Flight home

I guess I'll start from the end today and backtrack through the week. Even put new posts on their right days going backwards in time... so look back instead of staying current here for how I did my vacation in Michigan.

Whew! I'm home! Tired and happy... and gee, I miss Jenny already. We've had a full, fun, five days together.

I snapped this as the plane rose out of Denver, second leg of my flight home. You get it this is no advertisement... just the view from the window seat.
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I sat in Sacrament meeting this morning in Ypsilanti and loved the doctrine spoken from that pulpit. Two different speakers, a similar topic, and I wrote a couple of notes to myself. Though pretty sparse they're packed with implication. Right from my iPad:

The outcome of our learning should be the desire for private spiritual experiences.

and

DO something about what I know is true.

Up early and painting

Early morning walk and mini-jog again; I missed getting out yesterday morning. Wow, what a sunrise! The sun just climbs UP! No mountains to get over. I've forgotten.



I had to stop to admire leaves. Oh. Yes.



Today we spent a lot of the day painting. Here I "painted" the pics in PSE. Love 'em!



Bad hair week, ugh – humid in Michigan.



↓ The real picture of our almost-finished project. At last! See, we didn't go psychedelic. Accounting for the light, the color on the wall and this foyer is identical, Cloudburst, a beautiful teal. Obviously the foyer, narrower and without the sunlight upon it, looks darker. We spent several days with swatches of this and Venus Teal and one other color on the wall determining in various lights what Jenny would like best. I love what she chose. And it went on like silk.

After a lot of work.

Big day

Okay. Officially I'm in love! With Olga's Kitchen. Café. Detroit born and bread, get it?! And there's one right in Jenny's neighborhood... it's Greek. Think pita and gyro and lamb and pasta salad with purple Kalamata olives and artichoke hearts. And cucumber wedges. Um, see these fried, seasoned pita chips? Snackers. You spread almond Swiss cheese on one and then you can't eat just it, not just one, you gotta have another. Like Lays potato chips but way better. Way better! I gobbled my Oga's Original, amazingly cooked lamb bits encased in Olga's secret recipe pita bread (the bread looks grilled), mayo, tomato, crisp, raw, biting onion, and I'm in heaven! The pasta salad I ordered too was understated, perfect with the once-in-a-while salty bite of olive or the briny artichoke heart.

We ate at Olga's in the middle of a busy day out. We'd gotten up early (I lay in bed really early not going walking); early enough to get to a couple of stores in town for clothes shopping, then we crossed the street and had lunch – shopping does make you hungry.

Then headed for Ann Arbor. A2 ("A"-two) the natives call it, or A² ("A" Squared)... and boy, today we shouldn't have been anywhere near the place! What'd'ya' know: It's end of rush week for the University of Michigan college kids, wow. And the day before Game Day. Tomorrow's the University of Michigan's first football game of the season. (Yah I know... I'm excited about Auburn's tomorrow too against Arkansas; got that game set up to record on the SEC channel at Jenny's.)



People. Were. Everywhere. College kids moving along Hill Street near campus: girls crowding sidewalks and street intersections and parking lots of apartment buildings dressed in short shorts and pretty-much-matching sorority shirts, cluster-gaggles of 'em, sororities streaming all directions... guys the same, shirtless or in their own fraternity-wear over plaid shorts or cut-offs, milling or lounging read partying on couches in front of large, older homes-turned-frat-houses. Jen and I slowed on the street behind standstill traffic and gawked. I admit. I forgot to take pictures, or thought it'd be rude... the picture above is from "The Ann Arbor News" last year at this time and today looks just like it, no kidding.



Here's one I grabbed at last. We got further along, could get up to speed and soon we were near the stadium, called The Big House, Home of Michigan Football, with its impressive "M." Here Jen and I had decided we wanted pictures... and we pulled into unauthorized parking and climbed out.



Yeah. Turns out Robert posted the one of me above on Facebook within the hour (Jenny sent it to him; he's in DC) stating "my mother-in-law now cheers for the Maize and blue." (He's big, big on Michigan. He works on campus. To my children's horror, they having collective hands over their hearts for Ohio State University, U of M's biggest rival.) To which it is worth taking space here to mention Brad responded: "She does not... she is there against her will." And Erin quipped, "Maize and poo." Rob came right back using the potty word again and Jenny chimed in "Ew." Erin ended "I only liked your comment Robert because it probably annoyed Jenny." (Brother, that's junk. Don't like FB.)

Really?


University of Michigan, here I am seeing you – kind'a just from the street.



Now I wanna see some of Ann Arbor.



Kind'a village-y. Really like that here, the whole campus thing behind us and normal (well...) folks out on a pretty day strolling the storefronts and enjoying lunch at tables under umbrellas. (Not so much pictured, that... the college kids were behind us bingeing and downtown is positively laconic.) Though we still crawled in traffic. Never should've come to Ann Arbor today if we were in a hurry which, apparently, we couldn't be.



More to go. Jen and I had thought from here to hook up at Arborland shopping center, get me to a Dress Barn to look for clothes. Though we were pooped. I'd jumped out of the car back near the stadium and crossed into a neighborhood walking the street with my camera with Jen kind'a following me in the car before we drove from there finally toward downtown... and now she was done.

Pretty, huh!



And we were dopey now from lunch. We drove past Arborland (bye bye) emerging from the city at increasing speeds and entered Ypsi again heading south. Now in the area of the city where she's lived most of these two years with Robert and the kids, we visited their old house and saw the adjoining park and elementary school the kids went to year before last; and up the street a ways, their church – still and now the church they attend though they've recently moved north many miles. In Michigan, as in Georgia and Ohio and Florida and Texas, other places our family's lived, LDS church buildings are not around the corner virtually as they are in Utah. You travel a ways on Sundays.

We passed Ford Lake coming and going, in the afternoon light a beautiful spot! Picked up drinks at McDonald's and landed at the new library.



Jenny bragged on it, and I think it's fabulous! Don't you think libraries are, well, sanctuaries? We took time admiring and wandered amid shelves and shelves of books, the quiet a bless-ed, absolute relief from the clamor of all this day.



The balding young man behind the check-out desk was soft-spoken and precise. Like a monk. Jenny knows him from being here plenty of other times she says, often with Isaac and Brigham. She said as we came to the car he's probably, like, where's those noisy kids?!

Am I done? I think I'm done. Big day.

Glad to be!

Early morning walking and mini-jogging. I'm not a jogger. I just try. I do that for a mini-mum of time, heh!



Really, really? How beautiful always the light!



My first morning here and we're not going anywhere fast. All good – Jenny had carpet guys set up to come pull up the old and put down the new. Carpet. She's stoked, as the old was bad. She and Robert bought this house eight months ago and the family that was there before them hadn't changed the carpet out from the family that was there before them who had ten kids. Yikes!

I sat on the furniture stock-piled in the kitchen, two couches, two end tables with lamps, various and sundry things, with my feet up and took pictures. We two girls yakked with the two carpet guys; rather, they talked and talked at us while they worked. Must make the time go faster for them.

Done...



... and done. Just this one room on the main floor and fifteen stair treads.



We donned swimsuits and and cover-ups later and drove one block to the community pool to lay out. Today is sunny, the one sunny day forecast for the whole week. Rain's coming... we did get in the pool a bit but mainly for an hour and a half just got sunburned. (Relaxed.)

I'd sure hoped we'd head to Walmart to look for shirts this afternoon. It's what I was hoping for immediately after my walk/jog around the neighborhood though Jen isn't a morning person and, besides, well, there was the whole carpet thing. I'm a fool lately for Danskin pullovers from Wal-Mart, semi-fitted. Someone else's Walmart is always enticing to me – maybe it's got styles mine doesn't or sizes mine doesn't, right? We bustled around getting ready finally to go to town.

Though, erm, before we got past the porch Jen noticed she needed to water her flowers. Her impatiens, which've rioted here in August and are drinking like they're living in the desert! Nope, good old humid Michigan, and they're kept happy as Jenny waters them every other day. Not only that, she deadheads the plants each time, pinching two-day-old (or otherwise faded) blooms away to make room for buds to open. She's a plant tender (not so much though for the goldfish in a bowl in Isaac's room – she's delegated feeding the fish to me already as Isaac is away for the week); so she had me squatting at each of several pots for ten minutes or so deadheading, while she watered.

Truthfully, I'm impressed. She's about ecstatic over these little beauties flourishing!



I did buy shirts at Walmart. You know, Michigan's Walmart has winter stuff out already; I picked up three long-sleeved really cool Dri-more biking shirts. Well, not exactly biking shirts but great for biking! Crew-neck, semi-fitted, long, clingy, a little water repellent. Under ten dollars each, (Ooo, if there's ever rain my brakes on my bike won't work so well so, no, water repellent's not important. You gotta know though the material's kind'a silky.) Purple, turquoise and a delicious gray. I did buy a clearance short-sleeved V-necked pullover too, striped turquoise, color on color. Good deal! ($3)

Well Jenny and I have made a good start today... she's shown me a lot about her neighborhood and town and keeps saying she can't believe I'm really here! I am! And glad to be!

What did I do today?

Here I am at a on my blog here on September 2nd mentally backtracking through my five days in Michigan... the cursor's blinking over this white page and because it's been almost a week ago I'm not remembering August 27th....

Oh yah! I flew. It was the day I got up early and to the airport. Not much to report here really, Kent drove me to the curb next to Frontier and kissed me goodbye and went home and back to bed as I checked my bag and got through security and waited and waited and waited at the gate.

I don't love airports. Don't. Love. Flying. I DO love being there! I flew into Denver and didn't even wait at the gate for my connecting flight, simply stepped onto the plane and we took off. It was seamless. That, though, was in part due to what Frontier's done lately with us who buy Economy tickets: if we don't (since I won't) pay $8 now to choose preferred seating (yes, I opted for the low-low price of an Economy ticket not knowing I'd have to pay to choose my seat, darn) – (and this is not the upgrade for more leg room mind you, regular seats) – my reservation's thrown into like a raffle and I'm assigned what's available at check-in time or close to flight time if I've waited to check in at the counter. My boarding pass printed up seats in rows 23 and 22 consecutively for my flights today, so coming from SL, mm, I was at the back of the plane. The very back. Hence, it was an awful long time I waited to get off it and into the terminal and I was only in time to walk to my connecting gate and board the next plane almost last.

I'd like to add here (since it is September 2nd today and I am backtracking) that flying home the other day the last leg of my trip I sat in 8F! Row 8! I was nearly first off the plane after we landed! Whoohooo! Stroke of luck.

Okay, into Denver we flew seamlessly and then out again two hours and forty minutes into Detroit, arriving mid afternoon Michigan time. I waited a while here, as Jenny's been at work several days now and needed to stay at school today still as I flew in... but it was alright. I didn't mind. I people-watched. Gee there's a lot of interesting people in the Detroit airport! Jen then did get there good and quick after school was out and we drove home to a project at her house: the Deacons and Teachers over for a YM activity. To continue work on Jenny's new deck.

I hadn't been at her house an hour before all manner of youngsters arrived and work sounds began coming from the back yard. These guys had adult leaders beside them and they worked well into the evening. Jenny and I baked Devil's Food Cake cookies inside as they worked out, batter-balls rolled in powdered sugar that baked into crinkles. Who knew these'd be so good!? The YM scarfed 'em, along with Popsicles Jen found in her freezer and offered. Here's what they finished, below... spindles along one side of the deck where none had yet been placed, and pre-drilling others for Robert and Jenny to attach on their own. DIY made easy.



Then they were gone and the sun was setting and it was getting night and I was tired.

Sunday worship

Can I just say I love teaching Gospel Doctrine? It's become a new level of Sunday worship. I can say this only after standing before our Sunday School class three or four times now with fear and trembling and realizing, eh, we're all friends here, no one's gonna' bite. My worse consideration is that someone IS going to ask a hard question one of these days, something deeply doctrinal that I'll not know how to answer. It'll be awkward. Won't I look stupid!!! But I'm getting over that – I realize if I don't know the answer someone in class does and THEY can be put on the spot! Deflection! Delegation, whatever you want to call it. I'll defer.

There are wonderfully sound minds among the class members. Well-studied and -traveled folks. Yesterday we discussed righteous King Hezekiah in 2nd Chronicles who cleansed the temple at Jerusalem; Solomon's temple. Hezekiah instituted again for the Judahites and Israelites (any who would travel to the Southern Kingdom) the celebration of the Feast of Unleavened Bread and The Passover. Over time and with a covenant to keep Jehovah's law he garnered the trust and faith and faithfulness of these good saints. Truly, he garnered to the Lord God Jehovah the hearts of His children.

Later  – his city Jerusalem attacked and besieged by the wicked King of Assyria – Hezekiah diverted precious water from the spring of Gihon into the Pool of Siloam from without the city gates to within, covering fountains outside the walls that would also have supplied water to the Assyrians. Without life-giving water his people would die in a long siege.

We do have knowledgeable class members and I always hope someone'll jump in with a personal story of being there; or knowing for themselves.

That happened yesterday as one brother talked about the literal protection Hezekiah's Tunnel was to his daughter when one year she visited there and, coincidentally, shooting started in the area! Additionally, after class (the start of Relief Society) I sat down by a sister who confided to me she'd been to Hezekiah's Tunnel. I'm like, why didn't you jump up and tell us about it? She laughed and had no good answer... guess she didn't want to be a show-off or something. (She's the other Gospel Doctrine teacher and when I'm teaching she just wants to be a regular person, right?) 'Stead, I get to keep steamrolling in class about stuff I've only read about.

Though I do a lot of reading to prepare; and a lot is coming back to me from teaching Old Testament in Seminary a few years ago. I love this stuff!
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P.S. So I wrote the word "worshiped" on the board during my lesson yesterday knowing "worship" only has one p in past tense... but turned and asked opinions about that. Someone hollered (NOW THEY'RE VOLUNTEERING LIKE CRAZY, EVERYBODY'S A SPELLER) it reads "worshipped" in the scriptures so I stuck to that spelling lest any person think I can't spell! When I got home I Googled: Is it "worshiped" or "worshipped?" and got this↓. I do like it. I'm learning. (Spell-check on my computer put a red line under "worshipped"... bleh...)

And you don't have to take time to read it just, well... if you ever need to know... (there's a moral at the end of the story).

English grammar hints and tips: (link) Is it worshipped or worshiped?

Verbs ending in ‘p’: Most verbs ending in ‘p’ after an unstressed vowel have no doubling of that final consonant in standard received British English or American English. Here are some which follow the ‘most verbs’ rule: ‘develop’, ‘gossip’, ‘gallop’ – these become just ‘developing/developed’, ‘gossiping/gossiped’, ‘galloping/galloped’. Even here, there are pesky exceptions: ‘worship’, ‘handicap’ and ‘kidnap’ become ‘worshipping/worshipped’, ‘handicapping/handicapped’ and ‘kidnapping/kidnapped’ in standard received British English.

Forget trying to remember pesky exceptions. If all else fails Always follow the scriptures.

How it should be

My neighbor

No Ordinary People

A lawyer in Jesus' time, thrusting the question who is my neighbor? upon the Savior, was given a penetrating answer in the parable of the Good Samaritan: God is the Father of us all and therefore we are brothers one to another. We are to esteem every man as our brother, our neighbor as ourselves.

I've read C. S. Lewis' The Weight of Glory. Though it's been a long time, paragraphs from it got under my skin then and it's way good now to re-read them. I've posted these quotes before (link), in fact August a year ago. I titled that post "Awesome." 

It may be possible for each to think too much of his own potential glory hereafter; it is hardly possible for him to think too often or too deeply about that of his neighbour. The load, or weight, or burden of my neighbour’s glory should be laid on my back, a load so heavy that only humility can carry it, and the backs of the proud will be broken.

It is a serious thing to live in a society of possible gods and goddesses, to remember that the dullest and most uninteresting person you talk to may one day be a creature which, if you saw it now, you would be strongly tempted to worship, or else a horror and a corruption such as you now meet, if at all, only in a nightmare. All day long we are in some degree helping each other to one or other of these destinations. It is in the light of these overwhelming possibilities, it is with the awe and the circumspection proper to them, that we should conduct all our dealings with one another, all friendships, all loves, all play, all politics.

There are no ordinary people. You have never talked to a mere mortal. Nations, cultures, arts, civilizations – these are mortal, and their life is to ours as the life of a gnat. But it is immortals whom we joke with, work with, marry, snub and exploit – immortal horrors or everlasting splendors.”

The illustration way below is just right! When I saw this I literally thought of these words ↓ ...

This does not mean that we are to be perpetually solemn. We must play. But our merriment must be of that kind (and it is, in fact, the merriest kind) which exists between people who have, from the outset, taken each other seriously—no flippancy, no superiority, no presumption. And our charity must be a real and costly love, with deep feeling for the sins in spite of which we love the sinner—no mere tolerance or indulgence which parodies love as flippancy parodies merriment. Next to the Blessed Sacrament itself, your neighbour is the holiest object presented to your senses. If he is your Christian neighbour he is holy in almost the same way, for in him also Christ vere latitat—the glorifier and the glorified, Glory Himself, is truly hidden.

Matthew 25:40: “Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me.”

On our bike ride a couple of times ago...

...we took this detour off the bike path over the Jordan River 'cause for sure when you come to a bridge you gotta' cross it, right?



To see what's on the other side?



'Course on the other side I took pictures. Duh.



We walked a way and came on a granary. We stood and gazed a while inside the fenced walls – there's a plaque that says it's such, a one room storage building apparently recently moved from West Valley City where it was first constructed in 1878 (after the Salt Lake pioneers moved west) and placed here along the river. Right here at the site of that first crossing by these pioneers.



We chanced on it... across the bridge... or the bridge has been built (it's new) to lead us right to it. I think it's interesting.



Boy howdy, this is too! See?



Kent, I hollered ( he'd gone ahead of me). A SNAKESKIN! A dang snake came out of this! You can even see its EYES!

I've seen that before, he called back. I'm a farm boy, remember?



Oh brother – he's always telling me that. I thought it was the coolest!