Day Family News for November 2013

December 1, 2013

NEWS FROM THE DAYS:

First of all, how could it possibly be December? But since we just celebrated Thanksgiving, it makes sense. Stephanie invited everyone to her house in Syracuse for turkey this year. She has wanted to host Thanksgiving forever, and finally had the home and room to do so this year. Wiggins girls love to make pies, and they ended up bring 6 or 7 pies – this in addition to our apple pie. We had twelve around the table, with Katie/Bill and Debbie /Stuart with their spouse’s family this year. Stephanie did a superb job and we all left full, happy and thankful.

Last week, Linda’s knee got very sore and swollen. The doctor said it was infected, and she is on the tail end of a week’s supply of antibiotics. It’s feeling somewhat better, but Linda had to forgo her part time work at Macys for a week, and still doesn’t know if she will be OK until she returns to the Doc next week.

We haven’t had snow to speak of yet, and I spent a few hours hanging Christmas wreaths around our outside front lights, and placing our reindeer that light up for the holidays. I’ve also been attempting to mouse proof the house, as our cat has presented us with a few mice these past few months, and we have heard one running across the false ceiling in our family room. Upon close examination outside, I found two different openings where the air conditioning tubes enter our home, as well as the main power line. I’ve closed these up, assuming mice could get into our ceiling downstairs from these small outside openings.

Linda and I decided to get new flooring in our upstairs kitchen and downstairs laundry room/kitchen for Christmas. We spent one afternoon painting the downstairs kitchen after the flooring had been laid. There have been seams coming up on the linoleum in this room for years and years, and it’s nice to have new paint and seamless flooring. Next week, they will replace our upstairs tile (with all its cracks) with new tile. We’re in 7th heaven.

I finally finished reading Robinson Crusoe, and then quickly read two books I received for my birthday last month. First, “Killing Jesus”, by the same authors that wrote “Killing Lincoln” and “Killing Kennedy”. A good and insightful read. I’ve loaned it to the former Catholic Priest I trained at my work in hopes of getting his expert opinion on the book. I just finished reading “My Story”, by Elizabeth Smart. A riveting and well written book about her ordeal being kidnapped by a religious fanatic for 9 months. A must read if you ask me. Now I’m onto a book written about Johnny Carson by his former attorney – a little lighter read I hope, although so far it’s not all laughs. Linda just finished reading “Catching Fire”, part two of the Hunger Games saga. I still read by the page, while Linda has gone digital with her Kindle.

Katie announced that she is due May 1st, and it will be a girl. We look forward to welcoming our 9th and in all likelihood our last, grandchild. There are always more great grandchildren to look forward to. We celebrated Bill’s birthday this past week, and both of our great grandchildren came, and little Jax is walking like a pro, while Emry is growing up and looks a lot like the child actress Judy Garland of long ago.

Linda has enjoyed working the few shifts she was able to work before her knee went on the blink. I got in one last round of golf earlier in the month before the colder weather started making appearances. Linda noticed an interesting event one Sunday in the newspaper and we decided to attend. It was held at the Calvary Chapel in the Murray area, and the visiting evangelist was Shiela Raye Charles, daughter of Ray Charles. An outstanding and interesting evening. Shiela was a 20 year drug addict, had 3 crack babies by 3 different men (not her husband), was sexually abused (not by Ray Charles) in her childhood, had an alcoholic mother, and was in her 3rd federal prison sentence when she found Jesus and was called to preach to anyone and everyone who would hear her story, and specializes in visiting prisons. She sang some of Ray Charles songs, but intermixed her sermon with gospel and popular (although she used religious lyrics instead) music. I didn’t find Jesus, but did read the Jesus book I mentioned earlier.

I had to succumb to the dreaded 10 yr. colonoscopy exam this past month, and am now free for another 5 years. Linda and I had dinner with some friends – Brent & Karen Wilkes, who were in town because of ill health of Karen’s brother. We also attended Kaylee’s (Debbie’s 8 yr. old) baptism in Herriman, and a nice lunch afterword.

I’m off to pick up Danny at the airport, as he’s returning from Maryland where he spent Thanksgiving with the Farnes. He’ll spend Christmas with us this year, so send his gifts here. I know it’s early, but have a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year.

Tom & Linda

Day Family New - October 2013

November 2, 2013

NEWS FROM THE DAYS – OCT. 2013

We’ve somewhat entered the technology world. My new Subaru has blue tooth, and the new I phones we got this past month now are blue toothed to my car. I can now talk to my car, and my car hooks me up via telephone hands free! I know this is probably old news to many of you, but I’ve figured out that my phone is really my computer without a printer, and portable, and a camera, and takes videos, and talks to me and tells me how to drive somewhere, and does my banking, face booking, texting, emailing, etc.

Linda and I took the frontrunner (Salt Lake’s mass transit train) from Murray to Clearfield (next to Syracuse where Stephanie lives). We hadn’t been on a train forever, and enjoyed the ride. During lunch with Steph and the kids while there at a restaurant, I was telling a story about how I hadn’t been on a train since a kid, and how exciting it was to ride a train, yada, yada, yada……when Sarah (Steph’s 7 yr. old), came out with “And blah..blah blah…blah blah”. It was an absolute riot.

A friend of ours, Marie Hansen, passed away from complications from arthritis and donated her body to medical research. Her husband is Phil, the one who hosts our annual Cabin Classic golf getaway every year at their cabin above Oakley. The service was at Red Butte in a beautiful garden type room. One of the speakers was a lifelong friend, Gayle (I believe) Hinckley, the wife of Joseph’s old boss in charge of the church missionary programs. When I told her I was Alisyn’s little brother, she said to make sure I said hi to Alisyn and Joseph for her. Also at this celebration of life for Marie, I ran into Ralph Wakley and said hi – he also said to say hello to Alisyn and Karin for him. Some other familiar names I talked to included Dick Paul, one of the McMaster brothers.

Jack and Sofie (Bill & Katie’s) slept over one night, and we enjoyed having them over. Linda and I saw a couple of good movies – Gravity & Captain Phillips. Danny decided to quit Bishops Storehouse until the weather turns warm again next spring. We attended Jessica’s school orchestra performance at a Jr. High (Jessica – 5th grade, along with 7 or 8 other 5th or 6th graders – are taught by the Jr. High orchestra teacher, and they got to be included with the Jr. High symphony orchestra program). They played three numbers in the beginning orchestra group, and were followed by the advanced orchestra group.

Linda and I saw a good play on Halloween night at the U of U Pioneer Theatre called Other Cities in the Desert. Jessica (turning 11 on Nov. 6th) celebrated her family birthday with me at Jason’s Deli last night. Thanks for the birthday cards and e cards. Besides receiving three good books to read and an emergency kit and gift card, Linda got me a Build-A-Bear dressed up like a doctor with a Dr. Perm nametag, and permed hair. I mentioned I wanted it while at Kaylee’s 8th birthday party in Sept. at Build-A-Bear.

We harvested the last of our garden, received a couple dustings of snow, and yesterday Linda accepted a part time position at Macy’s at South Town Mall in the children’s clothing department thru the holidays. We played a little bingo at the local Catholic Church to support Bill’s mother who sings in their choir and was helping raise money for their recent building expansion at St. Thomas Moore.

And that’s the news from the Days for October. Tom & Linda

Day Family Newsletter - Sept. 2013

October 1, 2013

NEWS FROM THE DAYS - SEPT. 2013

Debbie/Stuart/Christopher and Kaylee met us all at Build-A-Bear for Kaylee’s 8th birthday and the kids had fun building and dressing a bear. I told Stephanie that I found a bear I liked that had medical scrubs on. Put some permed hair on top, and have a custom name tag “Dr. Perm” made, and it would be a perfect Christmas gift for me. Kaylee has braces on her teeth, and is growing in leaps and bounds.

Evanston, Wyoming used to host horse races (para mutual betting) for years until about 4 years ago when the track went bust. It came back this year, and we enjoyed a day at the races one Sunday. We are looking forward to again going to the races once in a while.

Linda continues to rehab her knee at home, and is doing pretty good. She’s kept busy in retirement this past month with crocheting , reading, projects around the house that she never had time for before, lunches out with the kids, and vacations we’ve taken this past month.

I think I talked about the week we took in St. George at the end of August and into September. A few weeks later, we joined some friends, the Baird’s (well, Bruce and his lady friend Kathie) and the Tsuyuki’s for a 12 day Myrtle Beach, South Carolina trip. We stayed at Marriot where the Tsuyuki’s have time shares, and we thoroughly enjoyed being right on the beach with lots of amenities. The weather was great, & the golf was even greater (the guys played 5 great courses of the over 100 courses in the area). The women went shopping and site seeing or just relaxing and swimming when the guys were golfing, and then we all toured the area, shopped, ate at great restaurants, and went to a couple of shows, one outing on a small ship that was a casino (actually it was a fairly large boat). After coming home, I had another religious change of heart, and decided that there was a heaven after all, as we had just spent 12 days in heaven.

Because I have decided I am going to work a few years longer, I went out and traded in my little pickup truck and bought a new Subaru Forester. Once again, I’m in 7th heaven. But I’m leaving the Buddha in the back yard. Speaking of Buddha, I gave the Catholic priest who I trained at work a Buddha for his wedding gift. He loved it.

Stephanie’s neighbors got her sprinkler system hooked up to electricity in her shed for her, and it’s totally installed now. She is waiting until next year to plant grass in her back yard. Her garden has been spectacular this past summer, as has Katie’s and Jackie’s. They have all gotten into gardening like Dad. Wiggins is becoming a detective at West Jordan Police and leaving the motorcycle duty.

Jackie keeps busy building and refurbishing old furniture. They have done the cutest things for their home and back yard already. Katie and Bill went to Las Vegas for a quick trip with Bill’s parents who also have a Marriot time share. Jessica is in 5th grade orchestra doing the violin thing. Most joined Stephanie for her 38th (29th) birthday last night at a local restaurant.

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

Day Family August Newsletter 2013

September 5, 2013

NEWS FROM THE DAYS:

We just returned from a week in St. George at our condo. Stephanie and her kids joined us for the first 4 days, and Linda and I went solo the last 3 days. We all enjoyed Mary Poppins at Tuachan the second night we were there – they do such a great job at this outdoor theatre production. It’s always fun to have cars and animals come onstage, as well as the aerial features and fireworks thrown in. We also enjoyed swimming every day, eating out at our favorite places, watching videos and playing games around the table. I took the kids bowling and to the arcade in Mesquite, Nevada while Linda and Steph enjoyed some gambling. Stephanie played bingo for the first time and won 3 games including $300 on the last game! I found out I couldn’t hold a bowling ball with my arthritic right thumb, and bowled left handed instead. Linda and I went to the driving range and hit a bucket of balls to see if Linda’s shoulder and knee would hold up – they did, but it was so hot, we decided to call it quits and went to a movie instead that afternoon.

Our grandson, Cole, turned the big 30 this past month. Jackie and Wiggins had everyone over for swimming and a barbeque. A good time was had by all. Jackie and Wiggins have basically remodeled their yard front and back, planted a vegetable garden that’s doing well, and love having people over to swim and relax.

Stephanie had a sprinkler party to install a sprinkling system in her front and back yard. Katie and Bill have a friend who works for Orbit who got her the parts at ½ price, and Steph’s next door neighbor organized getting about 8 helpers along with Katie/Bill, Jackie, Linda and me to be grunts. The next door neighbor had already installed his system (using secondary water – Weber water), so his expertise came in very handy. Plus he and his son volunteered to trench the whole yard the day before the installation party with the trencher I rented from Home Depot. Everything got installed except for the electrical stuff needed to hook up the automatic sprinklers. Another neighbor volunteered to get that all done. We did turn each of the 7 stations on manually to set the sprinklers with proper angles and distance. Next spring we’ll have a grass planting party, as the Weber water gets shut off in one week – not enough watering time for a new lawn.

Katie and Bill finally got their house remodel 99% done, and are pleased with the new look to the front of their home, the new hardware floors, bathroom remodel upstairs and new roof. Linda and I saw a great movie – The Butler, and then drove up to Park City for their Silly Market (like a Farmer’s Market). I also finished reading The Help. So between The Butler and The Help, a vivid reminder about the discrimination blacks faced as we grew up in the 40’s, 50’s and 60’s. And unfortunately, there still lingers discrimination, especially in our age group and older. In another two or three generations, I think the country will be past the minority issues at last.

The Garden of Eat’n continues to produce, and I donated the forbidden fruit hanging over part of the garden (plums) to numerous people at my work. One lady took almost a bushel of plumbs and made blackberry (from her parent’s backyard) plumb jelly. So we have a jar now to enjoy with toast in the morning. And that’s the news from the Days. Tom & Linda

Newsletter from the Days - July 2013

July 31, 2013

NEWS FROM THE DAYS – JULY 2013

We watched July 4th fireworks from the foothills by Linda’s old office building so we could see the whole valley. We spent July 24th going to our local city parade called Butlerville Days, coming home for a barbeque (with Stephanie and her 3 girls), and Steph and the girls put up their tent in our backyard and slept over that night. When it got dark, we watched the fireworks from our street (they were about 5 blocks away so we could see them perfectly).

I purchased a backyard Buddha from the place I shop at for birdseed (Backyard Birds). He’s the jolly Buddha, about one foot tall, made of cement, and resides in a group of aspen in the shady part of our yard. He isn’t far from the location of the cherry tree we had to chop down last month, and is supposed to bring good luck. So far, we’ve had a flat tire, a dentist checkup with no cavities, a virus in our desktop computer, a successful gambling trip to Wendover, some bad news about an investment, a chance to babysit each of our grandchildren age 10 and under, had our cat deliver a mouse to our bedroom at 4 AM one morning, have harvested some of our garden (sugar pea pods, raspberries, strawberries, green peppers, green onions, baby carrots, squash), successfully flushed the live mouse down the toilet after Linda trapped it under a shoe box, and were invited for a nice going away dinner at Joseph and Alisyn’s home (with Danny too). So the Buddha has brought us a little of everything.

I attended the annual Cabin Classic golf get-a-way with friends at Phil Hansen’s cabin above Oakley. We attended a couple of movies – The Croods (a great cartoon for kids and adults too), Monster University, and the Superman movie. As memory is slipping, we may have seen a few of these last month.

I bought a book months ago from the Little Professor’s bookstore in St. George called After Dark. I went there to a book signing for an 80 year old first time author from St. George. He told me he was a retired principal and school teacher, and decided to turn a 20 year old short story (Sci-Fi) into a novel. Anyway, I finished reading it finally, and enjoyed it quite a bit. I will now turn it over to Jessica, Stephanie’s 10 year old, as the author signed the book to both of us. I’m now reading The Help, and Linda is keeping busy organizing the house, her crocheting stuff, crocheting a blanket for one of the grandchildren, exercising her knee, watching grandkids, reading, organizing picture albums, working at her old job here and there (although she is now done except for agreeing to fill in for a vacation as needed), catching up on some soap operas, and just enjoying being home and free to do as she pleases for once in her life.

We enjoyed our two night get-a-way to Wendover, some great food, getting sun burned and drinking a blood mary at the pool, and winning back anything we lost just prior to leaving. A very good time with lots of relaxing. We are looking forward to a week in St. George at the end of August, and will stop at Cedar City to catch two or three plays at the Shakespeare Festival.

And that’s the news, the whole news, and nothing but the true news from the Days.
Tom & Linda

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