The Old and The New

Can you tell which is the old and which is the new? The new microwave is a little larger. The new range has a larger oven window. Both of the new are Whirlpool appliances. The old ones were General Electric. The old ones were surely depreciated. The new ones work very nicely. We are certainly very happy with them. The plumbing in the guest bathroom was the next thing to go. When Beth was here Saturday evening she tried to take a shower, but the plumbing failed and water started dripping on the table on the floor below. As I type this the man is still here. He had a large task to do. He estimated an $800 charge. I may get a little discount for being so old. He is in the finishing stages right now. I should have recognized that some water was leaking under the floor in that bathroom as the floor started to buckle and some tiles cracked loose. I re-grouted those, but still did not know that I had trouble until Beth's aborted shower. I hope I am through taking care of depreciation for a while. Merry Christmas. gwh

Depreciation

Old

A neighbor let us borrow this book. When he took it to the Church Historians Department, they told him there were only three copies in existence and this is one of them. I was pleased that he trusted us enough to let us have it for as long as it took both of us to read it (probably over a month). The title is Life of Joseph Smith by George Q. Cannon. It was published in 1888. As you can see it is very fragile. I didn't find out too many things that were new, but I felt differently about some of it because George Q. Cannon has a grand mastery of the English language and his descriptions and impressions were moving to me. From the picture you can tell that the book is barely holding together. We were very careful with it, and the pages were only turned twice - once by each of us. Clarine finished before I did. So we kept it another couple of weeks while I finished it. The descriptions and recording of the mob actions in Missouri and Illinois pointed out to me in a very vivid way how primitive and lawless much of our country was in those days. Right while I was reading it the elections took place with Proposition 8 catching much interest -especially in California. Some of the reaction of those disappointed in Prop. 8 caused me to think of how Missouri and Illinois treated the Latterday Saints - too a much lesser extent of course. But I guess we still haven't totally learned to live by the "rule of law." I thought that you might just like to know about this book experience. gwh

Tamales

Clarine was anxious to know how Phillip made tamales. They worked out an agreeable time for today, and Phillip came with many of his fine cooking things as well as some Masa (corn meal paste), chili sauce, and some left over turkey. We put our left over turkey with his supply. Phil soon showed us how to take a corn husk, spread on some Masa, turkey and sauce and roll it up to be steamed for about 45 minutes. We made about fifty tamales in a couple of hours. We kept seventeen of them here and they are now freezing in the freezer compartment for later use. Each of us ate two of them for our lunch. They are good , substantial and provide variety to a meal. Kim was going to come too, but her schedule got too jammed up. It was an interesting exercise. gwh

Sunset - 1 December 2008

As is usually the case in trying to get a picture of a bright sunset, by the time I got my camera, it had faded some, but it is still quite gorgeous, I think. I will take this time to say that we had about 30 guests for Thanksgiving. As you might expect with that many diners, many people ate with their plates in their laps. Clarine invited all of her family for four generations. There were many that were able to make it. Some held their own Thanksgivings or went to their spouses side of the family. I think Clarine was very happy the way it turned out. The next day Phil, Lisa and family brought Beth out and we grazed on leftovers. On Saturday and Sunday and today we have been eating the same thing as well. It does taste good still. Beth stayed the night and we drove her back to Lisa and Phil's Saturday morning before we went to the temple. They delivered her back to BYU as they went to Utah County to visit Lisa's folks.

The weather has been mild the last week or so. We had some rain on two days, but it didn't turn cold afterwords. We have turned on some Christmas lights. I went to Walmart and bought three more timers today. Some of our existing timers have become fully depreciated. Tonight the lights on two timers are glowing. There are two more timers to set - and a third one if we so desire. I have been reading your communications with interest - e-mail, blogs, and I had a nice phone call from Diane on Thanksgiving. We have geese and ducks on the lake - no ice yet. It hasn't been cold enough, but it does put frost on the lawn in the mornings. gwh