05 Aug 2001 #0132.html

Ethan's First Birthday

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Dear Paul and Kate, Melanie and Jared, Bridget and Justin, Sara, Ben and Sarah, Heather, Audrey, Rachel, and Matt via hardcopy,

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.

Welcome to "Thoughtlets." This is a weekly review of an idea, belief, thought, or words that will hopefully be of some benefit to you, my children, with an electronic copy to on-line extended family members. Any of you can ask me not to clutter your mail box at any time.

"Amazing it is already 9:00 on Sunday night, and I'm just starting this week's Thoughtlet. I mentioned in the last Thoughtlet, which was just sent out (0131.html), that we drove straight through and got back to Houston at 9:00 Tuesday morning, Matt's 14th birthday. There were banners wrapped around the trees, across the back door, up the stairs, and all over the house. Matt is definitely loved (although he did something mean to Rachel on her birthday, and she is still pretty upset about it). After eating breakfast, Sister Salt arrived to pick up Adam and Nathan. I took Preston Jurinak and John Sneidman home. Then I read through the e-mail, learning I had offended some of you with my Thoughtlet about devaluing (and had misspelled the word a dozen times in the Thoughtlet [maybe Andrea didn't proof that week's writing?]), and filing a whole bunch of junk mail. I spent Tuesday talking to people on the phone, building a Table of Contents for Ward Abbott's Online Atlas (http://www.walden3d.com/Abbott/contents.html), getting the booth sorted out with APPEX, and working through a bunch of different things.

Continuum has not payed us the last invoice, and there was another one due, so I took it down and talked to Dave Ridyard about what is going on. He assured me we will be paid when they get the money, and I assured him, I have found another place to put the Landmark license if they don't. I then went over to Sam LeRoy's, picked up the folders for Offshore Texas, and got caught up what had happened with Sam while I've been gone. Then I went downtown to II&T to meet with Richard Thorpe, who has been working the Fairfield data for me while I was out of town. On the way I placed calls to Richard Nehring, Dick Coons, two individuals at Shell Research, and my contacts at BP. There are so many opportunities sitting out there, and all I need to do is close a couple of them to be able to retire credit card debt and get the car payments under control. I left II&T at 6:45 PM and was back to the house at 7:30 to go to `Planet of The Apes' with Matt for his birthday (and with Andrea and Rachel). I enjoyed the movie, especially some of the humor tied into the previous versions of `Planet of the Apes' from when I was a youth. I could hardly stay awake by the time we got home.

Wednesday I got up early, and the Sun computer had died. Marc Roulston was scheduled to come in, because Internet America was purchased by Mindspring, the walden3d.com service provider is being changed, and I had to get the router up to the latest specifications. Marc was able to get the computer back up, and to do several other things. However, it meant I didn't leave for Chroma until 10:45 AM, and my supervisor on the Texaco project was not a happy camper. By the time I left, we had a pretty good story put together for the Texaco presentation scheduled for Thursday. I drove back to Katy from Sugar Land, and arrived just in time for the Combined Youth Activity, so I went straight to the church. I was dead tired by now. I drove Alex Beckstrom, stopped at the house, provided gear to Chris Schmidt and Brian Stine, picked up Matt, and drove him and Alex over to Cullen Park on the other side of I-10. Then I fell asleep in the car, until Andrea woke me up and sent me to the church to tell parents the kids would be a half hour late getting back. When I got home I just went to sleep.

Thursday I got up early, answered e-mail, and got ready to go to Chroma. One of the e-mails was from Roger Anderson. He wrote:

`Board of Directors, vPatch, Friends, I am now back home safe and sound in NY -- i survived a very bad car accident last weds night in houston -- thanks to side air bags! i was in a lincoln ls from hertz driving from intercontinental to clear lake on loop 8 about 10 pm when something happened to the left, front wheel. i have NO MEMORY of the event at all, but looking at the totalled car yesterday, either i hit something, a tire blew, or i fell asleep and hit a curb. the car flipped over several times and was a mess. i was medevaced to hermann hospital -- where they are still the best at car accidents in the world even though they were devistated by the flooding last month. My cat scan, xrays, etc were all negative, thank God, and so i was released 24 hours later to make room for others. i slept it off one night in clear lake, then made it home yesterday, only to suffer a touch and go landing at newark --the dc-10 had to take off again to avoid a plane on the runway and it then made a second landing after waiting in line all over again. when it rains, it pours. anyway, i look like gorbachov --with a large bare red spot on my forehead--i have broken front teeth that will need a dentist, and a broken left jaw. every muscle in my upper body aches -- and i have two raccoon like black eyes and blooded whites that make me even tougher to look at than usual. my cell phone was crushed, my laptop has a big dent and the screen was knocked out, and i'm otherwise out of communications -- so i've borrowed forrest's cell phone: 646-765-0348 my plan for the next few weeks is: next week: see eye doctor, see dentist, have stitches removed from my head and ear, see laptop doctor, get new palm cellphone, and otherwise recover. then aug 8-22, go with family, grandma, and roger and pam for 2 weeks in hawaii as previously scheduled. i'll stay up with progress of vPatch via phone and email -- this and lamont addresses both from home. well, just another bump in the road to our ultimate success.... please keep me informed of all our goings on as i struggle to get it all back together. steve and the committees will be carrying the ball. cheers, roger.'


Thinking about how tired I have been, and about using my hand held cell phone on the Houston freeways, it makes one think. I guess, when it's time, it's time, and as I said to Roger:

`Glad you are OK. My heart stopped as I read your note. I hope you realize what a dear and special friend you have become to me. Although I look forward to a better continuation on the otherside of the veil, I do not look forward to saying good-bye to you, no matter whether it be me or you that steps across the boundary of life first. Thanks for being my friend. Thanks for staying around to see the results of the last decade's work.'


I got to Chroma about 8:30 Thursday morning, and was all ready for the Texaco presentation by 2:00. They didn't show up. They thought it was at their shop. Dave was upset. I smiled, and went to work on the Fairfield data. I worked until about 7:00, the last hour multiprocessing with Steve Joseph on the phone. Guess it was worthwhile for me to have gone to the vPatch Board Meeting, because some of the Board Members have stepped up to the bar and are providing the interim finacing, as per my suggestion. Steve is moving more and more to the construction side of things, and since that is where I expect I will end up in the longer term, we had a lot to catch up on. I went from Chroma to the annual scout preview meeting. It was a waste of time for me. Oh well! I stopped at two stores and found some diskettes for the digital camera, and got home at 9:30. Andrea and I talked for an hour, and then I got my presentation together for Magnum Resources in Dallas. It was 1:30 AM by the time I went to bed.

Matt, Andrea, and I left for Dallas at about 9:00. We went by Sealy to pick up the digital camera from Ken Turner, who met us at the church. He has lost 47 pounds over the last four months, and it is a good motivation for me to get after loosing some of the extra 60 pounds I'm carrying around. I actually gained 10 pounds on the High Adventure, though I had lost most of this by Friday, by not eating dinners. We drove from Sealy to Novasota to Madisonville, and got to Las Colinas and Magnum Hunter Resources just at 2:00 PM. It was a good meeting. Again, there are a lot of opportunities for Dynamic Resources, and I just need to close the first business deal. We got over to Ben and Sarah's at about 5:00 by way of Mockingbird Lane and lots of old memories for me (../9814.html, ../9816.html, and ../9902.html). They have a beautiful house, and they have done so much to it. I'm truly impressed. Ben and Sarah look so good, and Ethan is as happy of a baby as I've ever known. It was a great visit. We went to Applebee's for dinner, in honor of Audrey. They had helium balloons, and Ethan was hitting his and it came off the string and flew into someone's margarita. I thought it was funny. Then Matt got a balloon and his also went across the room. Oh well! I wrote a song for Ethan's birthday, and he enjoyed putting his hand across the strings on my guitar and stopping the sound:

`C: Ethan is one year old He's fun to hold Until he gets bold And starts to wiggle Like jello in a mold 1: Last week was his birthday party Matt and I were in Colorado Giving his Grandmother Marti Access without feeling awkward One of life's unanswered riddles 2: Yesterday Matt and Andrea Rode to Dallas with me A meeting at Magnum Resources Then to Ben and Sarah's new house To visit with Grandbaby Ethan 3: Ethan likes to walk He's also starting to talk You should have seen him jump When the balloon popped Eating dinner at Applebee's 4: Pancakes and scrambled eggs Cleaned up by his dogs Like a cowboy with bowed legs Playing with his lego logs Ethan likes to mute my guitar'

Ben had soccer practice Saturday morning, and Sarah, Andrea, and Matt wanted to do some shopping. So Ethan and I played, and when he went down for his nap, I got caught up on reading Time Magazines. Tracy, Laura, and their daughter Veronica came to visit and eat hamburger's for lunch. We all watched `Mighty Joe Young' and had a nice afternoon talking and playing with the kids and the dogs. Tracy has taught his dog to `chase an Aggie' and it will chase the red light from a laser pointer (needless to say he got his PhD at UT Austin). It was a special day, and I look forward to being able to spend days like this with each of you as you settle down and start to create the next generation. Andrea is worried that we are setting a precedence with our $30 birthday gift for Ethan's First Birthday. I'm sure it will all work out, and am glad we could visit, even if it was a week late.

We got back to Houston at 8:40 PM, changed and went over to the Equestarian Center to Megan Peterson's wedding reception. We got there at 9:15, just as they were driving off. It was nice to see our friends. Alan Peterson was genuinely glad to see me. Mike and Susan Reed were there, and we got caught up and I got their address in San Antonio. Marilyn, Corey, and David Grua were there, and we had a good discussion. David is all caught up in some of the early New York church history stuff. I tried to help him see past the trees to see the forest. They came over for lunch after church, and we talked some more. It is nice to have good friends.

Today at sacrament meeting Matt was sustained as a Teacher. It was Fast and Testimony Sacrament Meeting, and I was very touched by several of the testimonies, including two of the adult leaders that went on the High Adventure with me (0131.html). Someone mentioned they only know 20% of the members of the congregation, and our temporary Sunday School Teacher picked up on this and played a great game at the beginning of Sunday School. He had the first person in the front give their name, then the next person give their name and the name of the first person, then the third person the name of the first and second person and their name until we had gone through the entire class. There were about 40 in attendance. It was tied to a lesson on adversity, and how the Savior knows each of our names. I ordained Matt at the beginning of Priesthood meeting. I wish you all could have been there. Rachel and Andrea were there. It was special to be able to see Matt make this big step. In many ways it was a similar milestone as Ethan's first birthday."

I'm interested in sharing weekly a "thoughtlet" (little statements of big thoughts which mean a lot to me) with you because I know how important the written word can be. I am concerned about how easy it is to drift and forget our roots and our potential among all of distractions of daily life. To download any of these thoughtlets go to http://www.walden3d.com/thoughtlets or e-mail me at rnelson@walden3d.com.

With all my love,
Dad
(H. Roice Nelson, Jr.)

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Copyright © 2001 H. Roice Nelson, Jr.