Sophie's Story

   One of the things that we wanted to do while we are in South Carolina is to get together with C's two best friends from high school. Two years ago we had found one of them and met him for a very nice lunch in Myrtle Beach. C had found the third member of the trio on Facebook. We were going to find some way to meet him. It didn't matter how far we would have to drive, we were going to find some way to meet with him.   We found out that he was going to be travelling the week we would be in South Carolina. He was going to be near Myrtle Beach. We were also going to be in Myrtle Beach. The friend that we met two years ago lived near Myrtle Beach. It was going to happen. C, Dan and Scott who played football, ran track and were close friends in high school were going to see each other again. It had been nearly 40 years.     Dan and Scott were a year ahead of C and went off to college. Dan went to a small college in North Carolina. Scott went to the college that his father atte

   I love to fly. I like just about anything when it comes to airplanes. I love to watch them land. I love to watch them take off. I love to watch ground crew members swarming around them after they've landed to get them ready to head up again. Really the only things that I don't like are security and not having a window seat. I've learned how to deal with that.    I have always said that if you want to teach a child about physics, teach them about airplanes. It's amazing. You have this large, extremely heavy steel vehicle that is able to move high in the sky at speeds of several hundred miles an hour. Somehow it is able to cheat the law of gravity which seems to be the only law that everyone has to obey and no one can repeal. (I've probably just frightened those of you who are more timid flyers.) The way a plane is able to stay up is all physics. It has to do with getting the right ground speed at takeoff and having the wings set at just the right angle to get t

   A few weeks ago I put a quote on my Facebook page. "Life is not a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in a well preserved body, but rather to skid in broadside, thoroughly used up, totally worn out, and loudly proclaiming, 'Wow what a ride!'" I posted it because I like the quote. I was a bit surprised at the person who said it. The quote is from Marjorie Pay Hinckley. You probably don't know her, but you might know her husband. He was Gordon B. Hinckley, who served as the 15th President of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints from 1995 to 2008.   What do you think of when you hear the words Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints? Probably nothing. What about the word Mormon?  Do you think of 15 dour looking elderly men in dark suits and white shirts with ties? Do you think of young men out on bicycles handing out Books or Mormon? Do you think of  silent women with long hair and dresses that act a little like the Duggar

     Last Sunday I wore once of my fancier hats to church. I tend to get a few complements every time I wear the hat. This time one of the women asked me how many hats I own. I told her somewhere around 20 or so. I've never really stopped to count them. If you count the ball caps I probably own closer to 30. This started a discussion about the times when certain denominations required women to cover their heads. At one point I was asked when I started to wear hats.   I can't remember the answer, but I pondered the question later that day. Why and when did I start wearing hats and when did I start wear them to church.   I started wearing hats on a regular basis when I started colouring my hair. The women in my family tend to go gray early. I started showing white hair in my middle 20s. While I have no problem with looking my age, I wasn't ready to have white hair yet. I started to colour my hair. I like red highlights in my hair. One challenge with the reds is that they

   Last night I went out dancing with my friend Mandy and her husband. She asked me what I planned to write about this weekend. I told her I had no idea.    Many times when I think about this column an idea pops into my head nearly fully formed. I can't get my fingers to type fast enough. Those tend to be some of my better columns. Then there are the days when I sit in front of the keyboard with a nice white screen and no idea what I'm going to do.   I know what I don't want to do. I don't want to write about anything serious. I don't feel like writing about what's going on in the world right now. I'm getting to the point where I've lost count of how many unarmed people have been shot by police, how many people think that our country is going to H-E double hockey sticks because of choices some of our elected officials are making. There's a drought in the west and terrorism in the east.   I asked Scamp if he would be interested in taking a break

   I was looking at some catalogs a few weeks ago. I wanted to pick up a few nice,new things for spring. (Yes, it does eventually come.) I found two casual dresses that I really liked. The hard part of catalog shopping, at least for me, is picking out colours. The names don't really help. I narrowed it down to two choices, tropical teal and Persian rose. When I looked at the dresses it looked like one was a blue-green and the other was a dark hot pink.   Who thinks up the names for these colours anyway? If there is a tropical teal, does that also mean there is an arctic teal? Maybe the arctic teal has more blue in it. I have looked at many roses in my life and I've never seen a Persian rose. Are roses in Persia really that colour? I always thought that Persia was a desert country so roses wouldn't grow there.   I must admit I do like looking at the names of colours in catalogs. They tend to be creative. There isn't any red, blue or green. There's snapdragon, cle

  There has been a lot of press about the newly signed Indiana religious freedom act. As you know it's been mostly hostile. Many groups are advocating for a boycott of the state.   I can, to a certain extent, understand this. There is, however,a part of me that finds the outrage at little odd. Discrimination in retail establishments has been going on for a long time. I'm pretty sure most of us at one time or another have been given slow service or no service at a retail establishment because of looks, dress or judgments about potential income. I remember a story I was told once about the time my Dad went to buy a car about 35 years ago. He had done some research and went to the dealership to make arrangements to purchase the car he had decided on. The owner of the dealership refused to sell to my Dad. He knew what my Dad did for a living( in a small town everyone knows everything) and he decided that my Dad could not afford the car that he wanted. My Dad wasn't trying to