We have spent this week in Pocatello. The first half of the week I worked on game development, Thursday and Friday I worked with my dad and then Saturday was Tyrell's baptism.
Monday was an extremly difficult day to get back into the routine of work and school. I wasn't happy with the outcome of either other than the fact that we at least got to them. Many times simply doing things is much more important than doing things well. Monday was one of those days. Tuesday and Wednesday felt a lot more productive at work. I am getting very excited about the progress I have made on my game. I was able to get rid of a couple of glitches that were really bothering me.
Thurday I went to an equipment auction with my dad. He had been hoping to pick up a back hoe or a tractor. The weather was cold and blowing with light snow fall. We habored a slight hope that the weather would discourage attendance but the number of oversized toys available at the auction it did appear that if the weather had any impact on attendance it was minimal. My dad claimed that he had to hold my hand down to keep me from bidding on everything. That simply wasn't true. I will admit that I did make one unplanned $1000 bid on an old boom truck but had that bid gone through I would have made at least a $1000 on the buy in as much as the auction selling price was $2000. I kind of have a things for cranes. It seemed like everything sold 50-100% higher than we wanted to pay for it at an auction but in general the selling prices weren't outrageous. There was a combine, header and header trailer that sold for $7500. With out knowing the details of what farm equimpment sold for that seemed really low.
During the auction I got a phone call with some bad news. Our dog hank who we had left with a neighbor had gotten extremly sick. The vet said that they could not offer a treatment plan for his condition and that the next step would be to take him to Salt Lake to run an MRI. That next step did not seem practical to me in as much as the condition he was exhibiting was very likely to be progressive and the cost of treatment would like run several thousand dollars. I had to make a very painful decision and decided to have him euthenized. I honestly can't tell you if I made the right decision but I can say that I made the best decision I was capable of with the information and understanding I had available to me. I feel good thinking about the good time we were able to have with Hank and knowing that I put a full and honest effort into his care. Early death even in an animal has a way of leaving one feeling cheated. Even though life expectancy is nothing more than a statistacal average we somehow get the idea that it is an entitlement and not simply a statistical average. Seeing an existence end as I did with Hank causes me to reflect on the purpose of that existence. In Hank's case I really don't have a clue.
(Lexie inserts here that Hank is the only dog I could ever let in my home. I can admire other people's dogs, but in general have had no desire to take care of a big hairy animal, no matter how beautiful he might be, not to mention big dogs tend to scare me, especially around the kids. Not only did I fall in love with Hank enough to agree to keeping him, I let him in my house - something I swore I would never do. He was very well trained and very obedient to me. He quickly helped me get over my fear of big dogs around the kids. David's favorite place to nap was cuddled next to Hank, and if I turned around and David wasn't around, the first place to look was in the kennel, in summer the second place to look was under the deck. Hank dug Davey a little hole under the deck right next to his so they could lie in the shade together. Hank also assisted me in my morning runs. I didn't like running by myself, and a dog as big as Hank would make anyone think twice before getting too close. Strangers didn't know he was a baby. It's selfish to think his existence was solely to aid in providing Davey with a best friend and me with a good dog that could help me get over silly fears, but I'd say those two things were at least a worthwhile part of his life).
Tyrell was supposed to have his baptism interview Thursday night so I took him to the church only to find it locked. I didn't have my phone so we couldn't make any calls. We walked over to the bishop's house only to find that no one was home. Then I walked over to Brother Smith's house to see if he knew what was going on. He wasn't home but Sister Smith said he would be home soon so we visited while we waited for Marty. It was a lot of fun visiting with the Smith's. We found out that we had indeed missed a phone call and the bishop wouldn't be able to meet until Saturday morning. Tyrell had a lot of fun playing with Logan's very large bionicle set.
Friday I went up to Thornton with my dad. We spent the morning as "men out standing in our field" while we watched a test hole being dug for the septic tank my parents are planning to get put in. I could tell dad was all but burning gears in his mind turning over all of the possibilities of what he could do with a back hoe like the one that was digging the test hole. We had lunch at the Thornton Merc as we often do when we are in town. I was very interested to learn (unfortunatley after I ordered) that they now sell yak burgers. I am very interested in trying yak meat. Aparently someone in Archer has a heard of about 15 now. I am excited to go and talk with him. I had looking into yaks a couple of years ago because they have an almost 0% fat meat. I also learned over lunch that the yak have a very strong immune system such that they do not require the antibiotics that cattle do thus making the meat even more clean. My main concern over yak in Idaho is about how to keep them cool in the summer. If I can find a good answer to that I think a yak on the Thornton property would be a good thing.
The afternoon and evening were spent pulling wild trees that had grown in the field over the 25 or so years the field hadn't been used. Having failed to aquire a back hoe at the auction our method of tree removal was to chain dad's semi tractor to a tree and back away from the tree. We were pleased to find the ground was soft enough that we were able to pull even relatively large trees this way without any digging. Most of the trees were Russian Olive but there was another type of tree that proved to be much more difficult to pull. The roots on the things simply looked like an inverted tree with a very thick and long tap root heading straight down into the ground. We broke two DOT certified 5/16 inch chains trying to pull larger specimens of the tree but were able to get them with a 3/8 inch chain. By the time we ran out of day light we estimated that we had pulled 80-100 trees. We counted 90 in the dark but it was really hard to get a good count.
Saturday was Tyrell's baptism. I will indulge in the risk of listing the people who came to see the baptism at the risk of offending someone by forgetting them or putting them in the wrong order. So here we go... Both sets of grandparents made it, Robert and his family came up from Utah, Mary and here children were there, my niece Heidi came, Katie and here family came, and Camron was there. That put the totat at 29 people if I didn't miss count or forget anyone. Tyrell was very reverent and seemed to appricate the significance of the day for him. I performed the baptism ordinance and Lexie's father did the confirmation. We asked Tyrell who he wanted to baptise him and he said he wanted to be baptised by a missionary. We overrode him on the decision but told him that his papa was a missionary and that we would be happy to have papa confirm him. I have a lot of respect for Lexie's father and was honored that he could do the confirmation for Tyrell.
After the baptism we went to the park for pizza and icecream. Little Ceasars advertises "franchise opportunities available" on their pizza boxes. I would be a lot more interested if they didn't make such a lousy pizza. Little Ceasars pizza is barely recognizable as pizza by flavor but it is just good enough that it is a bit better to eat it than be hungry. With that a side I am very impressed with their marketing of the "hot and ready" pizza. It is very convienient to be able to simply pick up a pizza right when you want one. I ate way too much ice cream and pizza but enjoyed doing it. Thanks to a very wide selection of icecream and toppings available I was able to discover I am very fond of Rocky Road ice cream with Heath magic shell topping, now isn't that the exact kind of information a person needs? Now that I think about it whipped cream with chocolate sauce on top of that would be incredible. I think I need to think about something else if I want to keep my belt size.
My mom's apricot trees are in bloom. This year is the first year I can remember seeing an apricot tree and thinking that it looked like "popcorn was popping on the apricot tree". The trees are quite impressive with every branch almost completely covered in fluffy little white blossoms.
It was a nice treat to be back in our home ward Sunday to be able to say hello to our old friends. I have become acustomed to needing to introduce myself every week. Having most of the people simply know who I was really simplified the day.
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