What follows is random and rambling. I do this here once in a while. It’s just musings and memories of life for me in Sanpete lately. I’m just sharing what comes to my mind of what’s been going on the past week or so.

I think that highfalutin writers would call this “stream of consciousness” writing. And we all know how highfalutin I am with this column.

First of all, I would like all of Sanpete to say “Congratulations Merrill!” On three: One, Two, Three! Thank-you! Yes, it’s true. I got my taxes sent off to the government on time and without asking for an extension this past week. (unlike last year and some other years)

I think the tax accountant guy was a bit shocked when I delivered my information a whole week ahead of the deadline. I’ve been trying to remember what name Johnny Carson used to call his accountant.

As I remember he called the law firm he used “Dewey, Cheatam, & Howe.” I’ve been calling my accountant “Mr. Bad News” lately. Who knew that Social Security benefits were taxed at such a high rate? (I should have known)

I feel an Albert Einstein quote coming on: “The hardest thing to understand in the world is the income tax.” This from the guy who gave us E = mc2.

I think Mark Twain should be given equal time: “What is the difference between a taxidermist and a tax collector? The taxidermist takes only your skin.”

Last Friday night, our church had a talent night party. It was fun. There were lots of participants.

The guy who was the Emcee had lots of jokes. He said that for a short time in his life he had been a stand-up comedian. The first time he performed, he was very nervous and was scared to death that the audience was going to laugh at him.

He announced that if anyone was cold, they could go stand in the corner. It was 90 degrees there.

My wife and several older ladies dressed up as really old ladies with canes. They did a dance to the song “Pretty Woman.” They got lots of laughs.

A couple of local semi-celebrities performed as well. Jane Braithwaite, widow of Manti High School’s legendary coach Wilbur Braithwaite, “tickled the ivories” from one end to the other with a piano solo. She’s in her 90s and had to be helped onto a high stack of books piled onto the piano bench so she could reach the piano properly.

Adam Reeder, the “Professor of Rock,” gave a remarkably wonderful tribute version of Frank Sinatra’s “It Had to Be You.” (check out his YouTube channel – Professor of Rock. It’s great!

I’ve been reading a book. “How to Raise an Elephant” by Alexander McCall Smith. It’s part of the No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency series of novels.

The setting for the books is in Africa in Botswana. Here’s a little taste of what I read the other day.

“Mma Makutsi said.. women are always thinking of what is best for children… They think: What is going to make children strong and happy?… What is best for everybody? Those are the questions that women are always asking.”

“And men? Charlie demanded. Do men not think about those things too?” …

“Mma Ramotswe thought about the exchange… and reflected on the fact that there could be discussions between two people where both were wrong… she thought: Do not think that in any case where there are two competing arguments one of them has to be right: both can be wrong.”

I had a friend and neighbor pass away suddenly this past week. Marla Ward of Manti had lots of friends. I helped usher at her memorial service on Saturday. I wore a Hawaiian tie that she and her husband gave to me more than twenty years ago after a trip they had taken to the islands. Life is fragile.

On the radio (KMTI) the other morning I heard Alan Jackson’s song “The Older I Get.” The lyrics give pretty good advice, I believe. Here’s the first verse and chorus:

“The older I get, The more I think, You only get a minute, better live while you’re in it. ‘Cause it’s gone in a blink, And the older I get, The truer it is, “it’s the people you love, not the money and stuff, That makes you rich.”

“And if they found a fountain of youth, I wouldn’t drink a drop and that’s the truth, Funny how it feels I’m just getting to my best years yet.”

I think I understand Alan Jackson’s philosophy better than Toby Keith’s quote: “I ain’t as good as I once was, But I’m as good once as I ever was.”

I’m hoping that we’re all feeling like we’re getting to our best years yet. We may as well adopt that way of thinking because I don’t anticipate that there’s any fountain of youth going to be discovered anytime soon. If there is that discovery, unlike Alan Jackson, I’ll put a few drops into my Diet Pepsi. — Merrill

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