9 August 2020

 It was a busy week of doing...something!

I finished scanning my letters to Sandy during my first WestPac tour in 1975; scanned over 600 pages of letters and cards. It was an amazing journey reliving those special and challenging times of separation. And I continue to marvel at what an amazing wife and mother she was (is).  I am now starting on her letters to me during the 6 month deployment of 1982. Here are three interesting comments from a couple of her first letters to me:

    

    5 September 1982. The previous Thursday I had departed for another six month deployment with my squadron. Due to a last minute change, Sandy and Andy were not able to see me off at the airport as planned. This is what Sandy said:  "I decided that as long as we had the sitter, Andy and I would go out to Swensons. Andy ended up eating a chocolate covered banana...then a strawberry sundae...and then a double scoup cone with cherry vanilla and peach ice cream. Andy ate with gusto! About half way through he suddenly said. 'Hey! I forgot all about Daddy leaving!'"

    "I think the children weren't terribly upset about your leaving because you always leave. After one week, I said one week down 25 more to go. Rebecca replied: 'It's no use counting, Mother!' Why not? 'It's just too long!'"

    Sandy attended a Women's Seminar in Sept 1982 at Church and had this to say: "I think of all these marvelous programs we have for women...and I just can't understand how some people can think that women in the church are somehow underprivileged!"

One of my ongoing goals is to sort through all the bookshelves, desks, dressers and the like to sort through 50 years of accumulation. This process would have been so much simpler with Sandy; but when you think you have years more to live, this isn't a top priority. And when she got sick, our focus was on keeping her alive and comfortable. I tackled her office desk this week. Found enough business cards to wallpaper an entire wall. I am improving in the ability to discard stuff; I am sure there are stories to much of what I throw out, but they don't speak to me. Hope my children appreciate this downsizing so their lives will be simpler when my time comes. I just might leave the garage for them though!

With the corn over 13 feet tall, it requires a ladder to pick the corn; I have been enjoying eating fresh corn on the cob regularly. A friend comes a couple times a week to reduce my tomato and cucumber inventory. I did get the lawn mowed. I find that early morning or late evening is the best time; less dust and it is cooler. This week the temperatures were almost pleasant; it got into the high 50s at night and the mid 80s during the day. It was great running in the mornings. But this weekend we are back into the 90s during the day.

One of Rebecca's tenants moved this weekend. After being there seven years there will be work for me to do. I stopped by yesterday to do a quick inventory; not too bad. Will require painting through out, the carpet in two of the three bedrooms and the living room has to go (do I sand the floors, or overlay with laminate?), and something will need to be done in the bathroom - not sure just what yet.

This week I drove out to Cotter to check on something at another rent house; on the way I noticed the truck's a/c wasn't cooling. Since I pass by my mechanic, I stopped by so they could trouble shoot. After an hour, they determined the cause was the dash control panel. So I returned the next day and they installed a new panel and now all is well. I also checked on the canoes housed across the street from the chapel. They had recently been used by a church member and on the way home, one of the canoes flew off the trailer. Fortunately no accidents or injury were caused by this incident. The canoe fared amazing well; you would never know it was airborne and crash landed at 45 mph. Steps have been taken to ensure this doesn't happen again, if the user uses both tie downs per canoe.

One last item gleaned from the 1975 letters. In December of that year while in the Philippines, I was designated a Helicopter Aircraft Commander (HAC). This is what I had to say about that responsibility:

    "As copilot you aren't responsible if anything happens, even in many cases if it was the copilots error. If you, as copilot, didn't understand a radio transmission you ask the HAC; if you aren't sure of something, you ask the HAC. As HAC, you don't have anyone to turn to." I think I often turned to Sandy, as the HAC for guidance and help... and now I am the HAC. Good thing I have a testimony that Jesus Christ is my Savior and know that He has all the answers. He has certainly been getting a lot of inquiries from me lately...and I have not crashed and burned!