If you’re totally ready for Christmas (and you should be), there is no need for you to read further. What follows is meant mainly for the ultimate Christmas procrastinator. I know that there are a few of you out there. This topic has urgency right now, as it’s just a matter of a precious ...

It’s mid-December! Christmas is rounding the “clubhouse turn” and headed into the “straightaway” (in horseracing language). We’re well past Thanksgiving and we’ve shifted the holiday gears. For many of us it’s the right time to get into the spirit of the Christmas ...

When I was a kid, my parents would sometimes say something like, “Things have got to calm down, it’s like Grand Central Station in this house. Or, mom would say on the phone, “I don’t know where anyone is today, it’s been like Grand Central Station around here.” I think a lot of ...

This is a follow-up to Thanksgiving. We should never get tired of giving thanks – of being grateful. There are people and groups who recommend the practice of keeping “gratitude journals.” I hear it mentioned at church occasionally. I hear people say that it’s been therapeutic in their ...

I’m so glad to see that Thanksgiving is becoming more accepted as a two-day holiday. It’s always seemed silly to me to have a Thursday holiday that emphasizes the gathering of families and then expect workers to be happily back on the job on Friday. In this day and age, families often ...

When I have people come to visit or when a newcomer to Sanpete is with me for a while, I’ll take them to the side of the hill east of the Manti Temple. That’s where the replica “dug-out” is located. When the first settlers arrived in Sanpete, that’s where they “holed up” and ...

Two Things this week: #1) Political Campaigns It’s hard not to notice that political campaigning is going on for our local elections around Sanpete and other counties in the state. And, of course, on the national scene you can’t avoid politicking if you turn on the TV. Buckle up. ...

(Warning! What follows is essentially a travelogue and may be considered boring and otherwise uninteresting to normal people.) I was in Austin, Texas, last weekend. The motivating reason for being there was a football game. The Cougars and Longhorns played. Part of the interesting background ...

In church last Sunday, I was in a class with the men of the congregation. Our discussion centered on the concept of “poise.” Just so your mind stays on track here, don’t think of any product made for bladder control problems. That product named “Poise” is a sister company to the ...

Trees have been on my mind. I’ve been noticing them as I drive through the neighborhoods of Sanpete. A couple of weeks ago, I planted three trees. I removed a dead peach tree and replaced it. That event about gave me a stroke or some sort of cardiac event. My body isn’t used to that kind ...