Walt Disney is reputed to have said, “Change is inevitable, growth is optional.” I’m not necessarily in agreement; I think that change causes growth whether one likes it or not, but that the resulting growth is not necessarily beneficial. Some of noteworthy changes that I’ve seen in the past year include:

• There’s probably universal acceptance that the political scene has changed rather significantly. To me the most noteworthy change in the political climate is how harshly partisan the federal politics has become. There seems to be no such thing as bipartisanship anymore, regardless of whether or not the word is used. That partisanship is appearing even within political parties. Several times in our political history political parties have disintegrated (remember the Whigs?) and a new political party has emerged. That could be happening again. If so, I’m very interested to see what emerges as neither of the political parties today are serving my needs!
• Due to an unfortunate mishap earlier this year, we have a newer Toyota Avalon to drive instead of the Toyota Camry we were driving before. We’ve had three accidents with the Avalon since we got it last April, which is pretty much a bummer (leads me to think the car is jinxed), two of them not our fault. We had the first snowstorm of the winter a few days ago and promptly learned that the Avalon as presently outfitted with tires does not perform well in the snow at all. The slip-sliding is not only disconcerting, but the vehicle has some kind of a sensor that says the car is skidding and it automatically cuts the power to the drive wheels. It’s not the way I think it should operate at all. It seems to always think the car is hydroplaning rather than trying to gain traction. It’s going to get some robust snow tires Real Soon Now and then comes figuring out how to drive a car that thinks it’s smarter than the driver.
• Shortly after Nina was released from her Relief Society calling at the womens prison, we were “invited” to serve once a week at the Idaho Falls Temple. This brought interesting change into our lives in several dimensions. First, we now have an obligation every week (except when the Temple is closed). If we can’t be there, it is our responsibility to find someone to substitute for us (not an easy task). Secondly, even though we’ve served as Temple workers before in Denver, the Idaho Falls Temple is on a different plane. Requiring four times as many workers, with four floors and innumerable rooms and places, it is definitely a change from what we were used to in the Denver Temple. Next, there is so much that goes on “behind the scenes” in the temple that being a worker changes the entire Temple experience for the better. Additionally, the Temple has become the focal point of the week around which everything else revolves. That is, everything we decide to do in our week is first measured against it’s impact on Friday morning when we’re going to be in the Temple. Finally, I’ve definitely proven to my satisfaction that I can sleep anywhere, anytime, anyplace, except on Thursday night when I have to be up and moving at 3:00 a.m. on Friday morning. That is indeed an interesting change.
• We’ve moved from Windows computers to Mac computers in this household. I bought a Macbook computer after I was laid off, had to give my laptop computer back to the company, and needed a computer. I would not in any way, ever, move back to a Windows computer. Nina’s Dell notebook has been getting quite sick … almost terminal, actually. We were able to put it on life support by buying an external mouse, keyboard, and monitor and pretty much turning it into a desktop computer and thus giving up the portability. That finally became untenable for Nina and she decided to buy a new notebook computer. She bought a Macbook and has begun the transition over to that system. She’s had several “Aha” moments and will have many more as she gets comfortable with a computer “that just works.”

There are more interesting changes, but there’s a limit to how many words I’ll want to read some time in the future.

Ta ta for now!