Kerosene and Marshmallow Coke Zero

 Hello from your slacker dad!

Actually, this week was fairly busy at work, so a lot of my ancillary tasks have been put on hold. I’ve made no more progress on the story about my dad, it remains 80% finished. Also Artie asked my to do a logo for him. It’s a pretty cool project, but all I’ve done is some research. I’ll need to bear down on both of those this week.

This week has been a vortex of money being sucked into cars. Last weekend I replaced the struts on mom car. So this week I had the tires replaced. I did that on Monday. Holy crappola tires are getting expensive. Then I had to get her car aligned. We were pleased that it was under $100 bucks. Then mom had to get it inspected and pay registration, cha-Ching again. While I had tires in mind I checked the tires on the little Jeep…freak the front two we’re worn pretty badly. Remember when we got those done? It wasn’t that long ago. That will teach me to not buy cheap Chinese tires. So I bought cheap mis matched tires off of KSL. Actually, three are new Cooper tires, and on is a newer cheap Chinese tire. We’ll see how that works out. Hopefully, the fleet will be ready for winter.

Tuesday was pretty busy at work, wall-to-wall meetings. I hate those days. I got home lateish after picking up Ben. Then Wednesday was my really busy day at work. We shot footage for a video for our HR department. It was fun to be with a crew again. I got to meet a lot of the people around the building that I hadn’t been able to until now because of Covid. It’s weird how working from home after my first six months here still makes it seem like I’m new. I also met the interim CEO. He’s a pretty nice guy as I asked him to stand in for some b-roll. The next day he met with our marketing department and he remembered me by name. Sometimes when things are changing it’s nice to have the big shots know who you are.

Wednesday night I got home a little later too. I was grateful that there was no young mens because of fall break. Thursday was when we got mom’s car aligned, I was working from home that day. Joey was working so your mom and I picked up Ben from trax and we went to Crown Burger for our ritual pre game meal. It’s a good thing we did too because the Utes struggled in that game. I was proud of the Utes for toughing that game out. I told you about Rising not playing and all of the injuries. Kinda reminded me of the ‘08 team with all of the ugly wins. That’s a sign of a tough team. Because of that win, we’re still in the race for the conference championship and we moved up to #12, not bad. That plus byu nation is really down and suffering right now, and yes, I do revel in their misery. Even Mark and uncle Tim are going after the coaching staff.

On Friday night byu lost again to east Carolina or some such team. I didn’t follow it, but apparently it was tied with two seconds on the clock and east Carolina scored a field goal. Uncle Tim should have eaten at crown burger before the game. 

Our Friday night was a little Rivera family Halloween celebration with chili, pumpkin carving and kerosene. Joe saw this YouTube video we’re a guy soaked a roll of toilet paper in kerosene inside the jack-o-lantern and ignited it. The crazy part of all of this is that mom actually went with us to the store where we bought kerosene and marshmallow flavored Coke Zero. Proof that Joe really can get away with anything. I must admit that I encouraged Joe because I kept thinking how far away he’s going to be next Halloween. It really kills me to be so far from my boys, though I do have confidence that the Lord knows better than I do.

Saturday was wedding day…all…freaking…day. I shouldn’t complain, because it’s an important day. I still feel that you and Jordan are missed. Mom’s cupcakes were a hit, even though she could have easily made less than half of what she did. There weren’t too many attendees at the wedding, which was a little sad. I sure wouldn’t have gone without being compelled. 

Today was a pretty busy Sunday. We had priests quorum presidency meeting in the morning. Bishop wants to go camping in a couple of weeks. I’m taking the trailer. We had a fifth Sunday lesson about being accepting of others where all one of the teachers talked about was murder rates it various cities in the United States. He’s the guy who’s real prophet is tucker Carlson on on Fox News and not Russel M. Neilson. Our ward is not free of idiots Jacob. Poor Joe had mission prep after church and then he and I went home teaching over at the carver’s. Poor Joey. Actually, today makes up about 1/3rd of what he’ll be doing on Sundays on his mission, he just won’t have mom dotting on him for dinner.

I promise I’ll finish my story about my dad this week. I love you Jacob. It may be hard to believe this but I really do miss you every day. I have your picture for my wallpaper on my phone and it reminds me of your dedication. I’m proud of you Jake. 

I hope your weeks are getting better and you are able to connect with the people in your area. Please write tomorrow if you can. 

Pops