Paul's Birthday Celebrations

Paul had an important birthday on Sunday. He felt about as blue about turning 60 as I felt in November when I passed this barrier. I wanted to launch some kind of celebration for him, something that he would feel comfortable about. I invited Peter, Kortney and Eleanor, Jono and Erika and my parents and brother and his son to join us for dinner, and then I tried to think of some gifts that would be interesting to him. We had a conversation the evening before his birthday where he asked if I had gotten him some item (this was after I had completed my shopping… and I said—“you have never even mentioned wanting this!” --Mostly, when Paul wants something he just buys it—so I am left primarily with buying gifts for him that I think that he might like—or things that I want him to have, or things that will just end up in the garbage bin….). Anyway, I wanted to find some gift giving idea that was more than just regular, because after all this was his 60th birthday. 60 is a special birthday, and I wanted to give something to Paul that showed I had put some thought into it. So I did what any 21st century wife might do—I looked at gift suggestions on the internet and I came across a website of a woman whose father-in-law was turning 60 and she and her husband wanted to do something a little different—so I used her idea and modified it for Paul. Their idea that it would be cool to investigate the headlines of 1953 (the year the birthday person was born) and link those headlines up with some appropriate and nice presents. I thought it was a great idea and so I found a website with the major, worldwide events of 1955—Paul’s year of birth. After some research, and reading a LOT of random facts-- I picked out seven events that I thought I could use to associate with seven gifts. As I looked through all (more than 100) events for that year on the website, I kept brainstorming presents they could link to that I thought Paul might like. I enlisted Erika and bounced ideas off her and listened to her suggestions. I wrote the headlines down on tags that looked like luggage tags with some little explanations that explained the relationship of the headline to the gift on the reverse side. After that, I headed off shopping with a VERY specific shopping list to get the gifts to match the headlines... • MARCH 1955: A young Jim Henson builds the first version of Kermit the Frog. March 29, 2015--You may think of Kermit as a plushy stuffed animal—here is another plushy item to comfort you. (Gift was a new bed pillow.) • April 12, 1955: The Salk polio vaccine, having passed large-scale trials earlier in the United States, receives full approval by the Food and Drug Administration. March 29, 2015--Vaccinations are just one way to promote good health and it is important to look for many ways to protect ourselves. (New farm and work gloves) • July 18, 1955: Disneyland opens to the public in Anaheim, California. March 29, 2015--From the Matterhorn, to Mickey Mouse—Walt Disney made his mark, did you know that The Mickey Mouse Club also started in 1955 and that Lady and the Tramp was released? (Disney licensed candy and Tobleron's with Matterhorn logo.) • July 18, 1955: The first nuclear-generated electrical power is sold commercially, partially powering the town of Arco, Idaho. March 29, 2015--Nuclear generated electricity started in Idaho—and there are other things that remind us of our Idahoan Heritage. (Potato chips, instant potatoes and Idaho Spud) • August 27, 1955: First edition of the Guinness Book of Records is published, in London. March 29, 2015--Many people find the Guinness Book of World Records fascinating reading—others choose to read drivel, nonsense, and twaddle. Here is thinking of you-- (Bathroom reader-joke book) • September 10, 1955: The long-running program Gunsmoke debuts on the CBS-TV network. March 29, 2015--There may not be any smoke involved in this gift, but there will definitely be a gun. (Gift certificate for a new Framing Nail Gun) • December 1, 1955: In Montgomery, Alabama, Rosa Parks refuses to obey bus driver James F. Blake's order that she give up her seat to make room for a white passenger and is arrested, leading to the Montgomery Bus Boycott. March 29, 2015--In Sandy, Utah, Paul Kern is given a special seat—to be used on the Petersboro property, leading to restful reflection during barn building. (New folding camp chair) On Sunday, everyone arrived for dinner at about 6:00 p.m. Erika and Jono now come with their dog, Ollie, who is just as cute as can be. We all adore him. And he is a very sweet, mellow, dog—who will be huge sometime in the future, but is still a medium sized dog now—much bigger than when they got him. We had appetizers and dinner to much jolly laughter and visiting. When we finished dinner, but before the birthday cake and ice cream dessert--- we retired to the living room where I had set up a gift station. The gifts that others had brought and the pile of seven gifts from me—were set up in front of the fireplace door in the living room. From the mantle, I hung a large paper on which I had copied a poem that Erika and I worked on together. We all read it aloud as a chorus-- 60 years since he arrived Thought we’d go back to ’55. To see what happened in the year That our Paul Reinhold did appear. The world was changing, quick and fast And Paul, he sure would see it pass New inventions; all things change! At times it must’ve seemed quite strange So back we’ll go-and we’ll revive, Some gems from 1955. And then we began to open the gifts—it was fun and interesting to think about the things that happened in 1955. And some among us remembered details about events and ideas that occurred to them as we discussed various things. Paul reminisced a little about his life experiences. It was a good time. I don’t know that Paul “loved” every gift, but I think he knew that I had put some thought and effort into them, and so that was a good thing. The children had also gotten him interesting and thoughtful gifts so it was a well-rounded evening. Opening gifts turned out to be quite fun and entertaining for everyone. I got one more thing for him that wasn’t a part of the 1955 series. When we moved back to Utah from Europe, as I bought white shirts for Paul, I had the cuffs monogrammed. I had been doing this for years and a couple of years ago, I stopped buying them from the company that I had been ordering them from and so I stopped having them monogrammed. In all these 17 years, no one had made any comment on them—and so it didn’t seem a big deal to stop. Then suddenly this year in about a month’s time two different and quite disparate people commented on one of the shirts still in rotation that was monogrammed—Paul report this to me, and I thought maybe I should go back to the monogramming again. So I did buy him four new, white shirts with monogrammed cuffs. (Paul actually thinks white work shirts are a very poor birthday gift—but these are quite nice shirts, I am using a new, and better shirt company now and they do a super job.) After the gift extravaganza, we went back to the dining table for cake and ice cream. I made a chocolate brownie tort for his cake. It was a Rachel Ray recipe that I modified to be gluten free and I wasn’t sure how well it would work, but it turned out very rich and chocolaty and everyone liked it very much, especially nice with ice cream. So generally, it was a jolly evening with lots of activity and a house full of people and a celebratory atmosphere. Happy Birthday to Paul!! We are gearing up for a big Saturday in Petersboro, Paul has engaged an older woman to help him on Saturday—and hopes with her help to get five beams in place. It will be a busy Saturday, but real progress will be possible with the two of us working together. We are looking forward to our trip to Loveland the next weekend.

Progress on the Barn, Trip to Hagerman's Cowboy Poets and Muscian Gathering, Visit to Twin Falls Temple

This weekend Paul and I drove to Hagerman, Idaho for a Cowboy Poetry weekend. This event has been going on for nine years, but this is the first time that Paul and I have attended and for being in a small town in a rather remote area of Idaho, it pulls in some high caliber performers and some respectable crowds. Paul was assigned to the evening show on Friday night and three sets during the day on Saturday. The logistics of this event were complicated by the fact that Paul wanted to do some work on the barn during the day on Friday. He took a personal day and went to Petersboro first thing on Friday morning. I went to work and then got off at 11:15. I drove to our property and was able to see the progress that Paul has made on the construction process. He has been preparing the footings and putting in the fourteen support beams. He finished the first three last Saturday and on Friday he had put in two more while working alone through the morning. I arrived at about 1:00 and got a tour of all his hard work, helped him pack up the tools and we headed off. It was about a three hour drive from Petersboro to Hagerman. I was personally interested in going to Hagerman because I wanted to go to the Twin Falls Temple during some free moment during the weekend. Paul knew that Hagerman was in the same area as Twin Falls, but didn’t know exactly how far away; he knew they were both in the Magic Valley area and so I expressed a desire to disappear during part of the event to go attend an endowment session in the temple. This was an area of Idaho that I knew practically nothing about, but it was really an interesting and geographically diverse area. We drove directly to Bliss, Idaho where we were staying in the Amber Inn Hotel. Bliss is 8 miles north of Hagerman and pretty much a tiny, tiny community. After checking in we drove to Hagerman—we were on the upper level of the Snake River Valley plain there, but dropped into a really interesting valley when we got to Hagerman. There were black lava rock formations on one side of the valley and smooth, green rolling hills on the other side. Bliss is right on Interstate 84, but Hagerman is off the main drag. Hagerman had three venues for their Cowboy Poetry and Musicians Gathering. They were an American Legion Hall, the Division 1 High School Gymnasium/Auditorium and a good sized enclosed Flea market building where they had set up a small sound stage. Paul performed in both the Legion Hall and the Auditorium. They had ticketed events on both Friday night and Saturday night and open/free to the public sets on Friday all day and Saturday all day. Paul performed on the Friday night show and afterwards many of the performers gathered together at the house where one of the bands was staying for visiting, camaraderie and a jam session. Between going to bed late, in preparation for leaving the next day, and working a half day and driving to Petersboro and then driving on to Hagerman and sitting through a three hour program, I was just exhausted, but the social hour and jam session was in Hagerman and our hotel was in Bliss. So I suggested to Paul that I just stay in the car and take a nap while he went in and jammed and fraternized. I was so tired that I fell sound asleep and slept for the whole time, about two hours, that Paul was jamming with the other guitar players. He had a really good time, sharing ideas and techniques and stuff with the other musicians and I caught up on some badly needed rest. In the morning we headed back to the venues and Paul did a set from 10:00-11:00. He had one at 12:00-1:00 and another one from 2:00-3:00. I didn't see the last two sets because I got in the car and headed off to Twin Falls. It was about 30 miles away. I didn't know how long it would take to get there and actually find the temple. I was unsure whether the temple would stick out and be visible or whether I would have trouble finding it, but I had googlemaps to help me and I really had very little challenge finding it. I could see it as I got off the freeway exit and I followed my directions, but could see it the whole time, too. This temple has very specific session times. One session every two hours-- so even though I arrived at about 12:00, I had to wait until 1:00 for the next session. This is a relatively small temple, but very pretty. The locker room and endowment rooms are on the second story, I suppose the baptistery is on the main floor somewhere, though I did not see it. The temple does not have a chapel, so patrons are ushered right into the first endowment room, which has a beautiful mural of the Shoshone Falls and the mesa landscape. Really quite wonderful. Because I had a considerable wait, I was really able to study and enjoy it. This temple has a two room endowment set-up and then passage into the celestial room which was also very lovely. I had a nice time and was glad that I had gone to the trouble of making time for this visit. I drove back to Hagerman and connected with Paul, who had been awash in cowboy poetry and music all day long. I got back at about 4:00. He wasn't performing in the Saturday evening show and kind of wanted a break. So we went back to our hotel, Paul changed out of his cowboy performing clothing and we went off for a date night. We drove back to Twin Falls, had dinner and stopped to see the Snake River gorge scenic view point. Then we went to see the new live action version of Cinderella, which we both enjoyed very much. Sunday morning at nine o’clock there was “Cowboy Church” which is a non-denominational Christian-ish meeting with poets and musicians performing their more “religious” pieces. That was a pleasant diversion and there were some very nice pieces of poetry and songs. Then at 10:00 we attended our LDS meetings at the Hagerman ward building. And then we got in the car and headed home. We had to stop in Petersboro to pick up the truck—we had gone in separate cars up to there and so Paul and I drove the last hour and a half separately. We had a very nice weekend, and now it is time to launch into a new week. I was trying to finish a book for my book club last Thursday, so I didn't get anything done except read in the evenings last week, this week I want to get back down in my sewing room, get some work on my quilts done and finish my ironing….. another week has begun.

The Petersboro Barn, Eleanor's Visit, ACT and another weekend trip upcoming

It’s a new week and it seems a long time since I wrote last, but it only has been a week. We had a very busy and fully occupied weekend. Paul has been working with intensity on the barn the last few weeks, preparing the materials and hauling them to Petersboro. This past weekend he started putting the barn up. He left for Petersboro early on Saturday morning with the goal to put up three of the upright poles (three of the fourteen perimeter poles. This was a huge step because it means it has really started. Paul came home exhausted, dirty and very happy. I won’t see the results of his labors until Friday when I will be there to witness the work he has done. This is exciting because we have been thinking and imagining this barn for a long time, and now it is finally coming together. My weekend was occupied with a visit from Eleanor. She came on Friday evening and stayed with us until Sunday evening. She is not quite three and half yet, and so bright and lively and interested. We had a lot of fun. I had organized a whole series of activities which I thought she would enjoy and we did do a lot. We started out the morning visiting and feeding the horses. Then we headed to the Dollar Store, where we picked out a couple of small gifts for cousins, Jonathan and Andrew, --and a little something for Eleanor, too—The idea was to make a package for them and send it to them, a gift from one cousin to her other cousins. She picked out some little wooden vehicles, cars, and fire truck and monster trucks. We hope our Ukrainian cousins like them. There is a young couple that lives next door to us with a daughter exactly Eleanor’s age and while we were playing in the pack yard, Matt called to me and invited Eleanor over to play with Adri. They played outside for a little while and in Adri's playroom, too. Eleanor had a blast with a “new friend.” Erika and Jono came over for lunch—and brought Ollie (who promptly ate a pair of Eleanor’s carelessly discarded socks—fortunately coughing them up on Sunday). Ollie is the most adorable dog in the world—such a nice disposition, pleasant and genuine. We all love him. While Erika and Jono were here we painted pet rocks. Eleanor made a really nice card for Jonathan and Andrew and after Erika and Jono left we packaged the card and gifts into a box and took it to the post office for shipping. We also made stops at the local pet store (a super easy zoo experience) and the library. We also had to make a second trip to the pasture for the evening horse feeding. On top of everything else, both Paul and I were giving lessons in Sunday School and Priesthood on Sunday so in the evening there were lessons to prepare, but we had a really fun time with a very responsive three year old. We had a great time. Sunday we had a family dinner at my parents’ house and that was where we made the exchange with Eleanor back to her parents. Peter and Kortney were looking for a last getaway before the baby comes and while Kortney is still capable of taking a hike. They went to Canyonlands for a hike with Kortney's brother and sister in law. They has a great time, too. Peter called in the evening and they had finished their hikes, and were having dinner somewhere out in the countryside before heading back to Utah County. It was nice for them not to have to worry about coming home super-fast to pick up Eleanor on Saturday evening. This week I administered the ACT and I was pleased that I didn't have to void any tests or kick any students out of the administration. I have been doing this for a long time now, and have gotten pretty good at organizing and ordering it. I am no longer the site supervisor for Brighton High School, and Corner Canyon is still too new to be a site, but I expect that I will be doing it there into the future sometime. Paul and I are heading to Hagerman, Idaho, to attend another Cowboy Poetry event, Paul is taking Friday off to go to Petersboro to work on the barn. I will leave work a little early and meet him there—we will drive up to Idaho together. Paul is performing at the Friday night show, and during the day on Saturday. I hope to get a bunch of handwork done, and also attend an endowment session in the Twin Falls Temple. It should be a fun weekend for both of us.

K.C.'s Wedding, Cowboy Rendezvous in Hyrum, Building the Barn

In January I bought a membership at a gym close to our house. I have been a walker for years, but I was feeling like I needed a little work on strength and muscle training. I worked with a trainer for a couple of weeks getting some counsel on what weight machines I should be working on and at what weights. I told her, I am not a body builder, I don’t want to be aching all the time from straining too hard, I don’t want to injure myself in any way—what should I be doing. And she worked me through a series of fitness machines, arms, core, back and legs. And so I am going to the gym about four or five times a week. It is one of the things that is taking up some of my time. I am not losing weight particularly, and I don’t look remarkably different, but I do feel like I am not quite as creaky as I used to be. I still have some regular aches and pains, my knees are never going to be the youthful joints they once were, but I feel like they and hips are a bit looser than they used to be. I am also doing about a half an hour each visit on the elliptical machine. In the beginning I was using muscles that were unused to being moved in the way that elliptical machine works, but now I hop on and do about four miles an hour for half an hour while watching the news on the big screens in the gym. I try to get there after work and before dinner, but I have gone in the evening, too, which takes a big bite out of my evening. Anyway—I am trying to stave of the ravages of time and keep myself limber-er, at least. We are beginning to work on the barn in Petersboro in earnest. I use the word we very loosely. Paul has already done a lot of work and I have assisted him a couple of times. The vision changes regularly. In the beginning I had hoped to have a cute little “get-away space” in the loft where we could stay after the barn was built but before the house was finished. Paul ordered some plans that had a real apartment in the loft, a really fun, cute apartment, but kind of more than I thought we would ever have in a barn. Then he made some inquiries at the time he was applying for a building permit and found out that the way our property is zoned there can only be one residence on the property—if there is a “residence” in the barn, then a house can’t be built. So then we abandoned the idea of an apartment in the loft. However, in contradiction of the zoning—we might still “camp” from time to time in the loft, there just won’t be a living room, dining area, kitchenette and bedroom. There will be a blow up mattress and maybe an electric frying pan—so there. It is still a really attractive possibility for us and watching Paul work out the details of the building, doing prefabrication on the back patio and hauling materials to Petersboro has been interesting to watch. We have a member of our ward who is an engineer, specializing in steel and Paul has consulted with her several times about the steel pole framing that he is working on. He has been up to Petersboro many times digging holes for the concrete footings and doing other preparation work. I have a sense that this is really going to happen. Whatever we end up with in the loft, remains to be seen, but we will have a very impressive barn—a place for Paul to keep his stuff; it will be big enough for the surrey and the two sleighs, and the tractor and a workbench, hay and a couple of stalls for the horses. We are really excited about it. This month sometime we are also graveling the driveway—at least the approach from the road onto our property. We graveled a little section a couple of years ago so that Paul could drive the truck and trailer onto the property, but to meet code the grade can’t be any steeper than 10% so we will be requiring some significant fill to achieve that mild a grade compared to what we have now. We bought a permit to do this, but it has to be completed in 60 days and we are already 30 days in, so it will have to be done sometime this month. Paul and I spent last weekend in Hyrum, Utah—the other end of Cache Valley from Petersboro. The events that we attended in Hyrum were held in a lovely, big high school that services that end of the valley, called Mountain Crest High School. The event that we attended is an annual event called the Cache Valley Cowboy Rendezvous: A reunion of Cowboy Poets, Western Music & Artisans. It has been going for five years, and Paul and I have attended for the last four. It is a very impressive event with two ticketed concerts with headliner artists and three other stages with many cowboy and western musicians and poets. The community of cowboy poets and musicians is relatively small and so these events are a way that these various performers get a chance to visit with each other and see what one another are doing. We have become very friendly with a number of these performers. Paul did ten and twenty minute sets throughout the evening on Friday and during the day on Saturday. On Saturday evening, there is a family dance with Western and Western Swing music. We have attended it a couple of times, but chose to go out to dinner and make it an earlier evening this time. There is also a large vendor area, where artisans of various stripes can hawk their wares. There is always an interesting assortment of things to buy. Last year, I bought a simple food slicer from the Pampered Chef booth—(not really a western vendor, but did a brisk business anyway), but this year I didn't buy anything. I settled in at the Elkhorn Stage audience, and did handwork and listened to a morning and an afternoon of performers. In the late morning we bumped into a couple we know from Back Country Horseman in Salt Lake City, who had heard about the gathering on the Community Corner segment in the TV news, and also a blurb in the local Tooele paper (where they live) and decided to come and check it out. We sat through some sets with them and then had lunch in the cafeteria where another vendor had set up a Dutch oven and chuck wagon lunch. It was fun to visit with them and have someone to have lunch with. One of the headliners for this gathering was the Bar D Ranglers—(not to be confused with the Bar J Ranglers from Wilson, Wyoming—although there are some remarkable similarities in the two groups). The Bar D Wranglers are a western music singing group from the Bar D Chuckwagon Suppers in Durango, Colorado. The group has performed for over 2.5 million guests at their Durango location as well as countless other stages and venues around the United States. The group began performing at the Bar D Chuckwagon in June of 1969 and continues the tradition nightly throughout the summer months. When the Bar D Wranglers take their show on the road, they perform the classic cowboy- western music for which they are so well-known, as well as award-winning instrumental and comedy songs and crowd-pleasing stories that will delight the entire family. They were wonderful musicians and one of the guitar players is a champion flat picker and did a couple of amazing solos during the course of their concert which Paul and I attended on Friday evening. Gary Cook, this guitar player, also hosted a flat picking guitar workshop on Saturday morning, which Paul attended. For Paul, it was an incredible experience—this guitar player was such a virtuoso in the flat picking department and really a consummate musician that Paul felt it was well worth his attendance. There were about twenty guitar players in attendance and half of them were guitar players who were performing artists at this rendezvous—they all wanted to attend his workshop, pick up a few tips and hear about his experiences. Paul did a really nice job in his sets. He now plays the guitar and then talks over the music as he presents his poetry. It is very pleasant to have the musical background to his poetry and he is careful about the music he selects to go under his poems, so that they blend nicely together. I enjoy listening to him perform. His performances have evolved over time since the first days when he just did poetry without music. He has really enjoyed playing the guitar the last couple of years. While we were in Hyrum he reconnected with a musician friend of ours named Clive Romney. He is actually a relative of mine, sort of. His wife and I are second cousins on the Gates side, but we see him much more at Western gatherings of different kinds than we do in family settings. Anyway, he is a serious musician and plays the guitar very well, and as he and Paul chatted, they came to an understanding that Paul would take a few lessons from Clive to improve his level of guitar playing. He had his first lesson with Clive on Monday. Clive’s focus, at least with Paul, is for him to learn to read music instead of just read guitar chords—since he already knows how to read music (those 11 years of piano lessons paying of big time now) this has been an easy transition. This week he has been practicing playing the guitar from notation, and it is coming easily. Clive points out that if you know how to convert notation to guitar playing, you can play anything, not just stuff that has guitar chords, which is so true. Anyway, playing the guitar continues to be a very satisfying outlet for Paul. We were really happy that so many family members were able to come to California to join with us in celebrating K.C.’s wedding and festivities. Neither K.C. nor Elizabeth, nor any of their immediate family members live in California. They chose Oakland because Elizabeth’s grandparents do not travel anymore and she wanted them to be a part of her wedding. The Oakland Temple is huge, and very pretty and in a lovely setting with a huge stake center and a visitor’s center. The ceremony was very nice and it was some kind of wonderful to see K.C. married and so happy and in love. We had a nice time on the temple grounds visiting and taking photographs. Even though the exact mileage to the luncheon and reception center wasn't that far, it involved crossing the Bay Bridge and took more than an hour. K.C. and Elizabeth were organizing their wedding from long distance and most of the people who were attending were also coming from long distances, so they decided to use the same venue for both the wedding luncheon and the reception. The sit down luncheon was from about 1:00 until 2:00 and then at two o’clock there was a reception. For those of us who went to the wedding in Oakland and then came to the wedding luncheon, the reception was just sort of a continuation of the luncheon, although the caterers changed the luncheon food, to reception food on the buffet table. (K.C. and Elizabeth chose not to have an evening reception because they didn't want to infringe on Valentine’s evening for guests who might want to celebrate that evening rather than attend a reception.) The guests who came to reception portion of the afternoon, were primarily friends of K.C.’s who he knew from the four years he lived in San Francisco, members of his Young Single Adult Ward, people he worked with at Accenture when he was employed there, people he knew from high school, BYU and MIT who had moved to the San Francisco area. There was not a reception line, K.C. and Elizabeth just mingled and visited with these other young adults who they knew. I did not know most of them myself as they were people K.C. knew from his adult life away from home. I had some interesting conversations with members of Elizabeth’s family who I had not met until that day. I had nice conversations with Marilyn, Rob and Cindy and members of my family who had joined us that I don’t get a chance to visit with very often. Many of us found this format very relaxing. Frequently, there is a certain amount of moving around during a wedding day celebrations; one goes from the temple to a wedding luncheon and then everyone is hustled out at a certain time to move to another venue for a reception later in the afternoon or evening. This didn't happen in K.C. and Elizabeth’s case because both events were in the same place and the same caterer provided food for both events. I thought everything was so lovely and simple and calm. Of course, we were very happy to have K.C. and Elizabeth get married, so that anything would have seemed lovely—but I felt it was a beautiful day in every way. We have had contact with K.C. several times since the wedding and everything is going well for them—I do feel sorry that this month K.C. will head off for Korea and leave Elizabeth behind for a few weeks, but they will be getting together in Korea soon. It was a very happy day and we really enjoyed ourselves and were very gratified by the strong support that we received from siblings and family members on both sides of our families.