MY INHERITANCE GREW OVER THE WEEKEND

My inheritance grew over the weekend of closing out my grandmother's old house. I got a bucket full of antique marbles. We bought the two bottles this week and cleaned them up. I thought for a while I was going to be able to get them all into one bottle but there were too many. I am happy to have them.

HALF UNCLE

When our kids were little and we would get home to my families house I would tease the nephews and nieces until they would cry. I would keep that up until they would finally come to me and be good so I wouldn't tease them anymore.

My oldest brother's second son told him I was his half uncle. He asked him why and he told him it was because he only liked me half of the time. He's had a hard time living that down and I still introduce myself to his family as the half uncle. Here is a picture of me hanging one of his cousins on Grandma's clothesline. I hung them all this day by their belts or belt loops on the bolt for the eye hook that the clothes line wire was attached to---and then just walked away.

I did eventually go take them down---some cried but most laughed---especially after they saw the first one get taken down. Then the fear factor was gone.

COPY CAT

While waiting for our youngest daughter's second session at graduation I was sitting on a chair at my oldest daughter's house. After sitting there for a considerable amount of time I nodded off. I awoke to the room full of people laughing.

While I was sleeping I was snoring (quite loudly I understand) and my granddaughter was sitting across from me on the couch. When I would snore she would growl, trying to get the same sound to the growl as my snoring. When I woke up she was giggling with everyone else laughing at her attempt to copy her Grandpa.

A TRIBUTE TO MY NEIGHBOR

We buried a very good man today. He was a retired Utah Highway Patrol Trooper and they showed up in force today to escort him to his final resting place. We couldn't get a picture of all the patrol cars and motorcycles but he was well escorted as you can see from the pictures we did get. I was lucky to have him for a neighbor for the past eight years. I have shed a lot of tears thinking about him today and hope all is well with his family.

He broke his leg just below the hip a little over five months ago and never really recovered, when the leg was nearly healed they discovered he had bone cancer and it had spread all though his body. He lost the battle to it.

I believe that if you looked up integrity in the dictionary his picture would be there as the definition. He was a great guy. I am going to miss him very badly. I loved visiting with him about gardening and about things on the mountain.

REST IN PEACE MY FRIEND!

HOME AGAIN, HOME AGAIN, JIGGETY JIG

We finished up all of the relocations in Grandma's house and all the stuff is ready to move. After we finished it up we went back to the motel--cleaned up---checked out and headed for home.

The trip home wasn't near as much fun as the trip going. We were tired, sore, and miserable. We did some laughing but not near as much as we did going. It was still a good trip and I am glad that all of the moving from the house is about finished.

IT'S ALWAYS GOOD TO GET HOME THOUGH!

MOVIN' ON

This weekend my older brother and the brother just younger than me went into Idaho to take care of my mother's old house since she passed away in December. We stopped at the State track meet for 1A-5A schools enroute since my younger brother helps coach the track team. It was awesome. Every five minutes there was another event being run. 1A started then 2 then 3, then 4 then 5; and then they would start another event as soon as they could get the kids lined up.

I have a new pair of sunglasses that tells you what your exposure for the day is to ultraviolet rays---at the end of the meet my exposure was five bars which is as high as it goes---so when we stopped for the night we bought some aloe vera lotion and smeared it over all the exposed spots. Today the heat is all gone---thank goodness.

Today we got started early and drove the rest of the way to our destination. We spent the day clearing things out and determining what went to the museum and what went to other places including DI. It was amazing how much we got done. Tomorrow we have to tear down a bed, move it and two dressers into the kitchen for later loading for delivery to one of us, and delivering the rest of the stuff to the museum. It was a really good day---REALLY.GOOD. Two of my daughters drove over to visit for a little while so that was really nice too---and we took advantage of the boyfriend that brought a friend with them and had them help move the FISHER stove---you know---the one that weighs about 1000 pounds. We got it done nicely.

OK here is the funny part---I don't get along all that great with these two brothers---I was really worried about coming along with no alternate method of transportation because I would have bet a lot of money we wouldn't still be working together to get through this. Yesterday on the trip up we talked about old times together and shared memories from the past. We laughed until we were all sore in the mid section and then someone else would tell another story and we'd laugh again. It was a good trip and we have all had a lot of fun---maybe this will help fix the break---maybe not.

SPRINKLER REPAIR

Yesterday I called for a plumbing company to repair two sending units (I finally thought of the name them---it is solenoids) on our sprinkler system. They looked at it yesterday and said they would fix it on a day when the weather was warmer with no wind. This morning Inklings and I were heading out to the store to get some milk. When I backed into the road I noticed a repair truck parked along the side of our house. We pulled the car back into the garage and I went to see what was going on.

The repair guy was one of the owners kids and was about 20 or 21 years old. He had replaced one solenoid and repaired the leak in the pipe to the other one and was nearly done. I thought it was pretty amazing that they had sent this kid out to repair the sprinkler when it was 15 degrees colder and lots windier than yesterday. Guess that is the price you pay to be a child of the owner. I was amazed at how fast he did it and how good the job looked. He told me "I am one of the __Co.__ Kids and we didn't have any choice. We had to learn about plumbing."

I ran the tests for the sprinklers and all is well except I have one leak in the main line in the back yard--I'll fix that tomorrow after the ground has dried up a little from the sprinkling and flooding that it got today.