Beneath the Wraps

Pie Making          I can’t find a reference to mom’s traditional pie making event. I suppose it could have started with her children.  I do recall having assisted with pies at least once in my childhood.   Kayla says she remembers a time when it was just her and Corey that did it with mom.   I don’t think I ever viewed it as an actual tradition until Ellen and Kimball were small.             My mom made a huge assortment of pies on the Wednesday before   Thanksgiving each year.   The grandkids looked forward to assisting with rolling out the dough and filling the pie with whatever they chose.               We’d have apple pie, banana cream pies, coconut cream, chocolate cream, cherry, lemon meringue and of course, pumpkin.   More pies were added to the dinner each time new grandkids wer...

            After Jenna learned to read, she was magnetized to Piggie and Gerald Books by Mo Willems. We read every single one.   We would take turns voicing Piggie and Gerald and we would act out their characters.   She enjoyed every minute.             She reads chapter books now but will still spend time in the children’s section of the library and take a huge stack of books that Mo Willems has written and ask me to read with her.               She doesn’t check them out anymore.   We just read them at the library.   Last night we had plenty of time.   We had arrived at the library an hour and a half before the reading group would start.   She had at least two Piggie and Gerald books that we had never read before.        ...

The Sandy Starships Theater opened December 1980. It was a four-screen theater in a strip-mall in Sandy, Utah. The theater had a futuristic design, as if it were a spaceship, and even had a robot mascot. The Sandy 9 theatres became the dollar scene and patrons stood in line on the lit up “space station” floor waiting in line for the new releases that were shown at the Sandy Starships theater. Starships closed after its 20-year lease expired in November 2000.   But long before it closed, the once hip full price theatre tapered off to dollar prices.   The coolness had worn off. The starship had lost its appeal before it was even a decade.   What was once prestige had earned “junkie”, “dirty” and “cheap”. The Starship failed though Sandy 9 remains. There are several landmarks that seem aged and run down – either the land has shifted or our desires have.   We find something better, more satisfying, less costly – or perhaps it’s just the economy tha...

We have not ridden the bus this week as Roland has taken a use-it-or-lose-it vacation.   He has been driving Jenna to school each morning. He had wanted to go see a movie on Monday.   We went to the 12:00 showing and sat through the previews.   The projector (or whatever device they use now) was not working correctly.   We had a choice to wait for the 1:00 or return at a later time.   We learned that it was a three-hour movie.   Three hour movie!   I didn’t want to sit through a three-hour movie!   We couldn’t wait for the 1:00 showing because Jenna gets out of school at 3:20.   But Roland still wanted to see it.   So we returned the next day.   He kept telling me that the movie was only 2 hours and 49 minutes.   That’s more than three hours when sitting through 20 minutes worth of ads and previews. The movie is LOOOOONNNG – I think there is much that could have been edited.   I also thought ...

         I notice as I age, parts of me don’t seem willing to move as well and my balance seems to be thrown off.   Actually has been for quite some time.   Sometimes it’s like when you have your arms spread out to either side from your shoulders and you lift one foot while trying to close your eyes.   Go ahead and try it.   I’ve not met anyone yet that can make it to a full minute. Two years ago I had an MRI as I thought I’d been having stroke related symptoms.   Nothing was found.   But today I keep dad’s walker quite near the bed and have used it at night just to balance myself while getting up.   I have not yet used it to assist my walking. As of now I don’t feel any different as far as balance goes. I do seem to be experiencing a little more pain in different places – like just behind my left knee – when I twisted it while exiting a bus.   The pain comes and goes.   The other d...

I don’t mind the change in the weather.   I welcome the cool air.   Even if it means I need to bundle up or dress in layers.   The thing I don’t like is having bus drivers blare the heat as though it’s his or her sole responsibility of heating the entire universe. When I lived with my mom and was working downtown, I would get on the bus and start stripping down.   It was a good 30-40 minute ride.   Just before we got to second south, I’d layer up again.   But the distances I have from West Valley to my destination are so much shorter. It seems senseless to strip down.   At the same time it seems I will suffocate if I don’t remove something. I sit next to the door as often as I can – though the back door doesn’t always open.   I’m getting familiar with which drivers are able to deal with a minimum amonut of heat and which ones have to have the heat cranked up as though Roland is the driver.   I try to avoid their route...

It was nice to have light this morning as Jenna and I walked to the bus stop.   I usually don’t see it until after Jenna and I have parted ways and I start heading back to catch a return bus to West Valley. We were supposed to set the clocks back on Saturday night – but forgot.   We got up at our usual time on Sunday – thinking we had slept in, but hadn’t.   Jenna asked me what happened to all the clocks. Hopefully this will be the last time we have to adjust our clocks and the majority of voters who want to do away with daylight savings times will get our way. I do enjoy seeing where I’m going in the morning.   In December it will be dark again. I notice there are trees that still haven't turned and just as many that are bare now.  Perhaps that will make for a longer fall like we had last year.

“Paperboy” takes place in the mid to late 50’s sometime after Elvis had made a name for himself and when Arkansas started integrating schools The story takes place in Memphis and reads like a journal.   No commas, no quotations.   Very cleverly written, I think. The summary of the story itself got my attention, but what really intrigued me was Rob Buyea’s recommendation.   I had posted a review on Buyea’s books here Victor Vollmer has agreed to take his friend’s paper route for a month.   He enjoys throwing papers and is good at it.   His problem is with collecting money, for Victor has a stuttering problem and lacks the confidence in talking with people. But he learns a lot and meets a few people that he may not have otherwise.   He records his thoughts and some conversation and little by little the reader can see the growth of this young man. There doesn’t seem to be much of a plot until pretty much towards the end – after all...

I remember seeing a story on the news about a class project featuring two rodents with different diets.   I was hoping to find the story online, but have given up my search. I believe it was an elementary school, but don’t know what grade or from which state.   The class had voted the names of the rodents to be “Nut” and “Honey”.   Nut was given a healthy diet of lettuce, nuts and whatever else might be healthy while Nut was given sugars and starches.   The children were able to see Honey wilting away as she became skinnier and thinner – while Nut remained healthy and had gained weight. I remember the newscasters making comment that they wondered if that might backfire for anyone having the desire to lose weight – to follow Honey’s diet.   Sadly, it was Nut who died first and not Honey.   I remember the newscaster trying hard to fight the smile as the story unfolded that Nut had choked on a healthy cracker. I LOVE sugar –...

We got a new furnace and thermostat – which we haven’t totally figured out.   It was really cold yesterday morning.   Not a big problem for Jenna and me, but Roland needed warmer.   So he made a few adjustments and the air blasted and continued after he left. I put my hair into pigtails to keep it off my neck.   I keep it up during the summer because it is so thick and weighs like a fleece blanket in addition to the already blasting sun.   When Jenna and I left the house, my hair was still in pigtails.   I have worn it down when the morning air’s been cold.   But I didn’t bother taking the bands out of my hair, but secured my hat around them.   It was amazing how warm my ears felt.   I may just continue to do that. In addition to a new furnace, some new appliances were added to our house.   As we made room for all our new material things, items were moved, furniture rearranged and it looks like a tornado blew into ou...