This Taxpayer is Tired

We've seen our property taxes double since we moved to Ammon in the early 2010s. Voting yes on a larger levy for School District 93 means another increase.

I get that the schools need the money. Thing is, everybody needs the money. I know we could use it. I'd love to pay off that mortgage that much sooner. Build a shed or a shop. Repair the porch roof that's sagging. So many other things.

If we had a state legislature that was doing something to help schools instead of frittering tax money on vouchers and tax cuts and only restoring some of the cut funds after the cuts literally killed four people, maybe I'd feel differently.

That's a big if, I know. So I'll probably vote for this levy. Just like voting for legislators that actually care about education, it's part of the bargain. But I'm tired, boss.

2013, we paid $976 in property taxes. Same year, about $740 in state income taxes on income of about $75,000.

Last year, $2018. This levy vote will put that up another $150 a year. Same year, $4,200 in state income taxes on income of about $110,000.

ARIZONA GILBERT!

Isaac opened his mission call.

He's going to Gilbert, Arizona.

Before he opened his call, I had three predictions:

1. New Zealand.

2. Quebec/France (somewhere French speaking)

3. Mongolia.

At the last minute, he guessed Flagstaff, Arizona. So I was way off and he was really close.

And of course as his guests are here, right before the call reveal he's out at his therapy wood chopping area:

He's out there still chopping with Josh, one of his buddies.

Yes, in his Sunday duds. Getting ready to serve like a missionary.

Finally. And "Tighten" is Apparently Invited

 

Messin' With the Bots

 

This is either a bot account or it's run by someone whose English is rudimentary, or they're just plain lazy.

Anyway, it was fun to mess with them.

Mothership

 

Spotted these lenticular clouds on the way home from scouts tonight.

The one on the bottom had the best, long-lasting definition, but like the one on "top," it was changing shape pretty quickly.

Looked at in a larger format, even the top cloud has those tell-tale lenticular characteristics.

No mountain underneath, though, which I thought was a prerequisite, but I'm certainly ignorant on a lot of things, so why not lenticular clouds?

EVERYONE IN THE HOUSE LISTEN TO ME!

Certain people around here don't know how hard it is for me to sit on news of the magnitude I'm sitting on and not rupture something 

Not that I know *all* the news, just that news has arrived and its reveal is imminent but it's not my place to announce the news so here I sit, looking right girly in Rick's dress.

I Capture the Castle - It *Is* A Kissing Book

 

So here's the deal: This book is indeed a soppy romance story featuring, at the end, an English Ignatius J. Reilly who gets locked in the dungeon of an ancient castle tower until he writes the second book of his genius career and the family is set back on kilter, or at least as much on kilter as the family could be.

I liked it. It felt a little ponderous and wandering, but at least it had a plot, unlike John Crowley's "Little, Big," to which I compared the book earlier this year.

If you want eccentric rural with a lot more humor, pick Stella Gibbons' "Cold Comfort Farm," but this book had a slow charm of its own, and built nicely toward the end when I suppose we should be cheering that someone connects with someone else. And they do, in ways you expect because that's how the expectations were set up waaaaaay at the beginning.

Dodie Smith does keep the story going, however, something Crowley didn't seem bothered to do. But it could have used a lot more of Gibbons' humor.

A Love of Words

As I sometimes to at church as and after we sing hymns in Sacrament Meeting, I looked up the history of the lyricist or composer of one of the songs we sang.

We sang for Sacrament "In Humility, Our Savior," which has long been one of my favorite hymns, and is in fact one I became most familiar with as I served a mission in France, as the hymn is one the saints there love. In fact, the three songs we sang today were very popular in France.

Anyway, this lady is Mabel Jones Gabbott, born in Malad, Idaho, as part of a colony of Welsh Mormons who settled the area. She grew to have a love of words, fed in part by Welsh traditions of singing and storytelling. More of her story here.

She spent a life with words, crafting hymns, poems, and editing many works for various church magazines. In her life is proof that one doesn't have to have widespread recognition to contribute to the greater good.

One of her most recognized works is the poem "Eve and I," which she wrote as she realized there was little told from Eve's point of view in the creation story. It's a lovely poem:

Declampetting

Matchpoint Drive residents will be glad to know we declampetted our front porch. The broken-down toilets are finally gone.

Neighbors have indeed chimed in:

Isaac, looking for things to do as he waits for the mission call, split up a ton of the wood we have left in the front yard from the pine tree, probably almost half of what's left, so the yard is looking excessively bare tonight.

A Few Updates

So a few updates:

CLOCK. The clock, which we discovered today is technically a "grandmother clock," is fixed. Brad from The Clock Doc down in Utah happened to be planning a series of service calls in our area and was able to come today.

It turns out that the little fork that held the pendulum attachment to the clock was indeed bent a little bit, but he had the experience to know how to bend it back into shape and to get the clock working again. While he was there he gave it a tune-up and a good cleaning. We didn't necessarily have the $350 to spend on it, but it made sense to have the work done while he was here and the clock was in pieces anyway.

I didn't take any pictures while the clock was being worked on, which now seems like a mistake.

I'm glad it's working again. I love hearing that clock chime.

Here is a picture of the clock, though.

And his business card, if you're interested.

HACKERS. The Hack on Canvas appears to be over, but as usual we don't really get to hear what actually happened. I don't imagine anyone paid the ransom that was being asked for - at least I hope they didn't.