well. He scored 72 the first two games so we were teasing him about hitting it a third time and how we would make him a shirt. He beat it and pulled out a 96. It was a good night of bowling. I won't be able to use my arm tomorrow but what does that matter?
Wednesday, June 29, 2016
New Theater
Tonight my dear friend Karry Rathje came to town and we went over and saw The Three Musketeers at the Utah Shakespeare Festival. The play was in the new theater and the entire venue is beautiful. I was really impressed with everything. We had a bit of a rain delay - that can happen with open air theaters. There were a few slips and falls but all was good. It was a fun play and anything with Karry is bound to be fun and perhaps slightly irreverent. She is a wonderful lady. Well, I am excited about the theater. I think it will be a great venue for years to come.
Tuesday, June 28, 2016
A Couple of Firsts
Did a couple of things for the first time today. Actually, it may be just one thing but I'm thinking two. On my shed project I had to pour concrete in forms and secure the post holder. I don't know what to call it. The post gets bolted to it at the bottom. I was going to just cement in the posts but was discouraged from doing that and coached on what was best for the longevity of the wood and the structure. That coaching ended up costing me a good chunk of change. I say this is a first but I have played with pouring concrete before and I have played with post holders but never have I poured concrete for the purpose of building a post holder. Crap, now I'm confused. Anyway, moving on.
I am still working on the car. I didn't do anything on it on Sunday or yesterday but tonight I finished taping everything off. With that done I had 4 areas that were in need of some bondo. I have never in my life worked with bondo. After a little video online showing me what to do I went to work completely dismissing his first rule of not using cardboard to mix the bondo on. I was feeling a bit rebellious. I ended up having to mix a second batch because that stuff hardened up faster than I thought it would. I got through two of the sections that I needed to bondo and when I got to the third the remaining bondo came out bonded I guess. It wasn't quite rock hard but it was pretty solid. Crazy. Maybe I used to much hardener and maybe I just don't know. The second batch did the trick and I got everything filled. I hope it turns out okay.
I have too many things going on right now. My days don't stop until, well, tonight a maybe 20 minutes ago. It is now 20 after midnight. Got to get stuff done. I don't know though. As soon as I get the shed built it is going to open up additional projects to be completed in the garage which will open up projects in the basement which will open up the projects of building Jack's new room, which will require some finishing work in Andy's room. The list goes on.
I am still working on the car. I didn't do anything on it on Sunday or yesterday but tonight I finished taping everything off. With that done I had 4 areas that were in need of some bondo. I have never in my life worked with bondo. After a little video online showing me what to do I went to work completely dismissing his first rule of not using cardboard to mix the bondo on. I was feeling a bit rebellious. I ended up having to mix a second batch because that stuff hardened up faster than I thought it would. I got through two of the sections that I needed to bondo and when I got to the third the remaining bondo came out bonded I guess. It wasn't quite rock hard but it was pretty solid. Crazy. Maybe I used to much hardener and maybe I just don't know. The second batch did the trick and I got everything filled. I hope it turns out okay.
I have too many things going on right now. My days don't stop until, well, tonight a maybe 20 minutes ago. It is now 20 after midnight. Got to get stuff done. I don't know though. As soon as I get the shed built it is going to open up additional projects to be completed in the garage which will open up projects in the basement which will open up the projects of building Jack's new room, which will require some finishing work in Andy's room. The list goes on.
Monday, June 27, 2016
Rock Hunt
I am trying to do a bit of landscaping in the backyard and needed some rocks. I remember going and helping the folks gather rocks for the house on Telegraph Street before my mission. We got a lot of rocks. We would go out to Dayton and pick up as many as we could put in the old Ford van and then drive home and unload. Well I didn't make it to Dayton but I did drive up Cedar Canyon and drove off the road at some random spot and went rock hunting. I brought home a fairly decent load, fount some good ones. One of the areas that I went had a bunch of trash in it. People had gone camping there or dumped a load of crap there, it was really too bad because the spot was just up from the river and could have been pretty nice if not for the trash left behind. Anyway, I didn't quite get enough rocks and am going to have to make a return trip for more rocks. So much fun. I've also got another area that is going to need rocks and that will likely require a goodly number so I'm thinking a few more rock hunts are in my future.
Sunday, June 26, 2016
Instructor
We had a new instructor called in Elder's Quorum today. I think his name is Nathan Barker. He must be a relatively new move in to the ward that I was unawares of as today was the first time I met him. He gave a pretty great lesson. He didn't get through a ton of material but he followed the spirit and had lots of participation. I read something earlier today as I was going through my folder that said if you want more participation in class ask more questions. Certainly Nathan had a lot of questions in his lesson plan and that worked well. He also didn't rush through material which I liked. Sometimes we get to concerned about getting through everything that we miss an opportunity to follow the promptings of the Spirit and we unintentionally discourage participation. It is okay to not get through all the material. It is far better to encourage participation, discussion, and follow the promptings of the Spirit than it is to rush through material just to say you got through it. Well, I enjoyed the lesson today, it was from a conference talk, It's Never To Early and It's Never Too Late by Bradley D. Foster. It is a great talk that teaches us the importance of teaching our children and being there for them not only when they are young but throughout their lives. I look forward to more lessons from Brother Barker and opportunities to learn and grow.
Saturday, June 25, 2016
Primer
I had a goal to get a few things done on the car today. I wanted to grind out the rust spots, apply some bondo and start spraying primer on rear end. I managed to grind out the rust spots and looked at the bondo but decided not to do it since Dan told me to just use bondo he already had instead of the one I just bought. I will take it back. I left the vehicle for a while and continued on with my dirt moving project from yesterday. I got my little tiller/cultivator out and went to town. I had to pause and use the pickax for some of it then carried on tilling all of it. I then raked it out and it is looking a lot better than it was. There is still a lot of work to do there but I've made some headway in the last two days. I also started digging holes for the posts. My neighbor just brought me a post hole digger so that will help in the process. I also moved more rocks to the edge of the grass. I need to go out on a rock hunt and see what I can come up with for the rest of it. Fun stuff. I managed to get back to the car and began taping off the back end - tail-lights, rear window, back seat windows, other lights, the tail pipe and I think that was it. Anyway, I started priming and got the rear done. Unfortunately I think I am going to have to remove the tape at some point and then I'll have to tape again when it comes time of the final coat. There is sanding that needs to happen with the primer and then I need to clean the surface with soap and water before painting. I don't think my taping off the windows will make it through a wash. Maybe I should just leave it primer gray. That's a good look.
Friday, June 24, 2016
Dirty
After taking care of some brick house stuff this morning and afternoon I was able to come home and turn my attention to some rock hard dirt on the side of the house. I plan on putting a roof over this section of the yard so that it can be used as a shed. Before I can do that I need to prepare the ground. The area of the yard is kind of an out of site out of mind area which is perfect for a shed. Anyway the ground was not exactly level and there was a lot of dirt in the area. My goal is to try and level things out a skosh, dig post holes, put in the posts against the fence line, mount a header to the house and beam across the posts on the fence line. Then I will run two by sixes between the two and put a roof on that. I am still working out some ideas but I think I have a fairly good plan in place. That said I spent a few hours swinging a pick axe, digging up the earth, raking the ground, shoveling excess dirt into the wheel barrow and dumping it in another area of the yard that I need to build up for a separate project. I had ripped a nasty blister in the palm of my left hand two days ago so using it was a bit tricky but I managed. I think I made some great progress out there today. I've still got a lot to do but I feel good about the day and what was accomplished there. Tomorrow morning I hoped to find the ground a bit softer and I will attempt to till it with my small cultivator. Then I need to level things out. Lots of fun.
Because I wasn't quite dirty enough after this little excursion I pulled out the Honda and continued sanding it in preparation for new paint. I am giving this my best guess and hopefully I have everything moving in the right direction. I feel like I do. I have some body work to do and then I think I will be ready to tape off and shoot it with primer.
Getting dirty is fun times. There are so many little projects that I've got in the works that it is hard to determine where to get dirty next. For a guy that likes to get dirty it is good to have projects to spare.
Because I wasn't quite dirty enough after this little excursion I pulled out the Honda and continued sanding it in preparation for new paint. I am giving this my best guess and hopefully I have everything moving in the right direction. I feel like I do. I have some body work to do and then I think I will be ready to tape off and shoot it with primer.
Getting dirty is fun times. There are so many little projects that I've got in the works that it is hard to determine where to get dirty next. For a guy that likes to get dirty it is good to have projects to spare.
Thursday, June 23, 2016
Blazes!
I made a run down to the Saint of George today and I don't know how anything saintly could be so hot. I didn't even check the temp, didn't have to. I got out of the car and new it was cooking. I'm sure there are perks to living in that heat especially in the winter months but I would much prefer the slightly cooler weather of Cedar over that and I am fine to push through the winter months. Of course if I were to relocate back to Hawaii that would not hurt my feelings at all. Funny enough I was talking to my friend Tim Nesmith, a local radio personality today about Brick House Kona. That has been a topic over the last few years and we might just need to make it happen because it's Kona and that would be awesome.
Time is cruising by right at the moment. I have several projects that I want to get done but don't seem to be capturing the time to get them done. I've got this car to keep working on sanding and prepping for paint, I've got the shed project on the side of the house but there is a lot that needs to happen prep wise for that one. I need to build Jack's bed in his new room and redo the storage closet in that room into a regular closet. I have kitchen cabinets and counter tops to replace, I want to redo the lighting in the kitchen and drop in some can lights. There is the fire pit in the backyard, the garden boxes in the back yard, the trampoline area of the backyard, the pine tree to cut down somehow, a shelf to hang in the garage, some shelves to put up in the laundry room, a dining table to refinish, a dining room to paint, and a few other projects that I could name as well. Somehow I've got to start getting through some of this stuff and throw in a few personal things like hiking Ashdown or Kannarraville or Coyote Gulch. Three things I wanted to do this summer. There is still time.
Time is cruising by right at the moment. I have several projects that I want to get done but don't seem to be capturing the time to get them done. I've got this car to keep working on sanding and prepping for paint, I've got the shed project on the side of the house but there is a lot that needs to happen prep wise for that one. I need to build Jack's bed in his new room and redo the storage closet in that room into a regular closet. I have kitchen cabinets and counter tops to replace, I want to redo the lighting in the kitchen and drop in some can lights. There is the fire pit in the backyard, the garden boxes in the back yard, the trampoline area of the backyard, the pine tree to cut down somehow, a shelf to hang in the garage, some shelves to put up in the laundry room, a dining table to refinish, a dining room to paint, and a few other projects that I could name as well. Somehow I've got to start getting through some of this stuff and throw in a few personal things like hiking Ashdown or Kannarraville or Coyote Gulch. Three things I wanted to do this summer. There is still time.
Wednesday, June 22, 2016
Passed On
The fourth question is 'Think of some relatives that have passed away in the last few years. What would they be doing right now if they were with you?' Relatives that have passed away in the last few years - Aunt Judy would qualify for that and I will go ahead and add Grandma Vi to this because first, there aren't many others to add to the list and second, I love Grandma Vi and thoroughly enjoyed spending time with her, the thought of having time with her right now brings me great joy.
Chances are if I was with Aunt Judy right now I would also be with Grandma Vi. Whatever the case would be one thing is for certain, we would be laughing. One of my first memories of Aunt Judy dates back to a very long time ago. I don't even know where we were living. For some reason I was a passenger in Grandma Vi's car driving across the State of Nevada. My guess is that we were on I-80 heading towards Salt Lake City. We got a flat tire on that trip and someone stopped and helped Grandma fix it after a little wait. I remember the car being jacked up. After getting back on the road we eventually ended up at Aunt Judy's house, the same house she lived in all of her life. It was late when we arrived and I didn't really know who these people were that I was meeting but they were nice and they had a couch bed. I had never seen one of those before and thought it was pretty amazing that a bed could come out of a couch and, and, I got to sleep on that couch bed. In the morning I would meet things called cousins but I didn't know what that was.
Aunt Judy was a nurse by trade and I remember being grateful for that. A couple of entries ago I mentioned a house in Carson City as a young boy where I had an accident jumping a bike and having the rod from a broken pedal go into my leg. It was a pretty good puncture wound . I ran home very scared and it just so happened that Aunt Judy was visiting. She took me into the bathroom and got me all cleaned up. A real life saver that Aunt Judy was.
Aunt Judy was always fun to be around. I took merit badge classes from her for scouts and always enjoyed getting together as family at her house. It didn't seem to matter what was happening I could always count on smiling and laughing when I was around my Aunt Judy. If we were together on this very day we might be doing something strange as a family like playing butt charades. Surely we would be eating something delicious.
Grandma Vi was always one of my favorite people to be around. Here to we would be laughing about something. Or she would be sitting quietly doing something while a ball game was on or we would be trying our hand at wheel of fortune or jeopardy. This great woman of faith always impressed me. I remember at her funeral my cousin Jeff spoke and said she had quiet tenacity. That she did. At this very moment if she were here we would probably be talking about her great granddaughter entering the MTC today and how wonderful that is. One thing is for certain, no matter what we would be doing today tomorrow morning she would be up early preparing breakfast and we would sit down and eat her famous breakfast casserole.
To have another day with those we love, those who have passed on, would be a wonderful blessing. The thought of that type of a reunion and the joy that would exist there is a happy thought. Fortunately through the Gospel of Jesus Christ and the ordinances of the Temple we can be sealed to our families and should we live worthily we will be reunited with them in the Celestial Kingdom. I am grateful for these wonderful women that I learned from and loved and look forward to a day when we actually will have precious time together once more.
Chances are if I was with Aunt Judy right now I would also be with Grandma Vi. Whatever the case would be one thing is for certain, we would be laughing. One of my first memories of Aunt Judy dates back to a very long time ago. I don't even know where we were living. For some reason I was a passenger in Grandma Vi's car driving across the State of Nevada. My guess is that we were on I-80 heading towards Salt Lake City. We got a flat tire on that trip and someone stopped and helped Grandma fix it after a little wait. I remember the car being jacked up. After getting back on the road we eventually ended up at Aunt Judy's house, the same house she lived in all of her life. It was late when we arrived and I didn't really know who these people were that I was meeting but they were nice and they had a couch bed. I had never seen one of those before and thought it was pretty amazing that a bed could come out of a couch and, and, I got to sleep on that couch bed. In the morning I would meet things called cousins but I didn't know what that was.
Aunt Judy was a nurse by trade and I remember being grateful for that. A couple of entries ago I mentioned a house in Carson City as a young boy where I had an accident jumping a bike and having the rod from a broken pedal go into my leg. It was a pretty good puncture wound . I ran home very scared and it just so happened that Aunt Judy was visiting. She took me into the bathroom and got me all cleaned up. A real life saver that Aunt Judy was.
Aunt Judy was always fun to be around. I took merit badge classes from her for scouts and always enjoyed getting together as family at her house. It didn't seem to matter what was happening I could always count on smiling and laughing when I was around my Aunt Judy. If we were together on this very day we might be doing something strange as a family like playing butt charades. Surely we would be eating something delicious.
Grandma Vi was always one of my favorite people to be around. Here to we would be laughing about something. Or she would be sitting quietly doing something while a ball game was on or we would be trying our hand at wheel of fortune or jeopardy. This great woman of faith always impressed me. I remember at her funeral my cousin Jeff spoke and said she had quiet tenacity. That she did. At this very moment if she were here we would probably be talking about her great granddaughter entering the MTC today and how wonderful that is. One thing is for certain, no matter what we would be doing today tomorrow morning she would be up early preparing breakfast and we would sit down and eat her famous breakfast casserole.
To have another day with those we love, those who have passed on, would be a wonderful blessing. The thought of that type of a reunion and the joy that would exist there is a happy thought. Fortunately through the Gospel of Jesus Christ and the ordinances of the Temple we can be sealed to our families and should we live worthily we will be reunited with them in the Celestial Kingdom. I am grateful for these wonderful women that I learned from and loved and look forward to a day when we actually will have precious time together once more.
Tuesday, June 21, 2016
A Wedding
Before anyone gets too excited this post is not an announcement or anything of the sort. One must date someone, fall in love, pop the question and all of that other stuff before one just gets married. I continue to struggle with the first qualifier in that list. No, I am on question number 3 which is 'Has anything ever happened at a family wedding that you'll never forget?'
I don't know that I can think of anything that was wild and crazy at any of our family weddings that would be unforgettable. Pops tells a story of Aunt Joy and Uncle Munir's wedding that will not be forgotten, it was pretty hilarious with a friend of Munir's named Harry that was taking pictures. Perhaps that should be recorded somewhere. There are too many details that I don't have a firm grasp of to write the story myself so we will need to lean on pops to record said story.
As I reflect back on weddings I can remember Jim and Clo having a luau for their reception and some scantily clad Polynesian dancers that were, entertaining I guess.
At my wedding I can recall Rachel's grandmother in the ceiling room saying something about her dress. Somebody complimented it and she said something in reply along the lines of 'oh, this old thing'. Her grandpa missed the wedding because her cousins car broke down and he went to fix it. I remember her other grandpa got frustrated with the gates in my parents community and rammed his car through them. Nothing too crazy.
I recall at Jay and Sara's wedding there was an ice sculpture that really stole the show. It was a heart carved into the ice - well, roughly chiseled into a giant square of ice. The corners were not rounded, the heart was very blocky and I think they carved in Sontano instead of Fontano. I could be wrong. It has been a long time.
I remember at Pete and Tara's wedding we had an NBA player there. Tyrone Nesby was married to one of Tara's high school friends. We hung out a bit and chatted. Aunt Judy came over to chat also and just kept talking about how great Malone and Stockton were. I thought that was funny.
Laura and Nigel would be next and I can't think of anything strange from their wedding. I do remember the reception was at a really neat little place in Saint George and if I am not mistaken they kept all the left over food which mom found a bit irritating.
Mike and Liana's wedding involved a lot of travel for us and was a great trip. The folks were in a new house with a very interesting rock wall in a bathroom. That really has nothing to do with the wedding. I also got pulled over on a 4 wheeler with the two boys on with me and the police about passed out when I had not only one but two on there. They gave me a hefty ticket. Happy Birthday! I remember some tender moments during the ceremony. The reception was at a hotel in Hurricane Utah. I suppose this could have been the one where no extra food was given to the party. Hard to keep track of these details.
I missed Dave and Dani's wedding as we didn't have the resources for me to come back to that one from Florida. I am sure it was excellent.
Amy and Dan had a wonderful wedding and the reception was beautiful out at Richard and Susan's house in New Harmony. Snow Cones were on the menu and I built a little snow cone shack front for the event. Thought it was pretty cool.
So nothing that is earth shattering or super funny in those simple memories. They were all wonderful days and they were all in the temple. That to me is the most memorable part of any of these. Being in a sealing room at the temple and participating in that sacred ordinance. There were tears shed there and hearts filled with joy. One day I will return to that stage, well maybe.
Well,
I don't know that I can think of anything that was wild and crazy at any of our family weddings that would be unforgettable. Pops tells a story of Aunt Joy and Uncle Munir's wedding that will not be forgotten, it was pretty hilarious with a friend of Munir's named Harry that was taking pictures. Perhaps that should be recorded somewhere. There are too many details that I don't have a firm grasp of to write the story myself so we will need to lean on pops to record said story.
As I reflect back on weddings I can remember Jim and Clo having a luau for their reception and some scantily clad Polynesian dancers that were, entertaining I guess.
At my wedding I can recall Rachel's grandmother in the ceiling room saying something about her dress. Somebody complimented it and she said something in reply along the lines of 'oh, this old thing'. Her grandpa missed the wedding because her cousins car broke down and he went to fix it. I remember her other grandpa got frustrated with the gates in my parents community and rammed his car through them. Nothing too crazy.
I recall at Jay and Sara's wedding there was an ice sculpture that really stole the show. It was a heart carved into the ice - well, roughly chiseled into a giant square of ice. The corners were not rounded, the heart was very blocky and I think they carved in Sontano instead of Fontano. I could be wrong. It has been a long time.
I remember at Pete and Tara's wedding we had an NBA player there. Tyrone Nesby was married to one of Tara's high school friends. We hung out a bit and chatted. Aunt Judy came over to chat also and just kept talking about how great Malone and Stockton were. I thought that was funny.
Laura and Nigel would be next and I can't think of anything strange from their wedding. I do remember the reception was at a really neat little place in Saint George and if I am not mistaken they kept all the left over food which mom found a bit irritating.
Mike and Liana's wedding involved a lot of travel for us and was a great trip. The folks were in a new house with a very interesting rock wall in a bathroom. That really has nothing to do with the wedding. I also got pulled over on a 4 wheeler with the two boys on with me and the police about passed out when I had not only one but two on there. They gave me a hefty ticket. Happy Birthday! I remember some tender moments during the ceremony. The reception was at a hotel in Hurricane Utah. I suppose this could have been the one where no extra food was given to the party. Hard to keep track of these details.
I missed Dave and Dani's wedding as we didn't have the resources for me to come back to that one from Florida. I am sure it was excellent.
Amy and Dan had a wonderful wedding and the reception was beautiful out at Richard and Susan's house in New Harmony. Snow Cones were on the menu and I built a little snow cone shack front for the event. Thought it was pretty cool.
So nothing that is earth shattering or super funny in those simple memories. They were all wonderful days and they were all in the temple. That to me is the most memorable part of any of these. Being in a sealing room at the temple and participating in that sacred ordinance. There were tears shed there and hearts filled with joy. One day I will return to that stage, well maybe.
Well,
Monday, June 20, 2016
Things Lost and Maybe Forgotten
I am continuing on with my 20 Questions list that I started yesterday. The second question on the list is 'What did you have as a child that kids today don't have?'
The first thing that came to mind when I read that question was lawn darts. I really don't know if kids don't have them today but if there is a lawn dart out there it is probably some nerfified thing. Not like the sharp metal spears of yesteryear. Come kids and gather round. I want you to take this dart, throw it in the air and see if you can get it to pierce the ground inside this plastic ring. Such a great game until kids heads started getting in the way. I never had that problem myself but suddenly lawn darts seem to be a thing of the past. I'm sure they were sued when some kid was paying to much attention to the ring on the ground and a dart pierced his skull. Those were good days back then when an innocent backyard game could result in a serious flesh wound.
There are a lot of things that are not around today. Rare would be a telephone that is attached to a cord and has a radial dial for the numbers. Though it is making a comeback 80's hair was something to behold. I did a little search to help me with some thoughts and for some reason it showed Madonna and Phil Collins. These were definitely 80's artists but they are certainly around today so I am not so sure these qualify. Aerobics was also on the list and though there are things like Zumba today is there anything quite like 80's aerobic classes. The outfits alone were the stuff of legends. There was a model General Lee from the Dukes of Hazard. That was definitely a regular Friday night occurrence for me followed by the beginning of Dallas just so I could listen to that amazing theme song. Well, this could go on for some time and though they exact thing may not be around today there are things equal to them today. The Sony Walkman for instance. Effectively replaced by an Ipod or other smart phone device or mp3 player.
Something that is a little harder to recognize would be freedom. Oh, kids today have freedom and they get away with quite a bit. I'm not necessarily talking about that. Surely modern conveniences provide so much more access to kids today then what we had in the 80's. That is not the freedom of which I speak. Simply not having a smart phone or mobile device provided a freedom kids today will rarely know or understand. At any moment the things that they are doing today could be secretly recorded and shared for all to see on the world wide web. That isn't great for privacy or freedom. As a parent I don't always feel comfortable with my kids out and about. When I was Jack's age, even Andy's age or 9, I used to ride my bike to the grocery store and the swimming pool. These required a bit of a ride. It was good, there was freedom to be out and about without the fear of others lurking. That is what I mean by freedom.
I guess there are always the 80's hair bands. Fantastic. I suppose many of them are still around but their manes have been tamed since the glory days of rock n' roll.
Surely there are a multitude of things that I have missed in this report. Suffice to say there are many things that have changed since I grew up in the 70's, 80's and 90's.
The first thing that came to mind when I read that question was lawn darts. I really don't know if kids don't have them today but if there is a lawn dart out there it is probably some nerfified thing. Not like the sharp metal spears of yesteryear. Come kids and gather round. I want you to take this dart, throw it in the air and see if you can get it to pierce the ground inside this plastic ring. Such a great game until kids heads started getting in the way. I never had that problem myself but suddenly lawn darts seem to be a thing of the past. I'm sure they were sued when some kid was paying to much attention to the ring on the ground and a dart pierced his skull. Those were good days back then when an innocent backyard game could result in a serious flesh wound.
There are a lot of things that are not around today. Rare would be a telephone that is attached to a cord and has a radial dial for the numbers. Though it is making a comeback 80's hair was something to behold. I did a little search to help me with some thoughts and for some reason it showed Madonna and Phil Collins. These were definitely 80's artists but they are certainly around today so I am not so sure these qualify. Aerobics was also on the list and though there are things like Zumba today is there anything quite like 80's aerobic classes. The outfits alone were the stuff of legends. There was a model General Lee from the Dukes of Hazard. That was definitely a regular Friday night occurrence for me followed by the beginning of Dallas just so I could listen to that amazing theme song. Well, this could go on for some time and though they exact thing may not be around today there are things equal to them today. The Sony Walkman for instance. Effectively replaced by an Ipod or other smart phone device or mp3 player.
Something that is a little harder to recognize would be freedom. Oh, kids today have freedom and they get away with quite a bit. I'm not necessarily talking about that. Surely modern conveniences provide so much more access to kids today then what we had in the 80's. That is not the freedom of which I speak. Simply not having a smart phone or mobile device provided a freedom kids today will rarely know or understand. At any moment the things that they are doing today could be secretly recorded and shared for all to see on the world wide web. That isn't great for privacy or freedom. As a parent I don't always feel comfortable with my kids out and about. When I was Jack's age, even Andy's age or 9, I used to ride my bike to the grocery store and the swimming pool. These required a bit of a ride. It was good, there was freedom to be out and about without the fear of others lurking. That is what I mean by freedom.
I guess there are always the 80's hair bands. Fantastic. I suppose many of them are still around but their manes have been tamed since the glory days of rock n' roll.
Surely there are a multitude of things that I have missed in this report. Suffice to say there are many things that have changed since I grew up in the 70's, 80's and 90's.
Sunday, June 19, 2016
Childhood Houses
I realize it is fathers day 2016 and I should maybe write something about that. It was just me at home, went to church and listened to the primary children sing, had pie with the men in the third hour, visited the singles ward and listened to Keeley Curry (works for us at the Brick House) speak, went to the folks for dinner and enjoyed time there and then the highlight would have been speaking to the kids tonight. They are doing well and it was great to talk to them. They are missed and it will be wonderful to have them home in 42 days - if Jack and I did the math right.
Well, I came across a document here in the house titled 20 Questions to Ask a Parent. I don't know which of the kids brought this home but they never asked me the questions. I thought I would spend some time answering these on the blog and then they will all have a lasting record of my answers. I don't know what kind of a schedule I will follow in answering these questions at this point. I don't think I will do them over the next 20 days but will try to answer them over the course of a couple of months or so.
The first question is What do you remember about the houses you lived in as a kid? Which one did you like the best? Now this is a loaded question because I lived in at least 16 houses from the time I was born until I got married. That does not include flats or apartments I lived in on my mission and I am a little unclear of houses prior to the house we lived in when I was in kindergarten in Carson City in the late 70's. I will not go into detail about all the houses we lived in but will try to say something about each of them.
The Carson City house I remember dancing to Saturday Night Fever 8 Track and also being scared to death at bed time because I could hear my heart beating through my pillow and I thought it was a group of monkeys coming to get me. I don't know if I saw planet of the apes or maybe the wizard of oz as a wee child but monkeys were coming to get me, I could hear their footsteps whenever I laid down and I could picture them coming in the house, walking down the hall, snatching me out of bed and walking straight out the house and through the garage. It was terrifying. A couple other things I can remember here, the huge splinter Jim got in his finger, Jay taking a ho to the head as he leaned in to check the depth of a hole that Jim was currently digging with said ho, Mike was born a day after my birthday and I went off a sweet jump on a green bike that had a broken pedal and that rod went into my leg. I still have the scar. It was also in the garage in this house that I taught myself how to ride a bike. I remember the bike being yellow but that could be wrong.
We moved to Utah during my second year of first grade and we lived in Grandpa Al and Grandma Vi's house while they were on mission in Switzerland. It was an up and down duplex. We didn't live there more than a year but we did end up moving from their half of the duplex to the basement half when the people that were in there moved out and the grandparents returned home from their mission. I remember learning about paying tithing in that house and I remember that Ronald Reagan was shot while we lived there.
Our house on Glider Lane in Sandy was next. It was a great house but I hated the basement and hated being down there. The reason being, a neighbor boy named Phillip Kimball was over to play when we first moved in and told us about a green rat that lived in and basically haunted the basement. There was no rat but the thought of it haunted my thoughts. I could run up the basement steps so fast that I would float for a second when I reached the top - clearly there was a green rat at my heels and I wasn't having any of that. It was in this house that I tried to cut school as a 4th grader - that didn't work out so well. I basically left for school, hid on the side of the house, jumped the fence and then climbed through my window when I saw my mom leave. I went in and got comfy, turned on the TV and was flipping through cable channels when my dad came home. I didn't know the school called when you didn't show up for school. I heard the front door opening so I turned off the tv and ran out to the garage but it was hopeless and back to school I went, dang it. It was also in this house that the first girl in the family was born and we were all excited to have Laura in our family.
Piper Lane was just around the corner from the Glider Lane house and we lived there while I was in fifth grade. The basement had a room that was carpeted with carpet samples. It was a cool room. The best part of this house though was that I had my own room. There was a workshop off the carpet square room and I was allowed to put my room in there. It was the best. After dinner once I didn't get enough roast to eat so I swiped the left over roast (which was a pretty could chunk of meat) and I went down to my room with it. Later pops discovered the roast was missing. He wanted to know where it went. I wouldn't fess up and we were all grounded for a time. I didn't finish the roast for a few days and it turned into more of a beef jerky after a while. I finally fessed up to it but I didn't want to.
Ida Lane was one street over and as a sixth grader we lived in a house on Ida. President Spencer W. Kimball passed away when we lived in this house and Ezra Taft Benson was called as the new Prophet. Also during this time the space shuttle blew up. That was pretty intense. I also remember learning how to suck water through a house to create a vacuum of sorts to empty out window wells that were filling with water and flooding the basement. Dave was born while we lived in this house and it was here that I can really remember shoveling snow, a lot of snow. It wasn't the first time because I remember Glider Lane and a snowblower we had there but I don't think I took on the load of clearing the driveway seriously until we moved to Ida. The snowblower was stolen out of our garage on Glider Lane shortly after we got it. On Ida Lane I grew to love the World Wrestling Federation and one of my favorite wrestlers was Ricky the Dragon Steamboat. He had a snake eating lizard that he would bring to the ring with him and used to compete with Jake the Snake Roberts. These were good times.
From Ida we moved to Hawaii. Our first house there was on Mokuhano St. I don't even know if I spelled that right. Next to our house was this sweet hill that we used to climb. I shot at a mongoose on that hill and also shot a bird there. The bird fell to the ground and I thought it was dead. Sudden pangs of guilt filled my soul and then it jumped up and flew away. All was right with the world again. We didn't get our furniture or belongings for several months after the move. It wasn't that the shop got lost but that the company that moved us there decided not to move forward with the plan and decided not to pay for the shipping. We were stuck. We had a sunken living room in this house and we came up with a marble style game using golf balls that we found in the storm drains that ran through Kalama Valley and by the golf course. I slept on the floor because I didn't want to share an air mattress with Jim. Well, there were a lot of new things in life now that we lived in Hawaii. There was the beach of course, I loved it. There were gecko's and centipedes the size of small dogs. There were roaches and then there were the B52 bomber roaches that flew through the room and were extremely scary. I remember making mac and cheese with Pete, heavy on the butter and the milk so it was extra creamy. I slipped on the floor horsing around with pops once while I was rounding a corner and my knee went through the wall. This was a fun time. We had none of our cherished belongings but we had each other and it was wonderful.
Our next house was on a street we lived on twice, Kahului St. Our first house on Kahului St was a great house because we had a pool on an upper level on one side of the house. You could go down some stairs in the yard and there was a grassy area with out trampoline. You could then walk around the back of the house to the other side and there was a basketball court. It was pretty fantastic. I was in the 8th grade and remember getting into skateboarding and boogie boarding. I used to go to the beach everyday after school. We would look out towards the ocean as the bus pulled into the valley to see how big the waves were and then we would get our boards and our bikes and ride through the golf course to Sandy Beach. It was the best. I also used to take care of pool cleaning duties at this house and I was quick to the rescue when we were sitting and playing a video game and I watched Dave as a two year old pulling a chair backwards across the pool deck, fall in the pool and pull the chair in on top of him. I was up and in that pool in no time pulling off the chair and lifting Dave out of the water. I felt like a hero to be sure and then went to scout camp and caught my hand on fire because that's what any hero would do. It was pretty severely burned. I also had a paper route when we lived here and would ride around on a moped delivering papers in the wee hours of the morning. One day I crashed on that moped while riding by the park. I was looking to see if any of my friends were there and I hit a dip in the road. It popped up the front wheel and shocked me a bit. In the process I turned the handlebars and when the wheel hit the ground the moped turned sharply and I came crashing down and slid down the road with the moped on top of me. That did a number on my knee. Still have the scar. Good times.
We moved before my freshmen year to Makaweli Place. It was no longer in Kalama Valley but over at Portlock and we had a beautiful view of the bay. We hiked up the mountain we lived on and found that Hanama Bay was on the other side of it. I knew it was in that general area but didn't realize it was that close. That was pretty cool. One of our neighbors was the mother of a professional boogie boarder. I don't remember what his name was but I thought that was pretty geat. I remember somebody tried to break into their home one night and that kind of freaked us out a bit. Amy was born in this house and somewhere there is a video where I said something like 'she's crying for food I know' and maybe even a wimpbreath came out of my mouth. We used to one arm box in this house because we only had one pair of boxing gloves. I worked on the Otsuji farm when we lived here as well. I picked flowers that would be used in making leis. I didn't do a really good job at this line of work and should have been a better employee.
During my sophomore year we moved back to Kalama Valley and into a house that was owned by Brian Lee. This was our second house on Kahului St. I began working at Kentucky Fried Chicken during my sophomore year. I was a cook and then trained in other positions as well. I worked with a gay man named Freddy. He was a manager and gay men out of the closet were not so common back then. I didn't know what to think. I had some good friends there including Josh Ashton. We used to make monster ice cream cones at night when we closed and had to clean out the ice cream machine. Those were fun times. I also used to ride home on the aforementioned moped with bags of left over chicken loaded up. We always had chicken in the fridge. I eventually left KFC and went over to Subway which was a much better environment. One of my buddies Scott at KFC ended up coming over as well. It was in this house that I smashed Dave's face into his birthday cake. He was not happy with me. I was 16 and a bit of a turd.
We moved from Hawaii in 1990. In fact we left on the 4th of July. I can remember flying into Oakland or San Francisco (wherever we landed) and saw fireworks going off. It was nice of the good people of California to celebrate our return to the mainland. We ended up in Carson City Nevada in a house on Overland St. This was outside of town just a hair and we had a large property there. Linda Panter gave us an old motorcycle that was her kids when they were younger. It was in pieces. I put it back together and it ran. I loved it. One time Pete and I went riding with our buddy Lystra and his younger brother. We had to go and get gas and while so doing I went off a little jump area by some new tennis courts built at the park down the street. Lystra and his brother did the same thing and then came Pete. He was riding one handed with a gas can if I remember correctly. He decided to go off the little jump as well. There was a bus parked just to the side of the road between the road and the little jump. Pete wiped out pretty well and kind of slid under the bus. It was a good start to that ride. He was fine and we went on to have some fun but it was a little scary there for a minute. I managed to break the front window in this house when I watched Jim throw a football into the couch in front of the window so I tried the same thing. Didn't go so well. Jim left on his mission to Oklahoma from this house. I had finally received my Eagle Scout award and was able to start driving. Our friends the Reeds let us use their old suburban and I used to drive that all over. In rain storms we used to drive through the area and hit dips as hard as we could because it would shoot water everywhere and we would go flying. Pretty dumb thing to do with a vehicle that didn't belong to us but when you're a young teenage driver you don't have a lot of sense. I also reared into a light pole at the C-Hill building in that suburban. Those were fun times.
During my senior year of high school we moved to a house on Sycamore Glen. It was a nice place. I had bought my first car. It lasted two days. I bought my second car, a Mazda Rx7. It was a great ride. I worked again at Subway and took on the responsibility of making payments on that car every two weeks. It was a great lesson to me. I enjoyed that car. It was a backfiring machine and made for some good times as flames would come roaring out of the tailpipe some times. I raced some friends at times. Once was Lystra in his 68 Mustang. He totally had me out powered but I out maneuvered him. We lined up once. He was in the regular lane and I lined up in the turn lane. We took off and all was well until my turn lane turned into opposite traffic turn lane and then opposite traffic lane. That was still okay until opposite traffic was coming right at me. I pulled off onto the dirt shoulder and kept going as fast as I could. Lystra got stuck behind slow moving traffic and I zipped by and then turned into our neighborhood. A couple minutes later Lystra pulled up and we were all laughing pretty good. Did I mention teenagers do dumb things behind the wheel of a car? I managed to graduate from high school and then we moved again.
Telegraph Street. This was a great house. We put a lot of work into it. We were there just under a year when I left on my mission. When I got home from my mission a miracle had taken place. The fam did not move the entire time I was away. Sweet. A month or so after I got home we moved the family business to Vegas and a month or so after that we moved the rest of the fam down there too. I lived in an apartment with Jim until he got married in December and then I moved into the family home on Bethany Street out in Green Valley until a few months before I got married. I could say more about Telegraph, the apartment and Bethany St. but I will only say this. On Telegraph Street I got a letter from Jim who was still on his mission. He referenced a verse of scripture in that letter in Alma 7:23-24. I opened my scriptures and read the passage. It touched my heart. I was not a strong reader before that but that day I felt something powerful and I got into the Book of Mormon like I never had before. It touched my heart and provided needed encouragement to get my things together an get out in the mission field. I did so. Upon my return from mission I lived with Jim in an apartment just off the strip in Vegas. It was a good place. I learned some things there as an awkward return missionary adjusting to non mission life. There was powerful revelation in that apartment that reconfirmed what I already knew - Heavenly Father knew who I was and he was aware of what I was going through. There were things given to me spiritually at that time that the Lord knew I needed. On Bethany Street I live with the fam once again and it was great. We had lots of great basketball games in the street in front of the house and many roller blading expeditions. There were continued times of spiritual learning and enlightenment. I was grateful for those times in my life.
I don't know that I can call anyone of the many homes we lived in my absolute favorite. There were wonderful things that happened in each of them. Each home had it's own unique character and there were life lessons learned. Overall we always had a gospel centered home no matter what it looked like or where it was located and that I think was the most important thing. We were blessed with goodly parents who loved the Lord and established a home and a family life that lead us towards our Savior.
Well, I came across a document here in the house titled 20 Questions to Ask a Parent. I don't know which of the kids brought this home but they never asked me the questions. I thought I would spend some time answering these on the blog and then they will all have a lasting record of my answers. I don't know what kind of a schedule I will follow in answering these questions at this point. I don't think I will do them over the next 20 days but will try to answer them over the course of a couple of months or so.
The first question is What do you remember about the houses you lived in as a kid? Which one did you like the best? Now this is a loaded question because I lived in at least 16 houses from the time I was born until I got married. That does not include flats or apartments I lived in on my mission and I am a little unclear of houses prior to the house we lived in when I was in kindergarten in Carson City in the late 70's. I will not go into detail about all the houses we lived in but will try to say something about each of them.
The Carson City house I remember dancing to Saturday Night Fever 8 Track and also being scared to death at bed time because I could hear my heart beating through my pillow and I thought it was a group of monkeys coming to get me. I don't know if I saw planet of the apes or maybe the wizard of oz as a wee child but monkeys were coming to get me, I could hear their footsteps whenever I laid down and I could picture them coming in the house, walking down the hall, snatching me out of bed and walking straight out the house and through the garage. It was terrifying. A couple other things I can remember here, the huge splinter Jim got in his finger, Jay taking a ho to the head as he leaned in to check the depth of a hole that Jim was currently digging with said ho, Mike was born a day after my birthday and I went off a sweet jump on a green bike that had a broken pedal and that rod went into my leg. I still have the scar. It was also in the garage in this house that I taught myself how to ride a bike. I remember the bike being yellow but that could be wrong.
We moved to Utah during my second year of first grade and we lived in Grandpa Al and Grandma Vi's house while they were on mission in Switzerland. It was an up and down duplex. We didn't live there more than a year but we did end up moving from their half of the duplex to the basement half when the people that were in there moved out and the grandparents returned home from their mission. I remember learning about paying tithing in that house and I remember that Ronald Reagan was shot while we lived there.
Our house on Glider Lane in Sandy was next. It was a great house but I hated the basement and hated being down there. The reason being, a neighbor boy named Phillip Kimball was over to play when we first moved in and told us about a green rat that lived in and basically haunted the basement. There was no rat but the thought of it haunted my thoughts. I could run up the basement steps so fast that I would float for a second when I reached the top - clearly there was a green rat at my heels and I wasn't having any of that. It was in this house that I tried to cut school as a 4th grader - that didn't work out so well. I basically left for school, hid on the side of the house, jumped the fence and then climbed through my window when I saw my mom leave. I went in and got comfy, turned on the TV and was flipping through cable channels when my dad came home. I didn't know the school called when you didn't show up for school. I heard the front door opening so I turned off the tv and ran out to the garage but it was hopeless and back to school I went, dang it. It was also in this house that the first girl in the family was born and we were all excited to have Laura in our family.
Piper Lane was just around the corner from the Glider Lane house and we lived there while I was in fifth grade. The basement had a room that was carpeted with carpet samples. It was a cool room. The best part of this house though was that I had my own room. There was a workshop off the carpet square room and I was allowed to put my room in there. It was the best. After dinner once I didn't get enough roast to eat so I swiped the left over roast (which was a pretty could chunk of meat) and I went down to my room with it. Later pops discovered the roast was missing. He wanted to know where it went. I wouldn't fess up and we were all grounded for a time. I didn't finish the roast for a few days and it turned into more of a beef jerky after a while. I finally fessed up to it but I didn't want to.
Ida Lane was one street over and as a sixth grader we lived in a house on Ida. President Spencer W. Kimball passed away when we lived in this house and Ezra Taft Benson was called as the new Prophet. Also during this time the space shuttle blew up. That was pretty intense. I also remember learning how to suck water through a house to create a vacuum of sorts to empty out window wells that were filling with water and flooding the basement. Dave was born while we lived in this house and it was here that I can really remember shoveling snow, a lot of snow. It wasn't the first time because I remember Glider Lane and a snowblower we had there but I don't think I took on the load of clearing the driveway seriously until we moved to Ida. The snowblower was stolen out of our garage on Glider Lane shortly after we got it. On Ida Lane I grew to love the World Wrestling Federation and one of my favorite wrestlers was Ricky the Dragon Steamboat. He had a snake eating lizard that he would bring to the ring with him and used to compete with Jake the Snake Roberts. These were good times.
From Ida we moved to Hawaii. Our first house there was on Mokuhano St. I don't even know if I spelled that right. Next to our house was this sweet hill that we used to climb. I shot at a mongoose on that hill and also shot a bird there. The bird fell to the ground and I thought it was dead. Sudden pangs of guilt filled my soul and then it jumped up and flew away. All was right with the world again. We didn't get our furniture or belongings for several months after the move. It wasn't that the shop got lost but that the company that moved us there decided not to move forward with the plan and decided not to pay for the shipping. We were stuck. We had a sunken living room in this house and we came up with a marble style game using golf balls that we found in the storm drains that ran through Kalama Valley and by the golf course. I slept on the floor because I didn't want to share an air mattress with Jim. Well, there were a lot of new things in life now that we lived in Hawaii. There was the beach of course, I loved it. There were gecko's and centipedes the size of small dogs. There were roaches and then there were the B52 bomber roaches that flew through the room and were extremely scary. I remember making mac and cheese with Pete, heavy on the butter and the milk so it was extra creamy. I slipped on the floor horsing around with pops once while I was rounding a corner and my knee went through the wall. This was a fun time. We had none of our cherished belongings but we had each other and it was wonderful.
Our next house was on a street we lived on twice, Kahului St. Our first house on Kahului St was a great house because we had a pool on an upper level on one side of the house. You could go down some stairs in the yard and there was a grassy area with out trampoline. You could then walk around the back of the house to the other side and there was a basketball court. It was pretty fantastic. I was in the 8th grade and remember getting into skateboarding and boogie boarding. I used to go to the beach everyday after school. We would look out towards the ocean as the bus pulled into the valley to see how big the waves were and then we would get our boards and our bikes and ride through the golf course to Sandy Beach. It was the best. I also used to take care of pool cleaning duties at this house and I was quick to the rescue when we were sitting and playing a video game and I watched Dave as a two year old pulling a chair backwards across the pool deck, fall in the pool and pull the chair in on top of him. I was up and in that pool in no time pulling off the chair and lifting Dave out of the water. I felt like a hero to be sure and then went to scout camp and caught my hand on fire because that's what any hero would do. It was pretty severely burned. I also had a paper route when we lived here and would ride around on a moped delivering papers in the wee hours of the morning. One day I crashed on that moped while riding by the park. I was looking to see if any of my friends were there and I hit a dip in the road. It popped up the front wheel and shocked me a bit. In the process I turned the handlebars and when the wheel hit the ground the moped turned sharply and I came crashing down and slid down the road with the moped on top of me. That did a number on my knee. Still have the scar. Good times.
We moved before my freshmen year to Makaweli Place. It was no longer in Kalama Valley but over at Portlock and we had a beautiful view of the bay. We hiked up the mountain we lived on and found that Hanama Bay was on the other side of it. I knew it was in that general area but didn't realize it was that close. That was pretty cool. One of our neighbors was the mother of a professional boogie boarder. I don't remember what his name was but I thought that was pretty geat. I remember somebody tried to break into their home one night and that kind of freaked us out a bit. Amy was born in this house and somewhere there is a video where I said something like 'she's crying for food I know' and maybe even a wimpbreath came out of my mouth. We used to one arm box in this house because we only had one pair of boxing gloves. I worked on the Otsuji farm when we lived here as well. I picked flowers that would be used in making leis. I didn't do a really good job at this line of work and should have been a better employee.
During my sophomore year we moved back to Kalama Valley and into a house that was owned by Brian Lee. This was our second house on Kahului St. I began working at Kentucky Fried Chicken during my sophomore year. I was a cook and then trained in other positions as well. I worked with a gay man named Freddy. He was a manager and gay men out of the closet were not so common back then. I didn't know what to think. I had some good friends there including Josh Ashton. We used to make monster ice cream cones at night when we closed and had to clean out the ice cream machine. Those were fun times. I also used to ride home on the aforementioned moped with bags of left over chicken loaded up. We always had chicken in the fridge. I eventually left KFC and went over to Subway which was a much better environment. One of my buddies Scott at KFC ended up coming over as well. It was in this house that I smashed Dave's face into his birthday cake. He was not happy with me. I was 16 and a bit of a turd.
We moved from Hawaii in 1990. In fact we left on the 4th of July. I can remember flying into Oakland or San Francisco (wherever we landed) and saw fireworks going off. It was nice of the good people of California to celebrate our return to the mainland. We ended up in Carson City Nevada in a house on Overland St. This was outside of town just a hair and we had a large property there. Linda Panter gave us an old motorcycle that was her kids when they were younger. It was in pieces. I put it back together and it ran. I loved it. One time Pete and I went riding with our buddy Lystra and his younger brother. We had to go and get gas and while so doing I went off a little jump area by some new tennis courts built at the park down the street. Lystra and his brother did the same thing and then came Pete. He was riding one handed with a gas can if I remember correctly. He decided to go off the little jump as well. There was a bus parked just to the side of the road between the road and the little jump. Pete wiped out pretty well and kind of slid under the bus. It was a good start to that ride. He was fine and we went on to have some fun but it was a little scary there for a minute. I managed to break the front window in this house when I watched Jim throw a football into the couch in front of the window so I tried the same thing. Didn't go so well. Jim left on his mission to Oklahoma from this house. I had finally received my Eagle Scout award and was able to start driving. Our friends the Reeds let us use their old suburban and I used to drive that all over. In rain storms we used to drive through the area and hit dips as hard as we could because it would shoot water everywhere and we would go flying. Pretty dumb thing to do with a vehicle that didn't belong to us but when you're a young teenage driver you don't have a lot of sense. I also reared into a light pole at the C-Hill building in that suburban. Those were fun times.
During my senior year of high school we moved to a house on Sycamore Glen. It was a nice place. I had bought my first car. It lasted two days. I bought my second car, a Mazda Rx7. It was a great ride. I worked again at Subway and took on the responsibility of making payments on that car every two weeks. It was a great lesson to me. I enjoyed that car. It was a backfiring machine and made for some good times as flames would come roaring out of the tailpipe some times. I raced some friends at times. Once was Lystra in his 68 Mustang. He totally had me out powered but I out maneuvered him. We lined up once. He was in the regular lane and I lined up in the turn lane. We took off and all was well until my turn lane turned into opposite traffic turn lane and then opposite traffic lane. That was still okay until opposite traffic was coming right at me. I pulled off onto the dirt shoulder and kept going as fast as I could. Lystra got stuck behind slow moving traffic and I zipped by and then turned into our neighborhood. A couple minutes later Lystra pulled up and we were all laughing pretty good. Did I mention teenagers do dumb things behind the wheel of a car? I managed to graduate from high school and then we moved again.
Telegraph Street. This was a great house. We put a lot of work into it. We were there just under a year when I left on my mission. When I got home from my mission a miracle had taken place. The fam did not move the entire time I was away. Sweet. A month or so after I got home we moved the family business to Vegas and a month or so after that we moved the rest of the fam down there too. I lived in an apartment with Jim until he got married in December and then I moved into the family home on Bethany Street out in Green Valley until a few months before I got married. I could say more about Telegraph, the apartment and Bethany St. but I will only say this. On Telegraph Street I got a letter from Jim who was still on his mission. He referenced a verse of scripture in that letter in Alma 7:23-24. I opened my scriptures and read the passage. It touched my heart. I was not a strong reader before that but that day I felt something powerful and I got into the Book of Mormon like I never had before. It touched my heart and provided needed encouragement to get my things together an get out in the mission field. I did so. Upon my return from mission I lived with Jim in an apartment just off the strip in Vegas. It was a good place. I learned some things there as an awkward return missionary adjusting to non mission life. There was powerful revelation in that apartment that reconfirmed what I already knew - Heavenly Father knew who I was and he was aware of what I was going through. There were things given to me spiritually at that time that the Lord knew I needed. On Bethany Street I live with the fam once again and it was great. We had lots of great basketball games in the street in front of the house and many roller blading expeditions. There were continued times of spiritual learning and enlightenment. I was grateful for those times in my life.
I don't know that I can call anyone of the many homes we lived in my absolute favorite. There were wonderful things that happened in each of them. Each home had it's own unique character and there were life lessons learned. Overall we always had a gospel centered home no matter what it looked like or where it was located and that I think was the most important thing. We were blessed with goodly parents who loved the Lord and established a home and a family life that lead us towards our Savior.
Temple
Made the drive down to Saint George today and did a session at the temple. I love to be in the temple. I finally saw the 2nd of the new temple movies and it was quite good and powerfully depicted the need for a savior. I really liked it and really enjoyed being in the temple.
Well, it is now after 1 in the morning and I just woke up to my neighbors partying. Not cool people. I might turn into not a very nice neighbor. That has nothing to do with the temple well, my body is a temple that needs rest and the noise coming from the neighbors is not allowing that to happen. I guess we will see how this goes.
Friday, June 17, 2016
Piano Time
Last week at Jim and Clo's house I was walking by the piano and made an attempt to play a song from memory. It didn't happen. I can't remember the last time I sat down and practiced and so it didn't come as much surprise when I couldn't remember certain songs off the top of my head. Tonight while I was watering the lawn I had a little time while waiting to move the water. I sat down at the piano and played. I was a bit rusty but things started coming back. I like to play the hymns, the simplified hymns that is. Not the beginner hymns but the big Orange book. I like the hymns and enjoy learning and playing them. I need to take time more often.
Busy Day
Ended up having a fairly busy day today. Things got a little crazy at the Brick House over lunch and I ended up busing tables, stocking the salad bar, making a store run for supplies and other things. I scouted out a swamp cooler and we will work on installing that tomorrow. Got to help with a big order that came in tonight. It was a large order for all hot sandwiches - 35 of them. That is a fairly significant order and it takes some planning and preparation. As it stands we didn't have enough pork and had to adjust there order on the fly. When you call in for something like that at the last minute there is a chance the restaurant may not have what you want because they didn't plan on you being there and some things take a bit more preparation. Oh well, we got it out. Clayton started back today and he actually did a great job. He felt good, Tyler thought he did great and I was happy to have him there working hard. Tomorrow will be a busy with that swamp cooler install. I also need to make a run to the temple at some point. It is wonderful to be busy.
Wednesday, June 15, 2016
House Guest
Clayton arrived this evening and will be living here for the next little while. I don't exactly know how long but it is good to have someone else in the house. Things have been quiet with the kids gone so having a house guest livens things up a bit. Hopefully I can be a good example and help him to progress and grow. He is here to work and is also preparing for a mission. He went to a mission prep class tonight that brother Huff is teaching. That is excellent. I am excited for him to be in this class.
Painting a Car
When I bought the Honda I thought I should paint it and just make it look good instead of having peeling and fading paint. Last night I picked up an new orbital sander and this afternoon I started sanding the car. I've got a lot of sanding still to do and a long ways to go but it is kind of fun. I have never painted a car before and thought it would be a good experience. Just something I wanted to do. I hope it turns out well and will make the car that much nicer. I certainly have my worries that I could screw this up pretty bad but I don't think I will. I think it is going to turn out just fine.
Got to move out the old dead grill at the Brick House today. There is a lovely new grill there now. It is going to take some getting used to but I am confident the kitchen people can handle it. I did manage to get out and do a little yard work. That is fabulous stuff. I am beginning to fall asleep so I am going to call it.
Got to move out the old dead grill at the Brick House today. There is a lovely new grill there now. It is going to take some getting used to but I am confident the kitchen people can handle it. I did manage to get out and do a little yard work. That is fabulous stuff. I am beginning to fall asleep so I am going to call it.
Monday, June 13, 2016
NattyRoom
One of the major summer clean up projects for me every year is the cleaning of Nattys room. Today was the day and after some effort the room Is in good shape. I can't concentrate right now, so tired.
Anyway, the room is looking good. I've got to sleep. I'm out.
Sunday, June 12, 2016
Farewell Marien
Today Marien spoke in church as she is preparing to leave on her mission. The meeting was excellent, the Spirit was strong and I was well fed. Kathryn started things out with a special musical number. She sang Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing combined with God Be With You Till We Meet Again. It was powerful and there were probably not many with dry eyes. Marien then spoke on the atonement and she did a marvelous job. I couldn't help but feel of her faith and her powerful testimony and I am proud of the woman she has become. She will be a wonderful missionary. I am grateful for the example she is setting for those in our family who follow after her.
After Marien a sister just returning home from her mission spoke today. She had served in the visitors center in Mesa, Arizona. Her testimony was powerful and I was touched by her message. I was quite impressed by her ability to quote scripture from memory.
At the close of the meeting one of the missionaries gave the closing prayer. I think his name is Elder Herrera. I am not certain of that. Clayton said he will be going home in a week. Anyway, he offered a prayer of faith that was powerful, it was emotional and it was sweet.
I am grateful to have been there. I am grateful for the spirit that was there and the things that I learned and felt.
In a week and a half Marien will enter the MTC and then will head to North Carolina. I am looking forward to hearing of her experiences and feeling of her testimony as it grows and is strengthened further.
After Marien a sister just returning home from her mission spoke today. She had served in the visitors center in Mesa, Arizona. Her testimony was powerful and I was touched by her message. I was quite impressed by her ability to quote scripture from memory.
At the close of the meeting one of the missionaries gave the closing prayer. I think his name is Elder Herrera. I am not certain of that. Clayton said he will be going home in a week. Anyway, he offered a prayer of faith that was powerful, it was emotional and it was sweet.
I am grateful to have been there. I am grateful for the spirit that was there and the things that I learned and felt.
In a week and a half Marien will enter the MTC and then will head to North Carolina. I am looking forward to hearing of her experiences and feeling of her testimony as it grows and is strengthened further.
Eagle Court for Clayton
This evening I was able to attend the Eagle Court of Honor for Clayton. It was a great ceremony. Both of Clayton's grandfather's spoke. I enjoyed that as it reminded me of Grandpa Am speaking at Jim's Eagle Court 30 years ago. Certainly proud of Clayton and this great accomplishment.
I was asked to do the Eagle Charge. Following is the message I shared with Clayton today.
Eagle Charge - Clayton
Clayton, 30 years ago as a young scout I conducted the Eagle Court of Honor for your father. In that court of honor I saw my two older cousins sitting in the Eagle's nest and watched as my older brother received this highest rank in scouting. I looked up to my cousins, my older brother and other Eagle Scouts as examples that I should follow in my own scouting endeavors.
Clayton you are the first grandson in both the Fontano and Gatrell families to earn the rank of Eagle. Just as I looked up to my cousins and brother, your cousins are looking up to you as are the younger scouts in your troop. You have a great responsibility as you pave the way for others to follow. With this responsibility in mind, it is my honor to give you the Eagle charge as we gather to witness and celebrate your elevation to the highest rank in scouting.
The Boy Scouts of all nations constitute one of the most wholesome and significant influences in the world's history. You have been counted worthy of this high rank in the Boy Scouts of America. Your responsibility goes beyond your fellow scouts: it extends to your God and your Country.
As you place your duty to God first and foremost in your life you will understand your duty to your Country and your responsibility to your fellow men and to yourself. I charge you to put your relationship with Heavenly Father first in your life.
America has many fine things to offer you and your children after you; but these good things depend for the most part on the quality of her citizens. Our country has a great past. You can help make the future even better. I charge you to undertake your citizenship with solemn dedication. Be a leader, but lead only toward the best. Lift up every task you do, and every office you hold to the high level of service to God and your fellow men. So live and serve that those who know you will be inspired, lifted and better for knowing you.
I charge you to be among those who dedicate their hearts and hands to the common good. Build your life on the sound foundations of clean living, honest work, unselfish citizenship, and reverence for God. Then, whatever others do, you will leave behind you a record of which you may be justly proud.
Eagle candidate Clayton Fontano , I charge you to enter this Eagle Scout Brotherhood holding before you the ideals of honor and service.
By repetition of the Eagle Scout Promise before your fellow members you become an Eagle Scout.
We then recited the Eagle Scout Promise.
Saturday, June 11, 2016
Clayton Graduation
Made the drive down to Vegas today for Clayton's high school graduation. On the way down I stopped off at the temple in Saint George and participated in initiatory work. It was wonderful to be in the temple. So glad I was able to stop.
Graduation for Clayton was at the Orleans arena. It was a good venue for a graduation. It was a good ceremony and Clayton managed to get through it. He did well and was easy to pick out of the crowd of graduates. It was a good day.
I am completely exhausted and ready to crash.
Friday, June 10, 2016
Racquetball
Tonight I went and played racquetball with Dan and Sam. I will be 43 in two months and this was the first time in my life that I played racquetball. Now, I have played squash which is similar but this was my first racquetballing. It was rough. On my very first actual play I went to hit the ball, missed, my feet got stuck on the floor, I went down and then my momentum carried me through and backwards somersault. It was pretty dramatic. I knew then that I was in trouble. Dan said that I did great for my first time. I felt sluggish, like a wet sponge but I had a good time. Looking forward to playing again and hopefully doing better.
Wednesday, June 8, 2016
Headache
Bit of a rough day as I suffered through a headache for most of it. It was not the best day as my head was throbbing and so this afternoon I had came home and relaxed a bit. That seemed to help some. We had a little family gathering at the park tonight with a little dinner and some soccer. Jayson and Jaykod are in town and they came. We had some fun out on the soccer field. Dave, Dan, Jayson, Jaykob and myself. It was one of those things that helped at least three of us realize we were a bit out of shape. We need to spend a little more time out doing things like playing soccer. Fun stuff. Hopefully there won't be any headaches tomorrow.
Peeling
I reached the stage of my sunburned legs where I am now peeling like crazy. The legs are itchy pretty much everywhere there was a burn and there is some serious peeling going on. Perhaps I will need to return to the lake and add more color. I'm not so sure the color would be worth it. The sunburn going away is not a bad thing. I got to spend some time today doing some landscaping stuff. I have a lot more to do as we are trying to clean up the front of the brick house. There is some stone landscaping that has become impacted with dirt and other materials over the years and it is hard. I spent some time chipping it out, it will be slightly more effective with some different tools. Fun times for sure.
Monday, June 6, 2016
Back
I am back home today. The drive back was good. The house was in good shape. The grass was in need of some water but that is to be expected after 5 days. The turtle was in need of some food. That is to be expected after 5 days as well. I couldn't find one of the fish when I first got home and thought maybe George took one down when he got hungry. I was fixing to send the kids the news when I sat down on the couch and finally spotted it under the platform. It took him a bit to get moving and out from under the platform and it took some effort from the other gold fish to motivate him to come out. They all got some food in them and they have been fine. This is a very exciting report I know. I've got to start getting some things done at the shop. There is a swamp cooler to install and some landscaping to do. Should be a great time. Well, not much else to report today. Good to be home.
Sunday, June 5, 2016
The Drive, The Visit and The Graduation
I got up early this morning and got showered, got ready, got the car loaded and got on the road to Vegas from Long Beach. It was actually a great drive, traffic moved rather well and I got back to Vegas around 12 or so. Not bad. I visited the midsingles ward this week and it was really pretty good. I hung out with Liz for a bit and then went to some visitor class during Sunday School. It was pretty cool. A lot of my single friends from the singles conference are in the ward so that was a good time. After the ward meetings there was a little break the fast or linger longer thing going on and I stayed and hung out some more with Liz and Katie and Lani and others. Had a good time there and might try to make it back to the ward next week when I am down for the graduation, mission farewell and eagle court. We will see. Speaking of graduation, tonight was seminary graduation for Clayton. It was nice to be there. Clayton spoke and did a great job. I am at Jim and Clo's house tonight because I have no headlights on the car. I am going to enjoy a bit of sleep and then will drive home in the morning. Fun times. The kids made it up to Alaska and all went well.
Saturday, June 4, 2016
Sea Creatures and Airplanes
We made our way over to the aquarium of the pacific this morning. I didn't know what to expect and certainly didn't have it in my planned budget to pay the kind of money required to get into this place but splurged for the kids who were excited to go. It was $30 per adult and then $17 to $18 for a child. Adults are 12 and older and that made things a bit pricey. I decided to try and forget about the costs and just enjoy it. Unfortunately there was some festival being and held there and the place was completely packed. A packed house tends to lead me to being less enthusiastic about it. Seemed like everyone found it necessary to carry a phone and take pictures and videos at every display. That was getting on my nerves. I have a really hard time with big crowds and this was certainly a big crowd here. i managed to survive as did the kids. the displays were cool and everyone seems to have enjoyed themselves. for me it is not something I would pay that kind of money to do again but we had a fine time, it was just too many people for my enjoyment.
Oh my goodness. I am completely exhausted. Cant keep the ideas flowing. The kids managed to get on the airplane. I am beat. Must sleep.
Oh my goodness. I am completely exhausted. Cant keep the ideas flowing. The kids managed to get on the airplane. I am beat. Must sleep.
Knott's, Newport, Huntington
We went to Knott's Berry Farm today. It was a great park and we had a great time. There were a couple of things that we didn't get to do The big wooden roller coaster was not operational and that was first on the list of rides to hit. That was sad. Oh well, we will have to come back some time. The only other thing I would do differently is go at a different time of year as the number of students that were there today was outrageous. A lot of graduation trips and what not. It was crazy and they would all cut in line. Just walk up to go "stand with friends". Enough of that action. I finally said something to some and they stopped. I'm sure I was the big ogre in line that wouldn't allow people to pass. That is okay with me. It was fun otherwise though I didn't get to do any of the high powered rides because kids wanted nothing to do with it. I will need to go again for myself. Anyways, we had fun.
After that we took a drive down to Newport Beach and visited the temple down there. It was beautiful. We had some challenges with the GPS on that one but managed to get there. It was worth the trip and I enjoyed seeing the temple
We took the pacific coast highway back to Long Beach and ended up stopping at the pier in Huntington Beach and spent an hour there watching the waves roll in. It was great. I love that kind of a beach and wish I would have had some gear to go out.
It was a great day. We had some good times. I am completely beat and need to go to bed so I'm out.
After that we took a drive down to Newport Beach and visited the temple down there. It was beautiful. We had some challenges with the GPS on that one but managed to get there. It was worth the trip and I enjoyed seeing the temple
We took the pacific coast highway back to Long Beach and ended up stopping at the pier in Huntington Beach and spent an hour there watching the waves roll in. It was great. I love that kind of a beach and wish I would have had some gear to go out.
It was a great day. We had some good times. I am completely beat and need to go to bed so I'm out.
Thursday, June 2, 2016
Long Beaching It
A few hours ago we arrived in Long Beach and checked in to our hotel. It was so nice to get out from behind the wheel for a bit. We ended up getting ready in our beach gear and making a trip to the beach. It was wonderful. The kids had a ball. Jack is a bit raw from all the sand but hopefully he can pull through and make it a great day at the knotts berry farm tomorrow. I am seriously barely keeping my eyes open I must need call the day,
Wednesday, June 1, 2016
Food Showing
Today we departed Cedar City on our way down to Long Beach for the kids to fly out to Alaska for the summer. Our first leg of the trip took us to Las Vegas and here we attended a food show for US Foods at the Cashman Center. I thought it might be fun showing the kids what a food show is like and I think they enjoyed themselves but they certainly were not as into as I thought they might be. Well, Natty seemed to be enjoying herself and into it and she would bring me various things from around the show that she found. There were some flavored lemonades that we were trying at the end and they were delicious. One was a prickly pear and there was a cucumber jalapeno one that was quite interesting. I asked Jack what his favorite thing was in the show and he said it was the rice krispie treat that he had. So a bunch of fancy foods and his favorite was a prepackaged rice krispie. Well, that seems normal for a 12 year old boy. Anyhow, we all had a good time and I got to introduce Andy to one of the big chefs for US Foods and they had a good visit. His name is Dan and he has been in to the Brick House previously and cooked with us. He asked Andy what his favorite thing to cook was and then he said he would love to cook it with him sometime and show him how to cook up a pasta and shrimp dish that he can make for the whole family. It was pretty awesome. Got to see Craig our rep for a bit and also saw Dan and Amy and Sam who also came down for the show. We had a good time but the kids didn't have much stamina and I didn't get to explore quite as much as I can when I am on my own because I was worried about what the kids were doing and wanted them to have a good time. It was fine though and we were able to find the boxes that we were looking for and got to talk about a couple of things related to POS and management tools.
After the show we came to Jim and Clo's house for the night and have enjoyed spending time with everyone here. They are wonderful and have gotten an earful from Jack about trains and different designs he has in mind. The boy can talk non stop about trains and toy designs. I finally told him that sometimes it is important to listen and he should ask Uncle Jim about a favorite memory from growing up. He did and Jim told him about the time he was running off the football field and tripped in a hole around the track in front of everyone. He also showed Jack a video of him at a Stake Road Show of him dancing to Call Me Maybe with Clorinda and other folks. It was pretty funny and I was happy to see Jack ask and listen.
I almost forgot that we listened to a great message from Hank Smith on our drive about fighting for and not with your families. There was good and powerful stuff there and I think we all learned some good things.
I am grateful for my children. As we approach there departure for Alaska it gets a bit harder for me. These are not my favorite days of the year when they leave for the summer or for Christmas. I am grateful for them to see their mom and to spend time with her but it gets really quiet and lonesome at home and a major part of my life is missing. We survive though. We have for several years now and will continue to do so. Anyhow, love my family.
After the show we came to Jim and Clo's house for the night and have enjoyed spending time with everyone here. They are wonderful and have gotten an earful from Jack about trains and different designs he has in mind. The boy can talk non stop about trains and toy designs. I finally told him that sometimes it is important to listen and he should ask Uncle Jim about a favorite memory from growing up. He did and Jim told him about the time he was running off the football field and tripped in a hole around the track in front of everyone. He also showed Jack a video of him at a Stake Road Show of him dancing to Call Me Maybe with Clorinda and other folks. It was pretty funny and I was happy to see Jack ask and listen.
I almost forgot that we listened to a great message from Hank Smith on our drive about fighting for and not with your families. There was good and powerful stuff there and I think we all learned some good things.
I am grateful for my children. As we approach there departure for Alaska it gets a bit harder for me. These are not my favorite days of the year when they leave for the summer or for Christmas. I am grateful for them to see their mom and to spend time with her but it gets really quiet and lonesome at home and a major part of my life is missing. We survive though. We have for several years now and will continue to do so. Anyhow, love my family.
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