12 August 2015

Hi everybody!
    We were all glad to be in on Ben's "Triple Bypass," and know that he got through the ride alright.  I'd like to here more about it though!  What did you think...was it harder than you thought it would be...not as hard?  What were your statistics...how long did it take, etc...
   Dad is in Charlotte, North Carolina this week; he'll be home on Tuesday.  They've had some really hot weather there. But on the bright side, he found a Brasilian restaurant!
   A funny thing happed at the Sheriff's office last week. A fairly new, young dispatcher was complaining about how hard his job is and said in conversation to your dad, "You should sit in this chair and try it for a while!"  Well there was silence...and then the Dispatch Supervisor let him know that "the Sheriff knows more about dispatching than you"ll ever know!"  He had no idea that Dad used to fill in as a dispatcher when he was Chief Deputy, or anything about his 911 background.  He's been dispatching for about a year now...I think he just hasn't been paying attention.
   I've been helping with the float for the Pioneer Day parade on the 25th.  Luella Rumsey, Susan Hunter, and I are making a quilt to put on the bed of a "little" boy. I'll send the picture so you can see what I'm talking about. It's going to be 15 ft by 12 ft. We've got it to 7X15...just 5 more rows to go!  We also need to make him a pajama shirt, white with blue strips.  Harvey Willford, Shawn Davenport, Ernie Quayle, Rowdy Rigby, etc...are building the bed and the boy. 
    The night of the 24th, the Ward sisters will be bringing the bake goods to our house, so I can get them to the bake food sale the next morning...should be interesting! 
   We had a patient go home AMA (against medical advice) in the middle of the night, last week. He was out of his head, was hitting nurses, and pulled out his NG and his IV. His wife took him home, refusing help from security.  So I called the next morning to see if they were both okay, but by then the wife had decided that it was all our nursing staff's fault, and chewed me out for 5 minutes.  It would have been bad enough, but she is a girl I've known since Junior High...I don't look forward to the next time I run into her; I'm sure it will be awkward for both of us.   
    Today in Sacrament meeting, Pat and Deverl Stoddard reported their 3 year mission, supervising/documenting the building of the Payson Utah Temple.  They had many wonderful experiences, and many less active people became reactivated because of their interest in, or participation in the building of it.
    I'm really looking forward to our next conference, in October. To get two new members of the Twelve Apostles will be so exciting!  But Elder Perry and President Packer are unforgetable!
    Well, that's all I can think of to say right now...love you all! 
      Mom/Johanna/Nana

Hello Family,

 Thanks for the email Mom!! Always nice to hear all the news. Wonderful work on the quilt for the float!! I'm glad the Dispatch Supervisor was there to set the new guy straight.

So sorry that it has taken me so long to respond with details about seeing Wicked.  I sent an email on Friday that had the whole story when I typed it, but apparently all the text failed to appear on the other end.  

Anyway, I've spoken with some of you already about Wicked but I'll sum up the details for everyone.  Lynsey and I have now seen Wicked performed at the Buell three times, we like it a lot!  The first time was with Dixie when she came to Denver to see it with her school group.  Joseph, Collin, and Karen were able to join us this time.  This was the first time for Joseph seeing a professional stage production like this, and he is now a fan.  He was asking to listen to the music again later that day.  The seats we had were the front row of the Mezzanine level.  We picked those seats so that there would be no chance of someone tall sitting in front of Joseph.  This performance was wonderful! Possibly the best we've seen yet.  Collin even said he would like to come back the next day to watch it again if he could get tickets.  We all highly recommend seeing it if anyone ever has the opportunity.

After the show was over we planned to go have dinner at Maggiano's downtown, and since it was only a few blocks away we thought we'd walk to avoid having to pay for parking again.  As we left the theater the sky looked overcast, but no rain was falling at that point so we went for it.  Before we had walked a full block we heard a tremendous clap of thunder and the rain started.  When we crossed the first street the rain was coming down in nearly sideways sheets with the wind that joined the fun.  We retreated into the first restaurant we could get into.  As we waited to see if the storm would last or pass by quickly there was a group of people that came running in also.  When they passed by us I thought that some of them looked familiar.  Then as they were waiting to be seated I realized that they were the ensemble dancers from the show we had just seen!  After a few minutes a couple more cast members joined them.  Then three women came running in together, and they were the actresses that played Elphaba, Glinda, and Nessa Rose.  The one who was Elphaba had already washed off all the green makeup.  We decided not to interrupt them since they were in a hurry to prepare for the evening performance. It was very exciting to get to see some professional actors and actresses off stage like that.  

Not long after the rain stopped and we continued on to dinner as planned.  We all agreed that getting chased inside by the storm was not such a bad thing.

I'm posting a couple more videos from my ride, and they should be on Facebook by the time most of you read this.  I'll send another email with more details from the Triple.

Love you all!

Ben