Pappa Hardy’s Musings on Life.

Yesterday was another nail biter. We once again braved Interstate 80 during a winter storm. Luckily for us it was the middle of October, the ground was warm, and the trip was not impossible nor did they close the roads. It was kind of miserable because we had to travel through some adverse weather.

My most non fond memories of I-80 are terrible weather and trips through it. For instance, there was the time that Bonnie and I just about went off the road and were swaying out of control on I-80. Then there was the time that we went through a ground blizzard for 20 miles on the highway in January. We have stopped many times in Rawlins, Rock Springs, and Laramie, on the road and that wasn’t always fun. I hate to think that the I-80 travels for the next little while are going to be always evaluated based on the weather. Tonight was OK. Next time may not always be so OK.

When we visited the Mariposa Grove of big trees in Yosemite National Park, there was a lot of emphasis placed on the National Parks “Burn Policy”. We heard a Park Ranger go into great detail explain and defending this policy. The interesting thing about the burn policy is that at one point, the Park Service went a little too far.

It was the summer of 1989 and Yellowstone National Park was on fire. As a family, we had visited the park the previous summer and had enjoyed the beautiful greenery of the Park. When the fire first started, they treated the fire as a natural occurrence and decided that they should just let it burn so the ecosystem would eventually be balanced out.

Instead, the fire got out of control and the park was burning so badly that Old Faithful Inn, and other man made treasures were in danger of being burned and much of the park was burning out of control. Finally, man stepped in and intervened. I think that since then the Park Service has decided that sometime man must step in and make a difference. We went through the park two or three years later, and it was amazing on how quickly things were starting to recover. It appears that the limited burn policy in Yosemite National Park is starting to make a difference. They want to burn away the underbrush that protection has created, and which can lead to a catastrophic fire of Yellowstone proportions. This could particularly hurt the Giant Sequoias if they didn’t make the change.

I love to write. I don’t do it very well. I don’t have the style that my son Chris has. I don’t have the ability to use prose and to be intellectual. I can’t always seem to get my thoughts down like I would like to do. I can’t always seem to move people by my prose, but regardless, I love to write. I picked that up somewhere. I write diaries. I keep my thoughts to myself. I also write this blog, and tell people what I am thinking, again often not doing much of a job. At this age in my life, I doubt that I will ever be able to excel at writings, but still I like to do it, and the few, the very few, who read my ramblings will have to endure my passion. I doubt anyone ever reads this blog, but if they do, I want them to know, if they haven’t guessed it by now, that I love to write.

This weekend we decided as a couple to get away from the ongoing hustle and bustle of our lives and spend some time together in someplace other than home. You see, when we are at home you feel compelled to take care of all of those chores that have built up and which demand that you take care of them. There is always a house to clean, a floor to scrub, tomatoes to put up, or some other such project.

We thought Wendover might be a good place to come. First, we hadn’t really been there in a real long time. Second, it was far enough away from home that we were getting away (about 2 ½ hours drive time) but it wasn’t so far away that we would overly tire our aging bodies (getting old is a drag, and it is placing limitations on us and our ability to travel). Next, there would be food, and lastly, time to be together.

I guess Wendover didn’t know that we were expecting a lot. We thought we might find shopping (not here). We thought we might find some movie theaters with current shows (not here either). We thought we might find some other forms of diversion (not a chance). We thought we might some an oasis in the desert (not here at all). What we found are some casinos, food that is passable, but no shopping and no other things. It is isolated, but we are in a desolation. We did find the Bonneville Salt Flats. They were flooded as it is the wrong time of year. We found a lot of rain.

Despite all of that, we have had fun.

Elder Joseph Wirthlin gave what I consider to be an excellent talk on Adversity. He told us that when we are faced with Adversity, we need to work hard at overcoming the adversity, have faith in the Lord and the Savior, and then leave the rest to the Lord.

Our nation faces much the same type of challenge. We need to do everything that we can to solve the problems, the trust in our Lord and Savior and have faith in him and leave the solutions to him. We have to do that now. We have to make sure that we do our best, and then trust the Lord that the solutions will come.

Our nation is faced with Adversity. It is now time to trust in the Savior.

Once every six months members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. This is a renewing time when it is possible for each of the members of this church to listen to God’s word and to learn of his will for us. I love this opportunity, and seek to listen wherever on the surface of the earth that I may be found.

Of course, I would love to hear that a temple is being built in my back yard. However, despite the fact that this fall that announcement has not been made, still, I love listening to what the Apostles and Prophets have to say. It is a spiritual feast.

God bless this wonderful country, the USA. I love this country. I love the National Parks. This summer I visited one of the most wonderful parks in the country, Yosemite National Park. It was beautiful. It was breathtaking. It was majestic. It was an experience that comes maybe once in a lifetime.

The vistas of this country are wonderful. I love the cities, the deserts, the mountains, the snow, the rivers, the highways, the fall colors, the smell of spring and the growth of summer. I love the blue skies, the fluffy clouds and the blazing sun. I am so in love with this country.

The people of this country are terrific. We have such wonderful people. I am so glad that I am American. We have wonderful people who serve this country and who love this country. I am so grateful for the people who make up this country.

Having said all of this, I am so grateful for this county. We are at a time of great crisis. We are facing challenges that this generation has never seen. This country needs leaders who will step and save this country and all the vistas and all of the wonderful things that make it so special. With the partisanship that exits in this country, we will pull apart unless we start to pull together. I love this country, I do hope that someone else loves this country as much. I love the following song about the USA.

If tomorrow all the things were gone
I’d worked for all my life,
And I had to start again
with just my children and my wife,
I’d thank my lucky stars
to be living here today,
‘Cause the flag still stands for freedom
and they can’t take that away.

And I’m proud to be an American
where at least I know I’m free,
And I won’t forget the men who died
who gave that right to me,
And I gladly stand up next to you
and defend her still today,
‘Cause there ain’t no doubt I love this land
God Bless the U.S.A.

From the lakes of Minnesota
to the hills of Tennessee,
Across the plains of Texas
from sea to shining sea.
From Detroit down to Houston
and New York to L.A.,
well There’s pride in every American heart
and it’s time we stand and say:

that I’m proud to be an American
where at least I know I’m free,
And I won’t forget the men who died
who gave that right to me,
And I gladly stand up next to you
and defend her still today,
‘Cause there ain’t no doubt I love this land
God Bless the U.S.A.

And I’m proud to be an American
where at least I know I’m free,
And I won’t forget the men who died
who gave that right to me,
And I gladly stand up next to you
and defend her still today,
‘Cause there ain’t no doubt I love this land
God Bless the U.S.A.

I don’t quite know what kind of a country we are going to be passing on to the next generation. We are seeing events of truly historic proportions right now, and they are not good things that are happening. As a nation we are mortgaging the future of our children through irresponsible financial management of the nations economy, and through our own personal mismanagement of our own financial futures.

We have been told time, and time again that debt is not good. We are seeing first hand the results of a nation that revels in debt. We must change our habits or risk destruction as a country, as a people, and as individuals. These are unprecedented times. They are going to require unprecedented leadership and solutions to the problems and challenges we face. The fact is, we must change if we are to survive.

Once upon a time, in a land long ago, a new entity was born. This place was called a mall. It was a huge, magnificent building that was constructed for the sole purpose of selling goods in an atmosphere of comfort for the buyers. These buildings were the result of cheap fuel, transportation systems (automobiles) that allowed people unlimited mobility and opportunities to leave there homes and travel somewhere to shop.

Later on, a new concept arose called an Outlet Mall. The shoppers desire to get those name brand goods at ever cheaper prices caused outlet malls, so named because they were name brand stores in an outside mall, to sprout up all over America. These “new malls” grew up quickly in vacant fields, and were few and far between because they were supposed to be special.

Quickly they stopped growing because of several new changes. First, fuel became more expensive and the cheap outlet malls became more common and less competitive. Then, a thing called the internet grew up, and the new mall became the monster mall in cyberspace. Now, the ever diligent and suffering shopper can buy his or her goods without ever having to leave the house. All one needs is a good computer, a marvelous modem, and lots of band width so one can shop at ease without leaving the home. Now, we can all shop in the cyber mall and the physical mall is becoming a thing of the past.

One of the great curses of being part of a Bishopric in our church is the fact that it should be impossible to fall asleep in church. As my wife will attest, that is one of my favorite activities. When I was sitting in the congregation, one of the things I really liked to do in the past was sit in a pew that was against a load bearing wall. Once the meeting got started, I would lay my head against the wall and voila, I was asleep, catching some well deserved rest. My wife, being the good woman she is, realized that I should actually be learning something in Sacrament meeting, so she would wake me up. When she realized that was not going to keep me from getting some shut eye, she told me that I was forbidden from sitting next to the wall.

Next, she even refused to sit there and therefore we would sit in a row of chairs (not a pew, which was way too comfortable for me) and then we would try and listen. My eye lids would prove to be way too heavy and I soon would be having my head fall forward and sometimes that would wake me up, and sometimes it wouldn’t. That is how I learned just how sharp my wife’s elbow could be, as she would jab me in the side so that I wouldn’t embarrass her.

Apparently my heavenly father didn’t appreciate me falling asleep in church, so I was called to a position that would force me to sit in front of everyone in the ward on a row facing the congregation. Now I was trapped, with everyone watching whether or not I fell asleep. Unfortunately, even sometimes in front of a lot of people I would fall asleep, but I must admit that I probably fall asleep less in church.