cc: file, Grandma Hafen via Tony Hafen, Pauline Nelson via mail, Sara and Des Penny, Claude and Katherine Warner, Lloyd and Luana Warner. and Diane Cluff.
"Well it has almost been two weeks. Paul tells me he hasn't read a Thoughtlet all summer because he has been so busy. I understand, since I am 860 mail messages behind myself. Roce and Ben and Heather and Melanie and Audrey and Sara have each referenced the Thoughtlets over the last few weeks, and so I will again bury my insecurity about the value of this effort and continue on.
Monday, the 30th of August started out getting caught up at work. After lunch I drove to Intercontinental and picked up Jeff Winston, who flew in from Boulder to work on our Utah presentation. We had a good afternoon and evening. Since city planning has been my hobby for almost 3 decades, it is a lot of fun to work with a professional in the area. To top it off, Jeff is a Bishop in Boulder. We had a good session, and it is so much fun to see the reactions of someone new and completely unfamiliar with what we are doing at Continuum. Jeff spent the night in the spare bedroom at the house. It was the first night since we have been married there was some tension in the house. Oh well! Guess bad days are indubitably a part of life. Everyone was looking forward to and antipating going back to Cedar City this weekend. I wanted to go to take my Mom to the Hafen Reunion. Andrea, Rachel, and Matt each want to go home to see friends and faimly. K.I.S.D. is a hard school district, and there is a lot of pressure. A new friend no one but me knew was coming to visit. I guess it just all added up to be too much. Everyone did make it to sleep, and the storm passed. Hopefully I helped calm the seas a little bit.
Tuesday morning I got up at 4:00, and Jeff and I left for the airport at 4:45 AM. We had a good talk on the way to the airport, and I sincerly hope there will be an opportunity to work with him on several projects over the rest of my career. I dropped him off about 5:30, drove back to the office, and worked from 6-7:00 AM. Then I drove down to The Houstonian on South Post Oak just south of Woodway to listen to a talk by Bob Peebler and several of his colleagues over breakfast. They are doing something very similar to what we have been working on in Seattle. Interesting how small the world is and how people working in similar areas are lead down similar paths. The rest of the day was spent catching up. Dave Ridyard and I left the office at 3:30 to catch a flight to San Francisco. When we got to the airport we found out the flight was late. A friend from a major oil company was on the same flight and we had a very nice conversation. They moved us from one side of the terminal to the other, and then back to the first and finally to another gate. We didn't leave until about 3 hours late. Dave was able to get me a first class upgrade. Believe it was about the first time I have flown across the U.S. First Class. Definitly nicer than coach. They showed a relative new movie about a family where their 3 year old son is kidnapped and they find him when he is about 14. The emotions protrayed are recognizable to me. The movie showed in a very secular way the imortance of family. I could not help but think about the Hafen Reunion as we flew over Utah on the way to California.
Wednesday morning we got up and left for downtown San Francisco at 6:15 AM. We had a nice breakfast with Roger Anderson and his colleague from a company that delivers drill pipe to oil fields. The potential of what we are working on is very exciting. We had meetings all day downtown at a major oil companies corporate headquarters. For those of you interested in the web and e-based commerce, you might find the following e-commerce models interesting:
Roger and Dave and I had dinner. We talked about many different things, including the Hafen Family Reunion.
We got up and left for the airport at 6:00 AM. This time I was in coach, with a full flight, sitting in the exit aisle We got back to Houston at about 1:00 in the afternoon and back to the office about 2:00. There was a lot of work to catch up on. With the CORE-REPORTS e-mail's it almost is reaching information overload. When I finally made it home, I learned that Brother Schultz, one of the new counselors in the Bishopric, wanted to talk to me. He came over and called me to be the Scout Leader for the Priests. I mentioned last week Andrea received a new calling. I didn't share it because she had not been sustained yet. She is now the Young Woman's President. I called Rob, and he decided he also could not miss school, and so he would not be able to go to the Hafen Family Reunion this year. Rob, it was sure good to see you when you came over to the house to pick up a key. Thanks for taking care of the house, and I hope we can figure out how to spend more time together. Also, I called Sara and she decided she can not afford to miss school on Tuesday next. With Naomie's wedding to Kirk Willams on the same weekend, and Melanie's commitments there, it was disappointing to not have any of the four of you who originally told me you would be there able to join us. Oh well!
Friday started with the sales staff conference call to Perth, London, Norway, and Houston. Then there was the developer's meeting. Then I worked on stuff for the Utah paper. Before I knew it, it was time to go downstairs to the CoRe Exchange Meeting at 4:00. I was asked to talk about salespeople, since 1 had been asked to leave and 2 had quit, and we are replacing all three with one guy. Bob Bacon is the best. We worked together at Landmark, and it is going to be fun to work with him again. The rest of the message was the video MuSE put together a few years ago about simulating traffic in North Dallas, where most of us used to live. I got home at 5:30, and learned the plane did not leave until 9:00 PM. I worked on some stuff, and we finally left for the Hafen Reunion about 7:00 PM. This was the first time I have flown with Andrea. We arrived at Grandma Shirts' house at about 2:45 AM. What a long week.
Saturday Andrea and I got up at 8:00 and walked up over Leigh Hill, up past the college, and over to Sara and Des' to see them and Paul. I had a meeting at SUU at 10:30 with Scott Truman and Wes Curtis. It went well, and they seem pleased with what we are putting together for our presentation. Paul and Brian picked me up and we left for St. George. We went to Hurricane first, and we did an experiment. Paul ended up standing in the back of his trunk, taking pictures as I drove him down the hill going into Hurricane. The set up was funny, and the pictures turned out pretty good. I will put them at http://www.walden3d.com/photos/hurrican_setup_Brian_Paul.mpg and .../hurricane.mpg. Later in the weekend Paul explained to his girl friend, Kate Jones, that he was raised as Indiana Jones, and this experiment was proof. We got to Porter's right at 3:00. Mom was ready. After helping her in the van we stopped at Smiths for me to buy some pasta salad, and then we headed out for Pinto and the Hafen Reunion 1999.
As we went by Snow's Canyon, Paul said he had never been on this road. I told him he had, and to watch for something he remembered. When we went past the volcano, I had to remind him about Volcano Man. Paul it was fun to watch the light go on in your mind, and particularly to hear the same thing Roice said last year: `That volcano sure is little. When we climbed it I thought we looked down at clouds beneath us.' We both laughed. The road to Pinto in the van is a long ways. We got there just as they were starting to put food out on the tables. Mom had a really nice and very expensive chocolate cake Sara had helped her get. It was one of the first things to go. It was fun to talk to family, and particularly to see how much Mom enjoyed talking to her family. Mom, I was particularly pleased to see your interactions with Buela, Uncle Tony's wife. I think that building bridges is one of the things the Hafen Reuion is about. Paul and Brian took the rental car back to Cedar. Andrea went with me to take Mom back to Porter's. We stopped at Larson's to get a thick malt (.../9836.html), at about 10:30 on our way back to Cedar. It was too late to stop and see Grandma Hafen. Matt and I went to the store about midnight to get stuff for staying at the Nelson Cabin Sunday night.
Sunday we went to Andrea's old ward in Cedar at 9:00. Rachael, I am sooooo proud of you and of the testimony you bore. Andrea and I left from there for the Hafen Reunion. We got there just as they were announcing the opening song. I ended up sitting in the sun and got pretty sunburned. It was a wonderful testimony meeting. Afterwards Diane and I met with the Hafen family. It is the Paul Hafen family turn to organize next year's Hafen Reunion. Diane and I volunteered to send out the invites and to do it. I also volunteered to get the Hafen genealogy on the web and I will put it at http://www.walden3d.com/hafen sometime this next year. We did not stay for lunch, and got back to Cedar about 4:00 PM. We ended up leaving for the Nelson cabin on Webster's flat at about 5:30 PM. We ended up with Heather, Nate, their disabled charge Billy, Rachel, her friend Holly, Russel Shirts' daughter Kim, Matt, Paul, his girlfriend Kate Jones, Andrea and myself. It was a wonderful evening of hiking to the beaver pond, making a campfire, talking, singing, looking at the stars, and hanging out. I wish you all could have been there. Oh well!
We got up pretty early, and Andrea took Rachel and Holly down to the County Fair and parade in Parowan. Nate, Heather, and Billy also had to leave. The rest of us made it down the mountain about 11:30. I had a couple of hours worth of work to do, as follow-up on the meeting Saturday. I also went over the presentation with Ray Gardner and sent an e-mail to several folks from his office. Andrea and Audrey were in St. George when I met them at 4:30 to see Grandma Hafen. Then we went by to see Mom, and Audrey drove the other car home. We got back to Cedar just in time for dinner at Steve Shirts' house with his family, Russell and Marilyn and their kids, Grandma Shirts, Heather and Nate, and us. What an enjoyable evening. We took the key back to Uncle Ted, and then we went back to Steve and Jill's to look at their pictures from their band trip to Europe this summer. It was almost 11:00 when we got back to Grandma Shirts. We left for Las Vegas and Houston at 6:00 the next morning. Grandma Hafen told me I am going to have a heart attack with the schedule I keep. I hope I am learning to relax, and I know that taking time to talk with family at something like the Hafen Family Reunion is good for me. I really enjoy it, and hope you kids will all enjoy spending time together as family."