Working and Playing

For the past month we have been quite busy in addition to the routine summer upkeep activities. On August 23rd Leslie, Matt and boys came to visit. We had a lot of fun with them, especially watching little Jaxon trying so hard to imitate his older brothers and watching his expressions and listening to his sincere jabber where he knows exactly what he is saying even though no one else does. They went to Matt's parents in Utah Saturday and returned Sunday before leaving for home and we got to pet-sit their bird and dog. Then Gene and Lynn came and camped out here in their motor home on their way home from camping with their family. During the next four long days Dad worked with Gene to upgrade the home entertainment system electronics in their motor home. It was a complex and difficult job but the results are very impressive with a nice 5.1 Dolby sound system and flat screen television. This was after Gene's brother, Darwin, had earlier helped him with a beautiful upgrade to the cabinet in the front to accommodate the new components.

Then Darwin, who has a very nice woodworking shop, helped Dad with a project to build a sliding tray to mount on the dashboard of the passenger side of our motor home to make using the laptop computer a lot less of a strain, particularly while in Arizona for the winter. It is made of oak and, while it is obviously not a factory feature, it does look nice and works well.

Somewhere during the last ten days of August we also restored our back deck. The railing was rusting badly. Dad sawed it into pieces where it had been welded to take it down so it could be powder coated since we are having trouble keeping it looking decent with just paint. The major task was that Dad had to make and weld tabs on the rail ends and drill and tap holes in the posts so that the railing could be re-assembled without compromising the finish. He readily admits he is an amateur welder and he worked at this all day.

The deck surface was looking very bad. The next task was to power wash it thanks to Leta and Tim Shaffer for the loan of their power washer.

The railing was at the painter for a week during which time we applied deck sealer. When we brought the railing back from the painter Gene and Lynn were thankfully still here to help hoist the heavy sections back up on the deck for re-assembly. This was a major job but the deck looks really nice now.

 The first couple of days in September we made a flying trip to Nampa to visit my sister and Dad's family. His half brother, Bill Lewis and wife, Luana, were down from Kennewick, Washington to support their daughter-in-law following knee replacement surgery while their son is serving in Afghanistan. Bill has recently been diagnosed with a potentially serious illness and we have been looking for an opportunity to visit them so this was a good opportunity with a shorter trip. Although we were only able to visit with them for a couple of hours over lunch where we met it was great to see them again and find Bill in good spirits with a positive attitude. And Luana, as always, is so sweet and supportive. We love them dearly and hope and pray for the best.

While there we also visited Dad's sisters, Sharon and Bonnie and his brother Duane and as many as possible of their families in the short time available. I also got to spend a couple of hours visiting with my sister, Jane, in Boise and got to see her son, Lee and his family. As I said we crammed a lot into two days with a four-hour drive each way.

Upon returning home we finished last-minute preparations for a planned trip to Lake Powell with the Gardners and a day later were on our way early on the 5th of September. We have never made this annual trip this late in the summer but we thought we would give it a try. Even though school has started it was surprising how many people were on the lake. For the first few days the weather was most beautiful with warm days in the low 90's and nights in the 70's while the water temperature was near 80 degrees. Dave and Laurene brought their son, Darren, with them but he spent much time fishing and hiking on his own and we didn't see a lot of him. We did the usual canyon surfing, hiking, swimming, playing games, watching movies and just relaxing in general. With Darren's help Dad got to catch a couple of Big Mouth Bass for his first time and Laurene shared a fried fillet from one of the two big ones Dave and Darren caught. Otherwise the usual Catfish feast never happened because all the Catfish Dad caught were small.

The absolute beauty and uniqueness of Lake Powell never seems to get old. Pictures cannot do it justice but I'll try.

September 10th was Laurene's birthday and I took a cake, candles and topping I had brought, along with a card I made, over to their boat for a birthday party. Due to the strong breeze Darren had a difficult time lighting the candles but was eventually successful so Laurene was able to blow them out. We had no near neighbors so Dave turned up the volume on the stereo to play a "different" happy birthday song he had chosen. We had a fun and memorable evening.

A couple days later we had thunderstorms most of the night and next day with heavy rain. We could hardly see out and had to work to stay dry.

View from inside the boat during the storm at about noon

When the storm let up we could see where water had flooded into the bay where we were camped and washed some pretty good gullies.

That evening this is essentially the same view as above while raining

We also got to witness the loud booms, dust clouds and falling rock fragments from a couple of large boulders that fell from the nearby cliffs, probably loosened by the storm. On the morning of the 13th Laurene injured her arm while they were docking their boat. It had gotten pinched between the boat and a dock. I used my first aid training to dress the wound but by Friday morning, the 14th, it was still bleeding a little and very swollen so we decided to end the trip. At that time we were still on the water in a canyon two hours from Bullfrog where we had launched but we got up early and twelve hours later, without stopping for anything but gas, we drove, got through construction and rush hour traffic from Provo to Ogden and pulled into home just at dusk. Laurene had gotten medical attention in Bullfrog and was told that our first aid had minimized the bleeding and was done very well. It will give us something to laugh about because we used a pad on it. The doctor told her everyone needs to keep some on hand for first aid. Between the four of us we managed to dress the wound better than most people coming in to their office for care. Many times in life we take a bump in the road and think I will pay for that. Then when the payment comes you wonder what the heck did I do to get that bruise. With Lake Powell you have many wondering moments, sore muscles, and bruises all over the body. But the fun and beauty of Lake Powell is worth it all. I love this vacation. It is so peaceful.