Ward Campout

Here.

We had the ward campout last weekend. Laney loves to go to this. Last year it was canceled (because of rain, if I remember correctly.) So, we had to go this year no matter what. There wasn't a huge crowd attending and it was mostly leadership/people in charge. But, a fun time was had by all. It is kinda neat to fall asleep under a mostly full view of the sky in our tent with the meshy walls.

Some Screen Captures From Italy Trip Video We Forgot About (We forgot about the video, not the trip.)

Ci Vediamo a Roma

This last weekend was the triennial JRHIMM reunion. Michelle bravely headed this up. Jay and I did our best to keep her from giving us the whole thing. I think she was fairly stressed about it. Anyway, it came off great with only one small survivable hitch.

Shortly after I arrived at the Friendship Park Pavilion to start setting up, members of the Hillside ward Elders Quorum also showed up. We were double booked. We decided to work together and we just (mostly) kept to one side and they the other. (We did have some people without knowing help themselves to their food, yikes!)

The weather was nice, we had some of our regulars show and a good mix of faces we haven't seen in a while, or ever. There was quite a bit of wind for an hour or so. But, overall it worked out fine. Ailsa went home briefly to gather up some books she had borrowed from Blake Ostler before her mission to give back to him. Also, Steve Young went to our house at one point to watch the end of a Stanley Cup game.

Saturday morning we went to the Draper Temple to have a session in Italian, officiated by our own Mark Scoville. This was a very nice thing. Susan Ashby had provided some Italian Family file names for us to do. At one point Ailsa sat for a little while next to sister Jeanne Fillerup. They figured out that Jeanne's son had been in Ailsa's district in Houston.

Afterward we chatted and took some pictures outside the temple. From our vantage point you could see the other three temples in the valley. The Temple itself is gorgeous. It has a Celestial room that is 4 storeys high with an amazing chandelier. They do a very good job of keeping patrons reverent there also. Only problem was with the layout it wasn't clear how you accessed the Celestial room. Lenore, Ailsa and I all tried to go the wrong way. Hmmmm, I think there is an analogy there somewhere. The temple setting and grounds are very nice too. Just up the hill from the parking lot, though are a handful of 8000 square foot McMansions that are nice looking but quite ostentatious.

Lenore and I got acquainted with Ron Hilton who it turns out is the son of Darrell's friend, George Hilton.

The Saturday evening dinner we held at Spaghetti Mama's in Jordan Commons. This was also very nice. Just a tad pricey. But, you have to remember, in this case you are not just paying for the meal. You are also paying for the use of the room all evening. (What really could have been possibly 3 meals for the restaurant.

Really, everything came off without a hitch. They made me MC. But, that was okay. President and Sister Dunaway gave very interesting and stirring talks. There are 7 stakes now in Italy. (Once they got the temple announcement I stopped paying attention. Baptisms have been on the rise. They now have lots of multigenerational families there. He also brought along TOP SECRET/Nulla Osta Segretezza pictures/renderings of the inside of the Rome Temple. The food was actually better than I had remembered, right on par with Buca.

Steve had wanted to see the movie Super 8 afterward. But, we went quite long and didn't get out of there until about 10pm. Have to do the movie next week.

June Gloom

I've only run the sprinklers twice so far this year. When I started my bike ride Friday morning the temperature was 44 degrees. We've only had our air conditioning on for a week now.

HOPE It's Just to Gain the Moderate Ground - Don't Expect Him to CHANGE His Tune

While I still like Mitt Romney and support him as a candidate (I think he has the best chance of winning the election and the best chance of being able to turn this country around), I think he is wrong on the Climate Change thing.

Yes, yes, ridicule me all you want. I am a denier. Well, kinda. I don't deny that our climate fluctuates. Temperatures rise and fall. Even if there is a small rise in temperature over the last couple of decades (and I contest that claim for reasons I will state later) it likely has only an infinitesimally small chance of having to do with man's activity.

Years ago the bugaboo was the Ozone layer. You see we kept making holes in it. When that campaign failed to generate the concern and change that liberals wanted to see in the world the topic was dropped and Global Warming, now Climate Change have taken its place.

The two biggest sources of heat for our world are the Sun and the molten interior of the Earth. To think that a fractional increase in a naturally occurring element of our atmosphere can have more influence on the temperature of the Earth than the enormous ball of gas that is burning at more than a million degrees (at its core) (and is close enough that it influences everything else about our world) and the spinning molten/solid/radioactive core of the planet that reaches almost 10,000 Fahrenheit is like blaming the excess heat in your home on the match you just lighted rather than the furnace burning in your basement or the stove that is heating up your dinner.

Now, about the "science."  Scientific inquiry should be motivated by one thing alone: The search for truth. Unfortunately, it is not always motivated by that. Sometimes it follows political or social trends. There is evidence that the stations and instruments used to record weather data are increasingly and incorrectly influenced by their locations near heat sources or "urban heat islands." There is also evidence that researchers have also cooked their data to achieve an aim.

Cool Memorial Day

Although Memorial Day was not a stellar day as far as the weather goes, (since it is the defacto beginning of Summer, I should be a nice, sunny, warm day) I did have some fun interesting thing going on. I was invited to a “man date/breakfast” with several other men from our ward. We went to the Midvale Mining Company and had hearty breakfasts. It was quite enjoyable and a fun thing to do. I don't think I've ever had a man date before.

I thought maybe I had successfully dodged going the the Salt Lake City Cemetery this year. But, We had some time before the afternoon festivities were to begin as Leslie's and Lenore suggested we should go.

We usually have a hard time finding the Lane family markers. We finally did again this year. They are located only slight north and slightly east of the Smith family plots.

The big thing this year was that Christopher Nemelka (not dead yet, NOT a Smith) has erected a marker with his name on it (and also Hyrum Smith's and the url for his website, (Mr. Nemelka's, not Hyrum's)) on a plot right next to Lenore's grandparents. Lenore said we should be charitable in our remarks about him because Muh would just say, “that poor, poor man.”

As we were leaving and making our way back toward the Smith plots we saw Gloria Irion and Elder Nelson and others of their family nearby visiting some graves of their own loved ones.

Dan's Project

“Uncle Dan,” Lenore's brother, has a cute little 425 square foot home in South Salt Lake on a nicely wooded lot. He bought this property in 1996 for about $63,000. He had to do a lot to fix the home. But, he did a very nice job.

I guess he had grown tired and bored and maybe cramped in his little space. He does have a lot of stuff.

He started house hunting maybe a year ago or more. Well, he recently bought another house and last Saturday we went to help him clean it up so he can move in.

I say “we.” Lenore did the lion's share of the work. I mostly walked around with mouth agape. It was so overwhelming for me I couldn't stay long. I washed a few windows and stuff. But, then I left.

Every square inch of the place SCREAMS “tear me down!” Nothing to code. Nothing finished. No window or door that was square or operated correctly. No baseboards. No casements. Lots of kludged repairs and additions. I had to channel the late Norrick Long and say, “it's a piece of crap.” He's basically spent $115 cash for a quarter acre lot in South Salt Lake.

However, Lenore likes the house. It reminds her of Marin. So, we have now wagered a dinner of choice for the person who in 10 years doesn't eat their words on this house. Sorry Dan. I came home with a greater appreciation for the state of our home.

Adjustment Bureau

What an interesting movie! I'm not sure I would say GREAT. But, certainly worth watching just for the shear uniqueness of the story. Good chemistry between Damon and Blunt. She does a great job of emoting just with her face. We had the choice of seeing Arthur with Russell Brand or this one. I think we chose correctly. May have to see it again just to check its staying power.

Great Saturday

Finally, a nice, sunny, beautiful, epic day. This means Spring has broken and Summer is almost here. What a great day for the Rapture. The only thing that didn't go perfect was my bike ride. Really, I think the Adjustment Bureau was trying to make sure I didn't stay too long and miss something at home. Maybe the powers that be felt I shouldn't be enjoying myself too much and too long while Lenore and the kids were working in the yard. I had some persistent mechanical problems (of my own making) and one flat. Still it felt good and I just had to give into fate and cut the ride short.

Yes, I was recreating while the family was slaving away. But, I live for riding and this was pretty much the first day all week where the weather cooperated. The family understands. And it's not like I don't do things around the house and put my back into it when I get home.

There were lots of bugs in the air at the Legacy Parkway. A couple of stretches were just thick with them. One or two made their way into my mouth. (Yes, when I ride I tend to be a mouth breather.) I was home around noon and worked in the yard and then around three, Geri needed help with her air conditioners. Afterwards, I was cleaning up at home and noticed a gnat stuck between my two front teeth.

A couple of times a year we have to beat back the jungle. whoever told Brigham Young that nothing would grow here? We tore out a bunch of vegetation that didn't make it through the winter. There were some hard freezes this year and it showed. We planted more potatoes right next to some volunteers left over from last year. More vegetable garden stuff next weekend, hopefully. A sprinkler repair that I thought was going to be somewhat involved was remedied way more easily with some luck and maybe a little help from the Adjustment Bureau.

I inspected the back fence that is falling down. I no longer think it is due to roots from the Box Elder tree. It appears it is just succumbing to the slope, slowly coming downhill after 20 years. Cheapo me, I'm probably going to try to brace it up using the strength and stability of a couple of trees. It might last for another few years.

The end of the daylight was one of those calm, still, comfortable evenings that I know are not unique to Utah. But it seemed like such a blessing and even a reward for making it through the Winter and the insanely wet Spring. This time of evening, this time of year. It evoked my habitual assessment of Utah: this is what we live here for. It's just so easy to forget from November through March. On a day and evening like this it is very common for me to feel a pervading and universal well being. You just know that millions of people are having the same kind of experience at the same time and it is reassuring and comforting.