Verbal Dyslexia

This is a Laney story. I think I've written before about her “verbal dyslexia” when she was learning to speak. There were several words that she turned inside out. This may be her Semitic heritage coming through. For example, “cursomel” was commercial; keekoo was cookie. You get the idea.

Once she was out in the back yard playing and she came to the back door saying there was a “kinchen” in the yard. Kinchen was how she said chicken. Well, I was pretty sure there wasn't a kinchen in the back yard. But she insisted and got fairly annoyed at us. Finally, Lenore went outside and had Laney show her.

Sure enough, it wasn't a kinchen. But, there was a deceased baby quail that looked a lot like a baby chick. It took awhile for Laney to forgive our mistrust in her. “See, there was a kinchen in the yard!”

Missing Her

Back in October we had two missionaries leave from our Ward, Dallas Anderson and Brooklyn Brewer. We attended a very nice open house at the Andersons to congratulate Dallas and express our best wishes for his service. Dallas' father is a good friend (also served in the Milan Mission.) Since we had gone through the same thing only six months prior with Jensen leaving, he asked me, “So, how long before it doesn't suck anymore?” How long before the hole left behind by a child leaving isn't the only thing you can think about? I told him about eighteen months, or in Dallas' case two years, the duration of their mission. That hole is always there and is only repaired when they come back having served well.

My Brother from Berkshire

We went to the wrong Eddie Redmayne movie this weekend. I think Jupiter Ascending was built from three pages of script notes and filled in with action sequences. This must be a new kind of Hollywood gamble: throw $175 millions in production money at an idea and hope the audience comes. In this case they built it, but...

I could go on in detail about its failings. This review sums it up pretty well:

“Jupiter Ascending” took the road less traveled, into the wish-fulfillment of prepubescent girls. Around half an hour into the film, Channing Tatum despondently regales Mila Kunis with his life story — he is the orphaned half-albino runt of a space werewolf litter forced to use anti-gravity rollerblades to fly because his bionic wings were stripped when he was dishonorably discharged from the space military — and something magical happens. Every woman who ever wrote herself into her favorite universe via fanfic, every girl who created an amnesiac elven vampire princess and role-played in a chat room, every chick who ever wanted a blaster by her side and a submissive werewolf boyfriend at her back, every one of them whispered, “Finally. It is our time.” Read more at http://www.hitfix.com/harpy/jupiter-ascending-is-the-sci-fi-movie-women-were-waiting-for#X7mWjPlmTt0vZtlQ.99

As we were leaving we overheard one of the audience members responding to a theater employee who had asked what he thought about the film. He said it was the best science fiction movie ever. We weren't even in the same Galaxy let alone movie house. The only thing to recommend in this production are the costumes and the visual richness.

Mr. Redmayne the academy is on the phone. They would like their statue back.

P.S. The ONLY reason to hope for a sequel is so that Sean Bean can be killed off to keep his streak going.

It's unfortunate that Michelle Obama was mistaken for someone who might be helpful at a department store.

Picture from about a year ago, at aunt Janet's funeral.

Laney School Picture

A Mission Rememberance

I had to refer to journals to fill in a couple of bits of this account. Good thing we have those. Wish I didn't write like a 19 year old back then.

We had a mixed district in the LTM. Some of our guys went to Australia. A couple others went to different missions in Italy. So, only part of our district flew with me to New York, and then even fewer on to Milan with us. I do remember that I was the only one at the Salt Lake airport who didn't have family there to greet them.

I remember Alitalia counter attendants and flight attendants expressing benign, but somewhat annoyed, amusement at our attempts to speak any Italian with them.

The jet lag was horrible. That, accompanied with the first evening's session of tract-ing, I'm sure was designed to see if any of us would crack. None of us did. That first evening I was paired with Elder Ronald Manning. He was visiting the office because he was to go home shortly. He said to me, “I have fewer days than you have years.” I haven't seen him since. Throughout my mission I looked forward to being able to use at least a variation of that phrase with someone.

Later in the mission I made it a point to go back to the area we had visited that first night and take a picture of the dreary apartment building. I'm not sure how I found the place. I don't think I have the address written down anywhere. It must have been a missionary homing sense that kicked in.

My first city was Torino and I went to the apartment in Via Baiardi 2. Steven Smith was my trainer and Elders Jorgensen and Wallace were the other missionaries there. It was a great group. They probably helped facilitate a fairly smooth transition into Italian Mission life.

June and July in Torino were amazing. Torino is WAY further north than where I grew up. It was very interesting how late the sun set in the evening. It was still light when we would go home at 9:30. the squares during the late summer evenings would fill with happy, festive congregations. It was a party atmosphere almost all the time.

I also recall the pretty consistent afternoon thunder showers during this time. It's a good thing they (usually) occurred when we were inside the apartment for lunch.

Cogito

My bank is being hacked. My country is being invaded with plagues, physical and spiritual. We refuse to employ any means to protect ourselves from moral and physical onslaughts. We have turned over our fate to the lowest common denominator among us, people with no sense, no morals, no will. We refuse to deny anything to the immoral, punish the criminal, or positively instruct the young.

This country was once a bastion. We cannot back away from that role and expect the world to flourish. The US must lead out on all fronts. We guide, we support, we sustain the rest of the World. Today's problems aren't the result of a flawed system. They are the result of abandoning founding principles. Unfortunately, we diverged so long ago there is very little still shining through the intervening fog.

I have faith that, “Everything will be all right in the end... if it's not all right then it's not yet the end.” But, I am starting to wonder and fear how bad things become before that marvelous end.

Other than that I am having a great day. That is all.

Yesterday

Had a very nice and busy weekend (despite the rain). Temple shift Saturday morning was longish because the Temple closed after the 10pm session. So we were the only shift and had to stay till noon to get it all done. I'm really new to all this and nobody really was telling me what to do. I could have hung back and not done much. But, at every opportunity I stepped right in and did the job. Nobody told me not to. It was a good shift. I was tired in the middle. But, at the end I was fine.

The neighborhood “Chili cook-off” got somewhat squelched because of the rain. So, it was held in the Schipper's garage. Only five entries. We enjoyed the time and got to see the new re-models in their home.

Our Sunday meetings involved missionary farewells for two kids in the neighborhood: Brooklyn Brewer and Dallas Anderson. Their talks were very nice and sweet and they will make great missionaries. The occasion of their farewells brought in a large crowd for our Sacrament meeting. I was asked to help pass the Sacrament. Halfway through the Bishop and first counselor came and joined us because we needed the help. I realized that my whole old bishopric was passing the Sacrament together. A neat moment.

I reluctantly attend the occasional Sunday evening church meeting. We had a Stake Youth Standards night Yesterday. I am really glad I went. David Archuleta gave a very nice presentation. I am a bit of a music snob. He has a great talent and is one of the most personable and engaging people I have ever seen. A very sweet spirit was there as he bore testimony of the Savior Jesus Christ through his comments and beautiful song.

San Clemente 2014

We had another lovely family vacation to San Clemente recently. I've mostly posted pictures. And I'll kinda give a rundown in bullet points.

Leading up to the trip there was a lot of concern about how Poppa would do. He even tried to back out at the last minute and have us go by ourselves. But, nobody really wanted to do that. He was mostly concerned that he would fall because he has done so a lot lately. All in all he did pretty good. I don't know of any falls. He did insist on medicating himself (and over medicating himself) at times. I think he forgets what he has taken. It's really hard to tell an ex-doctor what to do about his health. A couple of days he did quite a lot of sleeping, even on the beach.

So in the run-up there was kind of a general feeling that "our" San Clemente was in for a change, possibly drastic, and likely soon. I don't think Poppa will go again and in that case the extended family probably won't go together again or often or much of it. There is too much range in what people expect to have to pay and contribute in the way of helping out. Some people won't go unless it is "free."

This and the fact that Jensen and Ameer weren't there made me somewhat depressed about the whole thing. I think Lenore felt the same. Ailsa had to leave after only a little more than one week. Orientation for Law School started on the second Wednesday. So, we drove her to the Long Beach airport early Tuesday morning. It meant there was one less person for me to do my things with.

I didn't do a ton of cycling this year (just a total of 152 miles in 7 rides.) Took Ailsa, Shazia, Sajid, and Daniel on the tandem. The ride with Daniel was quite good. I think his water polo training has helped him learn to exert himself. I'm pretty sure we had a record run on the out-leg going south. I told him on the way back I didn't care if he fell asleep. (He didn't fall asleep.)

Weather was very nice pretty much the whole time. I think one day it threatened to sprinkle in the morning. But. Most of the days had plenty of sunshine. Surf was generally high the whole time. This doesn't mean it was good the whole time. I only went surfing four times. Ailsa was my only partner and after she and Daniel left, it was pretty much just me and I don't often go board surfing by myself. It's sort of a social thing.

The water temperature was VERY nice the whole time. It was usually in the low 70's, got up to 74 once or twice. A day or two they said it was 68 or 69. But, it felt very comfortable.

Last year the surf was VERY small the whole time. Now I see that as probably a good thing. Sometimes this year I was getting into some trouble. I was especially wary when body surfing. The first week and a half were fine and I didn't have too much problems. I really notice getting winded now. So, I just have to take it easy. The last three days the surf was quite strong and conditions were red flag. The last Thursday I considered going out. But, stood on the shore with my fins looking at the conditions for a while and concluded it wasn't worth it.

The shoreline current that is almost always present in Southern California (and almost always flows north) was very strong. The lifeguards were having a rough day. One group of swimmers got taken out by a rip and the lifeguards went out to help them. Rather than bring them right in they took them further out and then through the pier (even though they were almost 100 yards from the pier to begin with) because it would be safer to help them in after the pier. Even if I had gone out there wasn't much shape to the waves.

Friday conditions were a little better. So, I went out for a try. I figured if I can get to where I want to be and stay in one place against the current using just my fins, I might try a wave or two. I couldn't keep from drifting north and would have had to be stroking with my arms all the time. I didn't want to have to work that hard for what weren't that good of waves.

We had a visit one day from "Teagon" the SCpier cat. He was very nice and has his own Facebook page to deal with his fame. Look at those long forearms.

For a long time I have wanted to do a sort of mass get-together of friends while on vacation in California. I often try to get with Stuart or Chris and Toni Trumbo likes to come see us. I have a lot of friends and acquaintances in California. So, I arranged to use the Lake Road Irvine LDS building. this actually worked out quite well. We didn't have a ton of people come. Mostly it was Orange III ward and Orange Stake friends. But was had a really good time catching up with one another. Toni wants to do it again next year. We'll see. I'm not averse to it.

Since Aunt Joyce passed away, Stuart has been wanting to do a little tribute for Uncle Jay. This was nice to do. He had such a great influence on all of us. It was especially nice that since I had gotten in touch with Reid Pieper and he came to my get together, we were able to let him know about it and have him come as well. Also through my FB contacts we were able to get nice tribute letters from Bruce Nielsen, Gerry Sanders, and Kevin Wilson for Jay.

The old house on Shasta Way. I think that is the Ash tree we transplanted from the Bangert's yard.