Winter dreaming

Oh hi Bakey,

We’re sitting here watching the Bengalis beat Buffalo, it’s 24 to 10 at the end of the third quarter. I’m not really following the game, I’m just here because your mom and brother’s are here. It’s snowing at the game, and we had a little storm here this morning too, it left maybe an inch. It’s supposed to get really windy later. 

I didn’t get that Gladiator, they sold it before I got to drive it. I’m still thinking about trading, but I don’t know how serious about it I am or if I’m just dreaming. I’ve found two more that I’m interested in. The first is a new 2022 white gladiator that is fairly discounted. It doesn’t have everything on it that I want, but it has the good stuff. I’d like to add bigger tires. The other is a used diesel with a super high end bed cap. The diesels are awesome in theory, torque, range, and fuel mileage. But they’ve had some problems and the price of diesel has not come down like gas has. The dream is to sell the 4Runner, Fiesta, and trailer for the gladiator and either a roof-top-tent on the bed, or a topper with a tent incorporated into it. On the other hand, the Toyota is roomier inside for you tall boys, I have it almost exactly how I want it including lights, winch, air compressor, and other accessories. That plus the supposed higher reliability makes this more a desire of the heart than of the brain. I’m leaning towards staying put, but your mother is supportive.

Other than last week in park city, not a lot happened this week. Work is getting busy and mom and your brothers are keeping busy too. 

I don’t know if you saw it on Facebook, but I finished my ED-209. I’m not afraid to say that I’m really proud of it. I’m part of a couple of model groups n facebook. I got over 100 likes from one of them. The other is what I consider more professional, so I haven’t posted there yet, mom and Ben say I should.

Yesterday we took Poe to McDonald’s for breakfast, then mom and I ran some errands. I ended up organizing my office a little. I don’t use the word clean, because it’s not, and it probably will never be clean until I’m dead or we move, neither of which I plan on being or doing any time soon. I’ve moved my hot wheels to the hallway shelves. I tried to organize them, but it’s always a little challenging. I came up with half a dozen duplicates, which isn’t bad for how long I’ve been collecting. Next step will be to cull the herd, but that’s no fun.

Tomorrow is our 24th anniversary. Your mother has given me a wonderful life, even though I know that I bug her most of the time. To celebrate we went to the Kyoto restaurant for lunch. It wasn’t as good as it was when we went last year. We may need to find another place next year. After that we found this store that sells cream puffs. I had been to that store before, in Japan, and I’d never seen them anywhere else. It called Beard Pappas.  It’s totally my type of dessert, more like an eclair than anything else, not too sweat, rich custard, semisweet chocolate. Mom liked it, your brothers, not so much. 

After that we went to RCWilley. We’ve been going there once or twice a year since we moved to this house to try to decide what to do in our living room as far as couches and furniture. This time we found a couch we both liked, so we reserved it. I don’t know if we’ll commit to them because they’re expensive, but it seemed to give us a direction for the living room. I can finally picture the walls, trim, furniture

, and even floors. Now we have thousands of dollars in plans for our yard and house, and not actual dollars. I’m okay with it as long as we keep it long-term thinking and not put pressure of a timeline on getting it done. 

We got home and a kept working on my office. I was going to start building the new fireplace mantle, but I didn’t want to get all dusty before the game. The Utes played Washington as you know, they looked really good, Brandon Carlson has finally found his game. Washington has a center that’s 7’1”, he’s got a lot of hype. Carlson dominated him. In addition to the win, the lower bowl of the Huntsman center was mor full than not, and fairly energetic. The Utes are now 14-7, the tournament is a possibility, that would be awesome. 

Mom wasn’t feeling great so didn’t come with, but I sure love being with your brothers. As I’ve said so many times, Utes games are more than a sporting experience for me, I get so nostalgic, but in a really happy way. There are places for me where I feel like the veil is thinner for me, I feel the memory, or maybe more of my family, both my parents, and brother and you guys in the same place. The temple does that sometimes, plus it offers much more in terms of other spiritual fulfillment, camping does that, with a difficult kind of spiritual edification, plus fun, and games at Rice-Eccles and the Huntsman center. I like going to the Delta Center, but it’s not at all the same.

To change the subject real fast, Ben and Joey are figuring out a Beach Boys song on the new keyboard. Ben has a good voice man. I LOVE it when they jam, I can’t wait till you’re there and can fill out the group for them. Be patient with yourself as you get back to playing, they play a lot and it will take time, but you’ll have a riot with them.

Today was a quiet Sunday. Church was good. Peyton Hatton gave the lesson in Priest’s quorum and did a great job. He’s a really quiet kid, but super thoughtful. It’s funny how the quiet kids seem to have soo much more to offer that the spazzy loudmouth teenagers, but for some reason all of the activities in this ward are geared towards the loud kids. During his lesson the young women interrupted and it was so shallow, spazzy, and stupid I literally felt the rage come up to my face. Here this kid prepares a lesson, gives it in a way where the Spirit is present, and these idiots, including the leader, interrupts it for no good reason.

Mom and Joey made French dip sandwiches for a super early dinner. We’re watching mom’s home improvement shows, which are way different than the home improvement shows that I watch.

And that’s it for this week. Kid.

Love you.

Pops