Pappa Hardy’s Musings on Life.

It’s that time of the year. I do love Christmas, I really do, but I could sure do without 12-18 inches of snow and 15 hours of darkness. We had 12 inches of snow here in Payson yesterday, and another 4 inches this morning with more due to come. I would love to see more sunlight and less cold. My age is showing. I can remember when it didn’t bother me nearly as much. I am ready to move to a warmer climate. I also need more sun. Just two more weeks to the shortest day of the year and then we start to climb back out of this mess.

Today I was released as the 2nd Counselor in the Page Ward Bishopric. I had served in that position for almost 4 years. When you serve in a position like that for as long as I have, you come to feel a huge loss when the situation is changed. I enjoyed serving with some fine men and women in the Page Ward. I now find myself without a calling. I am sure that will change soon, but it is an unusual feeling for me. I praise the Lord for the opportunity that has been mine to serve with such wonderful men.

I have never really been a fan of black Friday. For some reason I just don’t get a thrill of getting in the hunt for a bargain at 3am in the morning. I know that some people love that, but I am not one of them. I would much rather sleep in until my normal 5am get up time.

Unfortunately, I am the type of Christmas shopper that ends up not getting Christmas done until Christmas Eve. Somewhere, there must be a happy medium. I am unfortunately not it.

nice to have everything all bundled up and you would know when this or that would happen, and certainly, nothing bad or hard would ever happen. However, the creator in his wisdom knew that if that was what happened, we would never grow.

It sure doesn’t make it any easier, but that is the way that life is. One day you may be employed, then next, without a job during the middle of a real bad recession. One day your car may be in great shape, and the next it stops running or you are hit by another motorist. The worst of course is our health. At my recent 40th High School Reunion it was amazing how many of our classmates were dead, or are very sick and in the process of dying. So far, I have been blessed health wise but I do have my challenges. Yes, life is uncertain. We just have to do our best to have a positive attitude and cope with as best as we can.

Whenever I have gone cruising now, I feel the strong call of the seaman. I think I could have taken to a life of travel and work upon ocean going vessels. One thing that I have decided is that there is so much that I want to see around these big oceans that mark our planet, and so little time to go and do it. I am in the later parts of my life now and feel that I have run out of time to do some of the exploring and things that I really wanted to do. I wanted to be able to travel and explorer, see new things, do new things, and not be trapped in a job that has robbed me of new things. Well, I have only myself to blame. I don’t feel bad about the people that I have come to know and the family that I have, I just wish I had followed my heart more.

I am beginning to really feel my years. It doesn’t help that I am carrying around extra weight again, and I must lose that. However, my back, my legs, my feet, my hips, all hurt to some extent or other. I feel like I have old bones and an old body. I am really starting to realize that I am getting older. I hate it when you seem to hurt everywhere. Surely, there is some cure for advancing age, and I don’t mean death. Someone should invent something.

When I was 19 and called on a mission to Taiwan, I was pleased that I was going to learn to speak a language that is spoken by about one in four of everyone that lives on this earth. At the time, China and Taiwan were considered to be second or their level countries. No more. China and Taiwan or now leading out, and it makes me wish that my Mandarin was not a Second Language, and one poorly spoken at that. When I am around Mandarin speakers now (primarily Chinese who have it as their first and primary language) it makes me wish I had followed up on my intentions to study Mandarin and become fluent in its use. Instead, I am just a hack of the language and don’t understand. I wish Mandarin were my first language, or at least I could pretend so.

Here it is my 58th birthday, and I am experiencing it sitting in my stateroom on the Golden Princess. I have come to love the motion of the sea, that is except when it might make me sick. It is such a pleasure to see the waves go by, the unending expanse of water providing a place for a cruise liner to play. It has been such a wonderful vacation that I am experiencing.

I have come to Seattle so much now that I almost call the city my own. I lived and went to school at the University of Washington on beautiful Lake Washington in Seattle, for a total of 6 weeks spread over to 3 years.

I remember one of the most incredible sites of my life being a beautiful, clear, sunny day followed by a sunset in which I saw Mt. Rainer off in a distance, across Lake Washington, and watched the mountain as it changed to many different shades of a golden hue as the sun set. Following that was the rise of a full moon over the beautiful lake. It was a tremendous site.

This trip, I have been seeing the beautiful country side and greenery and thinking, you know, despite the rain and the clouds, I could live here. It is a real beautiful place.

Yesterday Bonnie and I had an opportunity to attend the Davis High School Class of 1969 40th Anniversary Reunion. It was a lot of fun, and also very revealing.

It was a lot of fun to be able to visit with a lot of friends. The funny thing is, I don’t remember them growing so old. All of these people were walking around with wrinkles on their faces, grey hair, and some of them either looked so good or so old that you couldn’t recognize them. It was amazing.

We had a chance to hear from a member of our class who is now the congressman from the 1st Congressional District in the state of Utah. We heard things about members of our class, their accomplishments, and also had a chance to hear about members of our class who valiantly have or still served their country in wars and lands abroad. We also learned of those members of our class that are no longer with us because they have left this mortal vale of tears and have moved on to a higher plan of existence.

There were some comic things too. After the program was finished up, they had a rock group called the Barracudas’ (which consisted of old DHS Graduates) play some rock music for us. At the beginning of their performance, they said that if anyone complained that it was too loud, they would be showing their age. They proceeded to do a great job of performing some of the great hits of the 60’s and the 70’s. However, it was loud, and it was comic to see all of these old people, who obviously are part deaf (me included) straining to hear each other talk while the music was being played. Everyone’s ears were placed next to the other’s mouth so we could communicate. It was obvious we were all too old. It was a great event and a defining moment.