Category Archives: General

Random Ruminations From a Cold and Stormy Day

Storms On the Reservation
Storms On the Reservation

The past two days haven’t been very conducive for me to be working on the Census! However, tomorrow is forecast to be the first day of a warming and fair weather trend. I’m looking forward to that trend with a lot of enthusiasm.

Meanwhile, I need a way to be able to see what’s happening with things over at mother’s house in Soda Springs. Maybe I need to take a webcam over and set it up. I think I could control it remotely as I have remote access to her computer. Today her phone stopped working, but helping her get it reset without being actually able to see what’s going on with the phone was impossible. That’s rather frustrating!

Today’s program at my Rotary Club had to do with our drinking water which all comes from an aquifer under the city. The aquifer is apparently quite unique and was formed when Lake Bonneville broke out, leaving the Great Salt Lake behind. I really learned a lot and understand our water resource much better. This is information that needs somehow to be available to the folks who live here. I’m not sure how that would happen. The presenter has given this presentation to the County Commissioners, the Pocatello City Council, and the Chubbuck City Council and all three were very pleased to have the education. There’s way too much of this kind of interesting stuff that needs to become much more accessible.

There’s a Japanese astronaut on the International Space Station who, using the Twitter name of Astro_Soichi, is sending out tweets from the Space Station with pictures he’s taken out the new view port that was recently installed on the station. These pictures are quite amazing. Twitter continues to be a significant source of news and information for me.

And, another day comes to a close. TTFN!

Daily Photo and Other Thoughts, April 5, 2010

Watching Basketball
Watching Basketball

Finally caught up! This picture and post every day thing gets somewhat pressure packed. I need to be taking more pictures during the day!

Today was supposed to be mixed rain and snow with a high temperature of 39°. By 8:30 am it was already past the forecast high and they skies were partly cloudy. Good enough for me … and off to the reservation I went. I had a new area available to work on (giving me three assigned areas) so I went there first. I found most people home and was able to call on every house and only have a few callbacks to do in that area. Tomorrow I’ll be working in a different part of the reservation in an area where I’ve just started canvassing.

The Census process is actually rather laborious. I spend about three times as much time on paperwork as I do actually doing the canvassing and filling out the Enumerator Questionnaire (EQ). When I’m assigned an area, I’m given a binder with the information about the area to be canvassed. The binder contains maps (which aren’t very accurate) of the area so I can find where I’m supposed to be working. Some time last year someone else went through the area with a handheld computer and logged the coordinates of each residence. Those became spots on my map with each spot numbered. In the binder is are pages with one line for each map spot with an address (if known … most places on the reservation don’t have an address) and a physical description of the house. Most descriptions are fairly terse, so the computer must not allow much space. They are something like “gray double-wide blue trim”.

Also in the binder is an EQ for each map spot. The label on the EQ identifies the area, the census block, the house identifier and the map spot.

So, my job is to efficiently travel around the area I’m assigned, stop at each house, identify the house to the physical description, match up the map spot, pull out the proper EQ, and then interview someone 15 years of age or older in the house to fill out the EQ.

The EQ is a tri-fold front and back questionnaire, completely scripted. I’m supposed to exactly follow the script which starts as,

“Hello, my name is <insert your name> from the U.S. Census Bureau. Is this <read address from the EQ>?”

And here comes the first problem. Most places on the Reservation have no address, so the first question doesn’t work.

After filling out the questionnaire part of the EQ, then back in the car I fill out additional information on the EQ and make sure that my writing on the EQ conforms to the standard so that the EQ can be optically scanned. Then in the binder I correct any information on the map spot line, and fill out additional information about the house. Then that particular house is complete.

If no one is home, I log on the EQ the date and time I was there. I fill out a “Notice of Visit” form and put it in the door in a way that it can’t be readily seen from the street. We don’t want to tip off any bad guys that the house is unoccupied. There is space on the EQ to log six callbacks. I’m supposed to come back on different days and different times of the day in hopes of finding someone home.

If I can’t get someone home in the six callbacks then I’m supposed to gather as much information about the household from a neighbor. I’ve needed to do that twice so far, but I haven’t been able to get much information from the neighbor other than a couple of names and how many people might be living there.

The work is actually quite interesting. I’ve met a lot of very nice people, most of whom are ready and willing to give me the answers to this very benign questionnaire. This is the data gathered:

  • First name, middle initial, and last name of everyone living there
  • Relationship of each person to the first person listed
  • Sex of each person
  • Age and birthdate of each person
  • Whether or not each person considers themselves to be Hispanic
  • What is each person’s race
  • Is the house owned with a mortgage, owned free and clear, rented, or occupied without paying rent
  • Telephone number in case followup is needed

The specific data for each household is confidential and will not be released for 72 years. I get reminded often that I’ve also sworn an oath (punishable by a fine up to $240,000 and imprisonment) to keep the information confidential as well and the oath goes for a lifetime.

So, that’s what I’m doing out there on the Reservation!

TTFN!

Daily Photo and Other Thoughts, April 4, 2010

An Easter Basket for Nina
An Easter Basket for Nina
Now that I’m working most days gathering Census information, it’s been quite some time since I’d been to Soda Springs to spend some time with mother. We determined to watch the first session of LDS General Conference at home and then drive over to Soda Springs. We’d watch the afternoon session there and then have Easter dinner there.

Everything worked as planned. The conference sessions were delightful. Nina brought over china from her mother and grandmother along with silverware and set a beautiful table. We had a delightful visit on a very nice Easter Sunday.

Easter is the day we celebrate the resurrection of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. It is a most special day.

TTFN!

Daily Photo and Other Thoughts, April 3, 2010

Watching General Conference
Watching General Conference
April General Conference almost always means that winter returns making it mighty comfortable to stay inside and watch the proceedings from Salt Lake. We woke up on the 2nd to four inches of snow on the ground and had more overnight. Most of it is now gone with the rain that’s fallen in the meantime.

The Saturday sessions of conference were excellent. It was time very well spent. TTFN!

Daily Photo and Other Thoughts April 2, 2010

Pumpkin Cream Cheese Log
Pumpkin Cream Cheese Log
We spend just about every Friday morning at the Idaho Falls Temple where Nina and I are ordinance workers on the first shift. What that means is arriving at the Temple in enough time to change into our white clothes and be in Prayer Meeting at 6 a.m.

To do that, I get up at 4 a.m., eat breakfast while Nina is using the bathroom, then shower and get dressed while she’s getting her breakfast. We pull out of the garage by 4:45 a.m. and usually arrive at the Temple about 5:40 a.m. Nina drives and I snooze on the way up. She must do a great job of driving because I never wake up on the way up there!

Our work at the temple is scheduled two months at a time. That is, I’ll have the same set of assignments for the months of April and May and they’ll change for June and July. We finish up our assignments by noon, change back into our street clothes, and head for home.

Now that I’m also working on the Census, our drive home includes stopping at the Trading Post at Ft. Hall to meet with my supervisor or his assistant to turn in my daily time sheet along with the completed interviews from Thursday.

Great Harvest bakes a type of bread that Nina really likes on Fridays, so we usually stop there so she can pick up a loaf … and I can get something I like, such as the Pumpkin Bread – Cream Cheese rollup pictured. Click on the picture for more.

TTFN!

Daily Photo, April 1, 2010

Sunset As I Leave the Reservation

Our instructions about doing the Census on the Ft. Hall Indian Reservation is that we are to be off the reservation by sundown. The problem with that for me is most people aren’t home during the day and I’m finding that I need to call on them after about 6 p.m. in the evening to get people home. So, I’ve been going back out to the Reservation after dinner and making as many calls as I can before heading home. The daylight hours are increasing, but that still means heading for the border by about 8:15 p.m.

I took this picture just past the Reservation border as I was heading home. It was actually quite a pretty sunset for which my iPhone cannot do any justice.

Daily Photo, March 31, 2010

Ham Radio Antenna Farm

While I was working on the Census out on the Ft. Hall Indian Reservation I drove down a road and saw this very interesting house with quite an antenna array! There are at least six antennas all with different purposes. One antenna on the roof of the house is specifically for communicating by way of the amateur radio satellites in orbit. Most of these satellites receive on one amateur radio frequency and re-transmit the received signal on a different frequency. These are very high frequencies that have only line-of-sight capability … that is, they don’t bounce off the ionosphere like shortwave frequencies do. However, they do allow communications to occur over very long distances. This fellow’s setup is a fully-automated array. That means the system automatically tracks the satellite as it passes somewhere overhead. It also means he’s got a LOT of money invested!

It is an axiomatic truth that the ham radio operator’s radio is no better than the antenna to which it is connected. This guy has some excellent antennas and looks to be a very dedicated ham radio operator!

This is also catch-up day. I’ve got several days worth of pictures that need to be uploaded. TTFN!

Daily Photo, March 30, 2010

Airplane Landing at Pocatello Airport

My first assigned Census area was on the airport itself where there is a small trailer park. After completing that assignment, my next area was just to the north of the airport. This area had a number of homes to be canvassed. If no one is home, I’m to come back on different days at different times during the day. If I still can’t find anyone, then I need to talk to a neighbor to determine if the house is occupied or if the resident(s) are away on vacation, snowbirding, or similar.

I had this area complete for a couple of days, except for one house. I had just stopped by there to find no one home and pulled off to the side of the road to update my records when I saw a light plane on final approach to the airport. The wind was blowing VERY hard and the airplane was flying almost straight into the wind. The result was that the airplane’s speed across the ground was probably only about 30 mph! That had to be a very bumpy approach, but it looked like he put the airplane on the ground in good enough shape to use it again on another day.