Thanksgiving and the Trickster
We celebrated Thanksgiving in the usual manner with turkey with dressing, mashed potatoes and our grape-juice -7-up combination. The holiday is not too typical as the schedule is overshadowed by an impending trip to Utah with Art Mineer's funeral on Monday. It rained most of the day for the first time in several weeks with even a bit of thunder and the rain trying to turn to snow at the height of the storm. What also not typical was a visit by one of the nighborhood coyotes that slipped into the back yard as the sun broke through the clouds and we were cleaning up and washing dishes. The "trickster" as the Navajo call him stayed around for some minutes as I raced for my camera in time to catch these pictures.

Arthur Hyrum Mineer

December 5, 1917 -

November 27, 2008

Art passed away early this morning at the nursing home where he resided for about a year. This picture of him and Carma who passed away three weeks ago, taken at the time of their marriage is more fitting than a recent picture of him in his decline.

Arthur was a product of that "greatest generation" which underwent the trials of the great depression and World War II, building his family through and after the War. He served in the war constructing and working in a huge army port at the mouth of the Euphrates on the Iraq-Iran border. After returning home he obtained employment doing much the same blue-collar work while raising his family. He believed strongly in his family, ensuring that his daughters received higher education if they so desired. Arthur was known all over his neighborhood as friendly and supporting. Although he never made much in wages, he maintained a straightforward and simple life that permitted him to buy his home and build up savings that rival those of many of us. Though he wasn't an active member of the LDS Church, he always permitted his wife and 4 daughters to maintain their relationship with the Church. We have much to thank him for in what he did accomplish.

Road Trip
Last week the Public Works Department in Santa Fe County invited me to go see some of their road projects. This is County Road 42 which runs east-west about ten miles south of the Interstate to the small village of Galisteo. We weren't all that far from town but it seemed like we were in the middle of nowhere in hilly juniper tree country. The road bed is leveled then several inches of gravel-dirt composite called "basecourse" is applied and rolled down on the road as a foundation. Then three inches of asphalt are applied to pave the road. The roadsides of course have culverts and drainage and may be lined with rocks to slow erosion. It was a fun trip for me and my new yellow road vest, though I don't think we saw a single car pass us when we were standing out on the project.

Maple Leaves Down
Our Fall weather is not much influenced by the Pacific this year, but rather by continental influences which push waves of cold dry air down the plains to wash over the mountains from the east. Each wave is colder, remindful of the tide coming in with succeeding waves washing higher up on the beach. Just a couple of nights after the picture below taken of Jonathan under the maple tree, temperatures fell to near 20 degrees and in the single day thereafter most of the maple tree leaves lay on the patio as you can see from this picture. We'll grab a leaf blower/vacuum and vacuum them all up in another day or two after the rest of the leaves fall.

Maple Tree Time
It's that time of the year again when the maple tree outside the kitchen window shows its Fall colors. The kitchen windows have been pretty dirty and I had not been able to pry off a window screen in order to get at the spider webs, but Marolynn suceeded where I did not, and cleaned the windows to the point where I could take a picture of Jonathan from inside the kitchen. Marolynn and I usually pose in front of the tree, but it was Sunday and Marolynn had choir practice until after sunset. "Oh the tree (the colorful leaves) is still there", said Marolynn tonight, so we may still get a chance for a picture together.

Wrecker Trucks and Funeral Potatoes
We left early in the morning on Thursday to get to Utah in time for everything leading up to Carma's funeral. Just outside of Cortez, Colorado, the car engine slowed way down and we limped into town. We decided to get some lunch and then look for a Pontiac repair shop, but as we traversed main street without finding a garage, the car seemed to be working all right again. I figured that it might have been bad gas and it would be worth going on into Utah, so that if we needed help from our son Michael, he wouldn't have as far to come.

We made it all the way up to Moab, and then 20 miles out of town, engine power dropped to zero and the car coasted to a halt. We got onto a cell phone and called the Auto Club which arranged for a wrecker truck to come out and tow us back into Moab. Marolynn, Jon, and I holed up in the Super-8 Motel and the car was towed to a repair shop. We arranged with Michael to come and get us early Friday morning, and as it was, we left the car at the repair shop and got into the Salt Lake area in time for Marolynn to meet her sisters to prepare Carma for the funeral.

On Saturday morning Carma's funeral was held, following the typical format of a "viewing", the memorial service, all in Cama's ward meetinghouse, and then the graveyard service, and after that, a trip back to the meetinghouse for Relief Society-served lunch. I've never been in favor of viewings ever since my own parents funerals, but I came to realize that viewings are held as much for the family and friends to meet and converse with each other as it is to actually view the deceased. So I'm more accepting of it now.

One of the items in the Relief Society lunch was a potato-based casserole; several of which were baked by different sisters and brought to the meetinghouse. Marolynn's sister told me that the recipe was called "funeral potatoes" in the Relief Society cook book, because that was the purpose of the dish. Somehow I have to work that name into my family history.

We stayed over for Church on Sunday and returned Monday, assisted back to Moab by Michael. The problem with the car was the fuel pump - I have yet to figure how it worked for 110 more miles from Cortez to Moab before it quit.

Carma (Allen) Mineer
March 26, 1915 -
November 4, 2008
After a brief illness, Marolynn's mother passed away last evening at the age of 93. Her's was a wonderful life and her joy was her four daughters, all of whom she inspired to be married in the temple of the Lord, though she didn't have that privilege in life herself. She will be missed by her daughters, and numerous grandchildren and great-grandchildren of whom Michael and Jenny's Evelyn is the newest. We are so happy that she enjoyed the Alaskan cruise with us in July. The picture is of her on the Skagway-White Pass train.

We'll be on the road to Salt Lake tomorrow and Carma's funeral will be held on Saturday, November 8.

Halloween in the Finance Department
Last year the County Finance Department decorated the office and won first place in a contest that got us a pizza party. When the event was announced for this year, I expressed my opinion that no matter how good our decorations were, we wouldn't stand a chance to win two years in a row. I even let everyone know that I would probably take the Halloween day off.

Nevertheless, everyone else pitched in to start decorating a much bigger space, and finally I volunteered to be part of the event and fill some needs.

The theme was Dona Tules' saloon and uh, er, brothel which she ran during the Nauvoo period, in a building on the spot where the Finance Department is now housed. Of course, the saga has our building haunted by Dona Tules. Teresa, the finance manager swears she can hear high-heal footsteps in the building when only she is in the office. "That's Dona Tules," says the building maintenance manager.

The decorating started at the beginning of the week and grew in intensity as we neared Haloween. I volunteered to get some music to be played in the saloon; they wanted spanish guitar instead of a western theme, and they begged me play the part of the bartender, so I did.

Actually when I look back on it, the decorating, and especially the costuming this year surpassed last year. When the judges came, everyone took their spot in and around the saloon. The lights were covered with red plastic; hence the red tone in the picture of the staff.

Some of the costumes were quite fancy. Helen, the Accounting Manager did the honors as Dona Tules, and Sam, who always comes up with quite an idea for costuming dressed as Governor Armijo, the Mexican governor of the time, who Tules accompanied as his mistress.

Toward the end of the day the announcement came through that the department had won the office decoratintg contest again, and I'm sure it was the theme along with the decorations that worked the trick.

To celebrate the win, the more costumed members of the staff walked up to the plaza in the middle of town where they met the director of a new museum that will open in the Palace of the Governors next May as a part of Santa Fe's 400th anneversary. He invited the staff to dress in their custumes and be a part of the museum's grand opening.

As I say, optimists are never pleasantly surprised, and not being an optimist, I was more than pleasantly surprised at how things turned out this Halloween.