Lake Jordanelle, Utah – Visiting Stephanie

Here is a picture of Lake Jordanelle that I took out my window this morning.  It is nice seeing the lake completely full!  When we arrived on Sunday there were all sorts of boats and water crafts out on the lake, and the guy at the gate said, “For a Sunday, we are pretty busy!”, further stating that normally they fill up on Friday and empty Sunday morning.  The last two times we stayed her, back in October and May of last year, the “greenery” was not here…in early May it had arrived yet, in October it had already left.  The temps have been at 90 as a high, and 55 as a low.  Slept with windows and vents open both nights…it feels so nice, though just a tad warm during the day, but the A/C helps with that.

Utah is a very beautiful state…lots of mountains, rivers, canyons, lakes, and interesting places to see.  Of course, the BEST thing about Utah is my girl Stephanie.  A few years ago she had a devastating blow to her head with a surfboard, was laid up in the hospital for a few weeks, and has been dealing with an injury to her brain ever since.  The brain is a very complex thing…the injury’s affect is most notable on her her ability to make decisions, even easy ones, real quick.  Headed to the library at BYU from another building she seldom uses she might not know if she should turn left or right, so it becomes a trial and error type of decision.  Now, put that into context of being on a city bus and trying to remember which stop you need, how to tell the driver that you need to stop, and then, after getting off the bus, knowing which way to turn.  I have been in similar predicament when in Chicago or New York while attending an American Library Association conference…they spread the meetings all over the Hotels that host it because it is the only way to accommodate 20,000 attendees.  Except I know where to get off…just don’t know where to go after I get off…and trial and error sometimes was the only way to find it.  But for her, this is an EVERYDAY thing.

Yet other parts of her brain work much better.  For instance, her ability to write is still very remarkable, especially when, and despite, all the other things that the injury has done to her.  To the left is a quip of an article she wrote back in January.  If you want to read it, and I urge you to do so, just click here.  Now you may or may not agree with what she is saying…but the way she writes, how she was able to compile her thoughts and express them, that is her.  Yes, she had a person or two proof read for her…normally her older brother is one of these people, but other than grammatical changes, they don’t change the thoughts she expresses.  She still attends BYU, but can only handle 2 classes at a time with special tutors to help her. 

Yesterday I drove down to Salt Lake and picked her up from the U of U where she had an appointment early in the morning.  From there we drove over to a theater where we had a quick lunch, then into the theater to watch the newly released Cars 3 movie.  In this movie Lighting McQueen finds it hard to keep up with the new, younger, stronger race cars, but in the end finds the real purpose to life…helping others.  After an afternoon nap for Stephanie, we went to dinner, and then I went back to Jordanelle where Marcia and the puppies were all happy to see me return…well, the doggies were because it was 10 minutes past the dinner bell.

Not sure what we will do this morning/early afternoon…but while she is napping I will come back to Jordanelle and pick up Marcia so that we can all go to dinner…just as long as we are back by 8 to make the dinner bell for the dogs that is.