The Lord Arranges some Conveniences

I've read that coincidence is god's way of remaining anonymous. I like it. I believe it. A vary strange thing happened yesterday morning. I woke up! Really! I had been generally asleep for weeks and weeks and couldn't stay awake for more than a few miutes at a time. But yesterday, I woke up. I got a later start on it today, but I eventually got outof bed and stayed awake all day. This could be a permanent reversal of symptoms which I've experienced for weeks. It might be the result of prayers offered by you good family and friends. But the timeingof this event has been perfect.

Sheryl's foot which has been hurting for for a long time, was finally looked ino by the PA in our ward. Her foot was deadened, 1/4 of the offendng toenail was removed. a spot full of pus was lanced which shot out with a remarkably flat trajectory and hit the arm of the nurse. Sheryl has been in a lot of pain today, has an elaborate bandage, and has to take lots of anti-biotics which caused her to vomit this ev

Aric was going to the gunsmith today and let me ride along. I took Sheryl's 22 LR O/U derringer, because the lower barrel sometimes won't fire. The Smith says it is simply a design flaw, the upper barrel receving the greatest pounding rom the hammer. Some of you may recall early photos of it from a couple of years ago.

Sis. Johnson gave us a f0od order today. The Armells brought us food and milk tonight. This is the Law of Tithing at work.

A Brief Reminder

Many years ago, when my children were all still little, I was astonished to hear that Congress (in its infinite wisdom) had abolished Lincoln's Birthday (12 Feb) and Washington's (22 Feb) and combined them into one day called "President's Day." Even as this was being done, I was studying History at Ricks and then U of I in Moscow. I went back to Moscow for an extra year after four years of teaching.

An extra holiday was added in January, to commemorate Dr. King's birthday. I didn't mind that in the least. He was a magnificent public speaker, and that's about all the accomplishment a person needs to make to impress me.

I was bothered, though, by the government's public service announcements on both radio and TV which claimed that Congress had given us more holidays to spend with our families touring the nation and getting to know it and its history better.

Practically no one has done that, of course. Instead, the three day week-end has been invented. People don't think for a minute what the holiday is about. All they care is that it falls on a Monday and is comfortably contiguous with a weekend. Virtually no one who has graduated high school since the end of the eighties could tell you which great man was born on which day - including Dr. King.

Now, I started teaching in the mid eighties and it took them nearly 20 years of get rid of me. I might not have forced anybody to memorize the fact that Mr. Lincoln was ushered into this chilly world on 12 February 1809, but I didn't let anyone get out of my classroom alive without knowing the agony it was to BE Mr. Lincoln. I would read the bulk of Dr. King's "Dream" speech to my kids and demonstrate every gesture and vocal emphasis with which he gave it. After all, I'd SEEN it. I'd heard it when it was first spoken. I didn't know whether I liked him, but I did love the way he spoke.

I did the same thing with both the 1765 and the 1775 speeches by Patrick Henry. I quoted General Washington a lot and described in as much detail as I possibly could what he did for us, beginning as a British Colonial Major in the last of the four Colonial wars. I told them many stories about many great people, not so they'd do well on exams (that was just a pleasant side-effect) but because I wanted them all to love these people as I had come to do. I told them about Maj. Patrick Ferguson who was moved upon (I didn't SAY "by the Holy Ghost" but everyone knew what I meant) to lower the barrel of his famous breech-loading rifle when he had a perfect and easy shot at the tired General sitting his horse at the battle's edge.

This nation no longer remembers who did what, why they did it, or how their sacrifices and efforts blessed us. And most Americans simply don't care. I maintain that a nation which has stopped remembering its own History will soon cease to be unless saved by a Godly hand.

Here's My Understanding (of what I don't understand)

OK, so here's the skinny on my health. I realize that this may be about as exciting as the most boring class you ever took, but be patient. I won't take long and there are pictures coming up.

The MRI I recently had tells us this: Both of my parietal lobes are shrunken and show lots of white dots which are scars from old strokes. Nobody is even pretending any more that my memory problems are not Alzheimer's. That's what it is and that's what they're calling it. Soon I'll be given an appointment to spend two or three days at a clinic in SLC which is run by a lady who does nothing but gerontology. How's that for a slap in the not quite 59 year old face?

My counsellor, who has militantly doubted this diagnosis, seems pretty sad and insists that I not "die before you die." After some discussion, I understood this request to be that I not give up. I said that perhaps I could rebuild pathways and storage shelves (so to speak) which have already been destroyed in my brain by frequent mental exercise. He seems OK with this. It's not as though that which is gone can be brought back. They can't do that yet. But I think I could form new memories by reading my journal and reading lots of history and maybe even reading my own lecture notes from back when I was paid for what I could remember.

OK. Enough of that cheerful stuff. Here are a few pictures I've taken since New Years. I think I took them all with my phone!