In honor of International Women's Day
James left for the valley around 9:30 this morning, which leaves me to winterize the place. Since the temperatures aren't going to dip below freezing at least I don't have to drain all the pipes. All I have to do is go to the well house and turn off the pump and water valve.
I was finally ready to go a little after 2 p.m. I went out to the well house and flipped the pump switch to off. When I went over to turn the water valve off there was a paper with a green, what I thought to be liquid, substance on it. I tried to kick it away with my foot but it ended up sticking to the bottom of my shoe. I had a terrible time trying to get it off and got this powerful stick goo all over my hands. I guess James was using it to trap a rat. No rats were harmed by this substance but a wife was terribly agitated.
I had to abandon my shoes and leave them at the back door. I washed my hands about five times with hand soap and then rubbed them with hand sanitzer, but there was still a sticky residue. For some reason, don't ask me why, I had some baby oil in our bathroom medicine cabinet. I rubbed it one my hands and the stickiness disappeared. It worked as good as WD-40 and smelled alot better.
I stopped in Show Low to wash my car and get a drink and a corndog at Sonic and then I was on my way. James went the Salt River way and had to wait 35 minutes for blasting on the highway where they are working near Superior. If he had read the sign leaving Show Low he would have gone the Payson way like I did.
My trip was pretty uneventful. I made my usual stop at the Circle K in Star Valley for a potty break and a Big Hunk.
The desert looks beautiful right now. There are little yellow flowers blooming everywhere. I should have stopped and taken a picture.
I drove into Cathi and Terry's driveway where James was waiting to carry in my things for me around 6:30. We dropped off my load of castoffs at Goodwill and then went to the Golden Coin Chinese place for dinner. We both ordered entrees when we should have shared one. They were huge! Oh well, now we will have leftovers for lunch tomorrow.
James forgot his phone so we went back to the house to get it and then we were going to take my car to Erik's. In his frustration of looking for his phone he locked his keys in his truck, and still no phone. The only think he could think of was that it must have fallen into one of the boxes we dropped off at Goodwill. We went back and sure enough he and one of the attendants heard the phone ringing when James used my phone to call his number. It took them awhile to find it, but they finally did, in the garbage. I would say we got lucky!
We had to borrow Terry's truck to drop my car off at Erik's. He said we needed to drop it off tonight so the engine would be cool when he looked at it in the morning.
Back at Cathi and Terry's I asked them to explain what they do at the Records Operations Center where they are serving their mission. They explained that there are five things they do and all of them are to prepare online information in newspapers and other information sources for online indexing. Terry said there are 15 billion names to be indexed in the granite vaults in Utah. It is exciting to see this work move forward in preparation for the Millenium.
Cathi and Terry are in charge of 65 other service missionaries called to work at the center. Here is their "crew". Can you find Cathi & Terry? (Hint: They are in the back row). Each missionary is holding up an activities tracker sheet on things they accomplished in preparing for a zone conference.
They are so perfect for this job. They both are patient and kind, good with people, and have amazing computer skills. I am so proud of them and so grateful for their example to James and me.
We also got to see Patrick and his two little boys Hunter and Cameron. Tomorrow Patrick will be 34 years old. I remember the day he was brought home from the hospital. Jonathan got out a pair of shoes for him and told his mom he wanted Patrick to go outside and play.
Patrick and Heather with their children,
Cameron, Raelynn Rose, and Hunter.
This next picture is of a couple I have known all of my life. Peggy Butler was our very best customer when I worked in my mom and dad's store, Double M Market. Her two boys, Gary and Greg worked for us and were my mom's favorites. It is hard for me to imagine that they are celebrating their 71st wedding anniversary!
