Debby had wanted to see “Wicked” since she first heard of it. Finally, for our anniversary, it came to Nashville and we went to see it. It is full of good music, great messages about life, and none of the offensive stuff. Debby enjoyed it, I did too but not on her level, and most of all I got credit for an anniversary gift with not a lot of shopping worries.
It is hard to believe we have been married for eight years. Of course we have a good measuring stick as we watch Katie grow since she was born the day we married. We have had a lot of choice experiences during that time. We live at a good season of life. We are in good health and have the time to do a lot of things. We have, combined, 19 grandchildren soon to be 20. Debby is enjoying her church work with early morning seminary. I am also enjoying my role as the stake patriarch. Life is good, we are blessed.
Recently I gave a blessing to Blake Solomon. He is the oldest son of Gretchen Hale Solomon. He is quite a stand out: good grades, great church participation, Hale personality, and state champion in his weight division in wrestling.
Debby has 4 of Adrian and Cynthia Hale’s kids in seminary. They are a personality plus bunch of kids. They keep her entertained and inspired. Adrian buys foreclosure houses, fixes them up and re-sales them. These kids are all part of his renovation and management crew.
Their papa, Arthur, is soon to find out if he will be placed on the heart transplant recipient list. He has not been eligible before, despite his heart problems. You have to be functioning at less than 10% capacity before you qualify. He has been at about 15% but has gotten worse lately.
David Smith is our home teacher. This month we asked if we could go see him instead of him visiting us. We wanted to see his goat dog do its stuff. David has a large cattle and goat farm. To help with the goats, he has a very well trained border collie dog. I don’t remember the name of the dog, I should, for he is fantastic to watch. When we arrived the goats were scattered all over the field. At David’s command, the dog rounded them up and put them into a pen under the shed of the barn. The dog enjoyed his work and David enjoyed showing him off. It was obvious that he and the dog are very good friends.
On the 8th I got to help Eric with some concrete work. He and Kristi have made some major renovations to the old home place. It looks good in the cove. In addition, they have made the puppies start paying off in a major way. It was good to be there.
A major miracle happened this month. The old red corolla, one of my oldest friends, blew a head gasket about 6 months ago and I thought it was a goner. Repair estimates were just too high to be considered for an old car with 260,000 miles on it. However, while mooching some free minor tractor repairs from my friend Oley Buckner, he glanced over at the old corolla and said something like “why don’t you let me fix that old car for you. I get bored sitting around with nothing to do.” Well, who am I to stand in his way! Oley is 80 years old and a retired excellent mechanic. His wife just passed away and he is pretty lonely. He is a former commercial pilot, flying instructor, and mechanic for the Stanley Steamer fleet. He couldn’t hear very well during the project because his hearing aids were at the VA for repairs, and he couldn’t see very well, because he is 80; but luckily he had my young body to assist him. For $63.00 to purchase some parts, I have the Corolla again. Life is good!
Every year the coming of frost is both welcomed and dreaded. It is nice to see the weeds and crab grass turn black and die but it also means the tomatoes and such are gone for another year. Those plastic ones you get in the grocery store are terrible imitations. This year it is worse because we have been living on a heavy diet of fresh salsa (supplemented at times). We have consumed a lot of that stuff and complimented ourselves on being such health conscious people. We just have to find a way to keep it up. Debby is after me to build a greenhouse just large enough to grow a few tomato plants. Maybe…..
I took the tractor up on the mountain and did some bush hogging at mom’s and also at the Piney property. The Piney land is a great spot for marijuana growers and lovers to carouse. It only takes four or five hours to do the bush hogging each year and most years I have to remove little chicken wire enclosures that have been put up to keep critters away from the young marijuana plants. This year---no marijuana cages!! But, the garbage dumpers had been there. I mowed into a big pile of old carpet scraps. Also, just a few minutes into the task, I went under a tree with a low lying limb and tore the muffler off the tractor. It got loud! But, I was too far away from tools and parts to do any fixing so I crammed my ears with wadded pieces of napkins and kept going. I had a ringing in my ears for a day or so.
While I was working at mom’s I took the liberty of picking some of Glenn’s pears while he wasn’t looking. They are always good. This has been a good year for fruit in this part of the world.
No comments:
Post a Comment