Summer 3rd Quarter Journal 2018 July-September

 

JULY

1 July 2018 Sunday

Went down to see Kyle this morning. He wants me to check out requirements for on line course for Construction management at Weber State, SLCC, and UVU. I said I would. He also wants me to check out Harmon’s grocery pick-up since his boss said that I could order snacks for him and they could swing by to pick it up. I said I would look into it. Afterwards went out to Daybreak and Had a nice visit with TJ and Jim this afternoon... we had brunch of egg sausage casserole and pancakes and I brought out to them squash and tomatoes from the garden as well as mint, basil, and thyme... and also some banana nut bread... such a pretty day this first of July. On the way home I stopped at Antojitos Dona Julia this Mexican café place by the house to see what it was like and ordered some enchiladas. The place was very Mexican with a limited menu all in Spanish. It was probably very authentic but I didn’t like it. Well now I know. I watched Big Brother tonight and then Handmaid on Hulu.

·         T.J. Otaka Thanks for dropping by. It was fun. Herbs and veggies are super-fresh and I am addicted to the aroma of mint especially. We will be happy for a while with them and your banana nut bread. Thanks again. Hope Buddy is eating OK this evening.

·         Benedgar Williams Buddy is eating like a champ... two Cesar dog packets and a little chicken... I have to guard him because the others are used to pushing aside to eat from his bowl...

 

2 July 2018 Monday

Working in the garden this morning, weeding and watering, then I decided to move my fence around the garden to expand it...too late this season to plant much more I think but going to have a larger garden next year or at least not so crowded... it got too hot to do much more so will till it later when its cooler. I wanted enchiladas yesterday so went to a Mexican Cafe Antojito Dona Julia ... never go to an authentic Mexican joint that uses mole instead of enchiladas sauce if you want just a good cheesy enchilada... so Michael and I went to our standby Chubby’s for lunch. They have good enchiladas for gringos like me. Afterwards I went to the library, turned in the books I read and checked out 3 more mysteries. Two more Agatha Christies and another Stephanie Plum. I spent the rest of the entire day reading Janet Evanovich’s 22^nd Novel and finished it before going to bed. Some fireworks was going off so I slept with most of the pups even Harleigh who draped himself across me panting nervously. Even TJ was trembling so I had to hold him too. I had Buddy up on the bed also but he didn’t care about the fireworks. Mike and I are going for a drive up to Kamas tomorrow and Wednesday Bill and I will go for a drive some place. Haven’t decided where. Rich is coming home tomorrow but isn’t picking his pups up until July 4^th. People are already setting off fireworks. Ugh

 

3 July 2018 Tuesday

Took a drive with Michael up the canyon to Mirror Lake because he wanted to look at Camp Grounds... We drove up I-84 then over to Kamas and then up the Mirror Lake Highway. Coco went with us. We were surprised how empty the camping spots  were probably because the 4^th is in the middle of the week. There were Lots of wild flowers still blooming and it was good to get out of the city even for a few hours. We went to camp grounds down along the Soapstone Creek just about 2 miles from here. I held my Beyond Stonewall Retreat at Camp Rogers in the late 1980s One of the reasons I love Utah just about an hour outside the city you are another world. At home read mostly from my Stephanie Plum novel. Fireworks were loud and very explosive like. Harleigh even slept with me and little TJ just had the shakes.

 

4 July 2018 Wednesday

Did the Democrat Civil War start without me? Alex Jones said it was to start today! Did I oversleep and missed it? Watered some this morning and it looks like I am going to have a bumper crops of grapes... the birds love them... me not so much... the vine is 21 years old and is up in the trees and over into the Hall’s yard. Rich Butler came over at 9 this morning to pick up Sophie and Miley. They were ecstatic to see their day after nearly a month being gone. He didn’t stay long because I had asked Bill Poore if he wanted to go for a ride to get out of the city and he did so I decided to go to Huntsville because I hadn’t been there in probably over 20 years and then I only went to the Monastery there for honey which is now closed. I picked him up at 10:30 and had a nice drive-up Weber Canyon and then over to Huntsville. But when we got there who knew that 4th of July in Huntsville was a thing? I certainly didn’t. There must have been 25,000 people or more there and the traffic was crazy. Bill said he was wanting vender food so we stopped at the festival park that was super crowded lots of young white families. The young men were so good looking I thought Bill would go crazy lusting after them. All he could talk about was wanting to live in these small rural communities were all the young guys have nothing to do but have sex. Bill couldn’t walk because of a sore on his foot so we left Huntsville and drove through Ogden Canyon. We stopped at Warrens drive-in for lunch and hot French Dip sandwiches although I think Bill would have rather gone to a café and had a hot roast beef sandwich but I didn’t know Ogden well enough to find a place that served what he wanted. Bill was so funny  every Podunk town we went through he kept saying I could live here... I just rolled my eyes and said yeah right you’d be arrested in a heartbeat... Seems strange to be only feeding six pups this evening instead of eight like I've forgotten someone... I gave them rotisserie chicken since didn't feel like heating up the house... Buster is eating by himself in the bedroom and TJ isn't eating at all... nervous still I think... maybe later. Fireworks like crazy tonight. The Mayor of Provo had to ask the Mormon dominated population to be on "good behavior" because the Gay and Trans groups were in the "Freedom" Festival

Times are a-changing even in Utah County. Encircle: LGBT+ Family & Youth Resource Center and other Gay groups marched in America’s Freedom Festival parade in Provo UT this morning. Last year parade officials reversed & barred Encircle from the parade just hours before it started. Not this year (thanks to some courageous individuals). Interesting crowd reaction.

 

 

5 July 2018 Thursday

I took Harleigh in to the Spay and Neuter Clinic in Murray to have his teeth cleaned this morning and boy were they busy. I picked him up at four ...the old boy had 14 extractions and a growth on one of them removed...blood work looked good but they suggest he come back in 6 months... he's woozy right now.... It was $300. I wrote my Lambda Lore column for August this morning while Harleigh was at the clinic. I wrote it on William McCleery a Salt Lake City transwoman from the early party of the 20^th century, so that is out of the way...it was a 100 today and probably that tomorrow. Feeling so butch... I dug up a buried broken sprinkler head in the front yard and bought $2.50 worth of parts and fixed it myself instead of calling someone and paying them $35 an hour... but back to gardening...my summer squash is coming in like gang busters. Scott Pruitt the bastard head of the EPA resigned today. He was one of the most corrupt official in a very Corrupt administration. Seven GOP Senators went to Russia on the 4^th of July to meet with officials there. Last December, two Republicans canceled a planned trip to Russia after Moscow denied a visa to Democratic Sen. Jeanne Shaheen (N.H.), an outspoken critic of Russia. This time, only Republicans were in attendance, including Sen. John Thune (S.D.), the third-ranking Republican in the Senate. The fact that the American delegation was not bipartisan was not lost on the Russians. Republican collaborators. One Senator from Montana even lied about it and posted a picture of him attending a 4^th of July celebration here when pictures showed him in Russia. Crooked Donald wants to have a secret meeting with Vladimir Putin with no notes nor others attending. So the White Nationalist Party formerly known as the GOP met in Russia on the 4th of July and then lying about it. How much more can we stand? So many trashy white women and men going off on racist rants that have captured on Facebook and they are losing their jobs over it too. Great.

 

6 July 2018 Friday

The air smells of smoke and the valley is hazy from the fire about 100 miles east of SLC... and I guess some local fires. it's going to be over 100 degrees today... I pity people with respiratory issues... I cooked up some Fried okra with summer squash, black eye peas with bacon, buttered corn bread and sweet tea for lunch... better than a Barbeque at Twelve Oaks. Read a lot from Murder on the Orient Express. Didn’t do much else. Its summer time.

 

7 July 2018 Saturday

Only in the mid-nineties today but hot enough. Never leave you buttered corn bread unattended with TJ around. Sometimes I think he only wants to be in my lap to get closer to my food.. I had corn bread, watermelon, and iced tea for my breakfast... I hope my friends and neighbors like summer squash... I am picking a bunch everyday... gave a bunch to my Mormon neighbors behind me... I know Mormons like their squash. I tried giving some to my Mexican neighbors but they wouldn’t come to the door. Maybe they are afraid. Mowed the front yard and parking strips his morning, weeded and watered before it gets to hot... Did my yard work for two hours.. the one sprinkler I fixed all by myself seems to be working ... this is what the yard looks like in the heat of summer.... I planted a yard so I would have colors spring, summer, and fall... this is my yard in the heat of summer... I tried to plant for all seasons. My side yard is bigger than some people's whole yard... it's July and hot but my summer flowers and shrubs look colorful and lush ... I definitely do not have an English Garden mine is more untamed lol. Went and bought two more tomato plants because the ones I bought seem to mainly be like cherry tomatoes. They probably were misnamed. They won’t mature until Late August or September but should get some from them. I finished reading Murder on the Orient Express and need to get some more summer reading. I’ve read two Janet Evanovich books and three Agatha Christies. I watched another episode of the Hand Maid Tale and before going to bed watched the 1968 Planet of the Apes. I hadn’t watched it in years. It was one of the first movies I ever saw which had male nudity in it and then of course it’s a sentimental favorite because it’s the first movie I ever saw with John Cunningham so many years ago. Teinamarrie Nelson Scuderi asked me for some historical information on the Trapp as she is giving a presentation on it Tuesday. So I spent an hour of so going through my files to give her what I had.

 

8 July 2018 Sunday

Winds are really gusty over here by the airport tonight... We had a bit of  a summer shower that cooled things off. In the afternoon I went down to Draper to visit with Kyle. Nothing really new to talk about. We mainly talked about Big Brother…I did go over to the main prison and applied for a new visitor application. I didn’t have my social security card with me so I have to take care of that. I saw a new copy of the dress code that said one could wear sandals and shorts as long as they went to the knees. The first time I went to see Kyle in Gunnison I was turned away because I was wearing shorts.

 

9 July 2018 Monday

Two hours out in the backyard, tilling up some more land, replanting, and mowing the grass. The robins are out seeking supper in the newly over turned soil. I saw a red headed woodpecker yesterday in my trees. For 28 years I planted students in the fall and harvested them in the Spring... now I am a retired hippie gardener planting in the Spring and harvesting in the fall... actually my squash and tomatoes are coming in now but my pumpkins will be in the fall. I thought about going to buy another fruit tree... the one I bought last Spring I don't think is going to make it... maybe a peach tree... my garden is taking off... bees buzzing around the Sunflowers that are just about to bloom... I doubled the size of my garden plot this morning ... it’s 40 feet by 16 feet now. I just like watching things grow... So I went out and bought a nectarine tree and 5 new veggie plants... most this stuff is on sale now because it's mid-summer... I bought 3 tomato plants, a bell pepper, another zucchini, 2 cucumbers, and some red basil. I also replanted a red bell pepper plant and a squash that were getting a lot of water from the sprinkler... I prefer nectarines to peaches for eating off the tree when ripe and not hard like in the stores... it's 90 degrees out and I am sweating like a nun in a cucumber patch... I followed a recipe to make granola bars and they crumbled into simply granola... they were really tasty so I had some with milk ... my new stomach does not tolerate any type of cereal anymore and I had the dreaded dumping syndrome that you can get with bariatric surgery... yes it's as bad as it sounds... I think I can't tolerate milk anymore... my mom was lactose intolerant all her life... it's a price I pay to not have diabetes. I gave them to Michael Romero. Harleigh has perked up since the dental work... Sad news Tab Hunter passed away three days shy of his 87th birthday. I always had a mad crush on him. RIP

10 July 2018 Tuesday

Busy morning... watering my garden, then loaded up my lawn mower to go mow Michael Romero's grass because he's not feeling well, then made an appointment to get Buddy groomed at the Dog Park, then bought dog food at Smith's and now making oatmeal cookies, Jell-O, and potato salad... Buddy really needs grooming so that he can feel better... if his time is short at least he will be comfortable and not so shaggy...I need an intervention... bored so I made batches of raisin coconut almond oatmeal cookies and chocolate chip walnut cookies... hard boiled eggs for sandwiches... I think I will go finish my Agatha Christy mystery and get away from the kitchen. Ever just want an oatmeal cookie but you can't make just one ... so it's either making dozens or not having a cookie... I wanted a cookie... funny I can eat an oatmeal cookie but granola tears my system up...Unexpected and welcomed shower this evening... it's been so dry.. All 12 Thai boys and their soccer coach trapped for more than two weeks deep inside a flood Thai cave have been rescued. A Thai Navy Seal died being a hero... Now if we can rescue all the children in American cages that trumps evil Nazi Stephen Miller masterminded that would be something. Salary needed to afford a home: $83,720 in Utah ...Median household income: $65,977... this is why there's a boom in building rentals... Life in a red state... a matter of haves and have nots

 

11 July 2018 Wednesday

My Summer squash is producing so much and some weird looking tomatoes are starting to ripen... I bought them as heirloom tomatoes not knowing what to expect... I brought some down to the Gay Men's Sack Lunch at the Utah Pride Center today to see if any of the old boys there want any... Good soaking rain last night... I am glad I put out cow manure over my plants before the shower hit...This morning I was replanting irises and marjoram in the front yard when this nice lady was out walking her dog Scout... we got to talking and she said she loved my yard so I gave her some Russian Sage starts and some summer squash... she's lived in my neighborhood 20 years and I just met her... children and dogs are ice breakers... she also said she was the same political persuasion as me... lol so there's at least 2 Democrats. I am cleaning up my over grown herb garden. Summertime and the living is easy.. really humid out... monsoon weather... hope we can get a bit of rain. On my back deck my yellow roses I planted yellow to remind me of my Texas roots are really blooming... my grandma Johnson loved her roses. I went and bought a peach tree before heading down to the Men's Sack Lunch...it was really Good to see Richard Harmston and Charles Bigo again back from their vacation...brought oatmeal cookies and chocolate chip cookies and squash to give away... I enjoy visiting with this group of guys... when I came home I planted my peach tree and blackberry bush.... my ground is pure clay down more than 7 inches and is like a brick...you have to water it to dig and it becomes mud... had to put organic material and manure so it breaks up the clay some... I may have to buy some gypsum...

 

12 July 2018 Thursday

Took Buddy in to be groomed at the Dog Park this morning... I know he will feel better getting the shaggy mess off of him... probably will be his last grooming but he will be styling whenever it's his time... how thin he's gotten... I Went out to lunch with Bill Poore to the New Golden Dragon and on the way  a cop pulled me over for changing lanes without signaling... he took one look at Bill and I and saw just a couple of old dudes and just gave me a warning. Mike joined us for lunch and I ordered Pork Chow Mein but it wasn’t very good and even Mike said his Orange Chicken was not as good as before so we are going to give the place a rest. Coming home I saw a box spring mattress propped up that was spray painted "Free box spring... no stains, no bed bugs... only one death"... I had to bust out laughing

·         Bill Poore anyone that has ever driven with Ben knows that it is a miracle that he doesn't get a ticket every time he pulls out of his driveway....driving on the freeway with him is a near death experience. He did bring me banana nut bread and oatmeal cookies however which is why I endure driving with him.

 

13 July 2018 Friday

I hate it when I hear the trash truck come by and realize I’ve forgotten to put the container by the curb. fortunately, my plant refuse truck comes before the trash and recycling... too hot to do any more yard work so will finish reading Agatha Christies Lord Edgware Dies. Really didn’t do much of anything today except read. Fascist Trump is in the U.K. making an ass of himself while here the justice department announce the indictment of 12 Russian intelligent officers for hacking the 2016 election.

 

14 July 2018 Saturday

It was a gloomy humid misty warm day today. Reminded me of Boston. It was dark outside this morning due to the overcast skies. I fixed some biscuits and gravy with a piece of bacon and one fried egg which I ended up giving almost all to the dogs, which I was glad I did because I ended up going out with Michael Romero to breakfast. Yesterday I had asked if he wanted to go to the Farmers Market at 10 this morning but he didn’t hear me right. He’s getting to be more and more deaf. Anyway he surprised me and was over at 8 a.m. so we drove down to Murray Park only to find that Farmers Market doesn’t begin until August. I could swear they started last year in middle of July. Oh well since we were out that way we went to Mimi’s for breakfast even though neither of us was very hungry. I had a coffee and a carrot raisin muffin but only ate half of it. Michael had a cinnamon roll and we both had a fruit bowl mostly just pineapple and strawberries. The tab came to $20… way too much for what we had but I bought breakfast and left a $5 tip because the waitress was so sweet. Back at the house before heading home Mike put together the electric edger I bought through Amazon so I decided to work on edging the front parking strip. The clover was so bad that I ended up hand edging the whole thing before going over it with the edger. Besides mowing the front and side parking strips I was exhausted. It tried to sprinkle because the air was so humid but didn’t get any real rain. I went to the library and turned in the two Agatha Christie books and checked out 3 more mysteries only one being a Christie book. It was Murder in the Vicarage, which was her first Miss Marple story. I read that for the rest of the day

 

15 July 2018 Sunday

I was tired a lot today so didn’t do much at all but finish reading Murder in the Vicarage and started a new book Shirley Jackson’s We have always Lived in the Castle. Not sure if I am going to like this one. I didn’t feel up to driving down to Draper to see Kyle as that I didn’t have a whole lot to tell him and visiting hour was between 6:30 and 8 pm and he would have missed Big Brother at 7 with no way to catch up. At least that was a good excuse not to go. I made some pinto beans and corn bread for supper and the chicken I bought for the pup’s supper went mostly uneaten. I gave Buddy some wet food because he can’t afford not to eat because he’s so thin. My top right tooth began throbbing this evening and just became worse and worse. I took some Tylenol but it didn’t do much so finally I took a half of a pain pill narcotic that I had from when I had my tooth pulled. I may have to go see the dentist again. Ugh.

 

16 July 2018 Monday

I managed to get in to see my Centerville Dentist and the X rays didn’t show anything disconcerting but did go ahead and had a cleaning and deep irrigation while there. I am getting some antibiotics just in case. I also made an appointment to get my breaks done at Lancer’s tomorrow at 9. They never have been done and I know they need it. This morning I also baked two banana bread loaves to use up the bananas that went ripe really fast. Another kind of muggy day from the monsoon weather but no rain so far. I went to Smith’s and picked up a prescription for some anti-biotics that the Dentist prescribed for me but I really don’t think I needed them so I gave them to Michael Romero to help with his urinary tract infection since he doesn’t have any insurance. All in the news is Trump’s meeting with Putin where he said he believed Putin more than our own intelligence agencies. Even some commentator on Fox News is aghast. Facebook is lit up with comments about Trump committing Treason by giving aid to our enemy.

 

17 July 2018 Tuesday

I slept a little better without such a throbbing toothache. I took the Cruiser down to Lancer to have the brakes worked on and had it inspected and registered. Mike picked me up and took me home. I decided to work on the Sprinklers this morning. I got the one on the parking strip adjusted and went to work on the garden drip line but it’s going to take more effort than I want to put in this morning. In the afternoon I made several trips to Sutherlands to get the parts I needed to change out the drip line that Troy Hunter put in last year in my garden. I wanted a half sprinkler on a riser and lo and behold I did it. I also cleaned up all the fallen branches, twigs, and leaves on the north west side of the deck. That was hot and dirty work. I made two loaves of chocolate chip  Zucchini Bread this afternoon. So it was a busy summer day. Alan Anderson asked if I would go see Church and State at the Broadway Theater with him. It was a documentary on how Marriage Equality came to Utah spurred on by Mark Lawrence.... it was good... nothing I didn't already know but there was a good contingent of gay men in the audience for movie night.

 

18 July 2018 Wednesday

It was good to see friends at the Gay Men Sack Lunch at the Pride Center. I brought a lot of squash, herbs, and banana nut bread to hand out... I gave Robert Moolman a half a loaf of bread. I gave the rest to the receptionist when we were done... someone asked if the bread was vegan and I said no but the squash is. LOL. My tooth was hurting a lot again today. I think the gum is infected more than the tooth. The pups aren’t eating their chicken breast I baked for their supper. Either the weather is too warm or they are tired of chicken. I went to the library and turned in my books and checked out another Agatha Christies.’

 

19 July 2018 Thursday

I went down to First Med Urgency Care at 7 am because my jaw was still hurting. I was able to get right in and I guess I do have a major sinus infection. I got a prescription for some strong antibiotics that I have to take for 10 days. I had a prescription written instead of called in because I just had anti-biotics filled at Smith’s on Monday. I thought the pain would go away but hadn't. I went to the Lucky’s pharmacy to fill my prescription but since  the insurance just paid for some anti-biotics on Monday they wouldn’t again so I paid full price of $42 for Doxycycline Monohydrate. I hadn't been sleeping because of the throbbing pain in my jaw so Just been staying close to home and spending time with Buddy. He's declining quickly. These anti biotics are really strong and are giving me diarrhea but I guess that is preferable to the throbbing pain in my jaw. I am just so tired. Reading A Mirror Cracked Side to Side.

 

20 July 2018 Friday

Just read and slept most of the day. Too tired to do much else but what I have to do. I did pick a bunch of summer squash before they got too large but didn’t know what to do with them so gave them to the Hall’s behind me. No one was home, so just left them on their front porch.

 

21 July 2018 Saturday

Still not feeling well but the anti-biotics are doing their thing though. I didn’t notice that Kyle’s visiting time was at 9:30 until I checked at 9 o’clock and I knew it was too late to get ready and go down there. Depending on traffic it takes a good 20 to 30 minutes just to get to the prison and then at least 15 to 20 minutes getting checked in. So while disappointed I decided just to go tomorrow if I feel up to it even if its early at 7:45.I had enough energy to finally sweep, mop, and vacuum the house which I hadn’t in a while. I went to the library in the afternoon and checked out three new books but none by Agatha Christie because I had read all that they had at the Riverside Day Library by my house. I started some bread dough this morning and instead of just letting it rise on itself I kneaded it several times and it came out soft and tasty. Homemade bread with butter and honey for supper tonight. Harleigh is sound asleep draped across my belly... we are both content. All six of my pups are on the bed keeping me company since they know I am not feeling up to snuff... the antibiotics are working but take a toll on my energy and my little bitty stomach... I am reading The Lost Plot... a fantasy book so far so good. The author is Genevieve Cogman and the book is part of an Invisible Library series about guardians of books and libraries in alternative worlds... I like fantasy and this one is interesting between the neutral librarians and the warring Dragons and the Faes both who take human forms ... also vampires and similar worlds in different forms...

 

22 July 2018 Sunday

I woke up about 5:30 to put a pot roast in the crock pot and to get ready to go down to Draper. Visiting hours were 7:45 to 9:15. First time I ever went that early. I was the only one visiting until some woman came later. I asked the guard about my application for visiting and he said I was good until 11 August 2019 so it must have went through even without showing my social security number. It was rather quiet with just two inmates in the visiting room. It was nice I must say. Kyle told how he accidently broke out one of the windows leading to the waiting room when a rock from his lawn mower hit it. The guard had told me that he was glad because it needed replacing anyway ha. I told him that I had been ill with a sinus infection and that is why I wasn’t down last weekend. He said he is sending me $100 to put away for college as that is how much more he’s making a paycheck with his pay increase. Not a whole lot to discuss but caught him up on all the antics of Big Brother this season. I think he was happy to see me and wasn’t expecting it. I came back home and did some prep work in the kitchen. Had Bill Poore and Mike Romero over for Sunday dinner, English Pea Salad, candied carrots, creamed squash, mashed potatoes, brown gravy, and pot roast. I had homemade bread from last night... didn't make desert though just had a Marie Callendar Lemon Meringue pie. Bill brought me over some potted yellow mums. He knows yellow is my favorite color. I gave them both a lot of food to take home and some packages of white boxer shorts that I had ordered from Amazon. I got some six packages that contained 3 each. I had given one package to Michael on Friday and he said they were comfortable so that is why I gave him more. After they left about 3 I cleaned up a little and for the pup’s supper I fixed hamburger, beans, and rice together as something different from Chicken of which I think they were getting tired. The rest of the evening watched Big Brother and read some more from my fantasy book the Plot until I couldn’t keep my eyes open. Harleigh was up on the bed again because he heard some fireworks.

·         Jon Michael One of these days, will you share with me the recipe for English Pea salad?

·         Benedgar Williams Simple.. can of sweet peas drained, a half a block of cheddar cheese cubed, a half a head of lettuce chopped, and enough mayonnaise just to combine it all... I like a bit of chopped red bell pepper in mine for color. My mom used pimentos.

·         Bill Poore Jon Michael that salad is for sure my favorite. I love it. Bill Poore such a great way to spend a Sunday afternoon, great food, great friends, and pups everywhere...so cute. I also brought home a entire meal for later, plus pie...yum yum. Thanks Ben.

 

23 July 2018 Monday

Surprisingly cooler this morning when I got up... only 65 degrees... some fireworks went off last night so pups were all huddled in bed with me... will be worse tonight and tomorrow. Before it did get hot I worked in the front yard, mowing, edging, cleaning the gutters and generally tidying up the yard. I moved a planter box from the backyard to the front yard where the grass just doesn’t want to thrive. Must be bad soil so I will not fight it anymore and will grow flowers or vegetables. When I was finishing up a man from Dominion Gas company came by and said they were doing a free check on homes in the 84116 area for energy efficiency so I agreed although the pups were not happy being outside for about an hour. The insulation in my attic was well over what was required by code so it was good. However they sealed up some leaks in the basement sealing that is supposed to make the house 17 percent more efficient. The rest of the day I finished reading the Plot and started one of my other books Mr. Flood’s Last Resort by British author Jess Kidd. Too early for me to decide whether I will like it or not.

 

24 July 2018 Tuesday

Made some ginger molasses cookies this morning before it heated up... today is a Utah State Holiday to celebrate the Mormons being run out of the United States and fleeing to Mexico as refugees to avoid violence in their home country... well Mormons wouldn't exactly put it that way but essentially that is what happened... however the Mormons were no angels back in the states either trying to set up a theocratic kingdom on the banks of the Mississippi...Anyway Happy July 24th all you descendants of illegal immigrants. Ever have to write up or condense something and your mind doesn't want to focus and your will power just wants to nap? Ugh so here's to forcing myself to organize my thoughts and facts on the year 1987 for my history lecture that's a week from tomorrow... I finally decided to just talk about AIDS and the Community Council of Utah and maybe split the year in two like I did 1986. I made the pups hamburger with egg noodles .... I told them it was beef stroganoff... they will never know the difference... me I am having sweeten mint tea with a slice of Lemon Meringue Pie... after all its Pie and Beer Day... maybe I should have had root beer... nah... it's 98 degrees. Buddy ate all of his supper and finished off what the rest left...but he's so thin so I wonder how much nutrients his body is absorbing... but he's eating and taking an interest in life around him so who knows ... I was worried he would be gone by now but he's not ready to leave quite yet...tumor or no tumor...I had a voice mail notice on my phone that some Ritz Crackers I bought are being recalled because they might contain salmonella... First why is there so much salmonella in our food lately And second how the hell did they get my phone number? Anyway Trump is threatening Iran again as a diversion tactic as that his personal lawyer had taped his conversations about trying to cover up his extra marital affairs with hookers and one of the tapes was released and he’s trying to bribe Midwest farmers with a $12 billion bailout after his trade war with China is really hurting them. Oh well they hated Hillary.

 

25 July 2018 Wednesday

Kind of lethargic today after a fitful night with the pups up and down due to the fireworks although they weren’t as bad as in some years past. Probably because it was in the middle of a work week. It’s another hot one today. The idiots up in Farmington let their water run all night and depleted the Farmington Reservoir. Got to have the greenest lawn in the neighborhood. I pulled up most of my grass and have drought resistant plants and shrubs. My vegetable garden probably uses the most water and it’s on a timer. I had cooked squash for my lunch today. I didn’t go to the Gay Men’s Sack Lunch because the center was closed today for a retreat of some type.

 

26 July 2018 Thursday

Took some books I finished back to the library and I think that is about all I did today. Dull hot days of summer. Oh I did watch Big Brother to see who was getting evicted,

 

27 July 2018 Friday

Mowed the backyard today and did a little weeding. My vegetable garden is over ran with yellow squash but not much else… no tomatoes, peppers, cucumbers. The corn looks like it might be doing something because they are tall enough. My pumpkin patch is thriving too. I put another planter box in the front yard where some grass has turn yellow and brown and I am tired of fighting it so if water is going to hit it I might as well have flowers or vegetables for next year I suppose. The pups are having ground beef, chopped pork roast and rice... I am having fried okra, buttered squash, and a hamburger patty... I copied my 2015 Journal that I found on my Lap Top and sent it in pieces by email to my desk computer. There was no other way to copy it but at least I found it.

 

28 July 2018 Saturday

I worked this morning recovering my Journal from 2015 that I thought I had lost but was on my laptop. It was really warm today about 100 degrees. Mike and I went to Chubby’s for lunch and I ordered a cheese enchilada and chili relleno but only ate a few bites out of it and took the rest home. My stomach was kind of bloated today. The rest of the afternoon I rested and then fixed the pups roasted chicken breasts and noodles but the little turkeys just turned their noses up. I didn’t have time to fuss with them because Mike came over at 6:15 and Alan Anderson and Kyle Daniels came over at 6:30 to go out to see Viva La Diva show. We went early because we had no idea how the parking would be and my tickets were on my cell phone so I wasn’t sure how that worked. Kyle had just returned at 4 from Las Vegas where he had been a week. He said it was 120 degrees down there. The show didn’t start until 8 pm so we were an hour early and we had really good seats even if kind of too near the speakers. However the show was really fun and especially Jason CoZmo and it was fun to see people have a good time in the audience. Matt Landis and his boyfriend was there as well as Megan Risbon and Matthew Lyons. The show lasted until 11:00 so it was nearly 11:30 when I got dropped off and notice the pups still hadn’t eaten. Oh well they are not starving. There was a lot going on in the city. Shania Twain was at the Delta Center and the second Love Loud Festival, a celebration of LGBT youths, was held at the Rice Eccles stadium I guess with over 30,000 attending. By official decree of Utah Gov. Gary Herbert, declared July 28^th Love Loud Day in Utah.

 

29 July 2018 Sunday

I went down to Draper to see Kyle this morning during his visiting hours from 9:30 to 11:00. A lot more people than last time. Even Craig Crawford had his two visitors although it wasn’t so crowded we had to sit together this time. Not a whole lot of news just wanted to chit chat. He’s working leaning how to pour concrete. He also reminded me that I need to look up requirements for a construction builders certificate program. I was rather tired from getting to bed so late last night around midnight and TJ was really antsy for some reason. May be the bright moon. I went to Target on the way home and bought some dog treats for the pups who didn’t eat any of their supper yesterday, and I bought a covered butter dish and a few treats for me. I also had to get some gas and it was $3.05 at the Smiths I usually go to. Then at home just rested, tried to take a nap, and fixed the pups hamburger, barley, and peas and carrots

 

30 July 2018 Monday

Miserable sleep… I woke up at 4 am with a throbbing pain in my jaw from a tooth ache again. I just don’t know what it can be. I’ve taken anti-biotics and I went in a few weeks ago to the Dentist and she could not see anything wrong with my teeth but something must be wrong for it to hurt so much. I ended up taken half of a pain pill which didn’t really do that much good but was able to sleep some until the morning but not restful in the least. On top on that the thumb on my left hand has decided to give me fits and its very painful too every time I move it. It’s a bit swollen so not sure what that is all about either but man does it hurt. I was tired and cranky most of the day from the dull throbbing achiness but I managed to crank out my 10-page report for this Wednesday history lecture. I can barely use my left hand because it throbs just slightly moving my thumb. Could be worse it could have been my right hand. I was just tired for most of the day. In the mail Kyle’s letter with $100 in it came today so I will put that away for his tuition costs when he goes back to school. I have no idea what the pups want to eat anymore. Must be the heat that is making them finicky. Before going to bed I took a half a pain pill and hope that it will do me some good. I know I am old and will be dead in about 10 years or sooner but I just don't get it. In the news some Trans person felt offended at the Love loud Concert by being told that she was in the wrong bathroom, after she had done her business and was washing her hands. Even though there were Gender Inclusive bathrooms there and it was a volunteer who confronted her. But she was so offended she had to tell everyone she knew so that her story overshadowed the $1 million raised at the concert for LGBT youth. The story has tarnished the good done. Several LGBT groups even pulled their booths keeping thousands from hearing their message about the other LGB's. Of course the narrative always has to be about the Trans these days. Even the student Gay Straight Alliance has changed the GSA to stand for Gender Sexual Alliance... as if the GSA had anything to do with Gender or Sex. My last rant Anyone who renamed themselves Bobbee Trans Mooremon no matter how nice she must be probably likes the attention.

 

31 July 2018 Tuesday

Well I've gotten my lecture done for tomorrow even with a swollen left thumb and a toothache from hell... Well no one said growing old was supposed to be easy... Just push through the pain until the next one... I like going to Gay Men's Sack Lunch group because its mostly older guys and we talk about our ailments that we didn't know we were going to have when we were young and feisty men. We are still feisty just not so young. Later I went to the vet to refill Buddy's prescription... he's such a super trooper that he's out lasted his pain pills... he is thin as a rail but he barks, he goes for rides, and he's a chow hound... and yes he sleeps a lot but grateful he still wants to be with us ... This Lammas Eve I am harvesting bushels of squash and some little tomatoes but that's all so far... I know it's too late to plant but I planted a bunch of herbs I bought at Sutherlands for $1.50 in the new planter I put in the front yard... Lammas is such a forgotten holiday... it's a cross quarter day to celebrate the first harvest and we are half way between Summer and Fall. My Lammas front yard is full of summer flowers... Everything in its own season... Corn and Grain Corn and Grain All that falls shall rise again. My 20-year-old grape vine in the backyard has grown up into my silver poplar tree and the weight of the grapes snapped a limb so the grapes hang almost to the ground...they aren't very good eating nor make very good juice but the birds love them so they flock to my yard

August

 

1 August 2018 Wednesday

All the back-to-school sales are making me have classroom dreams again and I have been retired now 3 years. Got the front yard mowed and blowed before it got too hot and then made a batch of Snickerdoodle dough to bake for tonight's History meeting. I then ran down to Kinkos and had 15 copies made to hand out tonight. I'm just a busy boy. I didn’t make it to the Gay Men's noon sack lunch today... maybe next week. After getting the copies ran off at Kinkos, I went and a had a haircut and beard trim, then I baked more than 3 doz. Snickerdoodles for tonight...There was a mix up at the center that somehow  the history society wasn't on the calendar...fortunately the receptionist stayed so we could hold our meeting... We had 25 people show up, which was a great turn out for our meeting tonight on the growing pains of community building and AIDS in 1987... There were at least 3 new people. The Pride Center is a perfect place to share our history... of course my regulars, Courtney Moser, Richard Harmston, Charles Bigo, TJ Otaka, and Jim McMullin were there. I hope people enjoyed the snickerdoodle cookies too They must have because none were left. I had brought a lot of squash too and people took some home also.. After the meeting stayed and talked awhile with Willie Marshall and this kid something Jensen. He wanted some ideas about organizing something about all the attacks in the community lately. I will post the talk and chronology from tonight on this page tomorrow. Is there any doubt to any reasonable logical person that a flimflam con artist is in the executive office? This menace is threatening to shut down the government if the Democrats don't agree to fund $25 billion to build the wall after the GOP had already put us $1 trillion in the hole with tax cuts to their overlords

·         Robert Moolman Oh my goodness.... so sorry Ben. First... congrats on the new venue and the people following you there. Awesome. Second, apologies again. Third, I wonder what happened. I suspect it fell through the cracks of having the GSA National Conference there this week. We have all been going a touch loopy. Please just send me an email to confirm next six or just one that says, “hey doofus, first Wed of the month is mine, get it on the calendar!” Glad it happened and thanks again for everything you are doing.

·         Benedgar If you put me on the calendar I will bring you zucchini bread... the receptionist said he did set us up for September but would be nice for at least a six-month run like the library does before renewing... besides it's in  the Q Salt Lake so it must be true

 

2 August 2018 Thursday

A very unexpected but welcomed rain this morning...it woke me up and it's been a good drenching... I don't think we had any rain the entire month of July... even though I am now awake the sound is so pleasant and I am sure mother earth is drinking it up

What do you do on a gloomy overcast August day? Make oatmeal cranberry nut cookies of course.... my snickerdoodle went fast at my meeting so I needed something to crunch on this morning... oatmeal cookies are healthy right? I went and picked up Bill Poore to go to lunch at the New Golden Dragon. I ordered cooked pork twice and it was good but I brought most of it home to Michael because just eating the hot and sour soup, an egg roll, and a fried shrimp filled me up. Bill paid me $100 for the month of August so he just owes me $900 more. After dropping Bill off I took a chance and dropped by the Pride Center to see Robert Moolman but he was in meetings with his door close and I didn't want to bother him so  I left a zucchini chocolate chip bread at the receptionist desk for him. Michael Romero needs to borrow $3000 from me to pay back a loan he took out to give to his brother to deal with some of the probate of his folks. I told him we can go to the credit union this Saturday.

·         Robert Moolman-Quick favour request - I am needing a "secret shopper" person to try out our new room booking app. It is on our UPC WEBSITE under the ABOUT / ROOM CALENDAR tab. You will of course not be denied, but I am interested in how you experienced filling out the doc, the response you received and the follow up. I am trying to see how a more rigid process works here. It will also help get your information in the right hands. But I want to know how those UPC hands cuddle and help you that is more important. Rob

·         Will do but I am an old dude and can be technological  challenged

·         Oh my goodness, which makes you even more prefect for this job. And FYI, I asked you before I asked any other older folk from another program as I thought you would be far more likely to breeze through. Smarty pants!

·         I just finished... it seemed self-explanatory but I didn't know what describe audience meant... I tagged the first Wednesday's through January

·         Lol... now that I think of that it does seem like odd question. Probably should change that to “who is target audience.” If we ask “describe audience” I am now imagining some hilarious answers - lovely lesbians or good looking twinks or dull and disinterested.

·         I guess I could have said for describe audience... history nerds lol

·         That would have worked too... the best kind of nerds

3 August 2018 Friday

T.J. Otaka and Jim McMullin came into the city to see Buddy and visit with the pups... Coco was groomed this morning so she looked pretty...TJ made homemade doggie treats that the pups are wild for...we went out to lunch at Chubby’s, the Mexican place we like, and Mike Romero was able to join us. I ordered just one enchilada which was just perfect.. Afterwards back at the house we had a good long visit and when they left I sent squash, tomatoes, oatmeal cookies, and zucchini bread home with them... Bill wrote on his FB page “I had fresh homemade oatmeal cookies and coffee for breakfast....thank you Ben Benedgar Williams (Ben). Yes I dunked the cookies.”

Forty years ago today in 1978 Rachel David tossed her seven children off the 11th Floor balcony at the International Dune Hotel at 206 South West Temple because her polygamist husband Emanuel David had committed suicide on August 1st. Horrified on lookers were helpless. One child survived. I remember that day so well...as does anyone who lived in Salt Lake City and is still living.

 

4 August 2018

The Goring fire that started Friday afternoon by lightening along Interstate 84 in Box Elder County has grown to 15,000 acres. It has filled the valley with a smoky haze that you can even smell. The air quality is really bad and you can't even see across the valley. Mike Romero came over at 9 and we went to my credit union in Bountiful where I transferred $3000 from my savings to Mike’s account. He needed it to pay off a loan he took out to help with his folks probate. I told him not to pay it back until if or when he gets a settlement from the estate… Mikes folks lent us the money for the closing cost to get into this house and although I paid them back I thought I needed to do this in their memory. Today was the opening day of the Murray Farmers Market so Mike and I drove down there but no one had an apricots which is what I kind of wanted but we split between us some corn, tomatoes, peaches, nectarines, and a Green River Watermelon... Bill Poore came over at noon to bring the pups some treats and we had a nice long visit until 3. The smoke in the air is really bothering his breathing and eyes. When he left sent him home with 3 baked chicken thighs and a half a loaf of zucchini bread...I cut it really thin so he will think it's diet slices. In the evening I finally got around to going online and looking up requirements for a Construction Management Degree at UVU, SLCC, and Weber State to send off to Kyle. Ended up the day reading from an Agatha Christie novel, her first that introduce the character Hercule Poirot. I sometimes  get the feeling that we don't live in America anymore? This does not feel in the least bit American... the tirades against a free press, giving bigoted license to discriminate, the attack on immigrants, the barrage of tweets by a childish narcissist in the White House... I don't remember the worse of Nixon, Reagan, and Bush even close to the corruption of this regime and its enablers ...

 

5 August  2018 Sunday

I went down to see Kyle today. The visiting time was from 1-2:30. I mailed off a letter to him before heading down with information on Construction Management from various local colleges. It was really crowded today at all 10 tables. Lots of new folks bringing multiple people with them. I told him that I got his money and that he should be getting a letter this week and to look for it. Since Craig Crawford is the only other Gay person in Kyle’s section, Kyle talked a lot about him and the financial legal rambling between Crawford and John Williams’ family. Kyle only hearing from Craig seems very sympathetic to his plight. The rest of the day I finished reading Agatha Christies first novel and watch the Sunday episode of Big Brother. This new garbage pickup that you have to call the city to get big stuff hauled away is certainly not working in my neighborhood...there's been piles out for over a month and now they say the call to haul is backed up for months... why did they think individual pickups were a better idea then a neighborhood pick up? Seth Anderson's article on the history of conversion therapy was published today in the Washington Post! This is a must-read history for activists seeking to eradicate conversion therapy, and for those seeking to understand how and why such abysmally fraudulent, abusive practices have become part of the national fabric in the United States. Congratulations, Seth!--let's keep shining a light and giving an unrelenting voice to truth. Marilyn Monroe, 1950’s movie star, American sex symbol and Gay icon was found dead in Hollywood, California on this date in 1962. I was only 11 years old but remember it so well. Gay entertainer Elton John wrote a tribute song to her Goodbye Norma Jean in 1973. In the 1950’s she was the American male idea of sexy femininity. She was also the inspiration for Tinkerbell's figure in Peter Pan

 

6 August 2018 Monday

I brought the mower over to Michael's and mowed his place because I knew he wouldn’t and cleaned out some weeds. I then came back home and mowed my front and side yard. I also worked a couple of hours on research that Connell O'Donovan needed on where the Pride Day events were held. I guess he is writing up something for the Pride Center. He already asked if he could use the information I researched on a Transgender from 1910. When I talked to Michael after taking Coco home he wants to go back down to the Farmer’s Market this Saturday. When I came home I baked two loaves of banana bread to use up the bananas I bought last week but didn’t eat...oh yes I finished reading Agatha Christies the Mysterious Affair at Styles last night which was her 'very first mystery...I finally got the pups to eat tonight ... they have been turning their noses up at giblets and liver, chicken thighs, hamburger and barley, and pork roast but I Crock potted a top round steak and then shredded it with cooked rice... that they licked clean their bowl...it's not like they don't have dry out if They were starving... I was too tired to read so I watched Arsenic and Old Lace on Filmstruck. Cary Grant had a mighty fine ass in his prime and I am sure him and Randolph Scott enjoyed it.

 

7 August  2018 Tuesday

Out Week is probably best remembered for sparking the "outing" controversy. This began in Michelangelo Signorile's "Gossip Watch" columns, in which the fiery writer railed against then-closeted public figures like David Geffen and Liz Smith for what he considered their complicity in a culture of silence around AIDS and gay rights. On the death of tycoon Malcolm Forbes in early 1990, Out Week pushed the issue to the limit by publishing a cover story by Signorile titled "The Secret Gay Life of Malcolm Forbes." Since Forbes had been one of the most famous men in America, the story became a media sensation, the term "outing" entered the vocabulary, and a huge controversy erupted within the gay community. Ironically, Out Week outed only a handful of public figures during its existence, mostly in Signorile's column. But its vigorous defense of the idea that the media should treat the homosexuality of public figures the way it treats any other aspect of their private lives galvanized supporters, outraged opponents and forever stamped the magazine as the place where outing began.

 

7 August 2018 Tuesday

This morning I went back over to Michael’s and trimmed the hedge in front of his window that was over grown and cut back some of his flowering bushes. It didn’t take long but did fill up an entire trash can. I have a zucchini that is 18 inches long and about 10 big yellow squash. This is what happens when you don't check your vegetable patch for a couple of days... I guess I will have to bake zucchini bread and freeze it for the fall...the tomato is my first heirloom one. I hurried down to the Utah Pride Center so I could be there at 5:30 for the history project committee. There were only six of us there. Connell O’Donovan, Dan Fahndrich, Charlene Orchard,  Ked Kirkham, Brandon Devlin, and myself. We went over the proposal to become affiliated with the Pride Center and the mission statement that Doug Wortham had sent to Devlin. I think we agreed to become known at a Historical Society but the Adjective in front of it is open to discussion. Suggestions were the Utah Queer HS, The Utah Pride HS, The Utah Pride Center HS, the LGBTQ+ HS. We agreed to bring it up at the next meeting on August 29^th Wednesday at 6. Connell showed a list of the locations of Pride Days and showed that there at 17 pictures in the Queer Ancestor’s Gallery.

 

8 August 2018 Wednesday

My Samsung Tablet wasn’t connected to my Xfinity Wi-Fi___33 this morning and even though it was working on my phone and desk top it kept saying my password was in error. I finally called and they helped me get back on line but it took about an hour. Then I straightened up the house some because Rich Butler was coming over to get some squash and we visited from 9-11. He needed to talk to someone about him and Brenda fighting over finances. It happens when you are married. At noon I was at the Pride Center for the Gay men sack lunch and Charles and Richard were there so it was good seeing them but there is this one old queen that only talks about sex and nothing about current events or things going on in the community. He’s such a throwback to the time when the thinking that being Gay was all about sex. Didn’t do a whole lot after that but watch some TV and read from another mystery book. It’s my summer of mysteries. Nixon resigned on 8 August 1974 but unlike today the Republican Party cared about the nation not just the billionaires

 

9 August 2018 Thursday

Fay Wray, died at 96 on August 9 2004 In Answer to Dr. Frankenfurter's question in The Rocky Picture Show, "What Ever Happened to Fay Wray, that delicate Satin draped dame?", here is the sad news. ''I yelled every time they said, 'Yell,' '' she said of the role, for which she was paid 10,000 for 10 weeks' work -- good pay for Hollywood in the Depression. RKO Pictures got more than its money's worth - the movie grossed nearly $90,000 in its first four days, a fortune at a time when movie tickets were 15 cents. Wray lived in Salt Lake City with her family from about 1913 to about 1922. Wray's Salt Lake City addresses were at 814 Sherman Ave., which Wray's family rented for $12 a month and 236 Hampton Ave., where Wray once rode a pet horse up and down the street.

·         Bill Poore My nephew Thomas is back in Utah, Janice went back and move him here...and almost at once went into the U hospital....he has a serious gastral colitis condition plus he is HIV, Janice says he does not have AIDS that it is his gastral thing which is a major issue but when I walked into the hospital room today I saw AIDS. Janice didn't tell me he was home nor in the hospital, My brother called me....she fed me this line of bullshit she didn't want me to spread it in the GAY community and his EX would find out he was back in Utah...you know because I am so active in the community. I just sent her a long message being very careful to be totally supportive of Thomas where he is, and what she is going through but made it very clear that I am not member of the LBGT community at all, don't talk to them except Ben...

·         Me -I hope they get him better... AIDS is more of a chronic disease than a fatal one...Janice is probably besides herself... being back in Utah is better for the both of them. Hope you are staying indoors today... air is really bad

·         Bill Yeah I visited with Thomas and Janice yesterday at the hospital. She seems a little more relaxed but you can tell she is really worried about her wonder boy, he was always the apple of her eye while growing up....he starred in a lot of shows at the U. and even was in several at Pioneer Memorial, very talented kid. He starred in Larry West's production of Angels in America. He was really outstanding. He has this gastral colitis, his brother had it as well, that is what they are focusing on...just trying to build up his strength now he is back in Utah. I took him treats twice...I believe in spoiling them with sugar, he actually was thrilled, his mother was only taking him healthy things. He was a little star in Utah, cute and very talented actor, strangely we were never that close while he was at the U and I was teaching. I pretty much decided to let him have his own space....I think it was for the best. We were not in the shadow of each other. I saw everything he did, told him he was great but never really critiqued his work, I didn't want to and I don't think he really wanted me to.....I know he trusted me but It was just easier for both of us. I probably will go out later to the store...might go up and see Thomas again. I am worried about him. I would hate to lose him this young. This has stopped him cold. He has not worked for over a year.

·         Me-Wow... but they have such better medicine these days.., the air is really toxic right now... better to stay home and order a pizza

·         Bill Have you checked to see how expensive these meds are? He didn't have insurance and really didn't tell his mom he was not taking meds, for almost a year....this gastral colitis has really lowered his immune system, he has lost a lot of weight, blood count is bad, white blood count....he is now getting good care, they are starting him back on meds, these meds are really toxic, some people simply can’t take them. People are dying from AIDS; some simply can’t take the meds. I know of two people this year that I knew in San Diego and one in SLC that died of AIDS. The virus mutants.

 

10 August 2018 Friday

Finished my Lambda Lore article for the QSalt Lake for September while Michael Aaron is frittering away his time in Paris, France. When Connell O’Donovan asked for some information on Pride Days a few days ago I realized that my record of who won the Dr. Kristen Ries Award was not up to date. I posted on the history site for help and also went to Becky Moss who usually is the MC for the parade.

·         To Becky Moss Do you recall who was the Kristen Ries recipient for 2016? It's the only year I don't have a name for and I can't find it in any articles from that years Pride... Courtney Moser was 2015 and Todd Bennett was 2017

·         Becky Moss I can’t recall immediately But will respond as soon as I can

·         Me-Thanks... everyone seems to have amnesia for that year lol...maybe because they did away with Grand Marshals and were trying something new

·         Becky Moss Could you send me your list? It might help jog my memory. Fran Pruyn?

·         Me-This is what I posted on FB I realized that I don't have the names of the recipients of the Kristen Ries Community Service awards for the years 2015 and 2016. Can anyone help me out? I am pretty sure Courtney Moser is one but what year? 1987-1989 1987 Kristen Ries, M.D. 1988-Rev. Bruce Barton , 1989-KUTV Channel Two 1990-1999 1990-Chuck Whyte, 1991-Nikki Boyer, Becky Moss, Ben Williams 1992-College of Monarchs of the Royal Court of the Golden Spike Empire, Craig Miller, 1993-Ben Barr, Val Mansfield , Kathy Worthington 1994-Kim Russo, 1995-Bruce Harmon, 1996-Clariss Cartier (Doug Tollstrup), Charlene Orchard, 1997-Barb Barnhart, Rev. Kelly Byrnes, Jeff Freedman, Maggie Snyder PA-C., 1998-LaDonna Moore, 1999-Dr. Patty Reagan Ph.D. 2000-2009 2000-Marlin Criddle, Brenda Voisard, 2001- Laura Miliken Gray, Brook Heart-Song, 2002- Kevin Hillman, 2003- Doug Wortham, 2004-Luci Malin, 2005 Jane and Tami Marquardt, 2006 Jackie Biskupski, 2007 Doug Fadel, 2008 Stan Penfold, 2009 Walter Larrabee 2010-2018 2010 Mark Swonson, 2011Michael Aaron, 2012 Valerie Larabee 2013 Brandi Balkins, Charles Lynn Frost, 2014 Mark Lawrence, 2015 Courtney Moser 2016 ?, 2017 Todd Bennett, 2018 Alan Anderson Fran Pruyn rings a bell but I am not sure. I wonder if Fran Pruyn got hers the same year as Mark Lawrence? A QSalt Lake Article from 2015 lists her as a previous recipient

·         Becky Moss I think you are right

·         Me-I found it in the Q and yes Fran and Mark both received it in 2014... damn still don't know for 2016 lol

·         Becky Moss I will keep trying

·         Me-Do you know Valerie Walker? She was director of Pride Day in 2016... I don't know her.

·         Becky Moss I don’t know her What I think I know about her- straight, claimed she could run Pride because she had Comicon experience, not well liked....

·         Me-I wonder if they even gave out an award that year

·         Becky Moss Don’t quote me on that, I’m relying on faulty memory. It seems like it was a straight person????

·         Me-I think if they did it would have been at the Sapphire Banquet that became the Spectacular one... why aren't you down in Red Rock?

·         Becky Moss I know it was the reason that I decided to start entering names, Todd and Alan were my nominations. Red Rock is just not my thing. Was the 2016 location upstairs at the old library? Was that the year that Teenamarie and her husband had their awards revoked?

·         Me-I am not sure where it was... I didn't go...that was the year they canceled Grand Marshals for ICON recipients... Tienamarrie and Chris,  after a petition from disgruntled members of the trans community, asked not to be recognized...Connell O Donovan and Jimmy Lee were but no mention of a Ries recipient

·         Becky Moss I will figure it out

·         Me-Michael Aaron said it was Peggy Tomsic ... wow... nowhere in any article I searched was she mentioned... you would think someone of her status would have been celebrated

·         Becky Moss Wow I don’t remember that Seriously 

·         Me I know right...

·         Becky Moss Are you open to two spelling corrections?

·         Always

·         Becky Moss Fran Pruyn Brandie Balken. Actually, only one correction You had Fran perfect I’m glad to have the list. Four have died Or more? Five gone?

·         Thanks I know that but somehow Brandie Balken always comes out Brandi Balkins lol. Bruce Barton, Bruce Harmon, Barb Barnhart, Val Mansfield, and Kathy Worthington are all gone. I've always kept a list but the last couple of years just slipped by and couldn't find mention of the recipients... guess the Pride Committee does not value the award as much anymore. I'm still upset about Valerie Larrabee lol Becky Moss

·         Becky Moss The guy that sent us the vote request has his own set of rules He might be part of the problem

·         I wish they would turn it over to the recipients

·         Becky Moss And I am with you on Valerie Larrabee. I like that Carol Gnade openly refused to have her name listed while working for the Pride Center. I do too and what happened to the political award? No Pete Suazo

·         I think that has gone away... last I've seen was from 2016... I don't keep track of it as much...

·         Becky Moss The guy who created the fancy Spectacular is an ass. He was responsible for the loss of the volunteers at the Leonardo Museum.

·         Michael Aguilar? I don't know him except he was on the board of the center...

·         Becky Moss In 2017 there was a recipient I remember that Pete’s wife was the presenter

·         What happened to the volunteers?

·         Becky Moss That’s the name He created a set of new rules for the volunteers that resembled the kind of rules that were used by horrible employers from the 60’s Lots of punishment

·         Some people have no idea how to treat volunteers... it's all about the event and not the people

·         Becky Moss He is gone from there now and The Leonardo is beginning to recover I can’t remember what position he held there. You heard his speech at this Pride It sounded like our civil rights were created by his boyfriend at the Subaru dealership.

·         I know you and I can't afford the $100 To attend Ally Dinners, Equality Dinners,  HRC dinners and Spectacular Dinners... I guess we don't count any more lol. If you don't drive a Subaru you don't count lol

·         Becky Moss That can’t remove me I’ve fought tougher assholes

·         You and I will outlast them all 

·         Becky Moss Yes we will 

 

11 August 2018 Saturday

Mike and I went down to the Murray Farmer's Market to get some fresh peaches and nectarines and Michael wanted another Green River watermelon. I have never seen the valley so filled with smoke and haze... the sun liked like an orange full moon this morning. I know people with asthma or breathing problems will be hurting today. It was too hot and too smoky to go outside today so I read. I finished reading three mystery books this week. Pamela Wechsler’s The Graves I liked because it was set in Boston. Cats Got Your Diamonds by Julie Chase was set in New Orleans and Agatha Christies was set in 1916 England. I watched two movies on Hulu also after having to reset my internet pass word to 1633Fernleaf and my Hulu and Thunderstruck accounts to April1951. The first movie was Shaun of the Dead a spoof on Zombie Movies, and The Time Machine with Guy Pearce. It was not nearly as good as George Pals 1960 Time Machine. I looked up the prison schedule and todays visiting time was 7:45 which I missed this morning. Tomorrows is from 6:30 to 8 during Big Brother and so I probably won’t go so Kyle doesn’t miss an episode. On this day in 1999 A freak tornado ripped through the downtown area of Salt Lake City, killing one person, and doing millions of dollars of damage. Gay Bars were also damaged with The Sun Club building being destroyed. The Axis sustained considerable damage but was able to repair its building. The Sun was one of the first victims in the tornado's path. I bought tickets to the Grand Theater to see the Marvelous Wonderettes yesterday on Saturday the 25^th. TJ said Jim and he wanted to go with us so I bought 2 more senior tickets for them. I put their tickets at Will Call and I will swing by ticket office next week and pick them up. We are going to Chubby’s at noon that day before the show.

·         Bill Poore Ok I know you guys get sick of the people I have met, however I did have dinner with Jeff Stryker with my friend Charles who was negotiating a deal on Jeff doing a one man show at our theatre in San Diego...we ate at an outside restaurant, he pulled up in an old Limo, wore fade jeans with holes in them and blue t shirt....and during the conversation he did say to me " well I do have the eighth wonder of the world between my legs"...need I say more. We were on a busy street in Hillcrest and a lot of people stopped to take a look at the porn star...He loved the attention.. I was actually embarrassed because I was a respected stage director in San Diego....but I did look at the bulge between his legs a lot. The reason I was there is my friend wanted me to direct the one man show....I really didn't want to but would have suffered for the arts and probably do the show, but negotiations fell through. He did actually do it at Diversionary theatre...He stood at the door after the show shaking hands with the guest as they left....naked with his robe opened so they could see his dick.....super ego needless to say. He was cute however so my type even if he did have such a big.....well you know. I actually met a lot of porn people, Che Che La Rue was a friend of my friend Charles, so she always had a group of little porn actors with her when we went out....my last roommate in San Diego paid his way through college doing porn...he now teaches elementary school in Texas...Most the porn actors I met were short and not very smart....sweet guys but sort of dumb. I never was into porn at all, actually never looked at one of the porns my roommate was in...just not interested.

·         Doug Murri I've met two porn stars in my life. Falcon star Dick Fisk who was working as a sales clerk at Harvey Milk's camera shop on Castro in San Francisco, when I lived there. And I had Jack Wrangler and Margaret Whiting on a flight. Lovely people!

·         Bill Poore Doug Murri what I did watch was so funny, these guys really thought they could act, the dialogue was so embarrassing. I think the main reason I could not watch porn was simply the bad acting, it was just too much for this artist. My favorite was always the guy who came to clean the pool, the owner of course was sunning naked....oh gee what else were they supposed to do. A few years ago one of my friend Charles clients was in SLC big star and Charles wanted me to take him to lunch to help him with lines he was working on to audition for a film.....Brent Corrigan. I did not have a clue who he was...I picked him up at the airport, he was cute, took him to the U and worked on his lines...It was fun. He actually was a good little actor. I could tell he was enjoying himself. He really wanted to be a real actor, he tried but just could bust out of the porn image...he started to produce his own film and then a lot of other actors works...We were eating at Trolley Square and he said to me "you know you are one of the first guys I have every met that has not tried to fuck me after all I do make my money by letting guys stick there dicks up my ass on film". I told him I did not have clue who he was and never watched porn...he laughed. He was sweet and very smart, afterwards when I told some of my gay friends I took Brent to lunch they freaked out....He gave me his number in San Diego and told me to call him anytime. My friend Charles told me Brent really liked and respected my knowledge of acting. He was really cute. He talked a lot about the killing he was involved that later became a film "King Cobra" starring James Franco, it is pretty much his story...I have not seen it. I heard he is in it not a big part under his real name, I think Sean Lockhart . …..

 

 

12 August 2018 Sunday

Pulling out of my driveway this morning to go grocery shopping for the pups I saw a dead critter lying in the middle of the road. At first I thought it was a cat but upon closer inspection it was someone's poor bunny. Rather than let it get ran over more and the heat attract flies I took the poor bunny and buried him in my front yard garden... Put a few rocks over his grave and said goodbye poor bunny. He's the only critter buried in my yard except for a few birds. All my pups are cremated and on a shelf in the house. I finished reading three mysteries last week so went to the library and checked out 3 more...I am really digging Pamela Wechsler as a writer of the Abby Endicott series set in Boston...my mom took me to the library before I could even read...my first book was a cloth one with just pictures...going to the library on a Friday night with my mom and sisters was a ritual as a kid growing up. Dad never liked to read unless it was instructions....Mom loved her trashy romance novels... I was blessed to have a mom who loved libraries...we didn't have much but we had books. Didn’t go down to Draper to see Kyle. It would have been late and he would have missed Big Brother. So I worked this afternoon more on my novel and watched Big Brother and the 1960’s Time Machine. Jay Vallar surprised me by messengering  me that he’s getting married this coming Saturday to someone I haven’t even met yet. I guess Greg Allen is selling his condo. Midlife crisis I think. The far-right rally in Washington DC was a bust.

·         Roland Ron Holmgren Thank you

·         Jon Michael That's the sweetest thing I have heard in some time.

·          Bill Poore The pups are all in the hall of puppy fame.....

·         Randy Olson It was a kindness. ..love you Ben

·         Laurie Epperson Aww that's so sweet of you.

·          Terrie Williams It could be a win for both Of you. Hopefully, the little carcass will decompose and all kinds of organic magic will happen. Glad you scooped it up before the gore factor increased. The world needs compassion And that was a fine example.

·          Benedgar Williams I threw a lot of grape hyacinths bulbs in his grave so next spring he will be a patch of purple...

·          Melissa Sillitoe-Bocarde :) poor little bunny.

·          Tracy L Johnson-Faulkner Bless you.

 

 

13 August 2018 Monday

I rotor tilled my garden in the backyard as the weeds were taking over once I had put a new sprinkler head on and then I mowed the back and front yards so I was pretty productive this morning. I finished reading three mysteries since last week so went to the library and I went to the Riverside Day Library and checked out 3 more...I am really digging Pamela Wechsler as a writer of the Abby Endicott series set in Boston...my mom took me to the library before I could even read...my first book was a cloth one with just pictures...going to the library on a Friday night with my mom and sisters was a ritual as a kid growing up. Dad never liked to read unless it was instructions....Mom loved her trashy romance novels... I was blessed to have a mom who loved libraries...we didn't have much but we had books.

·         Charline Wachs Do you remember the two-room tiny library in Stanton. I am not even sure it be classified as two rooms. Then they built the big one in Garden Grove.

·         Benedgar Williams That is where I got my cloth book... then we would later go to Chapman Library by Hare Jr High

 

14 August 2018 Tuesday

I just read from Pamela Wechsler’ Mission Hill most of the day until about three o’clock when I discovered that the cruiser had a flat tire. When I took the tire off I saw that I had picked up a screw somewhere along the way...fortunately the cruiser was in the garage and I was not out on the road with the pups. I have been lucky that way. When the timing belt broke I was only a few feet away from Mike’s townhouse when I had all the pups with me...I managed to take the tire off and put the temporary on and I called Mike to tell him he would have to come over and pick Coco up but Mike said he'd throw the tire in the back of his truck and we will go up to Discount Tire and get it repaired. Since they were busy once we got there I just left the tire there and I will retrieve it in the morning. I am old but can still change a tire...how’s that for being butch? I mean except for getting car dirt on my nose... PS never change a tire in white linen shorts. This evening I finished reading Agatha Christie’s And Then There Was None. The original title was “Ten Little Niggers” but the figurines where changed later to little Indians and in the version I read “little soldiers.” The book was really different than the movie;  much better and .glad I read it even if it's 80 years old. Even with the title change I notice that Christie’s stories often have a slur against Jewish characters.

·         Bill Poore Proud you were able to get it off and put on the spare. This happens often with your tires. I almost wonder if someone is putting them under you tires.....

·         Benedgar Williams My car is always parked in the garage...so probably just road debris

·         Merrill Crosbie Benedgar Williams *whisper* Um, I think Bill was confessing...

 

15 August 2018 Wednesday

I Stayed up way too late listening to Ferron’s Shadow on a Dime, Holly Nears Imagine My Surprise, Meg Christian Face the Music, and Diedre McCallas albums...my days as a cohost on KRCLs Concerning Gays and Lesbians introduced me the wonderful artists of Olivia Records and other Womyn music ... when my Gay friends were listening to Club dance music in the 80s I was listening to music programs like this Feminine Position... I hope all my Lesbian friends had a wonderful time at the Red Rock Womyn’s Festival in Torrey... I know they did. I guess I was in a melancholy mood. Then the dogs were restless so I got very little sleep . At 9 a.m. I took the old cruiser to up discount tire in Bountiful to have the young guys there mount the fixed flat... I am too old so I let some 20-year-old dudes do it... easy peasy. I saw a former teacher from Washington Elementary there too and that was kind of fun. When I am in Bountiful I sometimes run in to folks I know since I taught in Davis County for 27 years. I went to the new Smith’s where the old K-Mart used to be but not impressed. It’s just large. I went to the library before going to Gay Men’s sack lunch at noon at the Pride Center. I turned in all my books and checked out another Julie Chase mystery :the Cat Has your Secrets. At lunch Charles and Richard were back from a quick trip to Vegas but TJ and Jim weren’t there. I suppose Jim is having that blue light face peel again. Back at the house I put the doggie bed blankets back in the Cruiser all made up nice and comfy for the hounds...everyone but Buster loves his rides...Buster is still wary. Other than that not too eventful. The haze is still in the air but not nearly as bad as it was a week ago. The tickets for the musical at the Grand Theater came today but there were four not just the two I ordered. I wonder if the ones I bought for TJ and Jim came to the house instead of will call. Only thing in the news is the hair pulling between Trump and Omarosa. She is accusing Trump of saying the word Nigger and he called her a dog. Newscaster Chris Cuomo wrote “If my 12-year-old, Mario, called someone a ‘dog,’ he would not say it again in my presence. I guarantee you he would apologize. In fact, if he said most of the things that the president says about people he’s threatened by or doesn’t like, his cheeks would be glowing.” Chris Cuomo. When I taught school I would have never allowed a student to talk about another student the way Trump does about people. What ever happened to Melania’s Anti-bullying campaign? Sad that the president isn't held to the decency level of a 5th grader. The greatest tragedy of my life time is Hillary being robbed of the presidency of the United States.

 

16 August 2018 Thursday

Strange dreams of some LGBTQ group trying to hi-jack my history group, and another one of me going out to eat with Michael and Chuck Whyte but since there weren’t enough room for me I decided to leave and walk home. Strange dreams. I picked some more squash today and brought some to the Hall’s behind me and the Mexican neighbors next to me. The boys seemed excited for the squash ha. I have been bringing some over to Michael’s where he gives it to some guy at work who supports his dad and kids. ... I then worked out in the yard watering and trimming some. I had a plant blow in that is about 4 feet tall already and didn't know what it was...turns out to be a castor bean plant...I was hoping it was medicinal marijuana. I Went out to lunch with Bill Poore for Chinese at the New Golden Dragon. When I picked him up he gave me a new Handicap parking pass that is good until 2020. While eating hot and sour soup it felt like my cap has come loose something was hit a nerve there ...can’t get in until tomorrow but at least early at 9 am...The New Golden Dragon has gone downhill I think, they must have gotten a new cook. Afterwards Bill wanted to get some headphones for his computer and we went to the downtown Smiths...there the electronic department was being remodeled and under staffed so when the one clerk left us standing, cantankerous Bill throws the headset down and storms out of store... well kind of … mumbling epithets ...We went then to Office Max down the street found a headset on sale that were better and he regaled the Trans clerk with his displeasure with Smiths... I called him a curmudgeon ... In the evening I put a couple slices of pizza in the microwave while I fed the pups. I thought I had pushed 1 and a half minutes on the microwave but must have added an extra zero... Burnt it to an absolute crisp and stuck up the house…oh well didn't want left over pizza any ways... at least the pups ate their chopped chicken thighs and roast beef for dinner... my tooth is really hurting anyway...but I can’t see my dentist until nine tomorrow to fix the cap or pull the tooth. Aretha Franklin The Queen of Soul has passed at the age of 76. What a great legacy she left behind. RIP

Bill Poore -So they totally gave me the wrong food to go from the Chinese place....it was shrimp (which I hate) rice and noodles....very disappointed  I don't want to go there again...ever. I tip well and order well....screw China anyway.

Me -I am with you... we are done... there’s always China Star in Bountiful... too many places to go when there's bad service. Going to see my dentist tomorrow morning... maybe your Mexican boys will eat it

Bill Poore Where I like   Charlie Chows...

Me: Yes we can go back to Charlie Chow... they might hate us old guys but the foods always been fine.

Bill: that is correct someone ignored me because I am old....we can ask for some cute young white guy to wait on us. The waiter are by far cuter at Charlie Chows rude or not, a lot of cute butts.

 

17 August 2018 Friday

Couldn't get any sleep last night even with a pain pill as that my jaw was just throbbing from a tooth ache. So I went in at 9 a.m. to Centerville Dental and had a new crown replaced and a tooth behind it  extracted. I was there for 2 and half hours and I am just exhausted but hopefully this will be it for a little while. I had a tooth pulled last June and this crown put on in July so it was still under warranty so only had to pay for the extraction. I had nitrous oxide this time for the tooth extraction... I don't know if it made it any less unpleasant...I went to the Library and checked out three Agatha Christie novels and got half way through Murder in Mesopotamia before going to bed. I was too tired to do much else. I heard that Bob Waldrop reported that he has cancer of the esophagus… I sure hate to hear that.

 

18 August 2018 Saturday

Michael wanted to go down to the Murray Farmer’s market this morning and we bought nectarines, peaches, tomatoes, and corn to split between us. It was super crowded today. I did see Kent Scadlock down there and asked how he was doing. He seemed to be fine. We really don’t have much to say anymore to each other. I baked two Zucchini Chocolate Chip breads this afternoon. The air is still hazy but at least now you can see the mountains a little. It might have rained last night slightly but I couldn’t tell when I got up this morning. My tooth extraction is better but I sure don’t have the grinders anymore to chew my food. Jay Vallar got married today at 6 pm but I have never met his husband. He said it was e just a very simple wedding with a few people. The reception  won’t be until October 13^th I had a nice evening. Alan Anderson invited Mike and I to see Saturday Voyeur. It was their 40^th season. There was a little pot luck beforehand and I brought some banana bread. I saw Becky Moss, Carla Gourdan, Marilyn and Tracy from Ogden at the pot luck and Matt Landis and Ann Clark at the performance. The show this year was very, very Mormonish almost had to take a Mormon Doctrine class to get the jokes... I thought it was hilarious but Mike, being a complete Gentile didn't get much of it and the theme was from the show Orange is the New Black and about Mormon Spirit Prison. Michael wasn’t into it at all and after the second act he wanted to leave and I was okay with that because I was tired from being up since 5:30.. I gave Alan and Kyle veggies from my garden and a zucchini chocolate Chip bread. Also gave them a blender I bought when I had my bariatric surgery but never used.. The boys in the show danced in garments and there was green Jell-o shots. How's that for being Mormonish?

 

19 August 2018 Sunday

I was up early this morning to go see Kyle down at the Prison. He was on the early 7:45 schedule. There was a lot of smoke in the air and the mountains have disappeared. Not sure where its coming from. It was a full house this time where when I came to an early visitation before there was just two of us. I guess it’s because Kyle said that Lone Peak had an influx of newer inmate transfers. Where before there was 11 people now there’s 40. He is not happy about it because a lot of those transferred over are doing drugs and he’s worried about his safety. Even the work crew he goes out on, guys have access to meth. This one guy who Kyle thinks is going to be assigned to his crew is a meth head and if he is assigned Kyle said he will have to quit his new job and go back to his old one rather than being at risk of being punished when this guy is caught because the whole crew gets a reprimand. I could tell that Kyle was worried about the new situation there. Hopefully, nothing will happen before December or January when he can go to a half-way house. Back home I Made some sweet bread out of a big yellow squash... I never made squash bread before and figured if you can use zucchini you be able to use yellow squash. It turned out okay but I used too much squash so it was a little bit too moist. I put dried cranberries in it too. I had invited Bill Poore and Mike Romero over for a Sunday Pot Roast so I was busy cooking and cleaning house. I cut some more sunflowers from the front yard for a floral arrangement but Bill brought me a bunch of colorful dyed daisies when he came over. He always brings treats for the pups too so they are always happy to see him. I fixed mashed potatoes and brown gravy, corn on the corn as well as corn off the cob, candied carrots, buttered squash, and zucchini, sliced tomatoes and served a Marie Callendar Lemon Meringue pie... we had a nice Sunday afternoon visit for about two hours and sent I sent home left overs and yellow squash bread with Bill and Mike... I then took a nap and made the dishes wait. I took one of those dumb FB personality quiz on what ancient symbol fits your personality. I got an Egyptian Ankh. I used to keep one on my keychain. “Your positive and outgoing personality is best represented by the ankh. Said to represent eternal life to Ancient Egyptians, the ankh is an often-misunderstood symbol. While it combines male and female parts to make a cross shape, it also resembles an eye. When held by a pharaoh, it was called "The Key of Life." And your personality says you've found your own way through life's doors.” I watched some Big Brother in the evening and I finished reading Murder in Mesopotamia. I really enjoyed it.

 

20 May 2018 Monday

I worked on organizing my 2015 journal I thought I had lost for much of the day and then went out about 3 to mow the front yard. I have tons of honey bees swarming around my Russian sage and in my clover... I am very wary of wasps though after being attacked by a swarm once... I had over 40 stings...Mike and my neighbors the Giles wanted me to go to the emergency room but I just toughed it out...figured if I was allergic I'd been dead... truth was it was too painful to move... I was working in my front yard this afternoon watering and I watched all these kids walk by and I had forgotten today was the first day of school. It's been 3 years since I left teaching and I can honestly say I don’t miss it at all...especially the first day... every new year was like starting a new job... no more bulletin boards with kids names printed on Apple's and name tags. I read in the evening starting a new Hercule Poirot mystery “Dumb Witness.” I fixed a pot of onion soup today but hadn’t had any yet because I have too much to eat up as it is but I wanted to use of the beef broth that I added for yesterday’s gravy.

·         Stephanie Williams Julies boy was supposed to start 6th grade a week ago, but the cancelled classes for a week because of the air quality and fires. So today was his first day. 1/2 way there.

·         Benedgar Williams School in CA used to never start until after Admission Day... too early for kids to go back...

·         Roland Ron Holmgren You might not miss teaching school, but the students you don't teach will miss the opportunity to have a great teacher.

·         Deirdre Kenneth Leguizamon Jones Yesterday was the first day of school and my first day of school in my own special needs kinder through 2nd. It was the worst day ever! Definitely do not look forward to that again!

·         Benedgar Williams I can sympathize. First days are always the hardest...the kids don't know you and you don't know the kids... it's hot ... no air conditioning... you go over expectations...kids are restless... you don't have a routine yet...haven't figured our yet who should never sit together... it was exhausting.

 

21 August 2018 Tuesday

I made some biscuits this morning from scratch to go along with my coffee then I went to DI because I hadn’t in a very long time and I bought three China dinner plates, a serving bowl, a Hawaiian shirt, a butter dish, some corn cob holders, and a decorate plate for $12 in all. I think I mainly wanted to get out the house. The air is still hazy. I finished Murder in Mesopotamia so I started reading Dum Witness. I liked it because there was a dog in the story although Agatha did use some racist terms like “Nigger in the Wood Pile” as one of her chapters. This evening the rains finally came... thunder and lightning... the parched earth needs a good soaking. We only had .31 of an inch of rain all summer. I made Homemade French Onion soup with Swiss cheese and toasted baguettes for summer... Oui. Dave Robinson is not a good person... he treated my Armenian friend Levon like a slave... several times Levon called me in the middle of the night to take him out of a safety issue... Dave has too many of his own issues to be credible and taken seriously... he's a self-promoter. He is quoted in the Salt Lake Tribune “Salt Lake County Republican Party’s new communication director Dave Robinson said he knows people in the community who have had “over 2,000 sex partners” and said he thinks that could be at the root of “some of the self-loathing to the point of suicide.” Michael Aaron wrote a great rebuttal to the asshat. Saw that a luxury hotel is going to be an interesting use of the old Union Pacific depot... I wonder if the ghosts of the Gay men murdered in the train yards behind the DEPOT after leaving the old Sun bar will haunt the place...

 

22 August 2018 Wednesday

It thundered and lightninged a good part of the night and must have rained since my ground is wet and the air is cooler...Harleigh and TJ were frightened so I didn't have a good night rest. I was up and down comforting the critters. I made some biscuits this morning for this 7 up and sour cream recipe...it's getting to be biscuit weather... I went to the Gay Men’s Sack lunch at noon and it was a small turn out perhaps 5 of us until Robert Moolman joined us and David Turner surprised us and dropped in. He is partners with Marlin Criddle and now lives in Seattle. He confirmed that Marlin has dementia. He founded the Men’s sack lunch some 10 years ago and Robert was very interested in his connections with Aging Services when he lived in Utah. More interesting to me was David told me more details about the guys who were married in the Temple back in the 1990’s and Marlin had represented the “bride” Felix ala Aleesa when her deceived husband sued her. David seemed to think the Wyoming cowboy was not as deceived and innocent as he proclaimed and that he was more of a closet case from Big Piney who could not deal with his sexuality. Felix lived with Marlin and David for about a month and David says he’s written an unpublished novel loosely based on this sad tale. He said Felix actually married a woman later and father a child and he died I think David said in Lima, Ohio but he was originally from Santa Fe. In the later afternoon, a fierce rainstorm hit just as the junior high was getting out. We had the most marvelous summer rain storm in Westpointe but I head huge hail fell in Farmington. There was a really loud thunderclap that scared to doggies so lightening must have hit near hear. After the down pour we have had intermittent showers the rest of the afternoon with rolling thunder...Lulubelle only seems to be the one still weirded out and not eating...the power switch to the bedroom went off for some reason and I had to go out in the rain to switch it back on...otherwise everything is good at the House of the Barking Dogs...on the menu tonight was chicken giblets, chicken liver cooked in bacon and leftover roasted chicken thighs... bon appetite. However I felt like peach cobbler tonight... it's a good thing I have vanilla ice cream in the freezer...well I know what I am having for desert but what for dinner? Hmmm... maybe a grilled cheese sandwich. I usually deplore tooting my own horn on FB but while organizing my 2015 Journal, which I thought I had lost, I came across this exert from 2 October when the Utah Board of State History gave me an Outstanding Contribution Award. “State History honored Ben Williams with its Outstanding Contribution in History Award today. Ben Williams has single-handedly documented and preserved the history of Utah’s LGBT communities for over 30 years. As State History celebrates the many voices in Utah’s multicultural past, acknowledging the past of Utah’s gay community is important. Williams had the foresight to keep primary sources such as photographs, newspapers, letters, minutes from meetings, and oral histories pertaining to the gay and lesbian community in Salt Lake City. Without Williams’ efforts, most of the LGBT community’s written, photographic and oral histories would not exist." That was a pretty special day for me to be recognized for the countless hours of being the keeper Utah's Gay history.

·         James Dabakis You deserve this award Ben. Those boxes and boxes and boxes of stuff you have been collecting for generations will tell our story long after we are all gone.

 

23 August 2018 Thursday

Ed King died age 68... he was an original member of the Strawberry Alarm Clock and later was a guitarist for Leonard Skynard... Incense and Peppermint was so much a part of my youth in Southern California... it explains a lot about me lol... Ed King was only 17 and I was 16 when the song came out and it was instrumental in me wanting to be a flower child...I am so glad I was a teenager in the Sixties... I graduated from high school in 1969... it was an amazing time and the music was so amazing... I listened to a lot of psychedelic music as well as the Beatles, the Stones, the Doors as an antidote to the barrage of images of the Vietnam War that lasted from the time I was 13 until 22.... being nostalgic tonight I guess. I really like Journey to the Center of Your Mind and Incense and Peppermint. Few songs flood me with memories of being in high school as the song White Rabbit does and Mrs. Robinson... life was groovy. It’s Heartbreaking. One hundred small dogs were  found neglected in Taylorsville home.

 

24 August 2018 Friday

It's the end of August and the squash keeps on a coming...my peppers are finally producing.. When I went out into my garden I was surprised by 3 large zucchinis. I was sure when I looked on Monday there weren’t any…I made four loaves of zucchini chocolate chip bread from one of the zucchini that got away from me...I swear on Monday not one zucchini and then on Friday I get giants ... still not getting tomatoes like last year... hmmm... So I baked four loaves of zucchini bread with chocolate chips. I took one out of the freezer I made earlier and took it down to the Pride Center to give one to Robert Moolman as I had promised him one last Wednesday. I finished reading Death by Appointment a Hercule Poirot novel that takes place in 1930’s Palestine. I need to get some more to read now. Buster came out to say hi to Buddy and gave him some kisses then waddled back to his nest in the bedroom. I think Buster finally knows he has a new family after all these months. Buddy is so animated that it’s hard to believe that I was told he was dying. He still has a good appetite and appears to be hanging out just fine. In the evening I watched Damn Yankees which is my favorite Tab Hunter movie. Never ate a pizza, or tacos, or burritos or Chinese food until the 1960s...going out to get a hamburger in a drive in was a luxury... frozen dinners came in an aluminum tray and we rarely ate them...no store bought cakes unless a special occasion... white bread ... French bread only with Spaghetti only never had garlic in anything... buttered bread with cinnamon and sugar baked on a cookie sheet was a treat...Utah was in the national news again because of Dave Robinson, “A gay Utah Republican official is experiencing a backlash after implying that suicide rates in the LGBTQ community are linked to having a high number of sex partners.....Dave Robinson, who is the Salt Lake County Republican Party’s new communication director, said in a Monday meeting with the Salt Lake Tribune’s editorial board that he knows people in the LGBTQ community who have had “over 2,000 sex partners” ― a number that he believes could be reflective of the “self-loathing” that drives people to commit suicide..... John McCain is getting ready to pass... soon the Vietnam Era will be a distant era ..however no event defined the Baby Boomer generation as much as that war did whether you were for it or against it... Trump has divided this country as if we were at war...

 

25 August 2018 Saturday

So much smog and smoke in the air ...when Mike and I went to the farmers market in Murray you couldn't even see downtown from the freeway...felt like I was back in LA in the sixties. We just bought some tomatoes, peaches, and nectarines this time. Michael put a charger on the cruiser’s battery because lately the dash board battery light would go off and on but later in the day when I went to the store to get some food for the pups it came on and stayed on so not sure what is going on there. This morning I picked more squash and some peppers as well as cut some Rosemary, Thyme, Basil, Mint to give to TJ and Jim when they came over to go out with us to lunch and a play. I also gave them a loaf of Zucchini Bread. TJ also made some treats for the pups. They love their homemade treats. I had a fun day with T.J. Otaka, Jim, Charles Bigo, Richard Harmston and Mike Romero... we met at Chubby’s for lunch and afterwards I gave Charles and Richard also some Zucchini bread and squash. We then went to the Grand Theater to see a play called the Marvelous Wonderettes which was a quartet of girls singing  songs from the 1950s and 1960s ...it was entertaining and Michael was brought into the act as Mr. Lee one of the love interests. He was sitting on the end of the aisle so they brought him on stage ... he was such a good sport... the plot was these girls sang at their 1958 prom and again in 1968 as a ten-year reunion... the story line was just a plot device for all the fun songs like Lollipop, Mr. Sandman, MR Lee, Born Too Late, Leader of the Pack... I thought the girl voices were great and I felt like I was at a concert. TJ and Jim came back to the house and we visited until nearly 6 pm before everyone left and I fed the pups. In the evening I watched my favorite Cher movie Moonstruck. Didn’t realize that at the time Cher was so much older than Nicholas Cage although they were the main love interest. She was 41 and he was only 24. I love that movie and afterwards tried to sleep but at midnight woke back up and rather than struggle to go back to sleep I watched the first half of 1969’s Juliet and Romero which flooded me of memories of John Cunningham my first true love. John McCain died today. I hope Trump has the decency to keep John McCain out of his tweets. When Mormons try to tell you that their church doesn't tell them how to vote call them out as liars. They sent emailed out a flyer to its members in Utah to oppose ballot initiative on medical marijuana. This is what it's like living in a theocracy ... if the GOP Christian right takes over say good bye to secular Democracy.

 

26 August 2018 Sunday

I didn’t check the prison schedule carefully and by the time I looked it was too late to head down so I guess I won’t be see Kyle until next Saturday or Sunday which will be September already. I didn’t do a whole lot today except I did make 3 dozen Ginger Molasses cookies. They turned out really good. Other than that I tried to rest some and watched old movies on this Tony Caban site on FB. I watch Katherine Hepburn and Ginger Rogers in Stage Door and WC Fields in Tillie and Gus and in the evening Big Brother. I don’t think I left the house today.

 

27 August 2018 Monday

I spent most of the day revising my historical novel Hand  Maiden of the Lord so I didn’t get a thing done today except I did go shopping for some dish towels and cloths. What I had was so old and dingy and I thought don’t be so cheap and go out and get some new items for the kitchen. I got this little package in the mail today from China. I have no idea what it is or what it does or remember ever ordering it... says in packing slip it's a cleaning tablet... Weird This what i thought I was supposed to be getting lol ... oh well all I got was the Chinese tablets with no explanation how to use them ... suppose to be pet stain removal ha

 

28 August 2018 Tuesday

I made some corn chowder today from fresh corn but really didn’t do much but revise my draft of Hand Maiden of the Lord and read from Hercule Poirot Christmas Mystery. It was a much cooler day 75 degrees so nice to have a cool down after the long hot summer even if the air is still a tad smoky. In the evening I went down to the Pride Center to meet up with Joshua Bravo who runs the Tuesday Men’s Group there. He wanted to meet me as that Rick Egan told him about the support groups I use to run. I was invited to stay and attend the group which met upstairs. There were about 15 men there but I only knew Bill Blevin and Rick. I kind of knew Bill’s partner Doug from the Wednesdays lunch group and I knew Ked Kirkham who writes stories for the Q Salt Lake. Some of the men in the group I recognized from Gay Men Aloud. I think the group is important but I realized I am well over being involved with Support Groups. The issues the men there talked about I resolved for myself 30 years ago and I heard it all before so I doubt whether I will be going back. I have been down at the new Pride Center more this summer than I had been at the old center in four years I think. I've been going to the Wednesday noon men sack lunches, helping start a center history project, being there as well for my own Utah Stonewall History group that meets there now once a month. I was asked to attend the Tuesday Gay Men's group last night for some insights on how I ran support groups back in the day and tomorrow I will be there again for a history project meeting. If one is anxiously engaged in a good cause how can one be lonely?

 

29 August 2018 Wednesday

Up early to take the old PT Cruiser down to have the battery light checked. Pretty sure its indicating that the alternator is worn out. Michael gave me a ride home and I have the Sonoma truck if I need to go anywhere. I guess it will be a good day to mow the yards which I did and some weeding. It's much cooler... in the 70s ...which is a nice respite from the heat we have had this long hot summer. Still picking a lot of squash. I gave a bunch to the Halls behind me. I got my electric bill for the July-August period and between my central air and hot tub it was nearly $250. Still cheaper to live here than if I had to rent. My house and utilities are only about $1000 a month. I am so grateful that the pups are cool in the summer and warm in the winter and I have a yard in which to grow squash and pumpkins. Lancers called and said that the alternator was fine but the battery was down so I agreed to have a new one put in. It’s a 5-year battery and it cost about $170 parts and labor. Mike took me back down to retrieve the cruiser but when I drove off the battery light came back on! Ugh! Well the alternator is good I have a new battery so it has to be something in my dash board panel so I will just ignore it. I went to the Men’s lunch group which was a smaller then back at the house before going down again to the Utah Pride Center to work on a proposal to the board to create a history project...Connell O’Donovan Rich Kane, Doug Wortham, Brandon Devlin, and I were the only ones in attendance. Rich Kane had worked for the Tribune before being laid off and is not a freelance writer for the City Weekly. He’s going to do a video history project for the center. So if people don’t like what we came up with then the hell with them because they certainly are not as committed to the project as we are. Proposals and mission statements are not the most glamorous thing to do on a Wednesday night but important. We did finally decide on a name The Utah Queer Historical Society which I proposed and Connell second and the rest agreed to it. I knew some of the old farts in the community will probably object to using Queer and I was right when Chuck immediately messengered me with his objections.

·         Chuck-Ben, I will support anyone who teaches,  write, lectures and etc. on our history......but why does QUEER need to be part of the title , I do hope you understand my feelings,  that word was used in a hateful physical and mental,  manner for 10+ years as I said before I will support you 101%

·         Me-Because it’s the term that younger gays identify with and we didn’t want to use LGBTQ+...

·         Chuck-Okay........btw what about rainbow , pride , lambda,  stonewall

·         Me-Younger people don't identify with it... I already have a Stonewall Historical Society... Let it go it's a done deal... it's like arguing that Gay was taken over from meaning happy... connotations of words change over time and those terms are as archaic as homosexual to young people for whom we are preserving this stuff.

·         Chuck Well at least you did not use BASHING........LOL

 

30 August 2018 Thursday

The pups especially Harleigh allowed me to sleep through the night which is a rarity. Maybe because there is a change in the weather. Definitely it feels like summer is winding down. I fixed chicken liver and thighs for supper last night for the pups but see that they ate very little of it. Oh well must not be hungry. Next Wednesday is my history lecture so I better decide what I want to cover. I had weird dreams last night about being back in the classroom however lately the dreams I have are that I am just visiting or assisting the classroom teacher and I am not the one in charge. If you know any Republicans ask them for me why was it so important to give Millionaires a tax cut when we can't afford to give working people a COLA raise? Oh and while you're at it ask where is the $4000 increase Republicans promised average families because of the tax cut... I try not to associate with Republicans or I'd ask myself

 

31 August 2018 Friday

I spent much of the day organizing my talk for the Utah Stonewall Lecture series for next week and posting an event for it. Cooked a frozen pizza for dinner but couldn’t eat much of it. On this one FB site I was able to watch Death of Stalin that I just saw last April. It had a lot of buffering but did manage to watch it. I really like it as a great black comedy. I looked at the times for Rocky Horror Show at the Grand Theater for a Saturday matinee...the dates are Oct 6, 13, 20, and 27 and the tickets are $20 for seniors in Section A . Michael, TJ, Jim, Charles and Richard and I  talked about going as a group to see this musical. Alan Anderson wanted to go and said the 27^th of October was the best time for him and Kyle and it didn’t matter to the rest so I went and bought 8 tickets so we could all sit together. I bought tickets for Row F seats 107-114 It was $168 with tax and mailing fees. Today is T.J. Otaka’s birthday. I think he’s 60 years old. Today was Aretha Franklin’s extravaganza funeral…lots of gospel, glamour  and glitz to send the Queen of Soul off to heaven.

 

SEPTEMBER

1 September 2018 Saturday

Harleigh was a very bad dog last night... he woke me up at 3:30 barking to come in so when I went out to get him but he wouldn't come in but ran off into the back yard... I waited and waited and soon all the other pups woke up...finally I had to go and chase him in the middle of the night because he wouldn't come when I called him. I gave him a swat on the butt when I did catch him. He was mad but I was now wide awake at 4 a.m. We have since made up and I gave him some hot dogs this morning... Last thing I want is my neighbors to be woken by a barking dog. I made a fresh peach cobbler for T.J. Otaka that I brought down there in Daybreak this morning at 11:30 for his birthday. I am sure he had plenty of cake yesterday. I hope it tastes as good as it smells...  We visited for about an hour and had a little lunch before I headed off for the prison. I got there about a quarter to 1 and was surprised to see so few cars in the parking lot and when I signed in I didn’t see anyone I recognized so I looked again at the schedule and I found I came at the wrong time for inmates A-f. Fortunately, there was only three visitors for inmates so the guard allowed me in to visit with Kyle. He was really surprised to see me at this odd time and I sheepishly explained how I had looked at the new schedule wrong. Nevertheless we had a good visit and he told me how he had gone by the halfway houses where he might be paroled to in December. They are down by Sapp brothers gas stations off of 13^th. Told him about my car troubles and what I knew was happening in the Gay community. After leaving the prison I went to Pet Smart in West Valley where Laurie was having another dog adoption. I donated a bunch of dog harnesses that are too big for Buddy anymore to Hearts 4 Paws to see if they can use them for their rescues. I paid a lot for them and they were rarely used. It was a pretty day outside for running around. I had Split pea soup, saltine crackers, for supper and began reading another Hercule Poirot murder mystery... Today was John McCain’s main funeral service at the National Cathedral. “Benedict” Donald was not invited.

 

2 September 2018 Sunday

Homemade buttered biscuits and honey with hot coffee for breakfast this morning. I had a hankering for biscuits even if I gave most to the pups. You can take the boy out of Texas but harder to take Texas out of the boy... The Democratic Convention in Chicago was 50 years ago now. I was 17 years old and the Police riot at the Democratic Convention radicalized me... my first journal was kept in 1968...I joined my first high school club in the fall my senior year. It was the LUV club...Let Us Vote which was organized as part of the attempt to get the age to vote lowered from 21 to 18 since you could be drafted at 18... in college I minored in political science and marched in antiwar demonstrations, joined a Gay Student Union in 1971 and generally was part of the new left that was shifting the Democratic Party. It astounds me that so many kids don't register to vote these days. Started looking into getting my talk ready for Wednesday. Seems strange that its September already. I finished reading Murder on the Links which was the first Hercule Poirot murder mystery by Agatha Christy. I ordered The Murder of Roger Ackroyd next. This summer I have read Lord Edgeware dies, ABC Murders, Murder in Mesopotamia, Dumb Witness, Death on the Nile,  and Appointment With Death of the Hercule Poirot series which I like better than the Miss Marple series which I read quite a bit too. Ive been watching some movies on my little tablet computer that have been fun but haven’t watched much on Roku at all.

 

3 September 2018 Monday

I didn’t even leave the house this Labor Day. I have my lecture series this Wednesday and I needed to organize my writings from 1987 into a relatable coherent talk. I am speaking on the rivalry between the Salt Lake Affirmation and the Wasatch Affirmation from those days and the March on Washington. Looking through my 1987 handwritten journal I realized that I needed to type it up and post it to my History FB page as it’s an eyewitness account of the event. But I am such a slow typist and it was 26 pages so it’s slow going typing it up but needs to be done.

 

4 September 2018 Tuesday

My house is a mess. Empty dog bowls and dog biscuit crumbs are scattered on the floor. Unwashed dishes are piled up in the sink. The kitchen table is littered with opened dog treats and unopened mail. I need to vacuum and sweep and mop and yet I have been tied to my computer for the past two days writing up my talk for Wednesday's lecture series and typing up my journal entries from my 1987 October travels to the National March on Washington. The entries are all hand written and scribbled down while traveling 2 and a half days on a jostling and swaying train. My hand writing from the trip looks like I was 86 years old not 36. In the news Nike should make a tidy profit from all the Conservaturds rushing out to buy Nike products so they can post on FB cutting them up and burning them because Nike has used Colin Kaepernick as a face on one of their Do It ads. Idiots.

 

5 September 2018 Wednesday

I made three dozen peanut butter and chocolate chip cookies and got my lecture ready for tonight's Utah Stonewall Historical society. I paid a medical bill and my car insurance for the Cruiser and did some house and yard work... no rest for the wicked. My zucchini plant didn't do much this year except to give me a few just to make zucchini bread... I have a bunch of yellow squash I guess I will grate up and freeze for breads this winter. I pulled up my sunflowers and took some of the cuttings inside...summer is over so time to start cleaning out the summer flowers for the fall ones. Coco came back over and when I took her home Mike said he didn’t have to go to Rawlins after all so stayed home and relaxed over his Labor Day holiday. I went down to the Utah Pride Center at 6:30 and this time they had us on the schedule but some group was meeting in the Queer Ancestors room so didn’t get in there until right at 7. So we all sat in the lobby area and I visited with Courtney Moser and Chad Anderson as more and more showed up. I started passing out the cookies and I gave the guy who staffs the information desk who stays to keep the center open for us a bunch of squash. It’s the summer of squash for sure. We had a lively discussion on the role Affirmation plays in the past and today. We had a good turn out from the staunch regulars as well as some new people, one being a fellow from the Wednesday men’s sack lunch. We had probably 20 or more people there. Charles and Richard paid me for the Rocky Horror show tickets. I am glad this was over because this was very mentally taxing this time. Alan Anderson wrote me “I am having an email exchange with the reporter from the Trib who has been writing about the Dave Robinson fiasco. Do we want to put a bug in his ear about the event with your immigrant friend?” I said I would.

 

6 September 2018 Thursday

I mowed the front yard this my front yard before my friend Rich Butler came over to the patch my front steps where the sidewalk had pulled away from the steps leading up to the house...over the years the steps and the pad had separated about an inch. He had this concrete mixture and leveled out the crack so it’s like brand new... that is what friends are for. He worked on it from 9 in the morning until 11:30. I gave him some squash,  some Zucchini bread and although he didn’t ask I gave him 50 dollars to go out to dinner with Brenda. The job was more time consuming then he thought it would be. He’s also going to fix my standing Buddha that fell over in the wind a few weeks ago and had its head knocked off. He stayed until about 2 and he and I were reminiscing about Knotts Berry Farm and other places we miss from our youth in California . It was such a part of My childhood and youth... my folks lived about 5 miles south of it off of Beach Blvd and we'd go all the time because it was free...I loved the ghost town part of it which was removed from the Calico Ghost Town in death valley... spent many a time with grandparents there... I have an old picture of my great grandparents taken there in the 1940s... I loved the park at night in the rain because it was mostly deserted... that rock room used to have a little cubby where you could turn on a black light and the rocks glowed... one of the places I miss the most growing up in Orange County is Knotts Berry Farm even more than Disneyland. The actor Burt Reynolds died today of a heart attack in Florida. He was 82 years old. Big star in the 1970’s. All the tickets for Rocky Horror have come in. I started to email the tribune reporter about Dave Robinson when I noticed I didn’t have my journal from 2014 on my desk top computer. I checked my old lap top and sure enough it was there but I couldn’t get the laptop to take my Wi-Fi connection so I couldn’t email it to the desk top like I did the 2015. So beyond getting info for the reporter I was worried how to get 2014 of the lap top so it doesn’t get lost. Fortunately, the CD burner still worked and I found a blank disc to burn it too. That was a save and a good thing I decided to look up the Dave Robinson mess.

 

7 September 2018 Friday

I worked most of the day compiling information from my 2013 through 2015 journals about how Dave Robinson mistreated Levon Mirakyan. That took a lot of time before emailing off 7 pages. I sent blind copies to Alan and Michael Aaron. The reporters email address is  tstevens@sltrib.com. I  made some cranberry oatmeal cookies today and gave  a dozen of them to Mike when I took Coco home. We talked about using the concrete stuff that Rich showed me to fix a crack in his porch in the back of his townhouse. I also gave him the taco meat I had made to eat this week but got tired of Tacos. I read some today from The Murder of Roger Ackroyd. Zina Bash flashed white supremacist hand signs twice at the Senate hearing while sitting behind Kavanaugh. She was hiss law clerk and now she escorted a kid from trumps rally because he wasn't supportive enough... Twitter has banned Alex Jones Info War but still hasn't banned Trump... if he had to address Americans like a normal person we wouldn’t have so many of his crazy town rants...Twitter enables this President and makes a tidy profit doing so. Apple has taken off Alex Jones App too.

 

8 September 2018 Saturday

The pups all had me up at 3 this morning but managed to sleep in a until 6. Then I got up to get ready to go down to Draper to see the boy. Visiting hours today was 7:45 to 9:15. Tomorrow is 6:30 to 8:00 the evening when Big Brother is on so I don’t want to take him away from that. We had a nice visit. Nothing real special happening. Told him a little about my lecture on Affirmation and the March on Washington and he said he got to go to a BBQ at some pipe supply place that has a contract with the prison. Crawford didn’t have a visitor today but probably tomorrow. I told him about the celebrity of the 17-year-old Billings Montana high school student who was making incredulous face while Trump was being his usual blithering self. He was known as the plaid shirt guy on social media and he was removed because he was right behind Trump. On the way home it rain slightly in spots but nothing to really amount to much. It was in the 90’s again. I had to go to WinCo this morning to get my Zoom cereal...it's the only store in the valley that carries it so I bought 2 boxes... Will last me 6 months... Zoom is an old fashion kind of a cracked wheat flake hot cereal... I like mixing it with whole oats ... kind of like malt O Meal but less mealy... I love it and have eaten it since a kid... I tried to go through the self-checkout but on the first item bagged I had trouble and there was no one around to assist me so I said fuck it and went over to a cashier. I then went to Walmart to buy some CD’s so I could burn files off my lap top that I don’t use anymore and can’t get it to load the Internet. I had Levon load up Window 7 on it 4 years ago and of course now there’s no updates for it. So I want to get everything off it but it’s going to be laborious. I have thousands of files on my old laptop mostly duplicates pictures and articles. I also stripped the bed and put on clean sheets and blankets. The rest of the house needs a cleaning also. I drained most of my hot tub today. It was time but notice that the hose left about a foot of water at the bottom I will have to bail out by hand ugh. I swear my pups think my only purpose in life is to hold them, take naps with them, give them car rides, give them treats, and feed them their supper...  I finished reading The Murder of Roger Ackeroyd this early evening. I really enjoyed this Hercule Poirot murder mystery. I will have to get another one. I kind of want to read them in chronological order because I like how they relate one to another. Before going to sleep I watched Smokey and the Bandit. There are a lot of Burt Reynolds movies on right now in memoriam.

 

9 September 2018 Sunday

Hot out of the oven made me some hard rolls having with some butter and honey

Thinking of two people who died on this day in 2015 and 2017...Two great Gay Activists who made Salt Lake City's LGBT community what it is today. Openly Gay when most people were still hidden in closets. Val Mansfield and Rev Bruce Barton I had the privilege of being with them both in the 1987 March on Washington and share being a Dr. Kristen Ries Community Service recipient with them. RIP old friends both Bob Woodward’s book Fear shows that It's crazy town in the White House... we should be more scared than we realize

 

10 September 2018 Monday

Rich Butler wanted to come over to seal the concrete that he repaired last week. He told me all about this good concrete sealer that he used to seal his driveway. Even though we won’t do my driveway until next spring we went down to this place to buy a 5-gallon container of it for next year. It was $145. We also stopped at DI where I bought a large coffee and some more bowls and Rich found a good deal on some collector mickey mouse pins. We went out to lunch at Chubby’s where I bought him lunch for all he’s been doing for me lately. I have laboriously been burning CDs of my files that are on my old hard drive. It’s been very time consuming.

 

11 September 2018 Tuesday

I made an appointment for Lulubelle to be groomed tomorrow at 10 and went to Sutherlands to buy a new door mat to spruce up the front steps. I then took Lulubelle for a half hour walk on the Jordan River Trail just north of the house...I think she is more pooped out than me. Made a squash bake casserole with my summer squash and zucchini from a recipe. Also I made  Homemade chicken noodle soup steaming hot for supper... used the drippings off the dogs' chicken thighs for the broth rather than toss it...Richard P. Butler sent me the zucchini recipe... it's easy and tasty but zucchini bread is a better use for squash. Curled up with Agatha Christie's Peril at the End House, bowl of popcorn, and TJ tucked in by my side ... hope everyone is having a restful evening...I remember right after 9/11 everyone was saying "Be Safe" rather than good night... so be safe everyone. Chris Buttars that old homophobic legislator from West Jordan died today. I say drive a stake in his heart just to be sure... no sympathy for a man who tried to inflict so much pain on good people who never did him harm... I am not as nice as you Michael. I finished Peril at the End House before going to bed.

 

12 September 2018 Wednesday

I took Lulubelle down to be groomed at the dog park and while waiting I went to the Gay Men Sack lunch at the Pride Center. I didn’t have time to pack a lunch so just had a Sprite. I gave Charles Bigo and Richard Harmston their tickets to Rocky Horror since they paid me last week. Came home and worked more cleaning my files off the laptop and burning them on to discs. I had a phone call from Marco Ortiz from Channel 4 this evening wanting information on the unsolved murder of Tony Adams from 40 years ago...he was hoping I had pictures or video from back then. l almost wanted to laugh... I said there was a few newspaper articles, Tony’s mugshot, and that's about all...he said that Channel 4s own archives have been basically lost from that time... I told him the Tribune contacted me a while back on the cold case to try and find the missing knife... I told him it's my opinion the police is keeping this case open as a cover up because even after 40 years no one is able to see the file on the murder.

·         can you contact me? Marcos Ortiz ABC4 801-831-0902    marcos@abc4.com   I understand you are an archivist in the gay community and may have info on cold case of Tony Adams 1978 murder,

 

13 September 2018 Thursday

Bill Poore paid me $100 today and  took me out to lunch. He only owed $700 now,.  We went to China Star in Bountiful. I ordered green pepper steak and while it was good I found I couldn't chew it with my one set of good molars lol. I took most of it home and gave it to Mike Romero for his supper.. I then took Bill back to the house so he could see the pups, then off to Best Buy where I bought some DVR discs to burn files off of my defunct lap top and Bill bought a 42-inch smart TV because the guy was cute. He accidently broke his TV. I helped him get it out of the cruiser, gave him a loaf of chocolate chip zucchini bread, and popped in at DI and found this cute little fishy coin bank for two dollar to throw in my loose change... A picture of an identical one I saw on goggle was called Vintage Paper Mache Fish Bank Pride Papier Mache by Mad City Picks... no more information ... It says pride on the bottom and most figures were made in the 1960s... In the evening I went to the Rose Park Library to pick up The Three Act Tragedy that I had placed on hold and while there  I read The latest issue of the Salt Lake Magazine that has a story on John Williams and Craig Crawford... at times my life seems so surreal... Bill Poore knows why... John Williams was from Grace Idaho the neighboring community from Thistle where Chad Keller was raised and is buried...small, small Gay Mormon world

 

14 September 2018 Friday

I drained my hot tub at the beginning of the week and turned it off but finally I went and bailed out the remainder of the water, wiped it down and disinfected it and refilled it. That was about the only chore I did today. Looking around at my garden saw that it’s about time to start cleaning it up. I think I will wait until the first of fall next week before I go ripping out the garden. I finally burned all the files off the lap top and I cleaned up some off my old journals from 2010. That was such a miserable year. I thought I was going to lose my teachers license, I came down will Belle Palsy again, I went to the ER from rash from Creeping Myrtle splurge, Smokey and Priscilla were put down, and my naiveté about Kyle Foote began. In the news Paul Manafort  is agreeing to a plea seal and Trump is disputing that 3000 people died in Puerto Rico from Hurricane Maria. I hope everyone in North Carolina stays safe from Hurricane Florence that is barreling down on the Carolinas. On a personal note a little documented hurricane in September 1752 has hampered my genealogical search about my Williams family. I am confident that a man named Theophilus Williams is my direct ancestor and DNA suggests it but there are little clues about his life after he moved from Bertie County to Onslow County in North Carolina about 1742 as that a hurricane in 1752 destroyed that county’s records. The colonial capital at the time was located in the town of New Bern. In 1752 the British Empire adopted the modern calendar with the new year beginning on January 1st. instead of March 21st. To make up for discrepancies the calendar dropped the dates 3–13 September to transition to the Gregorian calendar. So the dates went from September 2nd to September 14th. During this transition, in September 1752, a terrible hurricane struck the Onslow County barrier islands, further dredged the New River Inlet, and blew Johnston, the county seat right off the map. The hurricane wreaked havoc on the lives of the colonists in Onslow County including Theophilus Williams and his relatives and friends. Records that might have tied Theophilus Williams to John Williams the presumed father of my Revolution War ancestor Britton may have been swept away with Onslow’s county seat. The destroyed courthouse contained records like land deeds, tax documents, and wills. Therefore, no one could prove land ownership, collect taxes, or probate deceased persons’ wills. The loss of these records were devastating. The storm caused a lot of destruction to primary sources like government documents used by genealogists and historians. While there are no personal accounts of this hurricane of 1752, legal records tell about an interruption in normal activities. The county’s business had virtually stopped. The first order of business for the Onslow County Court of Pleas and Quarter Sessions of spring 1753 was to address the “loss of records from the destroy’d courthouse from the violent storm of September last.” Residents eventually petitioned the Colonial Assembly meeting in New Bern to replace the records. Public records did not resumed in Onslow County until 26 February 1754 This petition was eventually codified into law as “An Act to relieve such persons that have, or may suffer, by the loss of the Records in Onslow County.”

On 9 October 1755, three years after the hurricane, the Colonial Assembly passed another bill to help the residents “Appoint a place for Erecting the new Court House & Prison in the County of Onslow and other Purposes therein mentioned” Since 1903 such Colonial Assembly records that survived have been kept in the State Archives.

So my brick wall of a paper trail for my ancestors ends with a little-known hurricane hitting the same region today.

 

15 September 2018 Saturday

I went down to the Prison at 9:30 to visit with Kyle and the valley was filled with smoke and haze. You could smell wood burning. The wind must be blowing the smoke in from the fires down by Spanish Fork. At the prison they rearranged the visiting room to three long tables instead of the usually 10 separate tables and it was a mess. Lots of elderly people having to be squeezed in and it was so noisy that I could hardly hear Kyle across the table. I had to sit next to Kevin across from Craig Crawford and I really wanted to visit with Kyle about the Salt Lake Magazine article on the murder of John Williams but didn’t think it appropriate with Craig sitting right there. But Kyle had plenty to share with me anyway. I guess now, for two days a week he gets to go to the Halfway houses to do maintenance and yard work, places hopefully he will be released to this December. The two facilities he’s been at are Fortitude at 1747 S. 900 West and Bonneville at 1141 S. 2475 West both really close to home so he’s excited that he’s getting closer and closer to transitioning out of Prison and closer to home. Our visiting time was up at 11 and coming home I stopped at Sutherlands to get some quick concrete mix to help patch Michael’s back porch that had actually split in half. It was bigger than I thought but got the job done and hopefully that will work. Windy today but instead of clearing the air it’s actually blowing smoke in. Homemade hot crusty bread with butter and honey for supper... yum and curled up with Hercule Poirot’s Three Act Tragedy Mystery

·         Richard Harmston The smoke is coming from a canyon near Spanish Fork. It saturates the air where I live, too.

·         Richard P. Butler The south winds are bringing the smoke from the fires down south Reminds me of camping.

 

16 September 2018 Sunday

I am bushed... went out and cleaned out the flower bed on the south side of the house in the backyard... dug, weeded, chopped, hoed, trimmed, and cut down... filled up a yard refuse as well as a garbage can after 2 and half hours...I cut back my over grown pink lady Rosebush that is 21 years old... these are the last roses off it for this year... now to finish reading Murder on the Orient Express

 

17 September 2018 Monday

Busy day... got up early and started sweeping, mopping, and vacuuming... took Harleigh down to get groomed and then Rich came over and fixed my railing to the house steps that had a big rust hole, i gave him more zucchini bread too. Then I went  grocery shopping for the pups, picked Harleigh up and had Maxx's nails trimmed.... I took two Hercule Poirot books I finished back to the Library.... I think I will mow tomorrow...my energy needs to be recharged. I made a Raisin bran applesauce Bundt cake... smells great... glazed with honey. Seth Anderson's article, "What Every Queer Person Should Know About Utah", was published today in the Gay & Lesbian Review. Michael Ferguson wrote “Strong work! Shout outs to the vibrance and resilience that typify Utah's gender and sexual minority communities!! "Queer people in red states are agents of change. They are in the trenches of the culture wars with the battle scars to prove it. For decades, LGBT people in Utah fought to make visible what the conservative culture hoped to exterminate. Utah has long been a place for 'alternative lifestyles' where the resilient and creative thrive. To outsiders, Utah may look like a political wilderness; but it is a wilderness rich with peculiar opportunities." Michael Adam Ferguson also wrote “Historians are hippocampi in an imaginary cultural brain: they weave together multiple modalities of information, consolidate & catalog episodes of experience, & potentialize the emergence of wisdom. Thank you, historians! #memory #intelligence #wisdom #culture #history. I replied, Hippocampi? Or Hyper campy? Gay history...elegant gossip

 

18 September 2018 Tuesday

I mowed the front yard and part of the back yard before I ran out of stream. Not often I see Buddy and Harleigh curled up next to each other....there is beauty all around when there's love at home. I've always liked bran muffins but only if they are moist... I found a recipe yesterday I like but don't have muffin tins any more so I poured the batter into a Bundt cake pan... it turned out super and moist.. my new favorite... I had a box of

 cereal I couldn't eat any more with milk and didn’t want to toss so found a good recipe and tweaked it... called for buttermilk I used milk and vinegar, called for apple butter, I used applesauce with cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger, and cloves, called for all bran cereal I used flakes, called for just baking soda... I used soda and powder... it for called nuts which I didn't use because wasn't sure how it would turn out but next time I will... The Mormon Church is in a tizzy over the Medical Marijuana initiative.

·         Bill Poore The Mormons, the politicians in Utah are just plain stupid when it comes to medical marijuana. Gayle Ruzicka leads the pack of the stupid., The Mormon Church comes in second. I gave medical marijuana to patients in California all the time. It helped with their pain and made it easier for them to eat. Religion should never be involved in these issues.....Remember the Salem Witch Trials, the burning at the stake by the Catholic Church? I don't trust the churches on anything.

·         Roland Ron Holmgren Bill Poore What do you expect, Gayle Ruzicka lost the battle over the gays, she has to her snout in something that is controversial. Isn't it she was put in a rest home?

·         1 1/2 cup all-bran cereal, 1/2 cup boiling water, 1/4 cup vegetable oil, 1 egg, 3/4 cup sugar, 1 cup buttermilk, 1 1/4 cup all-purpose flour, 1 1/4 tsp baking soda, 1/2 tsp salt, 3/4 cup of apple butter, 1/2 cup chopped walnuts, 1/2 cup chopped pecans, 1/2 cup golden raisins. [mixed ½ cup bran in the boiling water]

 

19 September 2018 Wednesday

Today is my Grandpa Johnson’s birthday. A year ago it was wet and rainy but summer is still hanging on this year with it being hot and dry... So ready for Autumn to get here. Harvesting pumpkins to bring to the Pride Center for Autumn. I have a lot this year. I went down to the Pride Center for the Gay Men’s Lunch Group at noon and had a nice visit. Then worked in the backyard cutting down the corn stalks and some pumpkins. Finished Cards on the Table and now reading Murder in the Mews while having Taco Soup and corn bread for supper... I have to have a dictionary handy to read Agatha Christie... I am increasing my vocabulary just by reading her novels...btw Mews are like British townhouses remodeled from rows of horse stables. Why do Republicans defend sexual assault all the time when it's their guy? Men come forward decades later to share they were molested (by priests) - we believe them. Women come forward decades later - we question their timing, their motives.

 

20 September 2018 Thursday

Autumn has caught us in our summer wear. –Philip Larkin, British poet (1922–86) Specifically, the Northern Hemisphere marks the autumnal equinox on Saturday, September 22, 2018, at exactly 9:54 P.M. EDT. I have so many concord grapes this year...the squirrels must have driven my birds away who usually eat them... I have no idea what to do with them... they are small and organic ... I wonder if I could dry them into raisins. Republicans are telling all 17-year-old boys do what whatever you want because in 35 years it won't matter as long as you are a white prep school boy and vote conservative. Randy Kraft was the Gay serial killer who may have killed up to 100 men. He grew up about 3 miles from me in Orange County and reading his own biographical stories of growing up in Orange County it kind of creeped me out. He is about 6 years older than me and lived on Beach Blvd in Westminster [Midway]while I grew up on Dale Street about 1/2 mile to the northeast. I met him once in 1971 at a college friend, Bob Wimberley's, party in Long Beach when I was 20 years old but I didn't really know him. In fact I didn't remember him much at all until about 14 years later when he went on trial for murder and I then remember the connection. His trial cost $10 million dollars one of the most expensive in the county's history. I just remember he was so much older than me and really kind of too macho and I thought he was also openly too Gay. I was very naïve at the time, sexually and worldly. In fact I had a hard time being around Bob's friends because they were all very sexual and on drugs while I was still in love with John Cunningham and wasn't interested in being a party boy. Reading how he sadistically tortured and murdered all those young men made me think how people can be raised in the same environment and turn out so differently. Both raised in west Orange County in the early 1950's, both youngest child and only son, both Gay. He became a serial killer and I became a serial writer. He murdered a young man near Rawlings WY. I was partnered with a man from Rawlins. He was raised as a Republican and I was raised as a Democrat. May be that is the difference.

What are your ABC's

A is for age: 67

B is for beer of choice: Root Beer

C is for career right now: Retired

D is for your dog's name: Buddy, Harleigh, Maxx, TJ, Lulubelle, and Buster

E is for essential item you use every day: my computer or my toilet hmmmm

F is for favorite TV show at the moment: Young Sheldon

G is for favorite game: Spider Solitaire

H is for birth Home town: Amherst, Texas

I is for instruments you play kazoo

J is for favorite juice: prune juice

K is for whose butt you'd like to kick : Republican Trump supporters

L is for the last place you ate China Star

M is for marriage: Just give me good friends

N is for your full name: Edgar Hugh Williams Jr. aka Ben

O is for overnight hospital stay: Bariatric Surgery

P is for people you were with today/recently: Gay Men's Lunch Group

Q is for recent quote: Dog is God spelled backwards

R is for Biggest Regret: Becoming a Mormon

S is for status: Divorced and happily single

T is for time you woke up today: Around 6:15 a.m.

U is for underwear: stripped cotton shorts

V is for vegetable that you love: Fried Okra

W is for worst habit: biting nails

X is for x-rays you've had several of my teeth, a couple chest films, one for a fractured wrist

Y is for yummy food you ate today: pancakes and mocha coffee for breakfast

Z is for zodiac sign: Aries of course

 

21 September 2018 Friday

Happy Mabon to my Pagan and Faerie Friends and happy harvest. Mabon is a pagan harvest festival which is celebrated on the Autumnal Equinox each year – around September 21st through September 24th. Also known as Harvest Home, this holiday marks the middle of the harvest cycle – when both the days and nights are of equal length. It is a time to reap what you sow, a time to give thanks to Mother Earth for the bounty she provides and a time to rest after bringing in the crops. It is also the second holiday on the Wheel of the Year, which includes other harvest festivals such as Lammas and Samhain. I went into the city this morning to pick up Chuck Whyte for his doctor’s appointment to have his pick line removed from his arm. I picked him up at 8:30 and sat out in my car until 10 pm when he got through. I listed to Doug Fabrizio show on 50 anniversary of 2001 Space Odyssey. Afterwards I went and bought some canning jars to make grape jam I hope...I've had this grape vine for 21 years and never done anything with the grapes...I made apricot jam and peach jam from my old trees before but never grape jam... it's gonna be a process... I hope it's worth it because I spent a whole lot of time on it getting the juice out and leaving the mash... if I had a distillery I could moonshine this stuff. I have a dozen sterilized jars and a kettle of grape jam a boiling. When they were ready I carefully poured the mixture into the jars and placed them in a boiling water bath to seal the lids and hopefully .I will have  jam if it sets up right but I am not too confident. Well it was a lot of work but I canned 12 jars of grape jam rather than let them rot on the vine...the longest part was picking the grapes off the stems...that was 2 hours of work in of itself... the actual cooking the jam and prep was about an hour and half... canning preserves link me to my grandmas... mom canned mostly relishes like piccalilli chow chow... Jim Dabakis wants me to go with him to the theater tomorrow evening... not sure what is playing at the Pioneer Memorial Theater on campus. I finished reading Murder In the Mews so in the evening watch a film with Bette Davis called The Little Foxes.

·         Richard P. Butler Do we get a jar?

·         Benedgar Williams Yes but it may be grape syrup lol if it doesn't set up...

·         Kay Campbell The one & only time I tried this; the syrup boiled over & ran down the stove & all over the floor. What a mess!

·         Benedgar Williams Mine didn't boil over but I am not sure it's going to set up either... grape syrup anyone?

·         Richard P. Butler Did you add pectin?

·         Benedgar Williams Yep

 

22 September 2018 Saturday First Day of Autumn

I’ve been saving and reconstructing my journals from the last decade and burning them on to a disc as a means of preserving them. This morning I made a grape cobbler. What do you do when your grape jam didn't jell ? Make a grape cobbler of course.... an old West Texas favorite I went down to Draper to see Kyle at 1 pm. He was in good spirits and had been up this way at the Fortitude half way house and the women’s facility doing yard work. I think being so close to home kind of energizes him knowing that the end is insight. He’s even been going to the 13^th South Lowes so he even more feels like he’s back in his neck of the woods. I guess the crew goes out to their cook outs that Lowes has. We visited until 2:30 when the time was up. Then came home and rested, fed the dogs, and then left to go meet Jim Dabakis at his place to out for coffee before the theater. We went to the Starbucks on 4^th South where 30 years ago was the old Utah Title Building where I worked. We visited about his stay in Mexico, a trip to Cartagena with some Mexican college kids, and to Argentina. We discussed a little bit about the thought he might run for Mayor of Salt Lake and we talked pros and cons. I suggested he might want to just enjoy life at his age rather than deal with all the headache of politics. The play Oslo was at the Pioneer Memorial Theater and Jim looked really tired like he was coming down with a cold. The play was 3 hours long. I didn’t get home until after 11 pm after having a wonderful evening... now time for bed…The play was Excellent but not a full house at all. Rows of empty seats… I guess not for everyone...it  helps to be a political wonk like Jim and I and have a knowledge of the Israeli Palestine conflict.

 

23 September 2018 Sunday

Slept in until 6:30 this morning because the dogs were sleepy too. I made coffee, hot cereal and letting cinnamon bread rise. Bill Poore and I are going for a drive this morning and afternoon to get out and see some color in the canyons before its gone. Took a nice drive-up Emigration Canyon then through East Canyon down into Hennefer and had lunch at Polar King in Coalville... i just had a diet coke and small order of onion rings... Bill Poore ordered biscuits and gravy, two fried eggs, a slab of ham and hash browns... he ate one biscuit and ended having to take the rest home...his eyes are always bigger than his stomach. We came home through Weber Canyon... surprised Aspens hadn't turned yellow yet but still lots of color...every Mormon Podunk town Bill kept saying "I could live there." I told him I'd be happy to drop him off. He wouldn't last a New York minute.

 

24 September 2018 Monday

Spent the afternoon doing some yard work and putting up fall decorations... went to the library to get two more Hercule Poirot mysteries...

Quiche for supper tonight Went out this evening to hear Chad Anderson's Voices Heard No More Teachers Dirty Looks... very enjoyable ... like story time

 

 

25 September 2018 Tuesday

Didn’t leave the house except to take Coco home. I've spent all day organizing pictures from an old Facebook Account I rarely use. Most of my pictures are of my dogs LOL. I did make some chocolate chip peanut butter cookies and had a frozen cheese pizza for supper. I read my Hercule Poirot mystery for much of the evening. Crooked Donald spoke at the UN today and delegates laughed out loud at him. Bill Crosby was sentenced to prison for being a sexual predator.

 

26 September 2018 Wednesday.

I gave Rich Butler two pumpkins from my garden when he came over this morning to deliver a bottle of concrete sealer for Michael’s back porch. I brought four more down to the Pride Center and packets of grape tomatoes and shared some chocolate chip peanut butter cookies I made yesterday when I went there at noon for the Gay Men’s sack lunch. A lot of the conversation was about John Williams and I related my experiences with Craig Crawford at the prison. I went back to the center to attend the monthly historical society planning meeting at the Utah Pride Center. It was a small group of just Brandon Devlin, Dan Fahndrich, Becky Moss, a new kid named Randy Hoffman and me. Brandon and I are the only ones who have consistently attended these meetings but we helped Brandon with the proposal to become a project of the center. I guess it will present it to the board on October 8^th and we will meet again the 4^th Wednesday of the month. We can’t do anything officially until we are sanctioned as a project. I was opened to the idea that my Lambda Lore Column and the Utah Stonewall Historical Society Lecture Series become affiliated with the Queer Utah Historical Society. QUHS

·         Beau Chaine' Such a mother to us all! LOL

·         Robert Moolman You are a UPC treasure!

·         Benedgar Williams Robert Moolman brought you cookies but you were off on some fabulous adventure... have a wonderful time

·         Robert Moolman Lol... I hope it’s fabulous. It is the Centerlink Conference. Should provide me with both panic and pride when I get to understand what other centres are doing. Yippee

 

27 September 2018 Thursday

Strangest dreams last night but the one that excited me and also made me melancholy was the one about John Cunningham. I dreamed that he came to me and wanted to kiss me and we began kissing passionately until I was wakened by the dogs barking. It’s been nearly 50 years since I first fell in love with John and he’s still part of my subconsciousness. I spent much of the day beginning to organize my talk for next week on 1988. I copied nearly 25 pages just on AIDS so I think that is all I will be able to cover and will have to do 1988 in parts like I did 1987. It certainly has become like fall with the cool down. Leaves have not changed but the temperatures lately have been in the high 70’s and low 80’s. I finished reading Sad Cypress and started in on One, Two Buckle My Shoe. All that is in the news is the sexual assault testimony against Kavanaugh in front of the He-man Women Hater GOP Club. Hillary Clinton was deposed for 11 hours and never flinched. Kavanaugh deposed for 20 minutes and cried like a baby. Trump hired a felon lawyer, a felon campaign chair, a felon foreign policy adviser, a felon deputy campaign manager, a felon National Security adviser, an alleged wife beater Staff Secretary, the most corrupt EPA boss ever AND Omarosa. He assures us that Brett Kavanagh is spectacular.

 

28 September 2018 Friday

I will always think of this day as Billy Bikowski’s birthday. I worked most of the day organization by report on AIDS in 1988 for my lecture series next Wednesday. I went to the store to buy chicken for the pup’s supper and I did go to the library to pick up a DVD of Little Big Man the 1970’s Dustin Hoffman movie and watched some of it. A long caftan night shirt “Makkrom Mens Casual Ankle Length Henley Robes Roll-up Sleeve Plain Ultra Long Gown with Kangaroo Pocket”  and a Lofbaz Traditional African Unisex Dashiki Shirt color Tribal Festival Hippie came today from Amazon. I am such an aging faerie. Kavanaugh’s vote is delayed for a week for an FBI investigation.

 

29 September 2018 Saturday

How do you condense 101 pages down to a manageable lecture? Take it in pieces of course. Finally got 12 pages ready for next Wednesday after spending two 8-hour days rewriting about AIDS in Utah in 1988... Much of it is from my personal journals because believe it or not 30 years ago no one considered what we were doing was important enough to report on. I made some bean and bacon soup today. Never made it before so found a recipe on line. It turned out kind of like pork and bean soup but okay. I doubt whether I will make it again. In the evening I was antsy to get out of the house so decided to go see Kyle. Visiting hours were from 6:30 until 8 pm. There was a lot of freeway traffic coming and going but not sure why. Kyle mostly talked about his plans for going to the half-way house Fortitude to be a cook and wanting to take on line classes for a degree in Construction management. He wants me to go on line and check out some requirements. Kevin was visiting Craig Crawford who offered his hand to me to shake. Still seems weird to me that I should be in such close contact with a murderer. In the news is still Kavanaugh who to me is now synonymous with privilege teenage sexual assault... if confirmed he will always be tainted now...if he had any decency or love of country he'd withdraw his nomination...One has to wonder why the GOP would spend so much political capital and divide the nation so severely over this one individual as if there weren't any other conservative qualified judges... are there not any out there that don't have binge drinking and sexual assault in their background? Why Kavanaugh? Brought to you by the Radical Republican Party, a President being investigated by the FBI nominating a Supreme Court candidate being investigated by the FBI while GOP Congressmen pass another tax cut for Billionaires. Today is Dr. Kristen Ries birthday... and she is no longer an unsung hero but along with Maggie Snyder now recognized as Quiet Heroes. To me they are Saints. It was super windy all day.

 

30 September 2018 Sunday

Going over my report for Wednesday and watching some television. Alan Anderson invited me to a Royal Court casserole fund raiser at the Sun Trapp bar this afternoon and he picked me up at 4:30...I hadn't been there since it was remodeled...it was pleasant to be out of the house and I met this year’s Empress Vega Starr and we all visited for a while about court history. The court was having a casserole contest fundraiser and of course I could only eat a little. There was hardly anyone there for it besides a few court members. I saw Austin Riley there who Kyle once told me he was his boyfriend when Kyle was underage. Afterwards Alan came back to the house while I fed the pups chicken and Mac & Cheese for their supper...I sent some bean and bacon soup home and zucchini bread with him to share with Kyle Daniels.

·         Vega Starr One of the things I love about being Empress is the ability to meet new people and have great conversations with them. Thank you Alan Anderson for introducing me to Benedgar Williams. Ben, it was such a great pleasure meeting you and talking to you!