Death and dying

It looks to be an interesting week for the old ward. Fletcher Norris went off dialysis 2 weeks ago and is certainly within a day or two of going to the great beyond. I was called on to give him a blessing to speed things along. His daughter wanted to do the right thing by having him come home to her house to die, but it is wearing on her as she watches the life ebb away.
Joe Peterson has decided his quality of life isn't worth extending anymore and is going off dialysis this week. I got a couple of calls this morning from other members (as news has leaked out of his decision) who wonder whether he is making the right decision or even if he might be doing something that is against God's plan. Its a tough dilemma? What is suicide? What does it mean when we state: "Do not recesitate"? Who gets to determine what quality of life is worth sustaining? It would be nice to make all those decisions early in life and take the burden off the children or spouse, but what I'm realizing is that the attitude about such things can change over time and maybe even daily. There are all sorts of issues involved and we have the chance to learn so many things by watching others.

Eating Healthy

So as I was mowing the lawn last week I ate a couple of apple, some plums, and a tomato. Then to balance my diet I had a Jr. Whopper. Life's good in the fall.

Best of Utah

Spring and Fall are great seasons in Utah, the heat isn't bad and the cold has subsided. The colors of the leaves are nice and the bugs aren't bad. Yup I really enjoy those three days each year!

Modern Football in Cougar-town, nation, universe

I spent a lovely afternoon with 65,000 of my friends at the BYU Arizona game. It was a good game and we even won but as I was watching the crowd I had a few thoughts: 1) this large generation of diabetic prone people are going to change the seating at stadiums. The 8-10 inches allotted to each person's butt just isn't cutting it anymore. 2) Why bring young younguns to the game, sure baby sitting costs a little money but if you are reduced to reading the little tyke books about the destruction of the dinosaurs during the third quarter...well what's sacrament meeting for? 3) I'm waiting for an audience to really express their hatred for the purple hat guy. He is the gnome that works for the television people and decides abitraily to walk out on the field and stop the action so that some station can sell a truck or a beer to people watching the game from their easy chair. I think those that have paid the big bucks to be in the seats, squished between the large bottomed thousands are the one's that should be catered to, and if the oaf at home misses a play or two and is bothered by that, then they should pay the money and wedge themselves into those staduim seats that were designed by the Seven Dwarf drafing and engineering corp. (the 12" legroom looked plenty big to them).

family reunions and such

The John/Dorothy Bus/Susan team had charge of the Gillespie family reunion this year. We actually met a couple of times, did some planning, looked over the venue and were kind of ready to go when this week actually hit us between the eyes. John was out of town until Friday evening, we couldn't find a projector, Aunt Laura informed us that she couldn't come, JoAnn flooded their basement (and I mean flooded!) and rain was in the forecast. So we made an early morning executive decision it cancel or at least delay the reunion for a couple of weeks. Nearly every sibling I talked to said "Oh thanks". Which gave me pause (not paws, or else I wouldn't be able to type this)...Does anyone really want a reunion? Deep in my left ventricle I believe they do but life just gets heaped up at certain times and this was one of them. My goal is to come up with the stress free family reunion that allows us to get together but doesn't make it such a big deal that people are happy it ain't happening. We are hoping to use the Labor Day Monday, then we won't have to think of something else to do for Labor Day...which would essentially be just another level of family reunion.

Grandbaby two

We got another cutie, born Aug. 8th. He looks good and strong, is pretty active, figuring out the eating concept. I'm sure Robyn will be putting some pictures out as soon as she starts feeling better.

Another Logan adventure

this time I decided to limit my workspace to 3'x3' with lots of things in the way to hinder my work. After six hours with my head stuck under the sink I was able to redo all the plumbing in the kitchen. I also got on first name basis with many of the workers at both Lowes and Home Depot. But I was also able to fix the short in the air conditioner, replace the pressure valve on the hot water heater and get some trim work done on my favorite bathroom. What a day.