Last Nice Weekend

Had a very nice weekend last. It seemed it may be the last Hurrah of the perfect weather we so often get here in Utah between April and October.

I worked a little late Friday, not very much, just 45 minutes. We got a case at 4:15 from a correspondent in the Northeast. I was a little ticked because, you know he was probably fiddling with it all day trying to solve it without any outside help and then sent it to us at the last minute. Anyway, Barry and Dan and I stayed and by 6:15 we had it figured out. I helped some. But, I also almost sent us home without finding the living heir. Dan read the crucial obit more carefully than me and caught my error. Anyway we did some good work and fancy footwork to solve it and it ended up that we were the third company to call the heir. That's probably an indication that the correspondent should have asked for our help earlier.

We had a hoedown of sorts at Prosperity. So we all dressed in our “Cowboy” attire (jeans, white t-shirt, me black boots, Lenore purple boots, Laney in whatever we can get her to wear) and went to the party. I spent most of my time as the designated event photographer. That way I didn't have to worry about dancing. Someone had brought two lambs and a goat and the kids and families were all trying to get their picture taken with the livestock. I just took a lot of pictures because you can't get kids to do what you want, let alone animals.

I got to spend a little time catching up with Laverne Davis who was there with most of her kids. It was good to see her.

I arranged a bike ride with Ben Bayless and Craig Buchi for Saturday morning. Ben was bringing Riley over. We were waiting around awhile for him so Craig and I took off and did a couple of laps of about 3 miles each before Ben showed up.

Ben brought a prototype Carbon Wheelset to test out. It was under 900 grams and costs $6000. Pretty neat. I rode his bike briefly. But, it's too small and squirrelly for me. The weather was beautiful. We went down into Draper and then uphill slightly ending up at the gas station where the climb goes up over Suncrest. We picked up a young guy named Brian on the way. he rode with us for about 10 miles.
We kept up the pace pretty well and I felt pretty good. Did a couple of line sprint type jumps that felt good. Craig and Ben hit it off well and did a lot of talking.

When we returned Lenore and I had a good chat with Ben and then he left Riley to play with Laney.

In the evening we took Leslie with us over to the Youngs and then went to see the new Bruce Willis movie: Surrogates. It was enjoyable and interesting. Lenore and some others really enjoyed it. I was just kinda pleased. We ate dinner at our usual place and then headed home to sit with the Youngs on their patio and chat.

September Saint George

We took a weekend off 18-20 September and went to visit Grandma and Grandpa in Saint George. Grandpa had a bit of a cold and I think he could have felt lots better. I felt a little bad about crashing in on them. Grandma's surgery was supposed to have been scheduled for 22 Sep. But, was postponed once again to the 30th.

The timing of the trip was a little convenient/inconvenient. I got a call Wednesday morning that someone in the ward had died. I got a second call after just a few minutes from Carolyn Preece (RS Pres.) that the widower was rather upset with the ward and it might be best if I didn't call for a while. I called later in the day and spoke to a daughter. It was apparent that it was best if I didn't deal with the planning of the funeral and if I wasn't the one to conduct. If I were to be in town, I would expect to attend. But, I felt my attendance would be a distraction for the family. So, it was somewhat convenient that we were going to be out of town. President Daw and Brent helped with the planning. And President Daw conducted.

I went over to the widower's house Thursday night to talk to him/make amends.

Thus, on a couple of accounts it was good to get out of town. We left Friday at midday so we could arrive with still some evening time in Saint George. Saturday morning Grandma took us to the Rosenbruch Wildlife Museum. I wasn't expecting much and was completely impressed and excited with what we did see. There were probably 150-200 full body big game mounts of all sorts of animals in natural habitat dioramas. Mostly these were of the Elk, Caribou, Deer, Sheep, Goat variety. But, there were lots of others. Very many species. Saw some big game cats. But, no Tigers, no Rhinos, no Elephants. Just about everything else. Lots of very interesting and amazing horns, tusks, and antlers. It was a lesson in the power and love of God.

Later we drove up to Cedar City to see the Compleat Works of Shakespeare (Abridged.) We saw this once before about 10 years ago in Cedar. We were told that they had re-worked the script. It didn't matter. It was hilarious and the whole family enjoyed it immensely.

Once again the car served us perfectly. Got about 19-20 mpg while averaging 80 mph. Of course, we got stopped in a traffic jam right as we re-entered the Salt Lake Valley. A bale of hay had fallen onto the freeway. So they had it closed down to one lane while one guy with a broom swept and a handful of UHP's finest kicked the straw out of the way. They have no concern for facilitating the transport of the people. When we passed they were at the point where they could have just opened it up and let the cars "sweep" the remaining grass "away."

Lenore's Letter to the Editor

Click here.

Read the comments to get an idea of how all over the map opinions are in our "conservative" state.

Legacy Parkway Tour 2009

This is me at the back looking dead right before the final sprint.

This was such a fun race last year I was excited and looking forward to doing it again this year. For various reasons, not the least of which is laziness and even being maybe a little burned out on cycling, I haven't been riding as much this year. I'm in okay shape. But, about 10-15 lbs heavier than last year and not quite up there on endurance and top speeds. Come to think of it last year I could have been in better shape also.

They didn't time the bikes this year. We were left to our own timing. I went down there with Craig and Teal. But, Teal didn't ride. We started near the front of the group. I didn't want to be right at the front because I wanted to have people to draft on. They announced that they didn't want anyone riding faster than 25 mph and they had a police motorcycle and an SUV to enforce that rule. Shortly after the start, I and about 7 other people realized that if we could draft off of the lead vehicles that would be a good thing. I hung with them for about the first 9 miles. I hit the turn around at about 25 minutes. Very close to last year's pace. By then the lead group was long gone and I was being caught by others including Craig. I stayed with Craig the rest of the way, occasionally taking a pull. I didn't sprint at the finish last year mainly because I wasn't sure where to start. This year I pulled out with about 2/10ths mile left (still a tad early, picture above) and wound it up to about 27 for the finish. None of the people in my group responded so I gained about 5 places right near the end to finish about 15th.

River Trip Aug 2009

We didn't get to do our regular San Clemente trip this year, for a couple of reasons that included fear over the economy and a tiff with the landlord over pets. I think Joan doesn't enjoy it that much and Darrell doesn't realize how much fun it is (and good it is) for the grandkids and for family unity and bonding. If I were really rich and magnanimous I would have gone ahead and made plans and paid for it myself.

Instead we were invited to spend a week or so at Kim and Ed's river house. This worked out fine and was quite fun. We did squeeze in one day (maybe two hours) at San Clemente. But, it just wasn't the same.

Normally, I would have planned to leave to go to the river on Friday (7 Aug) right after work. But, we had youth conference planned for that weekend and then Jensen had a concert to go to Sat night and then her friend Sarah had her missionary farewell on Sunday and then a couple in the ward called me Thursday night and asked me to marry them. I did it in Spanish.

So, we didn't leave town until about 4pm and we stopped in St. George at mom and dad's house for the night. The driving trip was largely uneventful. Lenore read to me from Ann Coulter's book Slander. It makes her get riled.

We went shooting a couple of times in Big River. It was blistering hot, 118, 116, 116 for Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday. I rode the bike on Tues morning 30 miles. I was okay for the first half. Rode again on Thursday up to the Parker dam. Again I was okay for the first half. I was not okay for the second half. Lenore said I looked ashen when I returned.

The 80th birthday party for dad was quite fun. We (Kristin) compiled a DVD of snapshots through the years. There were a couple of pics I had never seen. I don't think dad was too put off for the attention we heaped on him. Wade and Kimberly had planned on leaving Monday night. But, they were guilted into staying until Tues morning. They honked and waved at me on my bike ride as they left town on the Ehrenberg road.

We left Big River in the morning on Thurs and drove to Irvine to spend a little time with Wade and Kimberly. It was Friday afternoon that we went to San Clemente. We had to get our legs wet and eat some pizza and ice cream. It was a nice enough day. But, it was a little crowded and the tide was high and there was a “ditch” as there sometimes is after heavy surf.

Friday evening we took Wade and Kimberly to Islands to eat and really enjoyed ourselves. Afterward we watched Lost in Austen. Our first introduction to this fun new film.