Score one for Reynolds

Von's grocery store stalks customers. A trip there is an exercise in defensive strategy because some CEO who has obviously never done his own shopping decided that all shoppers should be regaled with "Hello! Are you finding everything?!". No one in charge seems to realize that multiple cheery and vacuous greetings become an assault after the first few times. I so want to throw the lettuce in their face when I'm planning a meal in my mind only to be interrupted not once but several times, often by the same person saying the same thing. I quickly learned that if I answered them with a question they didn't know where an item I couldn't find was.

I've become quite skilled at avoiding them and have been mindlessly wandering into Von's stores more than usual. Tonight I was stalked from the minute I walked into the store. I wheeled my cart to a display a few feet from the door. "Hello! Are you finding everything?" Rather than snarling "How would I know I'm not even looking yet, you moron" I gave the obligatory "um huh". I had made it to the back of the store and the same young man came wheeling along the meat counter signaling his presence with "Hello!". I was standing near a group of people and immediately turned my back to him. I knew I was safe in a crowd. I grabbed a package of meat and studied it as if it was going to be a test on a final. I heard the oncoming hellos, each dutifully answered until he was behind me. I heard the unanswered HELLO! again, this time given with more insistence. I moved the meat package closer to my face. This is when the stalker was supposed to move on. But this one stood behind me and loudly repeated HELLoooOOO! with his voice raised like a scorned child. Silence resumed and I made a last poke at the meat before returning it and walking away surrounded by silence. My sense of triumph in thwarting a Von's stalker was truly shameful.

China

The last time I was at LAX it was for Maren's trip to Brussels. It keeps escalating. This time I was there to drop them off for their flight to China. The Perkins are somewhere over the ocean on their way to a nine month stay as part of Patrick's Flagship scholarship program. Both of them will be attending the university at Nanjing. They enjoyed tormenting me by telling me they were leaving on Sunday, then saying at other times "in the morning". That along with a flight time of 1 am or so led me to the conclusion that they were leaving Sunday morning in the wee hours. I tried to hide my growing concern at their irresponsible behavior. It was getting pretty bad by 7:00 pm Saturday when I thought I was driving them to the airport in two hours and they hadn't even cracked open a suitcase. Only then did they make it clear that they were leaving the next day. OK, so I've never been good at time. After all, it involves math concepts. They now seem to be in collusion to see if they can get me up to that state of anxiety again sometime soon. It seems particularly unfair because I tried to show them a good time. I allowed Patrick to demolish my resident rats' condo. Every few years these lovely creatures infest the garage at which point I feel considerable gratitude that they chose that over my attic. This group brought not only an architect but an interior designer. I don't think it was the two I used but could be....



They built a stunning several story home in my generator. So dissembling it was quite a study opportunity for Patrick and one that I was happy to give him.


The highlight of their stay was Grandpa's scooter. Patrick had some incredible moves. Maren was an awesome stunt rider. Wow, I wish I had video!






I'm going to miss them both very much.

FAIR times

This is a picture of my sister's place she refers to as a "cabin" while we snicker in the background. I didn't intend for this picture to be here but it won't cooperate. So here it is. The fun began here with our sisters trip but soon I had to get down to FAIR business.

I have made a faithful pilgrimage to Salt Lake City for my FAIR conference for over a decade. It is a highlight of my year. It might be the only place where you will find eggheads in huddles talking about what Mudcat and Confidential Informant are saying now. My biggest job is organizing the books in our "bookstore" in a room behind the main hall. I gained the job by rearranging the books everytime someone unpacked a box and laid them on the table. I don't like tables of flat books so I propped them up and put them in different configurations. Now the others just tell the newbies to slap 'em on the table and move aside. Maren has been helping at the bookstore since she was 16. She has recently been bringing that new guy, Patrick and this time she brought another friend.

After leaving "the cabin", [rogue cabin picture belongs here] I stayed with my generous friend Stacey in her beautiful guest room in Provo and we staged our FAIR activities from there. I'm learning how to mooch off of the right people in my old age. After all, it is important to keep our brains active by learning new things. So I borrowed her clothes on both days, too.

I have been interviewed by newspapers a few times but was surprised by Mormon Times (a section of the Deseret News). The reporter interviewed several FAIRies for a piece on the beginnings of FAIR. Much to everyone's surprise, the article ended up being almost all about me. So there I was on the front page. The reporter had me come to SLC and he dragged me around Temple Square with a photographer to get a good photo. They took so many my mouth was twitching everytime I tried to smile. As the reporter told me, having your picture in the paper makes you famous....with everyone who knows you.

Vernal rocks

It didn't take much prodding to get Joyce to scramble down the river banks and up the canyon walls.

Vernal is beautiful. We did a car tour and within that short time saw the most exquisitely formed rocks. My only regret was that we didn't bring swimming suits and tubes for the Green River, which is indeed green with a red sandy bottom.

Road trip!

It wasn't the most fun time but it was the funniest. We were lost in Roosevelt coming home and had no idea how that was even possible. But all of those long roads lined with ubiquitous shops and dwellings look the same after a few hours and too much talking. Janet was sure we could reposition ourselves on Hwy 40 from Bluebell. Joyce was struggling with a map and Joan was trying to program the GPS in the rental car. Soon I heard a distressed "oh no" from Janet as the car slowed and leaned toward the shoulder. Is it a bird? A plane? No! It is Supercop with his flashing lights flying behind us. Janet gave a good rendition of our being lost when told she was going a tad fast. He asked where we were headed and then told us it would take an hour to get there. So I asked the necessary question, "at what speed?" Janet immediately smacked me upside my head. The cop, probably worried about a potential beat down assured us that was funny. He let us go with a warning and promise that we would get to Oakley in an hour...at 45 mph.

Reunion

Creeks, mountains and quaking aspens. It doesn't get any better. Well, unless you have all your sisters there. We managed timing plane landings within the same hour and met Joyce at ChuckOrama for lunch. Then we visited Aunt Grace and cousin Wayne before leaving for what I laughingly call "the cabin". The next morning we went to the the cute diner on the corner for breakast. Joan discovered the diner itself had made its way from Virgina Falls, where she works. That was more interesting than the food unfortunately. Next was some hiking. We were awesome as we negotiated those hills and trails. Maybe we were a bit better at talking about our old exploits with our adventurer dad while we were driving. Today we are going to that famous Utah hotspot, Vernal. We will walk in the footsteps of the original settlers...the dinosaurs.

Temple and Costco

Stacey and friends
Los Angeles Temple, June 2, 2009



I first met Stacey at the office for the County speech therapists several years ago. The therapist who made assignments took an immediate dislike to the brash young black woman who wasn't accepting her assigned place on the bottom of her pecking order. Fortunately, this therapist didn't like me much, either. So the story begins when she assigned Stacey to be my assistant. I spent the next several months watching the beginnings of a radical transformation in Stacey's life while stepping between her and her protagonist who had concocted reasons to convince the administrator she needed firing. Stacey was not fired because I spoke out for her in a staff meeting. I spent months as a buffer but I learned that no matter how different life experiences are we all need one another. It wasn't long before I needed Stacy's protection at, yes, Costco during an event that we have immortalized as The Costco Moment. I was standing in line at the checkout with the cart. We only had a few items so Stacey hovered at the neighboring line to see which would get us through the quickest. It was time for me to put the items in the cart on the conveyer belt but the huge cart blocked my access to it and as I moved around it an attractive well-dressed Hispanic woman snarled that she was going next and put her items down as I stood helplessly blocked. My feeble protests only provoked more aggression. Speechless and intimidated, I decided this was not a hill I wanted to publicly die on and timidly began to back up when I heard a loud smack! Stacey had taken an item from the cart and walked up behind me and in front of my tormentor and slammed the item on the conveyer belt. More skilled than a conductor of the 1812 Overture, Stacey's final flourish with the rubber divider bar sealed the woman's fate with an unbreachable boundary. The now intimidated woman began to retreat while complaining that Hispanics always got the worst of the lot. Stacey flung back a line worth remembering, "so stop living!" The woman scampered off to another line and the checker immediately came out and put a closed sign on the back of our cart.

Stacey is someone who must wake up everyday and think of what she is going to do. First it was a call that she needed to ask me some questions about the church because she was going to be baptised. Then it was that she was going to the Temple and she wanted me to escort her, an honor I will not forget. But the day that topped it all off was when she woke up and said "I'm going to move to Utah!". The next I heard from her she had obtained a four year scholarship from BYU. The next installment is going to be good!


Here we are treed in the spectacular "Bride's Tree" on the Los Angeles Temple grounds. There was no help for either of us this time, however. A guard showed up within minutes and ordered us out of the tree. We jumped down and went into the Temple and started living.