Time to Retire

No, this blog entry is not about my upcoming retirement (that is way too distant in the future to write about). My dad will recognize this picture instantly, he used to work here. My dad has always been a hard worker. When he was younger, his aunt got him a job at Interstate Motor Lines where dad worked as a dispatcher or a clerk ( I really should ask him what he did) for a lot of years. Even after Dad started working at the post office, he kept working at the freight lines.

For much of that time, our family only had one car and that meant that when it was time for dad to come at 10:00 or 11:00 at night, my mom had to bundle all the sleeping, or half asleep kids into the car to go get Daddy. Most of the time I waited in the car for my dad, but a few times I got to go into my dad's world of work. I remember big burly guys and husky voiced women and the smell of cigarette smoke. I remember thinking "Why does a trucking company need to have all these file cabinets and paper?" I suppose I expected to find the place strewn with diesel engine parts. I always thought my dad seemed a little out of place here, but he probably fit right in. It was a totally different place for my dad to be seen.

Ironically, IML is being torn down to make way for a new Auxiliary Service Facility for the U.S. Postal Service. My dad left IML for the post office and now it seems the old building is going to follow him. I am thankful that my hard working dad taught me how to work. As I look at the lives of my children, I see that ethic has passed from me to them. My life has been blessed because of the lessons I learned from watching my dad. I am sure that he didn't realize he was even teaching me a lesson at all. He was just doing what he needed to do to support his family. He certainly didn't realize that his work would bless the lives of his grandchildren and great-grandchildren.I have learned that in life, there is almost always a payback. It may not come right away, in fact, it almost never does, but when it does come we should rejoice in the moment.

Welcome Tessa Phillips

This hospital room was the scene for much excitement as we got to see our newest little addition to the Phillips family. Tessa Phillips was born on July 5th and arrived healthy, strong and alert. She weighed in at almost nine pounds and seems almost grown-up.

 Just hours after being born she was wide awake and watching each one of us as we took turns holding her. Isabel is going to be a big help in caring for this little one.

 I know it seems impossible, but I am sure she is going to have blue eyes like her grandpa. She even tried to talk to me as I held her. I wonder what kind of stories she could tell us.

 Grandmother and baby shared a few moments together of priceless happiness. We tried to figure out how many grandkids we really have now, but it gets too complicated because of all of those we have "adopted" into our family and consider a part of our family.

Mel is a happy Mom. She is happy to have this pregnancy over - happy to have her little Tessa here - and happy that she is so healthy and beautiful. Every time I see this miracle of the birth of a baby, I wonder how anyone could not know that God is in charge and has a plan for each of us. This little one ifs immensely blessed. She will grow up in a loving family surrounded by extended family that will be there to help her. And we will all be enriched by the beauty and joy she brings to our lives.

Going to Zarahemla

 Where is your seat belt young man!and the owners manual says not to sit so close to the air bag - especially if you are a small person? Ryan tried to drive the car, but I stopped him just in time. We would never have made it to our Zarahemla outing with the kids and grandkids if he had been driving. We had the whole lodge to ourselves this week .

 There was everything from a rope swing over the creek to handcarts to pull on the trail to keep the kids excited and happy. We had games in the lodge at night around a roaring fire as well as meals cooked in the commercial kitchen. I was even able to cook four or five omelets at a time. That was a time saver when you are feeding a small army.

The kids were able to play with each other, eat with each other, sleep with each other, and get on each other's nerves (not so much) all in our own little play room. Whoa! this was sooo much easier than camping. I realized that maybe it wasn't so much the camping that I like as much that I love being with my family. The kids will have to stop me when I get up like Grandpa Blaine used to do at this kind of gathering and say "I started all of this!" I appreciate now how he felt. Janene and I are so blessed to be part of this wonderful family. Our kids and grandkids bring us so much joy, even those who could not join us this week because of other commitments.

We did so many fun things - here is the list - found a porcupine, saw a beaver, watched (big) fish in the creek, chased the girls into the girls bathroom, cooked a Dutch oven dinner, played ping pong, played the piano, had a birthday party for Elsie, went on hikes, scared a horse (that was Mikey), built a hut, built a blanket fort, bounced quarters on our elbows, flipped whipped cream into our mouths (well, sometimes in our mouths, the rest of the times about everywhere else), picked up old bones, watched the stars at night, played charades, played Minute to Win It, played Settlers of Catan until all hours of the night, pulled handcarts, swung on a rope swing over the creek, threw rocks in the creek, floated boats in the creek, watched Great Blue Herons fly over us, watched a neighbor girl ride her horse along the creek, and at least for a few of us, we got to take a nap.What a great time!  We were definitely not in the awful dilemma that our brethren were in at Zarahemla. (see Alma 7-3)

And so it all begins anew...

So there you have it. Spring has come early this year. This is the earliest we have ever been able to plant our garden. There are still a few snowbanks, but the soil is warm and ready for planting. We know this is Utah, so only the hardiest of plants can go in the ground this early, but that means a lot of things can be planted. It is just in time, too. We just either used up or threw out the last of the winter squash and pulled up the last of the carrots. From now until the rhubarb is ready to pick, we will have to live on store-bought produce. Spring has sprung!

Super-Laura-Rabulistic-Milonga-Lupercalia

A late night visit to the high school auditorium this week found Laura competing in the county-wide spelling bee. Janene had been there all night when there had been forty six contestants. By the time I got there, the pack was narrowed down to about ten, and the administrators had gone "off list", meaning that they were giving the kids words that they had not studied and that nobody except my mother had ever heard or used. As each child was disqualified, their family packed up their belongings and left the hall. I had walked into an auditorium with only a scattering of occupants, Janene and Angie sitting on the floor in the rear watching the rest of Laura's siblings.

We were all excited as Laura made it to the final round with only two contestants. They each had to spell two words correctly with no errors to be able to crowned the victor. My heart sank as she misspelled "milonga" (a dance related to the tango). It didn't help that the pronouncer flubbed the pronunciation. The young man who was competing against her also missed his word, so the race was on again. Laura clinched the competition with the word "Lupercalia", a word she recognized by it's Greek origin. In the  end, it was hard to recognize it as a competition with only three or four families interspersed in a room that holds two thousand.

 Laura will tell you she didn't study for this, but her voracious reading habits and understanding of three languages  most likely prepared her well for the experience. She walked away with another scholarship ($3000.00) and a gift basket filled with $400 in gift certificates and tickets. Sam said "Wow, she won't even have to pay for college" as he added up the previous scholarship in his mind. It won't be too long and Sam (he who read all of Harry Potter when he was five or six) will be filling her shoes.

Just Lion Around!

It is amazing to me how a two-year old can do the same thing for hours and never tire. Tyler brought me this lion's head costume and put it on my head. "You're a lion, Gwampa - You should growl". We spent the next half an hour (at least) with him putting the lion head on me and then expecting to be growled at and eaten. He laughed hysterically, even though he had just gotten through doing the same thing. By the time he went home, I was one tired (and hoarse) lion.

Plumbing Parts - To the Rescue!

Remember my broken shift lever on my truck? With a little bit of glue and a small piece of 1-1/4" drain pipe, I was able to fix it. A little bit of chrome to accessorize my vehicle. Pretty Cool!

Postdeluvian Carnage

I realized with the last blog that I mentioned The Flood, but never wrote about it in our blog. It all started with a Sunday night noise in the garage. The compressor was running for no apparent reason. It was about dinner time when I went out to check why. I opened the door to the compressor room, couldn't see a reason why, and shut off the breaker. I would check it out the next day after work. Later that same night, Janene saw a mouse in the garage, so she opened the door to let it out. Then we went to bed.

I was awakened at about 3:30 AM to the sound of "KaTink"! It sounded for all the world like someone was smacking a metal pipe. No worries- the house always makes sounds. At 4:00 AM, heard another "KaTink"! This time I thought for sure it was a pipe so I got up. There was no water upstairs in the sinks or toilets. I knew that meant we had some frozen pipes, so I went downstairs to investigate. The garage was freezing cold, the door was open,the door to the compressor room was open too, and I could tell the pipe shaft to upstairs was a lot colder than it should be. I grabbed an electric heater and put it in the garage(after closing the door) thinking that if things got warmer the pipes would thaw. Now, to get back to bed. ZZZZ!

 Janene dreamed that she had done something wrong with a computer and was now in trouble with the police. She was trying to find a lawyer before I found out about the terrible thing she had done, and that woke her up. She went downstairs and discovered water spraying out of the wall, with a flap of sheetrock
modulating the spray just like a rainbird and it was "watering" our living room garden! Furniture and all.

 We went downstairs and discovered that it was raining in the basement and a lake had formed downstairs.

 We found two more places where pipes had burst and had to cut two more holes in the wall to get to them. One hole was right behind our lawn sprinkler timer, so that was all messed up.

 Our food storage room was full of water, but luckily, most of the important stuff was up off the floor.

 In our storage room where all the kid's stuff is stored, we had water everywhere. Again, luckily the worst of the damage was to the 7 tons of National Geographics we have stored in the basement. Most everything else was up off the floor.

 The furnace did not fare so well. The furnace was full of water pouring into it from the ductwork upstairs. We could hear electrical buzzing and arcing sounds coming from the furnace. I had to think twice about stepping into the water in my bare feet to get to the shutoff valve. In the end, a lot of the furnace controls needed to be replaced before we could get the heat back on. That meant propane heaters, electric space heaters and a full fire in the fireplace on a red burn day. We had to call disaster cleanup and HVAC guys to help us out. We also had to call in Brother Tolman to fix the plumbing and Larry to fix the electrical.

The culprits ended up being the three "KaTink" pipes that burst in the night and then sprayed water once they  thawed out. Even with all this damage, it was not near so bad as the trouble Janene had dreamed herself into - and that made it easier for her to bear. So the moral of the story is never leave the door to the compressor open  and don't be afraid to let a mouse share in the warmth of our happy (and heated) home.

Super Bowl Free-for-All - with good food!

With our home still torn apart from the flood and with furniture pushed out of the living room, we were not so sure that a houseful of grandchildren was going to be a really good idea. As it turned out, Super Bowl Sunday was a great night to have a lot of the kids over. We couldn't get the Super Bowl on the TV so we spent time with kids and grandkids instead. We had a paper airplane air war with some of the pilots launching their craft from the loft and others climbing the stairs and the furniture to retrieve theirs. Joseph commented that he liked what we had done with the room - it seemed so much more open. The little ones took advantage of the open space by learning to do flips and somersaults. There was even a fair amount of jogging going on.

I think if it wasn't for the flood, we would never have allowed the kids to have such a good time. There is something about coming downstairs to seeing a "rainbird" targeting all your living room furniture, hardwood and carpet that makes a few thirty pound kids walking on your living room couch seem not so bad. We had a good time; they had a good time; and, as Janene said after the kids went home, - somehow this home that is filled with love seems to recover just fine.

Venturing Above the Smog

 Finally, we got a break from the smog and bitter cold this year. As we look out over the valley, we can see that, for the most part, we are above the thick brown layer the government warns us is"unhealthy". Janene and I took off again and went snowshoeing. This time we went a little farther. At the start, the sky was pretty impressive with the criss-cross contrails.

 Later when we got to the Salt Lake side of the trail, it was hard to even be able to see what was under that thick layer of guck. I wonder if this is what Brigham Young saw when he looked over the valley?

 When we looked toward home, it was amazing to see the terraces cut by the CCC corps in the 1930's. When you think of how big an area they terraced, and that it was all done by hand with picks and shovels, it really makes you stop and think what a big effort this was. No one in their right mind would even think of sending people out to do this by hand now. They would hire a contractor with some heavy equipment and a few people would be employed - not thousands. That is probably why big public works projects wouldn't really affect the unemployment rate nowadays.

I still find it amazing that we can do this so close to home and be up in the mountaintops like this. We were out for a long time before we even saw another person. We live in a pretty good place.

Ford - Fix or Repair Daily

 So, my truck has a shift lever like every other vehicle with an automatic transmission. You are supposed to use it to shift into gear and (especially) into Park. Mine even has a nifty little switch to put the transmission into overdrive that's pretty cool.

But what are you supposed to do when the thing breaks off in your hand when you shift (with your crippled arm, even)? I got on line and found out that people think you need to replace the entire shift lever - which requires removing the steering wheel and column. I couldn't believe that, so I went to the Ford dealer. They said this happens all the time and yes, you do have to replace the entire shift lever. Oh, and by the way, "we don't stock that item- you have to special order it". Here is my question. If this happens all the time, why don't you have one in stock? All of this comes after I just had to spend over $100.00 to replace a defective battery that was under warranty.  Maybe I will just start walking to work. I think I could have gotten there faster walking after the slow commute today anyway. Arggh!

Papa's Ghost Towns

Papa's Ghost Towns

By Heather Phillips Kearl

It's fitting that Papa should be like them so

He brings us here searching, year after year

With their yawning doorways and supporting beams,

the old houses preserve a peaceful silence

like a dream of smoothly ebbing streams

or dark shadows, moving forward

 The silence fills each room, so compressed

its dark wispy shapes pool on the peeling paper

 I am lost, but complete as the silence swallows me

surrounding me in its flurry of memories

The house knows all; it's always alert,

full of treasures, knowledge and respect

when on first glance it seemed so bare

 He spends every day, constructing new homes,

showy and grand, then hands them,

like a newborn child, to parents longing for such.

 Yet,

just now, as I stand amidst the broken glass,

splintered wood, and peaceful completion,

I understand why he's so much at home

Poem by my daughter

Photographs by Janene

Sometimes it seems that it takes a daughter's insight to be able to understand who I am.

Still Keeping a Promise

Remember last March? I wrote about keeping a promise to keep my office organized. Here it is a year later and this is my report . My office still looks fairly organized - I have a bunch more drawings in the plan files, but otherwise it looks pretty good. After a year, I can report that it has become a habit. There are a few days of uncontrolled chaos, but it is almost always cleaned up on Wednesdays and Fridays when the cleaning crew comes in.

The Joy of Being "BWAMPA"

There are just a few blessings that come from getting old. One of them is the joy of having grandkids. I remember how fascinated I was with my grandfathers, both of whom were pretty famous in my way of thinking. My Grandpa Morton could be seen on Saturday afternoons on a TV show called "Bold Journey" where he narrated some of his adventure movies. My Grandpa Phillips could be seen in the Salt Lake Tribune walking his dog around the block - on his unicycle, no less. We could also take the kids to the circus to see him and the rest of the Shriner Clowns entertaining the crowds between acts.

I will have to share some of those experiences later, but I love the voice messages I get from my grandkids. They cover everything from potty training to first encounters with the Tooth Fairy. Lately, some of my grandsons have taken an interest in rocks and minerals. We have retrieved boxes and boxes of rocks Janene and I have collected in our travels, but mostly during the time when we both studied Geology at the U and during the summer science classes that first brought us together. Bit by bit our rock collection is leaving our house and going down two generations to these little boys.

It is funny to think of myself as "BWAMPA". I still think of myself as the little fascinated grandson.

What to do? What to Say?

Well, Christmas presented (no pun intended) me with a dilemma. My sister gave me a nice wooden candle holder with a votive candle inside. I really liked the thing, especially the wording on the front, but I have sworn off real candles in the home after our almost catastrophic melt down a few years ago. (see A Cautionary Holiday Tale) I didn't want to disappoint my sister and just haul it off to DI. I didn't want to re-gift it either, since that would just possibly burn down someone else's home. So after a little thought, I found the perfect place for it on my drafting desk at work. It now holds all my stuff for marking plans and doing takeoffs. I can see it everyday and remember the thoughtfulness of a beloved sister.

Sorry, Sis. I did have to send the votive candle to the landfill.