July 25

July 25th was a very busy day. The day started with going to Uncle Cameron's graveside service in Emery County. It was an interesting service. Mom, Mandy, Mary, Meg, and I went to the family prayer. Our presence had been requested by Twila. I felt very weird being in there. I didn't really know anyone and I had forgotten my mask in the car. A granddaughter played a beautiful piano solo that was fun to hear! 

After the graveside service we went to the park for lunch. Again our presence had been requested. We chatted a little bit and then left for Aunt Joyce's house. I had some seeds (although I don't think were actually seeds) to drop off to her. We had a nice, pleasant visit with her and Uncle Vic.

When we got to Price we decided to go have dinner. We went to Dairy Queen to meet up with Rachel and the twins. The indoor dinning was closed. We sat in our cars with the windows rolled down and chatted. 

Then it was time to head back to Altamont. My pictures don't do it justice and there was another spot coming into Talmage that had another beautiful view of the sunset. There wasn't anywhere for me to pull off. Needless to say, all the views of the sunset were amazing! 

When we got back to Altamont Carol was at the house. We made our way over to the church to watch the fireworks. Longhorn Days had been happening all week. We missed all the the other Saturday festivities, but made it to one of my favorite part of the celebrations. Thanks Monsen family for another great firework show!

Lunch at The Oaks in Ogden Canyon

On July 22 I went with Dad and John to lunch at The Oaks restaurant in Ogden Canyon. We got to sit outside by the river to enjoy our meal. 

Thanks Dad and John for the company, lunch, and the view!

 

Scraping the Car

With the help of Gumaro and a trailer, we decided to move my bedroom furniture to my apartment. As I was pulling into my parking spot I scrapped on of the poles holding up the covered parking. I was so busy watching the one on the left that I forgot about the one on the right. After texting the manager to let her know what happened, she told me to try a magic eraser on the scrapped paint. Wow, that worked so much better than I thought it would. The car definitely doesn't look as bad as it did. 

 

Shopping with a Mask

 I just wanted it to be on record that I do wear a mask when I have to. Every store I have gone into in the Ogden area require a mask now. Here I am with one of mine.

The hardest part for me and wearing the mask is that I often feel like I have fuzzies or hair tickling my nose, and with this particular style of mask I am wearing it's hard to remove the hair or fuzzies (I have strings instead of elastic so I tie it to the back of my head). Hopefully it will get easier and easier and hopefully we won't have to wear them for too much longer. 

Uncle Cameron

 

Cameron O. Brinkerhoff, devoted husband and father of six, was welcomed to his heavenly home on Sunday, July 12, 2020 at the age of 96.

He was born in Emery, Utah on February 16 to John Darwin and Mary Adelaide (Oviatt) Brinkerhoff. He married his sweetheart, Valene Ann Gardner, on July 8, 1946; their marriage was solemnized three years later in the Manti, Utah Temple. They had four sons--Kent, Delroy, Phillip, and Colin--and two daughters--Valene (Oviatt) and Adell.

Cameron started his career driving a bus, which is how he met Ann. Then, he switched to driving truck and delivered milk, cows, coal, and even plowed a few roads over the years. He faithfully served as a member of the High Council, as a bishop of the Emery Ward, and as an ordinance worker in the Manti Temple--a cherished calling--with his beloved wife. He had a fun nature, a quick humor, and a good joke ready to tell. His favorite pass-time was to tease; his treasured targets were daughters-in-law, grandchildren, neighbors, and nurses.

Preceded in death by his wife, Ann, three sisters, one brother, two daughters, and three grandsons, Cameron will be lovingly remembered by his surviving family--Kent (Twila) Brinkerhoff, Delroy (Kathy) Brinkerhoff, Phillip (Joni) Brinkerhoff, Colin (Valerie) Brinkerhoff, 12 grandchildren, 12 great-grandchildren, 1 great-great-grandchild--and his dear friends and neighbors.

A viewing will be held Saturday, July 25, 2020 at the Emery Ward Building from 11:30 am - 12:30 pm. Graveside services will follow at the Emery, Utah Cemetery at 1:00 p.m.

Family and friends may sign the online guestbook and share memories of Cameron at www.fausettmortuary.com.

Thanks for the memories and laugh Uncle Cameron. I'm not sure if I'll know what to do at a family party without someone stealing the car keys. 😉

4th of July

Another 4th of July has come and gone. It was a good one! The Mathis Crew got together for a party in Green River. It started with a river run (sorry no pictures of this run). Those who went down the river were Uncle Boyd, Aunt Mary, Kate, Laird, Ethan, Duncan, Liam, Anna, Paul, Bel, Millie, Evie, Nathan, Gavin, Garrett, Meg, and me.  Thanks Aunt Ann, Uncle Lee, and Avan for driving the vehicles back to the get-out point. 

After we got back to Aunt Ann and Uncle Lee's house for dinner and to enjoy each other's company. Aunt Dianne, Uncle Wayne, Amy, Ross, Easton, Mom, and Mandy had arrived. Mary came with Meg earlier and stayed at the house with Anna, Aunt Ann, Avan, and Uncle Lee during the river run. McKay, Kriz, and Marikit surprised us by showing up later. We ate some pizza, salads, hot dogs, mace cookies, and another dessert made from biscuits (that we roasted over the fire), pudding, and strawberries. Yum!

After dinner we went to see the fireworks. If there wasn't a tree line in from of Aunt Ann and Uncle Lee's house, you would probably be able to see them from their porch. I don't have any photos of the city fireworks and the videos are struggling to load. 

On the way back there was a dog on road that had been hit. Uncle Wayne's car saw it first. Ross went back to the house and came back with a gun to put the poor thing out of it's misery. We stayed to make sure no one else hit it. 

Once everyone had returned to the house Gavin and Garrett had some fireworks they set off in the sand volleyball court by the house. They were fun (these are the firework pictures I have)! I had to wrestle with Rozy to keep her from going to get the twins and the fireworks. We got close and personal. 

Thanks Family for another fun filled 4th of July!

These photos believe it or not are of the moon. I had Mandy take pictures while I was wrestling Rozy. My camera has an automatic light adjuster. So all photos of the moon, fireworks, and people are without flash.

Dear Diary 2020 Edition From Facebook

 Dear Diary 2020 Edition,

In January, Australia caught on fire. I don’t even know if that fire was put out, because we straight up almost went to war with Iran . We might actually still be almost at war with them . I don’t know, because Jen Aniston and Brad Pitt spoke to one another at an awards show and everyone flipped the crap out , but then there was this thing happening in China, then Prince Harry and Megan peaced out of the Royal family, and there was the whole impeachment trial , and then corona virus showed up in the US “officially,” but then Kobe died and UK peaced out of the European Union.

In February, Iowa crapped itself with the caucus results and the president was acquitted and the Speaker of the House took ten. Whole. years. to rip up a speech , but then The WHO decided to give this virus a name COVID-19, which confused some really important people in charge of, like, our lives, into thinking there were 18 other versions before it, but then Harvey Weinstein was found guilty, and Americans started asking if Corona beer was safe to drink, and everyone on Facebook became a doctor who just knew the flu like killed way more people than COVID 1 through 18.

In March, stuff hit the fan. Warren dropped out of the presidential race and Sanders was like Bernie or bust , but then Italy shut its whole country down , and then COVID Not 1 through 18 officially become what everyone already realized, a pandemic and then a nationwide state of emergency was declared in US , but it didn’t really change anything, so everyone was confused or thought it was still just a flu , but then COVID Not 18 was like ya’ll not taking me seriously? I’m gonna infect the one celebrity everyone loves and totally infected Tom Hanks, get y’all to close all of the schools so y’all can appreciate teachers for once (because you can’t teach them anything other than how to use a touch screen ) close down all of salons so you can’t get your hair or your nails done , everyone had to work from home and attend Zoom meetings in their underwear. The DOW took a crap on itself, and most of us still don’t understand why the stock market is so important or even a thing (I still don’t), We were then all introduced to Tiger King and the ONE thing we can all agree on this year , Carol totally killed her husband ..... whacked him! And then Netflix was like you’re welcome, and we all realized there was no way we were washing our hands enough in the first place because all of our hands are now dry and gross and were all searching for lotion now.

In April, Bernie finally busted himself out of the presidential race , but then NYC became the set of The Walking Dead and we learned that no one has face masks , ventilators, or toilet paper, or THE FREAKING SWIFFER WET JET LIQUID , and by now our outgrowth is showing, so there’s a shortage on box hair dye and all of our hair dressers are like , NO DONT DO IT!!! But, then Kim Jong-Un died, but then he came back to life … or did he? Who knows, because then the Pentagon released videos of UFOs and nobody cared, and we were like man, it’s only April….

In May, the biblical end times kicked off , historical locust swarms, we learned of murder hornets and realized that 2020 was the start of the Hunger Games however people forgot to let us know. people legit started to protest lockdown measures with AR-15s, sports events were cancelled everywhere. But then people all over America finally reached a breaking point with race issues and violence. There were protests in every city ,which was confusing to some of us because people were definitely gathering in crowds of more than 10 and for sure closer than 6 foot away from each other . Those people must have forgotten about the pandemic called COVID Not One Through 18. Media struggled with how to focus on two important things at once, people in general struggle to focus on more than one important thing. A dead whale was found in the middle of the Amazon rain forest after monkeys stole COVID 1 Through 19 from a lab and ran off with them, and either in May or April (no one is keeping track of time now) that a giant asteroid narrowly missed the Earth.

In June, common sense just got thrown straight out the window and somehow wearing masks became a political thing, but then everyone sort of remembered there was a pandemic, then scientists announced they found a mysterious undiscovered mass at the center of the earth, and everyone was like DON’T YOU DARE TOUCH IT, but then everyone took a pause to realize that people actually believed Gone With The Wind was like non-fiction, but then it was also announced that there is a strange radio signal coming from somewhere in the universe that repeats itself every so many days , and everyone was like DON’T YOU DARE ATTEMPT TO COMMUNICATE WITH IT but then America reopened from the shut down that actually wasn’t even a shut down, and so far, things have gone spectacularly .... not that great . All of the Karen’s came out at once, and people started tearing down statues. Everyone is on Facebook arguing about masks , but then Florida was like hold my beer and let me show you how we’re number one in all things, including new Not Corona Beer Coronavirus. Then we learned there was a massive dust cloud coming straight at us from the Sahara Desert , which is totally normal, but this is 2020, so the ghost mummy thing is most likely in that dust cloud. We then learned of meth-gators , and I'm like that is so not on my flipping 2020 Bingo card can we use it as the free space?? Then we learned that the Congo's worst ever Ebola outbreak is over , and we were all like, there was an Ebola outbreak that was the worse ever? ....... and don’t forget we just discovered FLYING SNAKES! , seriously! FLYING SNAKES!!!!

So here comes July…. at this point we are over it , just tell us what’s next .... Aliens? Zeus? Asteroids? Artificial Intelligence becomes self aware? Can it just be something cool or fun for once? Maybe even a good laugh , like hahaha April Fools! We all actually wouldn’t mind that joke at this point.

Also, why didn't I know about the whale in the Amazon? Or a few other things because I just can’t keep up anymore!