Beneath the Wraps

https://www.hindustantimes.com/world-news/hurricane-florence-death-toll-climbs-to-17-flooding-fears-surge-as-rivers-rise/story-l0hudSBdF6EyROjIY4l3iK.html         The weather forecast said that more rain was expected to hit the east coast.   Meanwhile, the map indicates fires still burning on the west coast.   It's been dry.   https://www.predictiveservices.nifc.gov/outlooks/monthly_seasonal_outlook.pdf   My breathing feels much like it did during winters in Utah.   My skin feels as if I have been rolling in fiberglass.   I feel bad and pray for those who have lost so much due to Florence and the amount of time that they will spend attempting to rebuild . . .  https://www.newsweek.com/hurricane-florence-aftermath-sparks-deadly-tornado-virginia-exactly-14-years-1126185 I wish there could be a happy balance.   I wish there was a cost effect way to remove the water from the east coast...

Last year I found this rock out by the mailbox.   Jenna has kept it in her collection all this time.   On the back of the rock are instructions to post #WCPR (west coast painted rocks) which and has been on a mission to paint and hide rocks herself.   We had placed a quarter (coin) in the picture to show the size of the rocks. These are the ones which we plan to hide today after church But first, she decided to put her "Alien" painted rock next to the mailbox where we had found the first As Jenna grabbed each rock, she thought about places she could hide them that would be unique to the area.               She'd like to hide the candy corn near a business as Halloween is coming up and would be a reminder to all businesses to buy their candy.             She wants to put the jack-o-lantern near a house b...

My classes are database - learning the Microsoft program Access and accounting management systems.   The lecture for the database is for Monday morning and the accounting lecture is 25 hours later on Tuesday - except this week.   Our instructor was out of town and in the path of the hurricane and had come home, but was driving all day Tuesday and couldn't present the lecture until Thursday.   Our initial post for discussion is due on Wednesday.                 I am so excited about the database class and had completed the discussion, assignment, and assessment shortly after the lecture.   On Tuesday I responded to two other discussion posts and posted my discussion for the other class.   The instructor had already posted my grades before I opened zoom chat for her question and answer on Wednesday.             On Monday, I had tried...

            On Sunday I was told to go into the room where the young women meet as the stake presidency wanted at least one parent for every youth to sit in.   The subject was a sensitive subject but seemed to be approached from a different angle but still with a hint of snobbery. One of the stake president's counselors was showing a slide show and had used this as an example of "Satan trying to divert your attention away from him"  referring to the "fox" as Satan. Okay, Satan can be clever, but others can be clever without deception.   Some people are better at "fitting in" than others.   But at whose expense do we fit in?             The teens were asked if they know of others who are living together without being married.   My reaction:   "My son Biff and his girlfriend Claire."   The idea of living together was compared to...

          I have followed a few blogs off and on.   Many of the creators have stopped posting.   Others have closed for privacy or discontinued the blog altogether.    My niece had three blogs going - though not all simultaneously.   The first one was one that a friend had started when they were living in Thailand in the summer of 2011.   She had started another the year that my mother died.   Her first post was a tear jerker.   She made some profound thoughts - much like her mother.   I have wished that Sunny would create a blog to post to.             Ellen (not her real name.   Unlike Corey and I, she uses the real actual names in her blogs) started off her first post mentioning how every journal she starts will include a history of herself.   I can relate to that.   I have tried cramming my entire life into a few pages - oft...

          When Jenna told me her assignment was on camera history, I smiled as I had recently touched on that same subject in class discussion post that I briefly mention here .   I ended up with this thought on digital cameras versus film:        " The digital camera was made available to the public in 1988 (Ternholm, 2007).  Before the start of the 21st Century,  I had known several people who had tried to sway me into the perks of having/owning digital.  I don't remember all the reasons I had for sticking with my 35mm and rolls of film, but one of the reasons was because I had convinced myself that the picture quality was better from the film than the digital results.         "It wasn't until our family had an opportunity of hosting a foreign exchange student that I was "swayed" to the perks that a digital camera could provide.  My "so...

            As soon as Jenna returned home from school yesterday, Roland and I went to a neighbor's house to pick apples.   Jenna did not wish to go.  Instead, she started on some homework she had.   When I returned, she asked me to help her with a specific topic.   She had been assigned to write about an invention and had picked cameras as her topic.   Oh, yes.   What a great historical item.                My first suggestion to her was to make a comment on the straight faces that are seen in so many old photographs.   No one is smiling.   They all look serious.   Cameras seemed to be a lot heavier and bulkier back then.   It would take the photographer a huge amount of time just to set up his equipment and even longer to capture the pose.           ...

            There is a couple in the stake who had moved into a house with lots of land.   The original owner had used some of the land was used to grow baco grapes.   When the couple moved in, he asked to continue with growing his grapes and maintained that part of the land.   He has now retired from maintaining the land.   It's not necessarily an investment the family was interested in and decided to invite all those who lived in the stake to come and pick as many grapes as we want.   These were offered for free.             So for family home evening, we loaded up the car with buckets, scissors, gloves and knee pads - though we did not need the latter.   The couple has grown into a family and had various children out in the orchard to direct participants on where to go and start cutting.  Cutting grapes off the vine was probably the ...

          Roland Loves watching movies and television.   I tolerate T.V. but as I have mentioned before, if we were to get rid of it, neither Jenna nor I would be upset about it.   There are so many things that are greater than sitting on the couch (an uncomfortable one at that) watching moving pictures and reading the closed captioned because even at 72 decibels, the sound is usually in competition with the A/C and the fan - unless you are in another room and then it's like "Why is the volume up so dang loud?"           I can watch a couple of movies, I guess, but then I am burned out.   I cannot or will not watch 8 hours straight of "American Pickers" or "Flea Market Flip" or even "Big Bang Theory"   Even four hours is too much.             So yesterday, Roland asks if I want to see a movie.     ...