Life Back on the Homestead

For the past couple of weeks we have been home. The usual time has been devoted to upkeep and maintaining our home and yard and preparing for the cold winter months to come. High priorities have been finding health insurance for both me and Dad. My COBRA from ON Semiconductor ends December 31st and Dad's Medicare Advantage plan will be discontinued in Idaho also starting next year thanks the the government health care overhaul. This has required digging up lots of old medical records, hours of research on the internet, many phone calls and several visits by insurance agents. And we are still not there yet but hope to make our decisions by November. We have also spent much time researching an RV park in Arizona to spend the majority of our winter as well as related planning and travel routes. Since we will not be leaving until Leslie is back on her feet after the baby's arrival some time in November we have decided to travel directly to Arizona and then visit Carlsbad Caverns and possibly my brother Jimmy and one of Dad's former work friends, Mike Saville, near San Antonio, Texas next spring. We have learned that Carlsbad weather can be quite cold in December. One of Dad's most memorable mission companions from Las Vegas called out of the blue to wish him happy birthday along with calls from all of our children and his sister, Sharon, to make his day. Elder Bohne's call after over forty years will likely route us through Vegas on our way to Arizona. Last night (Saturday) we went to a prime rib dinner show at the Center Stage Playhouse in Chubbuck called "Lucky $tiff." This is the former Mystique Theatre. One of Dad's good friends from his group at work, Evan Harrison, was a cast member who did an awesome job as a half-dozen different characters in the play. Most memorable were as a French Emcee and a Catholic nun. Last Friday we picked Gene Liljenquist up and went to Jensen's Grove lake in Blackfoot to fish in the late afternoon. The fish were biting well and within less than two hours we had caught ten nice fish. We came home after dark and then met Leslie, Matt and boys Saturday morning for more fishing at the same location. Fishing was much slower than the previous evening but the boys still caught seven fish by afternoon. We hope they had a memorable time as each caught fish. And now, since we forgot the camera for the fishing excursions this post is short of photos except for some new "pets" that we found in our back yard upon returning from church Sunday. They seemed to like our apple trees and other vegetation and then made a bed on the lawn across the creek as they stuck around all day. It is amazing how different the reaction is between deer, which we have also had plenty of this fall, and moose to humans. The deer immediately take flight but the moose cow just stands up and dares you to come any closer. Dad and her had about a half-hour stare down from about twenty yards across the creek and the moose won.