Specialized VW

I have almost completed the build of a new bicycle. It's a Specialized Venge Vias that I will be running SRAM Red Etap 11speed shifters on. It's really fancy and in some respects a whole new approach to many of the components. The shifters are electronic and work by a bluetooth signal. So, no wires. The brake cables are all routed internally so as to add to the aerodynamics of the bike.

The front brake cable comes up through the fork tube and has to pass through a hole in the expansion plug. The rear cable snakes through the frame up through the head tube outside the fork tube and through a slot in the bearing surfaces. Since there are no wires or cables being routed for the shifters, I decided to run the cable for the headlight in it's place. I was trying to make it modular so that if I need to take it apart again, I won't always be cutting and re-splicing the wires. This added a level of difficulty.

The other night I was ready to put the front end together. I found I needed at least two more hands. So, I enlisted Jensen's help. It was at least 45 minutes of trial and error and then trying to fish the cable housings out of the holes in the handlebar. Jensen was great and offered great assistance and even suggestions at times. Which was very helpful since I can't really see that well in a poorly lit garage at night.

It reminded me of a story from my past: When I was single in Maryland I bought a VW Karman Ghia convertible. Once while I was living with a bunch of single guys in Columbia, MD the convertible top got slashed.

Shortly after Lenore and I married I decided it was time to replace it. I ordered one in the mail and set out on a Saturday to replace it. How hard could it be? Well, not easy. There is a cable in the back seam that fits into a groove in the body and you tighten it by cinching the ends of the cable that run through some flanges and tightening some bolts. The hard part was keeping the cable in place while you tightened it.

Lenore was ready to call it quits after several tries. I just kept at it and finally impressed her with my tenacity and resolve. We saved ourselves a lot of money.

The other night Jensen proved that she would have been up to the task of replacing the convertible top, might have even enjoyed doing the job.

Bike 2016

Time to document some of my cycling achievements from 2016. Overall, I wanted to reach a highest avg MPH for the year and get over 20MPH. I thought getting in lots of mileage early in the year would help me with that. I think I was wrong. Maybe things change as you age. I put in lots of miles in April, May, and June (2,063.07 for the second quarter). My speed tapered off and then went down. At a certain point, It was pretty obvious that I wasn't going to set a personal best. I still came in second at 19.66 MPH for the year (.17 behind my best). I then just tried to get the most miles and the most rides. If I were to graph the rides by speed over the course of the year, it would be a fairly flat curve. Probably as flat as ever. I had my second highest total of rides over 20 MPH. But, very few over 21, non below 17.27, and very few under 19.

As I get older I notice my heart rate doesn't go up easily and it's also harder to get my breathing going. I think the thing to do if I want to go faster is do more climbing. 2017 I am going to see if I can do more climbing than before.

Arguably my best ride of the year was a 60 mile effort on the Legacy Parkway Trail in October at a speed of 20.43MPH. Similar to my 2006 ride at the Colorado River.

I set new highest mileage totals for the months of May and June

I had a fun ride with Stuart down in Utah County at the beginning of July. This is where I realized I was doing too many miles. He could have easily ridden away from me and I was dogging.

Also has several fun rides in Orange County during vacation, especially along PCH into Seal Beach.

The tandem bike was stolen out of our garage sometime between 27 Aug and 10 Sep (but, probably 8 Sep morning).

Muzzy and the Mashed Potatoes

Years ago, Lenore's grandmother Naoma (Muh) Smith came to family dinner at our house. At one point she was chilled so I retrieved one of my sweaters and let her wear it. A couple of weeks after, Lenore and I were at a Church meeting and I was leading the music and wearing the same sweater. As I recall, it may have been a Stake meeting. During one of the Hymns, Lenore caught my eye and made a face. Later, when we were able to talk, she let me know that there was a fairly large swath of dried mashed potato (boil 'em, mash 'em, stick 'em in a stew) on the sleeve. We still enjoy a chuckle about that one from time to time.

La Isla Bonita

Lenore and I just returned from a very fun 30th anniversary Caribbean Cruise. We sailed out of Miami and visited Grand Cayman, Roatan, Belize, and Cozumel. Hurricane Matthew had just decimated Haiti on 4 October and then headed to Florida and the Southwestern US. It appeared that the storms wouldn't affect our ports. But, as the sailing date of 8 October approached, we weren't sure that our boat would sail or that our flight would be able to get us to Miami.

As it turned out, there wasn't much impact on Miami. The storm was passing North Carolina about the time we had to connect through Charlotte. But, that airport is far enough inland that it only had minor impact on the weather there. Overall, we were only rained on for about an hour's worth during our visits in ports.

This was our third Cruise in 18 months, and the second on Carnival Glory. The worst part is getting onto the ship. The best flight for us to take is the VERY early Saturday morning flight. As such, I didn't get very much sleep and then was without my meds until after dinner on Saturday. It wasn't horrible, but I need to plan better in the future.

There were two days at sea, Sunday and then Friday. The Friday was probably the least pleasant of the whole time because, even though it was sunny, the wind was pretty strong. I was tempted to ask the captain to slow down to minimize the wind:)

Grand Cayman was our first stop and also the shortest port stay. We just took a taxi to some part of Seven Mile Beach and sunned ourselves and went snorkeling. Left hand drive, English speaking, quaint. Did not see a McDonalds. But, saw KFC, Wendy's, and Burger King. The cabbie was quite proud to point out the expensive Hotels and resorts where the famous people own property and visit. It started to rain near the end of our planned stay. So, we packed up a little early and went back to the ship.

I think we had dinner to ourselves the first evening. But, for the rest of the trip we were seated with a nice, friendly couple from the Indianapolis area: Lance and Patty Allen. It was fun to have people to chat with.

The next stop was the Mahogany Bay resort on Roatan. We (Lenore) spent about an hour and a half shopping when we first arrived. I just cooled my heels and chatted with people. I was doing a pretty good job of watching the weather forecasts and such. Right before going to the beach, a lady asked me if we were going to get anymore rain. I said, "no, I think we've seen the worst of it." Then just as we got to the beach, it started to rain hard. Many of the people left for shelter. We found refuge in the outdoor locker area and were determined to wait it out. It rained steadily and hard for about 45 minutes and then cleared and was actually quite pleasant. We snorkeled a bit right off the beach. Then we noticed a pier off to the left that extended into the water about 100 yards. We found much better snorkeling there and both had a great time.

The next day found us in Belize. Our plan for the day was to go on a cave tubing excursion. We did not book this through Carnival. We found a better and less expensive tour on the internet: cavetubing.bz. There aren't many beaches in Belize. They are mostly on the islands. So, this activity seemed like the thing to do.

There was about an hour drive out of the city to a National Park. The city and environs are fairly impoverished looking. But, the park was quite presentable. The cave we floated is found on the Cave Branch river. (Belize is formerly British Honduras, so they speak English, but, they drive on the right hand side.)

After the float, we were served a very nice, simple lunch at the tour headquarters. On the drive back to port, the tour guide pointed out the local LDS Chapel.

Our last stop in Cozumel we took a taxi to Ocean Beach resort. They have a bit of a racket going on. The taxi fare is only $15 one way. But, once you get there you have to pay $17 per person to get in the resort. No big deal. They also try to sell you on all sorts of other stuff, (trying to separate you from your wallet) but, they aren't pushy.

While sitting on the beach next to a young black guy who was going to school in North Carolina (I think) and some of his friends (they all were from another boat) one of the vendors approached him and asked if he wanted his picture taken in a Mexican sombrero. He said, "that sounds racist." I couldn't contain my guffaw. I'm pretty sure he was trying to be funny. The vendor had no clue.

The water here was very warm. I would guess in some spots close to 90 degrees. We did a lot of snorkeling while still staying within the “safe” area.

While on the boat we saw frigate birds and vultures and dolphins, and very early in the morning we saw many small birds flying around the balconies, probably feeding on insects.

We had several hours available once we returned to Miami and we considered going to the beach. But, the weather wasn't great and we had our bags to worry about. So, we just went to the airport VERY early.

Cozumel

Cozumel

Saw this fish in Roatan. He was about two feet long.

Grand Cayman

Cozumel

San Clemente North (Huntington Beach) 2016

Our annual summer vacation to the beach took a course change this year. Since Poppa passed away and Becca and Megan bought a house in Huntington Beach and wanted us to stay with them, we went there. We called it San Clemente North.

They have a very lovely house about a mile from the beach just barely off of Brookhurst. We had a somewhat smaller contingent. Sarah and Sajid didn't come and the Taylors were in Europe. But, Ameer brought two friends Corey and Marshall. Ailsa also didn't come because she had already spent six weeks in Orange County doing an externship and was back working at the bankruptcy court in Salt Lake.

We also didn't go for quite the whole two weeks. We arrived in the afternoon on Wednesday and didn't go down to the beach until Thursday. And then left a week and a half later.

Megan is the Director of Research and Development at the Orange County Water District. Her workplace is actually quite close to their home. It just so happened that our Saturday there they were having and open house for families. So, we went and received a custom tour.

It was quite interesting and I learned some things:

The end product waste they dump into the ocean is still less concentrated than sea water; Desalination (evaporation or otherwise) is still more expensive and energy intensive than their process; The end product purified water is not directly consumed. (In some other places in the country it is.) But, is pumped to holding ponds where it is allowed to filter into the aquifer; and Ground does not filter out salts. Thus, the need for their process.

I only took my road bike (no tandem) and only rode six times for a total of 194 miles. But, I enjoyed myself a lot. I rode down to Dana Point the first day in town. I had forgotten how much up and down this ride is. A total of about 2000 feet of climbing. I also rode the river trail into the Anaheim Stadium and the back bay into Irvine and Bushard and PCH going north into Seal Beach and the San Gabriel river trail. The one I liked best was this last one.

With my cycling this year I had two main goals: break 20MPH pace for the year and do the most miles. At this point it's pretty certain I won't make the first. I tried putting on a lot of miles in April-July. I thought I would eventually start picking up speed. My pace suffered in June and I think I am just too old to do that much training. I might have made the pace goal if I hadn't piled on so many miles in June. So, my strategy now is just do moderate miles. That's why I didn't go nuclear with riding in California. But, I don't have enough year left to recover what speed I lost in June.

I usually enjoy watching a lot of the Olympics when I can. This iteration, it was a little problematic. The Smiths aren't that keen on watching sports. Although we did watch some. And NBC's coverage wasn't very good. They only showed select events and would waste lots of time in inane special interest stuff so that you really only saw a little of the actual sport. We did have fun though.

Some of the other evenings we watched some movies. Some were very good. A couple were horrible (Dan's taste).

I only surfed a little. I should have gotten up early and gone down to Doheny or Old Man's on that last day. But, I went for a bike ride instead. If I had people to go with me…

Ameer and his friends did surf a couple of times. But, they left on the Tuesday so we only overlapped a couple of days.

I did a little bodysurfing in San Clemente. But, I was surprised at how easy it is for me to get winded and run some risk of getting into trouble. So, I decided I have to really be careful at my age. The waves did pick up the last two days, and 30 years ago I would have been all over them. Water temps were good the first few days and then went fairly low. Also, not inviting.

One thing we noticed about the difference between north Orange County and South: at San Clemente the beach is a little protected from wind (maybe because of the cliffs?) and so the water is not horribly blown out as it was a couple of days up north. However, that wind also makes it so you can lie in the Sun for quite a while without getting overheated.

Stuart and Kendra, and Toni came over the first Friday evening and we had a really good time visiting with them.

Maddie Porter got married 12 August and we missed the sealing and the reception in Utah because of our travels. But, there was a reception in San Clemente the last Friday we were there and so we were able to make that. It was at a lovely house just up from T-Street and it was fun to see everyone, especially Julie and Blake LeSueur. I haven't seen them in probably at least 10 years and had forgotten how much fun they were.

A fun picture from the reception with a comparison from several years ago (you have to click back and forth.): Here

We went to Kim's ward on the one Sunday we were in town.

Rather than only go to Huntington Beach, we went one day to San Clemente, two or three days to Newport (here at 61st street) and the rest at Huntington.

Megan and Becca have purchased a number of cruiser bikes so people can ride to he beach. It was fun and convenient. And, most days we used them.

Recent Trip to Saint George

Paradise in January

Christmas 2015

Christmas 2015

TL;DR - 2015 was the year that Todd & Lenore finally went on that cruise, Jensen came back from Poland, Lane graduated from high school and Ailsa seriously considered running away from Law School and everything to become a mermaid.

Todd & Lenore – Mom continues to stay busy and happy with her calling, and even recently got the opportunity to do something she loves but hasn’t had as part of her regular schedule in a while; she taught in Relief Society! Now that Lenore has heard about Exuma Island in the Bahamas, she wants to go swim with the pigs. Not dolphins! Pigs! I'm not sure Carnival has an excursion for that. Dad’s cycling met with some set-backs this year, but he still completed an impressive 2300+ miles, under the circumstances (about 7-8 weeks off the bike during the height of the season.) At least once, his misadventures prompted a lengthy debate about whether a certain arm was dislocated or if it was merely suffering under an especially nasty-looking hematoma. Even our neighbor nurse friend thought the elbow was seriously messed up (technical term). Ailsa: “Dad, it's not supposed to look like that.” Luckily, it was not dislocated and we all learned something about the importance and convenience of x-rays. He’s still the best sport around, living with four at least arguably traditionally feminine women who have officially subjected him to every period piece ever adapted to the screen by the artful BBC. As life continues to decline into political (and perhaps literal) apocalypse, we all must discover new ways to mentally, emotionally and physically navigate the unrest and constant demands of life. With some help and prompting from friends, both mom and dad have figured out that the best way to deal is to allow time to relax, and specifically to relax on a gigantic boat where you’re surrounded by delicious free food and entertainment and it’s really, really warm.

Lane – After successfully writing an 84 page graduation thesis on the religious history of basically everything since the dinosaurs. Lane received her diploma from Kimber Academy and immediately set about finalizing her plans to become a world renowned surgeon/Bond villain. Then she turned fifteen. She is by far the smartest person in the family, and will never allow that to be questioned. But, why would any of us question it? We’re all counting on her to let us live in her high-tech luxury volcano-powered secret lair one day. She’s also developed the absolutely charming habit of constantly singing full voice (especially in confined spaces like automobiles) to music that only she can hear through her earphones. And only she cares about. Specifically Twenty-One Pilots.

Jensen – Completed her full-time mission and learned to speak Polish with excellent proficiency, or so she tells all of us non-Polish speakers and we must only assume she is stating the truth. But, to the untrained (or trained) ear, it sounds like Lenore's childhood made up language: “Jiffy Dog Joe”. Jensen hadn’t been back five minutes and she started making plans to return to Poland next Spring. From her stories, we can’t really blame her. It sounds like she really found her geographical match and made a big impact on the mission, as well as allowed it to change her, and consequently, all of us, for the better. None of us even tries to pretend like Jensen isn’t the favorite in the family. She and the video game Fallout 4 met within weeks of her home-coming and we expect a happy announcement any day now. Jensen is currently performing seasonal work with the Post Office and treating all of your Holiday packages with the care they deserve.

Ailsa – Is still at BYU law school and DOESN’T WANT TO TALK ABOUT IT!. But she also went on a cruise, and honestly is enjoying her life genuinely, it’s not really that bad, she’s just a bit sleepy at the moment. Her greatest achievement is reaching the remarkable plateau of having 3 followers on her Instagram account.

We’re all looking forward to 2016, and to the great experiences we know are ahead. As another year closes out we can’t help but feel immensely blessed by God, and by our association with all of you, our sweet friends and family. May Heavenly Father bless and protect you, and may you all have a Merry Christmas!

The Lillywhites

Jensen's Homecoming

The McClearys

Where Lane is From

I am from painted fruit along the kitchen walls,
from ice cold tiles and brittle clay.
I am from shaded blankets and clawing grass
(familiar creatures creep around me, pouncing at birds.)
I am from the sloping hill, from the swing above the grave,
a spider creeps up the rope, hiding in the bark
from rusty swing sets and bird nests,
from sitting still and being quiet.

I am from scabby knees and bruised knuckles,
from chocolate and nuts.
I'm from hot summers and cold winds tearing at our aspen trees,
from milky eyes and ivory keys.
I'm from spaghetti sauce and basil plants,
from hands gripping me tight,
from blood mixing with asphalt.

I'm from white death masks and cotton filled bullet holes,
from dusty letters and skin crawling in the basement,
from toes on thorns and leaves tangled in unkempt hair,
from a child's fingers tracing over detailed sketches,
from lit candles and tissue boxes,
from the stench of hydrogen peroxide.

I am from those moments not yet lost to the rigors of life,
sun kissed bliss painting what I can never obtain.

Lane Lillywhite
inspired by George Ella Lyon's “Where I'm From”