Books read

Welcome to Shauna as a fellow blogger.

I've been sick this week, which hasn't been all that fun, but I think I am beginning to recover. The first day I stayed home I slept most of the day and then still slept that night. Subsequent days I rested a lot but was still able to get some reading done. I am about half way through a new book I received as a Christmas gift, a biography of the Prophet Joseph Smith by Richard Lyman Bushman, Joseph Smith: Rough Stone Rolling, a cultural biography of Mormonism's founder published just this year by Alfred A. Knopf in New York. I had a lot of other titles to choose from, which were also Christmas gifts, but I decided to start this one first since just last week we commemorated the 200th anniversary of Joseph's birth.

I have read 12 other books this year, down slightly from my yearly average of about 14, which is pretty good considering I spent big chunks of the year compiling, editing, and publishing my first two books: Batt & Lee Ancestors in March 2005 and Claudia: An Elect Lady in May 2005. I have three other books in varying degress of preparation: my missionary journal (which I had hoped to have completed by December 2005, the 35th anniversary of my returning from my mission), a compilation of sermons delivered by members of our family through the years, and a compilation of blessings given to members of our family.

The books I read this year include:

• Fire in the Bones: William Tyndale--Martyr, Father of the English Bible, by S. Michael Wilcox (completed Jan 1, 2005)
• The Total Money Makeover: A Proven Plan for Financial Fitness, by Dave Ramsey (Feb 7, 2005)
• Remembering Joseph: Personal Recollections of Those Who Knew the Prophet Joseph Smith, by Mark L. McConkie (June 17, 2005)
• 1776, by David McCullough (July 28, 2005)
• Book of Mormon (Aug 3, 2005)
• Prelude to Glory: Our Sacred Honor (vol 1), by Ron Carter (Aug 13, 2005)
• From Yalta to Berlin: The Cold War Struggle over Germany, by W. R. Smyser (Sept 10, 2005)
• The Path between the Seas: The Creation of the Panama Canal 1870-1914, by David McCullough (Dec 14, 2005)
• Book of Mormon (Dec 23, 2005)
• The World According to Mister Rogers: Important Things to Remember, by Fred Rogers (Dec 26, 2005)
• Our Search for Happiness, by M. Russell Ballard (Dec 27, 2005)
• Pearl of Great Price (anticipated completion Dec 31, 2005)

I hope you all have a healthy, happy, prosperous New Year!

Why there is no Interstate 50

The Interstate highway system is one of the great public works of all time. I have had a long fascination with the system, what it has done for America, and the places it has taken me and my family. I figured out years ago that the numbering system has even-numbered routes ending in zeros (such as I-10, I-20, I-80, I-90) running east and west across the country and odd-numbered routes ending in fives (such as I-5, I-15, I-25, I-95) runing north and south. Other even- and odd-numbered routes, oriented basically east-west and north-south respectively, fill in the rest of the system.

So one day, several years ago, I was studying a highway map of the United States and was surprised to find no Interstate 50 anywhere in the country.

"Why is there no Interstate 50?" I asked one of my daughters who was sitting nearby. The question was genuine.

I did not yet know, but found out from subsequent research, that when the new system was imposed on the country, overlaying the old U.S. highway numbering system, it was decided that duplicate numbers from the two highway systems could not co-exist in the same state.

The east-west even numbers of the old U.S. highway system increase from north to south (U.S. 30 is farther north than U.S. 50, for example). The east-west even numbers of the new Interstate system decrease from north to south (I-80 is farther north than I-10). The duplication would have become a problem in the middle latitudes of the country, where 50s and 60s could likely run through the same middle states. So, the people who think up these things merely decided never to construct an I-50 or an I-60.

And that is why there is no Interstate 50. Or 60.

Christmas day

So, here we are on the evening of Christmas Day. In the waning days of 2005 I finally join my eight children (and three of my children-in-law) in starting a blog.

It has been a wonderful, long day, beginning with an early wake-up call (at 6:50 this morning) for all who were staying or visiting at our house to accommodate our four-year-old grandson who had to be to his other grandmother's house by 8:00. Then we went to church at 10:30. In the afternoon all the family (except daughter and family in Texas) gathered again for the delicious feast prepared by Grandma Claudia, the third such meal in as many days.

There is a story behind the name of this blog but that belongs to another day.