Our Social Week

This seemed to be our week to be socially engaged. On Monday we sponsored the Empty Nesters Family Home Evening (FHE). We’d grown too large to hold it in a house… at least not our house. And we have a sister in a wheel chair, so the steps are a problem.

We got permission from the Stake President to hold the FHE at church. So Tom went over early to set up. We collected table cloths, napkins and paper plates. And set up more comfortable chairs. We had a nice turn out and a fairly well balanced pot-luck. We asked each person to tell about one lesson they’d learned from a General Conference talk, and I think that went well, too.

Tuesday Tom went down to the Calico Prison to talk to an inmate. We get regular letters now from some of them. Our first contact, John, is now out on parole and doing very well. Occasionally he’ll call and let us know how he’s doing. It’s got to be tough getting out of prison and trying to re-enter the real world. If you’re a sex offender or robber… who will trust you?

Some of the people in prison just bide their time and don’t learn and change. But some use the time to improve their lives and change their ways. Of course the proof is: Can they stick with the changes when they get out? Most of them don’t want to go back to the environment that got them in trouble in the first place.

Tuesday was Election Day. We’d voted early. It was nice. Then we could stop listening to the news! I find it interesting that the polls could be so wrong. Are they biased? Do they intend to influence opinion rather than just report it? In any case, Donald Trump will be our new president. I heard his transition team had someone black, someone gay and a woman. So I hope that he will be more inclusive than his campaign rhetoric seemed to indicate.

With the unhappiness about the Electoral College vote vs. the popular vote, it’s interesting to remember that Mitt Romney won the popular vote last time. But I still favor the Electoral College. It gives the mid-section of the country a little more control over the outcome. I remember when California changed the way it elected its representatives and suddenly northern California had no voice. I really don’t want to be ruled by California and New York.

Wednesday I worked on a website and finally submitted some samples to clients I’d met at bootcamp. Tom has finished up work at the duplex and at Deborah’s house. He worked some on preparing the garage at Rebecca’s house to receive a cement floor. That will happen next week.

Thursday our Elder missionaries left and for the first time in years we got Sister Missionaries in. We are delighted… but we’re not quite sure what to do with them. We need to figure out a way to get sisters to go out with them. What are the rules when they teach a single man? It will be a learning experience. We had them over for dinner on Thursday before Tom left to go home teaching. They had not even been to their apartment. We were a little concerned that the elders might have left them with no food, so we gave them some supplies. But the elders were good and they had enough to eat until preparation day on Monday.

I don’t know what I did on Friday. Writing, I assume. I’ve been wanting to get out into the garden, but have not. Now it’s finally getting cold. They predicted a cold snap and a freeze Saturday night, so I picked all the green cherry tomatoes… then it didn’t freeze.

We also had all these hot pepper plants loaded with peppers that we had no use for. I don’t know why we planted one… let alone six of them! But I had an idea. I tossed some peppers into the chicken cage and the next day they were gone. So Saturday I pulled up a jalapeno plant by the roots and tossed the whole thing into the chicken coop— tomato cage around it and all. The chickens had a grand time eating the leaves and a good percentage of the peppers. I wonder what their eggs will taste like! Since it didn’t frost, I’ll try tossing in one every other day or so and at least something will enjoy this part of the harvest.

Saturday Tom other youth leaders and the youth went out to do a morning of service. They raked leaves, cleaned gutters, moved dog houses and I’m not sure what else. They seemed to have a good time.

I went to the funeral of my hair dresser’s husband at 10am. I didn’t know him, but she is a sweetheart and he’s been ailing for a number of years. At 2pm Tom went to a funeral of a church member in West Plains. He’d been the trail boss (on horseback) for our pioneer trek two summers ago. Just a great man! Died of a massive heart attack with his boots on. A shock, but probably as he’d want to go out. It makes you stop and think what kind of legacy are we leaving behind? What will people say about us at our funerals?

Saturday evening we invited a young couple over for dinner. Tom wanted to meet with them and interview them and connecting with them had been hard. But food? Ah, that gets results. So we enjoyed dinner and then I went to my office to try to figure out how to connect my computer with our new printer, and Tom did his Bishop thing.

 In mid-summer Tom and I had changed life insurance policies. We actually started in April… but things work slowly and it was June or July before we finally got them in place and paid the annual premium. I was surprised then to get another bill for a hefty chunk of change for the renewal in November. What? Must be a mistake. After going back and forth with the insurance company and my agent… it turns out it was a mistake in that because they listed my age as 65, the policy was back dated. Since I signed the document… of course I read it all… I accepted responsibility. And it was past the 90 days to make changes. The insurance company should have let us know it was back-dated… but they didn’t. The agent should have caught the mistake… but she didn’t. And I didn’t. And the bottom line was that the agent could not in any way make up the difference from her share of the policy premium— it’s illegal. The only upside is that my policy will now have considerably more cash value at a faster rate than it would have. But we had to scrounge for the premium. Blah!

Nathan now is working at both Papa Johns and at TJ Max. He’s not getting a lot of hours from either of them, so he is still job hunting. He’s doing some studying and a lot of talking with Madalyn. I guess Madalyn’s parents are now aware that they want to get married this summer… and haven’t totally freaked out about it.

As a side note- Gray kitty aka Zane, has become more friendly.  He wants to be petted on his terms, but that's getting more frequent.  You can actually go up to him and pet him most of the time.  Good thing. He'd due to be neutered on Wednesday.  I wonder if he'll let us get close to him after that.

And I guess that’s about all the news from here.