Our updates for all of you

My Uncle Died On the morning of April 22nd I had gotten a call on my phone but didn't find out till the evening as we had been working outside all day with one of the first springlike days so far. It had been from a close friend of my uncle telling me that he had died earlier that day, about 5 am their local, Virginia time. About a month and a half before was the last time I had talked with him. He called me to tell me he was in the hospital and from how he felt at that time, he thought he'd "never walk out of the place on his own two feet". He was really angry about everything and so I couldn't talk too long to him because he just got that much angrier as I talked with him. He wound up going home after about a weeks stay and did alright for a few weeks then went downhill again. His health problems, as with many of my family on my mothers side, were directly related to a life time of cigarette and tobacco addiction. He wound up having most of one lung removed s...

April 15, 2012 As I write this post, Stacy and I are at the Coeur d' Alene Casio near Worley, Idaho, or about two and a half hours from where we live. We are here for Stacy's birthday in a couple of days. Last couple of years we had gone to Kalispell, Montana for a couple of days for her birthday. This year since there is a lot going on for her at work she wanted to stay a bit closer to home to make it an overnight trip and back while still taking a bit of a vacation. At the moment Stacy is off somewhere in the Casino having fun, I hope! I did just come back to the room from trying to find her and ask how she's doing but with so many people and such a large gaming floor it wasn't going to be possible unless she had seen me first. We have come here off and on over the years as it is a first class place to stay, very nice quiet rooms, and with it being a resort, various things to do even if you aren't a gambler, like me. Stacy enjoys gambling every once in a while. My...

Yes, winter is supposed to be the time in this part of the world that most people do all things indoors for a few months. This winter has been literally one for the books though. Very little snow and when it did snow, after every snow storm this winter came the 'warmer' temps and then rain. So, not much snow overall, still cold though! But even then we didn't get any of the usual week of at or below zero that should normally occur. Then right at the start of Spring, almost a week straight of Snow! And right when Laura and grand baby Tyler came out from Iowa to visit during his time off from school. The week just before they came out, almost no snow left at all. The week they're here almost 4 inches of snow twice and too cold for it to melt until a couple of weeks after they've left. So sorry for Tyler since it's mostly too cold to be able to play outside except for one day between storms. And now almost two weeks of rain have made the area like a marsh area f...

So, time for a bit of an update, now that I can use this iPad app again. The holidays have come and gone and we hope everybody that reads this had a great holiday! For us it was a nice and quite time. For our area it has been the warmest winter even the lifer residents can recall. It started out like another record winter was going to happen like last year with almost two feet of snow over 4 days in November. But then just a few days after all the snow the temps warmed to the low forties and much of it melted causing quite a bit of springlike flooding in November! Since then though, with the exception of a bit of snow here and there, usually an inch or so like on Christmas Eve and Christmas morning, it has stayed very warm for this area with rain but no snow. It has become more of a long fall or spring than winter. Last night on the news out of Spokane it was reported that for that area there has been only nine inches of snow of what should be twenty-three inches of an average wi...

Yeah, it's been a long time readers. I had been working on various draft posts on my iPad2 while traveling and at home and then with a recent 'app' update, the updated app apparently now has issues with iOS5 and all was lost as the app will only "force close" every time I try it. The developer has replied to me that they had submitted an update to Apple and it should be available 'soon' but over a month later and still no update makes me think it's time for a different blog app! But I actually BOUGHT the app, so I guess I'll give them a little more time. And next time I'll save all post drafts as online drafts instead of 'local', losable, drafts! So here it is December 8th and while last month seemed like winter was going to be a 'bear' this year it has settled to mainly just cold and dry- so far! Much of November had been cold with some snow fall but only traces, and never sticking much. Then about two weeks ago we had the ...

I just haven't had the time to get the posts done! I had saved this as a draft several weeks ago and haven't had the time to finish and post it with all the work paperwork lately. My catching up starts here with the eulogy I had written about my father for his funeral. After my week long trip to Missouri in late August, he had again beat the odds and had lived just about a month longer than we were told he would. But finally his body gave out and he passed away on September 25, 2011.  We just weren't able to return to Missouri for the funeral but our daughter Laura did attend for us. I wrote the following which was read at the funeral as were comments from all the brothers and sons. I was given the audio of the services and a copy video collage used. It was very nice, and we really wish we could have attended. In Memory Of My father So here I am, the oldest son, yet I probably knew Clifford, my dad, the least amount of time then most of the people here. I started...

Sunday September 11th, and we're waiting in last nights room for the staff to get the room we'll be in for the next few nights cleaned for this conference. Obviously the day is about remembering ten years ago. And we did remember how Monday, September 10th, 2001, we had driven up from spending the night in the Salt Lake City area to the Coeur d' Alene area on our way to Bonners Ferry, to see the property we'd gotten in 2000 but had not been able to drive up to see yet. We'd made it to the Coeur d' Alene KOA, no longer there, and had spent the night at the KOA to make the two and a half hour last part of the drive the next day, the eleventh. That morning, ten years ago today, was a Tuesday. We had gotten up and I was having breakfast and was listening to a local radio station in the 5th wheel trailer and Stacy was doing some cleaning. As I was listening the local DJs were talking about a plane hitting a building in New York. I recall they were talking like it was...