Old times

Oh hi mister the Poe,

I’m going through a little bit of Joey withdrawal because we didn’t hear from you last week and we won’t be able to tomorrow. So you have to at least send a letter and tell us about transfers and if you got more people at church this week.

There are giant fires in the Texas panhandle but they seem more to the east of Amarillo. My guess is that the winds are blowing east too, but I was wondering if there’s been any affects over Clovis way. They showed a map overlay and it’s three or four times bigger than the salt lake valley.

We had a good storm yesterday, lots of wind and it snowed all day. Only a little stuck on the ground here, but aunt Stella said that she got 20 inches at her house and grandma got a lot too. 

Speaking of Aunt Stella, uncle Temmy got sick again and had another fall. He was in bed for a day but seems to have recovered. I worry every time he goes through this that I may lose him. He just had his 88th. It will be a sad day when that happens.

I got some news at work that was rough on your prideful dad. I’ll be getting another boss. I know that sounds pretty minor, but I really like my current boss and I’m not so sure about my new one. I’ll just need to make a strong relationship with her and expect the best. On the positive side, I had a good review and am getting a decent bonus. Not a Rip Mason Dallas Texas size bonus like I did in the old days. But not bad for working in Utah. I may take the family out for steak tomorrow to celebrate.

I’m also stressed about work because based on an incident I had with one of my staff, they recommended I get rid of him. Believe me, some days that sounds like exactly what I want to do, but having been  out of work myself makes it a stressful thing to consider. I’ve been praying heavily about it and even put his name in the temple. I hope that’s not hypocritical. 

Friday night mom and I went to the temple. Seems like the first time since you left, though I can’t recall that for sure. We did sealing with ward members but it was good that we went.

Yesterday was a busy if not a productive day. Mom and I got up early to go cemetery plots shopping. Calm down, we have no plans on dying any time soon, especially with mom’s surgery coming up. It’s just something that we’ve been thinking about since your grandpa passed away. We haven’t bought anything yet, but even if we don’t pass for 30 years, I’d still like to ready. There was a moment there when I really sensed my parents, and I really missed them. I don’t really care about my carcass when it’s in the ground, but I have this faith and vision of the resurrection that in that morning I can walk over and give my mom, dad, and big brother a big old hug. It probably naive, but that’s what I think of and it gives me hope.

Later for lunch I met my childhood friends at Hires downtown. I grew up in the 70s and 80s in an idyllic neighborhood and ward. There weren’t that many kids my age. So these three guys I met were guys I spent most of my time with between the ages of about eight and 19. Brad and Tony Smith were brothers. Brad was a year older than me and Tony a year or two younger. Brad was the opposite of me as he was studious, social, and got good grades. I was also the first one in our group to go on his mission. Brad and I could talk about airplanes, WW2, models, hot wheels and all of the nerdy stuff I’m still into to this day. His brother Tony was just always with us, he was always just a really good person. They were both there and I was so happy to see them.

Randy Fox also came. His name kinda says it all. When I think of Randy all I think of is pure fun. We’d play all day every day all summer long. I have a distinct memory of the first time I met him. I was probably in the fourth or fifth grade. I was walking home from school and there was a new kid with pink skin and the blondest hair I’d ever seen. But what was distinctive about him at that time was the two casts on his arms up past his elbows. I must have said something about them because the next thing I remember was him running straight forward swinging both of those casts in my direction. We were best buddies from that day on. 

We had another good buddy named Mike Wild. There were others, but the five of us made the core of the boys in the Bonneville 2nd ward.

I’m not going to go into details of the stuff we did. But some highlights are a game we played with a football where the only objective was for one kid to run around with a football and all of the other kids to try to tackle him. We’d play that for hours and it had a name that is not repeatable in our current age. We invented another game that was like tag but on bikes and instead of tagging whoever was it we would ram them with our bikes. The kid that rammed then got to be it and chased by all the other kids. We called that game Wipeout. The most fun place to play it was up on the trails and walks of the UofU campus. We would play all over the campus and it was so much fun. That game would generally devolve into daring each other to stunts like jumping our bikes off of ledges or riding full speed down stairs of varying heights and lengths. It was common for at least one of us to ride home with a knee, elbow, or something else bleeding. 

As we got older that same group would spend hours and hours in one of our basements playing Dungeons and Dragons. Sometimes we’d play all night. I still remember my character, he was a knight with high strength and courage, low intelligence and an alignment of chaotic-good. Brad was always the dungeon master and i brought all of my hand painted, award winning miniatures. I still have a few of them. 

I kinda always envied how close you and your brothers were, but in some ways those guys were my brothers. Well, enough dad nostalgia for now, sorry kid.

Last night we went to see the new Dune movie. I liked it more than the first one, both of your brothers went as did your mother, we got popcorn, it was fun. I missed you though.

Today was church, we have missionary focus week coming up so I was busy getting sign up for that. I have three spots to fill for Friday and Saturday, so I’ll be working on those this week.

Thursday is our Moab trip. I spent a couple of evenings making t-shirts. Silly I know, but it adds to the trip. Jake isn’t sure if he’ll be able to come because of school, I hope he can. I’m looking forward to spending time with Ben though. He’s going through something and I don’t know what it is. I know he’s super busy with school and work, and I get the sense that he’s just really getting the urge to be independent. That’s a hard pull that every young man goes through. Jake probably has a few years before he starts feeling that way, and a few more for you. I’ll try to be patient but I’m also not looking forward to it. You boys have been nothing but a blessing to your old dad and, as I told your mother the other day, I’ll do nearly anything to spend a little more time with you.

Lyity 

Pops