Bootcamp Prep

This week was the last opportunity I had to get ready for my AWAI Bootcamp (Copywriting seminar) next week.  I really worked hard on trying to get all my projects finished up. I thought I was done with my Kenya water project website. Then some questions came up about duplicate material on the website.

I took a look at the website and they'd moved a bunch of stuff around. I said I'd take a look and make some corrections. Titi, the owner, said he'd do some work to. NOT! I was done. It was his "work" that had mucked up the whole thing.

So I wrote back and said if he wanted to continue to work on it, I was stepping out. It was of course, his website, but his way of thinking and my way of understanding didn't match and if he wanted to add his ideas to it, he'd have to do it on his own. Frankly, I was fine either way.

He came back saying no, I was the final word and they shouldn't have changed things around without involving me in the process. So I spent the time making corrections. Now, I hope it's done.

I also finished up some publicity for BotAlert, a technology that can discover bots in Twitter. Who knew that hundreds of thousands of users are really robot programs created to look like real people, influence their buying or voting decisions, and click on advertiser's  buttons to waste their advertising dollars. People think these bots tried to skew the Brexit vote-- and the surprise vote to leave the EU came because bots affected the polls.

I also finished some work on MealCheck, a technology that uses infrared spectrometry in a micro camera to "read" the food on your plate and give you the nutritional value and calories of what you are eating. A major US university is pioneering this one.

Monday I also attended a meeting with a focus group for the Calico Prison about fundraising to build a larger chapel for the expanded prison. It would need to be funded without state funds. A good meeting and I met some nice people. I will work on the website.

Tom worked at Deborah's Cotter house painting the kitchen back splash and fixing a few things. We thought the carpet could be cleaned... but apparently not. So Tom will take that out and put down vinyl planking in the bedroom(s). He also is on track to replace the second story deck on our Midway duplex and put in new stairs. This is a repair-as-you-go as opposed to new construction. And then new tenants moving into Rebecca's house want a cement slab in the garage instead of just dirt... so he'll try to get that done by the end of the month.

Nathan as been with us for about a week. We are getting adjusted to one another. He has been out job hunting and has helped around the house and mowed the pasture. He has also slept a lot and spent much time on the phone to his sweetie. However he seems amenable to doing things our way.  Good thing. We are old fogies and stuck in our ways.

I managed to get in some garden work, a haircut, and a massage. Massage felt really good. I need to do more research on companies that will be coming to bootcamp.

We've talked with most of the kids this week. Things seem to be going well with them. Adam's dental practise is flourishing with him making a goodly amount more each month than the previous owner... and collections are improving. Jonathan and Kristy are still in a holding pattern as they look for a place to rent. The demolition is mostly done so the construction should be able to get started after the remediation people spray the beams and other places to seal in the smoke smell. We are grateful for all our blessings.

Fire!

We had a lovely time at Chris and Jen's house. They have really very nice children and we enjoyed our time there.

Tom and I got up at 5am on Monday to get to the surgery center by 6am for his hand surgery at 7. Chris did a great job on his trigger finger. He decided the other hand didn't need surgery-- a cortisone shot would have a 50/50 chance of curing it. That was a good decision. I don't know what Tom would have done with two hands out of commission.

Monday after surgery we stopped at Walmart to get prescriptions filled.  Bummer. It was 8am and the pharmacy didn't open until 9.  So we went to Home Depot to see about getting some GFI protected outlets for Jen's house. We went back to Walmart and called Jen to see if she needed anything from there.  Could we get some Pokemon figurines for Peter's birthday cake?  Sure.

By the time we waited for the prescription and found the toys it was closer to 10 and Tom and his hand were tired.  I had protested because he wanted to walk around Temple Square... and I said, no, you're supposed to keep your hand up.  He asked... How is this different? Mmm...

But he did rest for a while, Then he got up and replaced two GFI's and jiggled some wires so their central vac started working again. Tuesday we left about 8am and drove to Salt Lake City.  We watched the new movies that were showing at the Legacy Theater.  We couldn't watch them there as they didn't open until 11.  But we got a private viewing at the North Visitor's Center. Then we visited the Church History Museum and ate lunch at the Joseph Smith Building and were on the road by noon.

We again spent the night in Cheyenne at the Warren AFB. Then next morning we got a text from Jonathan saying their house had been hit by lightening and everyone was safe.  The fire was contained mostly in the attic.  But of course smoke and water damaged most of the upstairs. We drove a long day on Wednesday so we could arrive at Jonathan's early Thursday.

They had remediation crews over and have power restored to the kitchen, bath and laundry room on the main floor.  And while we were there Thursday, the insurance man was assessing damage. Insurance will cover everything, it will just take time to fix the house. Most of the kids clothes were smoke damaged (Jonathan and Kristy's room downstairs was unscathed) So I took the girls shopping.  Red Cross had been by and given them debit cards for quite a bit-- about $900 for emergency relief.  No hotels are available right now as there's a big festival this weekend in town, but a neighbor had a basement apartment they are staying in.

What was a miracle was that while they heard the thunder and the power went out, they didn't know the house had been hit.  Jonathan went to stop the beeping of the battery back-up for the office computer, then decided to check on the boys since loud thunder often woke them up.

The were still asleep when he got up stairs and he was about to return below, when he saw smoke coming from the heat/AC vent in their bedroom.  Why?  What is this?  More smoke.  Hmm. Time to get people out.  So he started rousting kids.  When he got to Isabelle's room she said, "Dad, there are flames in my vent!"  Now it was urgent to get everyone out. Jonathan calledn 911 and people were going out the door when the smoke alarms went off and their home system started saying"Fire. Upstairs. Fire Upstairs!"

Jonathan said it took the volunteer fire department about 10 minutes to arrive and another 10 or so before they were all suited up and entering the house. Perhaps it just felt like forever. The blessing was that the fire was oxygen starved in the attic and so did not burn down the house.

Thursday evening we took the three youngest home with us for the long weekend. As we were driving out of town, I listened to voice mail and learned our neighbor Barb, who was going to the Applebutter Festival in Mt. Vernon, was stuck on the side of the road with a car break down. So we turned around and returned to Mt. Vernon. By the time we got there, she'd called a tow truck. So we followed her to the garage. We called Jonathan to see if he could take the van and load up her stuff and take it to her spot at the festival. Bless his heart, he did. He checked on her part way and then helped her take down and stow her stuff back into the car. Tom will drive up Monday to trailer car and Barb back home.

We enjoyed the three children over the long weekend. We went shopping with the young ones for some clothes. The kids played with stuff here. Nathan arrived Friday night. Deborah came with three kids on Sunday afternoon.  Nathan had gone out with the missionaries and since their dinner appointment canceled, he asked if they could come to dinner here.Why not? It was the end of Fast Sunday and I was making pizza since that's what Jonathan's kids wanted.

So we had a wild evening... and then I and an 8pm presidency meeting via phone. Tom went to take care of Barb's dogs, and the kids... who were supposed to be in bed were running wild. Deborah, bless her heart, put them to bed.  All is quiet now.

General Conference

This week we got ready for our trip. Tom spent Monday mowing yards.  We had joyfully finished the Roller Court house.  The Spring park house is still on hold, but we had agreed to mow it until it closed, so Tom went and mowed those houses and then our own.

The weather is finally breaking.  We appear to be done with the hot weather and are down in the 70’s and low 80’s.  And much lower humidity.  Our trip forecast cooler weather, too.

Tuesday we drove to Jonathan and Kristy’s house.  We barely got there in time for dinner.  We’d planned to leave earlier… but had to go back to the house for a few things we forgot to do, and then had a few errands to do on the way out of town.  We had a short, but pleasant visit with them and then left Wednesday.  We picked up Isabelle from seminary and took her to the high school on our way out of town.

We had two long days of driving with a stop in Cheyanne. Books on tape kept us entertained.We took a walk in the morning and came across this elk in the front yard of one of the houses.

 We arrive at Chris and Jen English’s house Thursday evening.

Friday we went to the Bountiful temple with a great view of the valley.

Then we went to Deseret Industries and a book store. In the evening  we went to a Kenya Nairobi Mission Reunion. It was fun to talk with people who had recently been in Kenya. We visited with the Horner’s who had been in Kisumu and with the Shakespeares who had been LDS Charities missionaries. The just released mission president —President Higgins—  gave a mission update. It was exciting to hear that Eldoret had expanded and could be a stake soon and that Nairobi had two stakes now.

When we were in Kenya, the mission president was responsible for 42 branches. Now there are stakes and districts and there are only 4 or 5 branches that are the mission president’s responsibility. Elder Sitati, the 70, was there with his wife, to listen to what was going on in his homeland. He shared his conversion story.

So it was a delightful evening catching up on people we knew in Kenya.

On Saturday we went to General Conference. We listened to General Conference in the Tabernacle the first session. The second session we were able to be in the Conference Center. We were way up in the back, but it was still really amazing to be in the presence of so many Latter-day Saints who love the Lord and are trying to follow him.

We loved the conference talks and the landscaping and flowers around temple square was lovely. On Sunday we stayed with our niece and her family and watched general conference at home.

To me the talks were about the power and value of prayer— prayers of gratitude and prayers to get us through hard times. That hard times are a part of mortality, but because of the plan of happiness, we can have joy even though we will go through difficulties. I thought there were a number of talks on how to strengthen ourselves even in hard times, on having joy, and on repentance and the joy that comes from repenting.

Maybe those were the messages I needed to hear.

Tomorrow at 6am Tom will go to Chris’s (Dr. English’s) surgery to have his trigger finger fixed.

I hope you have a great week!

Done!

The best news is that we are done with the renovation of the Roller Court house. Tom added up the 55 hours he spent on it. Plus the 25 hours or so spent cleaning it and the 10 hours or so that another person and I spent helping Tom.

We painted the cupboard and the handles, removed all the carpet and laid down vinyl planking and painted all the walls that were not wood. (There's wood wainscotting). Also had to mow the pasture of a front and back lawn and power wash the siding... and I'm sure there was more. It really looks quite nice and fresh and clean now.  The walls are actually a pale yellow.  And if we can get it off Tom's phone, we will show you a before picture.  Truly awful!

Other things. We had the missionaries to dinner on Monday.  Barb came over, too. Tuesday I got my hair cut. When I wasn't helping Tom I was working on a bunch of articles for my executive coach. I also finally got around to trying to update my website. And I listened to several training calls.

Saturday Tom ran in the Bridge Bash at Cotter springs and bridge. They ran along the river and he had one of his best times. He also calculated he was probably the oldest runner. That's my man!

We went back in the 90 degree heat and spent an hour packaging food for the food insecure. We were under a large tent at 5-man stations. One handled the bags and the funnel. The rest of us poured scoops of dehydrated ingredients into the funnel/bag. Then runners took bins of filled bags to be weighed, sealed, and boxed. We averaged about 6 bags a minute and totalled the entire group packaged 27,000 bags in the hour we worked. It was pretty amazing! There were three or four shifts that day, so they got a lot done.

Saturday evening was the Women's session of General Conference. It was really good to go and listen to inspired speakers. I especially loved President Uchdorf's talk on faith. He said, no matter how much faith you have there are two things we can't do.

          1. We can’t violate another’s agency. God will not force anyone to choose the path of righteousness. He will reach out in love and invite, but he will not compel. So when we pray for a wayward child or friend or pray for someone to change… we have to allow them their agency to not change.

            2. We can’t force our will on God. We can’t force God to do what we want. Faith is not to change God’s will, but to empower us to do his will Paul prayed for relief from the thorn in his side and came to understand it was a blessing. Faith is trust that God knows us and loves us more than we do. He can see what we cannot.

When we trust in God’s wisdom and his perfect love, then we can believe that everything he gives and withholds are for our eternal blessing. In time, all will be made right. We will be not just content, but overwhelmed by his love, grace and mercy.

Today I was in Primary most of the second and third hour. They asked former missionaries to come in and share a missionary story. It was fun to hear the stories of others. Then after church there was a baptism of a man who had been out of the church for 38 years and came back. Pretty special.

House Week

This was the week that we focused on houses. As per Cynthia’s suggestion, we asked the realtor to check that we had clear title to the house we planned to buy. You see the widow of the deceased of the house had been entitled to live there as long as she paid insurance, utilities, and kept it up. She didn’t do that, and moved out. But could she come back and claim it again?

We didn’t want that headache. The realtor said, “They weren’t married.” We said, “Yeah, they were. Tom married them!” So we are on hold a bit on that house. Tom had removed the carpet. I took out the tack strips and staples. But we decided not to do much more until we knew the title status.

Also, we had a tenant move out of one of our rentals… unexpectedly. Fortunately he took the dogs. Unfortunately the dogs left a mess behind on all the carpets. And the tenant left a general mess as well. We hired a housecleaner. It only took her 25 hours to get it clean. And she didn’t need to do the rugs. Well, she had to get all the stuff off the rugs. Then Tom took them out of the house. The house will need interior paint, cupboards painted, and flooring. Tom also power washed the siding.

We decided to do vinyl planking since it’s a cement slab. We checked a variety of places for cost and availability. We finally found some at Lumber liquidators… if we were willing to drive to Springdale and pick it up.

Friday morning we closed on a line of credit— to buy the Spring Park house and fix it up. Then we took the truck and headed to Springdale… about 2.5 hours away. We got the vinyl planking(for the rental house0. Actually we found a lighter color we liked better. Then we went up to the Restore (Habitat for Humanities used home items store)

On the way it started POURING! Rain swept from the west… then moments later it slanted sideways from the east. Gutters overflowed. We were in the right lane and at times the water from the gutter splashed on our windshield so much we couldn’t see at all. It was a long few miles to the Restore.

We had hoped to find some tile. Instead we found fan blades for a ceiling fan. We got a pedestal sink— very nice! (for the Spring Park house) And we found a nice wooden dresser that we’d been scouting for the past 6 months or more. So it seemed like a good haul. Tom was able to back the truck in to load the things. And the Restore people were really nice about wrapping the dresser in plastic wrap.

We stopped at Deborah’s for a few moments to wish Sarah a happy 11^th birthday. Then drove home and got in about 9pm.

Other things accomplished. We went to Family Home Evening Empty Nesters Monday night for some tasty dinner and fun games. I finished the Kenyan water project website and was glad to be done with that! I worked on another of the tech start-up websites and some publicity for them.

Nathan has been struggling with depression. We will be coming back from BYU and come and stay with us after our General Conference trip. He hopes to work and go to school here while he does counseling and sees a psychologist. We hope our nagging… er… encouragement will help him achieve the goals that will lead to his success.

Home again, home again jiggity jig

I had a great time at Mom’s. I was sorry to leave, but happy to get back to my sweetie and my home… even though it took some time.

Monday I tried to wrap up things and pack. Cynthia and I went out to lunch at a nice outdoor place at a golf course. The food was nice, it wasn’t crowded, so we could sit and visit. I have a great sister!

That evening we went to Shakespeare in the Patio. The Old Pro group put on select scenes from a number of plays and threw in a few sonnets as well. Laguna Woods is a fairly popular retirement option for people from Hollywood, so these were seasoned performers. It was delightful to have them wander around the patio while we ate a light supper of salads and a sub sandwich from one of Mom’s favorite haunts.

Tuesday Cynthia and Jim drove me to the airport. I had a flight to Phoenix, then on to Tulsa. We got on the Phoenix flight and it started away from the gate. Then pivoted and returned to the gate. Something smelled hot. So we offloaded and went to another gate. Soon a plane was there and we boarded. But before we left the gate… they had some problems with an igniter. That needed to be switched out. Good thing I put an extra book in my carry-on. I was able to finish one and start another.

We were not more than 3 hours late getting to Tulsa. I’ve been working with a new technology called Predictive Aviation Analytics. It uses the data from the sensor on the plane and the black box to predict potential part failures before they fail. So it’s likely that with this technology, the data would have detected an anomaly a flight or two before it manifested itself to the pilots. I heard that each minute of delay costs the airline $10,000. So this was one pricy delay. And they sent a $100 voucher to me, which was nice. Also offered free alcoholic drinks on the flight… which didn’t do anything for me.

Miranda picked me up and I spent the night at her house. After Camden left for school, we drove to Jonathan and Kristy’s where Tom met us. They gave us a great lunch and then we headed home. It was so nice to get to see so many kids and grandkids… even if for a short time.

I guess that compensates for taking nearly two full days to get home.

Thursday and Friday I did some writing work. I also looked at paint and flooring for the house we are buying. Thanks to Cynthia, I checked again on the Life Tenancy of the widow. Apparently that may not have been totally, legally resolved. And I don’t want it just “over-insured” by the title company. When we go to sell it, the buyer may not accept that. I’d just as soon the current owner pay for the quiet claim now instead of us paying for it later on. So it may delay the closing.

I also spent time preparing for my Saturday training. This was the stake Relief Society leadership training. I’d written a short skit and had to gather materials for that. And I made chicken salad for 30 people. And I organized the lesson—really a discussion—so that was not too hard.

The training went well, I think. My counselor and secretary were a big help. One of my counselors is in Nevada for 4 months… so that made things just a bit tougher. (Otherwise, I would have pawned the food off on her!)

Tom went to the training, too. That was nice. We got to talk on the hour drive up and back. Then we had a short break and we went to the Ward pot luck dinner and talent show. It was long on good food… and short on talent show. So all in all, a good evening.

Today our choir sang in Sacrament meeting. We sang “Come Thou Font of Every Blessing.” It’s a beautiful hymn. It was a delight to hear from two younger people coming back into activity and to see a newly baptized young man pass the sacrament. Another friend reported successful breast cancer surgery, and another shared how the “Rock Solid” program is helping her Parkinson’s disease. Good things. Sad things—some people missing that I hoped would be at church.

We had a good lesson on families. One comment was about how the Lord trusts sacred things to the young and inexperienced. Sacrament is the most important part of the meeting… and 12-18 year olds are in charge of it. Missionary work is essential… and mostly it’s inexperienced18 and 19 year olds sharing the message. And babies are children of God… and he sends them to young, inexperienced parents.

Part of the message was that of course we will make mistakes, goof up, and be imperfect. It’s okay. It’s part of God’s plan. Good to remember.

I LOVE my family

This is the last week I will be with my mom... but I have the best mom ever!  It's so fun to be with her and she's doing so much better.  I really admire her.  She wants to be strong and independent.  So she's going to physical therapy and doing her exercises at home.  Her physical therapist says she's really strong for her age and when tested, was in the low fall risk area.

That said... she still didn't want Mom wandering around without her walker.  Mom takes her walker most places.  But around the house sometimes she'll leave it on one spot and move to the kitchen or office.  But she can move faster with the walker... and it carries lots of stuff... and she can sit on it when she gets tired.  So really, it's just a good tool for her to use.

Monday we ran errands and mom had physical therapy.  Tuesday I went to the temple and did two sessions. it was a delight to be in the temple.  The first session was filled to maximum capacity and I was not sure if I would be able to make it to the next session.  But I did.

Then I braved the freeways with only a map... not a GPS... and found Lumber Liquidators in Santa Ana.  The manager there was very helpful and informative and I was able to get some samples. Now to see if they work in the house we are buying.

I agreed to help a Kenyan charity with their website.  It looked like a simple rewrite... alas, looks were deceiving.  These last two weeks has been an onslaught of emails as I questioned them about their system, their goals and objectives, who they wanted to attract and why they were so focused on publicity with no focus at all on donations.  They wanted Initiate!RaHaSolutions to become a household name like Google or Uber.  I mentioned that Google and Uber were two syllable words and easy to remember.

And they kept explaining their model that : Z did Initiate!RahaSolutions for X-- the headline that would appear in the advertisement would let people know about their projects.   Z, of course is the advertiser and X is the community... not to mention Y being the person who originally initiated the project for the community...  And I'm asking: how are they to know this is a rainwater harvesting system?  What leads people to understand you're offering life-giving water? Where is funding coming from?

In writing RaHa's web pages, I went through some of my Kenya photos to see if any could be used on their site.  This one was very appealing.

 These are the tanks that hold the harvested rainwater and the taps for village use.

Just at the point I think we are beginning to see eye-to-eye and understand each other... some email comes along and I'm suddenly not sure again.  I think I'm down to working for about $.25/hour now.  I've got to do better on my pricing.

Wednesday Mom and I went to see The King and I.  This was the original Rogers & Hammerstein's version from 50 years ago.  I see why the British took over the world.  They were just so SURE they were right and the world should be organized into the patter they thought was best. I think it was that conviction! that just mowed over everything else.  And many times, I suppose they were right.

It was a fun movie.  We went out afterward to shop and then had a quick dinner.

Thursday we had a pretty full day of appointments and shopping. A lab test in the morning and vegetable shopping at Jordan's Market.  Then PT in the afternoon with a stop at Trader Joe's and Lenscrafters.  That evening, we invited dinner Cynthia and Jim over to dinner.  They had been away at San Clemente for the first part of the week.

Friday and Saturday I got a fair bit of work done.  Tom also called to say that the owner of the house had given us permission to renovate before closing.  So we have the keys to the house and can get the power into our names. Tom has been doing the lion's share of the work-- cleaning up the outside and coordinating things with bank and realtor.

We won't invest a lot of $$ before closing, but we can remove the carpet or paint or clean.  Then the bank said we could close by the 9th... but the realtor said it would take longer for them to do the paperwork.  So it looks like we will close on the 15th instead of the 30th. That will make the owner happy.  And that means we will have a lot of work to do shortly.

Today I went to the Aliso Creek Ward building.  I sat next to a friendly person and the discussions in Sunday school and Relief Society were very good.  The weather has cooled down to balmy breezes.  It's a lovely day!