Island Time: July 2017

How it happened so quickly I will never understand. Wasn’t it yesterday that my junior high school friends and I laughed at the idea of ever being old, singing the Beatles’ “Will you still need me, will you still feed me, when I’m sixty-four?” (I was 14 years old when the Beatles released the song in 1967 on their album Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band.) Perhaps my parents would turn 64 someday, but no, not me. I had my life in front of me, a great story waiting to be written. And now, as improbable as it seems, here I am. I just turned 64.

Life is mysterious in these ways; one day I’m impossibly young, imagining a future for myself; the next day I’m in my 60s, having observed that life is filled with unending question marks. Age has brought clarity that was lacking in my younger self, when I believed (even a few short years ago) that there will always be more time, more opportunities, a future tense yet to be lived. Life is more precious these days, less wild, and the surprises that come with age seem more like blessings. Now it seems my life is as Frank Sinatra sang in “The September of my Years.”

One day you turn around, and it's summer
Next day you turn around, and it's fall
And all the winters and the springs of a lifetime
Whatever happened to them all?

As a man, who as always had the wandering ways
I keep looking back to yesterdays
Till a long forgotten love appears

And I find, I'm sighing softly as I near
September, the warm September of my years

As a man, who has never paused at wishing wells
Now I'm watching children's carousels
And their laughter's music to my ears

And I find, that I'm smiling gently as I near
September, the warm September of my years
The golden warm September of my years

With the long hours Lisa and I had been working, we determined it was time to take a much needed break. Off to Idaho and Utah we went to visit family and friends.

Arriving in Utah we went to see the new grandkids, Gideon and Scotty (oh, and of course their parents), followed by a picnic at the Mapleton City park.

On Sunday we attending Gideon’s baby blessing and then a BBQ at Sasha and James home. There was lots of baby holding go’in on.

On Monday morning we drove south to Toquerville to visit with Lisa’s cousin Dovey and her husband Steve. Toquerville is located near Zion Nation Park in southern Utah.

On July 4th we attended a community breakfast at the city park. A number of local community members sang songs celebrating our nations holiday. Toquerville Royalty was also in attendance.

After breakfast we drove to Zion Nation Park and hiked the Narrows Trail.

In the evening we went to Tuacahn Amphitheater in Saint George and attended the performance “Newsies” followed by a fireworks show.

A couple of days later we met up with Chelsi and Eric in Sun Valley, Idaho, staying a couple of nights at the Sun Valley Lodge. We had planned on staying at the Lodge the following week, but couldn’t get a reservation. Allen & Company were holding their annual shindig in the mountains and they reserved the entire lodge. Allen is “Paul Allen” from Microsoft and this is their annual billionaire’s retreat. Other attendees included Warren Buffet, Bill Gates, Apple CEO Tim Cook, Hollywood agent Michael Ovitz, Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg, and Amazon founder Jeff Bezos. Let’s not forget Ivanka Trump. The day we were leaving, these people were arriving.