It has been decidedly warm. Record high temperatures and record low
rainfall combined make for a tinderbox outside. Everything is very dry.
Today’s high was 91 degrees, about 10 degrees above normal. Yesterday
was a few degrees warmer. Both cases are record high temperatures for
these dates. There is a breeze blowing which helps cool things off
somewhat.

It’s Sunday afternoon. We just got back from a drive to Woodland Park
and back. We took the Rampart Range Road which starts in the Garden of
the Gods Park and climbs up over the Rampart Range. Turns out it is a
“Once in a Lifetime” kind of a road — it is not maintained or graded,
so it was extremely rough. We won’t do that drive ever again. It took
about an hour and a half to get to Woodland Park and about 20 minutes to
get back on the main highway. It was decidedly cooler up there, however.
I think I got a headache from being bounced around so roughly on the
road. We were driving between 10 and 15 mph and a few vehicles passed
us. They were certainly out of their minds….

Last Sunday we drove over to Heather’s and spent a couple of days. On
Wednesday we drove up to Soda Springs and spent Thursday visiting with
Mom and Dad. Friday we drove back to Colorado Springs, stopping in Green
River to have lunch with Perry and Chris.

We left here on Sunday morning about 6:15 a.m. and got to Heather’s
house about 9 1/2 hours later. We didn’t stop very much along the way —
a breakfast stop at McDonalds in Castle Rock, ice and snacks in
Silverthorn, gas in Grand Junction, lunch in Price, and then on into
Heather’s. We took the Suburban so that we could take some furniture out
to Daryl. The drive along I-70 and the Route 6 in Utah was very
uneventful. Not much traffic, particularly for a holiday weekend.

Monday morning we took a bicycle ride along the canal by Heather’s
house. It about wore us out, particularly after driving all day the day
before. After showers and such, we drove up to the Cemetery where Trevor
is buried. Daryl met us there. We put some flowers on his grave and
stayed for about an hour, then headed back to Orem. We had a picnic
lunch and watched a movie.

Tuesday I had some meetings at Caldera. That afternoon we just stayed
around the house and then went to Pack Meeting with Heather and her
family. Michael received his Wolf badge and was quite proud of his
accomplishment. After that we went to the theater and watched the latest
Star Wars episode — The Attack of the Clones. It was an exciting movie,
but still doesn’t measure up to the original series.

Wednesday morning I took the bicycle back out on the canal road to take
some pictures. I got a couple of pictures that I wanted, but then the
chain broke on the bike while I was trying to cross a road. I called for
help on my cell phone and Heather drove over to pick me up. After
cleaning up I took my bike downtown and got the chain fixed. Turns out
the chain was too short! Shortly after that we left to drive up to Soda
Springs. We stopped in North Ogden to pick up a prescription for Nina —
the last one she’ll get from Dr. Bloom who is moving with her husband to
Mountain Home AFB. We then drove through Logan and Preston on the way to
Soda Springs.

Thursday morning Nina and I rode the bicycles out to Hooper Springs and
a ways beyond. Quite some hills to climb, so we didn’t go as far as
originally planned. I set Mother up with Personal Ancestral File (PAF)
on her computer and helped her get things done for her Sunday School
class assignment. Dad isn’t able to do very much. He has heart problems
and is always very short of breath. So we mostly just sat around and
talked. My younger sister Terry and her husband Allan came over for
dinner and we visited until about 9 p.m.

Friday morning we packed up and drove to Rock Springs where we met my
brother Perry and his wife Chris for lunch at a truck stop restaurant,
Cruel Jack’s. We had a fun lunch. Perry and Chris are a lot of fun to be
with. She was recently (wrongly) fired from her job and has been quite
devastated by that. I told her to go sue the cotton-picker as he
certainly did deserve it. She seemed to be in good spirits, however.
Perry’s daughter Mindy is getting married at the end of July and has
gotten pregnant as well. I sure hope this one works out. They are poorer
than the proverbial church mice.

Of course the reason for driving back on Friday was so that we could be
at the Temple on Saturday. I was thinking this would be a fairly busy
day…. wrong. It was a very quiet day with not many patrons.
Never-the-less, we had a good afternoon at the temple, and didn’t have
to think about the heat once during the day.

Tomorrow starts the work on the deck. I’ll finish sanding it (two
days??) and then start staining and sealing. Maybe by the end of the
week that’ll be done. Stay tuned.