updates

I went back to my camera this morning to see if I could be successful and transfer images to my computer. It worked this time. Now we get to see what Clarine looks like sporting her new avante garde boot - pretty sexy eh? I told you the purpose of the boot in earlier communications. I took another picture for good measure. It displays the Christmas cactus-not that I blogged about earlier. It is just ready to start the downhill side of the profuse blooming that it has engaged in. Very nice - this time we will call it a Thanksgiving cactus. I don't know what it will be the next time it blooms - maybe on my birthday in February and we can call it a George cactus. gwh

scuttled boat

Enough of this picture is good to show you the scuttled boat in the inlet. There is enough water in it that I cannot drag it ashore. I have a neighbor who says that if we can't drag it ashore, he will hook his truck to it and that will do the job. When all of the husky fellows were here for Thanksgiving, I didn't think about having them drag it ashore. As you can see I am having difficulty trying to transfer pictures from my camera to my blog site. The garbled portion of this pic covers the showing of the chair that was in the bottom of the boat but now rests on the shore. I took a good picture of Clarine wearing her new boot, but it didn't even transfer from the camera to the computer, and I can't bring it up in my camera now either. Clarine is wearing a boot because she has a broken bone in her metatarsal area of her left foot. It is to be held stable for six weeks for healing purposes. She has also strained her Achilles tendon in her right foot. She is going to have to take a six weeks leave of absence from the temple because the standing required is to rigorous for her feet. Just another little test for us to accommodate - especially Clarine. Today I paid my taxes. They were up $200 this year over last. (I thought real estate prices were falling, so the evaluation should have followed, but the county can't operate on less than they anticipated on getting, so the taxes won't go down even though the value of real estate is less. We are still working on the left overs from Thanksgiving. We still have three kinds of pie left, some turkey and some mashed potatoes. It will be a while before we get the larder down to where we can plan new menus. We made some excellent turkey soup from the turkey bones and skeleton left from the holiday meal. We didn't trim the bones too closely, so there is lots of meat in the soup. We had the soup tonight, and it was yummy. I prepared this blog once before this evening, and when I pushed the key to post it, I got a window saying it couldn't be posted, and I was never able to find it. So this is the second attempt. I am almost afraid to post it for fear that I will lose another creation. Well here goes. Wish me luck. gwh

Christmas Cactus-Not

This Christmas cactus plant has been in this household since many years back. It was blooming when we lived in Olympus Cove, and it is still doing like it has always done - producing blossoms three or four times a year but rarely on Christmas. They will still continue to bloom for another week or so. They will be gone for Christmas. They will be at their peak for Thanksgiving, however. It is what I would consider as a very old cactus. The dirt around it in the pot feels like it has turned to stone, but the plant still seems to be happy. We will accept the blossoms as often as it wants to produce. There are many buds that haven't opened yet. Most of my plants I rotate about ninety degrees clockwise each week. This plant is so integral to my stair railing that I think it would be too much of a disturbance to try to rotate it. So all I do is feed it and water it. It hasn't shown any signs of old age yet. Maybe I don't even know what old age is for a Christmas Cactus. Well, anyway may these pictures carry to you our thoughts for you to enjoy a Happy Thanksgiving and Merry Christmas (sans blossoms). (I had two photos in this post, and now one of them is gone. It is so frustrating when computers independently think they know more what I want than I do. I try to restore the image, but it doesn't respond to that request, so I guess I will post the blog and forward the image another time if it seems worthy.) gwh

Luke 10: 29-37 The Parable of the Good Samaritan

I have been musing - an interesting passtime. Here is a hypothetical question. I will put it in multiple choice form for ease of answer. No one will ever necessarily know what your answer is because the question is introspective, but I believe it is worthy of a few minutes of thought. Here is the question: If you received an e-mail and its contents were your first reading of The Parable of the Good Samaritan, what would be your first course of action: a) ignore it; b) delete it; c) give it the Snopes test to determine its worthiness for reading; d) read it to try to determine the intent or message of the sender or if he had an agenda; e) none of the above.

Thoughts and comments are welcome. gwh

Sheridan

This is to honor my good friend and wonderful granddaughter, Sheridan. Tomorrow she will be ten years old. Clarine and I went to her place after our shift in the temple yesterday. We brought a gift bag of things for her birthday. At that time we did not know that we were invited to come on Monday (tomorrow) for her birthday dinner. So if Clarine gets over her cold well enough we will be at her place again tomorrow. It is fun to bring things for the birthdays of her and her brothers as they share things well and all three of them get very excited regardless of who's birthday it is. Sheridan always gives me good, friendly hugs when I come and when I leave. Her siblings do too. It will be a pleasure to be there for her birthday dinner tomorrow. Sheridan and one of her birthday things.

Sheridan - some more.

Sheridan's mom, Lisa and her sibs, Zach and Max

Sheridan's father, Phillip.

A wonderful family to which I am proud to declare my relationship. gwh

Jalayne

This blog is a tribute to my beautiful granddaughter, Jalayne. She came to our place today, attended church with us, and we had a wonderful lunch together. She consented to my taking these two pictures. I said that I might put them in a blog, and now I am doing it. Jalayne is a student at USU in Logan. She was in the area this weekend because she and some friends were attending a seminar at Park City. She was so nice to e-mail earlier in the week saying that she would be in the area and asking what time church started. Old people can't be that much fun, but she opted to come and then make it fun. She is a super person. She even pronounced my Sunday school lesson to be "GOOD."
She is such a gem. It is so nice to have people behave and treat us as if we were significant individuals. It is a gift that comes from her being a Christ-like person. gwh

Mums/Cosmos and "Mums Row"

Most all of our color from flowers, presently, is coming from mums. Here it is almost time for hard frost and they are just getting into their prime of bloom. Cosmos are such an efficient flower to grow. They bloom most all summer and reseed themselves for next year's crop. In the one photo here they are still blooming along with some rust colored mums. They are even a better sight than the picture shows. "Mums Row" materialized from going back to the cemetery after Memorial Day and retrieving the mums we had put out for the holiday and then transplanting them in "Mums Row." We don't do that at Oxford cemetery; it is too far to go back to retrieve the mums. But the cemeteries here want the flowers picked up after one week. So what we have transplanted came mostly at the largess of Clarine's deceased kin. Mums come back and bloom as perennials every year, but they are really only quite beautiful in the late fall of the year when they bloom.

Brother, Nephew and Apples

Friday, 2 November 2007, my brother, Paul and his son, Dean, drove up in this this magnificent, mid-night blue, Dodge Ram 1500 truck. They gave us a wonderful visit for about half an hour. I should have gotten out my camera to take a picture, but I am a little slow on the uptake, so I missed my opportunity. But they did leave a box of wonderful Fuji apples that they had grown on the farm in Pasco, Washington. The only proof of what I am telling you is that today I took a picture of the wonderful box of apples. It couldn't of just materialized. So there is your proof; they really did come and we had a really good visit. They were going to go off fishing in Wyoming over in the Naughton Resevoir vicinity. I fished with them there once. That was some of the largest trout that I have ever caught. Both Paul and Dean looked really good. I am so glad that they came. I enjoy visits from those who are near and dear to me. Incidentally the report is considerably improved for Starley. Carol is having to spend much less time there helping out. Nothing like a bit of good news now and then. By the way, the apples are crisp, sweet and moresome. gwh