Montpelier

by

Ridin’ into the Sunset: Bud

I thought I would dedicate a post to Ivan Walter “Bud” Lloyd since he just recently passed to the other side of the veil.  He was born 5 April 1919 in Riverton, Salt Lake, Utah.  His parents were Madeline Cascutti and Walter Graham Lloyd.  His father purchased a ranch about 1932 near Montpelier, Bear Lake, Idaho.  He lived, married, and raised his family there.  Around 1989 or 1990, he met my Grandma, Colleen Mary Andra (whose married name at that time was Jonas).  She was in Montpelier for work and Bud told me he met her in a restaurant. Here is a picture from early on, although it is not a great picture.

They loved each other and that is quite evident from the letters and cards.  The two were married 31 January 1998 in Dingle, Bear Lake, Idaho.  Here is a picture from later that year, you can see how much they enjoyed each others company.

Deer Cliff Inn 1998

Grandma passed away from a surgery that went wrong 14 November 1999 in Boise, Ada, Idaho.  Bud moved back to Montpelier from Paul and remained there the rest of his days.  He still worked hard maintaining yards and doing other work despite growing older and passing 90.  He mowed one last lawn and then didn’t feel well and went to the hospital.  He died a few days later on 27 September 2011 in Montpelier.

His funeral was held on 1 October 2011 in Dingle.  His family referred to him as “the last of the great cowboys who lived his life on his own terms, his determination and hardworking ways, always peppers with a head tilt, sly grin, and a laugh.”  This was true and my memories are of his blue eyes that twinkled, big smile that showed his worn down teeth, and that slight tilt to the head so he could hear you a little better.  We stopped to visit him a few weeks ago so we could get a picture with the last of Aliza’s Great Grandparents (the others had already been captured).  Unfortunately we missed him.  Now we really miss him.

The family took out the last of the great cowboys in a wagon.  A true tribute.  Rest well Bud, I look forward to seeing you again.

by

Visiting Charlottesville

This morning we took a lovely drive for an hour to our west.  Our destination was lovely Charlottesville, Virginia.  Of course, as everyone knows, named after Queen Charlotte, the wife of the least favorite King in America, George III.  It is tied with Monticello, Ashlawn-Highland, and the University of Virginia.  It is also linked with Montpelier.

Our first photos are in relation to Monticello.  This was Amanda’s first trip, my second trip.  This time had much more green for me to see which was a pleasant surprise.  I will tell you now, the gardens are much more beautiful when they have something growing in them!  We parked, purchased our tickets, and headed up the hill.  We chose to walk rather than ride the shuttle.  We arrived first at the Jefferson Cemetery which continues to bury Jefferson descendents.  The next stop was the massive gardens.  The tour manual boasts over 1000 feet of them.  The Garden Pavilion you see in the photos is about half way.  There are some great views from the garden area over the local area.  Really quite beautiful.
We roamed up the hill and around the house.  You can see various pictures from around the property.  The striped fluffy tulips are something to mention.  We even took a picture.  We got some pictures from the well known Nickel view.  We went on the tour at 12:40.  I have always been impressed with Thomas Jefferson.  Nearly everything in my knowledge of Jefferson has been of great influence on me.  His focus of design in homes has been something that has impressed me since I started drafting in about 1992.  I remember almost instantly learning about Jefferson’s views probably in my first month of drafting.  I have been enamored every since.  Anyhow, I won’t do an opinion piece on Jefferson here…  The house is magnificent.
We came out, roamed some more and made our way back down the hill.  We drive just another mile or two away to James and Elizabeth Monroe’s home, Highland.  You will notice in the pictures that there is a yellow house attached to the white house.  The white house is the original Highland.  In later years the Victorian yellow house was added and the plantation came to be known as Ashlawn.  Thomas Jefferson convinced James Monroe to buy a plantation near him which he did.  It is important to mention Monroe owned several.  In his over 50 years of office, he spent only about 4 years all together at Highland.  His wife was frail in later years and they never made it back very often.  Plus towards the end to settle all his debts he sold Highland.  He died in New York City debt free.  There is a massive tree there in the yard I wanted Amanda to go take a picture with.  So we got to see one of her better sides in that photo.
We left our visit at Ashlawn-Highland to head back to Charlottesville.  We stopped at the Thomas Jefferson Museum and then went to the University of Virginia.  After a day at Monticello and hearing so much about it I had to see the original campus.  You can see pictures of the Rotunda which is the focal point of the campus.  You can see pictures from both sides of the Rotunda.  We also took pictures both east and west from The Lawn.  The Old Cabell building is seen to the west from The Lawn.
Lastly, I added a couple of pictures from our trip to Washington in March.  There are some pictures from late one night of the Washington Temple, Washington Monument, and Jefferson Memorial.
It was a busy day.  We even took a cooler of goodies to make ourselves lunch.  Next time we need to pack more water though.
by

First week training

Just thought I would put a little bit out there. There is not too much to report at the moment. Last week, I worked alone collecting renewals for insurance the whole week. My field manager gave me several stacks of cards to do. He was shocked when I reported I had them all done but 2. He said that was two weeks worth of work. I had completed them in four days.So I officially started training this week. Thus far we have only done the same thing. I have spent all day with Mr. Ted Kelley doing renewals. I have learned a few little things here and there. Overall though, it is everything I am familiar with and did last week. I am frustrated in that sense. Tomorrow though, they are letting me go off by myself again. I am headed to Montpelier, Virginia. Hopefully I can get the renewals done and hopefully add some new business. It would be nice, especially since I have to make some money to make up for the rest of the week sharing everything with my trainer.

There have been quite the variety of characters we come upon. Today it was a guy who raised raccoons to an author. Just this week I have driven across 3 old Civil War battlefields. Wish I knew more of the history to understand their significance.

I will keep enduring training. The company seems to be having some problems with leadership in our area. It reminds me much of the mission. Where some missionaries were trying to micro-manage. I will do to these managers what we did in the mission. Ignore them. What are they going to do? Fire me? They can’t until I am at 13 weeks, because then my ‘training’ is completed. But if I have proved myself to be of some value to the company then they are not going to fire me when I am bringing in several thousand dollars to the company in a week. Face it, they need their employees. I am not going to sit on a conference call during quality work time. I will most certainly not do it every morning for several hours like this district manager is having entire regions do. It is such bad management it is laughable.

Well, time to get ready for bed. I need to do some more research for my talk on Sunday (Amanda and I are both speaking this coming Sunday). I need to get some more LSAT study in, write in my journal, and go to bed at a decent hour.

 

by

Thanksgiving

I know, I know, I have not been keeping this as up todate as I could.  Oh well, things are going very well.  I am enjoying life and have had a great refreshing break.  Just a few more weeks and then I am done and headed back to Utah for graduation, marriage, and happily ever after.
For Thanksgiving Break Anna Badger, Brad Hales, and Jeana Stuart all came to visit for the holiday.  It was great to have them here and I very much enjoyed their presence.  It was quite the adventure.  They arrived on last Friday and I took all of them back to the airport today for them to fly out.  I assume they made their flights and are all safely at home now.  With most of which I write, there will be photos to go along in the Thanksgiving Gallery.
In preparation for their coming, Genny in the office got them tours at the White House, Capitol, Library of Congress, National Cathedral, and the Bureau of Printing and Engraving.  They went and saw several other museums and various other things around Washington DC.  Last Friday night we went on a midnight visit of some of the monuments.  We went to the Jefferson, Lincoln, Washington, FDR, and other things around Washington.  I showed them the main buildings and gave them a sort of feel for the overall layout of the area.
Saturday we went to the Washington DC temple.  We also paid a little visit to Georgetown and went to Arlington National Cemetery.  Sunday we went to church and the Washington Memorial Masonic Lodge.  Monday through Wednesday they went on their tours.  Monday afternoon I met them at the Library of Congress and went on that tour with them.  It was amazing.  I really appreciated the beauty and time that obviously went into the building.  Very impressive building.  I took them back through the tunnels to Russell from the Library of Congress.  That was quite a bit of a walk through the house buildings, Capitol and back.  They enjoyed it.  Tuesday I gave them their tour of the Capitol and tried to sneak in some extra perks for them, however, with another couple on the tour we did not get to show as much as I could have.  Wednesday I got off work at noon and went and met them at the Museum of American History.  I enjoyed that.  I could have spent quite a bit more time there.  I enjoyed the science aspect, nuclear, transportation, First Lady, and Presidential exhibits.  I could have spent a few more hours in the building.  I will have to pay them another visit.  There are a few museums I still have not seen.  I want to see the Native American, Modern Art, Printing and Engraving, and spy museum.  Sometime I will have to pay them a visit.  I suppose there is always a time in the future.
Thanksgiving was great.  We enjoyed a trip to Mt. Vernon and had a great time.  You can see the pictures from that adventure.  Yesterday we trekked to Monticello and Montpelier, but due to circumstances and preference, we did not get into either.  At one it was “too cold” and the other we were “too late” so what was to be done.  However, I stumbled on another little town I would love to move to some day and spend the rest of my life.  Orange, Virginia, an amazingly beautiful little town.  There are a few of them in my life.  Ashland, Kansas; Blair, Nebraska; Quray, Colorado; and now Orange, Virginia.  It was amazingly beautiful.  I hope some day I can organized a piece of property into something so magnificent so as to add to the community to which I belong.  We all loved the beautiful well kept estates that lined the roads.  Orange was particularly beautiful.
We all come to understand each other a little more, we come to see and understand our weaknesses and strengths a little more, and hopefully we will have learned from our close interactions.  I sure enjoyed their company and the opportunity to entertain guests.  More importantly, it gave a little more initiative to get out and see some of what I am surrounded by.