A Birthday Prayer

 Dear Heavenly Father,

I wish we could have contact with

loved ones in heaven

on our birthday and Christmas day,

like the missionaries who have permission

to call home twice a year.

I would especially like to have contact

with my mother.

That’s who I think about today.

How she must have rejoiced

with the birth of new baby daughter.

And how I must have failed her.

I would say “I’m sorry”.

Perhaps she would say,

“You’ve done the best you could.

That’s good enough.”

And then we would visit about

when I return home.

If only I could talk to her today.

Could you give me the access code?

I must have forgotten it.

All my love, Jeanette

6 months

Antiques

Which is the oldest?

At the family reunion this year,

we made an appointment with

DeRay’s cousin, Margo, and her husband, Bill

to ride in their Antique Cadillac

on our Wedding Anniversary.

To begin the evening,

we toured their backyard

with beautiful flowers

a green lawn.

No weeds, what?

A bridge and waterfall

A fish pond

And vegetable garden.

As we drove along the streets

Of Salt Lake City,

 

 

we felt like movie stars

everyone staring, commenting, wowing.

How were we to know

they meant the limousine, not us?

Café Trang always has plenty of parking.

Not tonight.  It’s the Greek Festival.

$5 Event Parking.

Unless you’re eating at Café Trang,

as Margo discovered when she asked.

The impressed parking attendant promised to

keep an eye on the limo while we dined.

Oh my, what delicious food.

Quiet, delectable, enjoyable.

Afterwards, our chauffeur, Cousin Bill,

now wearing his chauffeur’s cap

 

drove us all around the Capitol Building

by Memory Grove and gravity hill,

across 11^th Avenue to the fire station,

with a commanding view of the night city.

Are you sure we’re not celebrities of some sort?

Is this a dream-come-true?

♪

  This is rather a momentous year statistic-wise,

as DeRay points out.

We were married in ‘56;

We’ve been married 56 years.

Bill’s restored Cadillac is a '36;

I was born in ‘36.

(There were only 5,248 Cadillac’s sold in 1936.

The original price was $2,445.)

In 1936,

Gas was 10 cents a gallon;

Eggs 18 cents a dozen.

The life expectancy was 59.7 years.

(Oops, we’ve exceeded.)

Franklin Roosevelt was President of the United States.

A new house might cost $3,925;

Average Annual Income was $1,713.

A movie ticket was 25 cents.

In Orderville, until you were 12 years old,

movies were a dime.

Then they went up to 40 cents.

DeRay wins.

He’s the oldest antique.

He’s '34 vintage.

DeRay is twice as old as Eddy,

Who is 39.

When Ed turned 38;

DeRay was twice as old at 76 (for a couple of months).

That’s what DeRay told me.

Blame him.

"Do you want to see the car we were in last night?"

I ask Ed when he comes into the computer room.

Barely glancing, he remarks, "The year-you-were-born-model."

BLAST FROM THE PAST

My brother, DeLoy, my mentor, my editor excellent, and my friend, made a suggestion for my blog:  Periodically you could run something like “Bits From My Past # x...xxx” and cover bits from your journal, etc. that your vast audience today may not know about. Here's a candidate entry for #1. 

How could I refuse an offer like that?

In 1910 I entered the following short essay in the Santa Barbara California Fair & Exposition. It’s a true story. It won a First Place in Creative Writing, Fiction, Short Story, Mystery. Never mind that it’s a true story. Truth is stranger than fiction, and I already had an entry in nonfiction, mystery. Part of its title is borrowed from a quote by Winston Churchill — on not ending sentences with a preposition.

 TAXES UP WITH WHICH

WE SHALL NOT PUT 

In 2005 

Our property taxes were $1,020.

In 2009, they are $1,800

--- up 76%.

We wish our retirement income

had increased as much.

According to Davis County,

Our house value went up $50,000 

In the past two years.

During a recession?

When homes were foreclosing, 

And houses weren't selling?

You wouldn't think

That painting our bathrooms

Green and blue

Would raise the value of our home

Quite THAT much!

 We suspect that officials

Have confused their budget shortfalls

With home appreciations,

And will therefore 

Appeal their

Faulty 

Math.

The County rejected our appeal for 2009.  The next year our house was evaluated less, in fact, exactly what DeRay said it was worth the year before; but they raised the mill levy 30% so the taxes went up again.  You can’t win, you know.

East Winds VI

It was on December 1, 2011, exactly nine months ago, that the East Winds swooped across Davis County wrenching destruction and devastation.  I posted pictures on five blogs.  This will be my final entry, even though there are still homes in our neighborhood that haven’t been shingled.  This is the home directly behind us and the church.

The Church

CAUTION - Adults at Play

When Amy is in St. George, we hike in the desert early in the morning.  When she isn't here, I swim early. I love to do both but you have to choose because in the summertime, you pretty much have to be through with outdoor activities by 9 AM.

I like to be outside early because▼

From the pool

At 7 AM

It’s not all about the exercise as you can see.

Does it look crowded to you?

 After swimming and hot tubbing, the only Jacuzzi I have found anywhere that doesn’t make me itch, I ride my bike home the long way.  Arriving a couple of hours earlier,I heard laughter. A group of people are gathering for a hike.  As I mount my bike to leave, across the way I hear joyful sounds from the pickleballers and lawn bowlers;

on the other side, golfers are busy playing.

No wonder they have signs along the route:

If you can figure out what they are doing, let me know. I’m baffled.  Wait! It just came to me, I think they are doing Water Aerobics.

Ah yes, is it safe to dive in four feet of water?

            Of course, someone has to do the work. I wonder who.

On the first day, I saw three of the most picturesque little trees.  The first one was a rich crimson red; the second one was crimson and green in transition; and the third little tree was a deep green.  When we left to shop in the afternoon, I took my camera excited to get a picture.  We drove down the street and back and could not see The Three Little Trees of Varying Colors.  The next day as I rode my bike home, I found the stumps for The Three Little Trees.  Boo-hoo-hoo. 

 They cut them off right at the ground then put two yellow flags by each one.  Why do they destroy beauty?  Why do they have to be so stuffy?  Weren’t the trees obeying the covenants?  They cut down what was to be my first picture with my new camera.  What could I do but take a picture of the stump?

Nevertheless, there seems to be something for everyone at SunRiver St. George.

Even a retirement home right on the premises.

I'm not sure it's legal to walk without a dog.

 Should pedestrians be out on the street?  Can they not understand the stencils?

I feel like the little boy who went walking one lovely summer's day who wanted to go tell mamma he saw so many things.

   On my bike ride home from swimming while watching the sunrise, I SAW SO MANY THINGS!

A little boy went walking One lovely summer’s day: He saw a little rabbit That quickly ran away; He saw a shining river Go winding in and out, And little fishes in it Were swimming all about. And slowly, slowly turning, The great wheel of the mill; And then the tall church steeple, The little church so still; The bridge above the water; And when he stopped to rest, He saw among the bushes A wee ground-sparrow’s nest, And as he watched the birdies Above the tree-tops fly, He saw the clouds a-sailing Across the sunny sky. He saw the insects playing; The flowers that summer brings; He said, “I’ll go tell Mamma! I’ve seen so many things.”

Finger plays for nursery and kindergarten

 By Emilie Poulsson, Lewis Jesse Bridgman, Cornelia C. Roeske

BTW, on my longer bike or trike rides, I almost always sing this silently to pass the time and help me remember to look for the little things; also, to remember when I sang it with my own small children.  (And to see if I still remember it!)