Waikiki Sunset
by Sam Biggs
I am really tired of being sick, I have had a cold or flu or both pretty much since the Saturday after Thanksgiving. A couple of days last week I felt like I was finally well again, but Saturday afternoon my sinuses started up again and I started coughing and have a sore throat, again. This past six weeks has left me feeling weak and vulnerable, and it seems like I catch a cold anytime someone in the room sneezes.
It has also been a time of reflection, not just the new year, but also my mother’s passing, and my sisters’ lack of respect for the dead. I have had a new calling extended and accepted, in which I would like to be very involved, but also do not want to be giving my cold to anyone else. I have also had plenty of time to consider old friends and past places. There are so many along the way that I miss, some from Alexandria and Crystal City, some now in Potomac Ward, and of course, one from the trip to China.
During the Christmas – New Years holiday I watched the old movie “To Catch a Thief” with Cary Grant, a pretty good show; amazing how much more entertaining most of the old movies are without a lot of blood and gore or explicit sex, violence or foul language. Now days most movies and even the animated cartoons are rather vulgar, even compared to the entertainment offered just a decade ago.
The weather is supposed to be nice for the next week-and-a-half, and I really need to get the shed finished. My second biggest project will be to get the boat emptied out and cleaned up so we can get it up for sale. I will need to spend some time, probably only one morning cleaning up and prepping the garden so Jeannine can plant when she gets back next weekend. And, when I have the rototiller going I might as well go ahead and make the trench for the retaining wall alongside the driveway. Then I will be ready to pour some concrete to set the interlocking retaining wall blocks, and move the soil from around the shed slab out to the wall area, and top it with filter fabric and red-rock. That should give me more room to park the Kia and I will be able to move the boat over about a foot-and-a-half. Then I have more room to park the Jeep in the driveway, but I am still thinking about making a red-rock area with stepping stones on the side towards the front door so people will be able walk around the vehicles parked in the driveway without having to walk in the grass.
I would really have liked to visit some of our other friends while we are in Utah, but with the winter storm we did not get the chance. It would have been especially nice to see Bonnie Taylor, the Austins, the Wards, and the Smiths. My love to all of you, you are dear friends and I miss you.
