A Weekend at Fairview
Karen (Marolynn's sister) and Leigh Kilpack invited us to stay at their vacation place in Fairview, at the head of the Sanpete valley, about 25 miles north of Manti. She and another sister, Susan Goodsell both have places almost next to each other at a resort just outside of Fairview. So we went, prior to heading back to Albuquerque for the umteenth time this year. Karen is on the left side of the photo in the conservative t-shirt.

The big event of the weekend was a lunch served by the resort to about 350 people including resort land-owners and others up from Fairview - everyone who wanted to buy a ticket. After lunch everyone assembled and the organizers started drawing tickets out of a big hat for the many many prizes that were featured. The drawing went on for an hour and a half; I think they gave over 250 prizes away, but there sat the Griffins and the Kilpacks and the Goodsells not having a single ticket drawn. The picture on the left is of Susan at rapt attention after about an hour of winless drawings.

After a long while a ticket was drawn an the winner announced (you wrote your name on the back of your ticket before entering it). "Nicole" -- no last name, just "Nicole". Well Susan's daughter with downs symdrome, Nicole, was finally hustled up to get the prize as no one else came forward - it was some kind of knic-knac kind of thing. The rest of the drawing went on without another name in any of our families being drawn. There was a family in front of us with a table that they were sitting at heaped high with prizes, and another such to the rear of us.


Finally, the big prizes came up and the best and last ticket drawn was for a picnic table. A name was drawn but he wasn't present, so another ticket was drawn. "Nicole Goodsell" is the winner. Well, this definitely was Nicole's prize, but Susan came forward to claim it. So it turned out to really be Nicole's day and this kid who does not have very many victories was real happy as folks congratuated her.

We took the picnic table back in Susan's truck to her place where we sanded it down and put a coat of oil preservative on it. A picnic table was one thing that Susan was lacking, so this fit the requirement just fine.

















It was a hot day, so after preparing the table, almost everyone hopped on ATVs and headed up the dirt road up to the top of the mountain - Marolynn is pictured below with Karen and Leigh's daughter, Karleigh. Dinner followed with smores made up over a fire as darkness closed in, then we watched a movie until late. Then to bed, only to hear the monsoon with its thunderstorms roll in for much of the night. So Marolynn and I got up at daybreak, packed what little we had to bring back, and headed to Albuquerque to get ready for the contractor who comes tomorrow to make necessary repairs before the house goes up for sale. All in all, it was a bit of fun in the middle of a busy schedule.

Jonathan goes to England

Jonathan's best friend Thomas has been in Birmingham, England since the first part of the year and Jonathan wished he could have gone also, so when Thomas invited Jon to spend a couple of weeks this summer with him, and Marolynn and Carrie also lobbied me to send him, we purchased air tickets for him to go.  So he flew from Salt Lake to Birmingham where Thomas met him, and stayed in the UK for a couple of weeks.  Jonathan handled things just fine, traveling by train to Bath and Warwick to see things that he had read about in his British history book.  Then Thomas and Jonathan went together and visited London for three days, staying in youth hostels.  As it turned out, Thomas quit his job and was coming home, but he flew out a day before Jonathan.  Jon arranged for a cab on the morning of his departure but it didn't show up, but he handled things just great by getting a friend that he had met to drive him to the airport.  Then a 24-hour leap over the pond to Newark, NJ, then to Huston, then to Salt Lake.  Marolynn met him at the Salt Lake airport without a hitch.  Only problem now is that Jonathan wants to live in England.

A New Stake President

Today's stake conference was an interesting event as a new stake presidency was called for the Albuquerque East stake. The previous second counselor, Brett Remund, was called to the position of Stake President. He replaces James Kearns who we've known as Stake President for half the time we've lived in Albuquerque. President Kearns will not be easily forgotten because he worked so hard with Bishop Jeppson to seek a missionary opportunity for Jonathan in Nauvoo. In the old days, Brett and I went the rounds because he was for setting up church-based Scouting camps and adventures instead of supporting the Boy Scout summer camp which I staunchly supported, but those old issues today are like the dried winter leaves that blow around our house - not very important. It's going to be an experience for President Remund because he's already been a counselor for 9 years -- that will make 19 years in the Stake Presidency by the time he's relieved. His counselors are Brothers Manning and Shepard who I don't really know. Sadly, brother Payne has been replaced (he's moved out of the stake), so no more stories about Porter, his mule, from the pulpit.

Rail Runner Express

I took a day off today from the duties at the house and got onto New Mexico's latest train transportation for a trip from Albuquerque to Santa Fe. Though the train ride started mid-morning, the station was crowded with people and I had to park along the road back from the Railrunner parking area.

The plaza businesses at Santa Fe should be happy because a lot of people are taking the train ride up to Santa Fe for four hours of free time in the city center before the first train returns to Albuquerque. While up there I purchased a Mexican ceramic salamander for the front garden which is under improvement now, and then visited the County finance department for a couple of hours to discuss how everyone is doing. Then a walk back to the train station and all aboard for Albuquerque.

I haven't been on a train since we took the Skagway train up to White Pass when we did the Alaska cruise last year. Before that, the Washington D.C. metro years ago was the last time before. Trains all have their own characteristics and the Rail Runner was no exception with a roadrunner call "beep beep" straight out of Loony Toons to warn folks that the doors were about to shut. A fun trip in all.

Moroni against the Clouds

One benefit of retirement is that if you see a potential photo op not too far away, you can hop in the car and get there in time to take a picture. Other than the July downpour that about flooded us out, it has been quite a dry summer with a counterclockwise low weather system spinning off the California coast for the last 3 weeks and a great mound of high pressure over New Mexico, barring the usual monsoon pattern.

Monsoons need two ingredients; moisture which at low levels comes from summer fronts sweeping down the plains and then through the central mountain chain into the Rio Grande valley, and at high levels from the Gulf of Mexico and the Pacific; and some mechanism to make the air rise and form the big cumulus clouds typical of New Mexico this time of the year. This mechanism comes from the sun heating the air near the ground coupled with impulses of weather energy coming through the state.

One such impulse arrived about noon yesterday, building huge clouds over the mountains, so I went over to the temple to see if I could get a couple of pictures of the temple with the clouds in the background. It only took about 15 minutes and the impulse was off to the east, with the clouds collapsing, but I did get a telephoto of Moroni bidding good-bye to the latest monsoon effort.

The temple is closed on Monday, but the gate to the parking area was open, so it did provide an opportunity to get a few nice pictures.

Flowers along the Path
Ever since retirement on July 1, Marolynn and I have been walking a couple of miles every morning. She's in Utah now while Jonathan is visiting his best friend in England for a couple of weeks. Even so, I still walk every morning to buy a newspaper (we stopped delivery because of our uncertain schedule here). I'm not thrilled with walking, but that and a fruit and salad diet are beginning to shed the pounds that I so desparately need to do. So I promised everyone that I would keep on walking.

The city provides walking paths along Tramway Blvd, with tall pedestrian bridges over the highway. The paths are along a swath of "open space" land owned by the city, and they pretty well allow native vegitation to grow there. I call these "foothill flowers" because they are arid desert plants
suited to a bit more moisture than the true desert. They are interesting enough that I postponed my walk today till the sun was up and took my camera along for some pictures.