And just like that it’s winter

 Oh hi Bakey,

I’m getting a late start on this letter, I’m not sure that I’ll get it off to you before your bedtime. 

We had a busy weekend and we had my side of the family over tonight. 

Work has gotten busy this last week, I was in the office three days last week and I had to cancel the days off I had scheduled this coming week. I really don’t mind being busy. It’s certainly not the busiest I’ve been in my career and it makes the days go faster. My friend Vince Gonzales started his job on my staff this week. It’s a giant stress reliever to have someone that you know is a true pro on your team. I’ll give you some advice for your professional life, surround yourself with the best people possible, even if they are better than you. Support them and take care of them. Build trusting relationships and then trust them to do their jobs. If someone doesn’t deserve or betrays that trust, get rid of them. You’ll always be successful if you do that. 

Wednesday night for young mens there was a primary Halloween party. The priest’s were in charge of a room with a game. Ours was easily the lamest room, but I was fine with that. 

I’ve actually been working on another letter for you all week. I’m trying to write you about my dad when he was young. I’m doing my best to remember stories and names, but i sure wish I knew more about him when he was a kid. I’ll finish it up through his mission or so, maybe more, then I’ll send it. Maybe I’ll do the same for my mom. 

Friday aunt Patti came over to help your mom make cupcakes. It’s funny to me how she’ll come help but nobody, other than grandma, from mom’s side will. Friday after work we met aunt patti for dinner at one of my cousins restaurants. They’ve never been my favorite cousins, but I have to admit that it was pretty good. I just had three fried ground beef tacos, they were actually much better that the ones at Morelia the last time we went. I think the quality is slipping at La Morelia lately. My aunt Stella had called me earlier in the day to come help her with her tv, so we went after dinner. When we got there there were three comcast vans in front of her house. There were three technicians working all over her house getting the tvs going let’s just say it’s unwise to piss of an 85 year old 25 year long subscriber that pays over $250 a month for cable tv. She scolded the customer service rep on the phone and got their attention. So there wasn’t much for me to do once we got there, it was a nice visit though. Afterwards we stopped by uncle Aaron’s house to pick up a new robot vacuum. He’s taken up a new side hustle, he buys pallets of returns from Amazon and sells them online. This last pallet he got had dozens of vacuums, both robot and upright. So far the one we got works.

Saturday was weird because of the bye week. Oregon beat ucla, so the conference is evening out at the top, so only Oregon is undefeated in conference. In the morning mom and I did our normal shopping. The we came home and mom did a bunch more cupcakes. Ben helped her a lot and aunt patti came by again to help. They made a lot. It was fun to see how busy they were. 

I had been putting off fixing mom’s car for months now, so I decided to bite the bullet and get it done. A while back I changed the rear shock absorbers. It was time to do the fronts this time. The fronts, called McPherson struts, are much more complicated because the come in an assembly with the shocks and springs combined. The fronts required access to some bolts on the top of the struts that I had to take a bunch of stuff off the car. This actually was the hardest part of the job. It took me an hour and a half just to figure out how to get the wiper arms off. I had to go to the part’s store to rent a tool and everything. The rest of the job was as straightforward as could be expected, even though it required two more trips to the parts store, mostly because since I had it apart I was going to fix the squeaking brake. The job was made pleasant by listening to football on the radio. In the morning, ESPN radio replayed the Utah usc game, I have to admit that even though I knew the outcome it was exciting. Baring any compilations with our cable box, you will have to watch that when you’re home. Then came the byu game. Your brothers hate listening to byu on the radio, but I like to keep up. BYU scored the first two touchdowns and Greg wrubel was feeling pretty good about life. But after the first quarter liberty went on to score 38 unanswered points. I literally laughed every time they scored. It was like listening to a comedy on the radio. It was cooling down all day so it was nice to work outside. I got everything put back together and noticed that two of moms tires are beyond bald, getting to the point of them being dangerous. So I need to get her new tires and have her car aligned, two things that I am not able to do myself. I took it for a little test drive after and everything seemed good, even the brake squeal went away. I feel a real sense of accomplishment and satisfaction when I get a job like that done, but because I’m getting older do feel it. I get stiff, then sore. Im doing pretty good today though.

Today it got really cold, rain turning to snow. I’m always amazed by how fast the seasons change in Utah. We had my sisters over for dinner. Ben smoked pork butt and everyone brought stuff. Artie has a buddy that lives next door to him and aunt patti. We invited him and his parents over too. We had Ben’s pork, aunt patti brought baked potatoes, there was salad and a veggie tray, mom made Rhodes rolls, it was really good. As we were getting done eating, Artie’s buddy Brian, was asking mom about pizza. As only your mother would, she got up and mixed up some dough. An hour after we ate a huge dinner mom and ben and Artie and Brian and Brian’s mom were making pizzas. They probably made half a dozen savory pies plus three or four desert pies. Two of the desert pies did catch on fire because of the sugar, but it was still fun. When we were done both Brian and Artie got online and ordered $400 pizza ovens. I sure wish your mom could make a little commission of all the stuff she gets people excited about. She’s a natural influencer, she just needs to do it on social media and monetize it. It was a really fun night though.

Well kid I have another busy week coming up so I better finish this off. I always love Monday’s and I look forward to hearing from you. Be well elder. I’ll send you that story about my dad this week. With all of my love,

Pops