Greetings from Yellowstone National Park! Our daughter Jaelene discovered Allegient Air and their very inexpensive flights from Mesa, Arizona to Idaho Falls, Idaho. That turned into a week’s trip to Yellowstone, Nina and I in our RV and Jaelene and crew in her rented-in-Idaho-Falls RV. We’re in Grant Village, the only place we could get reservations for a week (particularly the week leading up to the 4th of July).

Jaelene, her three boys (and our grandsons), her fine boyfriend Casey, and her boss Bob flew up last Monday. Their flight was about a half-hour late because they had to “change a tire” on the airplane. That’s a new one for me. We arrived in our campground at 11:30 pm and crashed. Since then we’ve had a great time. Tuesday was spent in the Old Faithful area. On our return to the campground we encountered a huge grizzly bear! Nina got some great pictures that’ll make it to the Internet sometime Real Soon Now.

Wednesday Jaelene, Casey, and Bob were planning to take a hike up to Observation Peak. They got most of the way up before running into fresh bear tracks and some bloody snow. They turned around…. We spent the day for the most part at the campground where we had some delicious dutch oven stew for dinner.

Today we went up to the Canyon area. Yellowstone Lake is very high. Yellowstone River is very full. I was amazed at how much water is running over the falls. Bob and Casey have never been here and they’ve both had a great time with Canyon a highlight of the trip.

Bob flies back to Mesa tomorrow (Friday). Jaelene, Casey, and the boys will fly back on Monday afternoon.

We’re having a nice time … it’s chilly at night but nice during the day … there’s large piles of snow throughout the campground (but getting smaller every day) … and Grant Village is a very nice campground. We’ll stay here again.

TTFN!

Last Saturday was the Pocatello 50 Mile Trail Run up in the mountains. My ham radio club has been preparing for this race for several months and we were ready! The picture above is Jim holding our banner in front of the tent we had set up at the City Creek Aid Station.

Our task was to provide communications back to the start/finish line. The race organizers had laptop computers setup to record the runner numbers and times. They would give that to us every half hour or so and we would transmit the data over the radio. In addition, we would be able to pass along any messages to the race organizers, particularly anything related to health and welfare. But, as with everything set up at the last minute, the folks at the aid station set up the laptop computer incorrectly and were unable to capture the race data for us to transmit. Jim and I had a very uneventful morning. Jim took a number of great pictures and hopefully I’ll have a copy of them before he leaves on Saturday to go back to Springfield, Missouri.

The winner of the race, Dakota Jones, is from Colorado and he just blazed through the course at an average rate of 6.3 miles per hour. Absolutely incredible. The weather cooperated this year. Temperatures were in the low 50’s, mostly cloudy, with little wind. We did get a rain shower for about 20 minutes in the late afternoon. We left the house at 5:15 a.m. and were back home at about 9 p.m., tired and happy. This was a great race and very fun afternoon.

Jim and I tried to enter the 5 meter race … but that category wasn’t open this year. Maybe next year? TTFN!

Yesterday morning the nose pads on my glasses broke (this afternoon I learned that my type of a nose pad is called a “nose bridge”) as I was getting ready to go to work. With my 12-hour work schedule, there wasn’t a good way to get to the optometrist to get them fixed, so out came the superglue. It seemed to work….

This morning it was clear the glue hadn’t actually worked in any kind of a super way. It broke again. However, today I was driving myself rather than taking the van pool. I had to go to a training class on how fill out my time card. That training was a web broadcast, but I had to go to the Idaho Falls office to get the training, so I needed my car there today.

So, my plan was to go to the office and take care of anything new overnight (wasn’t much), then go to the training at 9:30 am, then stop by Walmart’s vision center to get the glasses fixed. Plans only last until the workday actually starts. I got to the office to learn that there was a birthday lunch for one of my co-workers, except that the person responsible for sending out the invitations used an email list that didn’t have me on it (I’m not actually an employee but rather on a contract). The lunch was at a restaurant close to one of the Walmarts in Idaho Falls, so I replanned a bit.

Information Systems Laboratories (ISL), the company I contract through, is based out of San Diego, California and does a lot of government work. A government audit of their timekeeping system turned up a number of deficiencies (but no mis-billings, thankfully), so the time entry system has been completely revamped and, of course, made much more difficult and confusing. Further, annual training for all employees and contractors was also mandated by the government auditors. The first training session was this morning. And it was painful.

The training started almost a half hour late for unknown reasons. It was supposed to be for an hour, but they had 45 powerpoint slides and five different presenters. Anyone having sat a couple of times through “death by powerpoint” presentations knows that 45 slides means 2 hours and 15 minutes, minimum, for a well-rehearsed presentation. This was not rehearsed, let alone be well rehearsed. They didn’t know how to handle the audio part of the meeting. People from all over the country signed in with open microphones, some together in the same room with the presentation open on multiple computers, giving long echoes and longer pauses while folks tried to figure out what was wrong. Presenters kept being interrupted by other members of the management team to correct or “clarify” what was being presented. In the end, what should have been an hour training session went two hours before I could somewhat gracefully escape.

Also, I’ve had a very congested head for about 4 weeks. It’s become very difficult to sleep through the night with my nasal cpap machine (for sleep apnea) because I’ll wake up several times during the night because I can’t breathe. Since I had my own transportation, I had also planned to stop at an urgent care place and get a prescription for something to clear up my nose and sinuses. That was one of the few things that worked out as planned! I stopped in, was seen within 10 minutes, and was out with prescription as well as samples in hand in 20 minutes.

Lunch was fun. Walmart sucked. That Walmart is being remodeled or something. Construction going on everywhere in the building. They had almost no parts inventory in the vision center. I was out of luck on getting the glasses fixed. And now I knew less about how the timekeeping was to be done that I did when the day started. On the way back to the office I called my supervisor at ISL and learned that because of my status with them (variable time exempt employee) almost none of the training applied to me. I’m just to keep doing what I’ve been doing.

I went to my next meeting and called it quits for the day. Drove back to Pocatello, went to my optometrist, got my glasses fixed ($4.24), went to the drugstore and filled the prescriptions ($64.90), and came home.

Definitely hoping for a much more productive day tomorrow. I’ll be in the van. Not having transportation at the work place is likely to be a blessing. TTFN!

Among my Church assignments is the opportunity to host the Single Adult Dance from time to time. The dance is held at one of the larger Church buildings in the area and those invited to the dances are single adults age 31 and older who live in the greater Pocatello area. Quite often, however, singles from all over southeastern Idaho come to the dance, many just to have something to do. Last night was one of those hosting opportunities. Nina did herself quite proud. She cooked up a pot of sloppy joes, made up fresh fruit trays, and gathered together cookies, juices, vegetable tray, and all the necessary accouterments. This dance featured a live band, one that we’ve heard before and like. A good, well behaved crowd showed up.

Part of my assignment is to get things set up (chairs, tables, serving area), find an opening prayer, and sit back and enjoy. At about 11:30 pm I find someone to give a closing prayer, call last dance, put everything away, chase the remaining single adults out to the parking lot (they like to stand around in circles and talk), and lock up the building. Nina and I climbed into bed at 12:56 am this morning. She was asleep before 1 am. It took me maybe 30 seconds longer.

While it’s fun, 1 am is way too long past my bedtime. Today, the day after the dance, seems like it’s been a Very Long Day. Besides that, yesterday was supposed to be “rapture day.” Some group of people had decided the Bible pointed to May 21st as the day the “rapture” would occur. It didn’t. Now I’m reading online that perhaps they miscalculated and December 21st will be the “rapture.” I can wait. It’s not like it’s the end of the world, you know.

In the meantime, preparations are well underway to support the Pocatello50 Mountain Trail Run, a 51.8 mile jaunt through the mountains for some 300 fanatical runners. This will be the 3rd annual event which is held on the Saturday before Memorial Day. The race starts at 6 am and the first runners will be at the finish line around 3:30 pm that afternoon. Our amateur radio club provides communications for the race at six aid stations along the route. We were up in the mountains yesterday checking things out and verifying radio communications ability at various locations along the route. This year the routing is a bit different because we’ve had record amounts of snow which hasn’t all melted. The race course had to be changed so that the 3rd leg was run at a lower elevation below the major snowpack. The long range forecast looks pretty good for race day. My oldest son James (ham call sign: K9JLS) had such a good time working the race with me last year that he’s flying out for the event this year.

My work at the Idaho National Laboratory continues to be a lot of fun … and takes up a LOT of time! I leave the house about 5:50 am each morning and get back home about 6 pm that evening. I’m in a car pool which is significantly less expensive than driving myself up and back, but it does mean being on someone else’s schedule. Someday when this contract gets far enough along that writing about it won’t affect the outcome, I’ll have to write up what is going on. At the moment I’m in the middle of a procurement process and talking about it taints the process, according to the federal government watchdogs. So, all I can say is I’m having a great time. And it’s time to get ready for bed. It’s already 9:30 pm!

TTFN!

Read on Facebook:

J: It’s almost 4:00 so this day is like so over. Three more days to Mexico….nothing sucks about that!

C: I’m in the future…past six here.

J: Honey – you live in Alabama. You will never be in the future.

C: LMAO!

Nina has known Bri for several years having met when Bri was incarcerated at the Pocatello Womens Correctional Center and Nina was the Relief Society President there. Bri wasn’t there very long, but faithfully attended all the meetings and cheerfully took part in every way. Nina and the other women serving in the presidency just came to love her … and that was reciprocated.

Several months ago we received a “Save the Date” card letting us know that she were going to be married on April 29th in the Portland Temple. Of course we were going to save the date! A few months later an invitation to the sealing and to the reception arrived. The date was solid!

We left Pocatello early yesterday morning (April 28th) and drove the 12 1/2 hours to Hillsboro, a town a bit west of Portland. This morning we were at the Portland Temple in plenty of time. When we were ushered into Sealing Room #12, some 27 people where there to participate and witness this event. It was clear that Nic and Bri had a lot of friends and supporters! A couple of the young ladies there had driven over to Pocatello to see Bri when she was there. Many more were faithful letter writers. She had cleared up everything with family, with Nic, and with the Lord. She was so pretty sitting on the couch with her husband-to-be Nic ready to be married in the Temple and sealed for eternity. I have great confidence that this marriage will make it for at least that long.

After the sealing we met them outside for pictures. Then Nina and I went back into the Temple to do an endowment session. The Portland Temple is beautiful and quite unique. We had a delightful session. A visit to Barnes and Noble followed, then we went to the reception.

Bri and Nic are both converts to the Church. As such, their families were not able to be in the Temple with them this morning. Consequently, they arranged to do a ring ceremony, complete with groomsmen and bridesmaids at the beginning of the reception. The area was packed with a couple hundred family and friends. They are obviously well liked and very popular!

It’s been a lovely day and a great experience being here. Tomorrow we’re headed north from Portland to Seattle where we’ll spend some time with Jared, and with Wendy and her family. TTFN!

I’m staying home from work today as I have a splitting headache that is refusing to respond to Tylenol. After a bit I’ll switch to aspirin to see if that makes any difference. In the meantime I’m not interested in doing very much at all. The house is quiet as Nina is down in the Ogden area doing some clothes shopping. We’re headed next week to a wedding in Portland, one of the very special events for Nina. The ceremony will be in the Portland LDS Temple. The bride was an inmate at the Pocatello Womens Correctional Center when Nina was the Relief Society President in the branch that serves the prison. She’s one of the real success stories of people changing their lives and making the most of the new opportunities.

So, new clothes for the event are definitely appropriate. Meanwhile, I can be feeling lousy here at home and not be affecting anyone else. I do need to be at the office tomorrow, so I’m hoping this is a one-day thing.

Spring is trying to establish itself. The snow is mostly gone and the temperatures have moved up into the mid to upper 40’s during the day. I’m not sorry to see winter end! It has hung around long enough. According to the hydrologists, we have had abundant snow in the mountains throughout the region and the snow melt is filling up the rivers and the reservoirs. Hopefully the aquifer underneath us is getting nicely recharged as well. The grass can turn green anytime it wishes.

With the relentless increase in gasoline prices, I’ve joined a van pool to ride back and forth to work. The cost per day is about half of what the gasoline alone would cost for the trip up and back. While that is saving money and wear and tear on the car, it cuts down on the independence! I need to figure out some hybrid method … a way to ride the van up and back as well as a way to have transportation up there. Maybe I need a beater pickup or something I can just leave there parked overnight.

That’s the blathering for today. TTFN!

Nina occasionally watches Ophra. A couple of weeks ago she told me she had seen the coolest thing and just had to tell me about it! MC Hammer was a guest on the show and it turns out he’s pretty much into technology. He had with him a Zagg keyboard / case for his iPad2 and demonstrated not only how nice the keyboard was, but how indestructible it was.

I ordered it. The package arrived today. I’m using it to type this blog entry. It’s pretty incredible.

Thanks, Nina!!! Thanks Ophra!! Thanks MC Hammer (although I’m not into your music…)!