Dear Elder Davidson No. 5

4 October 2026

Hello Isaac,

Do you know what’s fun? Taking a car in for an alignment and after it’s done having two of the dashboard warning lights that’ve been on for a very long time turn off.

I don’t know if it’s coincidence or what, but after the Red Herring alignment was done, the light for the VTM-4 and the evap system turned off. Maybe without the alignment and the suspension parts that got replaced it was just enough out of kilter to trigger the sensors to light up. But now I’m just down to the airbag light and, occasionally, the TPMS.

Also, we’ve had the Blood Brother to Kevin and back as well. There was an ABS warning light on the dash, and a message that the all-wheel drive system was, as a result, not operational. It seemed important to get that looked at before winter sets in, so when we had to pick up the Red Herring we left it there. As Kevin was looking around, he saw a sensor that had been taped up. He poked at the tape and the wire it was on crumbled under the pressure. So he replaced the wire and got things fixed up.

And hey, here’s some excitement: I finally found the part I needed to fix the Camp Chef. Behold:

I know. This is exciting stuff. And I’ll tell you the story. Liam and I went to Lowe’s to see if we could find what we needed. We found something we thought would work, but when I got it home I realized it wasn’t going to work. So the next day I went back to Lowes and got a different item. But when I got it home, it also no worky. Third time back to Lowe’s and I couldn’t find what I needed, so left defeated. I decided to try Home Depot one more time before I gave up. What worked there was finding a very helpful young man who knew right where to find the part I needed. AND IT WORKED. So the Camp Chef is now completely reassembled, just in time to stow it for the winter. What I’m actually going to do is store it in the garage so maybe we can use it later in the year. I still have the other one to repair, but as I’m not really sure what’s wrong with it, that may take a while. I’d like it to just disappear, but that’s not going to happen. By the way, some of my Facebook friends said I was making a bong.

I hope you’re enjoying Conference. We never got to see much of Conference when I was in France. It did get broadcast to certain chapels in our mission area, but they were typically pretty far away from where I was serving so we didn’t get to see much of it. Sometimes we got to see recordings of it months later, and that was nice. But mostly we had to wait for the magazines to come so we could read the talks. I’m sure missionaries and members all over get to see them a lot more live than we ever did. Technology has marched on.

I really liked Timothy Farnes’ message – he’s the Young Men’s President. He talked about ministering, of course, but what he said at one point really hit me: We just have to see the person God puts in our path. Seeing enables compassion. I’ll try to remember that as God puts people in my path.

You may need to brace yourself for this: Mom did a dog toy purge and Dottie’s tequila bottle is now in the trash. She (Dottie, not necessarily your mother) loved it to death, but it’s really dirty and slightly stinky. So I’ll be on the lookout at TJMaxx for a replacement.

Also, for some reason the clothing bar in your closet broke into three pieces. You’ll remember it was made of wood and they kind of stitched it together out of different piece of wood. The seams popped in two places. So I’ve replaced it with a metal bar. Hopefully that’ll hold up better.

As you can see, you’re missing a lot of high-level excitement around here.

For fun on Friday (speaking of excitement) I made a long chore list and thought I’d see how much I could get done from it. It mostly involved moving stuff from one place to a different place, but stacking things more strategically so I could cram more stuff in the same space. I swear people are smuggling things onto the property because I came across some stuff I’m not sure I remember ever purchasing. That did include clearing off your workbench so I could put Mom’s dragon mask back on it. I need to get it wrapped up in plastic again because it’s been moved around a bit this year and parts are starting to fall off. I tried clearing enough stuff I could get it put on a shelf in the garage, but that didn’t work. I’ll probably have to stow it in the utility trailer with Mom’s Jeep this winter . . . I am making efforts to preserve it, though. She put a lot of work into it, and it has been used a few times since she made it.

We had Lexi and Keaton over for games tonight. One of these days we’re going to do a game day on Monday and we’ll call you up so you can whoop us all at Five Crowns. I don’t know if that’s kosher with your mission president, so maybe don’t give him a heads up first.

I should probably end this letter now. It’s after 9 pm, past my bedtime, and I still have to prep my BYUI class for the new week.

So, be a good missionary. I know you will be.

Love, Dad

Finally!

Finally.

After a third trip to Lowe's, where I left defeated, I tried Home Depot again. Found a very helpful young man who took me right to what I needed.

So today, not only did I fix the manifold, I got it put back on the Camp Chef, just in time to put it away for the winter.

I'm happy it's fixed. So is Mrs. Tweedy.

Still Working on the Camp Chef

So yes, I'm *still* trying to fix the manifold on the Camp Chef.

Thought I'd hit the jackpot at Lowe's today when Liam and I found a brass tee with the requisite dimensions. But, alas, when I got it home, I could see it wasn't going to work.

So while on the home from another errand, I took the tee back and found one I thought would do the job.

Alas, no. The dimensions are perfect, almost. But the threads are fine, not coarse, so it won't. I get to go back tomorrow and see if I can find yet another alternative.

Scam Mathematics

Here's another reason to despise groups that post mathematical brain-teasers on Facebook: They don't care about your math brain, they just want you to spread their message so they can change it to sell to your friends.

Here's one, still in math form:

Because that 79 isn't a non sequitur answer. It legitimately (or not; I'm no mind reader or math whiz) answered the quiz question under a post that purports to offer discounts from Walmart on their crap, but goes, of course, to someone selling, at best, Chinesium, or at worst, nothing but they hope to get your money before you know it.

This is all that appears on the site from the first photo above:

They use the Walmart name in *some* of the posts, but this is more likely cutting out the middleman and sending you straight to Asia-based scammers.

Social media has become a cesspool of this kind of stuff because . . . they get engagement and eyeballs and probably money along the way, and waaaaaaaay down on their list of priorities is stopping scams, because hey, free dummy.

Bo Shooda

Michelle is in the next room seemingly free associating about O Cedar sponges. I came into the room and said I associated O Cedar sponges with Jabba the Hutt, because he says "Bo chooda" a lot, and it sounds like O Cedar.

I'm not really sure that's what she was hoping to get out of the conversation. But I never really know what's going on anyway, so what the heck.

A Little Catch-Up, A Little Hypocrisy

First, the catch-up, to keep order in things:

Every year at work, they scramble to have their seasonal facility plans in place by October 1. As with most years, it's put off to the last minute.

I was handed one last week, late last week, and it needed a major edit and absolutely had to be done on the 29th. It had been revised a year ago, and how it avoided the rewrite it badly needed then is a mystery for the ages.

I had the major edit and the revised document reviewed and complete on the 28th.

Thanks from the customer. But not from anyone else.

Not that I go fishing for praise. But it is nice to get once in a while.

Next, the hypocrisy.

I'll keep this vague. But I was called out - rightly - for some snotty behavior. No matter that said behavior coming the opposite way a week or so prior was overlooked.

Saw this in the wild:

"I believe everyone deserves forgiveness." [Goes on to immediately list a long list of people who, in the mind of the OP, do *not* deserve forgiveness.]

This is the world we live in. Motes and beams abound.

I'm working harder to keep my mouth shut.

Dear Elder Davidson No. 4

27 September 2027

Hello Isaac,

You’ll be happy to know the Red Herring is parked in the driveway, getting ready for the final phase of repairs. I’m supposed to take it in for a wheel alignment this coming Friday and then see about the tires. Once that’s done, it’ll go back to Kevin for the timing belt kit then, cross fingers, we should be good to go for awhile. We’ve spent close to a thousand dollars so far on repairs, but I still think it’s a bargain compared to shopping around for a different vehicle, particularly as we’re still paying Mom’s truck off. Good thing teaching at BYUI is back in swing so we can afford these repairs. But it does mean once the last round is complete, I can go back to getting buckets of sand and maybe finish leveling the back yard this fall. And I am looking forward to driving it to work in the morning. It’s funny to say, but I’ve missed it these past few weeks.

Yesterday we took a trip to Montpelier to see the last day of the temple open house. It took 2 ½ hours to drive there, and it felt like a long trip. But it was worth it. When we got there we waited in the old Tabernacle next door. The tabernacle was built in 1917 and has some Art Deco flairs, particularly on the lighting, that they echoed in the temple. All looking very streamlined.

As we were touring the temple, one of the volunteers there came up to me and commented on my “John Widtstoe beard.” I’m familiar with the name; he was an early apostle, scientist, and man-about-town as you’d assume if someone was commenting on a beardy lookalike. I Googled photos of him later and really couldn’t find a photo of him with a beard like mine, but perhaps this guy knows more than the Internet when it comes to old LDS apostles. Anway, he was pretty funny about it. As we were heading out he came up to me one last time and asked if the beard gave me any “extra authority” at home. I laughed and said, “Oh, you’re kidding,” and Mom echoed that: “Oh, not a stitch.” So even with my early 1900s apostle beard, I still don’t get any respect.

After the temple visit, we drove another 15 miles south to see the Paris Tabernacle. This one was built in 1888 and was used as a guinea pig for the foundation reinforcement they performed on the Salt Lake temple just recently, or so the tour guide says. I’ve always wondered why the early saints in Idaho didn’t rally to build a temple like they had in some of the far-flung Utah settlements. I suppose divine inspiration had some to do with the building of temples, even back then. And the Logan temple, finished before the tabernacle here, was not that far off. Sixty miles, per Google Maps, and only one valley over. So I’m sure the saints in the valley around Paris didn’t visit the temple much during the winter.

We had thoughts – at least I did – about going further south and visiting some of the sites from my family’s history in Laketown, Utah, but as it was we didn’t get home until after 8 pm and the dogs and made an unholy mess in the kitchen, even though we had Maaike come and let them out once while we were gone. We stopped for dinner on the way home, but waited until we got to Idaho Falls before we did so. As we passed Pocatello, Mom commented from way in the back “So we’re not stopping in Pocatello?” Liam and I responded that we were more familiar with Idaho Falls than Pocatello, so she called us cowards, which was right. Though I know there’s a great Chinese restaurant in Poky but have a hard time talking Mom into eating such food.

I’m sure you’re thrilled by all of this food- and poop-related news. I might be a little cranky with the dogs as they had me out of bed just after five this morning and we really whiny about getting breakfast straight away. That’s just entirely too early. They usually don’t get breakfast until after six, when I’m getting ready for work, the little twerps. What galls the most is now they’re napping peacefully in different areas of the basement and look at me like “Hey, why did you get us up so early” when I happen to make some kind of noise or movement that wakes them up.

Hey, imagine my surprise when I opened up Facebook yesterday and saw this on the Gilbert Arizona mission page. We’re watching you, Wazowski, always watching . . .

I mean, I guess y’all know what you look like so you don’t need to see this picture, but it was fun to see it in the wild. And you know, I know Elders are young these days, but they guy sitting in the middle on the couch looks like he’s about 14 years old. Tell him this 54-year-old who is regularly mistaken for a 78-year-old is jealous of his youthful looks.

Love, Dad

Borr-ing!

Back when I was a student at the University of Idaho, I submitted a short story to a sort of contest open to university students, the winners of which were invited to a writing conference at the school with Raymond Federman, a French-American "experimental author."

I was selected.

I attended the conference.

The only thing I got out of it was excuses from Federman that he had not read my particular piece, and he felt bad about it, but as far as I know he never read it.

After a few excuses from him, I figured attending and of the non-conference events tied to his visit were going to be worthless, so I didn't. That decision seemed wise when I listened to attendees of one of the events talk, with some awe, about Federman's preoccupation with sex at one of those off-course meetings.

I bring this up because as I struggle to read Michael Chabon's "Manhood for Amateurs," I kinda get the feeling that he's got that same preoccupation and that continuing to read the book is going to be pretty useless.

There exists a certain kind of author that thinks whatever they happen to think is gold and deserves to be shared with the world at large, and I feel Chabon is in that vein. Maybe he's better in person. But yeah, not a lot of value here.

So no, I didn't finish the book. It just wasn't getting any better 3/4 of the way through it. I don't like to abandon books, but this one deserved it.

I Love to See the Temple

 

We did a thing today.

Liam decided he wanted to see the Montpelier Idaho Temple in the last day of the open house.

So we did the two-hour drive, saw the temple, some fall foliage, and threw the Paris Tabernacle into the mix as well.

Odd to see a temple without an Angel Moroni on the spire, but the church is trending that way, and I'm fine with it. (And, according to this article, it's a more widespread practice than I previously thought.)

Tired now, though. A lot of time in the car. . .

The Red Herring is Back

Good news everyone! We got the Red Herring Back.

You may recall the car went into the shop a few weeks ago to see about fixing some of its many ills. We got it back briefly with new brakes and took it in for a wheel alignment, but parts were so worn out they couldn't get the alignment to stick. So back it went to Kevin, who has now replaced parts in both the front and rear of the vehicle so we're off again to the alignment shop.

Once we're past that, it's new tires, then back to Kevin for Round Three, which involves a timing belt kit and a run-through of some sensors sending out some distress signals.

In the meantime, we've dropped Liam's 1997 Pontiac minivan off to him to look at the anti-lock brake system.

The bill for the Honda has come to about a thousand dollars with more to come, but it's still better than shopping for a new, much more expensive vehicle to replace it.