Mathias Birthday

Family,

 

Today was Mathias 30th birthday and we had a family dinner and romp on the lawn for him.  Here are some pictures from today.  Before he blew out his candle, Kirsten and Skye sang happy birthday to him, Metropolitan Opera style.  It was funny and just perfect for him.  We also had a good time playing frisbee on the lawn and generally romping around, enjoying the spring day.

 

Earlier, Kaaren and I were the speakers at our ward sacrament meeting.  To our great honor, Mathias and Kirsten showed up.  Kaaren spoke about service and I spoke about the question by an ancient lawyer - "And who is my neighbor."  I'll attach some of my notes, though of course, you won't hear the jokes and tears that went with it.  Ask Courtney about my opening remark that got a huge laugh and started things off well for my talk. It is a very humbling thing to speak to this ward.  There is so much strength and service and devotion going on all around us - most of which we never see, so as I sat on the podium waiting to speak, my eyes filled with tears as I looked into the faces of our friends and neighbors in this ward, thinking of their devotion to the gospel and their feelings of charity for each other.  I felt so honored and humbled to be asked to address them.  I wish you could hear Kaaren's talk.  Every time she talks I learn new things about her boarding school.

 

After our meeting block, I went to hear the spring concert of the West Linn Community Chorus.  It was wonderful to see old friends, to hear them sing and wave at me and give me lots of hugs.  They sang a broadway themed program at a new church in Oregon City that donated the space and sound system.  The local TV station filmed it and the  West Linn Tidings photographer showed up, so they are doing a good job of community outreach (publicity).

 

Yesterday I puttered around the house, taking care of so many chores gone undone here, while Kaaren worked her marvelous art  through the day with a group of breast cancer "survivors" in downtown Portland. I mowed the lawn, put in new skylights, moved canoes and junk and cleaned up stuff, trimmed  drain pipes we just installed and did some shopping with Molly. I trimmed some bushes, swept stuff and cleaned stuff in the house.  I'm still sore.

 

Kaaren and I both spent the evening at our dining room table with scriptures and papers gathering our thoughts.

 

Kaaren's birthday is this coming Thursday.  She will be 63.   What happened to us?  It seems like yesterday we were both 23 and planning our wedding.  Your time here is precious. Enjoy it.

 

love,

 

Dad

Fwd: [PIXTON] Weekend at MOm's

Family,

 

Here are some photos from my weekend at Mom's in Occidental - on Saturday I helped Bob and TJ put in a new underground power line to Mom's well - about 200 feet from the house.  It was fun to work together on a project.

 

That evening after General Priesthood Meeting Shauna and Rick brought a dinner out and joined us.  I was really nice to get together. 

 

A funny thing.  We took a break Saturday for sandwiches Mom made.  We ate them in the house while conference was on the TV.  I saw TJ ignoring our conversation at the table and focusing on the conference talk.  I doubt he's ever heard one before.  It wasn't the most charismatic speaker of the weekend, but I wondered for a moment if some of that "gospel" was going in his head/heart.  What was he thinking about this?  In a few minutes he answered my question without my asking.  TJ said:  "I'd rather labor in the ditch that watch this."

 

That reminded me of a thought I'd been entertaining over the weekend.  It's the Savior's words to the effect that "he that has ears to hear.."  He was talking, of course, about spiritual ears - having a heart tuned to hear to the "word."  Sometimes I don't have my spiritual "ears" on.  "Hearing" takes some preparation.  I think it takes some practice and humility and seeking and all that stuff to learn how to "hear."  And sometimes we can think we are listening but not "hear." I won't belabor the point.  It's just something I have to occasionally work on for myself.

 

Spring arrived in Portland on Saturday. Warm temperatures, clear skies ( and it seemed to me like it was just happening in California) and leaves budding.  But it was all over by Tuesday night.  Today the overcast and showers are back.

 

I want some more pictures of Arden!  How about you?  Where are they, for pete's sake?

 

For those of you close to home, I am planning on doing a family easter egg hunt and dinner for Easter - as soon after your meetings as we can get together.  4:30 PM?  You can bring a side dish and/or a dessert.  I'm planning on cooking meat and potatoes and vegetable.  Please rsvp.

 

Now it's late and I need to retire.  I miss Kaaren. I'm not a very good bachelor.  But I did the dishes and the kitchen is clean!

 

love,

 

Dad

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Quick note

Family,

 

Here are some pictures of the highlights of the week.  Bryce was one of the younger brothers in the stake play - Joseph and The Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat.  The cowboy song (with Bryce doing a low bass feature) was hilarious and sticks in my mind all day.

 

I gave a lesson in the Gospel Essentials class today - on the Temple.  Here are a couple of the illustrations I used.  We talked about the temple in antiquity including the influence of the Great Temple in Egypt.  Did you know that the Great Temple (what we today call the Great Pyramid) was already 1000 years old when Moses was in Egypt?  Then we talked about what questions people have about the temple and how we can best answer them.  It was fun.

 

Kaaren has been sick with the flu for the last couple of days.  She is now on the mend.

 

It has been raining for 3 days now without stopping.  And it is cold and misty at night and foggy in the mornings. We are into the winter season already.

 

We are remodeling our bathroom - finally.  Our contractor we found for Keizer apartment work is doing it.  Also replacing our windows in the house.  Logan helped me put in the shower pan yesterday.  It was fun.

 

I guess you know that Kaaren is going to New York for a meeting with Amy and a potential large publisher - Scholastic - of children's books.

 

We are looking forward to Thanksgiving this coming week.  Forrest and Kaarina will join the extended Portland Pixton family.

 

I am singing with the Portland Mormon Choir and Orchestra and quite enjoying it.

 

That is all for this evening.  Tired and need to join Kaaren in bed.  We bought a new mattress yesterday and we need to try it out.

 

love,

 

Dad

We're home!

Family,

We arrived safely today from Hong Kong. Courtney and children picked us up. We check 5 bags (including the huge packed jar from Beijing) and carried on the rest. We needed two carts to haul all our luggage. Only one bag didn't make it with us and it has been found and will be delivered to our home this afternoon.

We left Hong Kong on Tuesday, Oct 30, 2007 at 12:30 and flew east through the rest of a day, a night and another morning over the international date line, arriving after a stop in SFO at PDX at 1 PM on Tuesday - the "same" day.

The house is beautiful and clean - Bryce cleaned all the carpets while we were gone! And Courtney and Bryce cleaned counter surfaces in the kitchen. We really have a wonderful home and it was such a pleasure to come home to this special place. Colors in the trees are vibrant now and were a pleasant splash to the senses. I fired up the spa, turned on the water heater in our west bedroom wing and we unpacked our Chinese jar and placed it on the fireplace threshhold where it looks great.

The grandchildren are playing in the house and sound happy. They were glad to see us.

Thank you, Mark and Elaine, for everything. It was a magical visit and vacation.

Here's a last word at about the photos I have sent to the flickr site to help you get the most of it. I like to go there the simple way to me -

1. just go to www.pixtonfamily.com and then click on one of the pictures. It will take you to the latest photos uploaded on the flickr site.
2. Regardless of which photos you initially see, click on the blue text to the right of the screen that says "tompixton's photostream". That will take you to a group of photos with the separate "albums" shown on the right of the screen.
3. Choose which group ("album") of photos to see by clicking on the album you want.
4. You will then see all the photos in that album grouped on the right and the first one in the set shown larger on the left.
5. You can look at individual photos by clicking on them - the title of the photo (if I had time to make one) will be at the top of the photo. However, I think the best way to look at the photos is:
6. click on "view as slideshow" . That will show the photos the largest and will move you through them pretty quickly. You can move your curser over the arrows to the right and left of the photo to move along or go back faster. Also
7. move the curse to the middle of the photo - over an "i" watermark and click it. That will reveal the title of the photo, which otherwise doesn't appear in the slideshow.
8. Lastly, another tip. You can press F-11 and the photo will displayed over the full screen. Press F-11 again return to normal display.

There. I hope that makes the photos more enjoyable and you can get as much of a kick out of them as I do.

love,

Dad

Art Museum and Last Walk in Hong Kong and Kowloon

Family,
Here are some pictures from our adventures today. Hong Kong park through the green house and aviary and then to The Peak of the island where there are tourist shops and restaurants. A steep tram takes tourists to the top, but we took a taxi - much faster, cheaper and no lines. We had a great dinner at a restaurant overlooking the city below: German potatoe soup, tandoori salmon and tanfoori sea bass. Much pollution today which you can see from the photos taken at dusk. The view from The Peak actually improves at night because the lights of the cities cut through the smog.

In looking at the cities below, what you are seeing is Hong Kong from the south, at the peak of the island. Then there is a bay inbetween Hong Kong and Kowloon on the north. To the north of Kowloon, and not very visible in the photos is the area called New Territories. All three "cities" were controlled by the British until finally ceeded back to China in 1997. In ten years the place has thrived with the communist government pretty much leaving the capitalist system in place. Some hope this will be a good influence on mainland china - to influence their city mayors and managers to adopt the best of the system that has worked so well here.

I learned something yesterday that perhaps some of you already learned in school but I didn't. Hong Kong was just an empty island in the early 1800's but after the British fought with China over opium smuggling they were profiteering by (the Opium Wars - when Governer Linn of China destroyed all the opium on ships etc that could be found to attempt to stamp out the addiction of millions of Chinese to opium sold by British traders for Chinese silver) China ceded Hong Kong Island to the British to allow them a place to repair their ships and post personnel there for that purpose. But they used it also to continue their massive opium smuggling. Hong Kong grew as a place for trading, refiting ships and smuggling opium. In sum, Hong Kong has no natural resources except a harbor and lots of rocky island. It was founded and continues today solely for the purpose of trading and making money. Since most of the island is solid, steep rock, all housing and business is crammed on very little buildable space - hence the high density.

Many people here are very, very wealthy. You can get a picture of the vast wealth when you see the pictures of the high rise business buildings, but there is more in the elegant apartment buildings and houses that are crammed on the edges of the island. I will attempt to take some pictures of the more routine things that explain the daily way of life here. But Mark and Elaine, guests of the State Department, don't live a routine life. Fifteen years ago they lived in Windsor, not far from our house there, in a small house and struggled to make ends meet until he finally got word that he passed the foreign service exam and got hired. (He actually had passed the exam 10 years earlier, but that is another story). Now, after living all over the world and enjoying a reasonably comfortable salary, they live in a fancy high rise apartment that rents for $10,000 per month and rising. They drive a $150 Nissan but park it in the garage where I found mostly Mercedes and BMWs. An occasionally Porsche, etc. Most native people here live in much more cramped quarters and live modestly. But the super rich are super rich and there are lots and lots of them. Recently, an owner of a great house up at The Peak turned down an offer of $700 million for the house. Many people here have a home in Hong Kong and in Manhattan and in London. Such is life for some.

An interesting note on security. The Consulate General here is provided with a BMW. This would be expensive enough, but he needs special security, so BMW offers a special secure vehicle for persons of political importance. This one has glass 1 and 1/2 inch thick, armor all around, etc. and costs $250,000. There are many employees of the State Department here and Mark Johnsen's job is to manage the properties that house the offices and the homes and apartments the US owns. In Hong Kong, her manages property that tallies approximately $1 billion.

I thought of another thing that might interest you boys. There are no private airplanes in Hong Kong or Beijing. None. The only things in the air are commercial and military airliners and helicopters. I imagine someone might bring in a private Gulfstream or such a large jet airplane that can travel from another mainland but it can only land at the main, commercial international airports. Think of the relative freedom we enjoy compared to most of the world.

This morning Kaaren and Elaine went for a walk - about 7 miles - in the forest. I slept, read and wrote and dealt with business and family stuff by internet.

It has been a good day.

Any good news from home?

love,

Dad

Hong Kong Park and The Peak

Family,
Here are some pictures from our adventures today. Hong Kong park through the green house and aviary and then to The Peak of the island where there are tourist shops and restaurants. A steep tram takes tourists to the top, but we took a taxi - much faster, cheaper and no lines. We had a great dinner at a restaurant overlooking the city below: German potatoe soup, tandoori salmon and tanfoori sea bass. Much pollution today which you can see from the photos taken at dusk. The view from The Peak actually improves at night because the lights of the cities cut through the smog.

In looking at the cities below, what you are seeing is Hong Kong from the south, at the peak of the island. Then there is a bay inbetween Hong Kong and Kowloon on the north. To the north of Kowloon, and not very visible in the photos is the area called New Territories. All three "cities" were controlled by the British until finally ceeded back to China in 1997. In ten years the place has thrived with the communist government pretty much leaving the capitalist system in place. Some hope this will be a good influence on mainland china - to influence their city mayors and managers to adopt the best of the system that has worked so well here.

I learned something yesterday that perhaps some of you already learned in school but I didn't. Hong Kong was just an empty island in the early 1800's but after the British fought with China over opium smuggling they were profiteering by (the Opium Wars - when Governer Linn of China destroyed all the opium on ships etc that could be found to attempt to stamp out the addiction of millions of Chinese to opium sold by British traders for Chinese silver) China ceded Hong Kong Island to the British to allow them a place to repair their ships and post personnel there for that purpose. But they used it also to continue their massive opium smuggling. Hong Kong grew as a place for trading, refiting ships and smuggling opium. In sum, Hong Kong has no natural resources except a harbor and lots of rocky island. It was founded and continues today solely for the purpose of trading and making money. Since most of the island is solid, steep rock, all housing and business is crammed on very little buildable space - hence the high density.

Many people here are very, very wealthy. You can get a picture of the vast wealth when you see the pictures of the high rise business buildings, but there is more in the elegant apartment buildings and houses that are crammed on the edges of the island. I will attempt to take some pictures of the more routine things that explain the daily way of life here. But Mark and Elaine, guests of the State Department, don't live a routine life. Fifteen years ago they lived in Windsor, not far from our house there, in a small house and struggled to make ends meet until he finally got word that he passed the foreign service exam and got hired. (He actually had passed the exam 10 years earlier, but that is another story). Now, after living all over the world and enjoying a reasonably comfortable salary, they live in a fancy high rise apartment that rents for $10,000 per month and rising. They drive a $150 Nissan but park it in the garage where I found mostly Mercedes and BMWs. An occasionally Porsche, etc. Most native people here live in much more cramped quarters and live modestly. But the super rich are super rich and there are lots and lots of them. Recently, an owner of a great house up at The Peak turned down an offer of $700 million for the house. Many people here have a home in Hong Kong and in Manhattan and in London. Such is life for some.

An interesting note on security. The Consulate General here is provided with a BMW. This would be expensive enough, but he needs special security, so BMW offers a special secure vehicle for persons of political importance. This one has glass 1 and 1/2 inch thick, armor all around, etc. and costs $250,000. There are many employees of the State Department here and Mark Johnsen's job is to manage the properties that house the offices and the homes and apartments the US owns. In Hong Kong, her manages property that tallies approximately $1 billion.

I thought of another thing that might interest you boys. There are no private airplanes in Hong Kong or Beijing. None. The only things in the air are commercial and military airliners and helicopters. I imagine someone might bring in a private Gulfstream or such a large jet airplane that can travel from another mainland but it can only land at the main, commercial international airports. Think of the relative freedom we enjoy compared to most of the world.

This morning Kaaren and Elaine went for a walk - about 7 miles - in the forest. I slept, read and wrote and dealt with business and family stuff by internet.

It has been a good day.

Any good news from home?

love,

Dad

Slowing Down

Family,
Here are a few photos from the last day or so. Visiting the Hong Kong history museum in Kowloon and some more photos of architecture in downtown Hong Kong.

We are slowing down somewhat - this morning I slept late with a CPAC device on my face - trying it out. Kaaren and Elaine went for a hike and we are repacking and talking and considering how to best use the time we have left.

Also taking care of emails and questions from contractors, schools, law office, clients, and family back home. It takes time and we have just slowed down to take the time to deal with some of this business.

Yesterday, we went the consulate to meet with Mark and Elaine at work. Elaine and her nurse practitioner, Rena, diagnosed the dark spot on my back as ---- and Elaine used some cold gas to freeze it off. Kaaren and Elaine went to a Relief Society dinner - homemaking meeting and Mark and I went to get a hamburger and drove up to the "Peak" where we had a terrific view of both sides of Hong Kong Island. I'll try to get a photo today. It's an unbelieveable sight of world commerce focusing on one small place on the planet with extraordinarily wealthy results.

Not feeling very thoughtful at the moment - just thought I'd pass along some photos and say that I'm actually beginning to feel relaxed.

love,

Dad

No birds or ducks in China lakes and ponds

Family,
Talking with Brittany on the phone this morning reminded me about something I was going to write about but forgot. It's short.

If you look at the photo of us on the boat in the Beijing Hutong, you may notice that there are no ducks in the lake. They've all been eaten. Seeing a bird in Beijing and in Hong Kong is rare. I can count on one hand the birds I've seen in 12 days, except for one flock of doves flying at one point in Beijing, but that was it. No geese, ever. No pidgeons, no gulls at the sea shore. Nothing. I wrote earlier that there are a few feral dogs loose near Stanley Park - dogs that got loose from their masters - but they retreat into the forest when threatened. People eat dogs here, too. Of course, there are birds, and one hears them occasionally, but like I said, I've only seen a handful.

That is all.

Dad

Kowloon and Science Museum

Today Kaaren took the subway to Kowloon to see the Historical Museum of Hong Kong - but it was closed so we visited the adjacent Science Museum . It was modeled much like the OMSI museum with everything interactive for kids to learn - except they had a terrific exhibit on dinosaurs which we very much enjoyed. Then we walked through some side streets on the way to our subway connection. We found an authentic Chinese restaurant where they served noodle soups in huge bowls - essentially a hot sour soup base and you choose things to add. They were delicious. Unfortunately, several photos I took today, including the soup, are not saved on the camera card and I have no idea why. I did change batteries and everything looked ok but apparently I was mistaken. So only a few photos today.

Then we returned to Stanley Park where we bought things for the grandchildren (whoops - shhhhh) and a few carry bags for ourselves. When we got home, Kaaren made pizza and she is now watching a movie - Lemmony Snickets - while Mark is on his computer and Elaine is on the phone with family back in the US.

I am still recovering from the pain of my tooth - after seeing the dentist yesterday, it doesn't hurt if I don't put any pressure on it, but still felt a huge headache last night and very fatigued. I'm tired today and will turn in early.

We managed to get ourselves from Stanley Park onto a bus and onto a subway and then a change of subways and walk to the Museum and back again. So we are learning the system and enjoying traveling and seeing sights together.

We are praying daily for all of you - your needs we know about and those we don't. I hope you are doing well.

love,

Dad

Back in Hong Kong

Family,

Today I went to a Hong Kong dentist to help with pain in one tooth - learned the tooth has died and is infected and I need a root canal. He drilled out the decay, but did not complete a root canal - recommended I get that done when I return to the US - put on a temporary filling and gave me pain and antibiotic prescriptions . The bill was $42 US.

The other great adventure of the day was a trip to the tailor to pick up my new suit and 5 shirts custom made. They are not bad. I also rode the trolley a few miles each way to just see the city a bit, stopped at the Western Market where I spied a German Baeckerei and picked up some bread and pastries and some Kiwi fruit drink. I took trams and buses and subway to get home.

Meanwhile, Kaaren walked down to the beach by the apartment and painted. It is a nice painting of the scene of the coast line from the beach.

We laid out our haul from Beijing - it covered the bed. We will also repack our vase before checking it on the plane again.

The bustle and clang of Hong Kong was not welcome today. Beijing is much quieter and larger, of course. I needed some rest from the pain I have been dealing with.

This evening Mark and Elaine and Kaaren and I went to dinner in Stanley Park - the upscale community where they live. Kaaren ordered shark, Elaine and I ordered African chicken, and Mark ate orange roughy. Then we went to the grocery store and bought their groceries for the next week or so. Groceries here are much more expensive than at home. But we see things from all over the world, too. Very interesting.

I am missing our wonderful home in West Linn. This is a very busy place. We think we will do some hiking in the next day or so.

Elaine pointed out to me that I have not sent out pictures of our walk on the Great Wall. (Well, three, I think). So I uploaded too many to the Flickr site. Go to PixtonFamily.com (which, by the way, Skye, is very slow to load and actually fails to load completely for me and for Elaine's computer - have you loaded it up with too much stuff?) and click on the photos at the top to be routed to the Flickr site. click on Tom Pixton's photostream and you will be taken to the various albums I have created to organize these too many photos. Enjoy

Now I'm going to try to sleep.

love, Dad