Diane

Diane arrived last Monday (Christmas Eve) about seven in the evening. She made very good time for the long distance she had to travel. She did not go via Chandler to drop off her cat, Coyote. (She was going to do that because Coyote being an Arizona cat is not used to the cool temperatures in our garage in the winter time.) Diane took a calculated risk and brought Coyote with her to save the time used by stopping at Chandler. Her risk paid off because old softie George allowed Coyote to take up residence in the laundry room where Diane wanted to put her. Clarine sort of took Diane and Coyote's side too. Maybe I got out numbered. It isn't difficult to tell that Coyote prefers the warmth of the laundry room. We have let her try the outside a little bit, but she soon tries to get back into where the temperatures are a little more friendly. (Is it writing about Diane if I write about her antics with the cat?)

It has been a joy to have Diane come home for the Christmas season. She is no problem to have around as she sort of takes care of herself. She does have some questions about what I think and do and either implies or directly suggests adjustments I might make to make me more amenable to her way of thinking. We have been to Lisa and Phil's twice since she has been here. We went to Red Lobster and gorged one day. Saturday while I was in the temple, Diane did a session and spent the rest of the time from nine in the morning to four in the afternoon doing things of her own liking. The three of us went to the Tooele swimming pool on Thursday. It had been a while since we had done that. So 'twas good to get back to that activity. She has about one more week here until she heads back for the resumption of school at Antelope Valley High School in the outskirts of Yuma, Arizona.

As you can see in the picture Diane is very artistically cutting out snowflakes to make Christmas greetings and offerings for friends and people who are very dear to her. She cuts some most interesting designs and themes into her snowflakes - some of which are based on scriptural themes. Also in the artistic vein she is making a mobile of a school of fish (one of each member of this clan) out of scrap wire that she has gleaned in the desert. The completed fish display interesting characteristics. With a little imagination one can tell who is being represented - either by physical looks or personality traits. It will reside here as our Christmas gift from Diane.

I must not write more now. I am obligated to go stir up a virgin pina colada for Diane and Clarine. Love, gwh.

Three Generations

The pictures I have shown were taken last June. One of them shows three generations - Great Grandpa Hatch, Grandpa Hatch and Elliott Lucherini. The pics were stored in my camera memory instead of on the photo card. They were found by Chris today as he was trying to solve problems about why I couldn't store any pictures on my camera card. (While he is checking out my camera card, I will use the eight slots in my camera memory to do pictures. When I get back to where I can use the card again, I can store over 900 pictures on my camera.) Chris was here today because Kim, Chris and Elliott came out and had lunch with us today. While he was here today I received the benefits of Chris' expertize in matters electronic. So now I can understand my camera better, my Lexmark printer is working again and my computers are sporting the latest updates that can be downloaded. These three photos are significant to me because now 6 months later, Elliott is again quite receptive to his great grandpa again. In the interim when he last visited, he was quite leery of me and wouldn't give me "head bonks." Today "head bonks" are back in and he likes me again. I didn't take any new pictures today but Kim did. I think she is going to post a blog too.

Diane is driving from Arizona today and will arrive here tonight. It has been snowing quite hard most of the afternoon, and I had heard that the storm was going to reach as far south as I-70. That means that Diane will likely have over 200 miles to drive in severe snow storm conditions. It will surely be good to have her home for Christmas.

I will take this opportunity to once again wish every one of you a perfectly happy Christmas, and I trust that 2008 will unfold with blessings to you all for the entire year. gwh

Snow - Update, 1:41 PM, 21 December 2007

While I was out shoveling snow from the driveway, Clarine was inside making wonderful chocolate chip cookies. She conveniently has a broken foot, so I get the privilege of taking the cookies to the doors of the houses. I didn't know there were so many that she wanted to favor with a plate of her cookies. (I got to take several deliveries to the doors yesterday afternoon as well. I think today's effort will likely put the cap on it for this year.) The smell of pecan brittle and peanut brittle has permeated the house the last couple of days as Clarine cooked it. For lunch today we just grazed - crackers and cheese slices, sliced fresh pear, cookies, sliced banana, green jello, and I also ate a Mrs. Cavanaugh's chocolate and a piece of pecan brittle. There was no such thing as being deprived. This is a very difficult time of year to put controls on how much one weighs.

In our locale the huge predicted storm sort of fizzled - about three to four inches of snow. My son, Phillip, lives in Salt Lake City in the vicinity of 18th East and Thirty-third South. He said they had 8-9 inches of new snow this morning - just the opposite of earlier in the week when lake effect gave us about 8 inches, and Phillip hardly got any. I looked up the weather forecast for Tooele, Utah and snow flurries are predicted for the next five days, so who knows what can happen.

No animals or people have fallen through the ice today, so the excitement level is off just a little.

I don't know why a guy that is nearly eighty years old should feel so good and be able to do so many things (all -be-it a little more slowly than in times past), but that is just the way it is. I guess I will just accept it and be happy. It is possible for it all to come crashing down in the next moment. Feeling well is a marvelous Blessing!!!!!! gwh

911 - Rescue

This morning Clarine said to me, "Oh look!" and pointed out into the middle of the lake. There was a black and white dog there that had fallen through the ice and was struggling to get back up on to the ice, but the ice kept breaking and the dog kept on thrashing and struggling. (She had seen the dog running around on the ice on the other side of the cause way a few minutes earlier.) I could see that the dog was starting to tire. Clarine asked me if she should call 911. I said, "Maybe they don't do dogs." Before I could opine any further she had dialed 911. They said they would dispatch. It seemed like ages. Before they got there about four cars had stopped. Clarine had called a couple of people that know dogs (Brian Headden and Jack Weber) in this area, and they had arrived to help wring their hands along with several of the rest of us. Shortly we had several official vehicles present. I don't know which department the official was from, but he donned a wet suit, tied a rope around his waste and had his buddy stand anchor on shore. He got on his belly and sort of swam on the ice out to about twenty feet of the dog, then he broke through. He was soon to the presence of the dog and got the dog upon to solid ice. The dog departed very quickly and headed for home. The officials found whose dog it was. (I never did find out.) The official got to ice that was a little more solid and with a pull from shore, he was on the ice on his belly and wiggled his way back to shore. I took other pictures in the sequence, but they didn't work out, so what you got is what you get. The pic with the black dot in the lake is the dog when we first spotted him. One of the pictures shows the official and the dog with a tether back to shore. Another shows the dog on more solid ice walking away, and the other picture shows the official on the ice wiggling back to shore.

The weather has warmed this week - a storm early on and another pending. Both have warm southerly winds preceding them. The ice has turned rotten and consequently has no strength to it. We had one big lake effect storm and another is pending for this evening and tomorrow. Maybe I will have more snow "pics" tomorrow. Nearly all of that snow that I posted earlier in the week is gone.

Yesterday Clarine and I drove to Provo and picked up Beth and her friend and drove them to the airport in Salt Lake for their Christmas recess at home in the Seattle area. They were traveling on two different air lines, but both flights were scheduled at the same time. Since I haven't heard anything further, I assume they have safely arrived at their destination. Beth is returning on 4 January 2008, so we will pick her up then and deliver her back to BYU in Provo.

The south wind is blowing warm and hard. The sky is very sunny. It is difficult to believe the weather people when they say that a big storm will start by this evening and continue on into tomorrow. Stand by for further posting. gwh

eight inches of lake effect.

We got quite a few inches of lake effect last night and today. It is 12:30 PM and there a still a few fluttering flakes coming down. Some time early this morning a good neighbor cleared my walks and driveway. When I arose, they were covered again. I said to myself that I would wait until the snow stopped then go out and remove the residue. Just after I finished breakfast I could hear a snow blower and a shovel working in front of our place again. We were able to identify the good Samaritan this time. One of our neighbors is a landscape contractor, and he had a couple of his people out doing my driveway and walks. How kind of him. I am sure he pays his crew good wages. Maybe he was trying to keep them busy, so that they would still be with him when he needs them. Television weather reports this morning said that the Tooele area was getting most of the precipitation, and they labeled it as lake effect. I called Phil this morning and he said they were hard pressed to say that they had an inch of snow. I have decided to call our amount "eight inches." It could be more or less, but this is close enough for my purposes, whatever they are.

Clarine has been on prednizone for three days. I think we can finally say that something is bringing her some relief and helping her to breathe much easier. Though she is still not totally better, and she has a broken foot which we have sort of forgotten about in the turmoil of respiratory woes, I feel brighter about the prospects. I think she is still planning to put out a spread on Christmas Day. She is one hardy trooper. I guess I will never truly know how much she suffered over the last ten days - struggling for breath. She goes to the podiatrist on Monday for him to look at her foot to see how it is progressing. She hasn't liked wearing the stabilizing boot that she was given because it is uncomfortable, so at times she has gone "foot loose and fancy free." She promises me that she will be "very careful." She certainly doesn't need the set- back of having her fracture crack open again.

Diane says she is driving up from Tacna on December 24th and will grace us with her presence until 5 January 2008. (It is going to be a test once again to get used to writing a new year whenever dates are to be posted.) I think Marie and Ken have accepted the responsibility for her cat, Coyote, while she is gone. Diane fears my garage is too cold for an Arizona cat, and I am too tired to clean white cat hairs from the furnishings inside of the house, so it is best that the cat can stay in Arizona.

We wish for all a very wonderful Christmas and that the year, 2008, will be good to all of us. I will likely blog again before those holidays actually get here, but in case a siege of laziness comes upon me I will have offered my greetings. gwh (The sun is starting to come out. The lake effect is done for this time.)

Weekly Update

Clarine has not had a good week. Oddly enough it is not her foot that is causing her the most difficulty right now. Monday she wasn't feeling totally well. There were respiratory problems. She went to the doctor. Her breathing passages were greatly inflamed, and she was having pain when she sneezed or coughed. She has had so much drainage that her nose is sore from wiping. She was given a heavy dose of antibiotics to take for ten days. Through yesterday she had not improved noticeably at all. I am thinking I can see traces of improvement today. I am inclined to worry about it a little. Perhaps today she is turning the corner.

She has talked about putting up Christmas decorations. Tuesday we put the tree together and set it up and did the other inside decorations. I also put up several different lighting arrangements out side. They work fine and look quite good. I tried to take pictures of them, but nothing shows like it does to the real eye. Maybe it was because the flash kept triggering. Oh, well! I included some of the photos anyway. There are lights on the trees on the sun porch, lights along the rosebushes at the east of the house, lights going down the steps toward the lake, and lights and garland above the doors on the garage. There are timers on all of the arrangements. they come on about 5:30 PM and go off at ten. I'm sorry I am having difficulty showing you just how pretty they really are. I was sort of "Scroogey" and didn't want to get involved putting up the lights, but when I got going, it was difficult to get me stopped.

I went to the temple again yesterday and Clarine stayed home to get better. It is nicer when the two of us can go and do our shifts together.

In spite of how she is feeling, Clarine has been making some wonderful bread, cookies, brownies, and other things that do not help me to control my weight as well as I should, but I really do love food. I guess that is one of the "tender mercies of the Lord" that I feel so well that my appetite is wonderful and doesn't sate nearly so easily as it should for some one approaching eighty years of age.

I hope you are enjoying this time of year and feeling the the love, mercy and grace of the Lord. I love you all. gwh.

dermitologist

Last Wednesday, 28 November 2007, I went to the dermatologist. My face shows signs that he abused me severely. Clarine snapped a picture for me. As I look at the picture the evidence does not show very well. The top of my head and the right side of my face show the most evidence. The sore on my nose had even bled a little, I think because the scab rubs off so easily. I undoubtedly will survive, and I will be the better for the ordeal. His tool of choice to use on me was liquid nitrogen (very cold) applied either by a cotton swab or sprayed from a canister. He used the canister with an insulating cover on it, so as to not freeze his hand. He used the canister on my arms and hands very profusely on the top of my head.

Clarine is recovering from her fractured foot. She did not go to the temple on Saturday or to church on Sunday. She has had infected sinuses on top of her other woes. It is bad enough that she is going to see a doctor in about one hour. She gets around oik, but I can tell that she doesn't feel up to par. She isn't as involved in things around the house so much as usual.

The snow storm of last week gave us about five inches of snow. I shoveled part of it Saturday morning before leaving for the temple. While I was gone, the neighbor came by with his ATV and plowed the rest of it. What a nice neighbor! Clarine gave him a loaf of her newly baked bread.

Now that Thanksgiving is past, we start working on Christmas. We have put up the tree in the dining room. With all of its lights, it is extra colorful. I have not been overly excited to get out and put up lights and decorations out side. I think if Clarine were feeling better, she would be giving me more reminders to get out and get the job done.

Ice is starting to form on the lake. The other day a paddle boat migrated from the south of the lake to this end of the water body. It never did come all the way into our inlet, but it stopped about fifty feet off the end of the culvert closest to our house. With these cold nights, it is about to get frozen into the lake too far from shore for any one to get to it and retrieve it.

The geese still fly around in large groups setting up such a noise that one wonders what is troubling them. The are some ducks and seagulls, but the variety of waterfowl has greatly diminished.

I just decided to write this blog and post it to update you a little as to what is happening. gwh.