Today is the annual Salt Lake WordCamp being held on the University of Utah campus in Salt Lake City. The event is all about the software called WordPress. Originally built as a robust blogging platform, it is now a robust content management system and a robust blogging system.

The conference started at 9:15 this morning, so I left home about 5:45 to drive down. The annual Logan, Utah to Jackson Hole, Wyoming bicycle race was also happening today. The ham radio community provides the communications support for the race, so I was able to listen in to the start of the race and the first hour of the race itself. There was also a mountain race going on somewhere else (I actually don’t know where) on a different frequency. My mobile radio in my car can receive two frequencies at a time and I enjoyed listening to the two events on the drive down. I’m sure the radio will be much quieter on the way home.

The conference (so far … it’s got two more hours) has been very interesting. It’s been nice to meet up with some folks in the WordPress community I’ve known for several years and learn what’s going on in their lives. The sessions have been well presented and interesting. It’s been good to be here. There is a vibrant tech community here in northern Utah, something that is completely missing in the Pocatello area.

Ta Ta For Now!

Twitter this evening has lots of traffic about Republican Presidential Hopefuls debating somewhere. It’s on some channel on TV. The television is off at this house. I’m singularly not interested. If I were king for a day I’d decree that presidential election campaigns can be a maximum of six weeks long. The Brits definitely have the better electioneering process.

The best Twitter quote I’ve seen is from @BorowitzReport: I don’t blame Bachman for not believing in evolution. It’s really let her down.

Nina’s up at the women’s prison this evening. She’s got a new assignment (in addition to all her other assignments) to assist in the Institute class on Wednesday evenings. The course of study is the Book of Mormon and she goes up two Wednesday evenings a month. Sometimes she’s the teacher, sometimes she’s the roll taker, and sometimes she’s in charge of the evening.

Life is good. Ta Ta For Now!

When I made the flight reservations we had no information about the travel plans for any of Nina’s family. They all live (relatively) close and would all be driving to Erlanger, Kentucky. We would be the only ones flying. As a result, I made the reservations for an early flight from Salt Lake City on Friday morning and a late flight back on Monday evening to make sure we were here for the “full family experience.” So, here we are waiting at the Cincinnati / Northern Kentucky airport with about three hours before we board our flight. Delta charges $150 per ticket to change the flight schedule (unless the change is their fault or because of weather), consequently changing to a different, earlier flight is not a real option.

We’re sitting in the food court. There’s a reasonable selection available including McDonalds, Chic-fil-A, Sbarros, and even an Outback Steakhouse. The big question of the moment is how to plan food for the rest of the day. We can have something now, then buy something to take with us on the airplane for later. We can wait and have a bigger meal and let that suffice for the day. We also can get something here and then something in the Salt Lake area when we get there. It’s another example of the “tyranny of choice.” Too many choices cause decision paralysis. Here we have 7 reasonable food choices and three possibilities of consumption. If my math hasn’t failed me, that yields 20 possible known choices with an almost unlimited number of unknown choices. It’s the unknowns that get us. I’m very often giving up a current choice in the possibility of a better choice in the future just to find that the future choice options are suboptimal. So, I’ll let Nina choose.

She’s checking out the bookstore here on Concourse B at the airport. Our son James flew in and out of this airport many times and probably can describe in detail everything available here in the center of the concourse. I’ve flown through here several times as well and my impression is of how much the airport has grown over the years. There was a time I avoided the Cincinnati Airport from October through May because ice storms would shut this airport down for days at a time. That hasn’t happened in a number of years so either they’re much better at handling the ice or the rumored climate change is happening.

People watching is fun, though. Lots of interesting people wander (and sometimes run) through airports. Some are arriving, most are leaving. The only choice out of the Pocatello Airport is to fly to Salt Lake City. The ticket data shows that 96% of the people who board the airplane in Pocatello get on another airplane out of Salt Lake City within two hours of arriving in Salt Lake from Pocatello. I wonder what the statistics are for this airport?

Ta ta for now!

I have always like going “somewhere else.” The method of getting there was kind of important, but the real enjoyment came from being “somewhere else” for a while. However, the most fun way to get elsewhere was to fly. That is, it used to be the most fun way. The terrorists seem to me to have won as they’ve made us all into presumed terrorists where we have to prove that we are not … and not just once, every time we go elsewhere we have to prove it over and over again. There is something seriously wrong with this system, something even more wrong with a government agency that perpetrates this wrongness, and something even incredibly wrong with a public that allows it to be imposed on us.

What brings on this rant is, of course, that I’m “somewhere else” and had to be on an airplane to get here. Tomorrow evening we go through the ordeal once again on our way back home.

We’re in Kentucky hanging around in a 15 mile radius of a Marriott Courtyard Inn just outside of the Cincinnati Airport. We arrived Friday afternoon from Salt Lake City. A wedding was the stated reason, but in reality it was to spend some time with Nina’s brother and sisters. Mission accomplished! It’s fairly late afternoon on a cool Sunday afternoon (a delightful change from the 100+ degree temperatures this past couple of days) and we’re down in the lobby of the hotel. Nina is folding some origami under her sister Marsha’s tutelage, Marsha’s husband Billy and Nina’s brother Ralph are watching a football game on TV. I’ve been reading a “book”. Nina’s other sister Pam and her husband Ed left several hours ago to go back to home to Kirtland, Ohio. The rest of us will leave tomorrow at various times during the day. We’re the last out as our flight back to Salt Lake City leaves at 7:30 p.m. Eastern time. We’ve had a good time. We’ll have pizza for dinner tonight (order in??) and will have breakfast together tomorrow morning before folks start driving away back home.

The wedding was yesterday evening. Ralph’s oldest son Ralph Jr. (“affectionately” called Little Ralph) and his girlfriend Kristin (along with their two-year-old son Canaan, who inserted himself very seriously into the wedding) were married in Erlanger, Kentucky at a place called “The Reception”. It was a delightful, traditional ceremony followed by a nice buffet dinner and dancing.

The “book” I’ve been reading is on my iPad in my Kindle app. So, what’s the right term for a “book” in that form? Perhaps a “bitBook”??

Ta ta for now!

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!