Sunday, July 26, 2009

My FHE #6: Ball and Chain

(In honor of Jared’s upcoming wedding, but not at all in the way you’re thinking! Read on.)

Grant spent a great deal of time dirt trail biking with Jared, Ruth’s older brother, building jumps and surviving crashes, which continued on to surviving snow boarding jumps and crashes, then rock climbing which ended up with Jared going to Emergency and subsequent surgery, and then they both learned how to play guitar to fill the healing hours. They would listen to the recording and then figure out how to duplicate it, with a few tips from Jared’s dad who is a classical guitarist. They actually got quite good and I loved to listen to them play and sing “Ball and Chain” (Social Distortion) or “The Man Who Sold the World” (Nirvana). Once his cousin Mike (who also suffered a serious injury on the bike jumps), was flying in for his company’s BYU recruiting and they planned to go snow boarding. Grant and Jared where jumping fences on their little bikes and Grant misjudged the frozen ground, resulting in a shin gash. I felt so badly he probably wasn’t going to get to go boarding with Mike, but with hope eternal, asked the doctor who was stitching him up if he could, and the doctor said, “Sure! … Just bring him back and I’ll stitch him up again.”

There are five big “outdoor” events that Grant should cover, and this is your reminder: the time you, Jared and Justin Burgon spent the night in the hut you built, complete with stove, on the mountain with the cougar waiting to eat you; the time you biked the Oregon trail from Wyoming to the coast with various Olsen clan; the time you biked around the Provo to A.F. Canyon loop alone in the dead of winter and actually had to stop for shelter at the Mutual Dell caretaker’s cabin; the time when you, Ray and Spencer survived the whiteout from the avalanche on Timp; and the time when you and Mike (again) almost died from exposure on Hood. I used to have a full set of pictures of the avalanche, which were surreally beautiful, but they’ve been pilfered over the years, and wouldn’t retain much of their glory anyway in the photo-the-photo process. I told Justin after the cat adventure that I felt badly because his parents would probably never let him go into the mountains with Grant again, but he said not to worry, he didn’t need their opinion for him to determine he’d never be going again!





These pictures are of Grant’s high school graduation celebration and his visit to Carl at Brenda and Mike’s, on the doorstep of Carl entering prison (the MTC) and heading off to France. Note Grant’s hat, another one of his attire oddities. ☺ The handsome young man in blue is Ruth’s brother, Jared.

Grant got his Eagle the previous summer on the verge of turning 18, and invited the littlest Scouts to help him clear part of the Great Western Trail on the face of Timp (runs from Canada to Mexico, and is 90% complete). He really didn’t care to get his Eagle but luckily for us (the parents who couldn’t), he had a Scout leader who convinced him, Mark Bezzant (one of then UVSC V.P.’s). Mark took the Deacons up to Scout Camp which is just into the pines at the base of the Grove Creek Springs basin, on Grove Creek trail, to camp the night before. Grant had to work so he biked up just as it was getting dark, arriving in a lightening storm, the steam from the exertion rising from him as he pulled into the camp, and the boys said they thought he was a ghost. (Reported by Mark.) The next morning he dropped down home on his bike to pick up his bobtrailer (of Mike fame) with food to meet them back up on the trail where they did the work. The deal was we couldn’t hold an Eagle court, so he got it sans any fanfare. (One of his badges was for doing something that would change the course of the ecosystem. I was the merit badge counselor, so maybe we “cheated” since it was not anything you could deem “green,” but he got it from the pond they built by diverting the water near their hut on Baldy.)

Might I add the “dropping down” for Grant was no biggie, whereas for most kids a hike like that would be an event not soon repeated. There was a season or two, he’d more often than not, bike up Grove Creek and down Battle Creek trails daily. Which accounts for his mission physical's pulse measurement of 52. Reminds me of his great great grandfather Andreas who purportedly thought nothing of a same-day walk/run to downtown SLC and back from P.G., and whose only recorded comment about crossing the plains was that it was good exercise.

Next installment - last Sunday in August.

Saturday, July 18, 2009

The Churkendoose

I moved my music up to the top so you can readily turn it off. Then look at my link list above it and click on The Churkendoose. Underneath the picture (from the book), is a yellow button with a RH arrow. Click on it. Then listen to the whole entire thing!! (Nine minutes.) This was a huge favorite as a child and every child will love it!! It might have been too new to have been on Lois or Janeil's favorite list. It's the 'moral to the story' kind of tale, which came out in 1947 on a 78 LP record, which I still have. I was going to video it, but this one's a lot less scratchy.

If a certain word in it bothers you, then you are too! [Which reminds me, school districts have to have a pretty high level of filtering and I was asking a google question at work a few days ago with that word in it, as a verb instead of a noun, got the access denied message, which made me laugh so much my boss stepped in to see why.]

As to copyright rules, I'm assuming I am safe, sending you to the podcast URL, but regardless (assuming copyright laws are international):

From http://westudymedia.wordpress.com/2008/08/13/old-78-records/

Apart from their nostalgia value and their interest to musicologists, the very interesting thing about … ripped 78 records is the question of copyright. As you should know, mechanical copyright (that’s in the physical recording itself) lasts for just 50 years. In the original 1911 Act of Parliament, the 50 years started from the date of the master recording; in the revised 1957 Act, this changed to 50 years from the date of release. In 1987, it changed again: still 50 years, but from the end of the year in which the recording was made. Anything that came out before January 1 1958 is now out of copyright – that includes all of Elvis’ Sun records and some of his early RCA ones. In a few short years, the first Beatles record will be out of copyright – unless the law changes.

In July this year...[2008], the EU adopted a proposal that the 50-year term be extended to 95 years. The extension will only apply to recordings still under copyright when the law comes into effect – so anything out of copyright now will remain so.

Monday, July 6, 2009

Raygen Bella Scarborough










Our Bundle of Joy
Straight from Heaven
Born at 7:58 a.m.
Monday, July 6th, 2009
8 pounds 10 ounces, 19 inches
Summerlin Hospital, Las Vegas, Nevada




Pictures:









Her room











































Johnny's mom





















































Had to go to the NICU for a few hours due to too low blood sugar and temperature.





























Johnny's maternal grandma

[7/7/09 P.S. - Raygen has a heart murmer and was paid a visit today by a cardiologist who says it will probably close within a month or two but is too small to consider repair even if not. Mom and babe coming home tomorrow, Hayden coming tomorrow as well and will stay until Monday.]

P.P.S. -

I got there Friday night and Saturday we celebrated the 4th with one of the six Vegas fireworks shows and Jewel's great cooking. Orzo pasta salad with shrimp, oreo cookies (white frosting for some adults and electric blue for some others and Hayden), and other yummy stuff. We were also all amazed that she was up to the task.

There were a lot of tears at the hospital. Some from Jewel, worrying that she'd have to part with bonding time due to NICU demands as had happened to her with Hayden, lots from Johnny who let the wonders of God's plan leak out through his tears. Johnny is and will be a great dad. In the week I stayed after the birth he was fully vested in her care and keeping, very accepting and careful to follow the micro-managing he received, and talked to Raygen constantly. It was a pleasure to observe and I am very grateful Jewel has him in her life. There's nothing better in this whole world than a good dad (speaking as a daughter who had one)!

This event was a big deal on Johnny's side of the family, Raygen being the first grandchild. There are five male cousins, Johnny being second to the oldest and soon to be 29, and his brother Seth the youngest at age 24, Raygen the first child born to any of them as well. So there were a lot of unseen tears of joy as well in the extended family. One side hails from Georgia and the other from Alabama.

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