The Stucco is done (mostly)

Thursday, May 14, 2026

I first talked about the hole in my wall back on Feb 8 and last weekend I finally finished the stucco. When I say “I” finally finished the stucco I mean with the help of the Bishop, Scott Hilton, about twenty different missionaries and Jeff and Zander, I finally finished the stucco.

The job wasn’t terribly hard but during that time between the hole and the final coat we have been visited by Ben & family, Sarah & family, Alycia & family, and we have been to Arizona a couple of times. Don’t think I’m complaining, if my kids come to visit me then the house can wait. All that is left is a couple of touch ups and then paint. Now we can get back to the flower bed and then to the side yard like we had planned.

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The earliest archaeological evidence of stucco dates back 

over 9,000 years to the ancient Middle East. 

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The Digital World is Against Me

Tuesday, May 12, 2026

I need to do a follow up to last week’s post about my bank accounts getting hacked. Here is a quick summary.

1) Someone maxed out my credit card which scared me witless and started a long road to recovery.

2) Someone emptied out all my bank accounts which added to my stress.

3) My online access to my accounts was cut off so now I was running blind and couldn't even see what the damage was.

4) After losing a day of work we got everything figured out and resolved (so I thought). The next morning, I got another call from Wells Fargo and was told that my computer was compromised. Apparently, my computer was in New Jersey, and someone was in my online account as we spoke. I now had to take my computer in and have it scrubbed for malware. I didn’t have my computer for three days. There went another day of my life.

5) Thank goodness for Justins old computer because I was able to get it up and running most of my software, but I lost most of Friday getting it up and running.

6) After I got Justin's computer up and running, I switched every account I could think of to two tier authentication, because that seemed like the only sure-fire way to prevent people from getting into my accounts. Once that was done, my phone up and died. Now I am blocked out of many of my most critical accounts because they send a code to my phone which I can't use.

You don't realize how much you depend on your phone. Perhaps the thing that bugs me the most is that I have been running all over the place taking care of all this stuff and I can't even listen to my audible books and I can't call anyone. I had to print out a map yesterday to get to the phone repair place. I haven't done that for twenty years.

I got my laptop back so now I can use WhatsApp on my computer. I couldn't install WhatsApp on Justin's computer because it requires two tier authentication and doesn't give you the option to use email. For two days the house phone and email were the only ways I could communicate. I now have my phone and my laptop back. I don’t want to jinx it by saying this, but I think things are back to normal.

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Firehawks! Birds of prey in Australia will intentionally start fires to scare up more prey. They will pick up a burning stick from one fire and fly it to another location to start a new fire.

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Feeding San Diego

Monday, May 11, 2026

Last Wednesday for our mutual activity Sterling signed us up to volunteer at “Feeding San Diego”. Like most service activities, I wasn’t too excited about going, but like ALL service activities, when we were done, I felt good about the evening. I enjoyed it. We had five adults and eight youth show up. Let me see if I can get all their names right. From left to right in the picture we have; Sean Watson, Chris Sexton, Sterling Smith, Antoinette Ransom (kneeling), Sam McComb, Mark Phillips (behind the heart shaped potato), Brigham Jardin (behind Mark), Zaelin Andrew, Andrew Jack, Peter Hilton, Devon Blankenbiller, Fred Leavitt, Ben Cano.

Our first job was to sort bananas. They had several crates with tons of bananas. We had to go through each of them and throw out the bad ones. I don’t think they expected us to finish the bananas but we were fast.

They then had us move on to pears. We put the pears into four-pound bags. We almost finished those as well.

In the end, we sorted over 7,000 pounds of bananas and over 3,000 pounds of pears. We worked from 7:00 to 9:00. It was a good activity, I think the boys enjoyed it.

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In 2015 a group of Chimpanzee's in Ugande lived in harmony and cohesiveness but they gradually formed into two groups. The central group eventually chased the western group away. By 2018 the two groups were at all out war making targeted attacks against each other. This war is still ongoing and nothing like this has ever been seen before. They are only killing adult males and babies.

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Arizona, Graduation, MCO & Football

Monday, May 4, 2026

On the weekend of April 18, we headed to Arizona. We had several reasons to go. We originally planned to go watch Kira play in the Millennial Choir & Orchestra and to celebrate Mariya’s graduation from high school.

As we were making plans, Ben mentioned that he was playing in a championship Flag Football game on Thursday evening. It has been a long time since we were able to see any of our kids participate in any kind of sport, so Lisa decided to take a half day off at work and Thursday (April 16) afternoon we headed to Arizona.

We arrived early enough that we were able to hang out with Ben and his kids for an hour or so and then we headed to his game.

We got to watch him play two games. His first game was a semi final game and if they didn’t win it then there would be no second game. I don’t remember the score, but they won a lot to a little. Ben’s team is in division A.

Ben played amazingly well. That is saying something because he is the old man on the team. He is the second oldest player. The oldest player is an excellent thrower, so he plays quarterback, but he never runs. Ben is the receiver. They do have him protect the quarterback sometimes because he is one of the bigger players as well.

The second game was a lot scarier. They played well the entire time, but they were tied for most of the game. Bens’ team came through with two touch downs in the last minutes of the game.

Click here to watch Ben in Action

Friday morning, Lisa and I headed to the temple to do some sealings and then we went to watch Ben do his thing. Ben manages and leases commercial property. Saturday morning he showed a 20,000 ft2 space to a customer. It was extra special because the customer he was showing the space to was Sharley and Taylor’s wedding venue business. They are thinking of expanding their business and are looking for space to do it. This space was formerly a restaurant and (in my unprofessional opinion) looks ideal for what they want.

At one point Ben and I were checking out the service elevator. It looked a little sketchy, but the door opened properly so we decided to go for a ride. The doors closed and then nothing happened. We were stuck in there for a good fifteen minutes or longer. We tried to pry the doors open like they do in the movies, but they were not going to budge unless we had a prybar. I considered climbing through the hatch in the ceiling, but it was locked.

I suggested that Ben call the owner, but he was too embarrassed to tell the owner that we were stuck in his elevator. We finally gave up and called the fire department. Almost immediately after calling the fire department the doors just randomly opened without us doing anything. It was crazy.

It was about lunch time, so we then headed to “Lil Miss BBQ”. It was perhaps the best barbecue I’ve ever had. Ben and I shared a half pound of brisket and one beef rib. I ate way too much but it was amazing.

Friday evening was Kira’s concert. This year is the 250th anniversary of the founding of the USA and the concert was all patriotically themed. I thought it was amazing and I think I enjoyed it more than any of the others. Everyone loved it but I think I was the only one who thought it was their best.

Thomas and Vickey also came up from Tucson to watch Kira, and Camerons new aid also came with her daughter.

Following the concert Justin took us all to a Taco & Sushi restaurant. That is a very weird combination, but it turned out to be quite good. After gorging myself at “Lil Miss BBQ” I now gorged myself on tacos and sushi. It was great but I made sure a couple of tums were sitting on the bed table that night.

Saturday morning Lisa and I did some initiatories and then Kira and her family joined us to do some temple baptisms. It was quite special. Landon baptized me and then I baptized him. 

We have two grandchildren graduating this spring, Mariya and Sydney. Unfortunately, Mariya’s graduation is later in the day on May 21, and Sydney’s graduation is earlier on May 22 and we couldn’t find any flights to allow us to go to both. We decided to take Mariya out to lunch and celebrate her graduation early. She seemed to be content with that.

We dropped Mariya off and on our way back to Kira’s, Lisa wanted to stop at a couple of antique stores. I normally find these places completely boring but at one of the two stores we stopped at, I found this little steam engine. It is exactly like the little steam engine I had when I was a kid. I loved that little guy.

Sunday, we went to church with Kira’s family and Kira surprised us by playing her Oboe in church. I forget what song it was, but it was beautiful. A sister missionary with an amazing voice sang a solo accompanied by a pianist and Kira on her Oboe.

After church Ben came over with his kids and we all celebrated Piper’s birthday and Stacy’s birthday. After the party we headed home.

I love it when I can spend time with my kids and grandkids.

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The harm windmills do to birds is a myth. 

For every bird that dies by a windmill:

    400 die from powerlines

    1,500 are killed by cars

    10,000 die from glass windows

    20,000 die from cats    

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Sam’s Ankle

Thursday, April 30, 2026

The Monday before Alex’s accident (4/20/2026) Sam had surgery on his ankle. It kind of got overshadowed by the Alex’s accident. When Sam was training for the Wyomeng Highway Patrol he injured his ankle. It was bad, but if he reported the injury he would have been let go from the program. He chose to continue training on a bad ankle.

To make a long story short, Sam made it into the program but a few years later his ankel was so bad that he needed surgery on it. He had to sue the WHP to have them cover the injury. He won the law suit and was garanteed that all medical procedures for that injury would be covered for the rest of his life. At the time of his surgery he was told that the bones in his ankel would eventually need to be fused. That day has now come.

His surgery went well. It was supposed to last an hour and a half but ended up taking two and a half hours. They fused three out of four joints. Initially they thought they would only be fusing two joints. They used bone, bone marrow, and fascia from two different cadavers.

He is looking at a very long recovery. It could be up to a year before he is fully healed. They are looking for a desk job for him, but there is no guarantee. Right now, their future is up in the air. He could end up taking an early medical retirement and looking for a new career. They are in our prayers.

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A good eight hour sleep is a modern concept. Before oil and gas lamps became popular in the 1700's people went to bed at sunset and then woke up for an hour or so around midnight. As far back as ancient Greece, Homer and Virgil refer to a "first sleep" and a "second sleep." Records from Africa, Asia, Europe and others refer to a similar sleep schdule.  The hour break at midnight was usually put to good use to stir the fire, check on animals, meditating or other "intimate" activities. This is one of the reasons many people still routinely wake up in the middle of the night and wonder why.

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Alex’s Car Accident

Tuesday, April 28, 2026

Last Wednesday as we were packing the car to head to Arizona, Queen Lisa received a frantic call from Princess Lisa. Alex had been at a game night at a friend’s house in Salt Lake and she was talking to him as he was driving home. Suddenly Alex gasped “OH CRAP” followed by a horrific noise and then the line went dead. She tried calling him back, but he wasn’t answering his phone.

The Princess called the Queen and the Queen told her to call one of the guys he was playing games with, but Princess didn’t know any of their phone numbers. The Queen then asked her if she knew any of the wives’ phone numbers and she did know the number of one of the wives. A couple of the guys and their wives headed out to Alex’s rescue.

Alex was only a few minutes out from his friends’ house heading down a major road at 65 to 70 mph, the speed limit was 65. A big SUV coming 65 to 70 mph from the left didn’t realize she had a red light and went right through the light. The SUV’s right head light nailed Alex’s car in his left headlight. Alex did of course hit the brakes and while that was far too little and far too late to make much of a difference in the impact, it may have saved his life because the SUV may have nailed him right in his door if he hadn’t hit the brakes. From the pictures it is clear that an impact on the driver’s door may well have been fatal.

A bystander helped Alex out of the passenger door and the most obvious pain Alex was suffering from was his jaw. Alex knew it wasn’t life threatening so when the paramedics got there, he told them to go check out the other driver first. She was an older sister missionary. The paramedics did go and check her out and then never came back to check Alex out. He could easily have internal bleeding that could have quickly become very serious. At the very least, an ice pack for his jaw would have helped a lot.

At one point, Alex walked over to the senior missionary and gave her a hug and told her that everything would be fine.

Alex’s friends hauled him off to a hospital close to his house and then they went and watched the kids so Lisa could come to the hospital and be with Alex. It was a long night for all of them and for us too because Queen Lisa wasn’t going to bed until they had confirmed that there was no internal bleeding.

The next day a whole slew of new bruises showed up all over Alex’s body; mostly his left leg and around his waist where the seatbelt saved his life. His ribs are also quite painful as well. This is a picture of his left leg after the bruising has faded somewhat.

Lisa took him to an oral surgeon to check out his teeth, and it turns out that he has a fractured jaw. The surgeon told Alex that if it wasn’t for the permanent retainer that he has across his four front bottom teeth he would probably have lost all those teeth. I guess the money we paid for those braces was worth it.

A day or two later Alex had a wire attached across the front and the back of his teeth. The wire acts like a cast on his jaw to hold it in place while it heals. It will be there for four to six weeks. During much of that time he is on a soft food diet.

Alex is still in a lot of pain but is healing fast. Everyone who sees him, including the paramedics, the emergency room doctors and his regular doctors, can’t believe that he wasn’t more seriously injured. Many miracles happened that day and we know that the Lord is keeping him around for a reason. We are all very grateful.

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In world war 2 Nicholas Alkemade was in plane that was hit by shrapnel. His plane was literally a giant fireball and he chose to jump out without a parachute instead of burning. He fell 18,000 feet and survived because he hit some pine trees and deep snow.

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Uncle Merlin

Wednesday, April 15, 2026

This morning Kira sent me a link to a story about Uncle Merlin. Of all my aunts and uncles, Uncle Merlin and Aunt Nola were always closest to me. After my parents passed away I kind of adopted them as my surrogate parents and they were happy to accept the job. They were like grandparents to my kids but unfortunately, only my older kids got to know Uncle Merlin well before he passed.

This was posted on Instagram

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Have you heard the story of when Elder Packer told another General Authority he needed more faith?

Elder Lybbert of the Seventy was serving as Area President of Asia. Back-to-back emergencies—a mission president imprisoned, missionaries lost in Korea—had left him running on empty.

Elder Lybbert showed up at a stake conference in Taiwan completely exhausted. Then-Elder Dallin H. Oaks took one look at him and sent him back to the hotel to rest.

When Elder Oaks later shared the experience with Elder Boyd K. Packer, Elder Packer said: “The next time you see Elder Lybbert, tell him he needs to have more faith.” And then Elder Packer told Elder Oaks what he meant by that.

At the next General Conference, Elder Oaks pulled Elder Lybbert aside and delivered the message: “You need to have more faith.”

Elder Lybbert was astonished. “How can I work any harder than I already am?” “Exactly,” said Elder Oaks.

Then he explained what Elder Packer meant.
Elder Packer wasn’t saying to do more. True faith is understanding that the Lord expects a reasonable effort and then we trust that He will get His work done.

“Let us cheerfully do all things that lie in our power; and then may we stand still, with the utmost assurance, to see the salvation of God, and for his arm to be revealed.” — D&C 123:17

This is what Jethro taught Moses. Moses was doing righteous work but carrying it all alone. Jethro’s counsel wasn’t to work harder. It was to trust God enough to share the load.

True faith isn’t always doing more. Sometimes the way to have more faith is to do less and trust God more.

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To give credit where it is due, I have since learned the background behind this story. While this story is known within Uncle Merlin’s family, it is not recorded anywhere outside his family. Dale Renland (Uncle Merlin’s son-law) shared the story at a couple of training meetings he was involved in and John Hilton III (a popular blogger) attended one of those meetings. With Dales’ permission he shared it on Instagram.