I don’t think I actually went out of the house today. Of course, that meant little opportunity to take any kind of a picture. So, I’ve pulled up a picture from several years ago to go along with the Memorial Day theme. On several business trips to Belgium between 2004 and 2008 I toured most of the World War One battlefields and visited several cemeteries, including the American Cemetery in Warengem. After those trips I put up some pictures from those visits here, here, here, and here.

Today was the first day of a new month … where one who wants to have good luck would say “Rabbit Rabbit!” As luck would have it, I completely forgot about it being the first day of a new month. I guess I’ve forfeited my link to future luck (at least for this month). However, if the past is any indication, the month will be over before I realize it.

I’m working on a website project for my new client. It’s not easy working through someone else’s programming to figure out what they were really trying to do. I characterized this as being “frustratingly fun.” I’m learning stuff and playing with computers and getting paid for it. Life is good! Maybe my luck is still holding….

TTFN!

Rather than spending the day wandering around cemeteries where family members are buried, we pretty much stayed around the house today getting needed things done. Late morning Nina needed to make a run into town and do some errands. If the memorial chapel at the cemetery was open, she would text me and we’d meet there as it’s only open one day each year. The building was open, so I met her there.

After spending a short time at the memorial chapel and taking a few pictures, I saw that a number of folks in uniform were gathering around the gun and the veterans memorial. We stayed for the short flag ceremony, speeches, and a three-gun salute. As I was standing there with my camera around my neck, I heard a voice behind me say, “Hey buddy! Would you take my picture?” I turned around and saw it was, in full uniform, a fellow on our Friday morning Temple shift. He looked pretty nice, so I did take several pictures of him during the ceremony. I’ll get them printed at Costco (the cheapest place to get prints, by far), and give them to him on Friday.

I finished mowing the yard and doing the trimming. This was the first time this year that I’ve mowed the grass and I’m sure the neighbors were thinking, “Finally!” I’m hoping that Spring is finally going to stick around.

TTFN!

Today was a fifth Sunday of the month, meaning that my Sunday meetings started at 6:30 a.m. with a Stake Welfare Meeting. I had meetings from then until 2:10 p.m. that afternoon … and would have had more except Nina and I left town!

I had a High Council speaking assignment in my home ward at 1:00 p.m. My assigned topic was on Priesthood, but I was following a recently returned missionary from the Singapore Mission, so he was able to take as much time as he wished. He left me about ten minutes, so I trimmed my talk down appropriately.

When the meeting was finished, Nina and I drove over to Soda Springs, picked my mother up, and we drove to Logan, Utah where the twins were going to be ordained Teachers in the Aaronic Priesthood and celebrate their birthdays. LeeAnn’s parents live in north Logan and that was where the festivities were being held. We had a nice visit with a house full of people. Afterwards we drove back to Soda Springs to drop mother off and came home.

This definitely wasn’t a typical Sunday, but rather was one of those very special Sundays!

TTFN!

This was the Ultra Marathon Pocatello 50 Race day. When we got out of bed it was below freezing. When Jim and I left the house to go to our aid station, it had warmed up to a balmy 38° … and raining HARD. The race course was roughly a figure 8 through the mountains west and south of Pocatello and our assigned spot was about a third of the way into the race. We were set up and checked in with net control about 7:45 am and ready for the first runners to arrive. The wind was blowing quite hard (as can be seen on the side of the tent in the picture to the right) and it was pelting rain. We were sure that meant it was snowing and probably hailing up higher on the race course.

The first runner came into the aid station at 8:23 am. He was finished at this point as he was running in a three-man relay. His partner took off as soon as he arrived. The first female runner arrived at 8:58 am.

By this time the weather had gotten much worse. The winds up on the ridges were in excess of 40 mph and where we had rain, they had pea-sized hail. The wind and hail were stripping the route markers away and a group of 12 runners lost the course and eventually made their way down the mountain where they were picked up. Their race was finished.

One of the race organizers was running at the back of the main pack of runners and came into the aid station about 10 am very beat up, carrying in another runner who was showing signs of hypothermia. After consulting with the race doctor and the other race officials, the race was called off at 10:30 am. Anyone who had continued on from our aid station could continue to the 32 mile mark at Mink Creek, but no one else was allowed to leave. No one was complaining about that, though, as most everyone at this point were more concerned about surviving than racing. A number of runners turned around and made their way back to our aid station.

From there our task turned from reporting on runners and their time out of the aid station to accounting for all of the entrants. The radio communications were essential to getting that done in a timely fashion. We finally got everyone checked off at our aid station by about 2 pm when the last two runners on the course came down the hill to be greeted by their wives. Again, neither were unhappy that the race was finished and they couldn’t continue!

The City Creek aid station was close to a Pocatello highway and the location was very well known. More than a hundred people crowded around the aid station waiting for runners, cheering runners on, or assisting runners change clothes and get something to eat or drink. Some came well prepared for the wait (see the picture to the left) and others were not well prepared for the weather conditions. Our small tent, because it had some shelter from the rain and wind, became a favorite gathering spot. We sometimes had very little space to work in.

However, by about 2 pm, the sun had come out, the front had passed, and the weather turned quite nice (although very chilly). Jim and I drove over to the start/finish line, got a bite to eat, and visited with some folks. There was a lot of pot-luck food, particularly deserts available. One of the female runners was loading up her plate with goodies and said to me, “This why I run … so I can eat!” I’m still not motivated…!!

Had all gone as originally planned, Jim and I would have closed up shop at City Creek about 2:30 pm and moved from there to the last aid station on Scout Mountain to provide communications there. That aid station was about six miles from the finish line. So, we drove up to where we would have been and saw how much snow had fallen on Scout Mountain. That would not have been a good place to run and I’m sure there would have been some serious runner issues, including broken bones and serious hypothermia. We got to the spot and found about three inches of snow / grapple on the ground. We were also not disappointed that the race had been called off.

All in all, it was a very interesting day. We started out in a routine race communications capacity and ended up working with Bannock County Search and Rescue to get all of the runners accounted for and off the mountain. I’m looking forward to next year!

TTFN!

As we do on most Friday’s, Nina and I were at the Idaho Falls Temple bright and early. We left the house at 4:45 am with our oldest son James and his wife LeeAnn following. They wanted to do a session and decided to attend the first session of the day.

We had lunch at the Temple after our shift ended and came back home. Nina wanted to go onto the reservation where the old washing machines were along side of the road. Jim said that his camera hadn’t taken him on a drive for a long time, so we piled into the car and went to the reservation. The place where the washing machines are was easily found, but well occupied with people trimming trees and such. We’ll go back on another day.

I also had two meetings for the Pocatello 50 ultra marathon. The race organizers had a meeting at the start/finish line with everyone who could be there who was participating in the race at 5 pm. That was a pretty interesting briefing. The race organizers emphasized a couple of times that this was a hard race. I remarked that it was “going to be fun to watch them run!” These are some crazy people…

Then at 8 pm we had a meeting for the folks who will be manning the ham radio stations for the race. It’s not possible, because of the terrain, for all of the aid stations to be able to talk to each other without the assistance of repeaters and we discussed in detail how this system would be working. Jim and I will be working at the City Creek aid station, which is about 1/3 of the way into the race. The race starts at 6:00 am sharp and we’ll need to be in place by about 7:30 am. It should be a LOT of fun!

TTFN!

On Thursdays Nina holds a craft class at the women’s prison from 1 pm to 3 pm each week. She took our daughter-in-law LeeAnn (our oldest son Jim’s wife) with her, so I took Jim and his three kids over to Soda Springs.

The most important project was to get the flag up on mother’s flag pole so she could fly her flag. We had enough muscle to pull the flag pole out, lay it down, string the new rope, and put the pole back in it’s hole. The flag is now proudly flying. Mother clapped her hands in delight when we ran the flag up the pole.

It’s a pretty tall flag pole, actually. Getting the flag as well as the people all into the picture wasn’t easy. I took the picture from a neighbor’s yard!

We had a nice weather day … but the forecast for Saturday looks dismal. That’s the day the Pocatello 50 ultra marathon will be run in the mountains west and south of Pocatello.

I spent the evening visiting with a couple of Ward members in the Ward that I’m assigned as a High Councilor. Once a year members of the Stake leadership team up with members of the Ward leadership to go visit families in the Ward. I was partnered with the Bishop of the Ward and we visited an elderly gentleman and a younger single mother. The elderly gentleman had some skin cancer removed a few days earlier and was complaining that at 88 years of age, he wasn’t bouncing back as fast as he has before. Two days ago he was only able to play 9 holes of golf, the next day 12 holes, and this morning 9 holes before they got rained out.

TTFN!

The election results are in and the incumbent Assessor lost the primary election. She was rather soundly defeated by a former employee whom she defeated in 2006. Persistence pays off, I guess. This is one of the races that’ll be further contested in November as there is a well-qualified Republican also standing for election.

Today was the start of a six-week weight management program being put on by the Veterans Administration. It consists of a weekly weigh-in and a discussion of various aspects of weight management. I get to keep a food diary … perhaps starting later this week. There’s too much good food to be had with family visiting!

Oldest son James along with his delightful spouse and three outstanding children arrived this afternoon for a few days. It’ll be busy as we’re going to pack in a whole bunch of things in the three days we’ve got available. His oldest sons turn 14 later this week and we’ll go to a big birthday bash in Logan on Sunday at their other grandparent’s home. They turn 14 and will be ordained Teachers in the Aaronic Priesthood on Sunday.

TTFN!

Primary elections today included two contested races, one on the Democratic ticket and one on the Republican ticket. I generally vote Republican, and today was no exception.

It was a busy day. We went home teaching to our two families and had very nice visits with them. In one case they’ve been doing some remodeling and expansion on their home. The results are quite stunning. She has an incredible eye for color and decor.

The day also included my weekly Rotary Club meeting. The program I had arranged was by a fellow I had been associated with at AMI Semiconductor who now works for an investment consulting firm here in Pocatello. He’s also the president of ValleyPride, a local organization working to improve the look and usability of the town. I didn’t know much about the group and came away from the meeting very impressed with their work to beautify our city.

TTFN!