Resurrection

Yesterday was remarkable.  Our second son and his wife were away to adopt another daughter.  Our first son, his son, our first daughter and her husband were helping our third son move to SLC.  Meanwhile, my wife and I took our grandchildren to a private Easter egg hunt.  It was fun and wisely organized for Saturday, helping Easter Sunday be more special.

More often than I would admit, I have looked up the spelling of resurrection, just to be sure (mostly before word processors with spell-check).  It’s convenient to know how to spell, and heavenly to know that it’s true.

George Q. Cannon (11 Jan 1827 – 12 Apr 1901) wrote:  “Concerning the resurrection of the dead, the word of the Lord is very clear and definite.  It leaves no room to doubt that through the redemption of the Son of God, all the children of men will be resurrected.  …  The deeds of men, whether good or evil, cannot prevent the resurrection of their bodies.  …”  -- Gospel Truth, page 32, compiled by Jerreld Newquist, c. 1957

Yes, there is life after death, and families can be forever.  I know that Jesus Christ lives, and is the Savior of the world.  I will be eternally grateful for His sacrifice.

Earth Day Recalled

To honor this cool Earth Day, I have the furnace turned down, lights off, and the shutters open for warm sunshine.   I try to conserve words and time by avoiding verbosity.  These tidbits (M-W Dictionary: choice morsels) from my 20^th-Century files will help me recycle and preserve memories of Earth Day:

The BSA merit badge book ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCE, 1983 revision, explains on page 5:  “It is the space age and all that goes with it that have made an understanding of ecology very important to us all.”  The Careers chapter on page 61 (incorrectly as 63 in Contents) advises, “Before deciding … you should ask yourself three things:  Do I really like science?  Do I like the outdoors?  Do I like people?”  The careers list includes agronomists, plant morphologists & pathologists, horticulturists, forestry technicians, entomologists, geneticists, oceanographers, and fishery aides.

On the 1991 survey conducted by the Earth Day Utah Recycling Subcommittee,
I noted, “Many people don’t understand ‘waste to energy plants’.“  (Maybe hyphenation would’ve helped.)

Earth Day Fair was held at Trolley Square in SLC, April 19-21, 1991.  A contest for
K-12 students was entitled “Previously Loved Materials”.

Earth Day Fair 1992 was at Valley Fair Mall in West Valley City.

“K.O.P.E. Kronical” by Hawthorne Elementary students (Kids Organized to Protect our Environment)

In 2007, KeyBank ran an ad:  “Win $5,000. And save a tree. Enroll in Online Statements …”

Google did a cool logo, and some local news stations talked about Earth Day this morning -- nice token recognitions of a huge need to “protect her!” (child’s paper drawing anonymously posted on our garage door last April 22nd – worth filing and sharing, I thought at the time.)

Nauvoo Spring

Despite recent snowstorms and a good chance of more this week, the weather today is great and the huge nursery parking lot is full.  Looking at the calendar, I'm certain the Wasatch Front is nearing the end of spring snow and the beginning of more popular weather.  (Snow skiers are in the minority by now.)

In a flash of family-history curiosity, I pulled out my parents' letters from Nauvoo, Illinois, which were typed and handwritten in the late 80's.  Janath Cannon, accomplished writer and hard-working missionary, found time to type this on March 31, 1988, describing signs of spring there:

"March is going out today like a somewhat shaggy lamb, with mild air but a threatening rain. ...  Yesterday was lovely here.  The squirrels, cardinals, woodpeckers, bluejays, blackbirds, and assorted other birds patronize Ted's tree-side feeder in ever increasing numbers.  We have plenty of corn for them -- we shoveled up several boxfuls from a bunch that was spilled on the road to the grain elevators.  Some tulips and violets are showing promise in our yard, and the grass is turning green all over the park.  Barges rumble past our front yard again and occasionally tie up by the granary."

"Gorbachev the Cat has become a wanderer and sometimes fails to come home at night.  Ted frets a little about that, and leaves the porch light on to entice him home.  (I think Ted misses that warm body on his chest during the morning news.)  But at least it's not like worrying about children still out after midnight."

"... Nonie and Maynard Sorensen are settled in.  The woodcarving studio is set up in the basement of the Cultural Hall and Maynard is scheduling evening classes open to the public, as well as his regular tour for tourists.  Nonie is working on her new production."

As usual, Mother closed with a handwritten P.S.:  "We hope you had a lovely Easter, ...  Please excuse our fractious xerox machine -- at least the computer and I are getting along these days.  Love you all, ..."

Ya Gotta Believe Me

Woke up at 5am, thinkin about my new pc laptop still in the box (already dubbed acer2) -- couldnt sleep!  Got right to work, following the kids' qwik-start directions (just look at the pictures.)  Barely containing my excitement, I put the battry pak in.  Then while pulling the pkg celofane off a hinge, I touched a button and accidently turned it on!  Wo! -- I'm not ready for Win7 until I plug the thing in like the picture shows!  A msft warning flashed on the 15.6" HD LED LCD: "You fool! Now look what you've done! What part of 'Connect to external power' don't you understand? See the picture, you dummy?!"  Trying to regain my confidence, I raced to unpak the cord and plug it in.  The sparks were impressive -- got power!  Hope it didn't do too much damage.  The bootup said "2 min." but I forgot to time it -- seemed longer than that, maybe because of that surge hitting the procesor.

Dutiflee letting the new sys take the lead, I named my pc NedAcer2, put in a clever password (myacer2) which no one would ever guess, and beheld the new desktop with little icons on the left side, kinda like this 5-yr-old acer1 which is still working (as we speak), and pics of 3 big acer laptops, like a permanent ad -- how do I change that?  Think it's called wallpaper, so search Help for that.  Then I thot the machine should be turned off while the battry charges up (who knows how long that takes?!) but I could not find a way to shut down like good old XP does.  So I chose the next best thing and put it to sleep; (how is that different than hibernation?)  So many questions, so few ansers.

So much for my latest 21st-century adventure outa my comfurt zone -- which reminds me: I skipped brekfast, so it's time for fast comfurt food to calm me down, like the mountain-biker muffins I got by snail-mail from Ogden last Monday -- very healthy and tasty! -- honest -- no joke this time! 
Now will someone explane all the little red squigly lines on my word doc?  Maybe a warm boot will get rid of 'em.