The Holiday that Isn't

Well, today is Deer Hunt Holiday (I've always found that to be a quirky Utah thing - we celebrate the annual deer massacre). I could be at home repainting my bedroom (yes, repainting already, the original colors we picked just didn't work for us so we found some new colors while we were up in Montana), but instead I am here at work. No, I didn't choose to come to work over repainting my bedroom. I exchanged the holiday today for Friday of last week. It doesn't work well when Sherrie and the children get Thursday and Friday off and I get Monday off. This day seems to be dragging on with it so quiet here. I actually feel recuperated from our northern excursion. Yesterday I was feeling it in my back. Every time we go to the cabin it seems that I engage in too much heavy lifting. This was our last trek up there for the winter, so I had to winterize it, which included placing plywood "shutters" over the lower windows. Last year we didn't put up shutters (well, in fact in it's entire lifetime it has never been shuttered), and we lost a window. It was such an inconvenience to get the window repaired that I vowed to shutter the cabin every year now. Lifting the boards into place for marking the hangers and then relifting them to hang them did a number on my back (I guess it doesn't help that I haven't been to the club for almost 4 months). We started the "vacation" on Thursday afternoon, much to the dismay of Jonathan and Sarah. They didn't want to go to the cabin. They are both teenagers and would have preferred to spend the long weekend in the pj's sleeping or watching TV. Being the awful parent that I am I made them go. We arrived at the cabin on Thursday at about 9:00 pm. It was beautiful fall weather and I didn't even need a coat unloading the car that late in the evening. Friday Sherrie, Jonathan and myself went to West Yellowstone. Sarah wanted to stay at the cabin and watch movies. We had a fun time in West shuttling between the boutique and hardware store. We found the paint for our bedroom and Jonathan's bedroom. We had the shutter boards cut and loaded up on antifreeze. Before heading back to Island Park we made our last stop at the candy store to buy our fudge (we thought that would help Sarah feel better). Jonathan had us buy (an overpriced) Parchesi game in West so that we could play it back at the cabin.
We had a fun round of Parcheesi. It has been a number of years since I played this board game. Of course, Jonathan won and Sherrie came in a close second (they are hardcore gamers). I came in dead last! After that we went for a game of Hearts. Again, Jonathan won, but I redeemed myself with a second place (barely). It was nice to sit up in the cabin with the fireplace going and the quiet of the forest outside. This time of year they are very few people up there so we only saw a couple of cars and a few walkers through the course of the weekend. Saturday we got up and made the shutters and hung them over the windows. I then hurried to finish winterizing the cabin so that we could head back to Tooele. Sarah had a Stake Dance to attend that started at 8:00 pm so we rushed to get on the road (we had originally planned to return on Sunday). It is always hard for me to leave the cabin. If I could I would live up there for several months at a time. I enjoy eating breakfast on the front porch while watching the squirrels and birds. I enjoy going into West Yellowstone because it is a small town where people are friendly and helpful. I feel a lot more peace when I am up in the mountains. We stopped in Idaho Falls for lunch and to see Sherrie's father. We found out that he had been transferred to a hospital in Pocatello the day before. We were going to try and see him in Pocatello, but Sarah needed to get home. We arrived home at about 8:30 pm just in time for Sarah to get ready and be fashionably late. She made it to the dance and had a good time. We stayed up to wait for her and to watch SNL - poor Sarah Palin, I would have advised her not to do the show, because they made a fool out of her even with her present. After church on Sunday we drove down to my parents home in Saratoga Springs to visit. My brother Eric and his wife Natalie brought their new baby, Tateym, up. Sherrie had a nice baby gift for them (a fancy blanket and "shoe" socks that she got at the boutique in West). We arrived back home tired. We sat up for about 45 minutes "chatting" online with Jordan through Facebook (I still don't have a very good grasp on the Facebook concept, but I am learning - I think I still prefer blogging.) So here I am sitting at my desk, tired and wishing that I did have a holiday today so that I could rest up from the "vacation" taken on the weekend. I've place a slideshow of the cabin after the blogs for anybody interested in seeing what it looks like inside now. Until next time.....

Elder Gibby Status Update - October 15, 2008

It is hard to believe that it is Wednesday again (I know I say that every Wednesday). They are seeming to roll around faster than they did when Jared first left. He has been out 161 days (22%), but whose counting (well, I can think of at least two people). He is continuing to enjoy his mission and work hard. Jared is now starting to see some of the fruits of his labors. It looks as if they will have some baptisms in the near future.
He enjoys his new companion. I won't try to spell his name because it isn't one that I am familiar with. He is working as the new Elder's trainer. Sherrie received a nice packaged from Sister Hann and Jared last week. Jared sent her a beautiful bracelet that spells out "MOM" with silver M's and rhinestone O's. Sister Hann sent her a beautiful music box with pictures of Sherrie and Jared in the top and a hand beaded bracelet (Jared must have told her how much Sherrie loves bracelets).
Jared stated in his email that they are trying to divide the Huntsville Stake and they need additional active Melchizedek Priesthood so they are really encouraging the missionaries to step up their efforts (I don't know if Jared could work much harder than he already has). Anyway, we are really proud of his determination, enthusiasm, faith and work ethic. I know he is proving to be a great blessing to the Birmingham Mission. Sherrie and I are already looking forward to going down there when he finishes his mission.

Snow in Them There Mountains

We had our first snowfalls this week. The initial fall was up in the mountains and then on Saturday morning we woke up to about an inch on the lawn and sidewalks (well everything). I timed my fertilizing just right again. On Thursday I mowed the lawn and applied the fertilizer anticipating that it would snow. I find that is works best if there is a snowfall just after application. That cold moisture seems to really put it to work on the roots. I have mixed feelings at this time of year. I am glad to rid myself of the labor of caring for gardens and lawn. But at the same time, I miss the beauty of the gardens and being able to sit outside (I guess I could still sit outside if I bundled up warm).

Where Have I Been?

Somehow this week escaped me. It came and went and I find myself standing here dazed, because I'm not quite sure where it went. That is the trouble with getting older (not that I am old or even close) is that time does accelerate. There must be something about the space-time continuum that we don't understand.

It has been a week since Jordan visited us. It was so nice to have him home. I guess maybe that is what happened. I was still thinking about how nice it was to have almost our complete family under the same roof that I just missed the week afterwords. Jordan is doing great. His friend, Austin, came over for a few minutes and we found out that his mission call is to Croatia (Jordan had that confused with Micronesia - good thing he is an art/graphic design major - wouldn't want him in Travel and Tourism making people's vacation arrangements). Joking aside, he is excelling in all of his classes. I am starting to feel a little pride (in spite of that conference talk years ago) about how my children are turning out. I have two that are out living on their own and doing it right - WOW! I have two still at home that give me no trouble and are also excelling in school and other areas of their lives. Well, so much for my self-ingratiation.
Ruby was sooooo happy to have Jordan home. He had warmed up to me until Jordan showed up. Now we are working on it again.

We had a nice dinner out while Jordan was here last Saturday. We went to the Mayan (Sherrie was out-voted) and have a nice dinner. Jordan likes the Mayan (I do also). It was fun to have everyone out together. Jordan also took some time to show us his unicycling skills. He apparently learned to do this while we lived in Idaho Falls. His good friend, Scott Obert, is a unicycler. He did pretty good for not having ridden one for several years.

We also were able to meet his friend, Kim, via webcam and Facebook. She is a graphic arts major also. She is really an accomplished and cute young lady.

I was also nice to hear Jordan's music again. He took time to play the guitar and piano for us. He has become quite accomplished on the piano in the time since he quit taking lessons.

I guess that I have bragged on Jordan enough to embarrass him. This week I also started painting my bedroom. I don't mind painting, but it is always so difficult because I have to move things around like a puzzle to get to each wall. It would take so much less time if I had that ability to just go in and paint without constantly moving things around. Sherrie picked a pale pink and moss green color scheme for the bedroom. It will match a beautiful quilt for our bed that she has just about completed. It is nice to have fresh paint on the walls and trim (well for about 3/4 of the room). I ran out of time and will have to try and complete it during the week. The biggest problem is I have to move the bed to get to the last wall. And moving the bed is all that difficult in and of itself, it is just all the stuff we have stored under the bed that will have to be moved also. It really won't be all that bad when I actually get after it. Next I am going to tackle the master bathroom and retile the hot tub and bathroom floor. I'm sure Jonathan is wondering when I will finally get around to painting his bedroom and putting the loft bed in there and getting the large log bed out of his room. I might be able to get that done before Christmas if the cold whether holds out. I did remember to go out and disconnect my hoses before the hard freeze (maybe I shouldn't have and then I could have had some new carpet (at least in the lower level of the house).

This week Sarah had her Standards Night (I can't remember what it is called now). It was really nice (although Sarah was sick she went anyway). She had a pretty table that highlighted some of her many accomplishments. The Young Women's Presidency had put alot of work into the evening. There aren't very many young women in our Ward (only 12 that came). Sarah's friends are in the other ward. She is having fun serving on the Stake Youth Committee. This weekend she used her Cricut to make the poster advertising the Stake Dance (retro - disco). She is very talented in that area and designed a really nice poster.

What else occurred this week? I watched Survivor. I watched CSI - not great surprises there. I blogged (tonight). That about wraps it up....

My sister, Kimberly, sent me this cartoon today. It gave me a good laugh (which I needed). I haven't blogged for several days because I have been really constrained on time (and sick - part of the constraint was sleeping). I will try to get caught up tonight.

Surviving the Debates

I watched the Vice-Presidential Debate last night. It wasn't nearly as entertaining as I had hoped it might be. I did, however, find it very information (at least from the candidate who knew something). I have to admit I wasn't entirely sure about my decision (I still consider myself an independent). But after last night I am much more confident. I think that there may have been enough material for Tina Fey to give it another go on Saturday Night Live (I've haven't laughed that hard in a longtime as when I watched the videos of the first two performances.) I find it curious that the media is hesitant to criticize the Governor's performance, instead preferring to say that she was essentially successfully by not screwing up. What I saw was Senator Biden answering the questions that were asked and providing facts to back up his statements. What I endured from the Governor were repeating, pre-prepared mini-speeches, more often than not, not addressing the question posed. I did not see the grace, presence and professionalism that I would expect from a candidate at such a high level. By contrast, I watched the Speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi, address the nation following the vote on the infamous bailout (I won't go into that rant here), and she was in an entirely different league, with poise and grace and authority. I didn't hear any "gotchas" or Joe Sixpack from her. Well, I can feel that I am spiraling down into a rant.

On a positive note, Survivor was on last night after the debates (I was so intent on watching the debate that I I thought I had to forgo watching Survivor). There wasn't much exciting that happened, but it helped to get me calmed down before I went to bed. Tonight Jordan is coming up from school. I am excited to see him. It will be fun to spend time together as a family and maybe even go out to dinner (that's why I'm so fat, we celebrate everything with food). Last night to celebrate the debate, Sherrie went and got us donuts (I think I ate a dozen - well, not really, but I could have).

So Who Is To Blame?

I found this good article (click here for the entire article) on the current "economic crisis" and the various contributors. It is non-partisan and points essentially to greed (in my view):


So who is to blame? There's plenty of blame to go around, and it doesn't fasten only on one party or even mainly on what Washington did or didn't do. As The Economist magazine noted recently, the problem is one of "layered irresponsibility ... with hard-working homeowners and billionaire villains each playing a role." Here's a partial list of those alleged to be at fault:

* The Federal Reserve, which slashed interest rates after the dot-com bubble burst, making credit cheap.
* Home buyers, who took advantage of easy credit to bid up the prices of homes excessively.
* Congress, which continues to support a mortgage tax deduction that gives consumers a tax incentive to buy more expensive houses.
* Real estate agents, most of whom work for the sellers rather than the buyers and who earned higher commissions from selling more expensive homes.
* The Clinton administration, which pushed for less stringent credit and downpayment requirements for working- and middle-class families.
* Mortgage brokers, who offered less-credit-worthy home buyers subprime, adjustable rate loans with low initial payments, but exploding interest rates.
* Former Federal Reserve chairman Alan Greenspan, who in 2004, near the peak of the housing bubble, encouraged Americans to take out adjustable rate mortgages.
* Wall Street firms, who paid too little attention to the quality of the risky loans that they bundled into Mortgage Backed Securities (MBS), and issued bonds using those securities as collateral.
* The Bush administration, which failed to provide needed government oversight of the increasingly dicey mortgage-backed securities market.
* An obscure accounting rule called mark-to-market, which can have the paradoxical result of making assets be worth less on paper than they are in reality during times of panic.
* Collective delusion, or a belief on the part of all parties that home prices would keep rising forever, no matter how high or how fast they had already gone up.

The U.S. economy is enormously complicated. Screwing it up takes a great deal of cooperation. Claiming that a single piece of legislation was responsible for (or could have averted) is just political grandstanding. We have no advice to offer on how best to solve the financial crisis. But these sorts of partisan caricatures can only make the task more difficult.

Jared Wednesday Update

Jared's weekly email arrived early on Wednesday. I didn't get any pictures this week. He and Elder Lee were going to the Space Center again (thank you Hanns). Elder Lee is going home this week and Jared is getting a new companion. He will now be a trainer and have a greenie (Jared still has a green tinge on his extremities). I am excited for him. He is really demonstrating his ability to take on a difficult task and stay with it while giving it his all. He has an interesting teaching pool. He spent a couple of hours with a gentleman who has been a preacher for years. Don't ever Bible Bash with a baptist preacher because you will never win (he won't hear anything you say). They have an investigator set for baptism - that should be a great experience for him. He is excited that he will be staying in Cullman for the time being. Jared summed up his approach to missionary work at the end of his email; "Well, I’m doing great and still accentuating the positive. Enthusiasm works."

Images of Halloween Past

My sister, Kimberly, emailed a couple of weeks ago asking for some old Halloween pictures. I knew that I had some in my "old" photo album, but with my advancing age, I wasn't quite sure where the "old" photo album was (as Sherrie would remind me, it's too many moves - I think she's right). Anyway, I sent her the one picture that I could find of Ken and I in our matching tiger outfits (when I was still taller than him). But I knew if I could find the "old" photo album, I would have the gold mine, because the best two Halloween pictures I knew of were double-stick taped in there by my very own mother in 1968. Well, I found it tonight. I was so excited to get them scanned and onto the blog so that I could share them with the whole world (well, at least the few citizens of the world that read my blog, and any aliens that might be intercepting earth transmissions...). There is it, proof that my very own mother and father celebrated Halloween. I have yet to don a costume a well planned out as they did, evidenced by the witch and pirate captured forever on Kodachrome (or some kind of Kodak film). Well, look hard and you might recognize them.

Corruption Begets Corruption

This political cartoon I ran into seemed to say it all. It is amazing during economic hard times, the financial institutions (who were so willing to make questionable loans) have been pretty hard on those that owe and yet want the federal government to essentially give them an enormous sum of money when they run out. It feels like economic blackmail. Either you give us back all the money we lost, or we are going to take this country into another great depression. What really amazes me is that the financial crisis essentially appeared like a bad zit before the prom (overnight). How do you get into a nearly trillion dollar mess and not acknowledge and take action much sooner. It's like not realizing you are tied to the railroad tracks until a train is about 100 ft from you.

When I was in Guatemala, I saw an old woman in jail for stealing a chicken while high ranking government officials who had committed far more grievous crimes were allowed to leave when the government was overthrown. This is the same thing. We have people serving time in jails for petty crimes and yet those who literally robbed billions of dollars will walk away scott free. It alarms me to see how Third World this country has become in the last decade.

Jordan is Loving Life (Except When He's Homesick)

It was time to go to bed and I remembered that Jordan had sent me some good pictures from school. He is obviously having a lot of fun and studying hard. In one of his classes the Professor has been using his work as an example for the class. He has one difficult GE glass (geography with a grumpy old professor - everybody has to have at least one of those in college). With the possible exception of the geography class, I am looking for straight A's.

Jordan has been cliff jumping several times. There is some big waterhole south of Cedar City that they go to and jump 30 feet off of a cliff into the water. I have a hard time with a trail that has a 30 ft cliff. I don't think it is the sport for me. He must have gotten the cliff jumping gene from his mother's side of the family.

He made sure to send us a picture of him studying. I can breath a sigh of relief. Actually, I haven't been worried all semester. I know that he has been studying hard.

This is a picture of his cat, Rex. He picked it up at Walmart. It is kind of a girl magnet. The funny thing about it is, it isn't real! It looks real and they move it around the apartment so everybody who comes over thinks it's real - leave it to Jordan!

Jordan has had fun going camping on Friday nights. He did say that their trip this last Friday left him with a sore hip. He didn't take his camping gear down with him when he went to school so he has been sleeping on a blanket on the ground. I guess his age is starting to catch up with him. Isn't it all downhill from 18 on? If so, I must be near the bottom of the hill.

We talk to Jordan several times a week. He is really good to call and has been email his mother which is really nice.

Another Day of Rest - Define "Rest"

I survived another day of "rest". In order to ensure a timely arrival at our assigned worship time, I woke up to my alarm at 7:00. I know that doesn't sound early, especially for those who may have early morning Sunday meetings (I never was sure what was up with early early meetings - is it easier to feel the Spirit when you're only half awake?). At any rate, I coaxed Sarah out of Bed at about 7:30. Well, we did it - we arrived 5 minutes early. Jonathan and I were able to sit through Priesthood opening exercises with the other 5 men who were there in addition to the Bishopric. Most people in our ward arrive about 15-20 minutes late by my estimation. That's why I don't see the problem with arriving late also. It they arrive late and I arrive on time, then I have wasted 20 minutes of my day waiting for them to arrive (well, the logic works for me). After church, Sarah was set apart as the 1st Counselor in the Laurel Class Presidency (the President rarely comes - I've learned in Utah, you have to wait your turn - for a right to work state it has alot of Union mentality - senority rules - well, so much for my ranting). Sarah was also called to serve on the Stake Youth Committee. She is excited for that because her friend is also on the committee. She will get to help plan the Youth Trek this coming summer.

After church we came home and rested for an hour while we waited for the lasagna to cook (I forgot to put it in before we went to church - that's what happens when I get up too early). While we waited, Jonathan and I watched the Speed Racer movie. I remember when I was young my brother, Ken, used to love watching the Speed Racer cartoon (I wasn't as hip on japanamation - I was more of a Scooby Doo fan). It was fun to watch the movie and I was amazed how much the real life actors resembled the cartoon characters.

After dinner, Sherrie and I decided to take a drive up Middle Canyon to see the leaves. She hadn't accompanied me when I took Jonathan and Sarah to the top of the mountain to look down in the mine. We drove to the top (Sherrie was equipped with dark sunglasses to help her endure the sunshine). The road was just a terrifying as the last time I drove it. I thought that if I kept tackling my fear of heights I would eventually overcome it. I still had to peel my hands off the steering wheel at the top and again at the bottom. I was able to get out of my car on the road a few times to take some pictures of the leaves. I guess the desire to get a good photo overcomes the fear of heights. If I can get more comfortable with heights I will be able to hike the Lookout Point trail at Zion's Park. I need to hike it at least one time with all my kids so we can get a complete picture. We have a picture with Sherrie, Jared, Jordan and Sarah. I froze up on the trail about 2/3 the way up and Jonathan stayed back to take care of me. I credit him with coaxing me off the wall and starting the trail back down. Anyway, I digress. The view from the top was beautiful today. We could see Utah lake and Utah Valley well past Y mountain. On the north side we could see almost all the way to Farmington. On the west side of the lookout we would see south Tooele. There was quite a bit of traffic on the road today. There were alot of people at the top too. This must be a popular drive for Sunday afternoon. We tried a side road into a side canyon, but it quickly became a 4-wheeler road and we backed out. I would like to go back and hike it. I told Sherrie that I couldn't believe we had such a beautiful Canyon just 5 minutes from our house.

When we got back I still wanted to hike little. I had spent most of the day seated on a bench or in a car so I convinced Jonathan in going with me. He really didn't want to go too bad but I made him feel sorry for his father and he consented to go. We went up to Smelter Canyon and walked up the road to get a better view of the old Smelter. It was a nice quiet walk up the road since there is a No Trespassing sign at the beginning of it (we had it too ourselves). It was fun to walk and talk. We practiced some synchronized walking (like synchronized swimming). Jonathan thought of it so we practiced walking, turning and spinning our arms in synch. If somebody had filmed us they probably would have won the grand prize on America's Funniest Videos! It was FUN. We saw some beautiful foliage, but truth be told, the color and scenery up middle canyon were better.

It is now past my bedtime so I had better tie this up and get to bed. I'm not sure this is a blog or a travel log. Really, I just blog so that I can do something with the pictures I take. I love digital cameras because I can take all the pictures I want to without worrying about film. I really enjoyed the time I spent with my family today, both in church and after church. It is a real spiritual lift for me to go out and see the beauties of this world. I love being up in the mountains. I must live in the perfect place for me.

Fall Color Extravaganza

Sherrie and I took a ride of Settlement Canyon this afternoon to check out the fall colors. It is really beautiful right now. There were actually quite a few campers up in the canyon. This is the time of year to camp up there since there are beautiful fall colors, it is cool at night and not too hot in the day. I was trying to find some hiking trails that I could try out with the kids. It was a nice drive so close to home (with gas prices still as high as they are I look for recreation close to home). We may have to take another drive up there tomorrow afternoon with the kids.

Survivor is Back

Well, my favorite show on TV is back for another season. I have been the only one in my family that has maintained a fascination with the show. I enjoy watching the strategies and impact of personality and interpersonal skills. My second favorite show starts again in October - CSI. It is convenient that they are both on Thursday night. So I only need to watch TV one night a week (except when I have a Simpson's craving). This looks like it might be a good season of Survivor. However, I was disappointed that they voted the oldest woman who I think could have contributed to the team. Well, we will see how it all plays out, that is the nature of the game....

No Witchcraft in the White House!

And we thought Nancy Reagan was a little off center with her astrologist in the White House...