March Madness: MORE SNOW!

March 1-8, 2014

SATURDAY    We had our usual morning shift but it was so cold no one came to visit at the Memorial. The afternoon was cold also so I spent most of the time with the TV.  The BYU women were playing on TV and men on the radio so I kept switching back and forth trying to keep tabs on both.  After the BYU games, I took another walk and thankfully have nothing to report except some sore muscles. It was still cold but I needed to get out.  I did a little study for institute before the BYU Volleyball match started on TV again.  

Original doorstep and other ruins from the birthplace home are under snow.

SUNDAY     Today was fast Sunday but it really didn’t seem to be too fast.  As we were about to start Sacrament, the Bishop looked around and saw no one to lead the music so over the pulpit he asked Rhonda if she would come lead.  She quickly volunteered me to do it.  I went up and tried but they were singing quite a fast paced song and the young Johnson girl who was playing the organ only had one speed, needless to say, I was off beat the first measure.  We made it through.  When it came time for Priesthood, the Bishop ask, “Elder Osgood, would you come lead the music?”  I told him I answered to a lot of things but that was something new.  After church I started watching golf on TV.  It turned to be a really interesting finish as all the top of the leader board had a turn of hitting the ball in the water.  Later Bro. Harman came over with some chips and dip and Rhonda had just made fresh banana bread so we exchanged “goodies” and had a good visit.   
MONDAY     After a slow morning, we ended up taking a rush trip to W. Lebanon to get some potatoes.  We discovered we needed them for tomorrow’s dinner.   The afternoon shift proved to be pretty quiet except for one non-member who just happened to show up to see the Monument but didn’t want a tour but I gave her a brief 15 minutes anyway as she ask a few questions.  We had about the usual turnout for Family Home Evening.       
TUESDAY  A lot of the morning was spent getting ready for the afternoon.  We met

Sis. Harmon made Dawn's Birthday Cake

Sis. & Elder Mooney and Dawn

at the Memorial at noon for a dinner with the FM office personnel and all the missionaries.  We had a nice but simple lunch but it was good to meet some of the FM directors whom we hadn’t met before.  After they left, the afternoon was pretty quiet.  No visitors, as the weather is very cold.  We were to pick up Kelsey Preston for institute but got lost on the way.  The GPS didn’t seem to kick in until it was re-routing.  We back-tracked and finally got on the right road and made it with no minutes to spart before the scheduled starting time and were still the first ones there.  We ended up with 4 students in attendance, our largest class so far.  We ended up traveling both too and from Norwich Univ. in light snow and were glad to get home about 10:30pm.
WEDNESDAY   Today is our full-day shift.  It is still lightly snowing and cold.   Sister Talbot came with her kids to watch a movie for our only visitors for the day.    

THURSDAY   I guess we make up for lack of action today by having our day off.  We spent the morning trimming my hair, cleaning the apartment, washing, re-washing the car, etc. trying to get ready for another week.  We eventually got tired of cleaning and went shopping in NH in the late afternoon.    At Wendy’s the girl at the register knew how to make our drinks and then she showed us a new “key tag” for small frosty’s each time you come in until the end of August.   We had been sad since the ones we bought in Utah ran out at the end of the year.  We didn’t really need too many things but needed the outing as much as anything.  Once home, I watched some of the WCC Women’s conference tournament games as well as other men’s games on ESPN.   
FRIDAY     Did some additional cleaning, ironed shirts, and tried to straighten everything again to get ready for our “party” at night.   After our afternoon shift at the memorial, we hurried home and finished our candy popcorn, etc.  Soon all the Sr. Missionaries came for a night out.  We talked for a while, Rhonda showed “Only a Stone Cutter” DVD and then we had treats.  After that I tried to get everyone oriented to the rules of Crazy Rook.  After a practice hand, we had an interesting game.  At least it was a chance to “change the scenery” and we all had a good time.   The pictures are around our kitchen table with games and goodies.

SATURDAY     It seemed like a short night before our morning shift.  As soon as we got there, I cut Elder Osborn’s hair.  He must not have thought the last cut was too bad as it has only been two weeks.  Things were quiet so Rhonda went to the Church to get a little practice on the organ.  We did have some excitement at the Memorial.  Sister Tarawhiti (who was just transferred from here) brought some investigators from near Boston as well as more missionaries from a couple hours away brought a group of 20 people.  Osborn’s decided that since they had to drive from so far they would have a “sandwich lunch” for them.  We were also invited to lunch which was nice for a change.  We left Osborn’s with the last group to see a movie and went back to the apartment where there were lots of basketball games going on so I was well contented.

Farewell to February

February 23-28

 

New FM Missionaries: Eld Mike Mooney/ Sis Teri Mooney     Eld Kent Harman/ Sis Tammy Harman

SUNDAY   --    We had Ward Conference at Church today so quite a few visitors.  It was a good meeting, as usual. We went directly from the meetings to the Memorial for the rest of the day.  The Elders from Lamoille, VT scheduled a tour and a 69 minute movie at 4:00pm.  They showed up at 4:45.  We were still there until after 7:00pm and then they went to see the monument and I turned out the lights and drove off while they were still around.  They didn’t seem to be in any hurry.  I was pretty much starved by the time we got home so I cooked the fastest thing I could, Macaroni and cheese.  We then made candied popcorn and I ended up gaining more weight.  Once my stomach got full, I watched the Utah-Ariz. State basketball game on TV along with some other game highlights.  

MONDAY   --   It seemed like a pretty day so I went for a walk but soon found out that the wind was still pretty cold and the ice on the sidewalks was still pretty slippery.  When I got back, Rhonda was making corn-chowder for FHE so I started peeling potatoes.  We are back to doing the afternoon shift now on Mondays and it cuts down a lot of travel and wasted time. 

Sister Tarawhiit saying "Good-bye"

We said good-bye to Sister Tarawhiti today as she is being transferred tomorrow.  There were quite a few at FHE and they didn’t seem to want to disperse either.  Almost all of them sat around and talked until after 7:30pm.  I guess that is good as they probably don’t have a chance to visit with other Church members very much.   

TUESDAY   --   I put on more clothes for my morning walk but the wind was still cool on my face but by the time I got back, the sun was out and the roads seemed about dry so I decided to wash the car again, hoping it would last a couple of days.  It turned out to be a L O N G  day at the Memorial as no visitors came.  I ended up going to the theater and watching a movie.  They had just installed new blinds and it was so light I couldn’t see the movie very good.  I commented to the Osborn’s and they soon called FM to get some darkening blinds.   We went to Northfield, Norwich Univ. for Institute.  We had three students attend tonight.  We seem to have one additional each time, hope the trend continues.   After the treats, the students didn’t seem to want to leave either.  We stayed for over a half-hour and finally asked them to lock the doors when they were finished visiting.  It snowed most of the way back to Sharon--so much for a clean car, but at least I keep trying.  

Refreshment after YW in Excellence Program

WEDNESDAY - There was not much exciting happening at the Memorial today so I went to the visitors center and talked to the new FM missionaries while they were installing some darkening blinds in the theater room.  After they left, I just sat down and watched a movie that I hadn’t seen for another hour.  It seemed like a pretty long day.  The evening didn’t turn out much better.  Rhonda went to the Church to accompany the YW for their program and was gone over two hours.  I tried to keep busy, I re-varnished my JSBM walking sticks as there wasn’t much to watch on TV. 

THURSDAY -  Today is our day-off.  I went for a cold walk up the dirt roads in the morning.  It was pretty cool and it seemed like the wind blew in your face no matter which direction you walked.  There isn’t much happening, snow flurries out the window, etc.  We went to W. Lebanon shopping in the late afternoon.  We have about the same shopping routine each week.  Usually the first stop is to Wendy’s, then to JoAnne’s, the grocery stores and to get gas and then it is back home.  Really not much variety but it always seems to take us a while.   

FRIDAY    It is still cold but I took a walk anyway, about the same as yesterday.  I saw one outside thermometer which showed the temperature to be 2 degrees.   Once I started down the hill I decided to try a little jogging.  I thought I was doing OK and all of a sudden I found myself sprawling on the road.  All I can figure out is that I must have kicked a frozen rock and it upset me.  My dark glasses were all bent out of shape, skinned my knee and made a hole in my pants besides a few scrapes on the side of the face.  Once I got collected I decided it best to walk the rest of the way to the apartment.  It took a few minutes to get the blood on my leg cleaned up and back to normal.  I was lucky, only 1 little to the side of the eye and the rest of the hurt was just my pride.  To the Memorial in the afternoon for our usual afternoon shift.  Harman’s brought their daughter from Virginia for a tour so Rhonda took them through.  That was the only visitor we had for the day.

 

New Missionaries!

Lots of Snow

February 16-22

SUNDAY  --   Regular Church schedule.  Met the other new FM couple (Mooneys) at Church. They just arrived in the late hours of Saturday.  They seem like a nice couple as do the Harmons!  

Icicles at Church

  

Spent the afternoon at home just trying to get caught up on some of the odds and ends I haven’t seemed to finish before now.  We were asked to take Sister Raymond to Tim Luce’s baptism at the Church.    We almost got stuck in her roadway as the wind had blown and snow had drifted in and it was pretty deep.  We were spinning several times to get up her hill.  The Baptism was a nice service with treats afterward.  President Stoker came to the baptism because he was here staying at the Memorial in preparation for Zone Conference tomorrow.    

MONDAY  - Today was Zone Conference at the Church.  We attended until the noon break.  We hurried and grabbed some food and then off to the Memorial to relieve Osborn’s who were on the Conference program in the afternoon.  It turned out to be a really good day.  We had quite a good number of visitors come.  It was nice to be busy again!  We also had a good crowd at FHE.       

TUESDAY  -  We had the weekly missionary meeting at the Memorial before we started our regular shift.  Rhonda gave the lesson and did a great job.  It started snowing in the early afternoon and didn’t seem to be letting up so we decided to cancel Institute for the night.  I didn’t have the students’ phone numbers so I emailed them and ask them to reply.  Only one student replied so when we got home I got out the phone numbers and started calling.  I believe I finally made contact with all of them before they would have left for the class.  We just stayed at the apartment for the rest of the night.  I got out my varnish and gave the walking sticks a going over on the top half.  I also finished my reading The Work and the Glory (volumes 1-9) for the second time. 

WEDNESDAY  -  We had our normal All-day shift so Osborn’s could get a day off.  We had several visitors and at the end of the day we waited at the Memorial so Rhonda could go to song practice with the YW since they were having combined Mutual they were going to practice early.  It snowed off and on for the afternoon and when we stopped at the Church for practice, no YW showed up and only 1 YM so things were pretty much cancelled.  We were scheduled to have the combined activity showing movies at the Memorial but it all fell through since there was no participation.  We finally got home a little after 7:00pm.  I was certainly ready for some food.       

Entering the "Longest" covered bridge crossing the Connecticut River from New Hampshire to Vermont

View from road-side about a mile away

THURSDAY  -   Today is our day-off.  We had a calm morning—but it really turned out to be a nice day.  So nice in fact that I had to get the bucket and wash the car.  We made our shopping run in the afternoon (after a stop to Wendy’s).            While we were in that end of town we headed down the road toward Windsor, VT.  It is there that they have the longest covered bridge around.  It goes across the Connecticut River, probably over 100 yards. All the signs were pretty much covered up with snow to read the particulars.  We took the slow road back to W. Lebanon to finish our shopping and get gas.    We finally made it home and the car was dirty again so I got the bucket and washed it again.  It would be clean for at least a few hours (overnight).  I watched Olympics and basketball on TV.  The BYU game vs. Gonzaga came on TV at 11:00pm EST but was such a good game I had to watch it until nearly 1:30am.     
 FRIDAY  -   Up in pretty good time for getting in so late.  We went for a walk to town and thought the air felt pretty moist.  Sure enough, it started raining when were just about to turn around so we cut through the Sharon School grounds and headed for home.  We had a few visitors at the Memorial.  I ended up watching part of the movie, Testament   with a couple of members from NH.  It is really a touching movie.  With the rain and a warm day, there is lots of standing water on the walks and path to the Monument.  I tried pushing it off but it just kept running back to the low spots.        SATURDAY    -   We had the morning shift and the first thing was cut Elder Osborn’s hair.   It was a little nerve racking as he likes it quite long and I am not used to cutting that way.  I think it ended up looking OK however.    No one came to the Memorial until we were ready to leave and by then Osborn’s said they would take them through.  We went to the cabin/house (the one we once thought about buying, close to the Memorial) where Mooney’s are now moved to--since they didn’t like their other place.  Rhonda was helping to clean some areas with the steamer.  We somehow forgot the floor brush attachment, so I made a quick trip to the apartment to retrieve it.  Went home and relaxed for a while then I went for a walk.  Rhonda decided she had done her work for the day so I went alone but had a good walk up a side road in the mountains.  I watched more Olympics and BYU basketball on TV.  It was just a relaxing night.  

Another covered bridge near Plainfield

Another shot ofthe LONGEST covered bridge