Half Century Mark

Well I turned 50 on Friday. Odd, I don't feel any different. Turns out 50 is just a number and the old saying, "Your as old as you feel" must have some validity. I did hear a funny comment about old age the other day. I goes like this, "The only problem with old age is that it doesn't last!"

Here is a shot of me on our tennis court getting ready to hit a wicked forehand. I was playing with Lochlan so it must not have been too wicked! (thanks Sloane for taking the pic)

They reorganized our stake presidency today and I am glad to report I am still the Bishop of the best ward in the church (Cibola Ward). I greatly respect our new stake presidency and know they are the men the Lord would have lead our stake at this time. That was impressed upon me quite deeply when their names were presented.

Tonight I had the opportunity to participate in conferring the Melchezidek priesthood on two of the young men in our priest quorum. Great to see them both take this next step prior to them going off to college next week.

I have been reading several blogs by missionary couples and find them quite interesting. The couples I have been following are serving in Peru, Ecuador and Korea. They are all quite inspiring. Makes me itch to get ready and go.

I sure love my daughter Lochlan. She is the epitome of kind (so long as you can scratch her back for the complete 2 hours of stake conference).

Just an August update

Figured I would just make an update/laundry list of what I have been up to lately.

1) Borrowed Kieth's chainsaw and trimmed several large branches from the Willow and Cottonwood trees. This should help keep the trees from tumbling down in high winds plus keep those drooping down branches from hanging too close to the ground.

2) Playing alot of tennis. On of my Korean tennis playing pals brought a friend (J.S. Kim) who is now taking English lessons from Heather.

3) Helping Lochlan with going back to school activities. Okay, my help basically consists of telling her I like her new shoes/skirt/top/hair cut etcetra. We did make the milestone of saying "This will be the last time before you go off to college of.....starting seminary, having a birthday, etc" By this time next year we hope she is working on going off to college at which point we will become official empty nesters. Lochlan has taken care of arranging her school schedule and helped register students. She is really doing well.

4) Watching Murder She Wrote espisodes with Lochlan. I dose off during the middle of the show often but wake up in time to catch the last 10 minutes which is 10 minutes more of that show than is necessary to figure out the plot. Lochlan figured out that she has about 210 (7 years at 30 episodes a year) friends who somehow have gotten mixed up in Murder!

5) Still plugging away at work. Very slow going there.

6) Listening to more books on CD. Just finished one on Mark Twain (Samuel Longhorn Clemens). Guy was brilliant but also a horrible father. To full of himself. Spent his family into ruin a couple of times forcing them to have to move to Europe since they could not afford the upkeep on their mansion in the US.

7) Enjoyed a couple of visits from my cousin Annette's daughter April and her family as they drove thru Albuquerque twice on way to Utah and back from Lubbock.

8) Looking at finally buying a GPS unit - mainly so Lochlan can take it in the car and not get lost (seems like once a week she is going somewhere then calls me up and says, "Dad, I am by a Wendy's on Montano, how do I get to 4526 Sherwood?" When I try and ask where on Montano she is all she can say is "I don't know!". I am looking for a unit that will also double as a hiking GPS. Nuvi 500 seems like it fills the bill.

9) Spent $1000 on the Infinity - new brakes, bearing, axels etc. Cars are just a money pit! Now we have to drive that car another two years at least to get our moneys worth back out of it. Actually we bought that car for $6000 when the Blue Book was $13000 because it is a salvaged title car. The engine has a rattle in it and the transmission slips sometimes (which had me concerned) but it has run fine for 4 years now. If we can get it to last until June 2011 it will still be a great deal. I know some folks with $450 per month car payments, which seems crazy to me since those same people are paying $900 for their home rental payment.

10) Thinking about doing some hiking up in the Pecos Wilderness Area this fall, but that will cut into my tennis time.

11) Turning 50 this week (on Friday). Sloane called and asked me directions to the SLC airport, she had gotten onto I15 North from downtown SLC and I told her to turn around and take I80 West. She was taking a friend to the airport and her friend was a bit doubtful that my directions (having not lived in SLC area since like 1987) could still be trusted. After she successfully dropped her friend off Sloane called to compliment me on not being over the hill, yet!