Glen and I have often said how nice it would be to go out together. We almost made it happen yesterday. I thought I wanted to go to Zion and Springdale to find out about supposedly a new photo paper that sort of has a glow in the dark feel. So we decided to go for an outing with our car---supposedly bought to be rather sure us old folks would have no car trouble. We had a nice day, headed home early, so as not to tax Glen much. We headed back east through the Zion tunnel and thump, thump, we started to hear the sounds of a flat tire. IN THE TUNNEL!! YIKES! I was driving, which I do now, and could think of nothing to do but drive on. So I did. Just as we exited the back tire caught fire. I pulled off the road there where there is a parking place, and as good luck would have it, there was a forest ranger just happening to be there with a fire extinguisher in his truck. It was a guy not stationed there, just happened to be there. He put out the fire, but then felt that it would be unwise to drive it with spare on, not knowing if breaks were damaged or what. No cell phone signal, so that took some doing to get word to a tow truck from Orderville to come get us. Then it was wait. Ranger fixed a sun shield for Dad and my wonderful, good little doggie was so patient tied to a bush. Then seven big-horned sheep started to watch us from the cliffs. That made a nice show and I took pictures. Good-ol'-boy from Orderville came with a trailer and luckily he had a stool in back, because he often takes his mother places, otherwise, I can't imagine how we would have gotten Glen in that truck. We decided to be taken to Panguitch, a little expensive, but what the heck. Car is waiting for good ol' Gary and mechanic here to determine what to do. Whatever, I suspect Glen and I will not venture out much anymore. I still shudder at what could have happened. Glen's ability to move about is about shot. How I could have gotten him out of that car on fire in that tunnel is still a nightmare.
My trip to Zion didn't find me many answers about photograph paper, but the wife of the guy with tow truck is an artist....a nice lady trying to get a break. I like her work. Oh, if I were only younger!!....I'd like to help would-bes like her....and me do something that would cut the mustard....whatever that really means.
Anyway, we are still here to tackle another day. Veda

New web site - vedahale.com

August 6 2011

Shawn Caine, the computer teacher at Panguitch High School, has helped me put together a web site that, hopefully, will bring together all the scattered ends of the web referring to Veda Hale and putting it in one place. (Glen hasn't been very interested in building his own identity.) She started it last year with her students to give them hands-on experience. Would I ever have gotten around to it without this incentive? I doubt it. But here it is. Of course there is still much to add.
Just type in as an http vedahale.com

adventurs

So well I remember the feeling of stepping into the new and unfamiliar! I'm happy and proud of Jason and Erin and family for their willingness to explore. I conclude that
"there is nothing to fear but fear itself....and boredom." My little doggie, Bozie, is a good example. Life has been good. He has no fears, but Oh, does he get bored! We go for our walk. He marks his territory. We come home to his many toys, which he just looks at and steps over. Sometimes he comes to me, puts a paw up and just makes this little whine that seems to say..."Now what. Is this all there is?"
Glen and I had the same feeling of adventure when we were young. And we headed out. Glen's frequent saying was "Nothing ventured, nothing gained." We would go into 1957 post war Japan to explore a city that held, we were told later, many terrible things. We saw things that many Americans didn't, just because we weren't afraid of what was around the next corner.
Now we are old. We let NOT knowing where the next bathroom will be, or how the next bed will feel, or if we will just see the same old stuff, keep us almost home bound. Dang!

toot own horn

I would not have thought to do it. But new friend from Laguna Beach insisted in taking one of my pictures to Springville to enter in the spiritual and religious contest. I couldn't see much in my stuff that would fit, but let him take a watercolor of sheep and lamb, which we labeled "Mother Love". Didn't win awards, but was accepted to hang in the show at the museum.

wonderful lady

O for the wonders of people you meet. August 25, 2010 was another one of those days and when it is over, one shakes his head with dismay. Last night was just such a night.
Started visiting with this not-so- young but well preserved lady. And what a story developed.

Married to a man whom neither had any idea of his talents. The first time he begins to write, he creates this master piece and turns into a movie. One success follows another and soon the women are falling at his feet in hopes they could star in his next movie. Well like, Bill Clinton and the golf star, they would and could and so the marriage breaks up.
Meanwhile the lady acquaintances, who we do not even remember her name, turns out to be a world class rower as well as a teacher with special skills.
Well hours later she leaves and Veda & I are left shaking our heads; wanting to know more and not being able to even know how to contact her. A women who wants out of the California rat race and would love to settle in a peaceful area like Southern Utah and yes, even Panguitch.
We would love to follow what happens next. Maybe she will do as she said and email us. She was one human being we would like more in our lives. From Norway, she and parents are into Pay It Forward philosophy. This is written by Glen

It Makes Sense - Doggie Napped and Chocolate

Don't you love it when those health researchers actually come up with something easy to do that could improve our health? Chocolate to lower blood pressure? Yeah, I can handle that! Of course, they throw in a "Yes, but".... "yes but, it should be dark chocolate.....really dark. Well, I'm a chocolate lover, I can still handle it pretty dark." I won't give up my blood pressure pills though. Not yet. I hope I'm smart enough that, when those "folks" tell me that dark chocolate .... to quote:
"is comparable to the known effects of 30 daily minutes of physical activity (4-9mm Hg) and could theoretically reduce the risk of a cardiovascular event by about 20% over five years," that I don't think "goody, goody, I'll eat my dark chocolate bar and skip the exercise." I'd sure like to. I hate to exercise and to make dark chocolate eatable I'll probably want some sweetener, which means calories.
I wonder if chasing after this new puppy I got will count for exercise. Pets are supposed to make you live longer. Puppy love and dark chocolate--two new things I've added to my life for health.
(I've also added a silly reputation with the local sheriff when we on the street couldn't find my new pup and were just sure he had been "doggy napped". "After all," I said "Isn't he so cute it is reasonable to assume someone would steal him?" You can imagine what our patient sheriff said. Oh yes, puppy was so tired being "cute" that he had crawled under the bed and gone to sleep.
Send suggestions to Veda Hale Box 956, Panguitch, Utah 84759 or email vedahale@yahoo.com

column about America

I have opportunity to visit with many different people. For this I am grateful....most of the time. However, lately I feel myself sometimes filling with despair. The news isn't good, the responses to the news are not good . I forget my prior resolution to put things in an historical perspective and think "this too will pass". It has helped during this fourth of July celebration to receive a wonderful book by a now local adventurer, Bill Chapman, who opened a photographic gallery three miles north of Hatch. In his young days, he build a raft and floated the Mississippi River from start to finish and also did it again thirty-two years later in 2002. His perspective is right soothing. Rivers can call up in us a strong, visual and emotional reminder that movement and change and flow is how it is. Sometimes the flow has to put up with obstacles, but it just keeps doing its thing--flowing. Freedom, prosperity, greed, restrictions, too many restrictions, a tantrum of some kind and then back to freedom's peaceful flow. I suppose it makes sense to sometimes just go fishing, commune with a river and wait. And sometimes it means it makes sense to step up and help boost our lot in the flow through the rapids. That is the hard part, knowing when it is our turn to paddle or boost. I have no easy formula to know that time. For some of us, we can only be cheerleaders. And cheer for America I choose to do. I like what was in our Lake Branch Church program last Sunday. It was written decades ago by the beloved American poet, Carl Sandburg. Here it is:
"I see America, not in the setting sun of a black night of despair ahead of us. I see America in the crimson light of a rising sun, fresh from the burning, creative hand of God. I see great days ahead, great days possible to men and women of will and vision."
Send suggestions to Veda Hale Box 956 Panguitch, Utah or email vedahale@hotmail.com