Day Family News for January 2014

Feb. 2, 2014

Day Newsletter for January 2014

A friend, Phil Hansen, turned 70, and his children hosted a big birthday bash for him. I took my keyboard and led the party goers in song, substituting the lyrics I wrote for him. Two musically inclined family members volunteered to help lead the singing, as it is hard for me to play the keyboards and sing at the same time. We enjoyed the party, despite the fact that we’re all getting close to 70 ourselves.

Linda and I saw a great movie about Disney, “Saving Mr. Banks”. We also attended a great play at the U of U, “A Few Good Men”. We had two extra tickets and Wiggins and Jackie joined us for a bite before, and then a very good play.

One weekend, Bill & Katie’s Jack and Sofie spent an overnighter with us while mom and dad went to Wendover with friends. It’s always a treat to have grandchildren sleep over. Later in the month, Stephanie asked us to do a sleepover at her house for three nights while she went to St. George for a work related conference. So we packed out bags, and enjoyed staying in Syracuse and watching Jessica (age 11), Sarah (age 7) and Taylor (age 5). With Linda being retired, it makes it possible to help out in situations like this. I just commuted to work from Syracuse, and Linda was available to take the kids to school and pick them up.

Jackie celebrated another birthday and invited everyone over to their home for dinner. They make great fixins for everyone, and we all enjoyed a great time.
Linda’s knee has been much better, although she has had a two week episode of vertigo off and on. She enjoyed doing the Macy thing during the holidays, but turned down their offer to continue working part time after.

Attended Cal Wardrop’s funeral yesterday – a nice tribute from his kids and family. It was held at the Wasatch Lawn, the same place we had Dad’s funeral at. There’s a cemetery by our home I go walking thru, and I’ve thought about purchasing lots in advance for the inevitable by this nice little stream area. Kind of like what D & A did – advance arrangements. It’s the money, though. And do you do side by side, or the double stack thing? Body whole, or ashes? Decisions, decisions.

Linda’s been doing crocheting, and making quilts. She’s found the old sewing machine doesn’t work as good as it should, it may need a tune-up. Our Tobi steamer quit working, and after I finally threw it in the garbage canisters outside, Linda suggested I google a replacement part. She is wise, as I found one on e-bay for $20, retrieved the good parts from the garbage, and the new part arrived - we have a new steamer for $20 instead of a couple of hundred on a new steamer.

Linda gave me her old Reader, an e-reader device, as she uses her Kindle now. After much agony and finally been saved by Stephanie, we learned how to load e-books on it, and I have entered the digital age in reading. As I finished all the books I received for my birthday a few months ago, I needed some new ones to read. I just finished e-reading The Invisible Man, a John Grisham novel (The Confession), and am now on “20 Thousand Leagues Under The Sea”. I am still having a tough time learning to hold the Reader comfortably, as it’s just not the same as a paperback or hardback book, but I’m learning and trying to adjust. Perhaps the hardest part is not using my Obama bookmark (I throw this in to irritate Karin) on a regular book, and punching a “button” for a bookmark digitally instead. A hint Karin gave me(about reading books) is writing a quick note about the characters as they come up in a book so you remember the context of who’s who the next time you pick up the book. I don’t find a place for digital notes on my e-reader, although I’m willing to bet more recent advances (perhaps Kindle) have such a feature. Perhaps Obama could sign an executive order to have the people who designed the ObamaCare website to work on this.

Speaking of politics, I was pleased that Utah is leading the way to have the gay rights marriage issue pushed to the Supreme Court so that it can be declared legal across the land. I was helping a customer who happened to be a federal judge from California at work last week, and when I asked him about this issue, his response was that “The minute people start marching publically over an issue, the debate is settled. It’s just a matter of time at that point”. The times, they are a changing, as the song goes.

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