"Time passes faster and faster,
but with every activity I always want to find the next challenge
and the next challenge is just as exciting as the previous one."
~ Alexander Wang
The month of June was another fun and active month. It began with a family gathering to celebrate Bonnie's birthday, then a fun hike in Big Bear with Dale, where we did a 7-mile round trip of the Pineknot Trail to Grand View point. Next, Bonnie and I took a trip to Reno for a long overdue visit with Jon & Maridee, and it was great that Grant & Finch and Quent & Barbara could make this trip also. After Reno I participated in a challenging 7-mile run in Big Bear called the Holcomb Valley Trail Run, then a trip to Cedar City where Linda had organized a day of fishing at Panguitch Lake, followed by an exciting horseback ride in the mountains near Tooele organized by Paul R. Individual blogs were published for each of these bucket-list activities.
In addition to the above activities, I posted blogs recognizing June birthdays, some favorite family photos, a memories blog about riding Route 66 and a memories blog about past river rafting trips. I also published the final updated planning schedule showing all past activities of my Year 77 including those planned for June and the first seven days of July.
This blog summarizes other "non-bucket list activities" during June in the categories of Visiting Friends & Family and Miscellaneous Other.
Activities with Family-
Immediate Family Visits - Bonnie & I feel really lucky that our daughters have remained living near us. Jenny and Tracy live in Glendora and Heather lives in Arcadia, both towns within minutes of us in Monrovia. This allows visits without much planning or long trips. Heather brings Griffin by regularly for a visit, and sometimes we tend him when she and Sean have conflicts. Jenny drops by when she is in the area, and Tracy sometimes has a meeting in Pasadena and drops by on her way home, sometimes having dinner while the traffic clears.
On one of Griffin's visits to our home he decided to take over Papa's chair.
Father's Day - On Sunday June 17 the girls, plus Griffin, arranged to meet at our home mid-morning, have a breakfast burrito, and celebrate Father's Day. I always appreciate the recognition, but I tend to think of the day as "Daughter's Day" because I love to have some of the "one-on-one" discussions. Each of my girls, Jenny, Tracy Clair, and Heather, are special with individual personalities, characteristics, and talents. They have each had their challenges in life so far, which they have met and overcome. I'm proud of each of them. I love each of them. It was also nice to receive Father's Day recognition from Bonnie, Bekah and Griffin.
I love it when I know the three girls are spending time together. I know how busy they are, but also how much they enjoy each other when they have the time. I enjoy it even more when I get to be part of the gathering with all four of my girls. See photos below.
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Heather's Visit - Medicare was created in 1965. The government, in all it's wisdom, used a persons Social Security number for everyone's Medicare Identification Number. This was an open invitation for the crooks to steal the number as part of Identity Theft and various fraudulent schemes. During June of this year, after over 50 years, the government designed a new numbering system for Medicare and began issuing new cards. Bonnie & I received our new, flimsy, cards this month. Heather brought us new "Self Seal" lamination pouches for our new cards. I had never seen these before and they work perfectly. This is an example of the new products that us older people aren't yet acquainted with. Thank you Heather!
Visit Nadean - Bonnie & I drove to Cedar City on June 21st for my Panguitch Lake fishing trip the next day. My cousin Nadean lives in St. George and we stopped to visit her for a while. I have a lot of history with Nadean, from staying with her family at the ranch in Star Valley as a young boy to her living at our home in Logan while she attended USU during the early 1950s. It was fun hearing about my other Humpherys cousins and Nadean's family.
Visit With Clyde R & Bonny- On June 26th, on our drive toward Southern California after my horse riding experience, we stopped for a fun visit with Clyde R & Bonny in Spanish Fork. They both seem to be doing fine. They gave us an update on the 80th Birthday Party their kids threw for Clyde R (it served for Bonny as well) and the status of all Bonnie's nieces and nephews. We all went to town around noon and had a light lunch at Cafe Zupas before continuing our trip.
Activities with Friends-
Lunch with Alice - Alice was my secretary for the ten or so years I was at Hydril Company. Beyond her secretarial skills, her real value was that she looked out for my best interests as only secretaries can in the corporate world. Although my general rule during my career was not to mix business relationships with personal friendships, I did become close friends with Alice over the years. While we were at Hydril I made a habit of taking Alice for a special lunch at the Jonathan Club during the Christmas holidays. After I left Hydril, Bonnie and I continued the habit of taking her to lunch periodically, initially during the holidays, and then later during June for her birthday. I continue to keep in touch with her and Bonnie and I had lunch with her most recently at The Heights Restaurant in Upland on June 20th, the day after her birthday.
Dinner With Mike & Nanette- While we were in Utah for my horse riding adventure in late June we contacted Mike & Nanette and, with the Coverts, met them at Little America in Salt Lake for a fun dinner and visit. The food and the service at the Little America restaurant were excellent. Mike, Quent and I were classmates in high school and always have a bunch of fun memories to talk about (most of which I wouldn't include in this blog). As couples, we always try to catch up on our kids and their families, and at this particular dinner, a main topic of conversation was the Neuberger's new dog. We'll all see each other again mid-July at the Logan High School 60th reunion.
Visit with Harry- On Friday, June 29th, Harry dropped by our home for a visit and to deliver a gift to me. What a surprise! When we were on the Grand Canyon hike I noticed that Harry was using a travel bag that would compress much smaller to save room, and I expressed interest in how he used it and how it worked. He remembered my interest and brought me one as a gift. You can see what is called a "compression cube" (and his note) in the photo below. Once clothes are in the bag a compression zipper compacts the contents - really a neat idea. My thanks to Harry for a gift that I will use immediately on upcoming trips.
Surprise a Stranger- Just for fun I've been giving a gift of $7 to a stranger on the 7th day of each month (or another day if the 7th doesn't work) with a brief explanation as to why I'm doing it (I'm sure they think I'm crazy). I attach an explanation note to a 5 dollar bill and a 2 dollar bill. On June 7th I noticed a statue on Myrtle Ave. by the movie theater. Next to the theater is a store called The Dollmakers' Kattywompus and I asked one of the owners, Cindy Ranger, if she would take a photo of me and the statue. She was very friendly and eager to help, so after she took the photo I gave her my June $7 gift and explained what it was all about. She was appreciative, and after a little conversation, we realized that she knew Heather & Sean, and particularly Griffin, who loves to shop at her store. I plan to put the photo she took in my July blog with my normal collection of family photos.
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Miscellaneous Other-
"Country music is three chords and the truth."
~Harlan Howard
Music and Musical Instruments- I've always enjoyed music. I enjoy listening to music (mostly country/western), I enjoy singing, and I enjoy playing musical instruments. I've not been very active in this regard in recent years, so when I created my Updated Bucket List for YEAR 77 I included an item to get involved in playing musical instruments again, hoping that would motivate me into action. Unfortunately I must admit that I haven't done a good job in this regard. Photos below are my current instruments of choice.
My mother required that I get involved in music from a very young age, and for the most part I enjoyed it. First, when I was about 8 years old she bought me an electric Hawaiian guitar and signed me up for lessons. I played that guitar for about a year. At about age 10, Santa Claus give me a ukulele for Christmas, and I have played a ukulele, or a baritone ukulele, or a guitar off and on ever since. When I was in 6th grade, the band teacher from the Junior High convinced me and several of my friends that we should sign up for band when we entered 7th grade the following year. So mom bought me a clarinet. I played in the band from then all the way through high school, marching in parades, at football games, etc. and also played in the orchestra. When I was in 8th grade mom bought a piano and signed me up for piano lessons. I didn't like to practice, but I really enjoyed the ability to play songs, and sometimes played for sing-along groups. I had a pretty good ear for music and found that when people wanted to sing I could accompany most songs by just using chords. I played the guitar and piano off and on when at parties with friends for many years, but it's been quite a while since I've done that. In about 2012 I gave myself a keyboard for Christmas and vowed to practice and began playing music again - hopefully I will eventually follow through on this goal.
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A Visit To A Nevada Marijuana Store - Bonnie has a "Trigger Thumb" (i.e. it pops and hurts when she bends it) and she has found that a marijuana cream helps the pain. Since marijuana is legal in Nevada, we stopped at the Mesquite Deep Roots Harvest Marijuana store and purchased some cream for treatment of her thumb. I resisted the temptation to try some of the other products.
Meaningless, But Interesting, Coincidences Involving the Number Seven - Anyone reading my blogs knows about the fuss I've made over the number seven. It has been surprising to me, during this year I've called my Year 77, how many times I've come across the number seven, both when I've researched past experiences for a "Memory Blog" and in current activities. None of these situations were done purposefully or for the most part even noticed in prior years. My interest in seven is not really a "good luck" thing, it just seems to appear during good things in my life. I tested the good luck thing in Las Vegas at the 2018 New Year's gathering. I gambled $77 on a slot machine that paid the jackpot if you hit all sevens, and of course I lost the $77. In Reno, just this month, I played the number sevens in several games of Keno - and of course I lost the stake I started with. So my interest continues, but not with a hope that it will bring luck in a gambling sense.
Running Situations Regarding Seven: Without thinking about the number seven at any time during my running career, I noticed that seven came up in many cases as I researched and wrote blogs about running. During my distance running days, between 1980 and 2004, I ran seven marathons. My favorite half-marathon was the Glendora Half and between 1980 and 1991 I ran in that race seven times. I am a member of the Foothill Flasher's Running Team, which had seven original members when we formed the team in 1983. During the years from 1983 through 1999 I ran the Lake Tahoe Relay on the Flashers team seven times. Also, between the years 1989 and 1996 my family sponsored a 15-mile Run Around Big Bear Lake for a bunch of my running friends. It turns out that we held seven of those runs. Monrovia City sponsors a local run/walk called the Fountain to the Falls that began in 2011. It is a seven mile round trip run from Library Park the Falls in Canyon Park and I have participated every year since the beginning. The Holcomb Valley Trail Run in Big Bear has a seven mile round trip run in the mountains on the South Shore that I have run three times. As I looked at various photos in my running photo albums it amazed me how many times my bib number included the number seven. I have included some of those photos below.
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People Situations Regarding Seven: The Best Man at our wedding, Quentin Covert, was born on the March 7th (his oldest daughter Lesly was born in the seventh month on the 7th day (like me) and his youngest daughter Amy was born in 1970). My favorite oldest daughter Jenny was married in the seventh month, I ran my seventh marathon with my favorite middle daughter Tracy Clair, and my favorite youngest daughter Heather was born in 1971, turned 47 on her birthday this year, and was married on August 7th.
Other Meaningles Situations Regarding Seven: The following situations were mentioned in various Blogs during the course of this past year.
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-My birthday is what started this whole crazy idea. On 7-7-17 I turned 77 years of age. I decided the next twelve months would be special for me and created a list of activities to do during my YEAR 77. At my 77th birthday party I mentioned that we purchased our Monrovia family home on Alta Vista in 1970, that after doing some work on the house we held a House Warming Party in 1977, that we lived in the home for 27 years, and held the "Adios Alta Vista" party when we sold the home in 1997.
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-My mother convinced me of the importance of the number seven in my life from the time I was a young boy. Later, on my 37th birthday, she sent me the follow poem:
Some say there's nothing special about a number, but 7 is special to me. You see, on the 7th day of the 7th month, we had a baby wee.
In modern times we're told Sunday is the 1st of the week,
but the Bible says Sunday is the 7th day, and a day of rest. At 7 pm on Sunday (the 7th day) Clair arrived, and he really passed the test.
The year was 1940 then and it's 1977 now. That means he's 37 -- Can this be true -- But how?
I have to stop and think and really can't believe, Clair now has Bonnie and daughters three. So -- he's not a kid any more, but sometimes he's still little Clair to me.
The sevens have all piled up this year, the years seem to go so fast too. But they've been good to Clair --- Happy Birthday to you!! =======
-Each year on my birthday I review how I have done regarding my objectives in the important areas of my life. It turns out that the Mission Statement I developed in 1969 identified seven important areas of my life that have not changed since that time.
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-I found that since my birthday in 1940 there have been seven Republican U.S. Presidents and seven Democrat U.S. Presidents.
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-At the Humpherys Family Reunion this year in August I purchased $20 worth of raffle tickets. I won seven prizes in the drawings, and it turns out that seven of my cousins were at the reunion so I gave each of them one of the prizes (I was on the Harley and couldn't take any with me).
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-After marveling at some of the road construction on the hike of The Road To Nowhere, I looked back on my job during high school and college and found that I worked for J. B. Parson on road construction jobs for seven years.
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-Bonnie & I spent our October wedding anniversary at the Inn at Mt Ida on Catalina Island. The Inn provides an autoette (a fancy name for a golf cart) for guests to drive around the island. When we checked in they assigned me the #7 autoette.
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-One of my favorite Harley Day-Rides is to the Mt Baldy Lodge in Mt Baldy Village. On one such ride I met the owner, Missy Ellington, and eventually told her about my Year 77 activities and that the ride to her lodge was one of my favorites. She was really interested in my activities and gave me a Mt Baldy T-Shirt and a Mt Baldy Ball Cap. Also, she pointed out that the address of the Mt Baldy Lodge was 6777 Mt Baldy Rd. During October I picked up Jenny and she rode sissy with me for breakfast at the Lodge. When I got home I noticed that the round-trip mileage that morning was 77 miles.
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-One of the most conspicuous, grandiose examples of the use of the number seven occurred in a tournament organized by Steve and Karan to satisfy my Bucket List item to play a round of golf. Below are a select few items from their tournament instructions. A good time was had by all - even the serious golfers.
The tournament will be held on November 7th
The first tee time is at 7:57 am followed by tee times of 8:07 am, 8:17 am and 8:27 am.
We will have coffee available; golfers should arrive around 7:07 am.
Spectators should arrive by 9:27 am to see the first golfers coming in on the 9th hole.
Rule #7-2 -- You must use a 7 iron on the 107 yard 7th hole.
Rule #7-4 -- A putt with a 7 iron that stops within 7 inches of the hole is good. The winner's plaque was given to the player that had the 7th lowest score of all the players.
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-During November I did a Harley Day-Ride to Cooks Corner Restaurant in Trabuco Canyon to have breakfast with Dale. Going home I rode the famous Ortega Highway over the Santa Ana Mountains to Lake Elsinore, then to Monrovia. When I got home I was surprised to see that my round-trip mileage was 177 miles.
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-When I do my morning run into Canyon Park I always park just past the "End of No Street Parking" sign on Oakglade Drive. One day I noticed that I was always parking in front of a house with the address 777 Oakglade.
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-Bonnie was given a $20 bill as part of her change at a store years ago and written in ink on the bill was "Merry Christmas Nick - 1997." She wrote on the bill, "Merry Christmas Ron" and gave it to me for Christmas in 1998. We have passed the '97 bill back and forth to each other every year since.
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-We partied at Linda's new house in Mesquite on this past New Years Day. Turns out it is located on the 7th hole of the Conestoga Golf Course.
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-In the Valentine's Day blog I gave some history of our involvement in Big Bear, particularly regarding our cabin there. It turns out that our purchase transaction for the cabin closed in 1977.
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-During February I did a Harley Day-Ride to Annie's Cafe in Lake Elsinore to have breakfast with Dale. On the way home on I-15 I saw an sign for Exit 77 and took it on a whim to see where it would lead me. It took me to the City of Perris where I passed the Matte Historical Car Museum. I visited the Museum and found a wonderful collection of autos and other interesting exhibits.
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- I wanted to ride Route 66 on my Harley when I was 66 years old. I did it in June 2007, one month before I turned 67.
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-When we did the Grand Canyon hike in April, we checked into the Maswick Lodge upon our arrival and I was assigned Room 6777. When Bonnie & I went to Reno in early June to visit Jon & Maridee we stayed at the Atlantis Hotel and they assigned us Room 703. When we went to Salt Lake City in late June with the Coverts to complete my last Year 77 activity (the horseback ride), we stayed at the Fairfield Inn. They assigned the Coverts room 125 and Bonnie & I room 127. We had dinner at Leatherheads Sports Grill that evening and they sat us at Table 7. On the drive back to Monrovia we stayed at the Highland Estates Hotel the night of June 26th. They gave us room 107. -- it's interesting - it just keeps happening.
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-When I rode my Harley on the "Saddle Sore 1,000 Mile Ride" for the Iron Butt Association, it took me 17 hours. During the ride I pulled into a gas station near Las Vegas behind a car that had the license plate "707 RCH." I couldn't help thinking of my July 7th birthday and my name, Ronald Clair Hadfield.
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June was an interesting month, with lots of fun activities and visits with friends and family members. I'm looking forward to fun activities in July, the final days of my YEAR 77.
HELLO JULY
