Trip back east--North Carolina--Monday October 13

We had nice breakfast with Shirley and Theron and Randall and Karen B, then made a leisurely drive back to Raleigh and checked back into our same motel in Apex.  After dinner at our old Route 55 place, we drove around the outer belt (540) and met and visited with Phil W, with his sons Jesse and Caleb, at a theater on the north side of Raleigh, then saw the movie “Meet the Mormons” with them.

In the lobby after the show we ran into and had a little reunion with the S‘s, who were Raleigh temple president and matron and who we had gotten to know well as temple patrons while on our mission.  From this interaction we had learned a new and significant meaning of  holding “a name and standing” in the temple (D&C 109:24).  They knew us by name when we attended and greeted us personally and warmly.

Trip back east--North Carolina--Sunday October 12

We went to church at the Mt. Zion branch.  They are still meeting from 9 am to 12 noon, using the "one true schedule" with sacrament meeting last.  Attendance appeared to have increased a little since we had been there last.  There have been some converts recently.  The full-time missionaries were present including Elder Wood from Spanish Fork.  (We had contact with his family prior to our trip.) One thing that was happening that I was impressed and excited about, was their relationship with the teenage boys in the branch.  There were 5 or 6 young men hanging around them constantly.  This day plans were being made for the elders to split off with AP boys to take the sacrament to home-bound members.  I sensed that if these elders accomplished nothing else, the examples they provided for the AP was worth their being in the branch.  One of the problems that Wendy and I had identified when were assigned to the branch was the there was no culture of mission preparation there.  These elders seemed to have changed this.  There are two young men with mission papers ready and others younger now seemingly with the same vision.

It was fast and testimony Sunday, and we bore our testimonies. 

After meeting, we made some visits.  We first saw Jeff and Dorothy F.  We lived with their son Daryl for awhile at the start of our mission.  Jeff used to keep us supplied with the best sausage.  She has been suffering from had cancer for a number of years but is still hanging on and positive.  Then we visited with Connie W, her daughter-in-law Maria and some of Maria’s kids.  Connie’s was the second place we live at Mt. Zion.  Connie’s husband died recently.  We heard about his death and his baptism shortly before he died.  Next we dropped in at Wade and Farrah N.  The missionaries were also there and interacting with their teenagers.  Finally we went to see Jeff and Debby P where we also saw Tabitha and Todd and their kids and also Tara and her kids.

In the evening, we had dinner at Theron and Shirley’s with Danny and Sherry H, Riley and Judy G, and Randall B also present.

It was such a joyful reunion and we felt so loved and so at home.

Trip back east--North Carolina--Saturday October 11

We had a good early breakfast buffet at the motel and then we did the 8 am endowment session at the Raleigh temple.  The session was full and we were glad Wendy had called two week earlier to make appointments.  Interestingly, the temple did not look the same.  We decided it was because the trees and shrubs in its landscaping were 4 years older.

We had another one of those "going home," sentimental experiences at the Raleigh temple.  So sweet.

After checking out of the motel, we headed for Mt. Zion, and arrived in the early pm at Shirley and Theron S’s home.  Later in the afternoon, we drove with them to Danny and Sherri H’s home, where they had prepared a dinner, a fish fry.  He had been fishing a few days before in the ocean near Hampstead and we ate deep fried flounder and spot that he had caught.  I had never heard of a fish called spot before, but when I was a little boy we did have a dog with that name.  They said that these are a small ocean fish, and are called spot because they have a dark spot somewhere on their little bodies.  The fish had been gutted but still had fins and tail when they were cooked.   Riley and Judy G were there as were Randall B, Ethelene and Linon, and William B and his daughter Judith.  We donated the tails to Judy to eat because, predictably, she said they were the best part of the fish.

Here is what Wikipedia says about spots in case you are interested: “The spot croaker (Leiostomus xanthurus) or spot is a small saltwater fish species inhabiting estuary and coastal waters along the eastern coast of United States, Gulf of Mexico, and the Caribbean.[2] The spot croaker derives its name from the prominent dark spot behind each gill. It is also known for its the croaking sound it produces using its swim bladder. It is part of the family Sciaendae and the only species in its the genus, Leiostomus. Spot croakers spawn offshore and the spawn migrate inland to develop into juveniles. They are frequently caught by recreational anglers and make excellent table fare. Their diets consist largely of organic detritus, small crustaceans, and worms. Bloodworms are the ideal bait when fishing for spot croaker. The community of Hampstead, North Carolina hosts the North Carolina Spot Festival the last weekend of September to honor the fish.”

I am sorry to miss the spot festival, but the visit with friends was great!

Trip back east--North Carolina--Friday October 10

Wendy and I did a delightful 11 day trip back east in October.  We appreciate so much Wendy’s brother-in-law Jerry dropping us off at the airport and keeping our Traverse safe while we were gone.  We left Salt Lake on a 9:15 am flight on Southwest Airlines through Denver, and arrived in Raleigh NC about 5 pm.  We picked up our rental car and drove down to the area of the Raleigh temple.  As it was dinner time, we first stopped at our favorite hamburger place a few blocks south of the temple, Andy’s.  However it was no longer Andy’s but “Route 55," a new name they said to help the company move forward with a nation-wide franchising strategy.  Everything else was the same.  The cooks yelled “Hello” to us as we came in the door, it had the same 50s-ish decor, and even the manager that we knew so well was still there and friendly.  And the food was still a good as we remembered it.  Wendy had a cheeseburger patty (no buns allowed now), I had their cheese steak (so tasty!), and we topped it off with our favorite dessert-- a dish of strawberry cheesecake frozen custard.  Then we got a room in a nearby motel, a nice place we had stayed at before (about 2 minutes from Andy's/Route 55, 4 minutes from the temple, and 15 minutes from RDU).

My Poor Head

Monday, I had a little (as I supposed) surgery on the top of my head to get rid of a basal cell carcinoma.

It was a Mohs procedure like the one Wendy had on her forehead above her left eye.  In this dermatological procedure, the Dr. removes what appears to be the growth and then you stay while he biopsies at the edges of what he has cut away to see if any cancer cells remain.  If so, he takes a little more off and biopsies it.  He could do this several more times until it is clear all the cancer is gone.  In this case, he only came back once for more cutting but still got a pretty long cut to sew back up.  He was able to stretch the skin so no plastic surgery or grafting was needed.

I guess this was minor surgery.  We were finished in a couple of hours.  I ended up with a 2-inch long incision that looks like the seam on a baseball.

I say, "Cover up, wear sunscreen, and avoid sunburn when you are young."

11 year old scouts

Here are 3 of my favorite young men, Matt L, Gavin H, Ryan C.   That's Randy, my Asst.,  in the far background.  These guys are the best 11 year year old scouts I have had.  So much fun.  They all love scouting, have worked hard, and are each within a couple of requirements of First Class.  On September 12-13, Randy and I took these 11 year olds to Whiting campground for their third campout.  Then on September 17, they each passed of their First Class swim (100 yards, etc.), so there is nothing hard left.  They should be ready for First Class board of review by the end of October.  All three are working on merit badges and are more than half way to Star.

Unless we get a move-in boy, we won't have more 11 year scouts December for another year and a half and suppose that we will be released from our assignment.

I am feeling a little sentimental over this camp.  The thought came to me that this might be the last scout camp in my life.  At age 77, I can still do it though.  At an earlier time, I counted over 200 nights camping with the scouts.

Payson temple progress

Wendy and I drove over to Payson a few days ago to check on progress.  It looks finished on the outside, but the word is that there is some more work needed on the interior.  They are no longer saying 2014, but probably early 2015.

It also looks like there is still a few weeks work on the landscaping.  They are putting in sod this week and more trees.

Ogden Temple Dedication

Our family at the Ogden temple open house

We attended both the 10 am and the 1 pm dedication sessions broadcast to our churchhouse.  The second time, we had volunteered to help with the session–I served as a recommend checker and Wendy as a greeter at the doors at the east foyer, for an hour–and then slipped back into the chapel just as the session started.

One thing I observed that was touching–a lot of parents with younger children must have traded off on which session they attended or on staying home with little ones.  I saw one pair, a dad sitting with a little girl about 10 or 12.  It looked like just the best Daddy-Daughter Date.  The little girl was dressed in her best Sunday clothes.  He had his arm around her and she leaning against him, and so pleased.  I can imagine that her memories of this will be among her most treasured, when she went to a temple dedication all alone with her Dad.

I am remembering Elder Holland’s story in the second session, where he described his experience being in London on Church assignment as his son was receiving his endowments in the St. George temple, his mother being present at the temple, how Elder Holland figured out the very time this was all happening half a world away, and used this time to read the scriptures and reflect upon what his son was experiencing and learning at that specific moment, and the spiritual response he had.  I then had the thought that I wished that I was experiencing this session with more of the family personally.  I wondered why we had not thought of attending with Matthew’s or Emilie’s families, and how much I was hoping that the grandchildren in our Utah were having a good experience, one that would help them love the temple and look forward to the day when they could receive all of the temple blessings.

New heating-cooling register in dining area.

I dusted off my handyman skills a few days ago, and did a job that Wendy and I have been talking about for several years.  This was to turn a vent around that sent hot and cold air into the laundry room to supply instead a good vent in the dining area of our kitchen.  We experienced the heating and cooling in the kitchen as not being adequate with only a single vent under the sink while the living room and master bedroom have two vents and seem to get almost too much air.  Also, Wendy did not think that the laundry room vent was of any value.  So, we cut a hole in the sheet rock to access the duct work, disconnected the existing register, drilled a hole in the kitchen floor right by the left side of the sliding glass, and put in a replacement register that directs a great blast of air up into the dining area of our kitchen.  Wendy can stand over this register and get quite comfortable on very hot days.

Also, before I did this work we got two bids from HC contractors--$400, not counting the sheet rock work.

VOA manual publication

To try to get more support for continuing and enlarging on our work with Venturer Officers Associations, I recently pulled together materials we have used over the last several years with the VOA in our stake, and published it into a 46 page pamphlet or manual.  It looks quite good, I think.  I used Lulu.com, the same on-line on-demand publisher that printed the several family history books for me over the last few years.

Impressive animal intelligence and cooperation

Along our walk thre were three horses, standing parallel, with the two outside animals facing the opposite way from the middle horse, whose tail was swishing and whipping around in a major way.  We guessed this was a cooperative effort to keep flies away on a hot summer morning.

Eagle project idea

Along the walk, we saw a dozen or so new birdhouses fairly high in trees along the river.  They looked home-made and we wondered who had constructed them and place them along the river walk.  We thought this might be an eagle project idea that could be replicated.

How many rock-chucks can you spot?

Walking along the SF river trail a couple of days ago, we spotted a large colony of rock chucks (yellow-bellied marmot) in big rocks along the river that had been placed there in spots to protect the banks from erosion.  They were shy but came out in droves when we stayed still.

There is a prize for the winner.

We cannot tolerate gluten any more

We have embarked on a new adventure.  Wendy has just been diagnosed with a gluten intolerance or celiac disease.  We have learned that gluten is a substance that is a part of wheat, rye and barley.  The basic problem is that for some persons the substance irritates and scars the lining of the small intestine, which results in poor nutrition, pain, and other unpleasant effects.

We are privileged now to join an exclusive little group with two other couples who sit in our own bench right behind the deacons who are passing the sacrament.  Someone in this group must bring gluten-free bread in little individualized plastic bags and in a separate tray.

We are hoping that her condition is of the less severe variety.  In the most severe form, besides the problem of ingesting gluten, even touching or perhaps breathing in microscopic particles of some substance containing gluten sets off a reaction.  One lady in our ward breaks out in a sort of hives with any kind of exposure.

And there is a new vocabulary to learn, a person having become “glutenated” or “glutenized.”  This refers to an acute reaction due to having either ingested or been exposed to gluten.

Isn't the brain wonderful?

Wendy and I have been comparing notes about our respective brains.  Each of us thinks that the other's mental capability has some special features (apps?).

I am convinced that Wendy has a thermometer in her head.  She routinely can come within a degree or two of the current temperature.  And there also is clock there somewhere so that she can sense the exact time at any moment.  She always knows the date and the day of the week without consulting anything other than querying her mental calendar.

Most remarkable is the spreadsheet in her brain which contains vital data about acquaintances.  I can picture it in my mind.  The first column contains persons’ names.  Then comes a series of columns for date of birth (probably separate entries for day, month, and year) and perhaps some miscellaneous information about that date, such as the day of the week and the time of the day or night when it occurred, perhaps also including something about odd or interesting facts associated with the birth.  Next I think is an age calculator column.  Telephone number would probably would be next.  And so forth.

This mental spreadsheet has some advanced features, like the ability to sort the entire data base by specific columns.  For example, it can provide listing of birthdays occurring during a given month or by day of the month.  I can picture Wendy mentally clicking on a column header, such as month of birth, there being a brief whirring sound, and in a  moment all of the rows are relocated, with January first, February second, etc.

In return, Wendy accuses me of having some tools in my head also.  The first is a compass.  I almost always know where true north is (no magnetic north adjustment needed) and the direction we are taking.  As a matter of fact, it is quite disconcerting to lose true north temporarily and I exhibit significant anxiety symptoms.

This compass also comes with an atlas with a full compliment of broad and detailed maps which emphasize roads, but also may be the layout for complex buildings, such as the interior of a temple.  The atlas also comes with a route calculator, like that of a GPS, that calculates the shortest distance to travel to another place, but also may take into consideration freeways vs. slower roads to suggets the best way to travel.

Finally, she thinks I have calculator in my brain which can crunch numbers to give at least close estimates of basic math problems.

Isn’t the brain a wonderful thing?

The Bell Tolls

I feel a little gloomy this morning, a sort of abstract gloom. The fuss over and by Ordain Women’s leader and the bad choices of others closer to home seem to create for a me a sort of dark cloud, a sense of grief.  No matter that they deliberately have chosen a lower road.  I still feel personally diminished in some real sense.

I think about the famous poem by the English poet John Donne, as he reflected on someone’s death:

No man is an island,
Entire of itself.
Each is a piece of the continent,
A part of the main.
If a clod be washed away by the sea,
Europe is the less.
As well as if a promontory were.
As well as if a manor of thine own
Or of thine friend's were.
Each man's death diminishes me,
For I am involved in mankind.
Therefore, send not to know
For whom the bell tolls,
It tolls for thee.

Might not we grieve even more over someone’s spiritual death?

June snow--saving girl's camp

We had the cabin the week starting the Monday after Father's Day, which was on June 16th.  We invited the family to the cabin on Monday night to celebrate this occasion and had quite a few people there and some staying over until the next morning.  Lots of fun!!!

A very cold storm front came through on Tuesday.  We had a good rain at the cabin and at just a little higher elevation there was snow.  Lots of youth groups were camping at higher elevations that got really wet and cold.  We got a phone call from Shannon, Wendy's sister, mid-afternoon.  She was one of the stake ladies help with their stake girls camp.  The were camped somewhere in the vicinity of the Heber Valley Camp in tents.  There had had snow, and their girls were wet and miserable. She asked if they could come down to the cabin.  We agreed and when they arrived several hours later, they sure were a sad-looking bunch.  We came home and left them the use of the cabin. with the hope that something of the camp could be salvaged.

Our mountains around Utah Valley got a fresh blanket of snow from about the 8000 foot level on up.  The pictures are of Spanish Fork  Peak (Maple Mt.) and Mt. Loafer when the sun started to come out again Wednesday evening and of Timp from the Provo temple on Thursday.

We noted that this quick deep storm raised lots of havoc in the midwest and south as it continued across the continent--many destructive tornados, etc.  We are grateful that we only got some snow on our campers.

Heber Valley Sunset

11 Year Old Scout Summar Camp

 Randy R, my Asst, and I took our little 11 year old scout patrol to summer camp, Friday and Saturday June 12-14, at Adventure Park.  This camp is designed especially for this age group is a lot of fun.  It is at the top of the Lefty Fork of Hobble Creek.  It is wooded and fairly primitive.  The weather comfortable.  Every thing worked out well.  We all had a good time.  Scouts are Ryan C, Gavin H., and Matt L.  Pictured are game time, an evening devotional, and Matt having successfully built a camp gadget with poles and lashings.

Amy at the Temple

It was special for us to be able  accompany Amy when she received her endowments at the Bountiful Temple on June 12th.  The night was breezy as you can see.

Jaron is a hard worker

Jaron came to help me work in the yard on Monday, June 9th.  He mowed the lawn and used the weed-whacker on the edges.  He then did a trim job on the hedge on the west side of our property.  He sure worked hard in the hot sun.

I have been having some back troubles, so this was really helpful.

How Green was my Valley

We couldn't help but notice how bright green Heber Valley was.  (Picture taken June 6th.)  We wondered if this is a a little like Ireland looks.

Memorial Day

On Saturday, Wendy and I drove to Ogden and visited my parents' graves.  On our way back we went to Wendy's parents' graves.  We walked right to her mother's grave without any trouble.  A year ago it was different.  Afer several minutes of pacing back and forth, Wendy called (in a not so quiet voice), "Mother, where are you?"  There were a lot of incredulous stares.  Fortunately, right at that moment I found the grave.

On Monday quite a few of the Lewis' met at the SF cemetery and put up the little wooden flowers.  Then we went to Emilie's for grilled hamburgers.  The two pics allowed for two different photographers to be in a picture.

Anniversary Trip

Here is what Wendy and I did to celebrate our wedding anniversary.  We did it on Tuesday May 13th, one day late.  We got on Frontrunner at about 9 am at the Provo terminal and rode to Salt Lake Central, then took Trax Blue Line to Temple Square.  We then went to the Temple.  We had lunch in the cafeteria, then did two temple sessions.  Then we backtracked our morning route back to Provo.