I broke the bench!

 Oh hi my wee lad!

Well, it been an interesting and busy last few days since my last letter. Wednesday we noticed that our dryer was not drying. Hooray for me, I either get to figure out how to fix it or spend $750 or a thousand bucks on a new one. Well, as much as I didn’t want to spend hours researching and squeezing behind that dryer, my cheapness won out. So after the said hours I finally found the part to order. $35 bucks, or three percent of the cost a new dryer, it seemed worth the gamble. I met Artie for lunch to show him the logos I designed for his company. The name of the company is Hethos, which means brother in the elvish language. Yes nerdy. But very cool too. Artie had this idea about two guys shaking hands forming an H. I liked his idea, but not the literal depiction he wanted. So I did a ton of research and found a motif of an H that gave me inspiration to design an elegant H, that only on a secondary level could be seen as two people shaking hands (I’ll attach a screenshot). The other thing he told me was that they liked to get different groups together to make projects happen, so I came up with another logo with two Hs stacked to form a ladder in which the letters that form the word hethos are contained or even climbing the ladder. I think it’s a bit throwback, but still pretty cool (see screenshot). He seemed pretty happy with them though I haven’t heard whether or not his partners like it.

Thursday was a pretty normal day. My cough was getting progressively worse so I was glad I had my doctor appointment on Friday morning. Something I became less excited about once there. I had also decided to fast on Thursday Jacob. I feel like maybe sometimes I’m not living up to m6 standards and expectations, and that I need a reset. I think I’ve learned a lot from you and your desire to do better. I think it helped, and I think I should do it more often.

I took Friday off because I had that doctors appointment and I thought I was going on that campout with the PQ. My cough was pretty bad that morning, so I wore a mask for the first time in a long time to the doctor’s office. I was shocked when the scale kept moving up after I stood on it, there’s at least a ten pound addition on his scale compared to mine. I was feeling like a bit of a guilty dog because I haven’t been going on my walks since school started because I take Ben at the time of day I used to go. I also haven’t been watching my diet very well (that’s a lie, I should have said “watching it at all”). Then he asked a million questions about my cold. He said two things that I didn’t want to hear. The first was that my cold had turned into bronchitis and if I didn’t treat it it could last for up to six months. The second thing he says is, and I hope you never get yourself in a spot where you have to hear this, was that I was “morbidly obese.” Wow…that one stung. Jacob, I’m not a vain person but that did not feel good. I need to start my walks again and either get back on weight watchers or start doing intermittent fasts. I’m not sure which will be worse. He also wants to prescribe a newer drug for diabetics that can help reduce weight. I’m not excited about this Jacob. There’s a good chance that the insurance company won’t pay for it. I’m okay with that for a few reasons. First, it feels like cheating, I should have the discipline to do this on my own shouldn’t I? Also, the way it works it’s to stimulate your body into not having an appetite. I’ve read stories that say people go get a steak and after five bites the want to vomit. Jacob, I have very few passions left in life and I don’t mind saying that I freaking love food, a lot. I don’t want to not like it anymore. I know people like that, they’re not fun people. Also, it’s a shot, that I’d have to give myself once a week, ick. Finally, I don’t like thinking of my own mortality. I have an incredibly happy life. I want to hang out with you guys and your families for as long as possible, and I don’t want to be all sick all the time if I do. So, if the insurance covers it I’ll try it, if it does or doesn’t I’ll get better with my weight. But dang Jacob, morbidly obese?

So after the doctor’s visit I was starving so I went through the McDonald’s drive through and got a sausage egg McMuffin combo, irony or stupidity, you decide Jacob. Then I went to Home Depot to get tools and supplies for the big dryer repair. On my way I remembered that aunt patti had a hole in her drywall that needed repair, so I decided to get the supplies I needed for that fix and forgot my sorrows by helping out my sweet big sister. I really love her Jacob. I hope you stay close to your brothers forever. They will bring you strength and comfort your whole life. The repair was pretty easy and I did feel a whole lot happier spending a little time there. 

The sandwiches I ordered for the campout we’re going to be read at one, I finished in bountiful a little before noon. I had a little time to kill so I stopped by my favorite hobby shop in salt lake. This place has so many models and so many paints it’s insane. I bought three Tamiya kits from the 80s and 90s that I haven’t seen forever. That’s a dangerous place for me, an awesome dangerous place. 

A little after I came home with the food for the campout your brothers came home. Joey had picked Ben up from trax after school. After that the had gone to the music store. I’ll let Joe tell you what he got there, but it’s pretty awesome.

I started cleaning out the area behind the washer and dryer to get ready for the repair, the part was supposed to arrive sometime that day. Oh man there was so much trash, and crud and debris I think it made my coughing way worse, so much so that I told the bishop I wouldn’t be going to camp. It was all I could do not to crack a smile when I dropped off Joe, but it was legit, I hade several coughing spells that afternoon including on after 10pm that lasted for 45 minutes. That would have been super embarrassing in mixed company. But after I got back from dropping off Joey and the food Amazon had dropped of the new heating element for the dryer, that was my guess as to what part had gone out. It took me a couple of hours but I got the thing taken apart and put together successfully. I had a few screws left over and I strained my left butt cheek muscle scooting the washer and dryer around the laundry room. But it seems to work now, and I hope we can get a few more years out of it till we actually have to replace it.

Saturday I slept in a little because I got to sleep late due to my coughing. By the time I got up mom had gone to Sam’s club. I miss spending time with your mom even doing chores like shopping. But she came home and made waffles for us boys. After breakfast ben and I went out to make a peddle board for his future guitar pedal collection. We made a pretty simple one out of pine 1x4s and pocket screws. It’s pretty basic but looks pretty decent. The rest of the job is up to Ben, he needs to add Velcro, a power supply and whatever else to get it working. I told him that when he gets it outfitted with all his gear we could make a much nicer one out of the leftover parts from our old kitchen table. That’s nice quarter sawn red oak that would last forever.

While Ben and I were doing that brother noble came over to ask if had gotten the contents for the Christmas party poster and handouts. I had, but man did I not want to work on that. I was motivated to do it though when mom said that her and Joey were going to hang the Christmas lights. Joey did most of it with mom supplying moral support and ladder stabilization. Truth be told, he does a better job than I ever have. I got the poster done and sent them to the party committee just before mom asked if I wanted to go to the store to get a few more light clips. Somehow that turned into a trip to Home Depot and Costco, where somehow we came home with a nativity set of extremely non middle eastern looking figurines depicting the birth of Christ. It looks nice on the entry way table to be honest, and at least it’s not Santa related blasphemy.

All day I had been coughing and I didn’t know if I should go to the game. But Artie had talked your mom into going and I didn’t want to be left behind. So once again I got ridiculously over dressed and off we went. Artie also invited your uncle and aunt berg to go. While we were sitting around crown burger I got one of those strong feelings of how joyous life is. Not so much about the game or even the food, but on how much I am grateful to share those times with my family, my loved ones. The game as always started off slow, Stanford scored first. But then the Utes settled in and completely dominated. Stanfords offensive line was so depleted and bad that their quarterback literally looked scared under center. And who can blame him, the Utes got six sacks that game. I did have one huge really check at the game though, the bench that we we standing on broke, exactly one day after my classification of being morbidly obese, oh man Jacob. 

So anyway now usc is at the top of the league but if the Utes win out over Oregon and Colorado, we’ll have a tied record and the tie breaker. If we do win, it will most likely be rematch for the championship game. If the Utes lose to Oregon, it will be bitterness and sadness. If usc loses, we could still make it maybe even if Oregon beats us, I think.

Today I did my lesson for PQ and we had church, it was the miserable primary program. With all the primary leaders weeping through narration and prayers. For crap sake Jacob I was a regular Benjamin rivera cynic for all of that.

Grandma and grandpa came over for dinner. I bashed my head on her tailgate when I was helping her bring stuff in, it still hurts. We had smoked pork butt an baked potatoes. Grandma brought peach cobbler. Mom’s already planning your homecoming meal. That’s her way of expressing her love for you and her excitement for your return.

I should probably go to sleep now kid. We’ll talk tomorrow.

Love,

Pops