25 October 2026
Dear Isaac,
Hey, I have EXCITING NEWS for you this week. Brace yourself:
I replaced the ice maker in the fridge.
The ice maker just stopped working about a month ago. I had
no idea why. I thought about calling in a repair person, but they typically
want $200 just to show up at the door. So I did the computer thing: I unplugged
the fridge and let it thaw out over 24 hours. So we lived out of coolers for a
few days, because after the 24 hours passed I plugged the fridge back in and it
had to get down to temperature again.
That, unfortunately,
didn’t work. So we did the next best thing, which was to use ice trays to make
ice while I figured out what to do. I did check the water supply – that was
good – and then tried to take the old ice maker out to give it an assessment.
That didn’t go so well, and I’m pretty sure I broke it a little further. So at
that time since I *knew* at least part of the ice maker was broken, I found a
new one on Amazon for $47 and installed it on Friday. It was kind of hard to
get to, since it’s low to the ground and I am not a small man. I finally
decided to make it a little easier by taking the freezer door off so at least
that was out of the way. Mom had to help me with one screw because my meaty
hands were too big to get into the little area between the ice maker and the
freezer drawer. But glorious news, I did
remember how to put the freezer door back on and the ice maker did indeed make
two batches of ice before we had to leave for a weekend of Introduction to
Outdoor Leadership Skills training at Krupp, so I annoyed Liam with constant
requests for updates on the ice maker pretty much all day Saturday.
So that’s my exciting story. And that photo shows the old
broken ice maker, which is now happily residing in the trash can in front of
the house.
Mom roped me into going to the council’s Introduction to
Outdoor Leadership Skills training this past weekend. They were worried, as
with much of the training that goes on in the council, that they wouldn’t have
enough people to sign up for it. She wanted to take it, and asked if I’d go
along for the ride. Lexi and her mother-in-law also went.
I was a little cranky about going, and then when I found out
it was going to be another downpour weekend, I was really cranky because since
it was IOLS, they were insisting we sleep in a tent for it. So I packed our tent,
and brought another one because someone called to ask if we had an extra one,
and I was contemplating a cold soggy night and having to set up and dry two
tents on the weekend. But, thank heaven, when we got there it was rainy and dark
enough they let us sleep in the cabins at Krupp. So I went from stressing about
two tents to having the only stress be the quarter-mile round trip for the
bathroom, since the bathrooms in the cabins are off limits and the ones at the
Farmhouse were locked. We did end up having a good training, though.
I still don’t know
how to tie the knots we’re supposed to know. That’s pretty much the thing I
struggle with in Scouting, knots. I just can’t seem to get the knack. I know if
I spent a lot of time tying knots and knowing what knots to use, I’d be better
at them. But right now I’m content to be bad at knots and bore my youngest as I
talk about how bad I am at tying them.
Exciting news at work: I got a new computer and a new
keyboard. I think that’s the first time they’ve given me a new keyboard since I
started working there 20 years ago. It’s nice to look at the keys and first of
all be able to read the text on all of the keys, and second of all to look down
between the keys and not see two or our other peoples’ collection of keyboard
crud. Yes, I do continue to lead an exciting life.
We did our tithing declaration today. Bishop Pullins asked,
of course, how you were doing, and we said you were doing great. I mentioned
that you had a miscommunication with a barber and ended up with a buzz cut. He
told us the following story: He was in Mexico with his trainer, living with
three Mexican missionaries who didn’t speak much English. They were getting
ready to go to his first zone conference and he decided he wanted a haircut. He
was having a hard time communicating with his barber and ended up with a buzz
cut as well. He said is companion looked at his haircut and could see Elder
Pullins was pretty stressed out about it. So he told the barber to give him the
same cut, so he wouldn’t feel alone. He said that companion, with whom he served
twice on his mission, became his hero, and that they’re still in touch. I
thought that was a fun story.
I have to go back to work in the morning. I remember as a
kid my dad getting what we call the “Sunday Scaries,” where he said the weekend
was never long enough and he didn’t want to go back to work. But he did, week after
week after week. That’s what you have to do. You may find missionary work to be
like that from time to time, but the only way through it is to work and keep
working.
I won’t preach at you anymore. Hoping you’re learning lots.
Love, Dad
PS: Your hair will grow back. Eventually.
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