Autumn 4th Quarter Journal 2021 October- December

 

OCTOBER 2021

1 October 2021 Friday

I had some strange dreams about Billy Bikowski last night. He’s just a phantom from my past now.

            I went to the library and picked up another J C Box book I had on hold for me and started reading it this afternoon. I am getting less upset with Kyle Foote, but the residual hurt is still there. He needed my help, of course picking up and delivery a couple of his vehicles.

            Mike Romero said that the Giles were still sick with a cold, so we won’t be going out there tomorrow. Instead, we are going to Sam’s Club so I can buy Caesar’s dog food for Lulubelle as I am almost out. She is so picky unlike the others.

            I don’t feel much like putting out any fall decorations this year. I guess it’s a sign I am getting old and don’t want to bother with it. Maybe I will put jack-o-lanterns on my outside garage lights. I will have to dig them out.

 

2 October 2021 Saturday

I am not sure why I am dreaming so much but last night I had vivid dreams of Bill Poore not giving me a ride when I needed one, defending Chuck Whyte and  Bruce Barton’s Gay activism, fussing with Kevin Hillman at a breakfast buffet, and lastly talking to my uncle R L Williams and someone else about the health of my cousins especially Stephanie and Larry. There was a whole list of characters who seemed familiar, but I can’t place now. I  wonder what that was all about.

            I realized today that when I wrote the check for $23,700, I only took $23,000 from my retirement account so while I think I will be okay, it will be really tight this month as that Mike Romero won’t be able to pay me the $500 to go back into my retirement fund right away so there’s that money worry about paying all my bills this month.

            I went with Mike Romero this morning to Sam’s Club so I could buy three cases of Caesar’s dog food so I know they will be fed at least. The Social Security has screwed up Mike’s account and he still hasn’t gotten paid even though he retired last May. I gave him a $100 from the money Jim Dabakis gave me and said not to worry about paying me back until the middle of the  month what he can.

            Back at the house I decided to dig out some of the fall decorations for outside and covered the garage and porch lights with jack o lanterns and put out some fall leaves garnishes.

            Kyle Foote went out to get a haircut and while he was out, he was able to get his Pfizer booster shot at Walgreens so at least we are all protected from being hospitalized if we do catch the virus. They say over 700,000 Americans have died the most of any country.

            I posted on Face Book this morning a picture of the award I received from the state for preserving Gay history.

“I guess for my 70 years on this planet I did some good. In 2019 I received a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Utah Pride Center but what I am most proud of was being a Dr. Kristin Ries Community Service recipient in 1991. Just being associated with her name is quite an honor.

The 2015 award from the state was the first time they ever recognized that Gays had a history worth preserving and remembering. I helped preserved 30 lineal feet of material from the old Utah Stonewall Center when I was the archivist there and donated it to the Marriott Library at the University of Utah where people will always have access to it long after I am gone.

Some have suggested I should have promoted myself more as a local historian, but I always felt that the work was more important than myself and it should speak for itself. I know a certain individual promotes himself as "the Gay historian" and is the "go to guy" when the media needs a reference. But he was gone from Utah for 20 years before returning, while I stayed and plugged along recording and saving what I could when it seemed like I was the only one. If the hundreds of articles I wrote on local Utah Gay history don't matter, then certainly I won't either.

Now if I could only finish up my research on the phantoms of West Second South before, I croak, I would have some satisfaction leaving this weary world behind.

I don’t know what crawled up Kevin Warren aka Ruahan Sheridan’s ass, but he posted a scathing comment attacking me for criticizing Connell O’Donovan even though I never mentioned his name. It was really a mean-spirited attack on my character, and I only read a portion before I deleted it and banned him.

He could have sent a private message if he was upset about what I posted but instead he made it public by posting in the comment section. It really pissed me off and I thought what a jerk. I have absolutely no time for people like him in my life especially when he has no idea the history Connell and I have and how Connell has tried to take credit for himself just to feed his ego. I am done with that. I have my own worries.

           

3 October 2021 Sunday

Not a very productive day. I mainly slept in until 7:30, wrote in my journal and did research on Second South and read from my J C Box novel. Kyle Foote was downstairs for most of the day. He said he was feeling lethargic from his booster shot so we didn’t interact much. It was a warm autumn day with the leaves starting to turn colors mainly yellow.

            Before going to bed I watch three episodes of the old Perry Mason television show from its first season in 1957. It was fun seeing old Los Angeles.

 

4 October 2021 Monday

I finished reading “Out of Range” today after working most of the day on editing and researching information about Second South. It keeps me from having to worry about money issues. I am just staying home as much as possible in order to not spend money until my Social Security check comes in around the 10^th, which is if the government is not shut done.

            In the news I heard that Face Book was offline for several hours today. I hadn’t even noticed as that since being in Face Book jail for over a month in August, I rarely spend as much time on it as I did before.

 

5 October 2021 Tuesday

The anxiety over money is keeping me more of a prisoner at home then Covid19. I dare not spend a dime except on necessities until the $23,736.90 check I wrote to Lowe’s clears. I only wished now I would have wired the money instead of writing the check so I wouldn’t have the worry that something might come in unexpectedly that doesn’t make it clear. Yesterday the $580 was taken out of my checking to go back into retirement fund that Michael Romero borrowed from a few years ago. He’s been paying me $500 back each month so far but this month as that his social security is being held up, I had told him to pay me when he can.

            Kyle Foote spent most of the day as an Uber driver. I know he is exhausted from being on the go all day but then, he’s the one that made a mess of things so it’s hard to be too sympathetic.

            It rained for a bit in the afternoon however doubtful that it did much good. My water consumption for September was the lowest ever, only $14.00 worth however because of all the other fees tacked on my bill is $64.

            I couldn’t get to sleep because my feet were itchy for some reason, so I finally turned on the night light and read for a bit.

 

6 October 2021 Wednesday

I had a very restless sleep last night and doubt if I slept more than two hours. My hands stared itching as well as my feet and the more I tried to lay in bed the more I was irritated. Then because my mind was agitated, I kept thinking about my money worries, so I just got up and typed on my research until 4:30 in the morning before trying to get some sleep. I still woke up at 7:00 so I just got out of bed to start my morning.

            I tried to think what was making me so itchy as that I couldn’t feel any spider bites or other critters. Then I thought perhaps it’s a food allergy from something I ate. I didn’t eat much of anything yesterday although I made some chicken soup and I toasted two slices of the bread I made last week. Then it dawned on me that I might have ingested penicillin from the bread as it had been sitting on the counter for several days and I know that I am allergic to penicillin. I can’t imagine what else it might be unless it’s scabies.

            I went back to bed at 1 and slept until 4 in the afternoon before getting up to fix the pups their food. Kyle Foote came up to show me that he has transferred all the bills to his bank account so that I won’t have to keep track of what is taken out of my Money Market account. He left me about $350 to transfer overt to my checking account. That should cover any expenses I may have before my social security gets deposited.

            I was not feeling well for much of the day and Kyle went out on his Uber job and he called me about 7:45 this evening saying he is stuck in traffic returning from a fare to Provo and he asked if I would drive the Terrain to airport and he would pick me up there as soon as he could. It was raining up here and although I was kind of out of sorts, I managed to get the Terrain there and Kyle soon came with the Rogue to pick me up.

            We stopped at Exons to buy some Benadryl as I was starting to itch again and knew I would have a restless night.

 

7 October 2021 Thursday

I was worried about why I’m itching so much that I went down to Urgent Care on Redwood Road only to find out they don’t accept my Medicare insurance anymore as they change companies last July. So, I just went to Lucky’s to buy some chicken for the dog’s supper and while there I got my flu shot which Medicare did pay for.           I also bought some more Benadryl and calamine lotion to see if it would help any.

            Checking America First Credit Union, I saw that the $23,700 to Lowe’s finally cleared so I can stop worrying about it and I suppose worry about other things.

            In the late afternoon Jim Dabakis came over to retrieve Taco for the weekend. He’ll be back Sunday as Jim is taking off to Mexico on Monday and will be gone to various places until February.

            I made a beef and vegetable pot pie for supper. I didn’t see Kyle Foote for much of the day only when he came home so we could get a Dr. Pepper.

 

8 October 2021 Friday

It was a rainy day for the most part. This morning there was a drop off and pick up at the airport back-to-back but other than I didn’t go out much. The Benadryl helped me sleep some last night, but I was still kind of lethargic all day, so I just read and watch television some. I finished “Long Range,” but I have two more J C Box novels to read over the weekend. I haven’t been keeping up with the news but did hear that President Biden restored all of Bear’s Ear and the Grand Staircase monuments from what Trump had reduced. That should piss off all the Biden haters in Utah.

 

9 October 2021 Saturday

It was a damp and wet day and kind of breezy too. Everything this starting to look like fall with trees all turning yellow and orange.

            I made some corn chowder today because it is soup whether for sure. I didn’t see Kyle Foote much today as he was out driving for Uber. I had a message from Brian Devereux that he bought himself a truck and will bring the Sonoma back tomorrow.

            I cleaned the house by mopping up the pee spots, changing my bedding, doing some laundry, just all the mundane things it takes to keep a house up. I am feeling a bit better, and I didn’t take any Benadryl today. I watched the last of Ted Lasso this evening and some Ghost Adventures.

 

10 October 2021 Sunday

It stopped raining today and it was quite a pleasant day. This morning I had to go to the airport so Kyle Foote could drop off the Terrain. When we came back to the house Taco was here, so I guess we just missed Jim Dabakis.

Brian Deveraux brought the Sonoma back today, so it is finally home again after it being a work truck for a while. Now it can rest.

            This evening Kyle said that the people renting the Terrain said one of the head lights burned out and so he said he was going to go up to Park City to fix it for them because he didn’t want them stopped anywhere because of it. He said the couple was black folks and he didn’t want them stopped by the police for any reason and harassed. It will be midnight before he can get up there to replace it.

When I went to bed, my stomach was upset, I think from eating too much of the lima bean soup I had made, and when I took some Pepto-Bismo to settle it, I threw up a little. That is rare for me, but I did feel better.

 

11 October 2021 Monday

Today was National Coming Out Day as well as Columbus Day so the banks were closed and there was no mail delivery.

This morning after researching Sam Willard the enigmatic peg leg Rio Grande Engineer for the 19^th Century, I shredded up the two large zucchinis I recovered from my garden yesterday. I had over 16 cups of shredded zucchini and froze all but two cups and then made some Zucchini Bread.

            Mike Romero’s eye examination at Hoopes Vision was this afternoon. I went over to get him at 11:45 because I had to take Kyle Foote to the airport by 12:15 and I had to get Mike down to 118^th South by 1 o’clock so I had a lot of hustling to do.

            Kyle said he didn’t get home until 5 this morning, because he had to make two trips to Park City in order to change out the light bulb in the Terrain that was up there. It turned out to be more difficult than he thought and had to come back down to the house to get some additional tools, but he managed it. However, he blew off his 9 o’clock doctor’s appointment with Dr. Stoneburner but fortunately managed to reschedule it for 4 this afternoon.

            I took a J C Box novel with me to read while I waited at Hoopes Vision for Mike’s examination which took two hours and wasn’t done until 3. He’s having his left eye done on the 28^th of this month and his right eye two weeks later in November. He thinks his Medicare and Blue Cross will pay for most of it.

            I had to hustle back to Sutherlands to pick up Kyle who was waiting there in the Rogue which was going out again at 4. We took him back to the house and he took the Sonoma Truck to his doctor’s appointment. He never got any sleep this afternoon and I never got my Dr. Pepper fix.

            I made some egg noodles and beef tips for supper, but I just ate a bite and Kyle who must have been hungry had the rest of it.

It was quite nice out, even warm this morning, but by late afternoon the winds turn cold, and the sky darkened. The fall leaves were whipping around, and it really seemed like October now.

            When I took a loaf of Zucchini Bread over to my Mexican neighbors in the evening it had started to rain a bit. I spent the evening watching the 33^rd Treehouse of Horror episode of the Simpsons as well as the Bob’s Burger Halloween episode. Then I watched a couple of episodes of Ghost Adventures before heading to bed about 9:00. It was a busy day of a lot of driving around.

National Coming Out Day was created in 1988, inspired by the 1987 National March on Washington for Gay and Lesbian Rights. One of the highlights of my life was taking the train from Salt Lake City back to Washington DC to participate with 800,000 others from across the nation. There was only a few of us from Utah but we managed to represent the state. The March took place on October 11th and that is why we have Coming Out Day today.

 

12 October 2021 Tuesday

I dreamed that Charles Frost and I reconciled when he came to me and apologized.

It was cool and damp for most of the day, so I didn’t go out any after all the running around I did yesterday.           It was kind of a lazy day, and I watched the 1932 Mummy with Boris Karloff in it. It’s a good way to be enjoying October. I also watched a few episodes of the BBC comedy series, Ghosts, as well as Ghost Adventures.

            Kyle Foote didn’t need me except to take him down to Sutherland’s to retrieve the Sierra truck. We stopped and picked up some lunch at Hacienda Grill that is near Lucky’s. We have been eating there a lot since it’s quick and the food is good.

            Kyle this evening came up and said the airport approved his contract to shuttle people there and now all he has to do is get final approve from the Diamond Parking Lot, so he was pretty excited about that. If it all comes together, we won’t have to go to Quick Quack or drive out to the airport anymore.

            In the news over the weekend Utah surpassed the 3000 marks for Covid19 deaths. That’s 3000 less Republican voters I suppose.

I miss the old Deerhunter on Third West where there is a self-serve car wash now. It was mostly a men's Leather and Levi bar but later adapted to be more inclusive. Lesbians had their Puss and Boots, and Gay men had The Deer Hunter.

 Most of the other bars and clubs were mixed, Radio City, Backstreet, In-Between, and the Sun.

I’ve been nostalgic for the past lately thinking of all the changes I’ve seen here in Salt Lake. The best part of the Deer Hunter was the space between the bar counter and the wall which was so narrow that when the bar was crowded, you had to walk through a gamete of hunky, horny, and drunken men. It was not for the easily intimidated. LOL.

My membership was 690 which seemed appropriate ha!

It’s all memories now and phantoms from a different era of being Gay and like me a relic of the past.

 

13 October 2021 Wednesday

I cancelled my Dentist appointment and rescheduled for November 1, at 10 in in the morning. I didn’t want to spend any more money than necessary this month although my social security check came yesterday. Being on a fixed income one has to be careful, although they say next year there will be almost a 6 percent increase raise.

            I went grocery shopping for the pups, buying chicken thighs, Kennel Ration, and some treats for them. I also made some Chili Verde as it was kind of cool out, but not wet.

            I went to Quick Quack in North Salt Lake and cleaned the car finally. I needed to vacuum the dog hair as much as anything. Almost all of it is from Maxx.

            Kyle Foote wanted me to print out a 37-page document and when I did the ink ran out and so he went and bought a new cartridge for the printer. I think it was the first time I replaced it since retirement.

            I haven’t read any since Monday. I only been watching Halloween shows on the tube. Otherwise, nothing exciting to write about. I went to bed around ten and noticed that Kyle was entertaining downstairs.

 

14 October 2021 Thursday

It rained and sleeted today. So much for going to the car wash yesterday but at least the interior is nice and clean. I had to go out to the airport this morning and later pick up Kyle Foote at Les Schwab because he thought the Terrain needed new brakes, but they didn’t.

I spent much of the day researching a junk dealer named Fred Roberts who lived at 527 West Second South who committed suicide after being jilted by a woman he was obsessed with. He shot and wounded her before killing himself in Pueblo Colorado. It was quite the scandal for 1902.

Kyle went out to work driving for Uber for much the day and all night, so I was alone for most of the day except for my pups, one which wet on the bed. I was so mad because I had just changed the bedding last Saturday, so I stripped the bed and rewashed the mattress pad, the flannel sheets and flipped the mattress around although it didn’t soak through to the actual mattress because I had several mattress pads covering it.

 So that is how I spent my evening doing laundry while watching an episode of Perry Mason from 1957. I was way too young t

o ever remember watching the show until it was about over in the early 1960’s. The stories are still as good as anything today. It’s fun to see Los Angeles from 1958 and it seems so distance and it amazes me that I was alive during that time that now almost seems antiquated.

I also watched two Netflix episodes on the making of John Carpenter’s Halloween and Tim Burton’s The Nightmare Before Christmas both that I actually saw when they were released in theaters.

 

15 October 2021 Friday

It was a clear and beautiful day along the Wasatch Front, although it was unseasonably cool at 55 degrees. It certainly is sweater weather or in my case sweatshirts. Kyle Foote had me go with him to pick up and deliver vehicles today, even at 11:30 at night so I didn’t get to bed until the witching hour.

            Michael Romero called with news from the Giles that Gay Elder’s cancer has spread to the rest of her body, and they only give her less than a year to live. That is so sad. I know Kimberlee must be heartbroken.

I had to stay up late for Kyle, so I watched a Dutch film called the “Forgotten Battle” which was about World War II from the perspective of a young Dutch woman, an English young soldier, and a disillusioned young German soldier. It was slow going and not riveting, but historically accurate, so I enjoyed it.

            I checked my America First Credit Union accounts and I still have $1800 in there between my savings and checking so I certainly will have enough to cover my expenses for the rest of the month as long as nothing crazy happens.

            I asked Kyle if he wanted to go out for dinner for his birthday this Sunday, but I think he is depressed about how his great expectations about a career in construction has fallen apart and now he thinks he reduced to being an Uber Driver and a car rental guy. He didn’t want to do anything for his 42^nd birthday.

 

16 October 2021 Saturday

I spent this morning cutting up the sunflowers I had pulled up last week and stuffing them into the refuse barrel. That was a chore. Next year I think I will pull them up before they take off as they are a lot of work to dispose of them when summer is over. I also finally mowed the front yard for the last time this season.

            In the late afternoon Kyle Foote asked me to drive him to the Redwood Clinic Urgency care as he thought he had a strep throat, and he did. He was feeling pretty miserable. I knew earlier that he might not be feeling well as he never went out driving for Uber even though he had the Rogue vehicle here.

            Roy Zang called me in the afternoon to say how some wealthy Gay men said they would help with his vision of creating a Gay Museum to highlight Gay and Lesbian history here in Utah. He said he only wanted to do it outside of the Pride Center as he is done with them. Deb Hall and the new Trans director had contacted him about meeting with him to pick his brain probably about the history, but he declined. The Trans community was all upset that Rob Moolman as a Gay man couldn’t relate to their experiences so why do they think we would believe a Transwoman would relate to ours? Oh well they have Connell O’Donovan the newly minted nonbinary bisexual “them and they” person to consult.

            I said to Roy that he is probably the last of his generation that can bridge the gap between my generation and his as that being an activist at such an early age, he saw our struggle and the experiences that created our world view as opposed to what younger people experienced.

            I didn’t do much in the evening, just fed the dogs and watched some old episodes of Perry Mason. I went to bed fairly early myself as I think I was still tired from staying up late last night.

There were two bad accidents over here in the Rose Park area today. A man in his thirties was killed hit by a truck while crossing Redwood Road and 1000 North this morning, and two punks sped through 600 North and 1200 West near Smiths at 90 miles an hour, struck a car killing a lady and her puppy this afternoon. Makes me want to just stay home. Two families are having a really sorrowful day today.

 

17 October 2021 Sunday

It was not a very pleasant birthday for Kyle Foote as he was stick recovering from the effects of strep throat. He said his 101-degree fever broke during the night but still had a bad sore throat. I had to take him to the airport to retrieve the Sierra Truck but that was the only time he left the house. This is his third birthday out of prison although in 2019 he was still in the halfway house. Last year we had a horrible fight but made up in time to go out for dinner at the Melting Pot with Danny Montoya.

            I made a nice meat loaf for his birthday in case he was hungry, but he wasn’t but he did ask if I’d make some rice for him in the evening which I did. I was worried for Kyle, but also didn’t want to catch strep myself. My stomach was a bit nauseous this afternoon. Not sure what from. I guess just being 70 ½ years old I suppose.

            It was a lovely October day, 71 degrees outside, but I was inside for most of the time watching television or reading.

            The first part of this coming week will be busy as that I go to the doctors on Monday for a check-up, Kyle goes on Tuesday for an endoscopy, and Mike Romero has a colonoscopy on Wednesday. I will have to be the chauffeur for both of them.

 

18 October 2021 Monday

I had my doctor appointment at 8:20 this morning but I first went to Darla’s donuts on 25^th South and Redwood to buy two apple fritters for later. My blood pressure was 118/70 which really surprised me and everything else was good except I noticed I had gained weight since my last visit. I weighed in at 193 pounds up about five pounds since my last visit, but Dr. Stoneburner wasn’t concerned. In fact, he said my ten-year risk of having a stroke of a heart attack in the next ten years was only 14.7 percent compared to it being 30 percent before. I don’t need to go back until January 19^th, dad’s birthday, at 8:20.

            On the way home, I got caught between truck drivers who blocked me in, so I missed the 23^rd North exit and wasn’t able to get over until the Redwood Road exit on the 215 on ramp. Truck drivers have become the worse, and with so much construction going on there’s so many more on the road. Trucks aren’t even supposed to be in the fast lane, but one was and two others, side by side, were in the middle and right lane so I couldn’t get over. Oh well sounds like a First World problem.

            Whipple Heating and Plumbing came over about noon to do a furnace checkup and after diagnosing it, said that it was pretty dirty with sheetrock dust and dog hair that had clod some of the heating elements causing it to overheat and then shut down.

            It cost nearly $400 for the cleaning and maintenance which I was surprised that Kyle Foote paid for. I was certain that I would have to out of my own funds.

            Michael Romero came over in the afternoon, finishing winterizing his trailer. We visited a bit about his preparation for his colonoscopy on Wednesday before he went back home.

            I worked on research on block 64 for much of the day since I had to hang around while the Whipple technician was here, and he stayed until 4 so it was kind of a major cleaning project.

            I made some Tacos Soup this evening as it began to rain, and the weather turned chilly. I baked some cornbread to have with it while Kyle ate the chicken and rice soup I made yesterday.

It rained off and on for the rest of the night, which we surely need, as that we had none for most of the long hot summer.

Collin Powell, the first black Secretary of State died today. He renounced the Republican Party after the January 6th Insurrection.

 

19 October 2021 Tuesday

I took Kyle Foote down to the Redwood Clinic for his endoscopy this morning. His appointment was at 8:15. It was drizzling rain all the way down and the morning traffic was bad on the freeway so I was a little worried we would be stuck in traffic, but we made it on time anyway.

            I came back home, fed the pups some breakfast, and worked on my computer when I was called back to retrieve him. It was barely an hour and a half. He said it all went well but he had a hernia that is probably causing his acid reflux.

            He went back to his room, and I stayed inside for much of the day research Mrs. Elizabeth Metz who was sent to prison in 1895 for operating a “house of ill fame” on what is now the northwest corner of Second South and Sixth West across the street from where the old In-Between Bar once was.

            In the afternoon, Kyle had his appetite back and wanted some lunch from El Pollo Loco, so I drove him there and bought him lunch as I wasn’t able to do much for his birthday. On the way there he told me that he finally blocked Danny Montoya on Face Book when he sent Kyle some random messages but never wished him happy birthday. So that’s that.

            Third West is such a mess south of 13^th as the street is being torn up and “remodeled” all the way down to 21^st South. It impacts a lot of big stores like, Wal Mart, Lowes, Home Depot, and Sam’s Club, not to mention all the smaller shops, convenient stores, and fast-food chains.

            Later in the afternoon Kyle wanted me to go with him as he drove the Sierra Truck to Glenn’s Keys and Quick Quack. He said he felt okay to drive but just in case he wanted me with him.

            I went to Lucky’s in the afternoon to buy some chicken for the pups and a bunch of snacks and comfort food for myself as it feels like it’s going to be a wet fall and I just wanted to be cozy inside, snuggled up to watch television for the rest of the evening. I watched a couple of episodes of Perry Mason mostly. Funny how it’s better than most of what is on television now.

            In the news a lot of law enforcement people are choosing to quit rather than obey the mandate to be vaccinated. If you work with the public, you should be vaccinated for a communicable disease, but the ones who are refusing have made it about politics instead of health.

 

20 October 2021 Wednesday

I took Mike Romero to his coloscopy appointment at 12:45 this afternoon and they kept him until nearly 4:30 before I was able to go retrieve him. I kept Coco at the house for the afternoon while he was having his procedure.

            Earlier in the morning, he said he received some bad news from Hoopes Vision saying that the Insurance he signed up for wasn’t one of their providers in their network. So, he was on the phone all morning trying to find out what he had to do to get the Medicare supplement to cover it. So, he might not get his cataract surgery next week after all, which is awful as that he really can’t see well at all anymore.

            The reason it took so long at the clinic was that he had to have eight polyps removed but the good news was that he didn’t have cancer. They want him to come back in three years though. Mike said that at 70 I am in better shape than he is at 65, which probably true.

            When I took him home, I gave him a jar of Chili Verde, Taco Soup, and Zucchini Bread as I know he must have been starving from not eating for over 24 hours.

            Kyle Foote must have been feeling better, for after helping him with his vehicles, he wanted to go to China Delight for lunch. I had already eaten some Taco Soup, so I wasn’t a bit hungry.

            The only chore I did today was clean up Buster’s messes on the “poop” deck and hosed the veranda and hot tub deck down really well. I can’t blame the old boy as I think it’s too hard on him to go down the steps into the back yard. When I adopted him knowing he was an old dog, I had to also take on the responsibility of caring for him and cleaning up after him.

            It was a pleasant day with clear skies and temperate weather. Today is my former neighbor Randy Gile turned 60 years old.

Dave Robinson, the Gay Republican who ran for mayor against Jackie Biskupski five years ago, according to the Salt Lake Tribune is suing Utah’s GOP for $30 million for harassment because he was accused of harassing GOP women. His defense for debasing women was that he had raised livestock and has a critical eye lol...

I dealt with him when he abused Levon Mirakyan, the Armenian Gay refugee I had sheltered several years ago. My experience with Dave was not pleasant and I had to go rescue Levon in the middle of the night several times. some people just can’t help using people I suppose. Dave and the Republican party are a good fit both are psychopathic. Face Book will probably put me in jail again for posting any opinion or observation about Dave.

           

21 October 2021 Thursday

I took the FIT to Quick Quack in North Salt Lake to go through the car wash, bought some groceries at Smith’s in Rose Park, and helped Kyle Foote with the Sierra Truck at Sutherland and that is about all the running around I did today.

            I noticed that the FIT’s odometer turned over to16,000 miles but since I’ve had the FIT for two years now, I think I am doing okay with it. I think two-thousands of those miles have been in the last two months with taking Kyle back and forth to the Airport and other places.

            In the news Congress has recommended that the Justice Department go after Steve Bannon for defy the subpoena they issued for him to testify what he knew about the January 6^th Insurrection. An insurrection is what it is being referred to now in the media.

 

22 October 2021 Friday

This morning I spent a couple of hours down at the county building on 21^st South and State Street looking up property records for block 64. I only stayed until 11:30 and would have stayed longer if Kyle Foote wouldn’t have called and wanted me to go with him to turn back the GMC work truck to the credit union in Bountiful. So that is taken care of, and the Sonoma is back in the garage where it belongs.

            For lunch we went to Hacienda Mexican Grill and Kyle had his usual while I had him order just an extra tamale and that is all I had.

            In the afternoon I went and sat in the hot tub to make sure it was still working properly and then took a bit of a nap. In the evening Kyle took the FIT to Diamond Rental I suppose to talk business with them.

            I watched a new episode of Young Sheldon and What We Do in the Shadows and a few episodes of Perry Mason before heading to bed.

 

23 October 2021 Saturday

It rained and drizzled for much of the wet gloomy day, but I like it after the long hot summer. While I was in the shower getting ready to go meet Jeff Laver, I had a surprise visit from Rich Butler. He was in town for a couple of days to meet some of his friend and so Brenda his wife could spend some time with her grandkids for Halloween. As always Rich did most of the talking and did not ask at all about Mike or myself but told me that his stepdaughter and her husband are moving to Nevada, north of Las Vegas and will be close to them. I was happy for him because that way they will have their family close by.

            He dropped by about 1:30 and we couldn’t visit long because I had to leave to go meet Jeff at the Bayou on State Street. However, I guess he didn’t realize they only open on Saturdays at 5 so we then went to the Coffee Garden in Sugar House and that was way crowded, and we would not have been able to visit.

We then went to Village Inn the old standby and had lunch. I wasn’t all that hungry, so I just had a cup of tomato soup and coffee. I may have talked his ear off since I don’t get out much anymore to visit.

He authored this fictional book called “A Happier Year” and we talked about it and catching up. The book was a novel from what I read so far is about a Gay Missionary experience. I really don’t know Jeff all that well except seeing him at the Gay Men’s Sack Lunches from a while ago and he’s a Face Book friend. Nevertheless, I had a nice two-hour visit with him this rainy afternoon.

            I then came home, fed the pups, and then curled up with his book to read some more of it. I must have been tired as I fell asleep in my lazy boy at 8:30 and it after 11 before I woke up and headed towards my own bed trailed by my pups.

 

24 October 2021 Sunday

There’s not much to report today. I finished reading J.C Box’s “Blood Trail” but I think I am done with this series. I still think he’s a masterful storyteller, but often his stories turn dark, with unnecessary killing of periphery characters, whom he spends a lot of time developing so it’s just depressing. So, I think it’s time to read a more lighthearted series of mysteries.

I rarely cook anymore except for the pups’ supper. They were tired of roasted chicken thighs, so I cooked a roast. It looked good enough for me to have a small plate too. So, I baked a potato warmed up some peas and made some gravy from the drippings. Even the little bit I ate I shared with TJ and Lulubelle.

I think Kyle was out driving for Uber most of the day as I didn’t have to do much helping him with Turo.

            I’ve been watching a lot of Perry Mason mysteries which I know I will probably get tired of eventually also.

            There’s not much in the news except the accidental killing on a movie set in New Mexico by Alec Baldwin. I hear a huge rainstorm is deluging North California. Good news is that it’s put out all their fires and helped with the drought but now they are worried about mud slides from burn scars.

Only two more weeks of artificial daylight savings and then back to Standard Time where when its noon, the sun is directly overhead as Mother Nature intended.

 

25 October 2021 Monday

I’ve been having weird dreams about people and places that I don’t know or have ever been to. That is odd because dreams I remember are usually regarding people and places I know.

            It was blustery all days with dark rain clouds, but it never rained in the morning or afternoon that I know of although I only left the house at noon to go to the Soup Kitchen with Kyle Foote as that he wanted some tomato soup. I think he was really disappointed that they didn’t have bread sticks any more.

            I heard that Tooele had 70 miles per hour winds and that some trees were blown over in the Cottonwood Area but here it was just windy.

            It started to rain this evening and I just decided to clean the house some by really washing and disinfecting the floors while mopping and do a load of washing of the Mexican throw blankets I use in the front room. It’s enjoyable having a clean house before going to bed.

            Covid 19 Vaccines for children under the age of 12 is supposed to be approved soon and over 750,000 Americans are dead from it and here in Utah it’s over 3100 people, almost all this year are from the unvaccinated so no sympathy for their loss. Ignorance and meanness have a cost.

            One week before it’s November and I’ve done nothing to truly decorate this month for Halloween. I don’t mind. Those days are also past when I went all out with October decorations.

            Kyle Foote came up to see me before I went to bed to tell me that he has to go back in January for another endoscopy because a biopsy showed that he has some type of infection in his esophagus, probably caused by his acid reflex. They upped his medicine for it until then.

            He said that while driving for Uber the winds were whipping his vehicle around, so it was a rough night to be out driving people. Only two more weeks of artificial daylight savings and then back to Standard Time where when its noon the sun is directly overhead as Mother Nature intended.

 

26 October 2021 Tuesday

I made a beef stew in the crockpot today as it was a cloudy and damp day again. I had to help Kyle Foote some with his truck that was going out today but other than that it was a fairly uneventful day. Until Sylvester and David Rangel, the two Mexicans who worked here last summer, dropped by this late afternoon to see Kyle Foote but he was out driving for Uber. Silvester needed Kyle to sign that he had worked for Build Team to show proof of income for a house he is wanting to buy.

            I had them come in and we visited a bit to catch up with what they have been doing since then. I wanted to know if they were doing okay since Build Team folded. They had no animosity towards Kyle or their experience in fact they were very warm in their feelings for him.

            After they left, I fed the pups and just relaxed a bit. Kyle didn’t come home until around 9 and when I told them how Silvester and David had dropped by and wanted him to fill a form saying that he had worked for him, Kyle was kind of weird about at first. He took the form downstairs to fill out while he ate the beef stew, he took with him.

            I noticed that America First sent me an email saying my balance was low as that nearly $700 was taken out for a car payment and for the solar panels. I transferred $500 into my account from my savings as that I have to register the FIT this week.

            Looking at my monthly budget, I have between Car Payments, Solar panels, and Mortgage nearly $1700 taken out leaving me about $300 a week to live on month to month. It’s kind of discouraging when you think about it because all my other bills, utilities, and gas has to come out of that. I need to have Kyle step up and pay the Visa Card and Line of Credit payments since all that debt was for him.

            When I retired in 2015, I was completely out of debt and now I am just scaping by, but my wants and needs are diminished also. Taking care of my pups is my only priority.

 

27 October 2021 Wednesday

I registered the FIT today. It was $220 and $45 for the emission. I had asked Kyle Foote to pay me $200 to make a payment for the Line of Credit and Visa and he said that he would just pay for the registration but then on the way down he said he forgot his wallet, so I ended paying for it myself. Thank goodness I still have a couple of hundred dollars left in my savings.

            I talked to Mike Romero today and he said that he wouldn’t need me for a ride tomorrow as that his insurance wouldn’t pay for the cataract insurance and that he now will have to wait until the first of the year with he will switch to Blue Cross.

When I was out, I also noticed that his camper trailer looked like it had been moved some, so I called him to come look at it. It could have been from the strong winds we had the other day, but I was worried someone might have tried to steal it.

            I cannot let a Halloween go by without watching It’s The Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown. I showed it to my students for 28 Halloweens now it’s me and the pups. I just love the colorful background. I remember how cool it was to see in “Living Color” back in the 1960s, watching it on my folks consol.

           

28 October 2021 Thursday

Michael Romero said his supplemental Medicare insurance was denied for his cataract surgery so he will have to find some other insurance and wait until January. America’s health care system is a joke at times. So, he didn’t need me to take him to Hoopes today and the only time I left the house was when Kyle Foote and I went for a Dr. Pepper.

            The weather has cleared up but was rather cool but normal for this time of year. I didn’t fix anything for supper just eating leftovers now that I have to really budget.

            I worked a lot on editing my research on West Second South from 1880 to 1900 for much of the day and in the evening watched part of Abbot and Costello Meet Frankenstein my perennial Halloween movie and also a couple of episodes of Perry Mason before heading to bed at 9:30.

            Grateful for a boring uneventful day.

 

29 October 2021 Friday

It was another beautiful autumn day in the valley; not that I was outside much to enjoy it. I spent much of the day absorbed in the lives of some wild wonton women of Salt Lake City in the 1880’s that had a vague connection with Second South.

            Mike Romero came over this evening to see about his camper trailer and I guess it was just the strong winds earlier this week that moved it about. I was worried that it might have gotten someone trying to steal it.

            We visited a while and he said he finally was able to decide what supplemental insurance to take with Medicare. He’s going with the University of Utah’s Advantage plan because they were about the only one that had Dr. Stoneburner covered, and Mike wanted to keep him as his primary care physician. However, Hoopes probably won’t except them, but the University has their own cataract surgeons.

            Eating up left over soups for much of the day but did have to go to the grocery store to get some chicken for pups. I noticed that the rotisserie chicken went up from $4.99 to $5.99. Well, everything is going up, which I just hope its going to workers and not into corporate pockets.

            This is the first year I haven’t really done any fall clean up and pruning of shrubs and roses. I just don’t have the enthusiasm for it that I once had.

            In Utah, the great debate is whether to trick or treat on Saturday or Sunday. As long as I have lived in Utah it’s been the great moral dilemma for Mormons and a puzzlement for Gentiles.

            Kyle Foote paid me $200 for payments to the Visa and Line of Credit but saw that my money market account was docked $25 because Kyle had forgotten to switch one of his vehicle’s payments and so I was hit with a bounce fee.

 

30 October 2021 Saturday

I spent much of the day research and editing my section on the wild women that were associated with the Rio Grande District in the 1880’s today. I roasted a chicken for the pup’s supper for tomorrow and they finished up the rest of the rotisserie one. I have just been eating leftovers.

Kyle Foote wanted to go to Loco Pollo for lunch but asked if I would drive since he said he was tired from driving so much today. He also wanted to buy some fruit leather and candy, which really surprised me as he doesn’t like sweets at all, so we went to Smith’s It was super busy, but I didn’t see people all dressed up in costumes as I had in the past. He gave me $25 pay back the money taken out of my money market account.

Because it’s Utah most kids are trick or treating tonight instead of on Sunday the actual day so many people said they would be giving out candy on both days here in Rose Park.

I made some Mexican wedding Cookies and brought some over to my Mexican neighbors next door and the Mormon couple on Daleridge.

Once upon a time Halloween was so much fun at the Gay bars with hundreds dressed in the most outrageous and stunning costumes. You could just walk from the Sun on 7th West and Second South, to the In-Between on 6th West and Second South and then to Backstreet on 5th West and First South. Then to top it off walk through scary Pioneer Park to The Deer Hunter on 3rd West and 7th South. Those were the days as they say. Our own bars allowed us to be safe and free among our own people. I am glad I have those memories because the straight world was scary enough for us back then.

 

31 October 2021 Sunday

Kyle Foote got me up at 4:45 this morning to head out to the airport to pick up the Sierra Truck. I just stayed up when I came back to the house. Kyle asked if I’d keep the dogs quiet, I guess because he got so little sleep, so I kept them with me in the bedroom.

            I went to Quick Quack later in the day and went through the car wash to get some of the road dirt off the FIT from the rain splatter from last week. It was the only time I went out today.

            Kyle was gone all afternoon and evening driving for Uber, so I was alone this Halloween. Shepherd Pie sounded good this last day of October. I also roasted some chilis to make a relleno dish later this week. The pups got some of a whole chicken I roasted yesterday.

 A casserole is a good way for me to eat my vegetables as I rarely eat them much anymore. If I was a vegetarian I’d have starved to death by now if it weren’t for jellybeans and candy orange slices.

I closed the house up and turned off the lights this evening and spent some of the time watching “Ghost Adventures.” It didn’t seem like much activity was going on outside as the dogs hardly barked at all.

I went to bed at 8:30 tonight after being up so early.

Halloween is actual Samhain, an old Pagan Cross Quarter Day marking the end of one yearly cycle and the beginning on a new year. Since the old year and the new one doesn’t quite sync up the spirits of the dead can return for one night.

            Well October has come and gone. It was mostly a time of financial insecurity as that after paying off Lowe’s $23,700 and not getting a payment from Mike Romero until the middle of the month, my funds were pretty low. I realized finally that I really have to budget now where I never used to. As long as I can pay my monthly bills and keep food in the house for the pups and there’s no unexpected expense, I think I will be okay.

            I know that Kyle had a zoom court appearance in Tooele before a judge there, but he never told me when or what happened. It may have been postponed but doubt if it was discharged or he would have told me.

   

November

1 November 2021 Monday

Now we enter one of the darkest times of the year. I read online how many people in the Rose Park area were disappointed about how little the children went out trick or treating last night and complaining of so much left-over candy. Sounds like a first world problem to me.

            I was up early again and just worked on my Second South project until it was time for me to go in for my dental appointment at Roseman which was at 10 this morning. I had three cavities on my lower front teeth filled, and it was relatively painless, just uncomfortable, but I was out of there by 11:00. It cost $159 for all three of them together so that was really good except that I really have to really budget now.

            Although afterwards, I went to the Glendale Smiths and bought several bags of candy that were discounted to get off their shelves, snickers, butterfingers, Trix, and some caramels. I also bought two more bags of dog treats and some discounted meats.

I was lucky and saw that in their discounted section there were several cans of Ortega chilies like for 29 cents and larger cans for 90 cents that I bought for future chili rellenos.

            I spent the rest of the day working on Second South research and only once did I have to go out to the airport with Kyle Foote in the late afternoon.

            I watched some television and then finished reading Jeff Levar’s novel called “A Happier Day,” three short stories about Mormon boys who are Gay. I had a hard time relating to it as that he wrote it from the perceptive of the characters growing up in Mormon families, which I did not.

He wrote about some experiences I could relate to, but mostly mine were totally different as I was already in my 30’s when I came out of the closet. Much of his book read like a telling of a life story without any real plotting or character development. I noticed that in the acknowledgement he actually mentioned me by name which I didn’t remember ever giving him any help on the historical perspective of some of the events he wrote about as all his stories took place in the 1970’s and early 1980’s.

            The weather was really nice and warm this morning, however it really clouded up by the afternoon. It may rain.

Today is my youngest nephew Kevin’s 42^nd birthday. He’s two weeks younger than Kyle. It is strange to think that Donna and Kyle’s mom were pregnant at the same time.

            It’s the second anniversary of my having to put Harleigh down. It doesn’t seem that long ago. Buddy was put down on Grandpa Johnson’s birthday and Harleigh on Kevin Jones’ birthday, but I didn’t plan it that way.

 

2 November 2021 Tuesday

I woke up at 5:30 from a nightmare that in the dream Kyle Foote was moving somewhere else, out of my house. It seemed so real that I woke with a start, so I just got up and fixed some coffee to start a new day.

            It had rained overnight, and the ground was wet for much of the day. I made some chili rellenos for Kyle Foote’s lunch but at 2 this afternoon I met Jeff Laver for lunch at the Blue Bayou off of Seventh South and State Street. It was just slightly misting still when I went.

The restaurant was only admitting people with proof of covid 19 vaccination and while I had mine in my wallet, I couldn’t find it at first and had to take everything out before finding it stuck inside one of the compartments. After that confuzzlement,  I went and sat down with Jeff. The place served mostly Cajun food; hence I suppose the name Bayou. I didn’t feel like anything heavy and since Jeff was treating, I just ordered a Dr. Pepper and chips and salsa which were pretty tasty. Jeff order the Jambalaya beans and rice dish and gumbo soup.

            The place looked mostly empty but then it was past the lunch rush I suppose. We sat and visited for two hours, discussing his book, talking about what we have been up to, and just getting to know one another better. We had a two-hour visit.

He said he had always followed my history columns that I wrote for the QSalt Lake. I told him about my living arrangements with Kyle and how disconnected I feel with the community anymore now that it had morphed into a non-binary transgender identity that seems to blame Gay white men for all their problems.

            Back at home, Kyle had a gentleman caller over downstairs, who left a little bit after I was fixing the pups their supper.

            I spent most of the rest of the evening listening to the news, which is mostly about the Climate Change Conference in Scotland.

            Today is election day and it will be interesting whether Trump’s candidate can pull off a coup in Virginia. I’ve never seen America so divided between progressives and fascists.

 

3 November 2021 Wednesday

I didn’t listen to the news after learning that the Trump fascists in Virginia elected a Republican for governor who won on the straw man issue of Critical Race Theory being taught in schools when it’s not. Here in my part of the world, Blake Perez, who I voted for city council of District 1 lost. A Latina woman won, and I suppose she will do just fine.

This evening I went to the library and checked out five mysteries, trying to find a series to get into. I was getting bored again just watching television. There seems to be hardly anything on that appeals to me. I stopped reading the J.C. Box series after they got too violent and too butch literally.

Mike Romero called and said that next Monday he’s going in for a clinical trial for his Neuropathy that he will get paid $250 for participating. He wants me to take Coco, but I also said I’d drive him.

I roasted a pork roast today as well as some chicken thighs for the pups. I had some of the pork roast and it was pretty tasty.

 

4 November 2021 Thursday

I worked for much of the day editing and researching material for Block 64 from the time period 1880 to 1900. I only took a break at noon to prune back the rose bushes in the front and sweep up the driveway and steps of leaves that had fallen. It was a nice day to be doing it since it was in the mid 60’s. I even cleaned the dog poop from the back deck since Buster just can’t make it up and down the stairs to the back yard anymore.

Kyle Foote kept me up tonight until after ten, from having to pick him up at the airport after dropping off the Rogue. The airport was extremely busy, like it was a holiday. That seemed odd to me. Kyle said he made from what I gathered almost $200 today driving for Uber.

I was able to stay up by reading one of the mysteries I picked up at the Rose Park Library yesterday. It was the “Puzzle of the Happy Hooligan” by author Stuart Palmer as part of his Hildegarde Withers series. It takes place in Hollywood probably around 1940 as the book was first published in 1941. I also watched the last of 39 episodes of Perry Mason’s first season that was from 1957 to 1958. Watching the series made me feel really old as that I was a six- and seven-year-old at the time Mason was saving innocent people from the gas chamber. A typewriter, dictation phone, and  shorthand were all the technology used to solve crimes. People had to use phone booths and rotary phones to call.

 

5 November 2021 Friday

Kyle Foote woke me up at 5:10 this morning to go with him to the airport to pick up the Sierra truck. Later this morning at 10 I went down to the county complex to work on finding the Warranty Deeds for Block 64 during the 1880s and 1890s. I was there until about 12:30. It was an absolutely gorgeous day to be out.

            President Biden’s Infrastructure Build Back America Bill was finally passed by the Senate.

6 November 2021 Saturday

I did a thoroughly good mopping of the front room, kitchen, and hallway this afternoon. It needed it. I washed up all the little throw rugs too, so the house smells a bit better, fresher.

I made “Chicken ala King” over buttered noodles tonight to use up stuff in the icebox. I just throw stuff together and call it a casserole.

My nephew James Clark wrote me that he and his family wants to come visit me in March next year. That would be nice.

Kyle Foote needed me to go with him to the airport at 11:30 tonight to drop of the Chevy Trax so I had to stay awake until then. It was after midnight before I was able to go to bed.

The Navy named one of their ships after Harvey Milk.

 

7 November 2021 Sunday

Standard Time is back, and I had to reset my wall clocks. People complain about how dark it will be getting now in the evening but that is how it should be, if we use the sun as a guide to tell time. It’s nature’s way of telling us to hibernate more, with less exertion in a time of scarcity.

            I’ve had the strangest dreams lately, like a series of unconnected vignettes about people and place I don’t know or never have been to.

At 4:55 in the morning, I woke up as my mind said it’s nearly six, “so it’s time to get up and make some coffee.” Sleep in? What’s that?

 I worked for most of the day researching the Swedish Sandberg family who lived on First South from 1887 until about 1902. Mrs. Sandberg divorced her husband in 1880 and raised her four children at a home she bought at 517 West. Her oldest son became an engineer who seemed to have been a decent man who moved to Manti, but her youngest son was a ne'er-do-well hack driver involved in a series of scraps and troubles.

            I made a pot of split pea and ham soup. Kyle Foote was gone for most of the day and the only time we spent together was when I drove him to El Loco Pollo for him to buy lunch. I didn’t get anything.

            There is construction everywhere it seems these days. Third West is a mess down to 21^st South, and North Temple also out here by Redwood Road. Some of it’s because of the volume of housing being constructed and some of it is from road repair and laying utilities. North Temple affects us the most because of the vehicles that are down at Sutherlands but also 23^rd West and Seventh North are also encumbered.

I tried to tell Buster that its only 4 this afternoon and that it’s too early for supper but he's not having it. His tummy says it’s 5 and he’s hungry now. Dogs don’t give a fuck about Day Light Saving or Standard Time.

            I started reading a new mystery called Crime and Punctuation by Kaityn Dunnitt about a 68-year-old retired English grammar schoolteacher who moved back to her old childhood home in upstate New York. It’s kind of slow going but I will give it a shot.

 

8 November 2021 Monday

I had to take Kyle Foote to the airport to retrieve the Rogue at 1:30 this afternoon. He said yesterday was busy as he had to take passengers from the airport down pass Salem in Utah County, but he received a $20 tip while driving for Uber. He also said that the airport yesterday was the busiest he had ever seen, which says a lot.

            I researched the history of the Westminster Presbyterian Church that once was located on Fifth West at 130 South from 1882 until 1908 for much of the day. One of the pastors went on to become the Second President of Westminster College for a brief period. None of the pastor were Utah Natives and few stayed long, only a couple of years. Most were young and this was one of their first pastorates.

            I never left the house except to get a drink at Exxon with Kyle Foote and go to the airport. He was gone all evening.

I roasted another whole chicken for the dogs’ supper for the next few days, supplemented with some roast beef. I had a bowl of pea soup and saltine cracker for my supper.

            I watched Bob’s Burger, the Simpsons, and a couple of episodes of the Second season of Perry Mason. Interesting the transition of styles in clothing especially among women, less stiff, and less make up.

I am more than halfway through my mystery novel, and I’ve realized it’s kind of boring. I will finish it but if it doesn’t get more exciting, I won’t read any more of the author’s books.

Mike Romero didn’t need me after all today as the clinical trials for Neuropathy were rescheduled for next Monday.

 

9 November 2021 Tuesday

It was a wet and damp day and it rained hard for most of the night. So glad to be getting moisture into the ground before any hard freeze. Rainy days make me want to bake and make soup, so I made a batch of raisin applesauce muffins and pot of ham and cheese and broccoli soup. I still had some split pea soup left over but it’s nice to have a variety.

            I spent most of the day research the family of Sheriff Thomas P Phillips who lived just north of the Westminster Presbyterian Church on Fifth West. He sounded like he was a good man.

            I quit writing at 5 and fixed the pups their supper and then read about 100 pages of Crime and Punctuation. I am still going to finish it but won’t read any more of the author’s books. For the rest of the evening watched my usual go to shows, Malcolm in the Middle and Perry Mason.

Actor Dean Stockwell died at the age of 85 after a long career. I first saw him in the movie The Boy with the Green Hair but my favorite role of his was in Married to the Mob as the crime boss terrified of his psychotic wife. I was crushing on Matthew Modine back then in the 1980’s.

The movie Boy with Green Hair was made in 1948 and now you see people with Green, Blue, Purple and Crimson hair color and no one thinks it’s a psychological cry for help.

 

10 November 2021 Wednesday

I finished reading Crime and Punctuation today and took the pups for a ride to drop off it and the other Kaitlyn Dunnitt mystery as well as the Palmer Stewart Book. I won’t read those authors again. I just didn’t find Dunnitt’s protagonist compelling enough nor Stewart’s, besides his book contained racist disparaging caricatures of Black people common in 1940 I suppose.

I worked much of the day editing and researching events and characters from Block 64.

I went to the Glendale store and found some bargains on discounted meat for the pups. I never find such good bargains at the Rose Park Smith’s so it’s worth driving a bit out of my way. Inflation is the topic of the news for everything, especially groceries. I know Bacon has jumped by at least a $1.00 so it’s good I don’t eat as much as I used to. I bought gas for the FIT and with a 10-cent discount I paid $3.57 a gallon.

Today I made cabbage soup that was pretty tasty. It was my dad’s concoction using tomato juice as the base with beef, potatoes, carrots, and corn.

11 November 2021 Thursday

            I saw that Michael Romero put $500 into my account that he owes from the loan I gave him a couple of years ago. Actually $580 gets taken out of my account monthly but he only pays back $500 so I eat the other $80. He’s still not getting his Social Security and it’s been since June.

             Because it was Veteran’s Day, The Texas Roadhouse was giving out a coupon for a complementary dinner to those who served  in the armed forces, so Kyle and I went up to Bountiful to get a voucher. On the way home saw the one old veteran who stands at attention with the flag on the 2300 overpass across I -215 that he’s done for several years now that I know of.

When I went with Kyle to the airport to pick up the Chevy Trax, he annoyed me by being somewhat reckless by trying to get ahead of a freight truck and later another vehicle as the lanes were merging and I felt like we would be ran off the road. It was the first time I criticized his driving.

 

12 November 2021 Friday

I went to Centerville to meet Kyle Foote at Walmart there where he was having the Terrain’s oil changed so we could go to lunch together. We went to Culvers in Bountiful where we just split a meal.

            It was a lovely fall day in the valley but never did much except pick up some prescriptions and over the counter medicines for my sore bottom. I don’t’ know if from an infection or hemorrhoids from setting so long at the computer, but I have some polyps that are really painful. It’s really uncomfortable to sit.

            Since it was such a beautiful day, I finally got around to cleaning Buster’s poop off the back veranda. He just can’t go down the stairs into the pack yard anymore. It’s a small price to pay for the old boy.

            In the news Steve Bannon was indicted for not answering a subpoena from Congress.

 

13 November 2021 Saturday

I got a collection notice for the $24,000 which at first depressed me but then I had to realize that it had to be for the Lowe’s account that I had paid off last month. When Kyle Foote noticed the bill, he said it had to be for the Lowes account and I said it had to be a mistake because I had paid it off. He looked at me oddly. He never knew that I had gone ahead and paid it because I had never told him before.

            We went into Woods Cross because Kyle wanted a Moe’s Pizza. I went with him just for the company.

I watched Walt Disney’s Jungle Cruise before heading for bed. Amazing how much movies have advanced with their special effects and their characterizations. The Gay brother was actually portrayed in a sympathetic and amusing way. While watching it, Kyle came up and said he had to take the Chevy Trax down to Gunnison to swap out the Terrain which is having some brake issues. Kyle just had new brakes put on the other day. He’ll drive it back and if something goes wrong, I will have to go down to get him.

 

14 November 2021 Sunday

I had to go with Kyle Foote this morning at 6:15 to the airport to pick up the Chevy Trax so he could drive it down to Gunnison to swap out the Terrain which the guy who rented it said he was worried about the brakes. Kyle was back after 1 and said the  Terrain had no trouble coming back but he’s getting the brakes looked at again tomorrow.

I wonder what Kyle thought while driving by the state prison which was his home for so many years. I didn’t inquire.

 

15 November 2021 Monday

It was kind of a busy day for me with a lot of driving around. I decided it was time to get a haircut from my Vietnamese barber. I was getting rather shaggy. I have been going to him for years. I noticed that the price for a haircut and beard trim went up by two dollars, to $20, and I left a $5 tip. Everything is getting a little more expensive, but people need to make a living.

            I then went to Deseret Industries to look for some winter lounge wear like ‘hoodie’ and sweatpants. Everything was rather picked over and I noticed that their donation site was closed which I thought was rather odd. Perhaps they can’t keep enough help to be open. I bought the only hoodie I could find for $4 but when I tried it on at home it was a bit snugged as it was a medium. The pants fit okay however but not great.

            Before going home, I went to the Glendale Smith’s and bought groceries and cleaning supplies that were on sale. I wanted to buy chicken thighs, but they were out. I guess we are living in an era of scarcity right now. Hopefully, President Biden signing the Build Back America infrastructure bill into law will help undo some of the damage The Trump Party has caused.

            I was home around noon. Then Kyle Foote and I went to get our Dr. Pepper and ordered take out lunch from the Mexican Hacienda place we like. I didn’t get a chance to eat much of it, not that I am all that hungry anyway, as that Mike Romero’s neuropathy study appointment was early at 2 so I drove him downtown to the clinic behind the Old Holy Cross Hospital. While he went inside, I went to the downtown city library to look for some mysteries. I was kind of overwhelmed by the selection compared to our little Rose Park Branch. While sitting and browsing through a few, I looked out the widow overlooking the central plaza and witnessed some guy washing his hair in the reflecting pool. I thought how different life is in the 21^st Century where that seems almost normal.

            I saw that the main entrance, on the corner of Fourth South and Second East, was closed with the path being torn up and I supposed redone. There was a lot of heavy equipment and gone is the revolving door that was once there.

            Mike was done around 3,  so took him back to the house to retrieve Coco. He’s going to come over for Thanksgiving. Kyle was busy himself today getting the rotors on the Terrain’s brakes replaced and picking up a remote to open the Sierra Truck as a spare.

            I was tired by the time I had to prepare the pups’ supper. I made them a beef roast since I had nothing else thawed out.

            It was such a beautiful warm fall day. I think it got up to 70. There were lots of people out in shorts and sandals walking around downtown. There’s so much construction and building going on in the city. It’s almost like they are building a new Salt Lake. There’s huge high rises where the old Radio City once was on State Street, and I noticed the space where the Tavernacle bar once was, has been demolished, ready for another high rise.

            Here on the west side, on North Temple and Ninth West there are at least four large multi-storied apartment complexes being built within  walking distances from the Jackson Traxx station. Then down here on Redwood Road and North Temple every bit of space is being filled with dense multi-storied apartments.

            I spent the evening watching several episodes of Malcolm in the Middle before calling it a day.

 

16 November 2021 Tuesday

I made some beef and noodle soup from some of the roast beef I cooked yesterday for Kyle Foote and my supper. He spent much of the day installing ski racks on two of his vehicles to make them more useful for skiers renting the cars this winter.

            He said that he also installed ‘lock boxes’ on the posts down at Sutherlands so we won’t have to go down there anymore to unlock the vehicles for people renting them out.

 

17 November 2021 Wednesday

I spent much of the day curled up with a book as it had turned really chilly since Monday. It was only about 45 degrees. I read Wendy Tyson’s A Muddied Murder  for most of the afternoon and finished it be going to bed. It was just okay, characters a little more interesting but not enough for me to continue with the series.

The Trumpian boy murderer  who shot men in Kenosha Wisconsin last year is all that is in the news as well as the three Klansmen who murdered the black jogger in Georgia. The QAnon Shaman received 3 years in prison for his break in of the Capitol last January 6, and Arizona’s Conservative Congressman Gosar was censored and striped of his committees for making cartoons depicting him swinging swords at President Joe Biden and killing Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. Only 2 Republicans sided with the Democrats in censoring him. It’s crazy time in the Republican party

Five years ago, I rescued a little girl terrier named Cupcake, but I changed her name to Lulubelle.

 

18 November 2021 Thursday

About noon I heard a knock on the door and when I answered it, I saw David one of Kyle Foote’s former Mexican worker. He had driven down from Layton,  the heavy-duty work truck that was left at his place.

When Kyle got off his conference call he came outside to talk with David. I guess he is going to sell construction equipment like concrete blankets and other construction equipment he no longer has a need for. The blankets were at the storage unit in North Salt Lake, so we drove up there, and David and his helper Felix took the blankets and I guess Sunday is going to come back down and negotiate a price for what Kyle is wanting to sell. I guess he’s going to sell the trailer also.

            I rode with Kyle to take the Work Truck down to park it at Sutherlands and we took the Chevy Trax back but not before stopping at China Delight for some lunch take-out. After getting our Dr. Peppers at Exxon, I was home for the rest of the day.

I roasted a whole chicken for the pups’ supper, and I just had two meals out of the Sweet and Sour Pork I ordered . Kyle had ordered some egg drop soup, but they didn’t include it in our order, so I looked online on how to make it at home since I have so much chicken broth from the chicken I bake for the pups. It called for chicken stock instead of broth, so I took the roasted chicken’s carcass, added some vegetables, and simmered it for six hours to make stock.

In the meanwhile, I watched Star Trek’s Discovery’s first episode for the 4^th season and a couple of Perry Mason episodes.

 

19 November 2021 Friday

I went to the County courthouse this morning to look up some of the property owners of Lot 64 to make sense of some of the chain of Titles. I was there when my nephew James Clark called. I couldn’t talk then so when I arrived home, I called him. He visited for about a half hour, just catching up and his wanting to tell me that he and his family want to come up March 20^th next year for a visit. He kind of confirmed what I suspected about Denise Wachs that she has been seduced by the Trumpian far right. She hasn’t even gotten vaccinated yet and had convinced her dad not to either. So sad, I told James that Mom and Dad never raised us kids to be so right winged. How disappointing.

            I saw in the news that Kyle Rittenhouse was found not guilty of killing two men and wounding a third in Kenosha last year. The news was like a blow upon a bruise how disgusting the Trumpian Toxin has poisoned America.

Today is the 100th anniversary of my Johnson Grandparents' wedding. Salt of the earth Texas farmers. Oh, how I miss them, but they had long,  and I think, mostly happy lives. For what more can any of us wish?

 

20 November 2021 Saturday

It was much colder today then earlier this week. It was only in the mid-forties, but it was not like I was going anywhere. Only time I went out was to be with Kyle Foote to the pick him up at the airport.

            I made a small batch of chili and beans with cornbread today and had that for lunch and supper. Kyle doesn’t care for chili, so he didn’t have any.

 In the evening after picking him up from the airport he wanted to get a chocolate chip swirl ice cream from Arctic Circle. The closest one to us anymore is on 17^th South and Fifth East but I didn’t mind because it gave me a chance to visit with him. He said he had an interesting Uber pick up, some girl from Medford, Oregon who had just gotten out of jail for possession 250 lbs. of Marijuana she was taking to Baltimore Maryland. She was catching a flight back to Oregon.

There was a long wait at Arctic Circle, at least 20 minutes before we were even able to order. I am sure they are shorthanded, and I doubt whether even then they have the most efficient workers. Patience and understanding is the new reality and at least they are open.

All that is in the news is how the Global Supply Chain is broken and there’s not enough workers creating scarcities. Seems to me there ae plenty of people on the boarder willing to come and work as long as we subsidize housing for them which is one of the biggest expenses for living in Cities were the help is needed. I heard on PBS that the affluent twenty percent is what is driving the supply crisis.

            I finished reading another mystery novel. Leslie Meiers’ “Turkey Trot Murder,” one of the Leslie Stone mysteries. It was more interesting than the last book I read, and she has a whole series of holiday murder mysteries that I may read at some future date but didn’t find the character and the Maine setting that compelling.

Afterwards I rewatched on the Criterion Channel the Charles Laughton classic The Night of the Hunter with Shelly Winters and Robert Mitchem.

 

21 November 2021 Sunday

I went with Kyle Foote to El Pollo Loco for lunch. I only went because Kyle wouldn’t have gone without me, but I didn’t want anything but a street taco which was not all that great. It was in the 40’s today. I was surprised when I mentioned I had watched “Night of The Hunter,” that Kyle said he had never heard of it or Charles Laughton and Robert Mitchem. I guess it’s a generational thing.

Everything has really turned ‘late autumn’ with most the leaves from the trees having fallen. The driveway was such a mess from the neighbor’s globe willow that while Kyle was gone, I leaf blew and raked the driveway filling up the yard waste bin.

I had to wash all my bedding today as some one decided to wet on it. Ugh. It wasn’t me.

I watched on the Criterion Channel this evening a pre-code film called Platinum Blonde with Jean Harlow, Loretta Young, and Robert Williams who died shortly after making this film in 1931.

I saw an article in the tribune that The LaFrance Apartments in Salt Lake City  is now emptied of its residents and fenced off for demolition. This cluster of about 60 white row houses and walk-up apartments just east of the Greek Orthodox Cathedral has been an enclave  artists and bohemians for years.

I lived there from 1991 to 1993 along with many of my Faerie friends. Soon to be just another memory. I lived on the second floor  of the La France while most of my  Gay friends lived in the Del Mar Courtyard behind me, including Robert Smith and Jimmy Hamamoto and lots of KRCL people, theater people, and artists. I walked a lot of cold morning from here to Main Street to catch a bus to work. I lived with Jeff Workman as my boyfriend the entire time I lived here before moving to the Riviera Apartments another Gay enclave off of 9th East I lived there over thirty years ago; ancient history.

 

22 November 2021 Monday

I could just write ditto for most days these days. Up at 5:30 to fix coffee with hot chocolate mix and marshmallows. Then fix the pups their breakfast of sausage and scrambled eggs and then sit at the computer until 10 or 11 researching and editing the people, property, and events of Second South’s Blocks 63 and 64. Around noon Kyle Foote and I go to Exxon and buy ourselves each a 32 oz Dr. Pepper fountain drink. He disappears downstairs until he needs me for something, usually taking him or picking him up from the airport.

            I watched my shows, the Simpsons and the Belchers’ Bob ‘s Burgers on Hulu and then usually some Malcolm in the Middle and Perry Mason. Tonight, I watched the Poseidon Adventure which is probably my favorite of all of Irwin Allen’s disaster flicks from the 1970’s.

            I did take Maxx down to the Pet Groomers and had his nails trimmed. They were getting a bit long. I should take TJ down tomorrow.

            I finally called and rescheduled my doctor’s appointment with Dr. Stoneburner to January 20^th at 8:20 since he had to cancel my one on the 19^th.

            I have just stopped watching the news again after the injustice of the Rittenhouse not guilty verdict. If he was old enough to carry an assault weapon across state lines to shoot at people, he should have spent some time incarcerated to reflect on what he did. Additionally, yesterday some monsters drove a SUV into a Christmas parade also in Wisconsin killing children who were watching it and also some women in a group called the Dancing Grannies.

            The only solace I have is that Joe Biden is President and Utah’s conservative Attorney General has the Covid19 virus as he was so much against any type of mandate to prevent the spread of the disease.

            Today is 58^th anniversary of the assassination of President Kennedy when we lost our innocence.

           

23 November 2021 Tuesday

I didn’t do much of anything today I guess just resting up for the big push tomorrow. I worked on my research, watched some television, and ate some of the Papa Murphy’s pizza I bought for Kyle Foote’s and my lunch.

I wonder how Utah’s Attorney General Sean Reyes likes having Covid19. Karma will get you one way or another. He’s such a right-wing ideologue.

 

24 November 2021 Wednesday

I woke up with another really sore neck from my right shoulder up. I had to take two Tylenols which I never like to do. It still didn’t keep me from making two pumpkin pies one with a maple pecan topping, brining the turkey stuffed with rosemary, and preparing the cornbread dressing, and peeling and dicing the sweet potatoes to soak in orange juice. The trick for a Thanksgiving dinner is to do as much prep work as one can the day before.

            I was rather dizzy for some reason for much of the day and after the morning kind of just rested and dozed in the lazy boy with Taco and TJ by my side.

            I saw something disturbing next door when Victor was beating one of his Huskies and forcing her into a crate type shelter. The dog was whimpering. I don’t know the circumstances, but I think only a coward would mistreat a dog. The incident changed my whole opinion of him.

I finished reading M.C. Beaton’s The Death of a Ghost from her Hamish McBeth series. The story takes place in Scotland and some of the terminology and dialect needs getting used to. I liked it but not sure if I liked this series as well as I did her Agatha Raisin’s books.

The murderers of Ahmaud Arberry were found guilty of killing a black man in Georgia who was just out jogging. Unlike the men in Wisconsin who were murdered by Kyle Rittenhouse, Arberry’s family received some semblance of justice.

 

25 November 2021 Thursday

I worked this morning on preparing for Thanksgiving dinner. I put the Turkey breast in the oven and yams in a crock pot as well as the cornbread dressing in another, this morning and then just cleaned the house a little, mostly mopping. Everything was ready by a little after noon and Michael Romero came over at 12:30 and Kyle Foote came up from downstairs.

  I made besides the turkey, dressing and yams, mashed potatoes and turkey gravy, corn with red bell peppers, green beans with diced bacon, crescent rolls, and of course cranberry jelly. I had called Jim McMullin earlier to wish them a Happy Thanksgiving. They were just having to the two of them but making a big dinner so will have lots of leftovers. I also called Chuck Whyte who said his brother and sister-in-law came up for the holiday.

            After eating, we sat and around and visited like folks do. Mike has to go in for another colonoscopy in March because some of his polyps turn out to be precancerous. Kyle has to go in for another endoscopy in December. Grateful this Thanksgiving that my health is still holding up.

            After we had some pumpkin pie, Mike left with Coco about 4, and Kyle went back downstairs. I stayed and cleaned up although there wasn’t a whole lot because I made such a small amount.

            No mass killings today so I guess people have settled down for a while. Last night the Rose Park Facebook group said they heard gun shots over on Miami between Daleridge and Independence. Kyle said he heard them last night too much thought they were fireworks.

 

26 November 2021 Friday

Michael Romero came over around 1 this afternoon to finish off the leftovers from yesterday. Kyle Foote took the Terrain into discount tires to have a nail taken out of one of the tires and I went up to Woods Cross to retrieve him because the tire place was so busy, they didn’t get to it until almost 5.

            After Michael went home, Kyle and I went to the America First Credit Union so I could deposit $300 that Kyle paid me for the Line of Cred and Visa as well as the phone bill that was taken out of my account.

The great Stephen Sondheim has passed away at 91 years of age. What a legacy he has left behind, Gypsy, West Side Story, Into the Woods,  a few of my favorites but most all Company.

A new Covid19 variant discovered in South Africa has some countries restricting flights in and out.

 

27 November 2021 Saturday

I didn’t sleep well and just got out of bed at 4:30 this morning to work on the computer for much of the day. I had nothing else to do. I started reading the last book of the four I had checked out last Monday by Andrea Camilleri  called Nest of Vipers; An Inspector Montalbano Mystery. He’s an Italian mystery writer whose works are translated into English which makes for some odd phraseology.

I fell asleep in the lazy boy around 7 this evening and ended sleeping until 11 at night. I knew if I tried to go to bed, I would be wide awake, so I watched a couple of episodes of Perry Mason until 1 in the morning before going to the bedroom.

I watched an episode of Perry Mason from 1958 where he defended Marion Ross from going to the gas chamber for murder. It was a good thing he found the real murderer otherwise they'd be no Happy Days and no Richie Cunningham LOL.

 

28 November 2021 Sunday

I was out of sorts for much of the day with my gastrointestinal issues. I’ve been sightly dizzy also. I made some corn chowder this morning which sounded good and that is what I ate most today although I did go out with Kyle Foote to El Loco Pollo so he could get some lunch.

            My nephew James Clark called me this afternoon to check in on me. His birthday is December 1^st, and he will be 53 years old, so I think he’s nostalgic for family.

            In the late afternoon, I felt like putting some of the Yule decorations up on the outside with wreaths, and poinsettias on the front porch. So, it’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas. I finished all the library books I checked out last week, when I took Michael Romero downtown for his appointment. I read a Nest of Vipers, by this Italian writer. It was okay but again I don’t think I will read any more of the Inspector Montalbano series.

On some days like today my body is telling me its winding down but at 70 I have had an interesting journey and met a lot of tremendous and groovy people along the way.

I rescued the old boy, Buster 4 years ago today. I was just supposed to foster him but instead of giving him up I adopted him as he was so scared and frightened. He would run and hide and snap at me if I tried to pet him...I  just let him be and gave him assurance that this was his forever home. Now he sleeps with me and likes his belly rubbed.

 

29 November 2021 Monday

I finished stringing lights on the outside shrubs and railing since it was so nice out today. It was 55 degrees. Last year we had a snowstorm on this date. I also put up my fiber optic Christmas tree and my little nativity scene. It makes me think of Grandma Williams because she always had one out. The Ghosts of Christmas past is more with me then the other Christmas spooks.

            I made some Onion soup today to use up some of the beef broth I had from roasting beef for the pups. I knew that Kyle Foote would be out ubering this evening. He hates onions so I made it just for me.

            My stomach pain has lessened finally. I think I must have been constipated, which is a thing as you get older and since my stomach doesn’t hold much anymore it backs up in a traffic jam waiting for an exit.

            I watched an old Jeanette MacDonald movie from 1930 called Monte Carlo. I’ve always enjoyed her especially in San Francisco but once looking up information about her, discovered some of Hollywood’s Gay past. She was married to Gene Raymond the Gay actor after MGM wouldn’t allow her to marry her real love Nelson Eddy. Raymond had an affair with Buddy Rogers the Gay actor who married Mary Pickford after she divorced Douglas Fairbanks. Interesting I thought.

 

30 November 2021 Tuesday

This morning I took T J to the Dog Groomers School on North Temple and Tenth West to have his nails clipped. After taking him back to the house I went up to North Salt Lake to have the car washed at Quick Quack and to clean the interior. Since I was up that way, I came home on Beck Street and stopped at the Wasatch Springs Animal Clinic and renewed Buster’s heart pills and asked for a copy of Taco’s rabies certificate so I could take him down to have his nails clipped. On the way home I stopped at the Rose Park Library and checked out four books.

            After getting a Dr. Pepper with Kyle Foote and I then I took Mike Romero to his neuropathy clinical trials this afternoon. While waiting there I saw I had a text from Jim Dabakis who said he’d pick up Taco tomorrow as he came back to Salt Lake because a friend of his died and he wanted to attend the funeral.

            That really surprised me because just the other day I had a dream that Jim Dabakis had come back early, and I said I thought you weren’t coming back until February, and I then said to Taco it’s a good thing I didn’t adopt you. It was a vivid dream and now it’s happening. Jim said he’d be here for about twelve days so I will have Taco home for Christmas.

            Michael said that he called the Social Security office and talked with some else who said she didn’t know why the guy Michael had been dealing with just had his file sitting on his desk and that Michael should be getting his social security in two weeks. They said that back in September. I Hope he gets it before Christmas.

 I am reading another Erik Larson book called the Splendid and the Vile about Winston Churchill’s first year as Prime Minister during World War II. It’s pretty riveting as are all of Larson’s books.

It was a warm November day for running around, nearly 54 degrees, but it was a hazy out.

            Another school shooting took place this time in Michigan, and Chris Cuomo was suspended from CNN news for irregularities with his brother the former Governor of New York.

 

December

1 December 2021 Wednesday

I made some zucchinis bread this morning to give to Jim Dabakis when he was coming over to retrieve Taco. I also mopped the floors really good but that won’t last long. I tried calling Ken Garff to see about my oil change warranty, but I couldn’t get through to anyone live so I called Mike Romero and since he had an order to pick up from Sam’s Club, he said he’d go with me to the dealership.

They were short-handed like everyone else, but I was told I had used up all my free oil changes, but for $120 I could get three oil changes and tire rotations. Michael said that was a good deal, so I did, and since they were able to do it right then, we just sat in the dealership and waited. It didn’t take long perhaps  a half hour at the most.

The showroom was empty but for one vehicle. Michael said it’s because they can’t get the computer chips that they need, and car prices have gone up by at least a third. He said that if I were to buy my Honda FIT now, it would cost around $10,000 more.

They had little signs up asking for people to be patient as they were short staffed and to be kind to those who showed up. It is sad that Americans have become so angry that they have to post signs like that. I even saw a similar one later in the day at a Dairy Queen in Kaysville.

            The FIT was ready by 12:30 so we went and picked up Mike’s groceries at Sam’s Club and Third West between 21^st South and 13^th South is a traffic nightmare with lanes down to just one in both directions. Over by Mike’s place, 5^th West is all under construction so it’s like a labyrinth getting around.

            Kyle Foote asked if I wanted to go with him to sell his trailer back to the company in Kaysville where he bought it from. I know he needed help unloading the back of it at his storage shed in North Salt Lake.

Anyway, Jim Dabakis didn’t come over until 2:30 and because Kyle needed my help, we didn’t get much of a chance to visit. Taco kind of acted like he wasn’t sure he wanted to go with Jim but finally jumped into his car. Jim asked me to go with him this Sunday to see Mean Girls at the Eccles Theater and I said I would.

            After Jim left, I had to follow Kyle to the airport to drop off the Sierra Truck and then back at home, we hitched up the trailer to my little Sonoma. For a 24-year-old truck it still seems to still do the job.

At the storage shed, we unloaded all these office partitions which was really tiring to me because there were so many and heavy, but we got it done and were in Kaysville by 4.

Kyle got the asking price he wanted of $2500 for the trailer and he had only paid $3300 for it so all the time he used it was only about $800 which he thought was a good deal.

Since it was late, and I know he hadn’t eaten, we stopped at the Dairy Queen there. It wasn’t busy and only two people seemed to be working. I just had a cheeseburger while Kyle got himself a Bacon Cheese combo. We shared some of the fries.

            We were home a little after 5 and I fed the pups although it seemed strange to only be feeding four and not five. Kyle was off “ubering” this evening while I curled up with my Erik Larson’s book. Because of all the activity I must have been tired and fell asleep in the Lazy Boy at 8:30.

            I wished James Clark a happy birthday by text. Today is Bette Midler’s 76^th birthday also. It’s a palindrome date 12-1-21.

 

2 December 2021 Thursday

I am missing Taco Belle, more than I thought I would. I spent most of the day editing and reading.

 All of Kyle Foote’s vehicles are out on loan so he won’t get to drive for Uber for the weekend. Kyle was out late as I heard the garage door open and close several times as he took out the FIT. He must have had a tryst somewhere as he rarely goes out on his own unless he’s ubering. It’s been two years now since he left Fortitude and “off paper,” finally serving his long prison sentence. It will soon be ten years since he was incarcerated in the county jail waiting to be sentenced to prison.

            Strange how my life has become so entwined with his. Love has no bounds, I suppose. If I can still love John Cunningham after 50 years, I suppose 10 years is not much.

            I started remembering, while hugging the pups, that not once can I remember my father ever hugging me, not once. I never received any physical or emotional affection from him although I am certain he loved me. Any affection I received at home was from Mom. I know that had nothing to do with my sexual attraction to men, but I do think it is perhaps why I crave affection by physical touch as I rarely had it as a child.

 

3 December 2021 Friday

I’ve lost all track of the days of the week. Not until I heard trucks rumbling outside that I realized it was Friday, so I hurriedly put the yard waste and garbage bin out to the curb. This morning while editing my research of Second South from 1880 to 1890 I worked on Jim Hegney’s story a bit adding more details until Kyle Foote came and asked me to go with him to Exxon to get a Dr. Pepper.

He then took the FIT up to Roy in Weber County to meet with David as he wanted Kyle’s advice on some landscaping. So, I was without a car for the day to do any shopping,  but Kyle was back by 2:30 and I could have gone then but I was then out of the mood to go out.          

Instead, I went and soaked in the hot tub which I haven’t done in a while just to make sure it was working okay. I notice the water was down some, probably simply from natural evaporation so I added more water to it. That was the highlight of my adventures today.

            James Clark called me today asking whether he could borrow some money and I had to let him know that I am no longer in the position where I can help people. I barely have enough to stay afloat myself. I felt bad because I’ve always tried to help when I could. I may be stingy to myself but rarely to others.

            I read more from The Splendid and The Vile and watched another episode of Discovery and Young Sheldon this evening.

It’s another warm December day, well into the 50’s. I don’t recall another Utah December ever being this consistently warm this late in the year.

            The new strain of Covid19 first identified by South African scientists has shown up in Utah. How can viruses not when people globe trot all over the world? The person had been fully vaccinated which shows how contagious this new variant can be.

 

4 December 2021 Saturday

I went out shopping for groceries this morning at Lucky’s when Mike Romero called with the good news, he finally received his social security. They paid him back so he received $7000 all at one time and he will still get a December check. I know that is such a relief for him.

            I spent nearly $90 on groceries today more than I have ever done at one time in quite a while. Nothing extravagant, just some meat for the pups, eggs, milk, cheese, some snacks, and Centrum vitamins.

            Kyle Foote and I went to China Delight for lunch for take out and after that never left the house again until  10 at night to take Kyle down to Sutherland’s to retrieve the Terrain.

            I finished reading “The Splendid and the Vile” about Winston Churchill’s first year as Prime Minister from 1940 to 1941 when London and Great Britain suffered the worse of the German Blitzkrieg. It’s seems so odd that all this could have occurred just ten years before I was born.

            James Clark called and wanted Grandpa William’s chili recipe and dad’s soup recipe. I tried calling him back but he didn’t pick up so I texted him the info.

            The parents of the teenage killer in Michigan were arrested and charged with manslaughter having just purchased the murder weapon the day before the school shooting.

            This afternoon Utah’s Proud Boy thugs held a rally in Salt Lake City which was

called Kyle Rittenhouse Appreciation Day “The event will run from noon to 2 p.m. and mentions hot chocolate, apple cider and desserts will be served. Organizers are encouraging gatherers to dress to, “represent your right to bear arms.”

 

5 December 2021 Sunday

I had a pleasant afternoon going with Jim Dabakis to see “Mean Girls” at the Eccles Theater. It looked like the house was sold out and masks were required the whole time. Ushers would go up and down the aisles making sure people kept their masks on and covered their noses.

I never heard of the show so I was kind of reluctant to go thinking it might some teeny-bopper millennial production but it was surprisingly good with lots of singing and energetic dancing and the scene changes were amazing. Stagecraft and scenery has really jumped dramatically with the advent of LED Screens making it a combination of a movie and live theater. Did I mention there were a lot of cute dancing boys? Musical Theater is one of my great joys and Tina Fey's comedy was terrific too.

Afterwards Jim and I went to Beans and Brew on State Street and caught up. He’s only here until the 12th then Taco will come back. He told me of his adventures in Peru and how he enjoyed his time there seeing Machu Picchu and other sites. He met this young family that acted as guides for him, and he invested $2500 in them so they could set up a stall selling tee shirts and other items to tourists.

We talked how disconnected we are from the Utah Pride Center and how Encircle has taken over the Gay Youth Market trying to assimilate them by making their parents happy rather than developing a Gay community. We talked about how, in our own special ways, our life work has been meaningful and if we dropped dead tomorrow, we both have had a good life.

Jim parked way over by Edison Street on Broadway so we walked a lot around downtown, which was the first time for me in a very long while and we commented on the New Salt Lake that is going up before our very eyes.

I was home by 5 this late afternoon to feed the pups and Taco went back with Jim. I just rested some and finished the sweet and sour pork from yesterday because I was famished not having eaten anything since early in the morning.

When Kyle Foote came home around 7 this evening, he said that someone rear ended the Rogue while returning from the Airport. Just some bumper damage and it was the woman’s fault but it will need repairing although the vehicle was still able to be used for Turo.

I had to stay up until 10 to night to pick Kyle up from the airport after dropping off the Terrain. So, it was a long day for me.

 

6 December 2021 Monday

After such a busy day yesterday, today was kind of lack luster. Except taking Kyle Foote to the Airport, getting a Dr. Pepper, and taking the pups for a ride while I dropped off the “Splendid and the Vile” at the library, I never left the house.

            It was a gloomy overcast day, with a dampness in the air compared to all last week. It was also in the mid 40’s. Mike Romero said he took Coco down to get groomed but for some reason Dog Grooming School always calls me when she is ready rather than him.

            The Criterion Channel has a series of Alfred Hitchcock movies and yesterday I watched “Family Plot” which I don’t think I’ve seen since it was out in theaters. Today I watched a silent movie film of his called “The Lodger”. The main character was Ivor Novella, a theater idol from that time who like Ramon Navarro was Gay.

 

7 December 2021 Tuesday

I went to Roseman’s Dental School this morning for a teeth cleaning at 10. My blood pressure was 144 and when they were questioning that it was high among themselves, I said look, its under 160 and that is all that matters. Also for the first time they wanted to test my blood because my chart says I have diabetes. I said that had never been done before and that I am in remission and I don’t take anything for it but they insisted.

After poking my fingers twice, because not enough blood from the first one, it was 134, which kind of surprised me that it was that low after all the candy and apple pie I have been eating lately.

Anyway I was in the chair for nearly one and half hours, sometimes really painful when probing my gums with a high-pressure water pick instrument. Oh well. They strongly suggested that I get a crown rather then have a back tooth extracted but at the difference between $500 and $100, I will lose it now that I don’t have any extra cushion in my income.

Kyle Foote was all jazzed that the Turo rental today was his 100^th and the reviews had been all 5 stars. I am happy for him but I don’t see how it benefits me any. He also informed me that next week he will be gone for a couple of days going to San Diego and Seattle for the air milage that is supposed to allow him to keep his upgrades. I don’t get it really.

I find it odd that the Utah Pride Center only has two staff members who identify with the pronouns he and him out of the 21 mentioned. The rest are female identified. So much for representation I suppose... oh well.

I started a new Erik Larson book called “Thunderstruck” about Marconi’s wireless and a killer named Crippens

 

8 December 2021 Wednesday

This morning someone was at the door and when I answered it, someone was asking for Kyle Foote regarding a bank trying to contact him. He kept asking if I was Kyle and I said no he lives downstairs. When we finally went to go get a drink at Exxon, Kyle said he had been on the phone all morning as there was a screw up over once of the vehicle with the finance company claiming the car was delinquent when Kyle had been making payments.

The mix up I guess was resolved but then about 6:30 this evening, someone was ringing the doorbell and then pounding on it by knocking hard. I was in my caftan already in for the night so I pulled on some sweats and answered the door and there was a police officer asking for Kyle. That shocked me. I told him he lived downstairs and then he left. I have no idea what that was about but must have been serving a warrant. Kyle was out ubering and I never saw him to find out what that is all about.

            I was anxious for the rest of the evening. I just hate this. I shouldn’t be having people come to the door with issues asking for Kyle. When I brought him home from Fortitude two years ago, I truly believed both our lives would be benefit. Now I am not so certain. It was ten years ago on December 6^th that he went to jail to be sentenced to prison. I wonder if this cycle is to be repeated. I don’t have the emotional cache to go through that again.

            One positive note I looked into my America First Credit Union account and my Social Security had already been deposited so I have money this month to not have to worry about paying bills as long as I am careful.

 

9 December 2021 Thursday

We had our first snow for this season but it did not really accumulate to any great amount on the ground because it has been so warm. Just the higher elevations. I made a pot of Lima Bean soup after going on this morning while it was drizzling snow to get some grocery items and food for the pups. Later in the afternoon I made some spaghetti for Kyle Foote and my supper.

            I sent Daniel Cureton a copy of my research from 1880 to 1900 regarding Second South asking for his opinion and help. I also decided to send Michael Aaron a Lambda Lore column for his January 2022 issue. I haven’t written for him in over two years. I wrote it on the diversity of Second South of course.

            I finished reading Thunderstruck this evening. It was not my favorite Erik Larson book, I guess because I didn’t find the subject matter all that appealing. Marconi turned out to be a jerk and Dr. Crippins was hung for the murder and dismemberment of his horribly abusive wife. The only reason the two men were tied together in the book was that in 1910 the murderer was discovered on the high seas by the use of Marconi’s wireless and captured.

 

10 December 2021 Friday

Kyle Foote bought snow tires for the Terrain, $600 as that he said when it was snowing last night taking a fare up to Park City, he could hardly make it up this one street, and he thought if people are going to rent it through out the winter, he had to have them for their safety.

We went to Hacienda Grill for lunch and Kyle bought me a tamale. That was plenty. I ordered another box of Cesar dog food for Lulu Belle and Maxx. They are the only ones who eat it any ways.

Fox News is recognizing the burning of their Christmas Tree akin to Pearl Harbor… So out of touch with reality.

Mike Nesmith one of the Original Monkees had passed away.

 

11 December 2021 Saturday

The weather has turned chilly and my hands are cold all the time. It must be from being old with less circulation in my extremities. I have been sleeping with a heating pad turned down low and leaving it on all day to warm the bed. The pups like it too.

I made some ravioli for Kyle Foote’s supper  but just snacked in left overs. I noticed in the late afternoon Kyle had a Gentleman caller.

This evening I tried to watch ELF, the Christmas movie I had never seen before but scrolled through much of it because a little bit went a long way. Then I watched Goodbye Seventies, a film about a group of friends making Gay porn in the 70’s.

I had a phone call from Ken Garff wanting to buy back my FIT because they are short on inventory but why would I want to do that?

All that is in the news is the deadly tornado that ripped through Kentucky and other states back east. Many people were killed working a graveyard shift at a candle factory. Tragic but hard for me to work up sympathy for Kentuckians who keep electing Mitch McConnell and Rand Paul to Congress.

 

12 December 2021 Sunday

Jim Dabakis brought Taco Belle back to the house as that he is leaving tomorrow for Mexico again and won’t be back until February. He gave me $200 for taking care of the pup which I appreciate but would have done for free. I just put the money in my wooden box that now has $500 in it. I just want to have some extra money because you never know what the future will bring.

            I went with Kyle Foote to El Loco Pollo but didn’t get anything but a Dr. Pepper because I have food at home. I need to eat up and I really don’t much care for the food there and it’s expensive for what you get.

            I worked a lot on organizing my research on West Second South from 1847 to 1880, which was the Mormon Pioneer time. Kyle was out ubering today while I made a taco soup dish for my supper. It was a bit warmer today in the 40’s enough to melt a lot of the snow on the roof and ground from the storm earlier this week.

            Kyle needed me to pick him up from the Airport after dropping off the Chevy Traxx. It was late after 10:30 so I had to stay up well past my bed time. I watched a really interesting film called “Swan Song” about an aging Queen who was a hairdresser who was requested to do the hair of one of his deceased patrons. It explored the theme of how quickly Gay culture as we knew it is disappearing.

The bitter sweet film was about a senior Gay man coming to term with past hurts and a life that is no longer remembered. It was based on a fictionalized version of a real person that director Todd Stephens knew growing up. He directed Edge of Seventeen, the coming of age in the 1980s.

There were lots of good characters, played by Michael Urie, Jennifer Coolidge, Ira Hawkins, Stephanie McVay, and Linda Evans but the film belongs to German actor Udo Kier who is riveting as Pat Pitsenbarger.

As an old Gay person now, I identified with him seeing his past erased with  most  people he once knew just  being memories now.

 

13 December 2021 Monday

I don’t have much to write about except taking Kyle Foote to the Airport to retrieve the Chevy Terrain at 9:30 but I didn’t stay up as late as yesterday and I did take a long nap in the afternoon. It was in the 50’s ahead of the storm.

I finally made an appointment for Lulubelle to be groomed. Its for Wednesday at noon.

            This evening I watched Chorus Line the movie, which I think is not nearly as good as it is as a theatrical production. Too much padding.

            The devastation in Kentucky is like Hiroshima with towns completely flatted. Thank God we have Joe Biden as President who will help these people recover even though Kentucky didn’t vote for him.

Fox News did not bother to air Rep. Liz Cheney’s revelation tonight that Brian Kilmeade, Sean Hannity, and Laura Ingraham had texted Mark Meadow to get him to ask Trump to call off the assault on the Capital, so  right-wing  audiences did not hear it how liars Ingraham and Hannity blamed the capitol assault on Antifa knowing all along it was Trumps supporters.

"On Monday, Cheney read two other texts from Fox stars to Meadows from 1/6. One was from Brian Kilmeade: "Please, get him on TV. Destroying everything you have accomplished." The other was from Sean Hannity: "Can he make a statement, ask people to leave the Capitol?"

"Mark, the president needs to tell people in the Capitol to go home," Laura Ingraham texted Meadows. "This is hurting all of us. He is destroying his legacy."

At this point Fox News and Trump supporters are acting like a "fifth column",  a "group of people who undermine a larger group from within, usually in favor of an enemy group or nation. The activities of a fifth column can be overt or clandestine."

 

14 December 2021 Tuesday

It was  a busy day trying to get as much done before the storm comes in tonight. I had to take Kyle Foote to the airport at 6:45 this morning for him to catch a flight to San Diego and then to Seattle then back home again Thursday so he can accumulate air mileage.

I stopped at Wendy’s for the first time in years to get a breakfast sausage biscuit sandwich for a  buck and that is what I had for breakfast.

            Well I finally got ambitious enough to paint the hallway as you come up the stairs. It’s been unpainted since the hall closet was removed a year and a half ago. I only did the prep work of taping up all the base boards and the hardest part was climbing to the top of a ladder to tape where the wall reaches the ceiling as it is white and the wall is going to be a honey yellow.

            I went to Lowes in Bountiful and bought a gallon of paint and painting supplies at the cost of about $75 then I also filled the car up so I won’t have to do it in a snow storm. It’s really gusty outside ahead of the storm.

            Afterwards I came home and just worked more on taping and prep work. I cleaned under the baseboards as best I could and I also decided to clean off the Buster’s poop deck scrubbed since it was so warm today. I thought it would be the last chance perhaps for the winter. I also hosed it down since it was 60 degrees this afternoon.

I also then took Buster down to the grooming school to have his nails trimmed. He sleeps so much that I hadn't notice how long they had gotten. Lulubelle goes into tomorrow for her grooming.

I fixed the pups some supper and I had some frozen spring rolls and called it good. I was tired finally so I watched some movies for the rest of the evening. I watched a Walt Disney Pixar animated film called Lucas about a sea monster who turns into a boy on land. It was cute and mindless but then I watched Alfred Hitchcock’s riveting “Life Boat” featuring one of the few films Tallulah Bankhead performed in.

I went to bed at 10:30 and felt restless as were the pups as the storm finally blanketed Salt Lake. I even earlier saw lightning flashes and heard thunder.

As the blizzard had arrived, I was so grateful to have all my pups in bed with me and we are all warm and sheltered. It must be dreadful for those unsheltered out on the streets tonight. The winds have made the snow blow sideways blanketing the entire house in a shroud. I pity anyone having to drive out in it tonight. But we are staying safe and warm tonight by the Grace of Providence and good life choices.

While watching television I never thought I’d see the day when there are commercials for bent dicks .... using bent carrots sheesh!

15 December 2021 Wednesday

I started in on painting the hall wall as soon as it was light enough to see without artificial lighting. I knew it was going to be a lot of work. At 10:30 I quit thinking I needed to clear the driveway as that Lulubelle had her grooming appointment at noon or I would have waited for the snow just to melt since the ground is warm and not frozen.

We got a half a foot of snow or more here in Westpointe. Walking outside I went to shovel the steps but the path is obstructed by branches weighed down by the wet heavy snow. The weight is bending over my tall purple leave shrubs trees, blocking the path to Kyle Foote’s outside door entrance and at the foot of the stairs to the entrance to the house. I won’t be able to tell if the branches actually broke under the weight until some of the snow melts as 3 or four inches are on them.

The storm brought in a wet heavy snow that is a bitch to remove because it sticks to the snow shovel. It is perfect for snowmen building but not so much for a 70-year-old dude. Yesterday I put the snow blower in the garage thank goodness and I used it to clear the driveway and about 15 feet of the sidewalk which was as far as the extension cord would reach. I have 100 feet of sidewalk to clear so when I finished, I was exhausted.

Taking Lulubelle to the Dog Grooming school on North Temple and Tenth West, the roads were slushy but not scary. Actually it was beautiful out with the sky a crystal blue color and every tree coated with thick white marshmallow fluff.

Back at the house I painted the hall and the wall around the new kitchen door that was put in last summer. Lulubelle was ready by 2 o’clock, which was early for them because it usually takes 3 hours.

I went back to work and was finished by 5 when shadows began to tell me the sun was going down. I had it mostly done except a little touch up here and there and tomorrow I will paint the hall downstair which should not take long at all.

I baked chicken thighs for the pups and I made homemade Chicken Pot Pie but for my supper but I was too tired to eat any of it  but a bite. Lulubelle said she didn’t mind if she ate some,  so I gave her what I didn’t want. She is so thoughtful.

I watched Christmas Story before going to bed just something Christmassy and familiar. It then hit me how achy I was from climbing up and down the step ladder and stretching by using the extended paint roller handle. I could hardly move. I am exhausted .... over and out.

In the news due to the new Omicron variant of Covid19 the CDC is suggesting no Christmas get togethers or mass gatherings of course most with ignore it.

 

16 December 2021 Thursday

I worked all this morning finishing up painting the walls. When Kyle Foote came home, he didn’t even notice all the work I did.

I spent two days taping and painting the walls that had all this construction done from last summer and the year before, finally. I am too old to be climbing up to the top rung of the step ladder to reach the vaulted ceiling but at least I didn’t fall.

I am exhausted but happy with the warm color that brightens up the place. When I get my energy back,  I will tackle the kitchen,  but not anytime soon as I will have to take everything down first and tape, which is the biggest pain. Between all the shoveling snow and painting I am a tired old boy.

I had to go to the airport three times today to help Kyle deliver and pick up vehicles. The last one was supposed to have been at 9:30 at night but it was 11 when Kyle had me drive out for him to drop off the Rogue. I was already sleeping in the lazy boy after having tried to stay awake.

I should tell Kyle no more late-night drop offs or pickups as I am way too old for this but I know I probably won’t.

 

17 December 2021 Friday

I had a strange dream that I was walking someone home and I said to take a short cut through the old neighborhood I used to walk to get to Hare Intermediate Junior High from my house on Dale Street. I hadn’t thought about that in years so I Googled map the route I used to have to walk for two years between 1963 and 1965. The distance was 1.3 miles. Going to high school made up for it because Rancho was only .2 of a mile from my folk’s house.

The house my parents bought in 1954 in Garden Grove, in which I was reared, is valued at $800,000 almost 100 times what they paid for it and 10 times what they  sold it for. How anyone can afford to live in California is beyond me. I am content in my humble Salt Lake Home. I wonder how long it will be before its $800,000, whenever it will be, I will be long gone.

 Heavy snow slid off my roof and snapped off my flag pole on the front of the house. So no more rainbow flag until I can replace it. Sad face

In the news there was a nationwide dare on Tic Toc for kids to bring a gun to school. Ignorant kids across the country did even here in Utah. Some fool attending East High was arrested with a gun and ammunition.

 

18 December 2021 Saturday

I decided to rearrange and clean up what was once my movie room but have since turned into a spare bedroom. I have been using it as a catch all but I moved the bed beneath the old movie screen until I can take it down on the north wall which gives me a lot more room. That took most of my morning. Then Kyle Foote and I at noon went to Sutherlands to get a new snow shovel a new flag pole and mount, and a few other things for the house. On the way back we stopped and got our Dr. Pepper and at the house Kyle put an outlet cover over the old light switch outlet by the kitchen door, managed to unhook the hose from the backyard facet that I couldn’t, and replaced the flag mount on the front of the house so the rainbow flag is flying high again. The only thing on my honey-do list he wasn’t able to fix was the toilet roll holder in my bathroom which had fallen apart which I will have to buy a new one.

            I went to the grocery store to get some chicken for the dogs’ supper and other items for me. Then Kyle said he was hungry for a burger so we went to A & W down on North temple and Redwood Road and bought two child meals and I ordered an extra order of onion rings. You can hardly eat out at a fast-food place anymore for under $15.

            Kyle said that the truck was going out to the airport at 9 and thought it might be more like 11 before the people’s flight gets in. So I was prepared to have to go out late again tonight but later about 9 he said I had a reprieve and could go to bed because he said “a friend was coming over” who would pick him up at the airport so wouldn’t have to. I said to him that was a “friend with Benefits.”

            Before going to bed I watched on Netflix, Gary Oldman’s performance as Winston Churchill in the “Darkest Hour.”  It was a wonderful depiction of his first month in office.

            Heard in the news that Intermountain Health Care bought the old Sears property that contains eight acres between State Street and Main. Another part of Salt Lake’s history will be razed for a medical facility.

In a fortnight it will be the year 2022.

 

19 December 2021 Sunday

I went to WinCo market on State street and 2100 South this morning for the first time in over a year. Kyle Foote said he was in the mood for meatloaf and you can’t make a small one that actually tastes good. However the main reason I went to was that I wanted some Zoom hot cereal and they are the only store in town that sells it. It’s a wheat flake hot cereal a little more processed than just cracked wheat. While there I bought items, I needed to make a Meat Loaf since Kyle informed me yesterday, he was craving some.

            I brought 2 lbs. of ground pork as well as 1 lb. of ground beef  and when I prepared it at home, I added chopped carrots and green peppers, minced garlic, dried celery and parsley flakes, a packet of brown gravy mix, about  a half cup of V8 juice, an egg and half a sleeve of crushed saltine crackers. I salted and peppered to taste and added 3 strips of bacon on top after placing the mixture in a loaf pan.

            We ate after coming back from the airport with the Rogue and supped on Meatloaf, mash potatoes, buttered corn and peas and carrots. I am glad Lulubelle was here to help me eat our Sunday dinner.

            Kyle went off ubering afterwards and didn’t see him for the rest of the day while I watched some movies in the evening. I started watching Tyrone Powers and Joan Blondell in “Nightmare Alley” a film noir classic and learned the origin of the word “geek” that being  the lowest form of a sideshow freak. Tyrone Powers had to have been one of the world’s most beautiful men. I didn’t finish it though as it became darker in mood as a morality tale so I looked for something else to watch.

            I started watching a documentary on World War II color film footage that director George Stevens took while serving in the army from the D-Day Landing to Berlin. Its one thing to see World War II in black and white footage but another to see it in living color.

            It’s inconceivable to me that all this carnage happened just within a half a decade before I was born.

            I guess I was in the mood for World War II so I watched “From Here to Eternity” which I hadn’t seen in years. It’s a romantic melodrama in Hawaii in 1941 leading up to the attack on Pearl Harbor.

20 December 2021 Monday

I had strange dreams this morning before waking up. I dreamt I was at some folk dance outside festival that I had to take the bus to which was filled with students, not mine, and I taught them to sing the “Wheels on the Bus Goes Round and Round.” I told some teachers sitting behind me that I had been retired five years now and said to them I don’t know how they are able to teach now in these Covid times.

At the program, I saved a bench seat along the parameter for a woman in the group I was with, only upon waking did I realize I was dreaming about Brenda Tau’a who I taught with me at Orchard Elementary. She has been dead for since 2015. Strange that her son Gabe was born in 1979 and would be the same age as Kyle Foote. I taught Gabe two years, in Fourth Grade and in Fifth.

In the dream before going to the dance event I was with Michael Romero and then only realized that it was June 21^st and his birthday and I felt bad I had forgotten. Then at a house where we were meeting others to go to this event, I realized I came without any shoes and I asked Kristin Ries if she had any slippers I could wear and she brought out a selection of shoes to try on. I wonder what was going on in my psyche.

I didn’t do much today but work on my research and took Kyle Foote to the airport after washing the FIT.

Roy Zang called me to tell me some interest news. He said that Rob Moolman is moving back to Australia and that Roy had quit his job and wants to move out of state also, possibly to Portland, Oregon. He also said that he wrote the new Pride Center director that he didn’t want anything more to do with the place, disappointed that they never acknowledged World AIDS Day or it’s impact on Gay men. Change is inevitable and while change is good reinventing history to erase people and events is tragic. He told them in his email that if it were not for Gay Men there wouldn’t be a Pride Center in the first place.

 

21 December 2021 Tuesday

This is the beginning of the Winter Solstice  and it’s really smoggy and hazy here today because of the inversion. It wasn’t bad this morning, but by 3:30 you could hardly see the mountains.

            This morning I went shopping, first to Glendale’s Smiths to buy some treats for the pups and discounted meat. I even bought some eggnog as ‘tis the season. I bought a large ham on sale for $9 which was an excellent buy.

            From there I went over to Deseret Industries to look for some sweat pants and hoodies but they were all out of them so I decided to try Wal-Mart and went to the one on Third West and Thirteenth South. It was a trial getting there because of all the traffic diverted to one lane and such a mess.

In the store, the selection for sweat pants were really picked over with little stock on the shelf. I found a pair for twice as much as I wanted to pay but I thought I don’t buy clothes anymore so why not. However at home I found that they had  misidentified the size. It was way too small. Ugh so rather than go back to the Salt Lake store I realized that it would be easier to go up to Centerville.

            Mike Romero dropped Coco off while he went to get a haircut and Kyle Foote and I went to Centerville because he wanted to get an oil change for the Chevy Trax. I was able to get a refund for the pants but the selection of sweats was also dismal but I was able to find a large in a cheaper pair. We also bought a new toilet roll holder to replace the one that kept falling a part

On the way back to Salt Lake we stopped at Quick Quack in North Lake to go through the car wash.

I stayed inside after that. I just watched television and a documentary of the assassination of JFK which forensic proof showed that at least two assassins shot him not just Lee Harvey Oswald as that one of the bullets that killed the president came from the grassy knoll. Still there probably never be known who the conspirators were since Oswald was killed within days forever silencing him.

Today was the last 21^st day of the 21^st year of the 21^st Century.

 

22 December 2021 Wednesday

Michael Romero dropped off Coco to stay with me while he heads out to Colorado for Christmas. We visited some and I guess things are finally going right with him. Last week he got his booster shot and while seeing Dr. Stoneburner he gave Michael a prescription for medical marijuana to treat his neuropathy.

It was extremely hazy out again due to an inversion but actually kind of warm out for it being the first day of winter.

            I knew I had to stay up late as I had told Michael that I would take him down to the Amtrack depot at 3 in the morning to catch the train. So I stayed up watching the Grinch Who Stole Christmas and a bunch of World War II documentaries in color.

            I was getting sleepy so I put on Gone With the Wind on HBO because I knew I could just close my eyes and listen to it since I was so familiar with it. It sure romanticized the South, demonized the North, and dehumanized African Americans portrayed as mostly simple childlike, depended on their masters, except for Mammy. After the war, blacks were portrayed as villains and stooges of carpet baggers.

 

23 December 2021 Thursday

At 2:30 this morning Michael Romero called and said the train would be delayed until about 5:30 due to heavy snow over Donner Pass in California. There was no way I was going to try and get any sleep for I know it would be worse than staying up all night so I went and did research on Second South and the pioneer bishops of the Fifteenth Ward that included blocks 63 and 64. Most of the Bishops until the 1870’s were paramilitary men either of the Nauvoo Legion or in law enforcement none of which one would consider a compassionate spiritual shepherd.

            So at 5 this morning, I drove over to Michael’s picked him up and dropped him off on Sixth West and Third South at the depot. The California Zephyr was already in so all he had to do was board. He had a sleeper so he could sleep while it was dark going through the Green River desert.

            I was home at 5:30 just in time to take Kyle Foote to the airport to retrieve the Sierra truck at 6. From there I had to go to Sutherlands so he could exchange the truck for the Chevy Trax before I could go home to finally go to bed, which was nearly 7 o’clock. I only slept until a little before 10 and got up. I didn’t want to feel groggy all day and I knew I could nap later.

            I made a pot of corn chowder for Kyle and my lunch and just kind of relaxed most of the day.

In the evening I wanted to start making Bundt cakes to give to my neighbors when going through my pantry discovered I had used up all my cake mixes and only had brownie mixes. So I went out at 6 to Lucky’s to go shopping and bought two dark chocolate cake mixes and some treats for the pups, before going back home I drove over to Carousel Street north of Tenth North just west of the Jordan River to see that street which was all lit up with Christmas Lights. It was really pretty and Rose Park really does have the Christmas spirit I must say.

At the house I made one Bundt cake and decorated it with vanilla frosting sprinkled with ground pecans and chocolate chips. I will make the second one tomorrow because I was too tired to wash my Bundt pan to make the other one.

I watched a little bit of Scrooge but was too distracted to watch all of it. Instead I watched about three episodes of Perry Mason.

My favorite Christmas Carol version is Scrooge from 1970. I remember going to the movies to see it but it came out in July not in December so it didn’t do well in the box office but it used a lot of the sets from Oliver Twist. I bought it first on VHS tape now have it on a CD so I watch it now every Christmas

All that is in the news is the spread of the Omicron variant and how it’s restricting mass gatherings again right before Christmas and the woman police officer who shot a black kid when she thought she was using her taser was found guilty.

We are supposed to have rain before snow for Christmas.

 

24 December 2021 Friday

This morning I baked another Bundt Cake for the Mexican Family next door where the Giles used to live. I inadvertently used a dark chocolate brownie Mix rather than a cake mix but I think it turned out just fine. The oldest boy answered the door and I am pretty sure he may be playing on my team. He’s so gentle and sweet.

            Anyway I tried to bring the Nashes the Bundt cake I made for them, over this morning but no one answered but I was finally able to deliver it in the evening when I saw their lights on and their Christmas Tree in their bay window all lit up. They have two small children, a boy, and a girl they are raising which I know has to be worrisome in this day and age of so much uncertainty.

            I baked a Marie Callendar apple pie for my Christmas dessert this year, although I know Kyle Foote won’t eat any of it.

            Around 3:30 this afternoon, I got ready to go with Kyle out to dinner at the Texas Roadhouse steakhouse in Bountiful to use up the free dinner coupon he received last month for being a veteran. Kyle drove the Sierra Truck as he wanted to run it through the carwash as it goes out tomorrow. We went to the Quick Quack in North Salt Lake then drove up Highway 89 into Bountiful. All along the way, I noticed businesses had closed early for the evening so people could enjoy the time off.

            Kyle made an appointment at the steakhouse and as soon as we arrived, they notified us that we could be seated. I thought the place was crowded for 4 in the afternoon but Kyle didn’t think so. The restaurant was staying open until 9 tonight so maybe more people will eat later.

            Since Kyle wanted a steak that wasn’t part of his coupon deal, I used it and ordered a barbequed pulled pork dinner with a side of green beans and a sweet potato. Kyle had a loaded baked potato and corn as his side dish. He also ordered a Long Island Iced Tea. He treated me to our Christmas Eve dinner.

            As we ate, I asked him all about his Christmas traditions with his family and he said in Syracuse it was a mostly traditional Mormon Ward centric one, with Secret Santa for Ward families, and sing a longs. On his family’s Christmas Eves his mom made a variety of soups. On Christmas Day, Kyle and his brother Chris had an early morning paper route they had to do before they could open presents. He said his family didn’t have a traditional Christmas dinner like my family did.

Our Christmas Eve tradition was having Texas chili with Grandma and Grandpa Williams and the rest of the clan. My favorite childhood memories included Grandma and Grandpa Johnson coming out to see us during Christmas.

            I know Kyle is not in the least sentimental over Christmas but it meant a lot to me that he cared that he knew that Christmas Eve is more special to me then Christmas Day and wanted to share it with me.

            We had so much food left over as I hardly touched anything except for the yam so we brought our dinners home to have for tomorrow. The sky, while driving home, was thick with ominous darkened rain clouds but at some points the sunset peaked through, showing slivers of gold and turquoise. It was eerie and beautiful

            At home, after changing clothes, I brought the Nash family their Bundt cake and Kyle moved the Sonoma out of the garage so he could park the Sierra inside because it is supposed to rain and snow tonight.

            Kyle wanted us to watch The Boy Called Christmas together. It is a British adaptation of the Santa Claus origin story that featured Maggie Smith as the story teller. It was a perfect Christmas movie with elves, a flying reindeer, and a talking mouse. They pups were happy that Kyle was upstairs, especially Lulubelle and Taco who smuggled in with him while I had Coco and TJ.

            When the film was over, Kyle and I hugged and he said he loved me. I suppose he does and it is good to be loved on Christmas Eve.

            After he went back downstairs, I finished watched a movie I started earlier called “Don’t Look Up” a black comedy that had Leo De Caprio, Meryl Strep, and many other stars about astronomers who discovered that a planet destroy comet was on a collision course with Earth. Meryl Streep played the ineptitude president who more concerned about her ratings and with her chief of staff Jonah Hill who brush off the magnitude of the disaster until it is too late. I really enjoyed it, even the ending when the comet hits the earth.

It was also a commentary on the Make America Great Again delusion where science denying conservatives enable politicians who are narcissists. It was not a great Christmas movie in the sense that it portrayed how flawed we are, even to our own peril and how helpless we are to change fate or the actions of a corrupt government.

 

25 December 2021 Saturday Christmas Day

I woke up to a crystal-clear morning and was surprised there wasn’t any snow on the ground. The rain and snow we were supposed to have gotten didn’t materialize. Actually it was a beautiful day with white puffy cumulus clouds in an azure-colored sky.

            I had to go to the airport a couple of times for Kyle Foote and it was really quiet there and also out on the roads. Except for going to get our Dr. Peppers it was the only time I ventured out while Kyle did some Uber driving.

            I did a lot of Christmas callings today just in case I drop dead tomorrow like dad did the day after Christmas. I first called Alan Anderson. He said both he and Kyle Daniels have colds but have tickets to go see Utah play in the Rose Bowl in California on New Years Day. Then I called Chuck Whyte who said he had just gotten out of the hospital where last Tuesday he had his little toe amputated due to infection he’s had from his diabetes but he said other than he is doing well.

            I next called Jim McMillian to see what they were up to. T J Otaka was making a big ham dinner with the works for their quiet Christmas. Jim said they were both well also.

            I finally called family, talking to James Clark first. I guess Denise Wachs and her group came over to spend Christmas Eve with Dennis Wachs and today some of James’ clan is coming in from California to spend Christmas there in Arizona.

            I also called my sister Donna Jones but as usual we didn’t have a whole lot to visit about as nothing really changes. As long I know that everyone is safe and well, that is all that matters.

            I then took a long nap as I had gotten up at 5 this morning and I think still worn out from staying up all night last Thursday. Since I hadn’t planned anything and was just eating left overs from yesterday, I felt like a nap.

            When I woke, Roy Zang called and asked if he could drop by and he and his Chinese husband  did around 3 this afternoon. They stayed until nearly 5 as we visited about our lives and reminisced about places we knew in Salt Lake City when we were much younger, although I am at least 20 years or more older than Roy. About the only Christmassy thing about the visit was I gave them some eggnog.

            After they left, I fed the pups and watched Charley Brown’s Christmas  and some episodes of World War II that had been colorized. One episode was the disastrous Italian Campaign that cost a lot of American lives but never achieved the objective of invading Germany from the south. It was interesting because I knew little about it.

            I heard that radio personality Tom Barberi died on Christmas Eve at the age of 78. I used to listen to him all the time on KALL radio for years for poking fun at Utah’s institutions. His daughter Gina Barberi is a co-host on the Radio From Hell show,

           

26 December 2021 Sunday

Our White Christmas was a day late as this morning a small blizzard blew in coating the yard with a blanket of powdery store driven from a west wind. I worked this morning finishing up my research on Sarah Kimball the Relief Society President of the Fifteenth Ward who had a very interesting and long useful life and never became a plural wife, even once refusing Joseph Smith’s proposition.

            At 11 this morning Kyle Foote needed me to take him to the Airport to deliver one of the vehicles but by that time the storm was over and actually the snow on the road had melted as it was so warm yesterday.

            In the afternoon I went with him to El Loco Pollo, his favorite place so he could get his Avocado Chicken Bowl he always does. First, we stopped at Smith’s where Kyle bought gas for the FIT.

            Afterwards he went out ubering and I was home alone for the rest of the day doing research, and in the evening watched some television. I mainly finished up all the episodes on World War II. What a colossal waste of human life all because authoritarian regimes in Germany and Japan convinced their populations that they were superior people and deserved to rule the world. Watching the episodes on Iwo Jima and Okinawa was hard knowing that my father as a 20-year-old was in the navy at the time and his mine laying ship was hit by a bomb.

            I know dropping  atomic bombs on Japan to end the war is extremely controversial and revisionist argue the war could have been concluded without doing so, but the fact is it did end the war and probably saved millions of lives from not having to invade Japan whose population was determined to fight to the death for their Emperor.

My father died on this day 17 years ago. On Christmas night 2004 the power went off as a huge snow storm hit Salt Lake City. The Scottish foreign owners of the power company, to save money, hadn't been trimming branches which broke under the weight of the storm. The entire city was without power.

Mike Romero and I woke to a dark cold house and as soon as it was light, I bundled up and started to dig out the 18 inches of snow on the porch and driveway.

Then Mike came out side and said my mom was on the phone and that I needed to come talk to her immediately. That is how I learned my father had died that morning in California.

However the airport was shut down and all the roads closed. I sat for two days without power in the house,  thinking the how time how I needed to be home for my mom but couldn't. Finally on the 3rd day my neighbor Kimberlee Gile who worked for Jet Blue got me out of Salt Lake City.

My personal grief over shadowed the news of the 2004 Tsunami that left  hundreds of thousands of dead in South East Asia. It was one of the worse disasters in history.

Because of the holidays, we had to wait to bury dad until 2 January 2005. It all seems like a dream now. Dad had no illness and no accident. He just went out to get his morning paper, came back into the house, and was dead before he hit the floor. My mother discovered her husband of 58 years laying on the kitchen floor. Except for the shock,  it was a blessing he went that way with no lingering illness or suffering. On Christmas Day he even had spoken to all his brothers for one last time.

Bishop Desmond Tutu known for his work as an anti-apartheid and human rights activist  died today in South Africa today at the age of 90.

 

27 December 2021 Monday

A winter squall blew in around 5 this late afternoon just in time for the evening commute. Weather alerts were sent out on the cell phones but I didn’t have to be anywhere, although when Kyle came home around 6:30 he said he had been caught in it up in Park City and it took him an hour and half to get home due to weather conditions. Once home he stayed in because the roads were in no condition to be traveling on. Tomorrow morning we were supposed to be at the airport at 4:30 to pick up the Terrain but Kyle is just going to have them park it in the airport covered parking as it will be too treacherous for us to go out that early when the roads will be frozen and snow packed.

            I watched The Detective, a 1968 Frank Sinatra film about a New York detective investigating the murder of a Gay man. Film portrayed how cops harassed Gays back then calling them fags. Interesting pre-Stonewall view.

 

28 December 2021 Tuesday

It didn’t snow today. It was just bitterly cold. When it’s 25 degrees outside  its time for a kettle of ham and bean soup with corn bread don’t you think?

I wish everyone tonight is as snug and warm as my pups are this cold winter night 23 degrees at 8 this evening

Harry Reid [1939-2021] died today you always fought the good fight for working people and the down trodden a true Latter Day Saint. Rest in Peace

 

29 December 2021 Wednesday

I went shopping at Smith’s this morning and spent $90 on groceries, lots of frozen foods like breaded shrimp, cod fish, spring rolls, and veggies as well as stuff to make another meat loaf. It’s easy to see how inflation has caused prices to increase. I noticed a dozen eggs are $1.40 now when they used to be around $1.12. It all adds up.

            Mike Romero called me while I was in the store to let me know he was coming in tomorrow at 11 at night but would call me from Green River is there were any delays.

            Not much else is going on I as Kyle Foote was gone all ubering people up and down from Park City.

            I watched a film on Vito Russo last night. He wrote the Celluloid Closet and was a Gay and AIDS Activist in his day. Well actually back in my day since he was only 5 years older than me.

            I heard that the Mr. Donut Shop on Tenth North and Nineth West closed because the owner couldn’t find workers to help and it was too exhausting for her to do mostly by herself. That is sad but sign of the times as most service industries are desperate for workers. The homeless shelter planned for the old Ramada inn on Redwood and North Temple can’t open because they can’t find staff to work it so people are dying from the cold.

 

30 December 2021 Thursday

All of Kyle Foote’s vehicles are loaned out so he was home for much of the day but the only time we spent together was going grocery shopping together  and getting our drink. It was very cold out anyway, in the mid-twenties.

I have been researching the atrocities the early Mormons committed against the Timpanogos tribes in 1850 as they cleared them out of Utah Valley so they could bring in settlers. No wonder Utah County has such a bad spirit about it with its religious hypocrisy.

            Bill Poore called me around noon after all these months and seeing his ID I didn’t answer because I didn’t know quite what to say but I responded to a message he left asking how I was and asking to go to lunch sometime. I did text him back that I was well and hoped he was too and that we should go to lunch sometime when he is able. He never responded back so not sure if he saw the message I sent. My feelings are so ambiguous torn between my feelings for him and my love for Kyle Foote. Like Scarlett I wont think about that today. I will think about it tomorrow.

            Several communities North of Denver were on fire this afternoon from high winds and down powerlines. The news said that it’s the worse fire in modern Colorado history and grateful no one has been killed so far hundreds of homes and a shopping mall were burned down.

            It started snowing this evening. Mike Romero called about 9:30 from Provo and said the train was going to arrive in Salt Lake early around 10:30 so I stayed up and watched the very first Pilot of Star Trek from 1965 that featured Jeffrey Hunter as Christopher Pike as Captain of the Enterprise and introduced the Spock Character. The pilot wasn’t picked up so Hunter moved on and when the Desilu pilot was finally picked up by a network William Shatner was hired to play Captain James Kirk with the narrative that he had replaced Captain Pike. Interesting to see Gene Roddenberry’s original concept.

            At 10 I gathered up Coco and drove down to the Amtrack station on Sixth West and Third South and waited in the parking lot for the train to come in. It wasn’t snowing when I Left the house, but it began lightly as I waited.

            The train pulled into the station a little after 10:30 but at least before the 11 which was when originally scheduled. Coco was beside herself gleeful to see Mike again. He said that they didn’t go down to New Mexico because his sister-in-law Joyce Romero became really sick and thought she might have Covid19. When taken to be tested fortunately it wasn’t the virus but probably a bad case of food poisoning.

            I took Mike back to his place and gave him a jar of bean soup I had made and was back home by 11. I was tired but too keyed up to sleep so stayed up until midnight.

            The streets were not snow packed but I know will be frozen ice in the morning but it’s kind of quiet and peaceful driving through Rose Park with the homes lit up warmly with colored Christmas lights while blanket with snow.

 

31 December 2021 Friday

Well it’s been a long hard year for most people and a very expensive one for me as I lost about $50,000 due to the failure of Kyle Foote’s Building Team business that I had loaned him that I know I never will see back. However only in October when I paid off the $24,000 to Lowes,  I was really worried about having enough to pay my bills because Mike Romero also was strapped because his Social Security had been delayed and he couldn’t pay the $500 a month for the money I loaned him years ago. But I now have $850 in cash stashed in my bedroom and Mike is back on track with his payments and Kyle is paying me $200 a month for the loan I gave him in September so he could get currant with his car payments to run his Turo Business.

            The saddest news today was that Betty While died just about two weeks shy of her 100^th birthday. She was like America’s feisty grandma and everyone seems to be effected one way or another by her passing so close to her 100^th. Someone wrote “Dying Hours Before New Year’s Eve Ensures That Betty White Will Have More Toast Made to her Memory On The Day She Died Than Just About Anyone In History. SHE Always Was a Master of Timing.”

            Kyle told me the news while I was in the midst of deep cleaning the front room. I wanted a clean house for the New Year. I moved all the furniture and swept and mopped beneath, clean the banister railing, polished all the wooden end tables, washed all the doggie blankets on the inset in the bay window, cleaned the doggy nose prints from the widows, hand scrubbed the laminate floor before mopping it really well.

            After cleaning the front and taking down all the Christmas décor, I commenced on the dinning room, kitchen, and my bedroom, mopping the floors really well. I was pretty tired but managed to make a kettle of Clam Chowder. I like having clam chowder on New Years Eve which is kind of a tradition I suppose.

            I was all ready to be snuggled in for the night watching “Being the Ricardos” about Lucille Ball and Desi Arnez when Kyle came up at 5 and said I needed to take him to Park City to retrieve the Sierra Truck after the person who rented it cancelled. He said we had to go now before it got any darker. He drove up and it makes me nervous how much he looks at his phone for directions while driving. Anyway the roads were wet but not slick or snow packed  until reaching Park City. The drive in seeing the trees all lit up with Christmas lights was pretty and I never thought I’s be spending some of New Year’s Eve in Park City. The truck was at some condo on a street that had snow drifts on both sides making it like a one-way street although cars were going in both directions barely squeezing by each other in addition pedestrians were walking in the street as none of the sidewalks were cleared.

            The worse part was that the way the truck was parked he had to back down the street driving backwards to an intersection where he could turn around. I followed him and it was harrowing just watching him maneuver as cars backed up behind me and others came up beside him.

            I really hate snow packed streets and I really do not like Park City for that reason and I was kind of was amazed how the place had grown since the 1980s when Billy Bikowski wanted to live up there. The place was as congested as any place I’ve seen in California only with tons of snow. It was really dark driving back down the canyon and because of the slick and wet roads it was rather hard to see the lines for each lane. I just stayed in the slow lane driving around 55 miles per hour as people whizzed by me. Let them, I was more concerned about getting home safely rather than the time it took.

            I made it back by 7 with no incidents and was glad to be home before the partiers are out on the road, it being New Year’s Eve.

            I fed the pups and finished watching Being the Ricardos and then watched Contagion the 2011 movie about the spread of a deadly disease. It was eerily like what happened in 2020 except for how quickly the virus killed. The virus originated in China spread by an infected bat and the movie even had Jude Law playing an anti-vaxxer blogger similar to what happened on social media. I went to bed by 10 at night rather exhausted this last day of 2021.

            I posted on Facebook some of the biggest lies Fox News spread about Covid19. I don’t see how they cannot be held responsible for the deaths of the gullible they prey upon. There have been 3,787 deaths in Utah since March 2020 from the Corona Virus and around 840,000 in the United States alone. Utah lost more than 2,200 lives to COVID-19 in 2021 with vaccines available and 1,569 last year when there wasn’t any.

5 March Laura Ingraham has repeatedly suggested that the horse de-wormer ivermectin is a great drug for treating people who get covid-19. ““You never hear Fauci talk about that, or D3 or ivermectin, because they haven’t even given emergency use authorization for ivermectin—haven’t even put out anything about that. They’re way behind all these other countries,”

9 March 2021 Martha MacCallum made the claim that masks probably weren’t helping in the ways being promoted by the U.S. government. “Yeah, I always think we’re going to look back at these studies and wonder about the true effectiveness of masks and whether or not they really did make a difference.”

17 March 2021 Tucker Carlson claimed migrants were spreading Covid-19 worse than the U.S. born population “Illegal aliens are now exempt from the public health measures that have been imposed by force on the rest of us by the U.S. government. Illegal aliens come and go as they please. No one seems to care if they spread deadly viruses to the rest of the American population. It’s hard to believe that’s actually happening, but it is happening.”

 

5 May 2021 Tucker Carlson claimed the U.S. government is hiding deaths from the covid-19 vaccine. “Between late December of 2020 and last month, a total of 3,362 people apparently died after getting the covid vaccine in the United States—3,362,” Carlson said. “That’s an average of roughly 30 people every day.”

26 May 2021 Harris Faulkner asked Pat Brosnan his take on the mass shooting in San Jose,  California. He claimed shooter was probably vaccinated. “This is a time that I wish I was wrong with my prediction, which I mention to anybody who would listen, that once covid starts to lift, these cowardly shooters will come out exactly in tandem with the number of vaccinations. You can be sure they probably got vaccinated, they were just scared to come out. And they’re coming back. And you see the numbers don’t lie, shootings are up dramatically, skyrocketing actually on active shootings in the United States.”

7 July 2021 Peter McCullough on Laura Ingraham’s show that people under the age of 30 shouldn’t be vaccinated. “Overall, the equation is very unfavorable for vaccination of anyone below age 30. Unless we really have a compelling case, no one under age 30 should receive any one of these vaccines.”

20 September 2021 Scott Atlas appeared on Laura Ingraham’s show to spread misinformation and fear about the vaccine being dangerous to children. “All they did was they demonstrated that if you inject an experimental drug into a child, you will be able to measure antibodies on a blood test. That’s not what vaccines are for. Vaccines are for protecting against serious illness.”

8 December 2021 Tucker Carlson’s claimed that covid-19 was making men more feminine. Carlson asked Nigel Farage, a far-right figure from the UK, “So somebody who knows him told me, and I’d be interested in getting your take on this, that getting covid emasculated him, it changed him, it feminized him, it weakened him as a man.” Carlson then said, “But the virus itself, this is true, does tend to take away the life force in some people I notice. I mean it does feminize people. No one ever says that but it’s true,” Carlson insisted.