Funke-town

 

These are folks who have been our friends for over 30 years. I think. We met them in Hawaii when we were in the same ward. Our kids are close in ages. Now we (and our kids) are all old. Er.

Steven Funke at 72 is the "youngest,"  still skiing and active. His wife is Alma. Funke is a Dutch name, though it does still sound funny on our tongues.

They like to ski at Brian Head and frequently stop by our place to acclimate to the change in altitude between Torrance, where they live now, and Brian Head ski resort. Alma was way sick with altitude sickness one time!  This time, they were on their way home from a business meeting in Layton, Utah, and spent the night with us on Sunday to try to avoid driving through Las Vegas to CA, which is basically a parking lot as many SOCAL folks are on their way back home after a weekend in  Las Vegas. We had a fun visit. Played a catd game with Doug and Diane Gardiner who also stopped by.

Funny story. December of 2020, a year ago, they were here. Their whole family was! Almost. They drove a few vehicles, some came from Texas, some from California. An uncle from Oregon. Then their Bus broke down. It is a converted 15 passenger shuttle bus with a large vinyl wrap on it advertising their Urban Youth Park business ( parkour gyms). Doug offered to look at it. And see if he could repair, or find someone who could. Then Steve fell and broke his hip on the slopes. Had it replaced that weekend here at the Cedar City hospital. They had to send most people back to TX and CA, so he was left here... He recuperated at Doug's and two days after his hip replacement, he re-built Doug's basement stairs for him. He had to wait for auto parts and  the bus to be repaired. I think his twin brother stayed with him. They were supposed to be on a big ski trip together, but obviously a hip replacement squashed that. So, it was nice that Doug and Diane [whose knee was replaced THIS December 23rd], got to see them. The guys got kind of close working on that project together.

I'm feeling like the odd one out, having never had any major surgery or joint replacements. Lucky and blessed, actually.