The kind of exciting stuff I write to my son

2012.09.17 Mom 2      Today is Constitution Day! (and I forgot to wear my jumper with the flag)  I am so grateful for the Constitution of the United States of America.  So grateful to be a citizen of this country.  It has its flaws, but I believe this nation was established by the hand of God and I am so grateful to have been born here.

2012.09.17 Mom 3     No word from the Passport people which I am taking as a good sign.  When you go yours and I didn’t, they gave me a 90 day deadline to meet their requirements.  I think they said that if I did not, they would return my stuff (but not my money)  and no passport. The 90 days was up in early/mid August.  Before we went to Utah, I wrote to them asking for an extension.  Around the 1st of September I sent in the affidavits from Robin and Esque and the copy of the Willits News  (along with some other, no doubt useless, stuff).  I THINK that if I am not going to get a passport, I might have heard back my now.  No news. is good news?


2012.09.19  Mom 2   I made it to the temple again.  What is that?  3 Wednesdays in a row.  I seem to getting my groove back.  No McAllisters tonight.  Bob & Jeanette Turk were there & we visited a bit in the CR.  During session there was at least one lady behind me with a fan.  It was a little bit noisy, but I was jealous.  How often are we somewhere where a hand waved fan is “noisy”?  There was also a brother with a translator in his ear.  It really is quiet in the temple.  

2012.09.19  Mom 3  I was tempted by In-N-Out but I resisted.  I still don’t know if that’s a good thing or not.  But if I go once, I will want to go all the time & that would add up $ & make me late for family prayer.  

201.09.19  Mom 4   Well, all my cubely possessions are on a library cart now.  The gal in charge of the move told us that we would be given 1 box & that was it.  No more boxes.  Even if we provided our own.  Everything else would just have to be stacked.  & we could put stuff in our garbage  & recycle baskets. Fortunately my supe talked to other supes & they said we could have our own boxes as long as they fit on the shelf & don’t stick out.  I have paper boxes I had collected before.  One full of bowls, napkins, cups, plastic ware, salt & pepper – my kitchen box.  I have one full of oatmeal, popcorn, soup, Fiber One Brownies, & stuff like that.  Another box has knick knacks, pictures, stuffed animals, a Stampin Set.  Yesterday, Carrie, the move boss, showed some of us a cubicle the size we will be getting.  Our desks will be deeper and we should have more room.  We will have our own files.  Only thing is, she showed me where she thought my big support column is going to be,
 but that’s not what the plan I was given shows.   My plan shows it much more central in my cube, but not in the middle where the chair is.  She thought it would be on the side near the corner.  We shall see.  I am trying to figure out how to fasten fishing line around the column to make it easier to hang and change out pictures & signs.   My boss expects some good Christmas decorations.  Only thing is she thinks candy canes & such, while I think Christ.  I must consider my approach carefully.  Anyway, I loaded up my cart today & am taking the next couple of days off.  My To Do list looks like I think  have a month.  I know I won’t get it all done.  Some of the jobs any one of them would take weeks.  Or at least several days.  I am slow.  Old & tired.  One of the things I hope to do is actually get some rest & relaxation. 

2012.09.19 Mom 5   The weather is turning really nice.  Not hot, but not quite fall yet.  We are really losing daylight.  Another thing I need to do – fix up my bike lights again.  The wrap arounds don’t work.  I saw them on special on one of those group things again.  NO, thank you!.  Joseph said his aren’t doing too well either.  Great idea, but something goes wrong in implementation.   Since my bike barely fits in my bike locker, I need a light holder that is easy to move down or take off.  Joseph gave me a great extension bar, but some of the hardware fell off when I was riding home months ago & I couldn’t find it.  I need to talk to a helpful hardware man  & see if I can get it fixed up.  Anyway, it’s nice biking now, but soon I will be dealing with dark riding.  I need to make sure the guys check out their lights, too. 

2012.09.19 Mom 10:24pm  Just as I was about to tell you how pleased I am that Anna often goes out & runs with the neighbor yappers without barking, I hear her.  I think it is more bark at anything that moves in case it is an intruder  than barking at each other - the neighbors do it too.  I think they egg each other on.

2012.09.19 Mom 2239  One of the things I enjoy about temple day is reading on my Kindle while I light rail.  Still reading Frederick Douglas.  He is in his teens now.  At one point when a really tough master started to beat him without cause, he rebelled.  He didn’t try to hurt the man, just to keep the man from hurting him – although Frederick drew blood & the master did not.  Surprisingly, the master did not get him back later.  He was a bit afraid to try to do him violence himself & most likely he was ashamed to have anyone find out that he had been bested by a 16 year old slave.  He had a reputation as a “slave breaker”.  People hired out their uppity slaves to him & he broke them down.  He was not rich, but this got him cheap slave labor.  Note, they did not pay him for “breaking” their slaves as one would pay a man to break a horse.  They sent the slaves to him usually for a year & hired them out to him cheap.  I find it a bit amazing that the masters could beat the slaves with whips & whatever – not always tying them up & the slaves took it.  But the whole society had the mind set that the masters could do no wrong & the slave was always wrong. Escape was nearly impossible & what would they do then, anyway?  As horrible as it may be, it could always be made worse for the slaves.  FD got to the point where he didn’t care if they killed him, he was not going to take any more abuse.  Strangely that led to him getting better treatment with this guy the rest of his stay there.  It is mind boggling how people could treat people.  I cannot imagine treating animals as the slaves were treated.  Usually, “good Christian” masters were the worse.  Yet it was decent masters that made slaves dream of freedom.  Slaves with bad masters yearned for better masters.  Slaves with kind masters yearned to be their own master.  Hence the unspeakable brutality of the slave owners.  How blessed are we NOT to have lived either side of that!