The place where I work has an interesting work schedule. Five days one week then four days the next week. Each Monday through Thursday are 9 hour days and every other Friday is an 8 hour workday. By splitting the Friday over two weeks, I get 40 hours in each week while getting every other Friday off. Today is one of those off Fridays. Lots to do to day in preparation for being laid up for several weeks starting next Tuesday. So what am I doing? Sitting at the computer. Time to get moving … except I’m waiting for YouTube. I took a short video of my new office (about 50 seconds), but its too big to upload to my website. So I decided to put it on YouTube … and that’s going to take about a half hour to get 50 seconds of video uploaded and processed.

I do have a new office. For the past two years I’ve been managing a $3 million project. That came to a successful end on September 28th. I’ve taken a new Director position where I’ll be managing people again instead of managing a project. Along with the new position comes a new office. So, a new office on a Thursday and new knees the following Tuesday. Quite the combination. Here’s the link to the video of my new office: http://youtu.be/bYEb5xMDV9Y

As I was driving home from work I looked across the valley and saw smoke — lots of smoke — in the area where we live. I dialed 911 and was told that help was already on the way. I then called Nina and told here there was a fire “behind our house.”

Amazing how communication doesn’t happen. From my view, the fire was beyond our house, hence the word “behind”. From Nina’s view, behind is out the back door. “I don’t see any smoke here,” she said. I told her to go look out the front door and to look south. She did. And screamed. The fire was directly behind the houses across the street. These two houses were all that stood between the fire and us.

I was stuck at a railroad crossing while not one, but two trains went by. A Very Slow Train coming in and just about as it was about to clear the crossing, another train left going south. There I sat in my car watching the fire, seeing one … just one … fire engine go up the hill, and then seeing huge plumes of fire and black smoke.

Wild fires burn with white or light grey smoke. If the smoke turns black, something bad is happening. Often it’s a house burning. Meanwhile, Nina is near panic, telling me that the neighbor across the street is losing their home. She asked if she should leave. I told her to get her purse, leave everything else behind, and get out of there.

Instead she put her purse in the car, backed it out of the garage and turned it around, and then walked up the street to watch the fire. A couple more fire engines arrived and she told me the fire was out. About that time the trains cleared the crossing and then I had to, very impatiently, wait for the line of cars to cross. There was no passing as a line of cars were waiting on the other side to come my direction.

I pulled into the driveway to see quite a crowd of people on the sidewalk watching the firefighters. The fire was pretty much out. The firemen were getting ready to walk the fire to verify that it was out. One by one the fire trucks, ambulance, police cars, Idaho Power trucks, and gas company trucks left. A small rain shower came over. That was sufficient. The last fire truck left.

We went up and took some pictures, including the one above. That picture is a link. Click on it for a larger version and some information about the picture. I also took a short (50 seconds) video of the fire and put it on YouTube. The black smoke? It wasn’t our neighbor’s house, thankfully. It was from the tires on the tractor that started the fire. That’s one machine that won’t be able to be used again.

That fire was much too close.

We’ve been paying a lot of attention to the fires south of Salt Lake City and the devastating fires in Colorado Springs. Then, it happened here! I was at work in Idaho Falls and, while waiting for a meeting to start, was checking Twitter and saw that there was a fire in the Mink Creek area, less than 5 miles from where we live. I sent the link over to Nina (who at first thought it was a joke).

A few minutes later she sent me a picture of a huge cloud of smoke taken from our front porch. It was time to get out of there and for me to get back home. My office in Idaho Falls is about an hour from home in Pocatello. Nina loaded the car up with the “absolutely must save” stuff from the house. Then came the phone call instructing us to evacuate. We set up a meeting place a safe distance away from the fire. I took the picture on this post from my car as I came into the Pocatello area.

We met, parked by the railroad tracks, and watched the fire on the hill. The fire came close to our neighborhood, but didn’t jump the ravine. It was clear that we wouldn’t be sleeping at home, so we made a reservation at the Hampton Inn for the night.

Nina did a good job of getting stuff we needed out of the house, particularly given the stress of knowing the house may well not be there a few hours later. However, a couple of essential items were missed, such as the hose and mask to my CPAP machine. She got the machine, but missed the hose and mask. So, we checked into the hotel, had dinner, and then tried to go back to the house. While that wasn’t allowed, a police officer drove me to the house so I could get the items we needed. That was very helpful! Thank you, Pocatello Police Department!

It’s now the next morning, Friday, June 29th. We checked out of the hotel. I made up a breakfast plate. Nina headed back to the house. She called a few minutes later. Our neighborhood is still closed. No one allowed back. The local TV new channel just reported that we might not be able to go back for another couple of days.

Some 20 homes have been lost in this fire. I’ve no idea how the fire started, but it definitely moved VERY FAST. We’re really early in the summer. It’ll probably happen again.

Today, after the morning session of LDS General Conference, Nina took her first walk outside after the knee surgery.

This wasn’t her first time outside … she’s been back to see the surgeon for a checkup and we went out to dinner last night. But, neither of those involved doing much walking. This walk was different. Out the front door, down the sidewalk to the corner, turn left, go to the next corner, and walk back. This picture was taken at the turning-around point. By the time we were back home, both tennis balls in the walker were worn through (have to go buy a couple more, they’re about $1 apiece).

Today is warm … and quite windy. We’ve had little snow and plentiful wind this winter.The grass up here is just starting to grow. Buds on the trees are starting to show. Spring is definitely here.

We had a lovely walk. Now she’s in her chair with ice on her knee. It’s a great day!

Ta ta for now!

On Thursday, March 15th, Nina had her left knee sliced and diced, chipped and scraped, and came out of the operating room with a new knee.

Later that afternoon the physical therapist (who happens to be our niece Jennifer’s home teacher) came in and Nina stood up on her new knee for the first time. She was pretty happy!

She was released from the hospital on Saturday afternoon and has spent the past ten days recovering and doing everything that the doctor, nurse, and therapist have ordered. The recovery is going very well … enough so that I was able to go back to work today.

The knee is very painful. Worse than childbirth, she says (and based on the past week, I believe it!). But, each day is an improvement over the previous day. In two or three months the other one will get done and she’ll get to do this pain routine all over again. Everyone we’ve talked to says it’s worth it. I believe that, too!

It’s only a small beginning, but never the less, an important one. Today I transitioned from being on contract at the Idaho National Laboratory to being an employee. Not much changes about my job … I’m still in the same office, at the same desk, using the same computer … and still managing the project I’ve been working on for the past 18 months.

Like most companies, the laboratory has a time limit on how long a contractor can work at the same job. That’s pretty much dictated by the IRS and 18 to 24 months is pretty much the limit before the IRS decides that the person isn’t on a contract, but instead is an employee. The IRS cares about this because it makes a difference in taxes. Employees garner more tax revenue than contractors do.

I really like my job. I really enjoy the people I’m working with. This is a good change. What an incredible difference from how my career seemed to come to an end at AMI Semiconductor.

I rather like this new beginning!

We’re having a very quiet Sunday evening after a fairly hectic day today and yesterday. We’re in New Wilmington, PA at our daughter Dawnmarie’s house. The event was granddaughter Jillian’s baptism.

We arrived last Tuesday evening. We drove down to Heather’s house in North Salt Lake on Monday evening and boarded a flight for Houston, Texas early Tuesday morning. After a short layover in Houston (which included a gate change to a rather distant gate) we continued on to Cleveland. Very uneventful flights. The car rental place at the Cleveland Hopkins Airport is quite a ways away from the terminal. Hopefully I’ll be able to find it without much difficulty tomorrow evening. We rented a Chevy Alero and drove to Dawnmarie’s place where we’ve been since then.

We’ve had a great time visiting with the family. Granddaughter Kate is the lead actress in a children’s playhouse adaptation of Hans Christian Anderson’s “The Snow Queen”. We attended one of her seven performances and were literally blown away by how well she performs. She’s quite the natural actress!

Our son Daryl drove over from Downingtown in eastern PA on Thursday. Our oldest son James drove up from Covington, KY on Saturday, so we had a good family contingent here for the baptism today. It started snowing yesterday and looked like it might yield bad roads this morning, but fortunately the snow has been a non-event. Both Daryl and Jim drove back home this afternoon after the baptism and I’m happy that weather didn’t play a role in their travels.

The baptism this afternoon after Church was delightful. Jillian looked rather angelic in the traditional baptismal dress. All of her sisters have worn the same dress at their baptism. There’s one more daughter Olivia to be baptized in a couple of years.

Tomorrow morning after the grandkids go off to school, we’ll pack up and go over the Kirtland to visit with Nina’s sister Pam for the day. We’ll probably stop over at the Kirtland Visitors Center to see their nativity display and visit with an elderly woman Nina has been corresponding with. Then we’ll turn the rental car in, spend Monday night at a hotel near the Cleveland airport, and catch a very early flight on Tuesday morning headed back home. Just in time for the next round of family visiting over Christmas.

Ta Ta For Now