Nina and I were talking last evening at dinner about the difference that one year can make. Last year at this time we were in Chandler, Arizona spending the Christmas vacation with our daughter Jaelene and her family. We were living in Colorado Springs and thought that we would be there for the rest of my working career. It’s now a year later and we’re living in Pocatello, Idaho and in a completely different job. Our wildest imaginations would not have predicted this outcome to the year.

In fact, if someone had told us we would be in Pocatello and would like living here, we would have written them off as being crazy. The truth is, we’re here and we’re quite happy to be here. We like the house, we like where we are living, we like the Ward we attend, I enjoy my job, our life is much less hectic, and in general, life is very good.

Nina is in Soda Springs today visiting with some family who have come up for the day. I need to be at work (I’ve used up all my vacation for the year cruising round rivers and oceans) so I didn’t go over. It’s supposed to start raining and then snowing as the evening progresses so I expect she won’t stay over there too late in the afternoon. The weather right now is mostly cloudy and somewhat windy. I don’t know where the bad weather is, but it isn’t very visible right now. The big news is the massive loss of life in south Asia because of the tidal waves following a massive earthquake in the Indian Ocean. The estimates currently are in excess of 60,000 people dead with thousands missing. There are no warning systems in that part of the world for people to get to higher ground or further inland. Everyone there lives by the sea since that’s the source of most of their food and livelihood and they didn’t stand a chance. The earthquake, measuring 9 on the Richter scale, is one of the largest earthquakes in modern history. It changed the orbital speed of the planet by about 3 microseconds and changed the wobble about the earth’s axis by about an inch. Other estimates are that one teutonic plate slide about 98 feet under another plate, making the earth slightly smaller around and moving stuff in the Pacific Ocean all around.

The Church has asked us to fast and pray for the victims’ families on this upcoming Fast Sunday and then to make very generous donations to the humanitarian funds. We will do that. As this year comes to an end and I look at my life and conditions, we are truly blessed. We have enough to share.