Day family newsletter for June 2013

NEWS FROM THE DAYS:

Jessica, Stephanie’s 10 yr. old, asked to visit Grandma and Grandpa for a week after her school ended, and we thoroughly enjoyed having her stay over and help Grandma (Linda) while she recovers from her knee surgery. Linda took her shopping, to her physical therapy sessions, Cheesecake Factory, and she went golfing with Katie and Grandpa one morning and drove the golf cart and got in a few practice shots as well. She rejoined her family after spending an afternoon at Gateway where we saw a star show at the planetarium.

Danny took a nice trip to Colorado Springs to visit the David Boone family and enjoyed the time away and all the things they did with him. When I picked him up from the airport, I discovered that his suitcase wheels and pull handle were both broken, and Shelley donated her spare suitcase to him as a replacement.

While driving to work one morning, a motorcycle in front of me hit a fawn deer square going about 50 miles per hour. The driver had a helmet on, and I watched him tumble over and over down the road. The bike ended up about 50 yards down the road on Wasatch Boulevard totaled, and the guy on the bike got up, but we convinced him to lie down until the ambulance arrived. He ended up with road rash is all (lucky), and the deer was disemboweled.

An interesting event at my work. There is a girl named Jessica about 20 years old who works part time in our DMV and looks just like Elizabeth Smart, and I occasionally call her Elizabeth for fun (she says lots of people tell her she looks like Elizabeth Smart). One day, I was helping a customer, a younger girl (about 20), and I told her she looked just like Jessica who was working a few stations down from me. The customer agreed, and said she could be her sister. I then told this customer about how Jessica looks so much like Elizabeth Smart, and asked my customer if anyone ever says she looks like Elizabeth Smart? She said “Yes, all the time!” I went back to finishing up titling her car and when I saw her name as the new owner on the back of the title, I saw Mary Katherine Smart. I looked up at my customer and asked, “Are you Elizabeth Smart’s sister?” She smiled back and said yes. Mary (I think I got her whole name right) is the little sister about 8 to 10 years old who was in the bedroom with Elizabeth Smart when she was kidnapped, and about 8 months later, remembered that the man was the same one who had worked at their house before. This information led to finding Elizabeth Smart and the arrest of her kidnaper. Anyway, an interesting encounter with her at work one day.

Another interesting thing at my work – I help train new people, and have trained in the last year a man from India who taught me all about the Sikh religion, then later, a girl from Iran who has given me insight into her former country, then a man who had been a mortician for 15 years, and now this past week, a man about 45 yrs of age named Rob. When I asked him where he previously worked, he told me he had attended school for 11 years and had spent the past 20 years being a Catholic priest, last assigned a parish here in the Valley. I haven’t got the whole story yet, but there are at least two employees in our office who were in his parish and a lot of others who are Catholic who are watching their language. An interesting experience so far.

Shelley and Brett Baird (of the Bairds on Redondo) organized and held a Rockin Redondo Reunion one Saturday evening at Sugarhouse Park. About 30 to 40 showed up, including Deon and Alisyn, and it was enjoyable to visit with old neighbors and friends who came including the some Knapus family, Baird family, Perkins, Curtis, Findley, and others I can’t remember names of. Everyone brought their own food, and Brett Baird put together a great slide show of everyone back in the 50’s and 60’s.

We celebrated Father’s Day at Jackie and Wiggin’s home with swimming and a barbeque. Lots of food and fun times. Deon invited us down to dinner at Derrick’s home one evening and we were joined by Danny, Cole and Jessica Rikli with our two great grandchildren Emry and Jax, Sherilyn and Richard. It was good to see everyone including the new Farnes addition – I believe Robert.

Linda continues to recover from her knee operation, is off her cane, and is doing very well. We went to a movie one afternoon with Steph and the kids, Monster University, and Linda and I also saw Man of Steel just the other night. Katie joined me golfing last weekend with a friend and his son – the temp hit 105 that afternoon, but we finished earlier while it was a mere 101.

We had a death in the family, so to speak. Our 40 ft. high cherry tree was diagnosed with slow death by bores, and it chose suicide by chainsaw. It has provided us with shade for 25 years in our backyard, and when the vast majority of its leaves failed to come out this spring, we called the tree doctor. This, of course, after I had tried an old wives tale of pounding it’s trunk with a baseball bat to shock it back to life. Now I lie awake at night wondering if I hastened its demise – I may ask my Priest trainee at work about this quandary.

I was happy to hear of the Supreme Court’s recent rulings moving us closer to equality for all people. Locally in Utah, our Attorney General is looking at possible impeachment by the Legislature in addition to being investigated by the FBI, a special prosecutor, a Federal investigation and being asked by many to step down including the local paper and the governor. I’m hoping the Congress will pass the immigration bill that the Senate just passed. But I’m prejudice – I want the illegal immigrants to have a pathway to citizenship.

Linda had many of our window screens replaced, the carpets cleaned, works a few hours per week helping her old employer, and is filling in for a week while her replacement goes on vacation. She continues to rehab the knee, primarily at home now, and is looking forward to being able to start some of the many projects she has looked forward to in retirement. Our garden is starting to look like a garden, filling in and growing higher all the time. No actual harvest yet other than raspberries. Baby quail (about 9) were spotted in our back yard a few days ago. Life is a continuous cycle.
Love, Tom & Linda

Day family news for May 2013

May 31, 2013

DAY FAMILY NEWSLETTER FOR MAY 2013

Linda went under the knife again, this time on her left knee to have a total knee (replacement). All went well – she had home health care/rehab for two weeks, and is now doing outpatient rehab at St. Marks twice a week for 6 weeks. She graduated from her walker to a cane after two weeks, and I got her moved back upstairs (she spent the first two weeks on our basement level where we had a bed, bathroom, recliner, family room, TV all on one level). She feels this is more painful than her shoulder replacement, and will be glad to be totally healed and walking without pain!
We hired a neighbor (carpenter) to install handicap bars in our bathrooms, as well as add a handrail to the lowest level of stairs going down to our laundry room. So we’re now set up for operation recovery as well as moving into the golden years.

Linda is still doing very part time work for her old boss – calculating commission splits every couple of weeks. We had a nice Mother’s Day lunch at our house, and the kids all chipped in with donating/planting flowers for our backyard, an annual event.

A neighbor donated dinner for us twice, and Shelley once as well the first week Linda came home from the hospital. Shelley stayed and ate with us as well. Thanks to them – it was great! Others offered, but we were OK, and I took a couple of weeks off to make sure Linda was well taken care of.
Prior to Linda’s surgery, we enjoyed seeing Les Miserable at the U of U Pioneer Theatre. Shelley, Beth and I drove up to Kathy Preece’s husband funeral. She treated us to dinner at Maddox along with Joseph and Alisyn – it was a very nice service, and we all enjoyed talking over lunch.

Katie and Christopher (Debbie’s oldest) combined birthday celebrations at Pat’s BBQ, a place that has been featured on Diners and Dives on TV. Great music, food, and birthday company. Jackie and Wiggins opened their pool and had everyone over for Memorial Day and again great company, food and relaxing. They are remodeling their backyard deck, hot tub spa area, and downsizing the shrubs in an overgrown yard. They set up a great garden area, and named it “This is Shum Garden” (their last name is Shumway). They also just celebrated their 3rd wedding anniversary.

Danny flew out to Colorado Springs this afternoon to visit David/Allison Boone until June 4th. We met the district manager of Utah Country para transit at the first of the month and he found Danny a much shorter route to walk (1 and ½ blocks) from the point the bus drops him off and picks him up going to Bishop’s Storehouse in Lindon. So far, so good. Stephanie had her entire backyard (except for the area I tilled for her garden a few weeks ago) tilled, as the grass was so sporadic, she decided to replant it all. Her kids love their new neighborhood, school, and day care. Their day care has great programs and they each take different classes in violin, piano, tumbling, dance, and others I can’t remember. Katie and Bill are nearing the completion of their house remodel – with just the front entrance to be rebuilt.

We placed flowers on the graves over Memorial weekend, and got Danny some flowers for Mom and Dad’s gravesite. Our cherry tree (40 years old) is showing signs of dying – so I took Wiggin’s advice, wrapped a blanket around the base of it, and pounded it with a baseball bat. I hit a single, two doubles, and an in-the-park home run. Don’t know if it will jar the cherry tree into a healthy state again or not. I waited until close to dark to do this batting procedure, as I didn’t want any neighbors to call for the men in white coats to come in their wagon for me. Linda says it may do some good to bat me a couple of times, with or without a blanket around me.

We love spring – flowers, green grass, leaves (on most trees), roses, The Garden of Eat’n (which I got planted about 3 weeks ago – it’s growing pretty good – sugar pea pods, onions, carrots, tomatoes, potatoes, bell peppers, zucchini squash, wild flowers, sunflowers, pumpkins, morning glory, cucumbers, strawberries and raspberries). Most of them are just coming up, but they look healthy and we look forward to the harvest. And the stock market is going nuts, housing is recovering and unemployment continues to drop. Congress is actually working on things – immigration for instance – I don’t know. Perhaps we elected the right people after all?

And that’s the news from the Days. Hope everyone is doing well.

Tom & Linda

Day Family Newsletter for April 2013

May 1, 2013

DAY FAMILY NEWSLETTER FOR APRIL 2013

Stephanie and the girls moved into their new home at the first of the month! She was absolutely thrilled to be getting her own home. She bought a home in Syracuse (just west of Layton). A lot of work, but she loves her new place, as do the kids. They are in new schools, new day care, and new home and neighborhood. The guy who bought the home and remodeled put on a new roof, new furnace, air conditioning, hot water heater, carpets, appliances, kitchen cupboards and painted everything inside. I soon learned how to hang curtain rods, bathroom fixtures (towel racks, toilet paper holder, etc.). The home is finished up and down, and the emphasis now is on getting the back yard lawn back (or replanted), as the house was vacant for two years. The front yard is in pretty good shape.

And Linda retired! Her last day was her birthday, April 15th. Scott, her boss of the past 25 years, gave her a very nice retirement luncheon at Market Street Grill with many of her coworkers (present and past), as well as our children. Scott and his wife presented Linda with a life size cardboard statue of Elvis that has been in our living room for the past few weeks – soon to be retired to Linda’s Elvis corner downstairs in the extra den/misc. room. Everyone got up and said some very nice things about Linda.

Then Katie and I organized a surprise retirement party for Linda at Katie and Bill’s newly remodeled home at the end of the month. It was fun getting out invites to everyone, and seeing Linda’s absolute surprised face when we showed up at the Boyd’s home for what Linda thought was a simple dinner invite. A lot of extended family including the grandchildren were there along with some close friends. Katie put out a superb arrangement of finger food and goodies, and a great time was had by all, especially Linda who couldn’t believe it was all for her.

Shelley and I were busy trying to get better para transit arrangements for Danny after it was discovered the Bishop’s Storehouse in Lindon was outside the delivery zone, and Danny would have to walk 3 ½ blocks to the Storehouse after the bus dropped him off. After meetings, much research, and actually walking the route, we wrote a letter asking for something better. Today Danny and I met with the General Manager of Utah County para transit at the Storehouse location, and got a shortened route (1 ½ blocks with sidewalks and no construction). I’ll follow up to see if he can also work at the Springville Storehouse as an alternative where he can be dropped at the door.

Linda and I thoroughly enjoyed a week in St. George after her retirement, and enjoyed upper 70 and mid 80 degree temps. We even got burned while swimming. Lots of relaxation, a quick trip to Mesquite, and a couple of free concerts at the St. George Tabernacle where we were the youngest couple there!

We enjoyed having Kaylee sleep over one weekend. I got in a round of golf with friends. We had a nice birthday dinner for Linda at The Spaghetti Factory, her favorite. And Linda is now scheduled for a total knee (left one) on May 13th!!!!! Ye gads – bionic woman. And the aging process continues. Love,

Tom & Linda

News from the days - March 2013

March 31, 2013

NEWS FROM THE DAYS:

Stephanie has found a home in Syracuse (west of Layton) that she’s hoping to move into shortly. It’s a cute home all remodeled with new furnace, air cond., roof, appliances, carpets and paint. If all goes well, they will finally have a home with a yard in a good neighborhood, and are looking forward to the move.

Debbie and Stuart got married on the 15th at Silver Fork Lodge. The weather cooperated, and they were able to have the ceremony out on the restaurant deck overlooking the beautiful canyon trees and terrain. Everyone enjoyed a nice dinner in their banquet room, and the staff did a great job of serving everyone. Debbie and Stuart stayed overnight at the lodge, and got up to breakfast and skiing the next day. Stephanie did the photography, and put together a professionally made DVD with music/themes.

Jackie hosted a craft party at her home earlier in the month, and the sisters & kids all enjoyed putting together Easter decorations (cute Easter egg wreaths and table décor). Jack (Katie & Bill’s 4 yr. old) invited us to his day care for a grandparent day luncheon. He attends the Jewish Community Center just north of Primary Hospital on the U campus. This place is top notch – it used to be the Hidden Valley Country Club in the old days. We met Bill’s parents there and enjoyed a nice lunch with Jack.

While I went golfing one warmer Saturday, Linda went with Steph and her kids to the St. Patrick Day parade held at Gateway. Steph and her kids were in the parade as part of the Girl Scouts. Katie and Bill had everyone over for Jack’s 4th birthday party one Saturday. Linda and I enjoyed seeing The Odd Couple at the U of U Pioneer Theatre with some friends.

Linda keeps busy with work and getting ready for retirement on April 15th, her birthday. Her boss is putting together a luncheon at Market Street Grill to honor her 25 years of service. Linda has agreed to work part time a few hours each Wednesday to do his bookkeeping after she retires. Her replacement will eventually take this over as well. I’ve enjoyed reading some more classics, and am currently enjoying Pride & Prejudice. I read each Saturday evening to Jessica (Steph’s 10 yr. old), and we just finished Pollyanna, and have started Little Women. Jessica remarked to me the other day that she inherited Grandma’s red hair, and that she and her sisters have all inherited my craziness……

Linda continues her shoulder physical therapy and is at about 85% now. She is seeing another orthopedic specialist next week to discuss a possible total knee operation. She would like to get it done before June 30 to take advantage of the deductable we’ve already paid on her shoulder for this fiscal year on our insurance. And she would also like to be well into rehab and walking OK when we go to Myrtle Beach with some friends in September. I found out the reason my right thumb is often painful. The doc took x-rays and found I have arthritis (no cartilage). And so goes old age. We hosted our annual Easter egg hunt/brunch in our backyard, and the weather cooperated with warm & sunny blue skies.

And that’s the news from the Days. Love, Tom & Linda

Day Family Newsletter February 2013

March 2, 2013

DAY FAMILY NEWSLETTER – FEB. 2013

Stephanie’s house search started out with an offer on a home in Syracuse (west of Layton), then withdrawing the offer after too many inspection problems, then getting beat out on a bid for an even better home in the same area. Steph put in a back up offer anyway, and two weeks later, the bid winner didn’t qualify for financing, so it looks like she has her new home at last. She’s crossing her fingers for a smooth inspection/financing/closing.

Debbie and Stuart announced they are getting married March 15th at Silver Fork Lodge. The ceremony and dinner will be downstairs in the banquet room for the immediate family. We are very happy for them and looking forward to the big day. I’ve attached their wedding announcement.

Stephanie’s 10 yr. old Jessica has been taking violin for about one year now, and asked me to accompany her on the piano for her recital as well as a competition at Gardner Hall at the U of U this past week. We played May Song first, then Allegro by Suzuki next. I was much more nervous than Jessica. About two weeks before we performed, Jessica said to me while we practiced (and after I kept making mistakes on one part), “Grandpa, you’re not going to embarrass me are you?” You don’t think the pressure was on me? I felt like a 10 yr. old playing in my first recital in Mrs. Beason’s studio in the Zion’s Building on South Temple and Main. Jessica got a “superior” rating from the judges at the competition. The competition is actually called “going to federation”, an event held each year at the U of U Music Dept.

Linda keeps up the rehab on her shoulder – I wanted to show you a picture of her staples/scar, but she said absolutely not. I continue to have old age issues – besides two more caps on teeth, I’ve had wrist pain, and after seeing a hand/wrist specialist, find I simply have arthritis as well as a more serious problem where two bones in the wrist/hand have torn away from the ligament. However, because I’m not experiencing any pain/problems with that problem, the doc recommends I do nothing for now. I can order a thumb brace to wear periodically if the hand/wrist pain due to arthritis becomes too much to bear. I told the doc the pain is perhaps a 2 or 3 out of 10 right now, about the same as how much Senator Orin Hatch wears on me, kind of a drag, gnawing away, but not enough to disrupt my days all that much. When the pain reaches a 7 or 8 like it did two weeks ago (which caused me to finally make a doctor appointment), then I can order the thumb brace.
I helped Stephanie with Girl Scout cookies (Steph is a Girl Scout leader with Jessica and Sarah), and we enjoyed helping pick up two pallets of cookies for her troop, getting them to the Cathedral of the Madeline (building in back of it), and distributing them to about 25 parents so they could then take their orders home and get them to the people they sold to. So I’ve kind of had my religion for the month, don’t you think? Today, Steph and the girls are out delivering the cookies they sold in the neighborhood. As I was helping Steph with this Girl Scout project, I wondered why the LDS church doesn’t sponsor the Girl Scouts like it does the Boy Scouts? When the gay question arose recently nationally with the Boy Scouts policies, it was reported in the news that the LDS church was the single largest sponsor of Boy Scout troops in the country.

We just stopped by Katie and Bill’s home on the way home from Jessica’s performance and got to see some of their newly remodeled home. All new beautiful wooden flooring upstairs, new paint in the front room along with new furniture and area rug. The bathroom upstairs is getting a claw bathtub with all new plumbing/paint/décor as well. Later in the year they are doing a new roof and rebuilding the front porch that has sunk over the years. Jackie continues to work part time refurnishing old furniture, and they continue to help with Wiggin’s Mom who is trying to recover from a bout with cancer as well as numerous other issues.

Linda’s boss had a new lady hired to replace her April 15th, but she got a better offer at her old job. Linda still plans on retiring next month, and has decided to put off a left knee replacement until later in the year. We enjoyed another great play at the U of U entitled “Clybourne Park”, about racism in the 60s, and the last half of the play in the same house in Chicago concerning reverse racism.

I finished another classic, Emma, and am now into another novel. The lizard Steph gave us several years ago finally died. He was called Mr. Lizard, and was about 10 years old. He ate worms and crickets – what a life! We had a burial ceremony in the back yard, and he now joins two cats and two parrots in our backyard. Jessica gave a tribute and prayer, and we lit a candle overnight on top of his final resting place. I was pleased to have another Op Ed piece in the Salt Lake Tribune a few weeks ago entitled “I’ve Always Loved the Circus”. I previously sent you a copy of the Op Ed. We enjoyed Sofie’s 2nd birthday (Katie and Bill’s youngest) party bowling and having pizza. And Sarah (Steph’s middle girl) had her 7th birthday party at McDonalds.

And that’s the news, the whole news, and the only true news from the Days.

Love, Tom & Linda

Day Family Newsletter - January 2013

Feb. 1, 2013 DAY FAMILY NEWSLETTER – JANUARY 2013 February 1, 2013 NEWS FROM THE DAYS: Snow, cold, more snow, more cold. I’m home today with either the flu or a bad cold. Winter was definitely here this past month. Lands sake! Heavens to Betsy! Did I say that right? Where did these old expressions come from? Does this indicate my age? Stephanie had to go to St. George for 3 days for work. I took the kids to day care and picked them up again after work. Reminds me of the old days when our kids needed to be dropped off every morning and picked up again after work. It seems like more work this time around. Steph got caught in a blinding snow storm on the way to St. George and had to lay over in Fillmore for a short time before braving the drive again. Linda continues her rehab - mostly doing physical therapy at home with a pulley/rope contraption she had to buy. It's a long process, with the actual strengthening exercises coming later. She has now accomplished the tasks of getting dressed and doing her hair with basically one arm, and a little help from her rehabbing arm. Jackie and Wiggins continue to deal with Wiggin's sick Mom who has been traveling back and forth between Blanding and Salt Lake for cancer treatments. Katie and Bill are in the middle of remodeling their Sugarhouse home, getting new hardwood flooring at present, with a new bathroom, new roof to follow later. Stephanie has started looking at homes, mostly short sales. Nothing bought yet. Debbie and Stuart have got Kaylee taking ski lessons at Brighton just like Jack. Jackie had a nice birthday dinner at her favorite Mexican Restaurant this past month, and it was nice to all get together (although it was a blinding snow storm that night and tough to get around). An added treat was Cole and Jessica showing up with Emry, and their latest addition, Jax! He's just precious! In the past few months, I finished reading Jane Eyre, one of the best books I've ever read. Then I read another Asher Lev book that Stephanie got me (about a Jewish artist prodigy), then The Scarlet Letter, a pretty short read, and now I've started Emma by Jane Austin. In between, I reread a book I had bought at the National Cathedral while we were back at Deon's for the family reunion a few years ago, Jesus for the Non Religious. One thing about snow and cold - it leaves you more time to do other things like read (if you don't ski). We enjoyed the first of the month (New Years) at the condo in St. George, but I think I covered that last month. I having another letter to the editor published - this time about guns, commenting about a guy in Davis County who walked into a J.C. Penny store with an assault rifle strapped to his back (the picture went viral on you tube). An old friend of mine, Tom Smith (on Hollywood) had open heart surgery this past month, and is doing well. I picked up some more back yard art with a X-Mas gift card Linda got me from Home Depot. Now an owl adorns the garden area, a hanging bird feeder from the plum tree, and a colorful butterfly also mounted in the garden area. I want a backyard Buddha 6" statue I saw at Back Yard Birds, a little shop on Highland Drive, but Linda won't buy it for me. I guess I'll have to treat myself in the future. We continue to keep the quail, doves, and assorted birds in the area (that don't migrate down south) alive with our bird seed, and the Blue Jays of course love our unsalted peanuts in the shell on the windowsill to keep them fed during the winter. It’s that time of the year again – when the Utah Legislators get together and wreck havoc on the lives, laws and general reputation of the state of Utah. It’s a never ending 45 day session that never bores, never makes much sense, and brings to stardom individuals who later become senators, congressmen (sorry – not women in this state) or Attorney General. Four or five hundred million is always budgeted to cover the cost of litigation trying (almost always unsuccessful) to defend laws passed by the 90% Republican legislators. As this money is always flushed down the toilet, per say, the legislators plan on raising the tax on food so the poor and elderly can make up the loss in a proportion that hurts them. I think their logic may be to force the elderly to pass up on their medications so they can buy food to survive, therefore, dying earlier than needed to save on Medicare, a FEDERAL program much despised in Utah. Then, this gives the poor a job digging graves to get them off WELFARE. Plus, it helps get the DRUGS out of their system when they have to work 24/7 digging endless rows of graves. And this takes the jobs away from ILLEGALS who used to dig the graves, and probably stole jewelry from the dead bodies besides. And then they have to go back to where they belong…..in Arizona!!! And if they don’t, they get SHOT with the millions of guns circulating in and around Zion. This creates more grave digging work for the poor, thus less MEDICAID, WELFARE, FOOD STAMPS, WIC and ILLEGALS. Utah comes out a winner all around. And that's the news from the Day family for the month. Love, Tom (Linda wouldn’t sign it)

Day Newsletter - December 2012

January 2, 2013 NEWS FROM THE DAYS: Stephanie got free tickets to a U of U b-ball game and took me. Enjoyed the game – sorry to see so few people there. Linda and I saw A Christmas Carol, the Musical at the U of U Pioneer Theatre. It was very, very good! Joined some of the kids at the Dickens’s Festival held at the State Fairgrounds, an annual event. Enjoyed seeing all the neat stuff they sell, watching some kids perform, eating and buying some of our Christmas. Linda took all the girls to the Nutcracker this year, and they thoroughly enjoyed the performance – a special Christmas treat for all of them. We watched Sofie one Sunday afternoon while Jack (3 yrs old) went to his 2nd ski lesson at Brighton. Katie put a video on face book of him coming down a hill all by himself and waving. We’re so proud! Cole and Jessica became new parents again on Dec. 19th – his name is Jax Patrick Rikli. You can also get pictures of him on face book. Wiggins has had some back problems recently, and when they x-rayed his back, they found it cracked around is 5 area (?) in the lower back. Apparently from a sports injury when he was young, and now its physical therapy and possible back surgery to fix it. Debbie announced her engagement to Stuart this past month – no date set yet – but we’re very happy for them. Perhaps the biggest news in our family (outside of Jax & Debbie’s engagement) was Linda getting shoulder replacement surgery (left side). Dr. Chris Martin of St. Marks did the surgery, and Linda goes in tomorrow to get the staples out – sounds awful doesn’t it? She has done pretty well so far – only takes her oxycotin pain pill when necessary. Everyday gets better. She will also start physical therapy after tomorrow, and probably return to work at least part time next Monday. Her hospital stay, other than Nurse Ratchet who attended to her the first night, was pretty good. I guess I made too many comments about Nurse Ratchet the next morning, and next thing we know, we are visited by the floor director asking how the previous night’s stay went? Nurse Ratchet came on duty, and Linda was still pretty drugged up from surgery, plus I had been helping her push the magic button every ten minutes to help with pain. When Nurse Ratchet tried to talk to Linda, she didn’t get much response. She then said in a rather loud voice, standing directly over her, MRS. DAY!!! MRS. DAY!!!! CAN YOU HEAR ME????? DO YOU KNOW WHERE YOU ARE????? Whap, Whap, Whap – that was the sound as she slapped Linda repeatedly across the face….OK – I made that part up. Anyway, she told me to never touch the magic button that gives pain relief, and said “All she has to do is push the nurse call button”. That’s when I lost it and said Linda hardly knows where she is, let alone about an obscure nurse button laying by her side. I made Nurse Ratchet promise to keep a close eye on her overnight, and to not use electric shock treatment. The world didn’t end on Dec. 21st, although to hear most people in Utah, you would have thought the world ended on Nov. 6th, the day Obama was reelected. I attended a funeral of a man that had retired from the DMV two years ago. I really liked this guy, as he shared my political and religious views, and he was an absolute character. He died after a scheduled surgery at the U of U Hospital. And it was sad to hear David Lyon also died about a week later. Oh yea, it was also Christmas, and a special one with grandkids and Steph staying here this year. We enjoyed our annual trip to the Zito’s dinner Christmas Eve (Linda’s side of the family), and to the Bairds after for a drink. Linda wasn’t recovered enough to make the trip that evening, so Sarah (age 6) stayed with her to babysit. Stephanie and I prepared the traditional Christmas Day afternoon buffet, and the other kids chipped in with yummy additions. It was a “one bag” day after opening up family gifts – you should have seen it in previous years when it took 5 or 6 bags of garbage to get rid of all the wrappings. I guess this means everybody is cutting back. Still, a great time. Then two days later, it was off to St. George with Steph driving us all down in her van. Before we left, we picked up Danny at the airport. His flight got in about 20 minutes early, and we got there 5 minutes later than we planned, and Danny got tired of looking, and sat down in some chairs at one end of the bag carrousel area (about 3 away from where his bag came in). After I frantically looked 20 minutes for him, I was on my way to security when I saw him stand up headed to a Coke machine. So all turned out well. We stopped at Joseph and Alisyn’s beautiful home in Orem for lunch and got to see them, Deon and Steve and Adam Boone as well (he was staying there for a week). Alisyn put on a wonderful lunch, and we enjoyed visiting and seeing everybody. The book we had bought for Deon and Steve for Christmas turned out to have Sherilyn Farnes as author of one of the chapters (the second book in a series about early Mormon women in the church). We didn’t even realize it, or we would have had her autograph it first. Perhaps the most humorous remark we heard of the particular trip was Danny telling us how Hillary (of the Rhead clan recently called on a mission) had to go to have her endowments taken out of her. And me, I just couldn’t resist, asked him if it hurt. Danny said he didn’t think so……… In St. George, we got to see a great play Forever Plaid, adapted to the holidays, and renamed Holiday Plaid. It was playing at the Dixie college auditorium, and was a fun, fun show to see. We also saw a funny show called Parental Guidance with Bette Midler and Billy Crystal. All about generational gap between kids, parents and grandparents. We celebrated the New Year while there and enjoyed somewhat warmer weather before returning to reality, work, snow, cold and school for the kids. And that’s the news from the Days. Love, Tom & Linda