[Granville-Hough] 20 Jan 2010 - your nomination/Harold's remodeling

[Trustees for Granville W. Hough]

Date: Wed, 20 Jan 2010 09:27:01 -0800
From: Granville W Hough <gwhough at oakapple.net>
Subject: your nomination/Harold's remodeling - 20 Jan 2010

GWH: Harold Hopkins and I were born the same year and went to the same
grade
school in Mize, MS.  By being born earlier in the year, he got in the
class ahead of
mine.  We both live now in California, and Joe Bridges, another
schoolmate also settled here.  We live regular American lives, far
different from those of our youth. The honor he speaks about is that I
was selected as one of 100 persons of Orange County in 2007 for
contributing most to
Hispanic Culture and History.  It was based on the work my daughter and
I did on Hispanic soldiers.
----------------------------------------------------------------

I'm sure glad to see you receive this honor for your obviously
valuable work!   I never knew you had so many layers of talent.

I read your note earlier  and thought I'd better get off an
acknowledgment and present my compliments
before I retire. I'd already turned off the light when I thought
about your note and decided to get an answer out tonight.

While Linda is gone I've been trying to rearrange some of the
interior and I suspect she won't like it when she returns!

Also, after visiting the produce stand and Costco yesterday, I made a
large pot of beef stew and found -- after I got started -- that I
didn't have some of the ingredients I bought for it yesterday.  Don't
know what I did with them!  I substituted a leek I had for the
missing onions  I thought I'd purchased at a produce stand.  So it'll
be a bit tamer.   I tried a sample for dinner tonight, although I'm
told that one should wait until the stew is a day old before
expecting much of it. I was too sleepy to fix something else for
dinner. I'm lucky it wasn't burned.  Usually, when I fix something
like that I just put it all in the pot, with minor preparation, and
then turn it  over to Linda to keep it from scorching, but she's
still in Minneapolis and won't be back till Tuesday and it tastes
okay to me.  I never seem to follow the same recipe anyway, so the
added leeks went into it along with some Chinese snowpeas (I think
they're called) that were a dollar or two less that I usually pay for
them at the produce stand.  I used a sharp kitchen knife and chopped
them up well before putting them into the pot. The reason I used the
leeks is that I can NEVER pass by a bin of leeks without being
tempted to buy some, and they were only 99 cents for two good sized
ones. I guess I must be fond of leeks because of  my largely  Welsh
ancestry.  I usually use them to make leek-potato soup, aka
Vichyssoise,  or some such spelling.  So since I made a potful,  I
guess I can greet Linda with bowlful when she returns Tuesday.  It's
been lonely without her and I don't do as well living by myself as I
once did, and I'm kind of happy I don't have too many more years left
to take the chance of undergoing bachelorhood again.

Don't remember offhand if I filled you  in on my trip. I saw only one
apartment and the owner  wanted me to sign a year's lease and I
didn't think that was flexible enough, especially if Linda or I die,
so I held off.  Just before I left on my planned trip, a friend
interceded and my lease arrangement was changed from a year to a
month-to-month basis, which is the kind of flexibility I wanted. I
did visit Joe Bridges and saw his son Lester for the first time in
many years.  Lester's a big fellow himself -- much bigger than Joe --
but Lester has a son Matthew who was there too and the son is already
about six and a half feet tall at about age 12, and growing,  and
when he comes to see his grandparents overnight he prefers to have
his bed made up on the floor so he can stretch out! Joe's son Lester
likes to ramble in the woods but has an injured back, which has
slowed  him down a bit.

Now, I think I'll get back to bed.  I bought a  couple more
bookshelves from a thrift shop as a part of my re-do of the apartment
and they're supposed to be delivered tomorrow morning.  Hope I can
get everything in fair shape before my love returns Tuesday from
about four weeks with our daughter Lori in Minneapolis.

Harold
---------------------------------------------
(GWH)Yesterday, 19 Jan, 2010, I got my three pints of blood transfusion. 
  It
lasted all day and I got severe leg cramps at one point in the
afternoon.  I got home by taxi in the rainstorm and had a pretty
restless, up and down, night.  It is still raining so that I will just
go back to bed in a few minutes.
	We are thankful that Tom and Veda Richardson survived the Cayman 
Islands  5.5 earthquake in their apartment there.  Veda was on the beach 
and did not hear a thing.
	We do pray for the success of our cousins who joined the Red Cross 
after retiring from the Air Force.  I have forgotten whether is was  Jim 
or Coley Richardson. They have all they can do right now in Haiti.
Love to all, Grampa Hough