OCR Text |
Show March 27, 2013 H iTIMPANOGOS TIMES 3 trator) is already in the inter-section to complete his, or more likely her, crossing. I was very thankful when the lights went in south ofAmer-ican Fork Hospital. It relieved a great deal of angst in my life and I repented of calling people idi-ots. The other peculiarity of Utah drivers is their use, or rather non-us- e, of turn signals. There are things in a car that are virtually useless, which is why the auto industry added mecha-nisms onto the ineffectual parts to justify having an appendage that no one would otherwise use. I refer to the signal arm which has been fitted with the cruise control and wiper apparatus, which everyone has to use. For some strange reason, Utahn's don't care much for signaling. Somewhere in our past we must have been conditioned to equate 'speed up' with a flash-ing red signal. I don't think it's so much that we intend to be rude, but we innately know that if we let the signaling car in, who comes out of nowhere to get ahead of us, it will only slow down once the driver has achieved his or her goal. Men are especially ter-ritorial when it comes to their "space". This is where the con-verse of the signal comes into play. If it is obvious the car needs to move over and they are signaling, my husband will gladly decelerate and let them in. But if that signal doesn't blink and the car starts edging over, actual teenage hormones will surge through his body and the race is on. There is a hole on the right side of the passenger floor mat where I have stepped on my brake - made deeper if the errant car beats him. We have all been behind someone who doesn't have a clue they left the turn signal on, and as most of us allow the ir-ritant to get under our skin, that blinking light becomes our focus. It doesn't even matter if you can pass the poor fool - you will be watching in your rear view mirror every few sec- - "Granny" continued on Page 10 Most drivers don't "get" the yield signs in a roundabout, evi-denced by how many cars speed through before you even dare to enter. Or else they'll wait until no cars are anywhere near before proceeding. Four-wa- y stops are another annoying anomaly, cre-ated to supposedly control traf-fic in an orderly manner. What it actually does is make otherwise rational citizens want to slash tires or ram someone's car. Per-sonalities actually change when people come to a four-wa- y and find that the occupants of wait-ing cars don't know how to nav-igate through the intersection. There are the who are oblivious to the yield rule and motion for the yielding driver to go through first. It's nice to be nice, but people are ' on the road to get somewhere, usually in a timely manner, and not to exchange niceties at a stop sign. Thus, if the person who is actually supposed to yield, wants the non-yiel- d car to keep the rules and the flow, refuses to proceed first, a stalemate is created, which further aggra-vates those who are watching the backup, and when one of them peels out, since no one will move their stupid cars, they (the peeler) cause everyone else to get ticked because they went out of turn. (If you paused at every comma in this last run-o-n sen-tence, you would get the flow). Every now and then you will see the four-wa- y actually working as it should, but beware you don't get lulled into a false sense of security, the one-at-- a time driver is lurking nearby and will show up just when you get that happy feeling. They know exactly when all four cars got to the stop sign and, with no sense of flow, will either shoot through or wait until it's their turn, which they often miss because they didn't take into account all the variables. It doesn't matter if you are heading east and the car heading west could go at the same time. If the west-boun- d car didn't get there at the exact same moment the east-bou-car arrived, then the west-boun- d had better watch out, becaure north-boun- d (who is the perpe- - by Geri Taylor Since I've traveled well over a million miles in differ-ent vehicles, I fancy myself somewhat an authority on the art of driving. And even though I wasn't at the wheel over all that distance, I've put more than enough road behind me to quali-fy as an expert -- at least on some aspects. What I learned during all that truck and car time was: Utah drivers are definitely not the worst! We're pretty bad, but we just look that way be- - cause of all the foreign and out- - of-sta- te students who come to our great universities and drive without understanding the lo cals and their quirks. (That includes everyone else who is a transplant). My grandiose goal was to rewrite the Driv-- er's Handbook, but the Utah guidelines are too many and too complicated to fit in this short space. So I'll take several of my pet peeves and elucidate the masses on them. Yield signs can be found on numerous corners and round-abouts throughout the State, but they are either misunderstood or completely ignored. Case in point: my college boyfriend was from Argentina and learned to drive in New York City - very scary. He would always zip through the Yield signs until I finally got tired of the near mis-haps and the squinty, evil-eye- d looks we got. His answer to why he never slowed down or stopped at the sign made me laugh until I cried. "It says 'Yield Right Away', so I do." His Spanish translation nearly got us killed. One Hundred Years Scouting Within the LDS Church by Mark Bezzant In 1907, Baden Powell was back from his military service in Af-rica for the British Empire. The cel-ebrated military officer had written a scouting book to help future troops prepare for military service. It was recommended that he modify the publication and issue one for boys. "Scouting for Boys" proved to be a big hit and the first group of 20 boys found the program exciting. The program became very popular in England. Some called it an instant success. A well know publisher by the name of William Boyce was visit-ing England on business. In a dense fog the man could not find his way. A young man offered to help him. When Mr. Boyce tried to pay the boy, the young man turned down the money explaining he was a Boy Scout. Boyce was so impressed that he investigated this new movement and returned to America with all the literature he could get from Baden Powell. Upon arriving in the United States he worked with other key men and together they officially incorpo-rated the Boy Scouts of America on February 8, 1910, in the District of Columbia. In October of 1910, a young 22 year old LDS English immigrant by the name of Thomas George Wood heard about scouting from his uncle, who lived in Eng-land. Thomas lived in the Water-loo Ward in Salt Lake City. Asael H. Woodruff was the bishop of the ward. His father was Wilford Wood-ruff. The ward had over 50 young men who were, "noisy and not easy to handle". Long gone were the days of the 1847 Mormon pioneers. These youth heard stories from their grandparents about those pioneer days, but they were far removed from the rigors of those early days. These young people in urban areas needed something to do with their leisure time. Bishop Woodruff liked what Wood told him about the scouting movement and made Thomas Wood the scoutmaster of Troop 1. Wood signed up 25 of the boys and one week later they held their first scout meeting. The meet-ing started with a flag ceremony, close order drills, calisthenics and finished with games. The boys went on their first campout in the fall of 1911, when 16 of them boarded a streetcar and rode to Holladay in south east Salt Lake. From there they hiked 14 miles. Their gear was pulled by a horse drawn wagon. If the boys "Scouting" continued on Page 6 Eagle Class of 1946. 45 Eagle Scouts received their Eagle Rank Badge at a special ceremony in the old PGHS, which was attended by special guest Joseph Fielding Smith. Annie Shines in Lincoln Academy's "Annie Jr." ml... ...i mm -- whip. ii H i L i 07M ' I , i V... , to mi Mmitnm. in.i.rti- - i.iW.ii.m. . .. nU by Geri Taylor Once again Lincoln Acad-emy has proven they can com-pete with any of the larger schools when it comes to talent. Through the tireless efforts of parents, teachers, and a cast of 65, Annie Jr. was a rousing suc-cess that enthralled the audiences, young and old alike. The short-ened version of the much-love- d Broadway musical features most of the best-know- n songs, which provided the continuity through abbreviated scenes. Grace Grimmer, the 4th grader who played Annie, was a stand-o- ut performer and could easily have acted on Broadway as on the Jr. High stage. Her strong and beautifully clear voice kept one waiting for the next song. Participation in "On Broadway Musical Academy" in American Fork has certainly prepared Grace to take the lead roll and execute it with style. One of the main orphans, tough girl Pepper, was believ-abl- y played by Brynley Jones. I watched closely to see if she would stay in character, and was impressed that even in the final scene, Pep-per was trying (great acting) to keep the tough outer shell, but soften with her new-foun- d life. If you've seen Carol Bur-nett play Miss Hannigan, it's hard not to compare whoever else dares take that roll, but Sa-sh- a Fazulyanov made me forget Burnett. She kept the action moving and was delightful to watch. Science and PE teacher Sean Kuepper, last acted in 6th grade, and when asked to try out for the only adult part in the play, found a new enthusiasm for the stage. He sacrificed his hair for the part, and after coming out of a very long retirement, did a fine job as the nt but pli-able Daddy Warbucks. While Miss Hannigan and Annie in the rousing production ofAnnie Jr. that was recently produced by Lincoln Academy. he didn't have as much time to evolve into the caring, hopeful "Annie" continued on Page 9 Pleasant Grove Man in Cold Water "S I i t- : i : I J ; a company I heard about on the radio. When I told him the money for the water heater was coming from my son's meat pie and Gatorade fund, he knocked $100 off the total. Still too much. Hold music is playing "Listen to the Rhythm of the Falling Rain." I expect the next song will be about a yellow submarine. Adrianna on the other phone from "Just Keep Swimming Plumbing" asked me if I was referring to a waterless water heater. I couldn't see how that would serve our needs because water not being in the water heater is the current problem. Adrianna then giggled and told me the good news that I wouldn't need tsunami protection because I lived far enough away from the Atlantic Ocean that I would save $13, and wasn't that a good deal? Giggle. I read on the Internet, while on hold with Adrianna, that "waterless" heaters use high power to heat up the water as it runs through. Though there is a small savings per year, the unit costs much more than normal water heaters, and it takes 22 years to break even longer than the life expectancy of most waterless models. If "non-regula- r" means "waterless", then I need water in my water heater. Next I call the man who owned the house before we did, who had said to contact him if we ever had a problem. And as he is on his way over, "Cheney" continued on Page 4 by Davison Cheney I need a water heater. A normal, gas water heater. I know that what I need is just a "normal one" because that is a question asked me by three of the agents I spoke with today over the phone. The conversations went like this: "I want a water heater," I said. "A normal water heater?" they asked. "Yes," I said. Then I was placed on hold. Frankly, I am not sure what a non-norm- al water heater is, but since I still have one more call to make for an estimate, I will ask. I'm working two phones here, and I'm currently on hold all while writing. : I am talented like that. The first estimate I received today was from Willy, and was for $700 with an additional $60 for delivery and installation. But then he added another $330 for an "installation in the month of November" fee, $30 more for city broken-water-heat- er tax, additional for earthquake protection, and more for what I am assured is a snazzy leak pan. Lastly, he made me pay $ 1 00 because I am a Republican as if I wasn't paying through the nose for that already. When he added a three-ye- ar extended warranty without asking me three "hold-please- s" later, I hung up all of this from service agent Rude Willy at the "All We Need From You Is A Credit Card Water Heater Service Center." Frankly, I may have been a wee bit biased from the beginning of the call when he told me I had a weird name, and that what I really wanted was a "cold water" heater because the water I needed to heat was probably already cold. Still on hold to find out what a non-norm- al water heater is. The next estimate was $1,700. I paid less for my youngest child. Red-shi- rt Dave (he had on a red that was extra long in length important to us who have to stand behind those estimating as they bend over to . . . estimate) represented Senior News Pleasant Grove Jacobs Senior Center, 242 W. 200 S., Pleasant Grove Activities Tuesday at 10:30 a.m. Bingo Friday at 1 p.m. Movie Monday at 10:30 a.m. Exercise Class Friday at 10:30 a.m. Exercise Class 1st & 4th Wednesday at 10:30 a.m. Health Clinics MENU Wednesday, March 27 Breakfast Day Thursday, March 28 Chicken Alfredo Friday, March 29 Roast Beef Monday, April 1 Baked Chicken Tuesday, April 2 Macaroni and Cheese Lunch served promptly at noon. Call between 9 a.m. and 1 p.m. to make appointments (801) 785-28- 18 Suggested $2 donation. Meals funded by State of Utah Dept. of Human Services, Mountainland Assc. of Gov., and Pleasant Grove City. Call the day before for reservations. |