Rubber Ducky....he's the one....

Morgan has been working on a project at school in his ceramics class and was selected to be one of the students from American Fork High School to have his creation in the Alpine School District art show at the Scera Theater. He decided to make a monster size ceramic 'Rubber Duck!' The north Utah county schools has some real talent as evident by the paintings and ceramic arts. Annalisa had one of her art pieces there a few years back on display. The Scera Theater was founded in 1933 and has supported the development of the cultural arts and has had an operating movie theater, stage and gallery for the locals. On Saturday, Morgan and I went on an outing and enjoyed the colorful display at the gallery. Good Job Morgan! He made is duck to float in water even.....THAT will be fun to see!

Bag Pipe Concert

A call from friend, Cindy and an open Saturday night, made for some great girly time as we enjoyed a meal at a mom & pop place in American fork called, Flour Girls & Dough Boys. This bakery has 'made from scratch' everything and has a breakfast, lunch and dinner menu. The breads and pastries are divine, and the soup, salads and sandwiches...delectable! We headed to SLC in a blowing snowstorm and got to Highland High School for the concert of the SLC Bag Pipers, known as the Salt Lake City Scots. http://www.saltlakescots.org/main.html Cindy's boyfriend, Jack was the MC and a pipe player as well as the Band Major complete with a baton routine. Intermingled with familiar Bag Pipe songs were occasional Highland dances by a Celtic dance troop in SLC. The theme of the night was honoring the fallen soldiers, including 1000 bag pipers of WWI. After the show, we went to Jacks house on the foothills of Draper which sported a fabulous view of the Salt Lake valley. Jack is an accomplished musician and has a dozen various instruments displayed in his home as well as a pipe organ! (at the opposite corner of the room was a full height Egyptian Sarcophagus! ) After leaving the snowy terrain of Draper, Cindy and I headed back to Cedar Hills to be met with blinding, blowing snow. As is our 'custom', Cindy and I talked till the wee hours of the morning and as we parted, we remembered it was day light savings and got a whopping 3 hrs of sleep before getting up for church! It was a great evening, so of course, it was worth it! In the photo, Cindy is in a white sweater. The other two people were Jack's friends from Jackson Hole, WY.

Carlos Aragon - Lance Corporal - US Marines

On Tuesday evening Annalisa called and I found her to be hysterically crying. I finally understood her to say that Carlos, her former boyfriend of her Jr. and Sr. year of High School was dead, killed in Afghanistan where he had been deployed only 4 months ago. He was 19 and had said he was scared to go to Afghanistan, but was willing to protect his country. Annalisa had seen him in October because he came to visit her at her work at FYE in Provo. She spoke to him before he left in November '09, and then to get this shocking news from her friend Kami Escamilla. Over the past week we have watched the news and kept in contact with his friends and relatives. Yesterday, as a family we attended his funeral in Lehi, Utah.

I have to describe the experience in full. We arrived to the LDS chapel in Lehi to see US Flags lining the perimeter of the Church grounds. In a neat and tidy row were motor bikes of all sorts, the drivers holding flags that lead to the entrance to the Church. The motley crew were in leather and chaps, but all had pride of service. This was a bikers group, a veteren group of men and women. The effect was very cool. Inside, Annie and I walked arm in arm to the open casket viewing of Lance Corporal Carlos Alberto Aragon. He was laid to rest in full uniform and most recognisable was his curly eyelashes. Remember, he was the boy of long curly blond shoulder length hair, a scrubby beard and sweet smile. At his HS graduation he had cut his hair into a butch and it was a stunning difference. We learned that though his body was in presentable shape, he had been killed by a land mine, also known as IED, and it was the repercussion that knocked the life out of him, as in the 'shaken baby syndrome'. The service was so well done and attended by Governor Hubert and Congressman Chaffetz of Utah. Carlos' two older half brothers spoke and to the surprise of his friends, his biological father attended. Carlos had never met his real father originally of Mexico, and had only talked to him twice in his short life. The attending mourners were invited to attend the dedication of his grave and a very long (80 car) procession ensued. It was touching as a long row of Boy Scouts held flags and stood at attention with hands raised to their foreheads in salute to all the cars that passed, with the Hearse in the front, lead by a police motorcade. At each intersection and stop lights of perhaps 10 in number, a police car and officer were blocking traffic to let the procession stay together as we traveled to Camp Williams on Redwood Road. (Side note: Annalisa with friends met the airplane delivering the body at the SLC airport at 8am this same day. She said the same respect was given to the 20 car procession even to the stopping of traffic on I-215 and I-15. Each on ramp was blocked to allow the motorcade, Hearse and followers to travel from SLC to Lehi.) The graveside ceremony was accentuated with a 6 gun salute and the flag covering the casket was folded into the customary triangle and at the last fold 3 bullets were inserted into the flag and given to his mother, a repeat of the flag folding and another given to his natural father. Again those that attended gave condolence to his immediate family and the crowd dispersed. Sadly, another Marine soldier from Orem died two days after Carlos and his funeral will be this coming weekend. Nicholas knew Nigel Olsen from Mountain View High School. Nigal was from the same company as Carlos. The whole experience was draining but so well executed for the family and friends of Carlos. He will be missed and the sacrifice of his live will not be forgotten. In a couple of these photos you will see a young fellow named Hector. He was Carlos' best friend. In an interview with a local paper, Hector said that he and Carlos talked every weekend. He said they talked for hours about everything and nothing at all. When asked if Hector would miss Carlos, he said yes, but at least they had left nothing unsaid. I was very touched by that. Give though to those in your world whom you love and leave nothing unsaid. You never know when you cannot say more. Hector who is dressed in black on black suit and has long black hair. (When Annie and Carlos were together they would hang out with Hector alot and I had met him at a picnic once before.) As folks were leaving and Hector passed me, I told him that I appreciated his comments in the newspaper article. Then, from this fellow of dark colors and deep sadness for his lost friend, he smiled at me with a row of strait white teeth and beautiful eyes and said, "Be Happy.....just Be Happy." Thanks Hector. So Long Carlos.

Big Business Expo at UVU

Curtis Miner Architecture joined the annual Big Business Expo this year and with a couple weeks preparation, we , as a company managed to get the posters designed and printed, and pulled together our display. It was cool to see the outcome of our planning. It happened that the Whitings from our Orem 10th ward passed by as I was taking pictures. Curtis spent the day talking with other Expo contributors and with attendees. In all the company got 8 solid leads on projects......Not Bad! The CMA employees were invited to come see the booth, so I went on Tuesday the 23rd of Feb and spent the lunch hour there. Intent on getting back to work.....this happen........

Bummer!

BUMMER!

With my thoughts on leaving the parking lot of UVU and how to get out, I was surprized by a truck coming across the isle of parked cars and skidded tires but struck the students truck in a 'T' bone fashion. Not much occured to his truck but it seems the trucks tire rotation pulled off the bumper of my Jeep. After getting out of the Jeep, I saw STOP written on the pavement. Dang. The Jeep was repaired within a week and looks great now. Good that I had insurance...wonder if it will go up now. This is my first accident at my apparent fault in my 30 years of driving. Not bad!