cc: file, nkrueger@luminet.net, dpenny@tdc.net, dpenny@iname.com, thafen@infowest.com, wnerloyd@infowest.com, phatmom@juno.com.
"Christmas Eve I took my Mom to the Pizza Factory just north of St. George Boulevard and Center Street in St. George. What an experience.
I stayed up most of Sunday night finishing up the Thoughtlet, putting together a proposal for Apachie Corporation (http://www.walden3d.com/apache), cleaning up my office, packing for the trip, and preparing for the meeting at MuSE on Monday. Larry Law took me to Hobby for a 7:00 AM flight Monday, so he could use the new Saturn while I was gone. I called my contact at Apache on the portable phone when the plane landed in Dallas. The stewardess saw the phone and got very upset. She made me get off of the phone to finish the phone conversation. There was interest in the Apache Proposal, and they want the work completed in one quarter rather than three quarters as we proposed. When I got back on the plane I met Bill Bavinger, who flew in from Oklahoma City, and we schemed and planned on the way to Albequrque (when I wasn't asleep). The meetings at MuSE went well.
I got on an earlier flight to Las Vegas and made it to Aunt Luana's and Uncle Lloyd's at 10:30 rather than midnight. We talked for a while, then I went and caught up on some sleep. Talked to Sara first thing after waking up. The lady she had rented Grandpa and Grandma Nelson's house to had taken checks mailed to Grandma Nelson, forged them, and cashed them. Later we found out she did the same thing with a credit card sent to Leslie Baxter (Leslie and Cameron took care of Grandma for about a year) and spent over a thousand dollars that wasn't hers. Sara had to ask her to move out. Had a great talk with Aunt Luana. She is trying to set me up with one of Uncle Lloyd's Nieces. I wish a miracle could happen and we could have our family back together again. I feel so insecure, I really don't see how any woman could be interested in me based on how your Mom feels about me. Oh well. I got to Porter's Nursing Home at 11:30 and at 11:45 two of Mom's best friends from SUU came to take her to lunch. I drove the wheel chair and we walked the block and a half to the Hunan Restaurant. This was Tuesday noon. It was a fun lunch, and Mom really seemed to enjoy herself. After visiting for a while, I went over to visit Grandma Hafen. She did not look well at all. However, by the time I left to return to Houston she had most of her spunk and vinegar back. I went back out and visited with Aunt Luana and Uncle Lloyd. My cousin Claude came by and I asked him about an indenture on my left cheek. He said I should have it checked for skin cancer. We were going to go sing Christmas Carols, but didn't make it. I got to Cedar City and to your Aunt Sara and Uncle Des' house at about 9:00 PM. We talked, played games, and I got a good night's sleep. It snowed Tuesday night (and again on Christmas Eve night). I had a white Christmas. Paul called Wednesday morning with instructions on when and how to call him Christmas Day in Russia. I talked briefly to Ray Gardner about the city planning projects, started reading a Michner book called Mexico, and left for St. George about 2:00 PM on the afternoon of Christmas Eve.
I stopped to see Grandma Hafen. She was doing somewhat better. I gave her back notes and pictures from her history and a couple of books on St. George History I had picked up at R&K Bookstore in St. George on Tuesday. She was very pleased. Then I went to take my Mom to go to dinner. We were going to go to the movie `For Richer or For Poorer,' but the movie theaters were closed on Christmas Eve. She did not want to get in the van with the hoist, and so I walked her back up the hill, past the Brigham Young Home, to the Hunan Restaurant. It was closed. So I left her and went next door to the Bascilia. It was also closed for Christmas Eve. So I ran over to the Pizza Factory. It was opened until 6:00 PM. It was 5:10. I was suppose to call Paul in Russia at 5:40 PM St. George time. I ran back over to the building the Hunan Resturant was in and brought my Mom in her wheel chair over to the Pizza Factory. It was cold in St. George.
The Pizza Factory was noisy. It took forever to get our order taken. Just as the order was taken a neighbor from when I was growing up in the Cedar Valley came up to say hi to Mom. It had been close to 30 years since I had seen her. I remember, back when I was probably in Junior High, riding my bike all the way to her house and selling her Christmas Cards with her family name engraved on them. It was a fund raiser for 4-H or possibly Boy Scouts. Then her daughter came over and introduced herself. What a good looking lady! She told me her name, and I had a hard time reconciling what I saw with one of my childhood friend's little sisters. She explained she now lives in St. George, has 5 children and 4 Grandchildren, and after pizza they were all going back to the house to do the Nativity Story and spend some family time. At first I thought she had come over to say hi to Mom. As the conversation progressed I felt she came over to make sure I knew what I had missed out on by never noticing her. I found myself wondering how strong her marriage is. Then the waitress finally took our order, and I pulled out my cellular phone to call Paul at 5:40 PM.
The operator would not let me charge the phone call to my home, nor would she let me charge it against the cell phone, because of the country it was calling to. I started to panic because it was the appointed time. Then I remembered my ATT Walden 3-D calling card in my pocket calendar. The problem was it was in the car parked two blocks away at the Nursing Home. So I excused myself, ran up the hill past the Hunan Restaurant, down the hill past the Brigham Young Home, over to the car, got the calling card, and ran back to The Pizza Factory. Mom was fine and seemed to be enjoying all of the activity and noise in the restaurant. This time I got through to Paul, and let him talk to Grandma while I cooled down and ate some pizza. Paul, you sound good. He says he has lost 30 pounds. He also described how he and his companion were being harassed by 4 `druggies.' They had followed them for a long distance, calling them names and giving them a bad time, when Paul turned and asked them to stop. One of them punched Paul. He turned the other cheek and got punched again. Then he and his companion `cleaned all four of them and left them laying in the snow.' I'm not sure I wanted to know about this. He says it looks like the church is not going to be affected by the new law. If the church is required to leave Russia, it could happen by the end of January. Our prayers are needed to keep the work moving forward in this important vineyard. Paul told Melanie the radiation in the water is so bad some of the missionaries are loosing all of their hair. It was sure good to talk to him. In some ways it was less than comforting.
Since they had not shut down the Pizza Factory I decided to go ahead and call Roice in Singapore. The Hotel Operator told me there was no one by that name. I kept after them and next thing I knew there was Roice on the phone. Roice, you sounded tired. He said he had been awake for a half an hour, and yet was still in bed. Says he is good with eating with chop sticks now. He said they had done some sight seeing, that most of what happens in Singapore is shopping, and the project was going OK. When I got back to Houston there was a postcard which said:
As Roice and I were finishing talking, my childhood friend came to say goodbye to Mom, and it seemed she was determined to show off her big wedding ring (and herself). I don't think she was ever very close to Mom, and it seemed odd. Oh well! I was busy on the phone with Roice anyway. After the phone call I finished eating, and sat there exhausted. Mom was enjoying the noise and the people upstairs, even though the section we were in was long closed down and cleaned up by the time we finally left. It is not easy to drive the wheel chair across the sidewalk gaps and bumps back to Porter's. Mom was really tired, and I was glad when we got her back to her room. The next night, Christmas night, was similar, although we took the Nursing Home Van and went to a different Chinese Resturant. Mom was too tired to go see `For Richer or For Poorer' with me, and so I went alone. Mom got sick after I left her, and we ended up not going out to lunch on Boxing Day. Christmas with Sara, Des, Bridget, and Brian was very nice. They gave me a lot of presents, including a very nice Chinese Checkers Game made of marble and stones, and a big bag of Pine-Nuts. It was very hard not to be around all of you guys. It was nice to get a present from Ben, a 3-D Jigsaw Puzzle of a city. However, what I will remember about Christmas of 1997 are the phone calls from The Pizza Factory in St. George."