Beneath the Wraps

 It's been hard having done without our second fridge - walking around or over piles of stuff - not being able to use the back door.  Oh, but it will be so worth it.  So here is the progress thus far: Oh, blessed those who can work in this heat.  Levi must be part camel.  I am so excited for this new addition.

                 Our nation has issued a warning for extreme heat in the western states.   The sun had not fully risen this morning when I took Bonnie out for the shortest walk ever.   Alexa informed me that the temperature was 75 degrees fahrenheit – Google said 73.   It felt lke 80 – at least.     I wonder if those people who were so skeptical to believe the seriousness of the cornonavirus believe that the weather is a hoax.   I wonder if they will allow themselves to dehydrate because “nobody can tell me to drink water.   I should be able to choose”   I wonder if they think the elements are a conspiracy started by another country.   I wonder if they believe how much nicer the weather would be if Trump was still in office.   75 degrees and climbing!   It’s not even 7:00 a.m. yet!

                 Filling out online applications is insane.   You think you are filling out the application for the site and suddenly realize that you have moved to some other site – perhaps job related as well or for a school or heaven forbid, a scam.   That’s right.   I have three different email accounts.   One I had to open in order to create this blog account.   One I keep as a personal account.   The oldest of the three accounts I keep as a junk mail account.   I used to check it maybe once a month.   Since I’ve been job hunting I will check either daily or at least every other day.   It’s still a lot of email to go through.   I checked it only one time during the week we had family here.   After Roland had taken them to the airport I had over 200 emails to wade through. Any site I have ever ordered from, any site connected with the schools in Utah, any job site I have ever...

           The “Come Follow Me” lesson for last week was sections 64 – 66.   The theme for section 66 is on forgiveness.   It made me reflect back to the talk given in sacrament on the day my family arrived.   I believe he said he had based it on Elder Bednar’s talk from the October 2006 General Conference here .             The message of the talk was to not take offense.   There are many of us who take offence due to the actions or words used by others – or so we suspect.   But perhaps the “offender” is not even aware that we were offended. It’s not likely that the “offender” had gone out of his or her way to offend us but more likely that we misinterpreted.           I have shared these two examples here and here in which I was the offender.   It reminded me of this skit         ...

            I don’t know where I might have been when the turkeys came into our yard for the first time. I must have been picking the girls up from the farm or dropping them off.   I remember Roland saying the neighbor from behind us stood on our door step with a net and asked permission to go and recapture her turkeys. The chickens and pigs had made their way to our yard in mid-August but we did not see another turkey until just before Thanksgiving.   Jenna named him Mr. Gobbles.   He had made it through the Thanksgiving holiday but was gone before Christmas.   They have since added a couple of turkeys to their menagerie. A different Mr. Gobbles is currently pacing back and forth on our side of the hill.   He has been there all day trying to figure out how to return from whence he came. As I mentioned in an earlier post Roland will no longer feed or water the chickens.   Well, he does use the hose on them whereas be...

  I suppose it’s my own fault for having a “not exactly stressful day” but “not the way I would have done it day” and it isn’t even afternoon yet.   What’s up with that? Pre-pandemic the Relief Society presidency would hold our meetings on Wednesday either at 10:00 a.m. or 1:00 p.m. depending on whether I had accepted an assignment to work at the school.   Meetings were basically arranged according to my schedule.   Ahhh. Then came the pandemic.   It really didn’t matter what time or what day of the week our zoom meetings were.   Even before we had returned back to the two block meetings and held our meetings in person, we had somehow changed to Tuesdays at 10:00 am. which I hadn’t even thought about one way or another until just this very moment. Yesterday I went to the pool for the first time in almost two years.   It had rained before we left and Roland had tried to discourage us from going.   But I knew Carol would be there.   Rain ...

Facebook memories shared a video put out by Vice News on HBO.  I watched  this  as though seeing it for the first time and felt nostalgic at doing so.  I had heard the rumor before joining the library board when it was considered a public library.  Many of the libraries did reopen eventually, but most are no longer considered public but rather “Third Party” libraries as there is no funding to pay a staff or even just one librarian.  Myrtle Creek is a third party library.  I think Riddle has gone public – or perhaps were in the processing.  But COVID could have changed that.  A lot of changes since COVID.  But the closing of the libraries happened three years before.  I miss the public libraries we’d gone to in Salt Lake.  I am grateful for my kindle and having the ability to update with Amazon. https://www.slideshare.net/nadajabar/libraries-matter-53581250

  On May 21 st Joh and Corey had discovered another stray in their yard and like before (see here ) they took it upon themselves to feed the neglected tom and nurse it back to health.   Corey and Joh ’ s first miracle cat had shown up on the 25 th – the day they had scheduled for their new stray, Jasper to see the vet.   On the 31 st Corey wrote: “With the collar that Joh gave him,  his shaved fur, and having our home as his temporary abode, it makes me cry because he's been given back some of the dignity a cruel world took away from him and, of course, he's got love and caring now, too. Don't we all deserve that? ” Jasper in May On May 31 Joh had proposed the question: "If Jasper was a human being, what do you think his life was?" And on June 3 (a year after Joh ’ s mom had passed) Corey wrote that: “ Jasper represents a hope for a different outcome”. I ’ ve enjoyed the updates that are posted and have so much admiration for the compassion and the ...

         It rained yesterday.  An Oregon downpour - but nothing on Salt Lake forming puddles in the street - only the streets that have potholes.  It was a welcome drench.  This morning is muggy.  Still cool on the outside, but have the A/C running currently in the house.  This week has been so nice we have not used the A/C or the heat.  I wish it would just stay like this.     Though I had written  the following on Monday did not post until this morning: It  is much nicer weather this week than last week – cooler than I remember June weather being but closer to the temperature that brought me out her in the first place.   Cooler weather for Levi to build a deck/room as compared to last year’s front deck built in July – though not scalding.   I think each July has been hotter than the last since we arrived in Myrtle Creek although there was no Summerfest last year.   I will have to search online fo...

                 Our longest driving day was taking the family to Bandon.   It was also the coolest day as Bandon is always 10 – 20 degrees cooler than Myrtle Creek.              We arrived earlier than normal as the shops had not quite opened all the way.   We walked around the tourist trap next to the pier.   We showed them a couple of sculptures outside of the Washed Ashore museum.  Before we left the house I had looked up the hours but read they would not be open until July.   However there was indication that they would be open later that day.   We forgot to return to see.                    The trolley wasn’t running and so we drove to many of the places where the trolley had taken us. The baby was asleep when we arrived at the beach and so Carrie, Randy, and Jenna explored a bit on their own.    Devan had go...

 Backup to Memorial weekend and the following week           It doesn’t appear that most of us have slept well.   I sleep too well perhaps;   I have been drinking Energy Shots every morning as I am constantly tired – tired to the point of mushy mind and absolute lame company.            Carrie and Randy, of course, are not used to the chickens cackling or the roosters going off at random hours.   Randy thinks the youngest rooster sounds like a helium balloon that is slowly loosing air at the lip.   I have been so out of it that I no longer hear the fowl.   I do hear Jenna talking when she’s on her phone and I hear the blare of the television.             It has been a long while since I heard the screaming or crying from a one-year-old child.   My gosh, that kid has lungs.   Overall he has been happy but there have been ...

           There is a difference between a job and a career.   Career oriented people will put themselves out there.   They have a desire to advance.   They want to change things.   They want to set goals whether it is to make money or better the community, environment, what have you.   Some are so focused on their careers that nothing else is a priority.   Some balance their careers with other things that may have meaning in their lives – such as family or community.   Job people are those who need a paycheck just to make ends meet – or sometimes just to have an extra amount of cash.   These people don’t necessarily wish to make a career out of whatever they’re doing.   It is there just to get buy.   They are not married to their job or at least don’t want to be.   Often people have resentments about their situations on the job – or others that they work with.   Some feel used and abused and str...

                 A few days before our family’s arrival, Jenna pointed out the chickens in the cucumber garden.   No cukes this year!   Roland is mad!!! He decided that we would quit feeding and watering the chickens and return them to where they came from and pen them in so they cannot come on our side.   I told him to wait until after the kids arrived as I thought perhaps Randy could assist as he is tall.   Before we sent them on their way, I was hoping Devan would have at least one experience with feeding them and collecting eggs. Carrie enjoyed the free-range eggs and says it is something she will splurge on as the free-range are healthier than most of what is sold at the grocery store.   I personally don’t care about the cucumbers.   I couldn’t see Richard eating all that would grow – but now we will never know.   Not this year anyway. The chickens are still in the yard.   Levi’s dog had c...

            Though they left on Saturday, I consider our last quality day with the family was Friday.   Roland wanted to take them to the Lighthouse Café though I didn’t think it would be worth the drive as COVID had changed their dining options.   They had made outdoor dining available but had severely cut down the menu options.   I wasn’t impressed with the empanadas that had been ordered along with the puffed pasties with fruit filling.   But Randy and Carrie seemed to like it and so it was worth the drive after all. Jenna had wanted to go bowling – a family activity that Roland had wanted to do when we were in New York.   I forgot my wrist band and so did not participate and Carrie doesn’t particularly care for the bowling/arcade atmosphere – which makes sense.   So just Roland, Randy and Jenna bowled.   Devan played a few, but got bored with it after five turns.   They had fun.   We went home and ha...