Beneath the Wraps

Tomorrow is December 1st.  I am truly amazed at what an awesome November we've had.  Awesome in Salt Lake City, Utah, that is.  I understand they've had their fair share of snow in the southern part of the state - or windy or stormy weather.  But in my little corner of the world it's been a great November as far as the weather goes. Oh, there have been a couple of days that have chilled to the bone.  Just a couple is odd for November.  Usually seems filled with darkened skies and dry moisture - I realize that is an oxymoron on my part.  But the winters in Utah are harsh with a dry air quality - much drier than in the summer - and yet November is usually always filled with rain or snow or sleet or hail.  I don't understand why when the elements are wet the air is dry - but it is.  My skin and my mouth are always thirsty. Most all of the trees have lost their leaves by now.  There are still leaves crunching on the ground.  Only a ...

Our future daughter-in-law has two brothers who are still living.   One lives in Texas where his wife is from.   The other lives in a posh neighborhood at the south and east end of the valley. Yesterday we went to the posh neighborhood to meet Jeanie’s family and to have Thanksgiving dinner.   Biff had asked us to bring rice pudding – which to be honest with you - I have never had as part of a Thanksgiving dinner before.   Roland tried a new recipe (which was really very good by the way) and I found a container to put it in. I must admit that I felt out of place offering this pathetic container as we entered their fancy kitchen and saw dozens of dishes that seemed to make the rice pudding even smaller – shrinking with each passing minute until I felt like what we had contributed to the meal had only a cup of runny rice.   Jenna played with boys (Jeanie's nephews) while Roland and I visited with various family members.   Not only w...

I'm grateful to have second hand stores or gift cards or sales in which I can make a purchase for a book bag or back pack.   I ragged on my daughter's lack of responsibility in yesterday's post.  Her backpack had been in the car on Saturday but she doesn't remember seeing it on Sunday.  Someone had been in the car looking for something.  We concluded that the back pack had been stolen by whoever it was.  We made a police report, but I don't expect that anything will come of it.  Wish they would have at least emptied the contents before stealing the backpack though. Every once in a while I will see something quite profound on facebook.  I really like this thought posted by one of my friends: "I was shopping when I saw a purse for over $1,000.00 Really! for a purse! I could buy groceries for 2 months for the price of that purse. Wow, even if I had that kind of money to spare I could never spend that kind of money on something so frivo...

  Jenna’s room was not the neatest we lived in our first house but at least she did know where things were for the most part.   Over in West Valley I think she’s become less responsible with every passing year.   Puberty has certainly not made things easier.   She flies off the handle at every little suggestion.   I’ve been working on getting her to accept responsibility. Pick up after herself.   Get ready on time. I’ve used rewards.   I’ve taken away privileges.   I’ve been nice.   I’ve been ornery.   Nothing has seemed to work. Roland worked only half a day on Friday and thus just happened to pick us up after Jenna got out of school. Afterwards we ran errands and went shopping and did not return to the house until after 6:00. Before Jenna exited the car I told her to be sure and grab her backpack.   I specifically remember telling her to get it now so that it wasn’t left in the car when dad went to work on Mo...

Earlier in the summer of this year my eldest son Biff went to Texas to see his “girlfriend” Hailey – who I had never heard him ever mention before.   He couldn’t have been home more than two weeks when he hooked up with Jeanie.   He started out texting her and then spending time with her – once, twice a week which eventually turned into daily and is hardly even at home anymore.   Sometimes an entire week will go by before I see him – or even talk to him. He did call last night to report his engagement.   No surprises there.   A date has not been set so I’m thinking an elopement is still possible as they had talked about that several times before the engagement.   Biff has always kept his body in great shape.   He eats healthy foods.   He used to retire to bed early (6:00 pm at the time I met Roland, I kid you not) and rise early (4:00 a.m.) but working graveyard has changed that.   I think he’s slippe...

The one thing that I really don’t like about the bus system is the change in temperature.   Each bus driver has the ability to control how hot or cool the bus may be – or so that is my guess. The regular driver, who takes Jenna and me from West Valley to Tannersville each morning, keeps his bus at a comfortable temperature – the way I like it in my house and room.   The way I keep it when Roland’s away.   Windows open.   Fans running. Most of the older drivers keep the bus at furnace temperature – the way Roland likes it.   The way that makes me hot and uncomfortable and worn out.    Long before I got married and was working downtown.   Taking the bus in summer wasn’t generally that big of a deal – not like it was in winter.   I would always sit in back next to a window that had been pried open.   I would remove my hat, my coat, my sweater and whatever else I could.   I’d pant. Before arriving at my desi...

                  I believe it was 1996 when the freeway was in the process of a new makeover as Utah would be holding the winter Olympics in 2002 and the city needed to get ready for the mass transportation that would be involved.             I was working downtown and had chosen to ride the bus to my destination.   Often I would catch a bus which ran along State Street, but every once in a while I managed to catch the one that went by way of the freeway.   Either way I had my nose in a book during the ride.             I recall one day in particular I was reading the autobiography of a World War II survivor from Poland.   He was only a boy when the invasion started and described the horrific scenery – which to him was not so horrific - as he thought the dirt pit...

Shortly after Roland and I became engaged, he wrote me a mushy letter filled with sentiment and quotes.   One of the lines he had written was: “. . . as Pikachu say, “I choose you”” I had absolutely no clue what that even meant.   Pikachu?   I figured it must be a quote from some movie I hadn’t seen.   Not only had I never seen Pokemon, I had never even heard of it.     According to what I’ve read (or rather my understanding of what I’ve read) Pokemon started out as a video game before it became an animated cartoon that somehow made its way into the boys hearts.   The three knew all the Pokemon characters by name and site.   At least one of the three boys seemed obsessed. I don’t know where Roland may have found the time to sit down with his boys and learn the names of each character and whatever quotes.   But Pokemon has done absolutely nothing for me.   And after learning somewhat of its origin and based on a vide...

Beautiful for Me - Mercy River

       It was just over four years ago when we made the decision to leave Kearns and move into the cracker box house where we currently live in West Valley.   We were at least five months behind with our mortgage; the economy did NOT appear that it would ever get better; we were in debt to more than just the mortgage company and we were bound to lose more than just our house. We already had a property in West Valley with only half a fixed mortgage than the elevator (up and down) mortgage we were given monthly in Kearns.   Still struggling and on Welfare for over two years and still paying on an unfair back child support   - but that’s another story – not a pleasant one at that and so it will never get posted on this blog. Initially we were just going to swap out houses with the tenants that had been living in our WV house.   We had planned on doing so right after Thanksgiving. But the economy had been unkind to them also and...

Yesterday morning was quite interesting.   It started off with Jenna and me taking the bus.   We were running late and saw our regular driver zoom by before we arrived to the stop.   The other route was not so far behind him and so we were okay. I had volunteered to be the subject of a hair specialist but was unable to make it to the designated area at the scheduled time and so the one who made the appointment offered to drive me there.   We agreed to meet behind Jenna’s school.   Turns out that Megan has the same sense of direction as my mom had, and so it took a while before we actually got together.   It also took a while to get her car turned in the direction we needed to go (as she was very turned around) As we were headed to our destination, the hairdresser called to tell Megan that she had mono and NOT to bring me – though the message was not received until we were near the location.   I wasn’t bothered really nor did I feel ...

Ever since I have given up driving, I haven’t made the time to go out and see Harold – mom’s boyfriend of five months or so – though I have written to him.   I sent the last letter on the first.   He just got it yesterday. Jenna happened to be off on Friday, and I found a way on public transportation that would get us close to Alta Ridge.   But our pass expired on the 31 st and I wouldn’t be able to get a new one until Roland got paid.   Jenna suggested that we go visit him after I picked her up from school on Thursday – but I knew that unless Roland was willing to pick us up from Alta Ridge that we would never make it home before him.   He told us to wait on our visiting Harold. It was really too bad as the weather was so awesome on the 31 st .   It was snowing when we left the house yesterday.   Jenna and I both wore our snow boots, It turns out we really didn’t need them. By the time I left Jenna at her school it had stopped s...