Report of the Week

Sunday – May 13, 2012

Mother's Day
 In honor of Mother's Day our ward had no leadership meetings before church. I got to stay home and get ready with Mar. We still drove two cars because I didn't know what was going to happen after church.
In the afternoon we had a light lunch and a nice walk.

In the evening we had Mother's Day company. Breanne and Ben came for dinner. Erica and Rich and the girl's came for dinner. We took a nice little walk over to the park. And all of the other kids called to talk to their Mom. Yes, Mar and I called our Mom's also. It was a good day.

And as long as we are talking Mother's Day – here is the baby bird report. They are hatched and are growing. It is a LOT harder to get a good picture now because the mama and papa robins are EXTEMELY protective. I never noticed what the beak of a robin looks like until now. Look one over some time. They are vicious weapons. When we go onto the back porch they sit there all fluffed up and angry looking. Then if you start getting close to the nest, they fly at you and veer away at about 2 feet from your face while screaming in their most demonistic robin voices. It is scary. They have never hit me, and I don't think they would, but it is unnerving never the less. At any rate, the babies are starting to feather out and are eating worms. (A Google search says they should leave the nest in 14 to 21 days from the time they hatched, so they have to grow pretty quick. It also says the mother will then start a new brood – but mar and I have decided that won't happen on our porch simply because we really can't use our patio with this kind of vigilante behavior going on.)

Saturday – May 12, 2012
 I woke up in Tucson, Arizona.
 Then I drove to the airport and flew home. Nothing to report on that flight. It left on time. It landed on time. All was going well until I went to get my luggage. I had two medium sized pieces. Only one got put on the plane. I was polite while I made the claim. Then I drove home. The errant piece of luggage showed up via courier service at about 5:000 in the evening.

Mar and I did a lot of planning and yard work in the afternoon. It was overcast so it was very nice to work outside.

In the evening we went to the Ward Talent Show. Mar displayed a wall-hanging that was painting with thread. Otherwise we just enjoyed being together.

Friday – May 11, 2012
 I woke up in Tucson, Arizona
 Jogged for 1 ½ miles.

Today was the last day of class. I think this class went very well. Still I am glad that it is over.

In Tucson, my students always tell things to go see. Now granted, generally the touristy things close at 5:00, which puts them out of my time frame. Today, they just told me to go see a couple of things.

The first was the bone yards at Davis-Montham Air Force Base. It is where they "park" old military aircraft that has been retired. It is not a real tourist destination, but it is a sight to see. There are acres and acres of planes just parked. Some f them have been dismantled so that their inactive state can be verified on satellite images. Most of them are just parked. Probably never to fly again.

This is a couple of pictures from Google Earth - just so you can get a feeling of what is in the Bone Yard.  Notice that some of the planes are dis-assembled - a treaty requirement so that it can be viewed by satellites that the planes are totally inoperative.

The other place they sent me to was Texas Canyon. It is about an hour from Tucson on I10 – going towards El Paso. Really it is not worth an hour drive. It is just a rest stop where the rock formations have pushed up through the otherwise deserty ground. I guess It would be cool if it was closer, but driving an hour to see a rest stop? Come on.  But what else was I going to do.

 

How often do you get to see a sign like this - and the insects? They are talking about scorpions.

I just liked this feathery stalk from a yucca.  It is my asthestic side coming out.

Mar spent the day at Erica's house. They were supposed to do some sewing. They didn't. They shopped ad talked and enjoyed life.
Thursday – May 10, 2012
 I woke up in Tucson, Arizona
 Jogged – slow jog that is – for 5K.

Started the second class today – but it is the same people. It went well, so what else is there to say. Except that the power went out in te afternoon. Not to worry, I just continued teaching with a white board discussion.

And then I did not very much in the evening.

Mar did more than I did. She did her exercising – despite her shin splints. She finished some sewing. And she had a girls camp meeting this evening.

Wednesday – May 9, 2012
 I woke up in Tucson, Arizona.

Class went well today. I actually finished the first class.

Weather was unsettled in Tucson. Wind and a little bit of rain.

The last time I was in Tucson, the class sent me to dinner at a place called Lil' Abners. The time before that they sent me to Pinnacle Peak. Both were about the same – a minimum menu (you get a house salad, meat [steak, ribs or chicken], beans, a potato and toast). Both were pretty good. So this night I was pondering where to go for dinner – and scanning some options and saw one called Daisy Mae's. Without any information other than the address – I went. Yep, it was the same type of place. I am thinking they may all be commonly owned. And all of them have "historical significance".
Pinnacle Peak is in an old western movie set .

Lil' Abner's was an old trading post.

Daisy Mae's is one of the oldest buildings in Southern Arizona. It has been an Army outpost, a saloon, a stage coast stop and a brothel. It is also said to be haunted by a man who was knifed in a brothel fight over a woman.

It was a fun place to go and the food was pretty good – but I may have to try for some veggies tomorrow.

Mar did her exercises, even though she is suffering a bad case of shin splints. She also got everything ready and worked at young women's helping the girls make matching pajama pants for girl's camp. I feel bad that I wasn't there to help her carry sewing machines and all – but she is independent and just gets it all done.

Tuesday – May 8, 2012
 I woke up in Tucson, Arizona.
 I went out and ran 3 ¼ miles this morning – a good two point start for the Strength of Stones.

I taught my class today and it went very well – but with nothing real important to report.

This evening I went to Sabino Canyon Recreation Area which is on the northern edge of Tucson. It is a desert canyon that is set aside for recreation activities. In the rainy season, there are waterfalls. Now, all is dry. Still it is a beautiful place. I went for a 3 mile hike and enjoyed it a lot. I saw a lot of cactus and a lot of bunny rabbits. There were also quails and a few little darting lizards – and birds. It is different now than when I went to Saguaro National Park six weeks ago. Now the Saguaro are in bloom which is interesting and pretty.

And with that hike – I got 3 exercise points today.

Otherwise – I had dinner and went back to the motel.

Mar had a busy day with a lot of errands and then she had Relief Society in the evening. They had a workshop on Fairy Gardens, and Mar has built a little Fairy House to take and show. She also stretched her walk for the day. She has a route that takes her over a mile with hills. I am proud of her and how she is working to get in shape.

Monday – May 7, 2012
I woke up in Tucson, Arizona.

I am here to teach two classes at Raytheon. I have taught at Raytheon a number of times and generally I find them enjoyable classes. This week I have 12 engineers in the class. After one day I can tell that this will be a good class. They are all bright and anxious to learn which makes the class better to teach. We did have a little bit of drama starting the class. Evidently over the weekend, Raytheon had a "security incident" and because of that some of the server systems were shut down. One server was needed in the class. Brenda, my contact at Raytheon, got right on that and had it all solved.

In the morning I jogged for 1.5 miles. However I wasn't very good on other aspects of the Strength of Stones challenge. I am ashamed to say that I can only claim one point this day with a clear conscience.

I did very little in the evening. Teaching just wears me out.

Other news about the day in Tucson:
    I am staying at the Fairfield Inn by the airport. It is okay. The room is nice. They have a breakfast of sorts in the morning.
    My car is a Toyota Camry. It is interesting that it is the same model of car that I had in Chicago last week, so I know all of the buttons.

    It rained and was cold in Longmont. Mar said it was nice to have the moisture.

Report of the Week

Monday – April 30, 2012
I woke up in Schaumburg, Illinois.

I am here to teach two classes for a company called Invensys in Carol Stream, Illinois. Three people are from Illinois and five are up from Mexico. They have asked to have two 3 day classes taught in five days. Yikes! That is going to be a lot of work. I was not especially pleased with the way the class went today. I have some language difficulty with the people from Mexico. Also, the people from Mexico have zero experience, two from Illinois have a little bit, and one probably knows more about this software than I do. So the first day was a little bit rocky, and I didn't let them leave until 5:30, which means I didn't leave until 6:00. With me arriving at the office at 6:45 in the morning to get set up, that made for a real long day.
I did learn an interesting thing – well interesting from work perspective. The company is closing the training room in Schaumburg – meaning the Chicago area. It means there will probably be a lot less training in that area.

I am sorry to say that I did not exercise this day – but I did drink all of my water and did pretty good on my food choice and portion control.

Mar is in Sothern California. I would like to say she is visiting her Michael and Taylor, but that is not true – she is visiting the new grandbaby, Page. Mar says she is beautiful. Well – she is.

Tuesday – May 1, 2012

Happy May Day. I woke up in Schaumburg, Illinois.

Class went okay, but again I pushed them real had to make up for the shortened schedule. Most of them are doing okay. However, there is one person from Mexico who is struggling. I think it is more that he is struggling with the language. I find that he gets stuck at a point in the lab, but when I explain what is happening, he just moves on.

In the evening I went to the Chicago Temple for a session. I wasn't going to go, just because I was so tired. But I girded my loins and went. I am glad I did. There were only four of us in that session so they really needed my presence.

Ashamed I am – again. No exercise today.

Mar spent the day "holding the baby and folding the laundry". She was happy about it all.

Wednesday – May 2, 2012

I woke up in Schaumburg, Illinois.

Today we finished our first class on schematic capture – at noon. My people from Mexico and their manager really upset my schedule. They went to their home office in Carol Stream to "meet people". They promised they would be in by 8:45. At 9:30 they actually got there. I recovered by streamlining the lectures and the labs for the morning. I felt sorry for the non-English population of the class because I was talking very fast.

We started the second class on PCB Layout at 12:30. We added one more person from another company in Minnesota. He really already knows a lot about the software.

In the evening – well I did nothing much. And no, I did not exercise.

Mar did a little bit of shopping for Michael and Taylor – but most of the day was holding the baby. She never gets tired of that.

Thursday – May 3, 2012

I woke up in Schaumburg, Illinois.

Class proceeded at a quick pace. I kept them late again so I didn't leave work until after 6:00..
I didn't do much in the evening. I didn't exercise, but I did the next best thing. I took a nap. I have decided that this plan of exercising after work just doesn't work. I am too tired. However, we are starting the class so early I cannot exercise in the morning. I am burning a lot of calories.

Mar spent her day as she has spent every day this week – holding the baby. She says she is starting to feel like she is in the way – and then they express so much thanks that she is there to just help them and allow them to get a little bit of rest. Oh, how I remember new babies and how tired Mar and I were for the first few months. Keep up the faith, babies are worth it – up until the time they are teen agers. I guess I still like them then also.

In my reading this evening I finished the Book of Mosiah. I also finished Deuteronomy. Yep, I am reading the Bible and the Book of Mormon at the same time.

Friday – May 4, 2012

I woke up in Schaumburg, Illinois.

I informed the class that I wanted to be done by 4:00. They were all agreed to that. So we pushed ahead quickly through the remaining material. Then lunch came and the vice president for engineering came down to have lunch with his guys from Mexico. You can just imagine what that did to our momentum. Rather than the ½ hour lunch we had been taking, this one stretched to 1 ½ hours. So in the afternoon I pressed on very fast and guess what – at 4:00 I was done. The guy from Minnesota left and then the people from Carlo Stream stayed and talked – and talked – and talked. I just cleaned up the classroom around them. At 5:00 when they finally left, I was ready to go.

They all said they liked the class. They are having more training at the beginning of June and they hoped I would do that – but I told them it would not be me (cause that is a vacation for me). So the customer was satisfied. But I was not. I do not like these "teach it faster" classes. The customers don't know what they miss by not letting the instructors take time and really tell them things to be aware of and how things really work.

I left the office and drove to O'Hare airport. I have learned a route to the airport that avoids the highways and toll ways altogether – which is a good thing because the highways and toll ways often backup and are slower than taking my surface road route.

There are simple victories that happen when you travel. I got to the airport and got a better seat. Yea! I had time to try a new restaurant at the airport. Yea! My flight boarded on time and left on time (unlike the poor people who were trying to get to St. Louis and their flight was already 4 hours late and their plane was still in Connecticut. Yea! Yea! The flight went well.

I took a nice long walk in the Chicago O'Hare terminal – there is plenty of room to walk there – and I took a nice long walk in the Denver airport because I park half-way to Utah when I fly. I count that as exercise because so it is.

I got home about 12:30 PM – and guess what – I went to bed, but not without a little drama first. We asked the missionaries (Elder Epps and Elder Phillips) to stay at our house while we were gone. I was home so late that I was sure they would be in bed (which they were). Still I tried to be quiet so as to not wake them. Elder Epps chose that evening to have a hard time sleeping and he forgot that I was coming home on Friday evening. He heard me and was "worried" that a burglar or prowler had entered the house. He sneaked up to the kitchen and got some knives and started searching the house. He carefully knocked on the bedroom door and then it was that he discovered I was home. He went back to bed and so did I.

Mar spent the day "holding the baby". She is loving that.

Saturday – May 5, 2012

I woke up in my own bed at home. Still it was a little bit sad because Mar was still in Southern California.

I spent the morning doing yard work – mowing the lawn, watering the lawn, spraying pestilent weeds and trimming things. I also did all of my laundry. In the afternoon aI spent an hour doing some service, and then did some more yard work.

We did have one sad event that happened on while we were gone which we learned about of Saturday. We had a wind storm and the nest with four eggs in the wreath on our front porch was blown out and destroyed. It was very sad for both Mar and I. Still, the robin nest on the back porch is intact and well – in fact, we have baby robins. They are newly babies and are truly ugly creatures at this age. I risk life and limb to take a picture. That mother robin actually attacked me. She is a good mother.

The real focus of my day was on the time I was going to go back out to the airport to pick up Mar from her flight back home. Her flight was more adventurous because she had to fly "a little tiny airplane" from Ontario airport to Phoenix, and then catch a connecting flight back home. All went well, and I got my beautiful wife back at about 9:30 at night. I am glad she is home. I am glad I am home. She is glad she is home – but she missed the baby (and Michael and Taylor). It was a good trip for her.

On the way home to the airport, I finished a book on Tape – The Miracle at Speedy Motors by Alexander McCall Smith. It is another of the "Number One Ladies Detective Agency "books. I will report on them later – but this is the fourth one I have listened to on tape – so you can guess that I really enjoy them.

Sunday – May 6, 2012

I went to a leadership meeting at 9:00 and 9:30. We then had Sacrament meeting, where Mar offered the invocation. Shortly after that she felt ill and nauseous so she went home. I stayed for Sunday School and Priesthood, but the life of a clerk does not let a person go to Sunday School or Priesthood with any regularity – or even at all.

We had an afternoon together. Mar took a nap and felt better afterwards. And then my employment got in the way.

I went back to the airport and caught a plane to Tucson, Arizona – where I will be for the next week. The flight went well and I arrived without incident. So next week, I get to wake up someplace other than home. This will make three weeks in a row on the road. But we count it as a blessing that I am able to support us well and help others in many ways.

But I wish I was able to stay home.