Reporting in. And you thought I was dead :)

A bit more than two months have passed since I last posted. A few have wondered what I’ve been doing or if I’ve been laid up in the hospital. I’ll just briefly outline what has transpired.

First thing, me and a good friend parted company. It was not pretty and in the heat of the moment, I neglected to take pictures. It was one of the lesser days of 2018. Pride can really make a mess.

Second thing, me and another former good friend renewed our friendship. It’s been four or five years since we butted heads. The other day, I was on a backhoe behind the shop and noticed a rig pull in up front. I figured I better go run the salesman off.

As I walked through the door, I saw a guy over on the other side of the shop. When he turned around, I was dumbstruck. It was my former friend of 50+ years who had exited the relationship years ago. We walked toward each other and shook hands. I think we might have even hugged. We walked out into what had been a cloudy day but now was bathed in total sunshine.

He started apologizing but I stopped him and began my own apologies. We basked in the rare but wonderful light of dumping some old junk. It was probably the best day of 2018.

So what else have I been doing? A brief rundown…

Michele’s 58 year-old brother Scott died from pancreatic cancer. We went to Wasilla Alaska where we watched the tender moment as his kids pounded the last few nails in his coffin that one of his sons built. Michele was with him for the last week and a half of his life and considered it a great blessing. He was very gracious and kind to those around him as he dropped to 65 lbs before letting go.

The hospice people said they had never seen anyone stick around so long. They quit giving estimates of his passing as he kept proving them wrong. Everyone thought he would be gone soon after the Christmas holidays. He was here until April 4. Scott has a great family and brought much happiness to those in his midst.

Since I’m on a family tirade, in April we also headed to Boise where one of my nephews got married. Since wedding pictures are a dime a dozen, I’ll share a picture from the wedding dinner the night before. Nick and Devin are also my nephews which makes them brothers of the groom. Sweet kids. Devin towers over me and Nick has a giant spirit.

More family stuff? We headed for Phoenix for a grandson’s baptism.

Everett Casper was the object of our attention during this trip.

I also got to tend Jo (below), my youngest grand daughter. She is a pain. I should say she is a Payne. As you probably all know, she appeared on earth in the same minute my mom Jo left this earthly existence.

While in Phoenix, I was commanded to pull out a bunch of dead bushes by one of my daughters, who also happens to be a Payne. After I got the dumpster filled, I needed a place to dispose. Since I’m a believer in Constitutional rights, which includes the right to start fires in downtown Phoenix, I found a suitable place between my offspring’s casa and the neighbor next door.

Knowing Phoenix probably has a CSI unit to track down unlawful carbon emissions, I put some aluminum foil under the brush so there would be no trace. However, after a few loads of fiery brush hit the foil, I could see that at any time a bright red firetruck might be rolling up. Periodically, a substantial puff of smoke would emanate from the homemade incinerator and I knew sooner or later a city slicker would be dialing 911.

It made me want to go home where neighbors are sparse and fire trucks sparser.

Speaking of daughters, we’ve been worried about one of our daughters and her health for the last year or so. Long story short, she finally found out she has Chrones disease. Her doctor told her she had to get on a medication injection for the rest of her life. Once she started, she couldn’t stop. When our girl gave a little resistance, the doc told her if she wouldn’t do it, she needed to find another doctor.

She kept looking for other solutions and found out a guy in her ward (church) has Chrones. He told her he was on some medicine that he could only buy in Canada. Her doctor refused to prescribe it so she found a naturopathic doc who would. She’s been on this “quack” medicine for several weeks now and is doing so much better.

I get a little suspicious about these kind of deals but I’m here to tell you, my daughter sounds better than she has in two years. She is finally putting some weight back on. Her mental state is much improved. She was run down, lethargic and worrying us big time.

We’re so grateful our prayers have been answered through a guy in her ward and a medicine that the US government rejects.

While in Phoenix I noticed all their lawns are brown so I thought I would do a little watering. I think this is what you need to do to make the grass green.

Moving on. March and April were full of tension for me. I’ll enclose a few pixels of what they included without much description. Let’s just say I had another very close call with the graveyard and some substantial losses because I’m just not a quick learner. It’s taken me eight years and after this last year, I finally figured out what I need to do to keep the corn yellow as opposed to the grass green.

It was a rough couple of months.

I set a world record last week. In 6 miles of travel, I lost my cargo FIVE different times. By the time I got to work, I was so sore from all the retrieving I had to call it a day.

And you remember how I told my wife I wouldn’t order any metal until I knew if my latest invention was going to work? Well, things got out of hand and I got a 48,000 lb. semi-load of coiled steel from Mississippi. Please don’t tell my wife. Now I need to get out there and see if anybody wants to buy.

Speaking of my wife, I took her to a David Archuelta concert in Richland the other night. I noticed a car in the parking lot after the concert that is named after me.