Listening List

I have always felt it my duty to leave for posterity, "lists" so that if anyone needs to get a doctorate by presenting a paper on my life, they will have ample information. There are things a doctorate thesis could use to make up why I am the way I am. Of course I haven't been diligent about this all my life, but as any reader of my blog could attest, I have been better over the past couple of years.
And so here is another list. Now that I am driving to work, I have taken to listening to books on tape – or CD. I will not give commentary, just the list.

Little Know Facts

I will bet that none of my children know that . . . .
Mar was the first girl ever to take welding at Bozeman Senior High School. She wanted to know how to weld in case she needed that skill in her art work.
And in those days, she had to wear a skirt.

Event

March 1, 2011
Hotdogs
First day of March – 65 degrees – clear Colorado skies – doing yard work trimming trees.
What other excuse do we need.

Reading List

January 30, 2011

Divine Signatures by Gerald N. Lund

Mar gave me this book for Christmas. It was a splendid gift. I loved the book. Everyone shourd readit. It has some doctrine in it, but a lot of it is just stories of what Elder Lund calls "Devine Signatures". He says that Heavenly Father always wants to bless us, and he does bless us whenever he can. However, there are times when he wants us to really get it – to really know that he has blessed us. There are times when we can see whith great gratitude that he is watching over us. In this book, you want to keep reading to see all of the stories of times that God has put his signature into people's lives. It made me think, and I'm sure you would also think of times when you can definitely see His hand, not just as a simple blessing, but as a signature saying "I am here".

This is a story from my life of a Devine Signature:

It was a bleak time in my life. The company I was working for was failing and I was looking at possible unemployment in a hard market. Still, I had held on to my job longer than many in the company. So it was that I was sent to another city to teach a class. This class had good and bad aspects. First, it was in Phoenix, Arizona. At the time, my parents and two brothers lived in Mesa, which was about 60 minutes from where I was working. However, the class was going over two weeks , so I was to spend a weekend in the Valley of the Sun. With family there that didn't seem too bad initially, but the depression I felt was heavy, and I decided not to spend every moment with family. In fact, the Sunday I was staying over I made an excuse to not go down to see them or go to church with them. The excuse was, "I am planning on going up to Prescott on Sunday."

Our family had spent two years living in Prescott. We had good friends there. I had served in a bishopric there. At the time I made the excuse, it seemed like a really good excuse. I thought I really did want to go and see Prescott. But as Sunday morning broke, I missed my family and I worried about work and I got more and more depressed. I just laid in the motel room and did nothing. I have to say it was really one of the lowest points of my life.

Then the signature happened. It was not an instant signature. It took the next four hours. But it started with a real prompting. I almost heard a voice in my head that said, "Well, if you are going to Prescott, get up and go NOW." It wasn't a still small voice. It was emphatic. So I did. I got dressed for Sunday and drove the 1 ½ hours up to Prescott. It was pretty late when I got to the church building. I decided I would just go in and see what was happening, and if it was convenient, I would stay for a while.

I found out that it was a ward conference – for the ward I used to be in. The bishop whom I served with was no longer bishop, he was the stake president. They were having Priesthood Meeting first and it was just starting, so I took a seat in the back. Now here is the signature (beyond the voice in the motel that got me there at just the right time to have this experience). When opening exercises for Priesthood Meeting were over, the stake president, my old bishop and old friend made his way straight to me. He had so much to do that day, but he came to me, and this is what he said. "Larry, I am so glad to see you. I was just thinking about you the other day. I thought, I wonder how the Stones's are doing. They were such good people."

Right then at that point of my life, Heavenly Father put me in a spot where he could have one of the most influential people in my life give me a message of encouragement and peace. It was a message I really needed. It was a message that got me through the next couple of months.

How does a divine signature work? Heavenly Father just makes things happen his way to deliver his message. And that message for me was, "I am here. And I am helping. And you are a good person." It was not just a message – it was a message just for me.

Travels with Lar

January 30 – February 5
Kansas City, Missouri

This was a work trip – the fourth in a row. I was teaching at a site I have taught in many times before – Honeywell FM&T in South Kansas City. It was destined to be an uneventful week. It was a class I have taught many times before to people I have taught many times before. I was looking at no stress.
No stress was not to be.

Tuesday afternoon it started to snow. By the time it was over it would be known as the killer blizzard of 2011. On the way home from the plant on Tuesday night I got stuck, in the middle of the road. There was just too much snow. I finally got to the motel and hunckered down. I got to huncker longer than I expected because Wednesday morning, Honeywell closed the plant until noon. So we started the class at noon – and by that time the sun was out and it was beautiful day – but the wind was blowing at 35 MPH and the temperature never got above 5.

So the class became somewhat more of an adventure, but by Saturday morning, all was well and I few back home. Just another week on the road.

I think I'll stay home for a while.

The Power of an old habit

Or . . .

Brain Imprints and Moving.

At our old house, I slept on the left hand side of the bed and Mar slept on the right.  That gave me the alarm clock and all that was needed for the evenings endeavours of cuddling, smooching and sleeping - yes sleeping - so the clock was kept on the night stand on the left hand side of the bed.  It was a good arrangement and had worked for nigh onto 20 years.

So now we move to a new house and this inspires a new arrangement, where I am sleeping on the right hand side of the bed with Mar on the left.  Just 180 degrees different as you can imagine because a bed only has two real directions, unless you want to sleep crosswise, which may be fine for a parcel of younguns, but younguns we are not, so we sleep lengthwise - but I digress.  Now the night stand, with the alarm clock and all of the of the needed things is on the right hand side - mainly because that is the location of the most suitable plug.  This arrangements has worked well until the other night - or the other morning.

I had to arise at the unseemly hour of 5:00 AM.  I set the alarm and we retires and slept quite well until that pesky alarm went off.  Then twenty years of habit kicked it.  The alarm rang, and I instantly reached over to where the alarm clock was - I mean was not any longer - and smacked Mar right in the head.  Needless to say on that morning the alarm woke Mar a lot better than it woke me. It took me a second or two to even realize where that stupid alarm clock was - but to my own credit, I only smacked Mar in the head once.

I did say I was sorry - about a hundred times before we went to bed.  The next evening, we just left the alarm off.

Movie Review

January 26, 2011

Night at the Museum Two

I am in a motel room in Tempe, AZ.  It is quite tired out.  My plan was that I would watch a movie tonight.  I even brought one from home, but alas, there is no DVD viewer on my new computer (I will rectify that, let me tell you.)  So the evening plan is blown - wasted - shot in the head,  So i turn on the TV.  I go to HBO (scary - you never know what might be on HBO).  Lookee here.  I got there just at the start of a movie I have never seen - and I sort of wanted to see it.

Night at the Museum Two is just fun.  It is a total sequel and pretty much totally the same but in a different museum.  Acting was okay.  Story was a little bit weak.  But as I said, it was fun.

Not for real little kids, but starting at five or six, okay.  And even okay for adults - if you don't expect too much.  We will put it dead center on the scale at 2.5 - okay maybe not that great - just a 2.