Look what we found

Everyone looks so young

To Both of You

Back to the day

Chief

Recently  came across a photo of Blair & his puppy

Unconscionable

1. Not restrained by conscience; unscrupulous:unconscionable behavior. 
2. Beyond prudence or reason


The definition is clear and apparent and rarely applied to a relative.  Historically he has more than graciously shared his time, talents and insights. But how else do you describe the behavior of a subject matter expert who through willful intent or malicious oversight doesn't share an insight or discovery. The other night we were sharing dinner with our friends, the Peterson's, and what does she surprise and delight us with for desert - personal sized sorbet . Tropical flavors served in their natural container. A light, refreshing, and perfectly sized dessert. They willingly shared. He has not. 


From whence came this treat? None other than Costco. How could Costco contain such a delight and my relative Costco expert either not know or not share. Either is a travesty. And in any case an unconscionable omission by him. I now share with you so you can partake of them from your local Costco.

( the guilty shall go unnamed but not unmaligned)

Bettie Elaine Blair Bond

Bettie Elaine Blair Bond Born in Ogden, UT on Feb. 13, 1921 Departed on Jul. 13, 2012 and resided in Roy, UT. Visitation: Thursday, Jul. 19, 2012 Service: Friday, Jul. 20, 2012 Cemetery: Roy City Cemetery Please click on the links above for locations, times, maps, and directions.

Bettie Blair Bond Bettie Elaine Blair Bond, 91, of Roy, Utah passed away July 13, 2012. Bettie was born February 13, 1921 in Ogden, Utah to Seth M. and Zella C. Blair, a true pioneer family. Living at the end of the street car line on the corner of 36th and Washington in Ogden, she had so much fun growing up in Burch Creek. She loved her family dearly. Bettie married Lawrence Max Bond on January 15, 1947 in the Salt Lake Temple. She graduated from Weber High, then Weber College in 1941. While she was working for Lockheed and attending to university studies in Los Angeles, her brother Robert was killed as a pilot in the Air Force. Because of her patriotic nature and desire that someone represent the family in the U.S.'s World War II effort, she was one of the first women to join the Navy as a WAVE (Women Accepted for Voluntary Service). For two years she served proudly as Master-of-Arms of Barracks in San Francisco. Bettie lived two full lives… Until the age of 48, she enjoyed raising her children, serving in PTA, being a substitute teacher in area elementary schools, playing the organ for weddings at her sister Maggie's wedding reception center (The White House), teaching piano lessons to young and old, being a second mom to neighborhood children, helping dad on the farm (raising tomatoes, sugar beets and alfalfa), and of course, church callings. At the age of 48, she experienced an aneurysm in her brain that left her paralyzed on her left side. She re-invented her entire life. She re-learned walking, talking, eating, and all of the normal life skills. She had grit and laughter. This led her to re-learning to expertly play the piano and organ with only her right hand, along with painting, and ceramics. She joined the McKay-Dee Hospital Volunteers where she volunteered almost 9, 000 hours. Here she broadened her friendships and influence. She could comfort and bless patients differently than any other volunteer because of her own life-changing experiences. With one of her hundreds of home-grown, trademark African Violet flowers in hand, her visits would begin and continue until the patient was discharged. Her tender and special influence was significantly felt in the Stewart Rehabilitation Center where paralyzed patients felt her love and inspiration. Her strong belief in God directed and sweetened her path.  She loved Lynn Child, her nephew, who patiently and lovingly helped her annually plant and attend to her flower garden. She loved the Weber State University Sorority – La Dianeda and served as their advisor for years. Easter Breakfast especially brought current and former 'Swabbies' together and she loved their association. She simply was 'the' example of courage and being valiant, hallmarks of enduring to the end. Love is the answer. Thanks to our kind friends at the Wahlen Veteran Home, also our Dr. Harry Senekjian, and friends at Country Pines Retirement Home. May God Bless You. Bettie is survived by her three children: Larry, Rindy (Tim) Wilson and John (T.J.); nine grandchildren: Blair (Julie), Brigham, Evan, Parker, Mackey, Alex, Katie (Kenneth), Liz and Tori and three great grandchildren: Eden, Dean and June; and family: Thelma Blair; Karen (Val) Lofgreen; Seth (Arlene) Blair and Peg – Margaret Favero; Ellen (Melvin) Rogers; Bob Shupe and Margaret Stimpson Child. She was preceded in death by her husband, Max; parents, Seth and Zella Blair; sister, Marion Hoyt; brothers, Robert and Ed; in-laws; Walter Hoyt, Ned Favero; Lawrence and Martha Bond; Eloise and Revella Child; Donna Shupe; Lorin Stimpson and Don Child.  Funeral services will be held on July 20, 2012 at 11 a.m. at the Municipal Park Ward, 5930 South 2200 West, Roy, Utah. Family and friends may call on July 19, 2012, from 6 to 8 p.m. at Myers Mortuary in Roy, 5865 South 1900 West and on July 20, 2012, from 9:45 to 10:45 a.m. at the church prior to services. Interment, Roy City Cemetery.  Elder Parker, who won't be able to join us at the services made the following observations:

I am grateful for Grandma Bond, better known in the family as Grandma Utah. I constantly remember me and he talking about basketball for hours on the phone or at her house. Eating dinner on the small table in her house watching movies with Liz, mac and tori. Helping her out with her garden, and her example of faith and hope, and truly enduring to the end. Her passing gives me another drive to endure to the end so that i may live with her and my family again. I know that i will live with her again and see her again. having been paralyzed on her left side it is incredible that she raised 3 dogs to behave perfectly when i cant even do one, cook amazing meals, and take care of a household. she will always be loved and always be in my prayers. i wont be in Utah mentally but i will be there spiritually, right after that though i will be back here 24/7 so that others can have the joy and assuredty i have.

Who said its not ours

I hear the whispers
I see the looks sent askance
I feel the petty jealously
I note the hands caressing the texture

yes, it WAS Mom' & Dad's porch furniture but in cleaning up some documents yesterday I found the original deed that is evidence of purchase. And so I put to rest the debate.

please note genuine signatures

Fishing Tales

So excuse the language in the video but the people are as funny as the experience




I think I totally relate with this because I've had this happen twice with Northerns : once with Evan when the northern attacked and took a perch on the line; and a more spectacular time with Blair when the northern attack and took a bass.
I love real life fish stories

It was that big.

Up North

In Chicago one doesn't of necessity need to head up north for the weekend.
As much as we love hanging out in Naperville with our parades and concerts and river walk and convenience.
As much as we love the proximity of Chicago and the Temple and the O'hare gateway to the world. As much as we love to tour the Midwest, the country, the globe.

There is an incomparable delight in going to the lake up north.
The lake might be Lake of the Woods, Lake Vermillion, Side Lake, Many Pointe Lake, or White Fish Lake. But give me a lake with a loon or two, fish, swimmable water, and our old boat.
Give me good friends, scouts, or better yet my family.
Give me a burger, a brat, pancakes, and s'mores.
Give me a hot, hot day in July, cool nights, a bit of rain- given I have shelter.
Give me going up north.

Give me The Wilson Invasion 2012 in Hayward Wisconsin and I will give you a grand time.
Doesn't get much better.
(ok it would have been great and glorious to have Parker with us but he is where he should be, doing what he should do.)

The Kids

part of a blog is the shameless posting of one's kids.
And so when we gather I force them all to endure my photo taking
and so I post from this past extended weekend.

Incremental Honesty

David Brooks is a favorite of many in my family, as an editorialist and essayist. I do not follow him quite as closely as they, though when I do, I am frequently either delighted or provoked to thought, which I guess is the object of an author of his ilk. The following article was written nearly a month ago but i just crosssed its path this morning.

Many values have devolved into relativity in our modern world and honesty is one of them. I've always thought this question among the most provocative of the series:

8. Are you honest in your dealings with your fellowmen?

Where exactly is the line of being totally honest or relatively honest?
How good of a person are we?
What does this mean - the good-hearted and easygoing moral climate of the age?
Read.
Ponder.
Comments welcomed.

June 7, 2012

The Moral Diet

By DAVID BROOKS

In the 1970s, the gift shop at the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts was an informal affair. It was staffed by about 300 mostly elderly volunteers, and there were cash drawers instead of registers. The problem was that of the shop’s $400,000 in annual revenue, somebody was stealing $150,000.

Dan Weiss, the gift shop manager at the time who is now the president of Lafayette College, investigated. He discovered that there wasn’t one big embezzler. Bunches of people were stealing. Dozens of elderly art lovers were each pilfering a little.

That’s one of the themes of Dan Ariely’s new book “The (Honest) Truth About Dishonesty.” Nearly everybody cheats, but usually only a little. Ariely and his colleagues gave thousands of people 20 number problems. When they tackled the problems and handed in the answer sheet, people got an average of four correct responses. When they tackled the problems, shredded their answers sheets and self-reported the scores, they told the researches they got six correct responses. They cheated a little, but not a lot.

That’s because most of us think we are pretty wonderful. We can cheat a little and still keep that “good person” identity. Most people won’t cheat so much that it makes it harder to feel good about themselves.

Ariely, who is one of the most creative social scientists on the planet, invented other tests to illustrate this phenomenon. He put cans of Coke and plates with dollar bills in the kitchens of college dorms. People walked away with the Cokes, but not the dollar bills, which would have felt more like stealing.

He had one blind colleague and one sighted colleague take taxi rides. The drivers cheated the sighted colleague by taking long routes much more often than they cheated the blind one, even though she would have been easier to mislead. They would have felt guilty cheating a blind woman.

Ariely points out that we are driven by morality much more than standard economic models allow. But I was struck by what you might call the Good Person Construct and the moral calculus it implies. For the past several centuries, most Westerners would have identified themselves fundamentally as Depraved Sinners. In this construct, sin is something you fight like a recurring cancer — part of a daily battle against evil.

But these days, people are more likely to believe in their essential goodness. People who live by the Good Person Construct try to balance their virtuous self-image with their selfish desires. They try to manage the moral plusses and minuses and keep their overall record in positive territory. In this construct, moral life is more like dieting: I give myself permission to have a few cookies because I had salads for lunch and dinner. I give myself permission to cheat a little because, when I look at my overall life, I see that I’m still a good person.

The Good Person isn’t shooting for perfection any more than most dieters are following their diet 100 percent. It’s enough to be workably suboptimal, a tolerant, harmless sinner and a generally good guy.

Obviously, though, there’s a measurement problem. You can buy a weight scale to get an objective measure of your diet. But you can’t buy a scale of virtues to put on the bathroom floor. And given our awesome capacities for rationalization and self-deception, most of us are going to measure ourselves leniently: I was honest with that blind passenger because I’m a wonderful person. I cheated the sighted one because she probably has too much money anyway.

The key job in the Good Person Construct is to manage your rationalizations and self-deceptions to keep them from getting egregious. Ariely suggests you reset your moral gauge from time to time. Your moral standards will gradually slip as you become more and more comfortable with your own rationalizations. So step back. Break your patterns and begin anew. This is what Yom Kippur and confessionals are for.

Next time you feel tempted by something, recite the Ten Commandments. A small triggering nudge at the moment of temptation, Ariely argues, is more effective than an epic sermon meant to permanently transform your whole soul.

I’d add that you really shouldn’t shoot for goodness, which is so vague and forgiving. You should shoot for rectitude. We’re mostly unqualified to judge our own moral performances, so attach yourself to some exterior or social standards.

Ariely is doing social science experiments and trying to measure behavior. But I thought his book was an outstanding encapsulation of the good-hearted and easygoing moral climate of the age. A final thought occurred to me. As we go about doing our Good Person moral calculations, it might be worth asking: Is this good enough? Is this life of minor transgressions refreshingly realistic, given our natures, or is it settling for mediocrity?