One More Thing about Keira

Keira found this cut down tree in the woodpile and decided on her own it belonged in the garden, not the woodpile.  Very good logic I would say.

Footprints and Handprints at Lake Almanor

Keira added her footprints to the Grandchildren foot and handprints.  The stones are all from Montana.

I tried to reconstruct Melissa's but it is too far gone, I saved some cement and a pizza box for her to do another.

The others still look quite solid.

 

 

 

Farewell to Meagan and Keira

 

Since there was 24 hour road construction on 32  we drove west on 36 to Red Bluffs and then on 5 to the airport, it worked well.  I came back on 70 and 147 and it took me longer and it was much too zig zaggy for me anymore.  Keira would not have liked it as she did not like riding in the "jungle" down 32!!

Great trip, so glad they came to visit me.

Lake Almanor Mud and Swim

Sadie loves the mud.

And so does Keira.

What is as fun as playing in good old mud? 

 

 

A nice rest after a hard swim.  As one man said as we passed on the Rec 1 Road, "Another stressful day at Lake Almanor."

Loved having Meagan and Keira visit!!!

On the last day Keira takes command and swims around the lake.  "Look, Mom, no vest!"

 

"Love my swim."

Supposed to storm at 2:30--drats, just another lovely day at Lake Almanor.  That is Meagan and Keira on the right.

Meagan and Keira Visit

As Melissa and Meagan load the luggage, Keira says Hi to me.  They arrived at the Sacramento airport at 1 pm Saturday, the 20th.  I had stopped in Chico to pick up Melissa to help drive.

Since then I have not taken enough pictures, here is Keira as the two big happenings at my house pose together, Keira visiting and the yellow lillies all abloom at once.

 

Alan and Elaine Hardy Visit

Richard's nephew Alan and his wife Elaine are taking the scenic route on a trip to Oregon and so stopped by my home for a night.  It was such a delightful visit with them.  They live in Boulder City and have another big home in Gunlock, where they have a huge garden and can and bottle foods and juices.  We stayed there once and what a wonderful place to gather family.

Elaine brought a jar of pomegranate jelly she had made and I finally had to get up in the middle of last night so I could have a toaster waffle and spread it with the jelly.  It was as delicious as I thought it would be.

One thing interesting is that Alan wanted a couple of head shots I had in Richard's Memory Book of Warren Hardy and Caroline Blake and I said I had just scanned them from another book.  I then asked him if he was into Family History and he said he was.  I suggested he come and look at the Family History books I had from his Grandma Vida and if he wanted any he could have them.  He had as much right to them as my children did.  He was so happy to find just the book he had been searching for and in fact he had prayed he could find a copy.  I am sure neither one of us had  anticipated such an event.  Prayers are answered.

Speaking of, I found my phone!!!  Last Tuesday I had carried my phone in a bag with a tin plate and utensils and a water bottle to a picnic in the Clear Creek Park with the RS Ladies.  The next morning I could not find my phone.  Of course, I went to the park and expected to find it under the picnic table I had sat at.  I could just imagine that it had tumbled out of my bag when I brought the bottle and utensils out of  my bag.  Alas, it was not there.  I sent emails and phone calls but no one had seen it.  I stopped the service and prayed I would find it.

Today I decided I better go in to Verizon when I went to Susanville for a Walmart run and see what my options were.  I took my old phone with me to see if it was able to work and have my numbers all transferred to it.  On the way to Westwood I noticed my Blue Tooth was reading my phone so I pulled over at the Clear Creek turnoff and did a more thorough search than I had already done three times before!!!  Lo and behold it was hiding in a nook and cranny behind the front seat.  I wish I had thought about that Blue Tooth before.  I would never make a very good detective!

Thinking back I realized what happened.  On the way to the park I had stopped to pick up Karen and while I waited for her I noticed my bag was full of water because my water bottle had turned over.  I took the bottle out and got out of the car with the bag to get the water out.  The phone must have tumbled out as I exited the car and I never noticed it was gone till the next morning.  I did search the car at least three times but it was in a weird spot and I missed it and the only time I had driven was when I was  showing Alan and Elaine around the Club and so I had not noticed that my Blue Tooth was on.  Whew!!

 

Happiness

I watched a couple of the Ted talks from Lifehack and was impressed with Shawn Achor who argues that instead of doing our work harder so we can be successful so that we will be happy that happiness inspires productivity so create the happiness in the present and you will be better and do better at everything you do.  He suggests rewiring your brain by:

• Writing down 3 gratitude's a day for 21 days and at the end of 21 days our brain will be trained to  a pattern of looking for the positive things in our life
• Journal about one positive thing each day so you can relive it
• Exercise everyday so our mind and body know that our behavior matters
• Meditate so we can get over the multi tasking and learn to focus on one important task at a time
• Do random acts of kindness and it will become a habit of happiness

"Ripples of positivity will turn into a real revolution."  You will be happy in the present and thus more productive and do better in every phase of your life.  Makes sense to me!!

It goes along with the "as if" theory that Richard tried to live by, living as if everything was just the way he wanted it in his life.  And James always tells me he only wants to hear positive things, no negative thoughts in life.

Unfortunately I am too much of a realist at times, which leads to always waiting for the other shoe to drop and expecting the worst instead of the best.

I must say I have tried to make a habit of a few of the above items--I can do all of them.  How about those 20 shows of yoga I have saved to do someday, why not start today!!!

And my three gratitude's for today are 1--my legs that are still working and I can do most everything for myself  2--my brain is still functioning and I can do many writing, thinking, and creative tasks  3--my house to live in and keep me safe and warm (or cool).

Good Morning, Lake Almanor

Great expectations from this barrel of lilies.  The deer have left it alone because it is too high.  I found yesterday they had destroyed all the buds in  one of my gardens.  Hope they tasted good to them, a whole season down their tummies.  I was out in the yard very early.



And it was a morning for more baked bread and honey ambrosia--is that where these last few pounds have come from, too much of this I think.

 

And true to what Matt told me to do, I stained the front steps with the last of the good stain.  Have to buy more to get the decks done--busy morning, time for a long nap from 9 AM to 12:27 Noon.  

Hardy Grandchildren

Jacob takes part in modern scouting!!!!

Kelsi looking so lovely -- 7 years old.

The Last of 100 Passions--AFI

I had eight on the list of 100 Passions (movies) from AFI that I had not seen.  I couldn't find five of them, but watched three the last few days.  The last one was a real doozy, from 1920, a Lillian Gish silent film.  It was 2 1/2 hrs long with a long cast of characters with a dramatic ending of the betrayed woman floating on a piece of ice toward the falls.  We have come a very long way in 100 years, not all of it good, but technology has certainly improved.

One was "Manhattan" with Diane Keaton, Woody Allen, and Meryl Streep when they were very young.  Richard and I had had to leave a drive-in Woody Allen movie very early, when the children were very young.  We had no idea what it was about, thought it was a comedy, and I have seen few or none since I don't think.  I especially liked seeing Meryl Streep with her long, long hair.  She was so beautiful.  Diane Keaton has definitely gotten better over the years.  Her hair was very kinky with a bad cut but she had pretty eyes.  Woody Allen doesn't change much over the years.  It was a typical Woody Allen film, however, and definitely not a favorite of mine.

I really enjoyed Henry Fonda and Barbara Stanwyck in "The Lady Eve"--a comedy.  She was so pretty and charming and he was a handsome nerd, both very young.  Well done but they drew the story out much longer than they would today. 

Yesterday I cleaned both living room rugs, it is so easy I have no idea why I do not do it more often.  I think I will try cleaning the couches one of these days.  Sadie had been peeing on the center rug and I was not aware of it--under the table!!!  I just don't understand her.  She is outside most of the time, she has a pad in her little home.  For some reason she does it when I am napping or working in the other room.  I think she needs a psychologist as well as retraining.  At least the carpets look and smell nice.  That is great and she can never be in there alone again!!!!!

News About the Grands and Great Grands

Grandma Linda is visiting Las Vegas this week so here is Kate and Brynn ready for swimming to keep cool.  Love that swim vest, Brynn, and Kate looks so grown up in her sunglasses. 

Visiting Grandma and Grandpa at the Hotel.  Yikes it is hot in Las Vegas--must stay cool.

 

Jimmy is recuperating from a tonsillectomy--looks peaceful enough, hope he comes out of it calmer than some of mine did.  And pray he will stay well now.  Thumbs up, Jimmy.  Get well, soon.

 

A Perfect Day

Sadie enjoys sitting in the sun when it is not too hot.

 

And look at the thermometer, a perfect day.

My favorite color of lilies pop out.

And here comes the yellow.

Maintaining My Home--and Fun at the Movies

Two for two!!!  Living alone can be frustrating with maintenance of home tools and utilities.  My vacuum was not picking up and had been that way for a long time.  I had already cleaned the brush as Richard had taught me years ago.  He was the best vacuum fixer I know.  I had discussed it with Matt and intended to get out the manual and work with him on it and then I forgot and he went home.  So I get out the book and aha, I find a new place I never knew about and simply dislodged the clog and the first run around the bedrooms almost filled my vacuum with dirt and fibers!!!  I am a success.

Then the refrigerator started freezing the cut cantaloupe.  Lowering the temp just made it worse.  Well, that is what manuals are for and luckily for us of the modern age they are always on line.  First thing I learn,  you should run the refrigerator at 3 or 4 at least or it makes the fridge work harder and it freezes even more things.  Simple solution, follow the directions for cleaning, of course, and voila, it works great and no more frozen fruit!

A few days ago I had the pleasure of watching Bette Davis in "Now, Voyager"--I couldn't remember a thing or perhaps I was too young for that type of movie when it came out.  She had won the Oscar for it.  I found that it was 23 on the AFI 100 Passions--interesting that most of them are the "oldies" which I love.  Looking over the list I find there 8 that I could not remember seeing, now to find them.

The 100 AFI (American Film Institute") lists are fun to read.  My favorite song is the #1 on the Songs of the Cinemas--that would be "Somewhere Over the Rainbow" of course, so, see I am not so weird after all.  The quote that is memorable from "Now, Voyager" is something like, "Jerry, let's not reach for the moon, we already have the stars."  A good thought to remember.  Most of the memorable quotes I was familiar with.  #1 film was "Casablanca"--watched it again not too long ago.  I did not necessarily agree with their placement on everything, such as the movie star lists.  And some movies I love were too near the bottom of the 100.  Fun lists for sure if you love the movies like I do.  Thanks to Ted Turner for preserving so many of the very favorites.

Utahna Comes to Town

When I first moved to Lake Almanor Utahna was the first to reach out and take me to the concert with her and her husband.  She would bring me plates of cookies and invite me to her home for Family Night.  I helped her with getting her genealogy going online.  She, Marjorie, and I were in a little singing skit together and she was the star!!  She was 82 then. 

She is now 96 and is still going strong.  She recently negotiated a move to a different Care facility because the place she was at was giving too many pills and would not honor her wishes.  She has also traveled to four weddings around the country recently with the help of a nephew.  Flying and traveling are no problem for her, she enjoys it all.  She has been a widow for several years and moved down to Chico, a warmer climate just 75 miles away.

California girl totally.  She said she left her passport somewhere and they took her aside at the airport and interviewed her and let her through.  Evidently age does have its privileges.  When she went to the Temple she had forgotten her Recommend so they called her Bishop.  After talking to her Bishop the presiding gentleman came out and said, "Stand aside everyone, this lady is going to be translated any minute now." (He had heard such a glowing report on her).

 She is teaching a Bible Class to a group who she said needed experience reading.  She also befriended a gentleman in hospice for three months (she has always cheered the "old people" in the hospital) and he left her a small fortune!!!  Another story to show her commitment and resilience.  Just before a friend called for her to drive her to the Temple she fell flat on her face on the cement and scratched her face in several places.  She went in and washed off the blood and got in the car to go.  Her friend said "I can't take you like that,"  but Utahna insisted they proceed and she went through the 90 minute Temple visit before thinking about her face again and she has the scars to prove it.

 Utahna is such a jewel, I have never heard a discouraging or negative word from her.  I thought I was too old to be concerned about beautifying my teeth and she just had hers done. She thinks I am young.  What a choice lady, Utahna.  Glad she counts me as a friend.

Recent lily blooms--no deer eating them yet--first thing I look at every morning!

 

 

 

 

 

Books and Videos and Life

The power was out at the church today so I spent the day watching the Joseph Smith Papers on the BYU Channel.  It is so amazingly done, the research, the collaboration, the result which is not at all completed but will eventually be about 20 books and is already two seasons of very interesting videos and a very well done web site.  Today I also learned about a big donor to the papers Larry H. Miller.  

He is the owner of the JAZZ among other things but started out working in the maintenance department of a car dealer and ended up owning about 47 Toyota dealerships plus so many more companies in so many different areas.  How does one person become so successful?  We all have the same amount of hours in the day.  He passed away in 2009 but what a legacy he left.  He was also an avid reader of books and history and was so fascinated about the JS Papers project that he was very generous in his support.

The Papers are mainly for scholars which made me wonder how one gets to be a scholar.  Do they have higher IQs to begin with or just apply themselves more in study and schooling and degrees??? Why don't I accomplish more and know more???  Life is such a puzzle.

The other book I have been listening to is Meredith Baxter's life story "Untied".  What is sad to learn is how such a successful and talented actress could have such low self-worth and be so emotionally abused in her 16 year marriage.  She said she is very open about it because she wants other women who are in such relationships to learn from her and not live in a marriage where they have no voice and are mentally and emotionally and physically abused.  Her husband David Birney was a narcissist. She came from a home where she felt no self-worth or love.  What a life she lived and how quiet she was about it for most of her life.  She then went on to have another failed marriage and had had a failed marriage right out of high school as well.  She came out about her successful lesbian relationship in 2009.  I must say it is a very well-written book and she reads it herself which makes it even better.  Her life is really a puzzle but what a beautiful, talented person in spite of it all.  She has five children as well and survived cancer.

Today was so perfect outside, not too hot, not too cool, just perfect.  I am anxiously awaiting for more lilies to bloom, but they are in so much shade...

Day of Movies and Books

I had never read any of David Baldacci books so I chose to read some reviews before I downloaded "One Summer" as a audio on my computer.  It was interesting that  many of the reviews from his fans did not like this book.  It is evidently a big departure from his other best sellers.  However, the ones who did like it, really loved it.  And that is the way I felt about it.  It was like the Nicholas Sparks books.  The author said it was a book that he had been wanting to write for a long time.  I had a good cry in the last part and you became very frustrated at how the legal system works against families, rather than for them much of the time and how we all have difficulty with relationships and communication and how unfair life is sometimes no matter how well you do your part.  Anyway I fell asleep last night and it played to the end and I slept through it all but it was easy to find where I dosed off and hear it all early this morning.  And I am happy to find another author who really knows how to write.  Especially his love letters!!!

Maryanne and I had an fun time watching "White House Down" yesterday.  What an exciting movie and how well Channing Tatum looks!

Then during the witching hours (what I used to call 5 to 7 when the children were little) I really enjoyed a TCM oldie "Devotion".  It was the story of the Bronte sisters when they were writing "Wuthering Heights" and "Jane Eyre".  What a great movie.  Osborne told the story of how it was kept on the shelves for 3 years after it was made as punishment to Olivia De Havilland because she was trying to leave the studio.  Actually eventually she was successful at that and then she won the Academy Award for the picture she made elsewhere.  Then they released "Devotion" and rode success on the coattails of that other movie.  I recorded it originally because Ida Lupino was in it and she is a favorite of mine. 

Anyway it was a day of movies and books and a good thing, too, because I was soooo tired.  Today I must make bread before it gets too hot, I am almost out and tomorrow is the 4th.  Haven't decided whether I want to go into the parade and craft fair.  Maybe Matt will be here.  It did rain last evening so the heat spell is broken.  Good day!

Read a Good Book

I often wonder if what I read is a waste of time or not.  This was a message from our Gospel Doctrine class Sunday which is really good advice to follow.

President Ezra Taft Benson of the Quorum of the Twelve taught: “Today, with the abundance of books available, it is the mark of a truly educated man to know what not to read. … Feed only on the best. As John Wesley’s mother counseled him: ‘Avoid whatever weakens your reason, impairs the tenderness of your conscience, obscures your sense of God, takes off your relish for spiritual things, … increases the authority of the body over the mind’” (“In His Steps,” in 1979 Devotional Speeches of the Year [1980], 61).

Saturday night we had a missionary farewell for Michael D. going to Atlanta Mission.  It was pleasant to finally meet and talk to the Dad of the family--really lovely family.  The display of his activities this year were really great and the décor of the ribbons decorated with cut out ties was really charming.  The whole family gave very enjoyable talks today and Michael especially.  He will have a hard time topping that one when he comes back. 

Our chapel was filled on Sunday and it wasn't all visitors, so that is good.

Whoops, I Did It Again

Today I embarrassed a young girl because even though I was trying to compliment her, it came out wrong, and I find myself more and more doing this,  saying inappropriate things.  I think my daughters may have mentioned this to me more than once.  "No filtering" I believe is what it is called.  I also do the talking about irrelevant things that nobody else is talking about.  I went looking for an answer and I think I found it--woe is me!!!  I decided I better go off Facebook before I get myself into more trouble than I already am and keep my mouth shut more, if I can.

Psychologist William von Hippel of the University of Queensland, Australia, suspected that old people’s insulting remarks aren’t really meant to be insulting, that they related more to a lack of censorship than to meanness of spirit. He knew that the brain—especially the tissue of the frontal lobes—tends to atrophy with age, and that such atrophy could theoretically impair what’s called “executive functioning.” Executive functioning includes such skills as future planning and self-control over thoughts and behavior. He decided to explore a possible link between the loss of frontal lobe neurons, loss of inhibition, and unacceptable behavior.

He used several psychological tests to measure volunteers’ ability to censor themselves. The “trail making test,” for example, presents volunteers with randomly arrayed letters and numbers, and they are required to draw a line from A to 1 to B to 2, and so forth. It’s hard, because to do it right one must override the basic urge to both count and recite the alphabet. Or, in the so-called Stroop test, people see the word red in green letters, and they must quickly say the color of the ink; this requires that they quash the automatic impulse to read. Both of these tests, and others like them, provide a good measure of one’s ability to control and inhibit one’s thoughts.

Old people tend to have diminished capacity for thought control on such lab tests, probably a result frontal lobe degeneration. But here’s the interesting finding, as reported in the October issue of Current Directions in Psychological Science: When von Hippel compared the test results with actual social behavior in the elderly, he found that the only old people who made inappropriate social remarks were those with diminished cognitive capacity. And these people knew their remarks were wrong. They professed egalitarian beliefs, and did not want to be perceived as prejudiced, but they appeared unable to keep themselves from blurting out their unwelcome thoughts.

Racially insensitive remarks are just one example of social blunders in the elderly. Old people are also more likely to ask awkward questions in public settings, like: “Have you gained weight recently?” Or they just talk excessively about things that are not relevant to what everyone else is talking about—“off-target verbosity” in the jargon. Von Hippel found that these uninhibited behaviors are also linked to poor executive functioning resulting from brain atrophy.

One of von Hippel’s most intriguing and disturbing findings has nothing to do with insults or rudeness. He found that loss of self-censoring power is also connected to a particular kind of depression that strikes late in life. Presumably the normal brain degeneration of aging leads to an inability to censor one’s thoughts as well, leading to rumination, which in turn leads to mood disorders. Grumpy old people, it appears, may be saving the worst of their grumpiness for themselves.

For more insights into the quirks of human behavior, visit “We’re Only Human . . .” at www.psychologicalscience.org/onlyhuman.