Hell From Heaven...

Last night, as we headed out to pick up our daughter, I looked west and was blessed to see another amazing Utah spring sunset. 

I snapped a picture.

It wasn't until I added it to Instagram that the words, "Hell From Heaven" popped into my head. To me, it's what the picture looked like. Those three words mean something else to me, and to several other people.

They're the words that were on my father's B-17, his plane that flew over Germany in WWII.

It wasn't until I was an adult that I found the pictures and learned a little about the plane and its crew. My father had passed some thirty years earlier. I never tried reaching out to any of the crew members then, and it's even more unlikely any of them are still alive today. Their stories and the stories my father knew have passed with them. Hopefully, one day I'll get to hear them.

When I took the picture last night, it wasn't one of the most spectacular sunsets we've had. I wasn't even sure if I'd use it for anything. But, when I posted it to Instagram, it made me think of my dad, and that made me think of his plane, and that made me think about all the things associated with that.

Hell From Heaven...it fits the picture. And I'm sure, as those kids (basically...) were flying in that rickety plane, it did fell like hell. I have so much respect for them every time I think about what they did. Thanks dad, and everyone else who served.

Meet..."He Who Has Yet To Be Named"

Two weeks and two days ago we said goodbye to a family pet. She was loved and she's definitely missed. Since she was the first pet our children lost, we knew it would be traumatic...and it was--for all of us. Since we have an outdoor cat that basically keeps the property clear of mice and other unwanted things, we knew we wanted to have an indoor cat for companionship.

We knew getting another cat would help ease the pain.

Today is the day we found a new family member.

And he's so cute, it hurts.

There are many reasons not to bring home a kitten, especially in our house. Our other cat has not warmed up to any cat it's ever met. And our big dog has not been raised around cats. We're going to have to work on that and pray it works out.

But the biggest concern I had was the kitten's size. All kittens are small, but this one is most likely at an age where it normally would still be with his mother. Except there is no mother. This kitten and its sibling were abandoned. He's eating solid food and we're giving him formula, but normally, it would have been better to wait a little bit before we adopted him. This time, that wasn't an option.

The last indoor cat we had was basically a prisoner in our bedroom, due to cats and dogs and other things. We're hoping this little guy can roam the entire house. Time will tell, of course. And this cat is not my wife's, nor is he mine. It's my daughter's. We're hoping she can do most of the work of raising him herself.

I told my children, as we drove home with a new kitten in the car, that when their kids want to look at an animal to buy or adopt, they'd better be prepared to be okay with bringing him or her home with them. I knew, the moment we made the call and told them we were coming, that we'd be getting a new cat. Just a little fatherly advice to a couple of my kids.

Yes, we have a newbie in the house. We'll have challenges, but hopefully the victories will outnumber the defeats. Now, if my daughter can just think of a good name for the little guy...

Memorial Day 2019 Edition...More Places To Visit

It dawned on me as we drove away from our town's cemetery this afternoon, that the older I get, the more places I can visit each Memorial Day. Today, we visited my parents's gravesite. But it wasn't the only gravesite we needed to visit today.

There's another one, a new one.

Almost every Memorial Day since 1974 I've gone to a certain spot in the Farmington City Cemetery, a little south and west of center. In 2008 the family gathered not just for the fallen patriarch, but our matriarch as well. 

But because the only constant is change, our family now has a new destination to visit at our local cemetery, more south and more west, almost to the very corner of the cemetery itself. Last year, we had no reason to venture so far south and west. This year...well, it's a different story.

I don't know if it's weird, but I love seeing our cemetery on Memorial Day. There's beautiful flowers on most graves. There's pin wheels and balloons, American flags and stuffed animals. Those are the temporary things. The more permanent ones, the headstones and monuments, they'll eventually be gone, too. And, if things work out as planned, one day my wife and I will be part of the ecosystem as well, a little south and west of center.

Memorial Day at our cemetery is beautiful, for all the right reasons.