cc: file, Tony Hafen, Pauline Nelson via mail, Sara and Des Penny, Claude and Katherine Warner, Lloyd and Luana Warner, Diane Cluff, Maxine Shirts via mail.
"Since each of you see and intuitively understand, I guess it is appropriate to acknowledge how I sometimes can be what the dictionary calls an `anal character':
So Mom, was I preoccupied? I don't remember. Anyway, given the data, the way it lies, imagine what was going on in my head as while driving back from NASA on Tuesday, with my mother-in-law in the car, we ran outta gas going north on the Tollroad!
A few weeks ago I promised Peter Duncan, now at Chroma Energy, a copy of a planned W3D Journal (0039.html) titled Advanced Pattern Finding. Furthermore I had promised him a copy by the end of the month. Being the good guy he is, he called me last week to remind me. So I spent all day Monday expanding on the words, which I mentioned last week I started on Saturday (0044.html). Andrea's Mom arrived for her second annual visit to Houston to go to the giant Quilt Show at the George Brown Convention Center downtown in the afternoon. I took a break from writing for dinner and Family Home Evening. We watched `Legacy,' the film that was in the Joseph Smith Memorial Building Theater for the first couple of years after it opened. Andrea's friend Sharon Shay gave it to us. What a wonderful heritage we have. If some of you have not seen it, I hope you will either ask us to send it to you, or take time to watch it with me when you visit. By the time I went to bed, there were about 21 pages written and printing.
Tuesday morning I had a meeting with the President of Residuum Energy, Inc., who will be a key partner for Dynamic Oil & Gas in the Offshore Eastern Louisiana AMI I have been working up. Residuum's office is in Salt Lake, where their Chief Scientist, Bob Ehrlich, works (../9722.html and 0042.html). Andrea and `Mom' dropped me of at the Starbucks at Bay Area Boulevard and I-45 in Clear Lake. We had dropped Andrea's car off for inspection at Gary's Tire & Auto on the way, and Andrea drove so I could sit in the back seat and write. The meeting with Neal Brousshard was good. I believe this is going to be a fun partnership. We talked from 9:35 until 10:45, when he needed to go to another meeting. Then I went next door to Barnes & Noble, found a dictionary, settled into a comfortable chair, and wrote until about 1:00 before I ran outta gas. I called Andrea and found they had eaten at NASA, and so I walked over to the La Madaline's and had spinich quiche, mushroom soup, and a pastry. Then I walked back to Starbucks and sat out front and wrote until I was picked up at 2:30.
There was lots of news to tell me. Andrea didn't want to drive, and I wanted to keep writing, so she did drive. The visit to NASA had been wonderful. There were no lines. The tram was half empty. There were major activities going on in mission control. One group was was practicing for re-entry for the mission planned for November 30th, which will take supplies to the International Space Station. The other group was tracking the Soyuz missile that had taken off that morning from Russia with two cosmonauts and Bill Shephard (no relation to Alan Shephard who was one of the astronaut heros of my youth), who were going to the Space Station as the first permanent crew. After the trip report I settled down to writing, and Andrea and Mom talked. As we went through the toll gate, at about 70 mph, just past Westheimer Andrea cried out with alarm, `Roice, we are outta gas.'
It was one of those moments when a bunch of stuff suddenly goes off in one's mind. `What is my mother-in-law going to think of me?' Then `Is one of these cars going to hit us?' Then `Where is the closest gas station?' Then I became an instant back seat driver. `Get over in the right lane!' Andrea responded `I can't, there are cars there!' `There, now you can.' Then as I felt the automatic transmission slow the car down, and mentally calculated how far I would hav to walk for gas, I cried out `Take it out of gear!' Next was `Take the Memorial exit, and I will get out and push.' Well I had my cowboy boots on (../9811.html), and as I jumped out and the car was still rolling my foot turned on its side and the back tire ran over the heal of the self-designed and handmade wingtip cowboy boots giving them a large gash on the heal. I got my balance, got in back of the car and started pushing the last 20 feet up the hill. Couldn't make it, and Andrea realized this and put on the brake so we wouldn't roll back down the hill into the Tollroad traffic. We rolled the car back a little, and put it closer to the cement barrier on the right, and I took off for the Chevron station a block away. They would not loan a gas can, so I now have a 1 gallon gas can in the trunk for the next time I run outta gas.
Actually, I think this is the first time I have run outta gas since I was a kid and the tractor ran out of diesel fuel. On reflection, that was much more of a problem than what Andrea, Maxine, and I faced. Sometimes we would pull the tractor around the fields for a couple of hours before we could get it restarted. Diesel is much more viscous than gasoline, and when you run out of fuel it forms air bubbles in the gas line. Sometimes Dad would end up taking the entire gas line apart, blowing the bubbles out like blowing on a straw, and finally we would get the tractor restarted. We always had old equipment, and so the gas gagues seldom worked. One of the first things to do was stick a stick down in the gas tank and see if it needed to be topped off.
Then there were several times Dad ran outta gas. Seems like he liked to keep the gas tank on empty, and so as we were driving up the lane, we would run outta gas. All of a sudden he would start swinging the steering wheel left and right, rocking the truck, and sloshing what gasoline was still in the tank. There were several times we made it to the service station using this tactic. I didn't remember this as we were coming up the Memorial Drive ramp, or we might have made it to the Chevron station. Although there was probably too much traffic and Andrea would not have know what I was talking about if I would of asked her to do this.
So how did we get in this circumstance? Ever since getting active in the Church I have always worried about running outta gas on the Sabbath. I remember how the Prophets and Apostles have stressed not buying anything on the Sabbath, and so I have always been very careful to fill up the cars on Saturday night. Sometimes when I have forgot, we have gone to church, back, and doing church errands on fumes. We never did run outta gas. I remember when I was the Elders Quorum President in Dallas and we had about 120 Prospective Elders in our ward, with maybe 2 attending church. Fairly regularly the Stake High Counsel would send groups to split with us and go and visit all of these men to seek if we could get them back in church. On several occassions, different Stake Leaders with me would almost run outta gas on the Sabbath and have to stop at a service station. I always said to myself, `I'll never do that!' So last Saturday when we came home from Les Miserables we stopped at the Post Office and came home. There was a little more than a quarter of a tank of gas, and I was not expecting any long errands on Sunday, so I didn't go back out and fill up the gas tank. Monday, Andrea took the Grand Prix to pick up her Mom, and we didn't use the Lexus all day. Tuesday morning I was in a hurry to pick up Andrea at Gary's, she didn't really want to drive, and we both expected the gas tank to be full the first of the week. It wasn't, and we both hopefully learned a lesson.
Wednesday morning I met with Ed Rogers to review the Dynamic Prospectus legal agreements. We were suppose to meet at IHOP, and he got sick during the night. So I ended up going over to his house. I also got feedback from Merril Littlewood from an accounting perspective. Andrea, Maxine, and I went to a session at the Houston Temple when I got back home. Every time we got in the car there was some comment from one of us about running outta gas. The temple was very nice. First time we have been the witness couple together. Afterwards we went to the Bookstore, where it was raining hard as we left. Then we went back to the Chinese Resturant we went to three weeks ago when we did vicarious baptisms (0042.html). We got home about 3:00 and I started writing again. Andrea made a nice birthday cake for Rob, with a smiley face and a $50. bow tie on it. I took it over,lit the candles, and he refused to come to the door. I feel sorry for where he is at. It is particularly sad to see those I love the most, reject me because they feel bad about their choices and are afraid I will reject them. I'm not looking forward to the judgement day! I am so sorry for my mistakes. And as Nancy taught us in PAIRS, Oh well! Sometimes we just run outta gas. The Beehives had the combined activity for Young Men & Young Women. We went on a food drive for Thanksgiving Kitchens. It was good experience for the kids. The four with me had a good time.
Thursday was started out with a Dental checkup and teeth cleaning. Dr. Crabtree has never given me a filling in 16 years of going there. The rest of the day and evening were spent writing. The W3D Journal on Advanced Pattern Finding weighed in at 40 pages before I finally ran outta gas and stopped writing. I do feel like it came together reasonably well. If any of you are interested, let me know and I will give you a copy or send back the location, username, and password so you can download it and read it.
Friday was spent getting the printer to work correctly. Andrea and her Mom spent both Thursday and Friday at the Quilt Show. I finally got three copies of the Prospectus and W3D Journal Edition 13 (Editions 2-12 are not done yet) printed and bound over at Kinkos. I took a copy to Dick Coons, who has the South and North Padre Island Areas of Mutual Interest (AMIs), and to Joe Roberts, who I had promised a copy of any investment opportunities a few weeks ago. The third copy is for Alf Klaviness, who has the Walker, Travis, Houston County AMI, and I will get it over to him Monday morning. Friday evening Matt and I were going to go on a scout campout to Camp Strake, and it was raining enough the campout was cancelled. Audrey, thanks so much for calling to wish me a happy birthday. I appreciate your sincerity and love more than I know how to describe. Rachel went with friends to see `Charlie's Angels.' Matt spent the night with a friend. Andrea, Mom, and I watched the movie `Primary Colors' on TV, and I read from my birthday present: `The Beatles' until I ran outta gas and fell asleep on the couch.
Saturday morning, as we started on our Saturday morning run, I remembered Ward Choir practice, and went back to the house and drove down to the church. Andrea, I really didn't run outta gas, and I could have kept up with you on the run. However, I had made a committment to the choir director, Brother Beckstrom, and felt I should be at choir practice. Good songs, and I'm glad I went even if I was sweaty and unshaved. I filed over 550 e-mail messages Saturday morning and early afternoon (I'm down to 529 in the in-basket now), and then we went to see Bagger Vance for my birthday party. Good movie. Rachel and Matt thanks for going with us. I reommend you all see it. We went to Landry's for dinner afterwards. When we got home Andrea had made a wonderful cheesecake, and there were new running shoes, running weights, and a video tape: The Horse Whisperer. After eating the wonderful cheesecake, we watched `Crimson Tide' on TV and I sorted some of the piles of papers which have built up in my office over the last few weeks. I ran outta gas shortly after it was over, and could hardly keep my eyes open as I answered a couple of e-mail's.
This morning there was an e-mail from Diane Cluff, which needs to be shared with all of you, especially as you prepare to vote this week:
I hope you each have a great week, and that none of you run outta gas."