Went to a concert last night, the bride wanted to see Richard Marx. He was big in the mid 80’s and early 90’s. It was a great concert and we sat about 15 ft from the stage, lot of energy and very loud music, good time.

We are going to be very busy today. We leave first thing in the morning for our cruise to Alaska . We depart for the airport about 5:30 tomorrow morning. We should be in Seattle by 9:30, and hopefully we will be aboard the ship by noon. We are taking two cameras with us and I am sure I will post some pics when I get back. My daughter will be watching over mom while we are gone plus her next door neighbor from San Diego is coming for a visit. Mom will be good hands. But if you would like, I would appreciate your prayers for her will being while I am gone. I will post sometime after the 7th of July. I hope all three of my readers will take care,

Went to the baseball game last night, Buddy Nate had four tickets and we took our respective brides. Good time had by all. The home team lost due to lousy fielding. But the food was great and it was just plain home town Americana. We had to leave during the 7th inning. My bride had to get up and go to work. I was more taken back by the view from the stadium. Tickets, food and all it was a fifty dollar night. Not bad for a few hours of entertainment. I do want to thank Nate for dragging me and mine along.

A nice quite father’s day, the bride, mom and I went to brunch at the Little America down in Salt Lake City. I have been puttering around the back yard, just a very nice day.

Mom is scheduled to have a cataract removed tomorrow. The Dr. will remove one now and the other next month. I will be taking time off from work to haul mom around and help her with eye drops and what ever else she needs.


We are having some work done around the house. Pouring a concert pad, I think it is 27’x24’ and having a new fence put in. The concert guys showed up yesterday and started to tear down the fence. Which would be fine except for the dogs, the bride called me (I was on the Bear River fishing) in a panic. I headed home to put up a temporary fence to keep the dogs imprisoned. I figured I had done pretty good job tying some chicken wire into the fence I had put up to keep the dogs out of the garden. Dusty discovered that if he hit the garden fence at a fast enough run he could pop right through. I was giving foxy a bath in the kitchen sink (she was a muddy mess) when the bride yelled Dusty is in the garden, and then she screamed he has gotten out. This is like Det com 4 or maybe 5 in our house. When the dogs get out they take off. I jumped into the truck the bride jumped into her car and the neighbor took off on foot. The little turd locker was seen going between houses and headed for the next road. I rounded the corner and headed down the road; the neighbor was already up there and had turned Dusty back towards the house. As I got home he was in the open part of the back yard running around. Sat in the truck opened the doors and yelled lets go for a ride. This works most of the time and it did again last night. He was home safe and sound and I was installing a chain linked fence at 9:00 that night. I have spent the past hour or so making sure the fence was dog proof. I think I have succeeded.

This is a good read

There has been an Ava sighting

Mom and Ava

















This may be a troll under stairs, never mind it is Ava

It is cold and raining, I am letting the fire in the fireplace die down. I was going into work for a few hours this morning then accompany the bride to the doctors. Mom fell this morning and that change my plans. I believe she tripped so this is not like the last time she fell where she was dizzy. There will be a burse on her face but she seems to be okay. Mom has a doctor’s appointment tomorrow morning and I’ll have the Dr. take a look.

It looks like we have sold moms house in San Diego. The housing market is considered depressed in Southern California and I am glad that we were able to move the property. The couple that bought the place wants to close by June 26. So this should wrap up quickly. I guess I should get ready, I need to run errands. Take care and God bless

Backyard

two fireplaces














Front

Busy, busy, busy, my daughter and her husband moved to a new house this weekend. The move was accomplished with the use of pickup trucks. Not the best way to move but we got it done. The house was built in 1959 and has been vacant for a while. The kids got a very good deal on the place and I think they will be very happy. I know that I like the school district better then the one they left, all in all a much better neighborhood for little Ava to grow up in.


I got a phone call from my buddy Jim wondering if I had smoked the fish we caught last weekend. Like I said I have been busy, it seems that he is a little worried that he may not get his share, he may have reason to worry based on history. I have told him that he wants to make sure that he gets some of the fish he had better be there when I pull it out of the smoker. I have been known to consume a lot of fish in the time it takes to come out of the smoker to a plastic bag. But I will try and be better this time. I just brought the fish up from the freezer to thaw and I will have it in the smoker tomorrow. It will be in the smoker 10-12 hours.

I need to jump into the shower, I am ushering at the second service this morning at church

A wonderful four days of fishing at Flaming gorge with a couple of buddies (Nate, and Jim). We caught a number of fish all were good sized. Most will end up in my smoker next weekend. I was plagued with equipment problems most of the weekend. I had a brand new fishing reel (Okuma) and it froze up solid. I could not get it to turn. It was useless and ended up tossed in the back of my truck. I had problems with my line on a couple of my reels. All the line was new, and my buddy Nate said I must have put the line on backwards. Which may be true but I think I should invest in a better brand of swivels if I am going to do much trolling with spinning type reels. I will have a bait caster before I go back to the gorge, much better for trolling. Lost some nice pop gear trying to bring in a good sized rainbow trout, the fish went under the boat just as it got up to the boat. . Cut the line and was gone. When the weekend was all but done and we had hooked up the trailer to my truck we went to pull chocks and I had a flat tire on the trailer. I pulled the 3 ½ ton floor jack (don’t leave home with out it) from the back of the truck and we swapped out the tire with the spare... But please believe me when I say it was a wonderful four day weekend. The three of us had a great time. Being guys we made fun of each other all weekend, and laughed a great deal.



All the salmon we caught was done by trolling, for those who do not fish this means we hook up about a pound or two of shinny blades, spinners and beads get it down to about thirty five feet in the water and drag all over the lake. It works good, even picked up a few rainbow trout. Now I have been trout fishing for more years then I want to think about. I have done all kinds of angling with a whole lot of different tackle to catch trout. When I watched Nate throw a white tube jig (bass lure) up next to the rocks I figured he was wasting his time. When he caught his first rainbow I figured it was a fluke, then the second one I started to watch him a little more closely (you should keep your eyes on him anyway). By the last day we all were using white tube jigs and hauling in big fish. The trout are in their spawning mode right now and very aggressive. This is the reason the technique worked. But it worked great.



The trip home was uneventful (360 miles round trip), and it was good to get home into a shower and to relax. Having fun is a full time job and when in your mid fifties can just about wear you out. I have skipped the gym today and will start up again tomorrow (maybe).

We leave at 6:30 in the morning for flaming gorge. I know I had said that it would not take long to get the trailer in order, well I lied I have been working on it for two nights. But the trailer is all packed except for my cloths and hooked up to the truck. I am ready for this trip. My buddy Nate will be here at 6:00AM we will throw his stuff in the trailer and be on the road by 6:30 to meet Jim (he has the boat) at the pre-appointed meeting spot. If all goes well we will be on the lake by 1:00 or 2:00 in the afternoon. Talk to you when I get back.

Went fishing today with my buddy Nate, and fishing was fantastic. The catching on the other hand was not so good. Between the two of us we did not have single bite. This is fishing most of the morning and afternoon in two different locations. But we had a good time. The first location was Willard bay. Good place to catch catfish and wipers (white bass and striped bass highbred) I wanted to see how my new knees (double knee replacement last November) would handle climbing over the dike. Going over the outside part of the dike was easy all dirt. The water side of the dike is very large rock all jumbled together. I have what Nate calls an industrial strength rod holder that I also used a walking stick to climb down and back up over the rocks. My leg strength was not what I had hoped and I did not have a whole lot of confidence. But I managed to get over the dike and back, which made me feel good. The second place we went was the Bear River. Much easier, you can drive right to the river or into it if your brakes don’t work.

I have put myself under the gun so to speak. I leave Thursday morning for a fishing trip to Flaming gorge and the trailer is still winterized. I have been putting this task off and I don’t know why. I will work o the trailer tomorrow after a mother day’s brunch at my daughter’s house. It should not take to long to get the trailer ready. Just need to get my butt in gear and do it.

Got home yesterday. The meetings went well and we got a lot done. I pretty much let everybody know that this may have been my last time attending the meetings. The bride and I have talked some about me retiring at the end of the year. I honestly thought I was going go until the end of 2009. But things are starting to happen at work that I just don't want to put up with. I'll have 35 year of service at the end of the year and I think that is plenty. Also I have mom living with me now and I think I should spend time with her. She is 87 and not getting any younger. So much to think about.

Back to the meetings I attended. As you can see not everybody was fully engaged at all times

I'll be out of town for a week. Be back the 3rd of May

The fish where not very big but it was fun to get out. As you can see Nate was pleased with his catch. All the fish went back in the water.

my buddy Nate and I went fishing this past Friday. Saw these birds and Nate asked what kind of birds where they. When I got home I looked them up in my bird book.

They are "Yellow headed Black birds. Go figure

Yes Foxy looks sad. Why is she sad you ask, she has been fenced out of my garden area. Foxy is pure terror on my feeble attempts of putting in a garden. Foxy is a digger, it's true. I believe it is a God given talent she has for finding holes. She will wander around the yard (mainly along the fence line) start digging until she finds the hole. The little darling will look up as f to say " Look dad I found another one for you". Last year when I put in a flower bed I am sure all she heard was bed. That is where is decided to sleep when she was not finding holes in the garden . I think this year is the year I will have a good garden. The dogs are fenced out and mom is here to constantly ask when I am going to get started. Yep this is going to be the year.

There was an Ava sighting at the house yesterday. Ava managed to grab a bag of potatoe chips and wander around until they were gone

Food for thought

I'm still trying to figure out how the Constitution clearly states abortion is protected yet clearly states guns are not.

Mom is home now and is feeling better. She came home yesterday afternoon. It was suggested that she use a walker for a period of time, just until she feels a little more steady. I got her a walker and sat it next to her, when she gets up she walks around it. This morning I ask her if she was going to use the walker. No was the answer so I took it to the basement.

It is snowing today. We had three inches of snow Thursday but it did not stick around to long. Melted by afternoon, this snow looks like it will last a little longer. Spring time in Utah, it will be a month until I feel safe putting in a garden.

I am a bit rattled today. I had taken the day off to hang with my mom, I was down stairs making breakfast and I heard a very loud thump. My mom had fallen; I raced up the stairs calling to her. She was down on the floor not able to get up. I thank God I was home when this happened. I got her back on the bed asking how she was. We sat there for awhile and she said that she was fine, I did not believe her. She stood up a little unsteady but managed to get to the bathroom. I ran back downstairs to turn off the stove. I was cooking ham and eggs. I got back and mom was walking down the stairs, I stood at the bottom and watched every step. I got her on the couch and asked how she was doing. Again all I could get out of her was FINE. I told her she was going to the emergency room and she got up to get dressed. Mom did not make it crossed the living room she was wobbly and had to sit in the rocker. I called 911 and the paramedics hauled her to the hospital. Mom was in the ER for 7 hours, some bone headed administrator would not admit her because there was not neurologist on call. The ER Doc tried and tried to get her admitted to couple hospitals in the area. One was full and one said that it was Davis hospital responsibility to admit her. The ER Doc finally found a DR that would go over the administrator head and get her admitted. I was mad beyond belief. But mom is in the hospital and I hope and pray that can find out what is wrong. They have ruled out inner ear, heart attack, stroke, and couple of other things. I am sure I will post more later.

It has been wonderful weather the past few days. I believe we are in for some snow and rain for the weekend. But spring is here and I am feeling great about it. I am taking tomorrow off from work. I am going to spend the day with my mom and just hang out. I am sure that I will take her to lunch and whatever else she may want to do. I came down stairs this morning and found mom sleeping on the couch. It appears the three dogs were sleeping with her on her twin bed. There just was not enough room so she left. I explained that I would have handled it a little differently but mom said it was okay. The bride and I are going to buy mom a queen size bed this weekend and there will be enough room for everybody. I guess as long as mom and the dogs are happy my life is going well. .