Comings and Goings

Richard's Passing

I got a call from my mother at work telling me that my brother Richard was in the hospital.  The news was not encouraging so on Thursday night Chuck and I went for a visit.  Richard looked very ill but was in good spirits and lucid for much of our visit.  He joked around with us and we reminisced about some old times.  We had a good visit with his wife Lorinda and enjoyed catching up with all their family. At the end of the visit, I hugged my brother and told him I loved him.  He hugged me with surprising strength, figuring how sick he was, and told me he loved me too.   I got a call from my sister Kathy on Saturday morning that Richard had passed.   I made it to the hospital in time to see him before they called the funeral home.  Everyone was in as good of spirits as could be expected.  There was a strong feeling of peace in the room.  Richard had a quick wit and was always telling funny stories and jokes.  He loved easily and fully. He was a family man through and through and was well loved by his grandchildren.   He was only 54. He will be sorely missed.

Band Concert

Jared played in his first band concert of the year this week.  He played a solo on the temple blocks (tuned wood blocks) in one of his songs.   He also had another song where he was playing multiple instruments and performed a very impressive mallets-in-mouth-while-playing-symbols move. 

Jared got news a few weeks ago that he was the only percussionist in his school to make it into the District Honors Band and has already started practicing for that.  This is in addition to the Jordan Youth Symphony.


HEROIC

On the day of my brother's passing, I had a commitment with HEROIC to appear at a community event to hand out candy and take pictures with the kids.  I struggled with the decision to attend but in the end decided to still make the appearance. I figured that Richard would like that fact that I was going out to make the world a little bit happier place.  I was on the way to this engagement when I stopped at the hospital to see him after he passed.  I pulled on a long sleeve shirt and some track pants to cover the bat suit o be respectful.  I don't think anyone knew but I think Richard would have gotten a kick out of it.

Florida: More Pictures then You're Interested in Seeing

Day 1: Walt Disney World

Obligatory castle picture. They play show tunes on Main Street USA. We had to sing along to Hello Dolly and Oklahoma while we were there. 

The one place where the Magic Kingdom kicks Disneyland's butt is in the waiting lines. This amazing line is for the Little Mermaid ride.  There were interactive games to play all along the line and amazing set design. 

Another amazing line wait is for the Haunted Mansion. There are interactive activities and even a fountain. 

It ended up raining while we were on the Riverboat Ride and then stopped before we had to get off. 

Splash Mountain was shut down so the gift shop was nearly empty. Chuck and I were able to rock in some rocking chairs for a long while and Ruth and Jared played checkers.  The joys of having older children! 

Jared did have a good time.  I'm pretty sure he did, at least.   He just hates pictures.

 Day 2: Islands of Adventure (Universal Studios)

The way they build Hogwarts Castle was an amazing feat of optical illusion.  The thing looks huge.  There is a ride in the castle and even walking right up to it the illusion stands. 

The detail in Hogsmead was amazing. You could spend an hour just looking at the shop windows.   I just wish there were more actual shops to walk into.  

Waiting in line to go into Olivander's Wand Shop.  

The Flight of the Pheonix roller coaster wasn't that fun, but in the waiting line is a life-sized replica of Hagrid's hut. 

To actually ride the Hogwarts Express would have required us to buy an additional ticket to Universal's other park.  At least they had this one to take photos with. 

The waiting line for the Harry Potter ride winds through Hogwart's castle. There is so much to look at that this line was actually my favorite part. 

There was also a Jurassic Park section.  We spent some time in the Jurassic Park museum. Here Ruth has combined her DNA with dino DNA to see what a Ruthosaur would look like. 

We ate lunch in this pavilion that was copied from the one in the Jurassic Park movie.  In the museum, there were life-sized dinos you could puppet. 

Note:  We didn't get a picture in Super Hero land, but this was also a big favorite.  Ruth's favorite ride was the Spiderman ride, and Jared's favorite was the Hulk roller coaster.  Overall we enjoyed Islands of Adventure more than Disney World.  The technology on the Spiderman, Kingkong, and Harry Potter rides was truly mind-blowing. I've never seen anything like it.

Day 3: Kennedy Space Center

The Saturn 5 Rocket was huge!

Looking at a replica of the Hubble telescope with the Atlantis in the background.  We learned that they are shooting up a fancy new telescope next year that is supposed to see 100x better than the Hubble.  

The Space Shuttle was amazing!

They had a rocket launch ride that was quite intense. 

Rocket Garden

We went on a bus tour of several of the launch pads. This is Space X 's launching site.  Space X and Tesla are sister companies.

We'd say "somebody, get in the picture." and Ruth would sigh and say - "I'll do it." 

 

Ruth tried out the replica of Friendship 7. It was a tight fit. 

Jared tried out the interactive spacewalk.

The original logo that hung on the NASA building during the Saturn era.

Day 4: Palm Harbor/Tarpon Springs

I spent a lot of time on the stage of this theater in high school.  My old high school is now half high school half middle school. 

We ate at a great restaurant on the waterfront called Rusty Bellies. 

Jen Runy was my bff all through high school. We've kept in touch over all these years and she's still been there for me across the miles. 

We were so sad that the Spongarama museum was shut down by the hurricane. 

This is the house I was raised in. that window on the left was my bedroom.

I spent many happy hours  as a kid playing on Crystal Beach

Boardwalk through the swamp. 

Walking through Tarpon Springs

Tones of crappy little gift shops at the sponge docks.  We passed on these gator heads, but the real gator claw back scratcher was tempting. 

We saw an alligator and some huge spider webs on our nature walk. 

Flying Home

Exhausted, we stumbled into the Orlando airport at 4:30 am (2:30 am our time). Here is the picture of the glass roof over security.  I thought it was a great representation of how we are just one in the mass of humanity.   Huston was in a thunderstorm and our plane was stuck on the tarmac for 45 minutes.  The flight was the roughest I've ever had. I was so glad when we finally broke through to the light and out of the storm.  

Nothing of note really happened this week.  Just practices, orthodontist appointments, church activities, work, that sort of thing.  You might have seen in the news that Tesla fired a bunch of employees, but be assured that Chuck still has a job and got a good review. So no worries there.

So in the face of no news, here is a cute picture of Kaitlin and Ben.  People ask me about them all the time and I tell people that they are happy and working hard and are poor.

Happy Adulthood Ruth

Turning 18 while you are in the middle of your senior year of high school is kinda a weird thing because legally you are an "adult" but in every other way, nothing has really changed for you.  The only thing that has changed in actuality is that you can buy goldfish and spray paint, you can vote, you can have "relations" with another adult without it being a crime, and when you are arrested you go to real jail.   That's about it. 

With these things in mind, Ruth had a pretty low-key and chill 18th birthday last week.  We had a family celebration on Sunday which consisted of popcorn chicken bowl for dinner, some pumpkin cookies for dessert, and an evening of playing xBox together.  Ruth got a new-to-her iphone, and she spent most of the evening setting up. 

Her actual birthday was spent going to school and then going on a date with Quaid who came down from uni to celebrate with her. 

Other Things About Ruth

I know at times this could be called the "Ruth Blog".  It's not that she is that much better than the rest of us, it's just that while the rest of us are trudging along with normal life things, she has all these noteworthy things happening to her.

First off,  Ruth was appointed the Mayor of the city youth council. She's been hoping to get the position for a while now and has gone out of her way to express interest to the city council member over youth council in hopes of being appointed, and this week she was.  She went to her first meeting this week and has already started to lay out her vision for the youth council this year.

Secondly,  Ruth got her Stirling Scholar application finished and turned into the school. Now she is waiting for the first round of interviews.  She feels that she has a pretty good chance of getting it. 

Finally,  debate season started this weekend with a huge statewide tournament at the University of Utah.  She got fourth-place finishes in both HI and DI.  She is overall happy with her results as this was her first competition with these new scripts.


I'm Feeling HEROIC

This weekend was my first event with a local costuming club called HEROIC. It's a not-for-profit cosplay club where local charities ask us to come to their events.  They can even request certain characters.   On Saturday I went and volunteered with the Best Buddies walk.  Best Buddies is an organization that helps people with disabilities get employment.   I spent two hours as batgirl in the cold taking pictures and interacting with all the "buddies" as we did a mile walk together.   

I'm currently a "trial" member and will be for the next six months.  It's a time where the club and I can see if we are a good fit.  It's different for me because I am used to interacting with costume creators, and this is the first time that I'm interacting with people who buy/make a costume and then spend years performing the character as a cosplayer.   I'm not totally sure if this is my kind of thing. We'll see.