Month: September 2024

A few months ago we were on the Marine Corps Air Station at Miramar for their annual 5k run. Today we were back, this time for their annual air show. They have a stellar lineup of aerial performances, and we were told it was an event not to be missed.

As usual, because we were driving a hundred miles into the city, we felt like we should do more than just one thing. We invited another senior missionary couple to join us for lunch.

As we were chatting and mentioned that we used to live in Longmont, Kristy asked if we knew Dave and Liz Nelson… our good friends there! Yes, we’ve known them for decades. And it turned out Liz was her best friend growing up in California. Small world!

Unsurprisingly, the air show was packed with people. Unfortunately, we ended up parking so far away that we missed one of the “don’t miss this” performances. But we still caught several hours’ worth of good stuff. We started out on the tarmac in the cheap seats (meaning: free).

But the view wasn’t great, and it was hot on the concrete with the sun beating down. We relented and purchased a couple of tickets in the grandstands, which had a much better view and also featured several of our friends.

There were so many exciting things to watch as the planes zoomed overhead. My “good” camera is back in Montana, so all I had to work with was my phone and a little point-and-shoot camera. Both of them were difficult to use in the bright sun, so I ended up with at least a dozen photos of empty blue sky as I attempted to track the jets overhead. My pictures didn’t turn out well, but they’re good reminders of what we saw…

An F-22 Raptor goes transonic (notice the plume of water vapor as it accelerates):

That same Raptor flew really slowly in formation with a classic P-51 Mustang of World War II vintage. I’m sure the Mustang was going as fast as its little propeller could take it, while the Raptor was bordering on a stall. It was cool to see them together, though.

Several biplanes were featured, and frankly I was astonished at the sorts of acrobatics biplanes are capable of doing.

They did flips, twists, rolls, falling from a high stall, and fast dives. Daredevils indeed.

The highlight of the show was, naturally, the Blue Angels. They’re the Navy’s premier aerobatic squadron, and they’re something of a hometown favorite because their training ground is right here in El Centro. They performed all sorts of high-speed high-precision maneuvers.

Their “diamond” formation is amazing to see. They maintain about eighteen inches of separation between cockpit and wing.

It was so cool to see them roar overhead in tight formation.

We’re excited to see them again in March, when they start their show season in El Centro before touring the country.

Overall the air show was amazing (and loud!) and we thoroughly enjoyed it. Afterward we met up with a group of friends at a restaurant called Boomerang’s…

… which the owner sadly informed us would be closing permanently in two days. He’d been in business for seventeen years, but the landlord doubled his rent and he isn’t profitable enough to pay that, so the restaurant is finished. Too bad– the food was quite good.

A great day with great friends. And some airplanes.

Another six weeks have come and gone, and our little family in the Valley is changing again. We loved the missionaries in our first transfer, and again in our second, and now we’re saying goodbye to those in the third. Here’s a fine-looking bunch of guys:

And the rest of the zone:

A few are staying with us, and we’ll be gaining seven new missionaries. Four of them have just started their assignments, so they’ll be brand new to mission life. It’ll be fun.

Stop seeking out the storms and enjoy more fully the sunlight.

– Gordon B Hinckley

My friend Ryder is serving a mission in the St Charles area (small world!) and sent me this photo from a local game store:

Just last week, I finished reading the Lord of the Rings trilogy for the tenth time, so Middle-earth was on my mind. It was really cool to see this wall-sized map of the fantasy world. We traded a few emails about it, and it turns out he’s almost— almost– as big a nerd about Lord of the Rings as I am.

I keep hoping that the board games I bought a couple months ago will come in handy. But when we get together with the missionaries, they typically want to play sports (which is great) or more simple games. Today we played a rousing game of Scum. Sisters Maravilla and Olsen were– in their words– the best scum. Here they’re doing their job of shuffling the gigantic cards:

After Scum, Pepper and I convinced the dozen missionaries that Catch Phrase would be a good time. Sure enough, it was an absolute riot. It was men versus women (mostly; Elder Steinhour played with the gals because there weren’t enough for balanced teams). The ladies took the first game and handed the guys a crushing defeat. The second game was much closer, with both teams neck-and-neck as we traded victory in each round. Sister Maravilla was hilarious to watch because she’d be sitting down when she got her word, but she’d gradually stand up as she gave clues, even pushing her chair back and getting more and more animated. There was a lot of screaming and cheering by both teams.

It all came down to the final round. The teams were tied, and tensions were high. Here’s what it looked like as we went through the last few words and hit the buzzer:

You could say it was… exciting.

About a month ago, we invited the four sister missionaries serving in the Valley to our place for a pizza night. It was a ton of fun, and the ladies loved making and baking their own pies.

Last week, we were doing apartment inspections… we have monthly appointments to make sure all the missionaries keep their homes clean, and we help them repair things that are broken or missing. We decided on a whim to award a pizza party to the companionship who had the cleanest apartment. Not surprisingly, it was the sisters. They asked if the other sisters could join us for the party. Of course four missionaries is more fun than two, so tonight we had all of them over and we made our pizzas.

When you’ve done something twice, I think it’s officially a “tradition”. So I guess we’ll offer the award again next month, and see if the guys can rise to the challenge…

A few days ago we saw a lighted traffic sign in town that said “El Grito – Bucklin Park – Sat 6pm”. We weren’t sure exactly what that meant, but upon returning home I looked it up. It turns out El Grito is short for El Grito de Dolores, the Cry of Dolores. That’s the event on September 16, 1810, when a Catholic priest named Miguel Hidalgo y Costilla rang the bell at his church and gathered his congregation to start the movement that led to Mexico’s independence from Spain.

In short, El Grito is to Mexico what July Fourth is to America. Since we live in a city that’s over 80% Mexican, it didn’t surprise us that there was a big city-wide celebration this weekend.

The weather was a refreshingly cool 95 degrees, so we headed out. It’s about a mile from our apartment to Bucklin Park, and it felt like walking weather.

The park is quite large, and it was filled with thousands of people and dozens of booths. You could buy tons of Mexican flags and hats, any kind of taco you could imagine, and about five different varieties of snow-cone or shave-ice. There was definitely a fun carnival atmosphere.

When we arrived there were flamenco dancers doing their thing onstage:

Later, they were replaced by a mariachi band.

We enjoyed walking around and feeling the same sort of excitement from the crowd that you’d find at a Fourth of July carnival. Happy Independence Day, Mexico! Or, as they say, Viva Mexico!

It was back in October 2012 that I had my first In-N-Out burger. Thom and I were on a trip, and he insisted we go. He loves In-N-Out, and since there weren’t any near his home at the time, he wanted to take the opportunity when we were in southern Utah. Although my memory probably isn’t fully intact, I feel like he made many comments during our week together about how amazing that burger was going to be. He built it up to the point where it sounded like I’d have a religious experience as I bit into my five-dollar bun and beef.

Sadly, it wasn’t so. The burger could only be described as mediocre. I’d been betrayed. I’d been let down. Let down in a soul-crushing way that made me wary of In-N-Out for years.

In later years I’ve returned to In-N-Out a handful of times, always at the insistence of others. I’ve tended to shy away from it, knowing in my heart that it just doesn’t measure up to what Thom had made it out to be.

As it happens, we live two blocks from an In-N-Out, and it’s always busy. Shortly after moving here, I snapped a photo as I drove past, just to send it to Thom. It was around nine at night, and the drive-through line literally snaked around the restaurant, through the parking lot, and into the street. An entire traffic lane was blocked by people waiting for their mediocre burgers! And it’s that way every night.

That many people can’t be wrong, I guess, so today Pepper and I finally relented.

It’s still mediocre. But it’s cheap (in a time when even fast food is becoming frighteningly expensive) and for the price, it’s actually pretty good. So yeah, maybe we’ll come back a few more times while we live here.

If nothing else, I’ll do it for Thom.

We coordinate and lead a small scripture study class for young adults, and although we’re technically the teachers, lately we’ve invited the students to each teach a small part of our lesson that week. It’s worked surprisingly well, and it feels like they really enjoy an opportunity to study and prepare a five- or ten-minute presentation on what they’ve learned.

Today one of the women talked about faith, and she mentioned what Jesus taught:

Verily I say unto you, If ye have faith as a grain of mustard seed, ye shall say unto this mountain, Remove hence to yonder place; and it shall remove; and nothing shall be impossible unto you.

Matthew 17:20

As a fun demonstration, she brought a jar of… mustard seeds! (She loves to cook, and apparently she uses them in some of her recipes.) Right beside the pen on the table you can see a single seed:

I love object lessons: they’re a good way to focus everyone’s attention in a class, and really add depth to the message. It was great to see an actual mustard seed while we talked about faith!

In guarding their fortune men are often closefisted, yet, when it comes to the matter of wasting time, in the case of the one thing in which it is right to be miserly, they show themselves most prodigal.

Seneca