Sunday, July 2, 2017

Photo Essay: Potluck at the Bishop's House. Provo.

We start our Sunday services late, and don't get out until 5:30 in the evening. Since today was Fast Sunday, the Bishop invited everyone in the Ward over for a potluck tonight at 6.

There was pink lemonade and cupcakes made from scratch


Happy Ward members among the overgrown bushes


Kids goofing off for the camera


Sometimes Mormons can smile a leeeetle too much . . . 


What would the LDS Church be without young married couples deeply in love?


Waiting for the watermelon


The Bishop worries: Are there enough tortilla chips?


This baby is thinking: "Hey, let me at that guacamole dip!" 


"That's a good point, dear"


At an LDS feed there's always plenty for everybody


Let's get another look at those cupcakes . . .


A potluck is always a good place to try out some new headgear. Just call me Captain Peachfuzz.

Headlines & Verse. Sunday. July 2. 2017

EUROPEAN CITIES BANISH TOURISTS THIS SUMMER. WILL THE BIG APPLE FOLLOW SUIT?


A tourist who visited Venice
Was thrown out of town as a menace.
“You’re ruining our space!”
They said to his face --

“The San Pantalon ain’t for tennis!”


EVEN PIRATES HAVE TO BEHAVE THEMSELVES IN THESE SENSITIVE TIMES. DISNEY TO REVAMP ICONIC 'PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN' RIDE 


Walt Disney thought pirates were game.
Today they just have to be lame.
They can’t take a wench
Into their foul clench --

Nor can they set cities aflame.



When packing a bag for a flight
I like to take books that are light.
Not porn -- something clean;
Like MAD Magazine.
Not newspapers -- they are just trite.



WILL FERRELL LOBS ANOTHER BOMB AT THE AMERICAN PUBLIC WITH HIS LATEST FILM -- 'THE CASINO.' WHY DOESN'T HOMELAND SECURITY DO SOMETHING ABOUT HIM? 

Will Ferrell makes movies like custard --
In which he has added some mustard.
The taste is unique --
It’s not a technique

That keeps viewers seated and clustered.


Photo Essay: Where I Live

Where I live is at Valley Villas Senior Housing -- 650 West 100 North -- in Provo, Utah. I have been here for about 2 years. Before living here I stayed in a friend's unheated basement storage room. The building is owned and run by the Provo City Housing Authority. Rent is based on income. I pay $249.00 a month, which includes $25 a month for cable, which I don't use but have to pay anyway. Utilities are free. The place was built in 1995.

                                           You need a key to get inside the building itself.

I spend most of my time in this recliner in my living room -- I'm in it right now, putting this photo essay together. Before I was able to get a bed, this is where I slept at night as well.


                                               I'm on the ground floor, apartment 115


This is my patio -- regulations only allow 2 chairs outside


This is the view from my patio


My bedroom


My bathroom



My kitchen



My storage closet


My laundry room. Washers are $1.00. Dryers are 50 cents.




The main lobby


The community room, where we have a brief LDS Sacrament Meeting each Sunday



The garbage chute is on the third floor


The third floor also has a computer room, installed by Google. But the computers keep getting ripped out. Right now we're down to two.



I'm grateful for my little apartment. When I was raising a family I bought houses in North Dakota, Kansas, and finally Minneapolis. But I guess I'll never own a home again. Or live in a motor home or on a train again, like I did with the circus. Or rent a three bedroom bungalow with my beautiful partner in Thailand again. This place is as final as it gets, for me. I'm thinking this will be my home until I am called Home.



The Polished Soul



Henry B. Eyring


My soul began its journey here as jagged as a rock;
Awkward angles, edges sharp -- yet dull as forceless chalk.
It would not take a polish nor hold up to heat and cold.
Twas not a thing of beauty, but a piece of punk fool’s gold.
The years have blunted many barbs; and tears dissolved the crust.
Yet heartache packed the rubble firm, with ev’ry unfair thrust.
And now perhaps a sparkle may at last come from my soul,

As Jesus starts to polish it and make it sound and whole.

Saturday, July 1, 2017

Photo Essay: The Provo Farmer's Market at Pioneer Park


The Provo Farmer's Market is held on Saturdays this summer at Pioneer Park, from 9 until 2. But truth be told -- it's more of a Craft Fair than a produce market. You can buy soap, Korean kimchi, jewelry, and other assorted knick knacks -- but I didn't see any fresh produce at all. Maybe it's just too early in the season . . .

This brings back memories of my days of circus tenting. The competition to get a plug on the rhino box was intense, even cut-throat -- because if you didn't get there quick enough, you couldn't plug in for juice for your trailer. It looked to me that only about a third of the booths at Pioneer Park were using electricity.



Dream catchers for sale


Frying up samosas 



Henna tattoos



Political parties canvass for new members


Myosook Lee sells bulgogi and cucumber kimchi -- it looked so good I promised her I'd come back to buy my lunch -- but after reflecting on my budget for July, I decided I'd better stick to pork & beans. I just bought a new cell phone . . .


The candy man


Musicians pass the hat



Sales can be slow


There's one born every minute . . .



I did this kind of stuff with pipe cleaners as a kid



The Missionary Heart



Thomas S. Monson

The missionary heart can see
The fields of ripe eternity.
Proselyting day and night,
It pumps but love with all its might.
When such a heart is placed in man
He does more than mere mortals can.
O help me, Lord, to love such work,

And ev’ry petty fear to shirk!

Headlines & Verse. Saturday. July 1. 2017.

NEW JERSEY BUDGET BATTLE CLOSES STATE PARKS AND BEACHES FOR THE HOLIDAY.


Don’t travel to New Jersey for your weekend holiday.
The state is without budget, so you’ll find no place to play.
The parks are closed just like a clam; the beaches, too, are shuttered.
The Governor won’t pay their bills, no matter how he’s buttered.
Of course all the casinos will be open for your trade --

So you can lose your shirt and have your mortgages parlayed.




A bizness that’s run in LA
Hasn’t much chance now to stay.
Those mom and pop shops
Are hit in the chops --
While highrises chase them away.





Reporters in France have no clue
What Monsieur Macron will do --
His thoughts are so deep
That he has to keep
Them locked up like snakes in a zoo.


IOWA STARTS SHIPPING THEIR FAMOUS SWEET CORN TO THE REST OF THE COUNTRY FOR THE FOURTH OF JULY STARTING THIS MONDAY 


It ain’t a decent picnic on our Independence Day
Without a cob of corn or two from down in Ioway.
With butter melted over it and salted down as well,
It’s nothing but ambrosia to palate and to smell.
I can eat a dozen without blinking, yes sirree,
While shooting off a cherry bomb in thanks for Liberty.
You folks down there in Ioway, please keep up the good work --

Without your ears of sweet corn I do think I’d go beserk!



CHINESE PRESIDENT XI JINPING TELLS HONG KONG RESIDENTS -- 'YOU BELONG TO BEIJING NOW; SO SAY GOOD-BYE TO FREE SPEECH!'

Obtaining Hong Kong with some cant,
The Chinese are now on a rant.
They’ve told all the world
That tongues should be furled --

It’s jail for so much as a chant.