Japanese surrender ending WW2 75 years ago

The Dirty Dozen. Blogger has changed. After 2-1/2 years my daughter's family visited me again, for a week.

They arrived on July 31, 2020, stayed a week, and we met my son's family at Mt. Shasta for four days and four nights of camping. It was a great time and I'm so happy we could all get together again. We video chat with Paul on his Walk for Peace 2020 trek one day too.

Independence Day pandemic style

No 5k to cheer on
No breakfast buffet invite
No parade downtown
No entertainment
No swimming
No legal fireworks to watch from my neighbor's yard eating pie ala mode
No getting together
Still, I thank God for my many blessings and am glad to be an American. Happy Birthday America!

My last day at work one year ago

My first year of retirement has gone by as one year ago I worked my last day. And today Paul and James are on their own as they continue their Walk for Peace 2020 and will not work either. I am glad I retired when I did. It has all worked out well.

June 16, 1960, 4:55 p.m.

Sixty years ago my mother, little sister and I left on the road trip of a lifetime through 48 states, Mexico and Canada, Mother driving her pale green '55 Chevy pulling a small trailer. The date snuck up on me and suddenly last night I remembered and am so glad. My journal has been published, One Magical Summer, on the 100th anniversary of Mother's birth, 10 years ago. We saw more of the country than most and in 2008 and 2009 my husband and I cruised and flew to my last two states. We had a great time together and I'm so grateful for seeing my last two states with him. I'm very fond of Ken Burns' The National Parks and we've been in many of them. To think it's been 60 years. My desire is that each of my grandchildren have a copy of my book. I reread it in two hours.

13 and Gone With the Wind

Mother was born 110 years ago on the 13th which was her lucky number. I decided to make my own caramel corn recipe and watch GWTW on her birthday. I started at 5:30 and it lasted until 9:30. I've read the book too. They are both classics and favorites. The truth is I even saw it in the theater. I was near by and saw a friend who invited me to see it with him in downtown Salt Lake City. Here's my recipe:

Quarter Caramel Corn
1/4 cup dark brown sugar
1/4 cup Log Cabin syrup (no HFCS)
1/4 cup butter
1/4 tsp salt
Boil this on low.
Heat a skillet on high and when 3 kernels pop add 1/2 cup popcorn and hold skillet above high heat until popped, about 3 minutes. I pop without oil.
Add 1/4 tsp baking soda and 1/4 tsp vanilla to candy mixture and stir.
Put popped corn in large bowl and stir in fluffed candy mixture mixing up nicely. Enjoy!

Fun in the Sun (and wind)

The second day was a drive in the White Knight to Baker Beach. How glorious. The flocks of Pelicans were profuse. Two snowy white egrets played in the surf. I stayed by the rocks while Paul and James explored further. When was the last time I'd been there? Next was coconut drinks at Geary and 25th Avenue followed by EBX in our last 'hood in the city. I left the boys with friends and drove home. Paul suggested a game or movie that night and I told him about playing full-house Chinese checkers with his dad one New Year's Eve. So we repeated the experience! Our next adventure was hiking around Mt. Diablo June 5. I left them to hike further in and stopped for fudge bars on my way home. Later three of Paul's friends had picked them up, gotten Mexican and come home to eat. Paul had called to ask what I wanted. I served sun tea and fudge bars in honor of 20 years in our home. They left under a brilliant full moon for home out of state that night making room for gifts for my grandchildren. Saturday morning I made invites to six immediate neighbors, cleaned patio chairs and delivered the invites. At noon I hosted three neighbors serving fudge bars. At 4:00 I attended Jack's zoom baptism. I went to neighbors again and at 6:00 hosted six more serving sun tea, cupcakes and apple slices. The mailman accepted a flaky roll. When that group left I returned to a neighbor next door for the third time and she said she'd love to come and bring four visiting family members. So about 7:20 I hosted five more serving fudge bars, cupcakes and sun tea, making five out of six households celebrating with me with a fudge bar social (distancing). Interestingly the total number of us was 20! Weather was sunny and windy and the front yard was the spot. This after triple digit heat for the second time this spring so cooler weather was much appreciated.

20th Anniversary of Moving into Our First Home June 3, 2000

We found the home with our sons and amazingly Paul and James arrived for a visit hours before the 20th anniversary. And we've had the best neighbors ever. Happy Anniversary. After the boys exercised in the park we cooled off from triple-digit heat by playing in the sprinklers! Then we walked to our Mexican spot at the plaza and picknicked in grassy shade. Next was Safeway for So Delicious ice cream bars which turned into a shopping spree. Salted caramel is my fav and I tried an almond bar later too. There was reading, napping and lounging, a video chat with six grandboys and their moms, and a second Jag episode before I drove us out for a take-out Paul ordered. We ate at my kitchen table and the agreed-upon video was Hidalgo! Bedtime at midnight after a great day of celebration.

Living Through Covid-19 Pandemic

Still shelter in place since mid-March:
Read scriptures
Juice carrots, celery, beet
Wash dishes
Keep gratitude journal
Journal
Look for feral cats Whitey and this year Midnight
Feed cats including tame Smoke briefly
Laundry
Chores
Daily walk and often twice to pool wifi
Discovered I could play Scrabble computer and have won 26 games so far. I usually win!
Three meals a day
TV shows including Wednesday JAG binge
Wave and say hello to neighbors never seen before
Seven books read so far
Monthly Kaiser for shots and bi-monthly blood work
Bi-weekly Daily Bread pickup on Boyd Road
Food Maxx
Weekly drop-off of CCCafe lunches for week
Come Follow Me scriptures, Ensign, on Sundays plus Saints volumes and now Hinckley bio by Dew
See my children and grandchildren on video chats
Bi-weekly ward devotionals at 11:00 on zoom started up. I gave opening prayer.
LDS Widows/Widowers conference on zoom, all four speakers starting with Brad Wilcox
Long conversations on the phone, sometimes two or three hours, with Kathy, once Eileen, Ellen
Adding Messenger allowed me to converse on iPad with Facebook friends and family
Lately I can usually post and see posts on Facebook, not always available
Tiny library, then a free pantry next door
Look for the moon
Concord concerts canceled
Waiting to see what County recommends for pools
Eat outside
Read in the hammock
Read in the family room
Pray
Call everyone on ward list without email to offer it and report to ward mission leader
Request 2019 histories from ward leaders for bishop to stake
Get ready for a visit from Paul and James
June 3 is 20th year in our home
Be grateful
Cook sometimes
Make ice cream with chilled coconut milk and frozen berries

June 1, 1945, Topaz High School Class of 1945

I do not remember learning about Japanese Americans being rounded up after Japan bombed Pearl Harbor. I first remember being on the Presidio, San Francisco, and seeing a display. I was shocked. I have since read Manzanar and most recently Blossoms in the Desert, those graduates of high school in the Utah desert in barracks behind barbed wire fences. Do you know entire families shared horse stalls? I am appalled at the treatment of these Americans. In fact buttons were created for other Asians such as "I am Chinese." Reparations and a presidential apology came way late for the humiliated parents and mostly went to their children who now number few. I am so sorry and ashamed civil rights were taken away. The irony is being asked to serve in the military. And many did. I hope to God this never happens again to any group.

Happy 50th anniversary Earth Day and Happy 45th to Rick! April 22, 2020

Sign of the Times

Well who could have guessed that we'd be prisoners in our own homes with no place to go? Yes, thanks to another scourge upon the earth called Coronavirus (COVID-19) as of Mid-March 2020 not only are local gatherings limited to 50 or less people in my county but all major events including professional sports has been canceled. Entire school districts have canceled school. What are working parents to do? We learned that Sunday church services are canceled at least for two Sundays beginning tomorrow and shortly after learned our temples will be closed except for live scheduled ordinances. General Conference will be televised only. Our local temple was closed for annual maintenance two weeks and now the opening is TBD. Lamb of God oratorio normally held over Easter is postponed until the end of June. I've been eating a well-balanced lunch at the local senior center off and on since July 2019 and it will be open to only give a lunch to go and we're not to stay and congregate. All other events and activities are canceled there. The library is still open thankfully and all other events and activities are canceled. I've long avoided handshakes but now it's highly recommended. Washing hands well for 20 seconds is also the norm. Wet hands, turn off water, wash well with soap at least 20 seconds. Election 2020 gatherings: canceled. The two Democratic candidates V.P Joe Biden and Senator Bernie Sanders are no longer holding rallies. To think that baseball season is postponed is beyond belief. To my knowledge our county has the fewest allowed in a gathering: 50. The elderly with breathing and heart issues, etc. are dying when hit with the virus so visiting nursing homes is not allowed now. I did go to Kaiser yesterday for my monthly shots and no one checked me at the door for illness or fever but personnel wore face masks. My friend Kathy doesn't want to go out of her house, catch the virus and die. I don't want to die either. I want to live and know my seven beautiful grandchildren as they grow up, and serve in the temple. Some 2,740 temple ordinances have been completed over seven years since I started using familysearch.org. The Church becoming a home-centered, Church-supported Church is all the more evident. Sunday I'll be following Come Follow Me, Ensign, and Saints Vol 2. Some countries like Italy are on lock-down. Flights from Europe to the United States are banned for a month. It has now been labeled a global pandemic. Good luck to the human race.

As promised in our letter of March 11, 2020, we continue to monitor the changing conditions related to COVID-19 throughout the world. We have considered the counsel of local Church leaders, government officials and m~ Thank you ~

gobsmacked

utterly astonished; astounded

To me this word is such a crackup.