Beneath the Wraps

          First of all I would really like to thank Ellen and Sunny for their recommendation of the book "The Rent Collector" by Camron Wright.  I have enjoyed it and actually wouldn't mind having the book in my personal collection.           I'm intrigued by so much of the story and the situation and dreams and literature.  Though the story itself is fictitious, Stung Meanchey was a real place.  A filthy dump in Cambodia. Three sided huts provided housing to those who worked at the dump.  The documentary "River of Victory" says that there are over 600 of this type housing.  Or at least there were.  The author's notes (Camron Wright on the Rent Collector) indicate that Stung Meanchey was shut down in 2009 and there is no housing at the new location of dumping grounds.            When I look at pictures t...

          I don’t know what exactly freaks me out about driving in Roseburg.  The population is less than half of what I’m used to – but I’m also used to driving on a grid – and having streets that are numbered rather than all names.           Oregon drivers (as a whole) seem a lot more courteous than Utah drivers – not that Salt Lake accounts for all Utah drivers.  But Salt Lake County makes up for over 1/3 of Utah’s population at  1,029,655 . The entire Douglas County has a population of 107,667 with Roseburg population at only 21,181 but still the largest city in the county with the next largest city coming in at 7,810   and then Myrtle Creek at less than half of that – and the numbers go down from there.           Overall, the state of Oregon has a higher population than does the state of Utah; Oregon residence ar...

                  We had been told by our friend (the one who lives in McMinnville) that we would have two months to reside before changing over to Oregon plates and driving.   We’ve been here for almost two months now.          We somehow believed that we would have to take the tests in the big city of Roseburg, but someone had suggested that we go to Canyonville.   I hadn’t thought of a DMV even existing in Canyonville.   What an awesome thought.          Roland happened to be off work for pioneer day as he is still on Utah clock.   The South Umpqua ward tries to do something for the days of ’47 to honor the pioneers who traveled across the plains.   I’m told that the pioneer celebration always takes place a week earlier than it does in Utah as Myrtle Creek has its own ...

       Today we decided to take a ride up to Eugene and look around.   Roland checked the net before we left so that we would have a specific destination.   came out extremely small because it was taken with my cell phone        The historical landmark sits upon a hill.   Many stairs lead to the house.   It reminded Jenna and I of a veggie tale's Sock Drawer in which one feature is a reinactment of the three stooges moving a piano The initial look on their faces as they look up to see all those stairs   I couldn't find a picture that showed ALL the many stairs watching larry do all of the work        The history of the house and owners was interesting.   I took a lot of pictures - though the majority of artifacts were actually just condusive to the time period and not the house itself.   It was still very quite interesting.  ...

Jenna does NOT deal with change well.   She is horrible at it.   Horrible.   I don’t even remember what it was she was complaining about last night.   I told her that whatever we do, wherever we live, no matter what, there are going to be some things that we like about our current situation and some things that we don’t.   I told her to write a list of pros and cons with living in West Valley and with living in Myrtle Creek.   I didn’t suggest for her to include Kearns – after all she was only five when we had moved. There was probably more drama about that move than there was with this last one. After reviewing her lists, I decided to make some lists of my own.   Thus for this post, I have decided to share each list that was created (or started at least) Jenna’s pro list for living in West Valley 1)            school friends 2)     ...