Last weekend, Mom and I drove to Orem on Saturday so I could be to meetings on Sunday. Our BYU ward is small for summer (59 in attendance) but will balloon for fall and mostly new faces so looking forward to quickly getting records and a directory together as well as staffing a ward. Mom attended my home ward where I was finally released from the Scouts (2 months later) and replaced by a good guy. Glad someone was there to hear it. After church, we had the Hunters over for dinner and enjoyed spending time with them and Eric Germann and his finance Lauren Wade. They are a special couple and both such good kids and I'm looking forward to their wedding this next week in St. George.
Monday, I ran Mom up to Aunt Shirley's and then the two of them went to an Olsen cousin's reunion at Jackie's. They had a splendid time eating, talking and laughing. In the mean time, I took Uncle Sam for a ride in the BMW with the top down and showed him how it corners, accelerates and brakes--all in about a half a block! Fun.
I also had lunch with the last Engineering head at Move and got updated on the saga there when I stopped by to buy one of the old computers. Still in limbo and it sounds like there are probably 50 people still on payrolls of different sorts. Fun to catch up and the company is still a puzzle to me. On other fronts, I now have a solid offer from HireVue which I'm planning to accept in the next couple of days. Start work on September 1. I really enjoy the young CEO that I've been dealing with and he has as his number one goal, building a greatly executing team which I'm excited about. Not as 'entertainment' oriented as Move but still sort of in the video space. I'll keep you posted as to what exactly it does.
Monday night, Mom and I drove back to Grace and spent the rest of the week working on stuff. Completely cleaned out the basement to my house...found some old Abba LPs down there! Now, on to fixing on the house. I started pulling out picture hanging nails and there must have been 200 that Aunt Donette had put up! I think the first project is putting laminate on the kitchen, bathroom and backroom floors. Then painting. Also we switched Mom's freezer from the big house to the garage and moved Mignon's to the shop.
Tuesday night was the Williams Ward party and it was a great success with lots of people, good food and some of Mom's fresh green bean salad. I've been in heaven here with her making fresh raspberry pie, short cake, squash and beans to eat. Tonight, Uncle Glayd and Aunt Helen came over for raspberry shortcake and to visit.
Wednesday was a great day as we finished up chores and the drove to Bear Lake to meet up with Don, Greshen and kids who are staying over there all week with the Gilberts. The winds were up but it was warm and Dad and Mom sat at the water's edge in lawn chairs just soaking up wave therapy. Me and Don? That's another story! Don had had bad luck all week. Truck wouldn't run then he got it going and a few miles into the trip, an electrical wire was on the manifold and the truck quit. Then the bearings on the boat trailer, then the bearings on the other boat trailer.... after two days of fixing, he about had order again. They had a little 10' sailboat of Greshen's uncle so Don and I went out on it (first time I've really put my Skipper training skills to use after 8 years!) A few minutes into the sail, we noticed that the wood tiller had cracks in it and was coming apart so headed back to shore before we were left adrift in the whitecaps. We tightened up the screw and then bailing wired it only to have it break completely off! Sailing's over...or so we thought. We sat there on the beach for a while and then Don's engineering mind caught hold on the fact that he could disassemble his dutch oven tripod to make a replacement. Add some Gorilla tape (duct tape on steroids!) and we had a new tiller! We went out with Grant on the nose, then again out a couple of miles. Dad said, "That sail was only about three inches high!" Great fun! The boat is simple and small but uses all the same principles as the big ones. We tacked back and forth, coming about and trimming the sails. Coming in to the beach, we even were running (full wind behind us, filling the sail). Don and I had a good time! We got back to Bench at dark...just in time to lock the chickens in!
Big news is that Kai and Joe now have been emancipated! They got little bikes from the DI and Kent put training wheels on them. They ride down to my place and the Kiana comes and pulls them home behind the ATV (see picture). Dad's been riding his trike and a couple of days ago, I needed to take a load over to the junk pile at the Well. I took him and Joe to the corner and said I would meet them at the low point in the road just before going up to where the cattle dip was. I dropped the stuff at the pile, turned around to start back and here was Joe! He'd ridden his little bike clear over there! Dad was waiting up on the road and so we rigged a rope he could throw over a bar on his trike and pulled him from Gilbert's pond to the corner and then up the lane (see pics). Here's a little video (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7iXWNbucIa0).
The other night, Kent got a call from Uncle David and Aunt Shirley had been helping him move some machinery and a Caterpillar hitch fell on the back of her leg and cut it quite badly. Kent and I went to the hospital to help give her a blessing and she was in the ER being sown up. Quite a gash (44 stitches) and looked very painful. Fortunately the muscle wasn't cut and the tendon was still intact but I felt so sorry for her. Uncle David's luck! as Robert calls it. I believe they are back in Boise now but she has been on pain meds and needed to use a wheelchair.
I understand that the Ben's and Kent's families met at Onida (The Narrows) for a cookout and camping and a good time was had by all. I was helping Mom put on a quilt and by the time we got done, we were too tired to go down. Tonight, the Kent's have gone to their lodge in Gray's Lake (Kent is leasing property out there that has a house on it) and they will stay tomorrow then head to Idaho Falls for school shopping and school starts on Wednesday.
Dad and Mom are doing well. It's so nice to be able to spend time with them. Dad has his list of daily chores with birds, chickens, eggs, cats, yard things and whatever Kent needs help with. Mom has been busy, busy, busy picking and processing raspberries and beans. It's nice in summer for them both to get outside and it has been so beautiful here. Last night driving home from Bailey's to get milk, the setting sun was on the east mountains and a hundred shades of green and the golden grain. A magical time of night.
Ok...this is longer than most of you will read but hey...it's recorded for some day in the future when we can't remember the past! Mom got an updated history of Great Grandpa Frank which I'll forward for you to all read.
Love,
Peter
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