cc: file, Tony Hafen, Pauline Nelson via mail, Sara and Des Penny, Lloyd and Luana Warner, Diane Cluff, Maxine Shirts, and Sherri Nelson.
"Thane, thanks for your e-mail. I'm taking the liberty of responding to you by putting you on the weekly e-mail I send out to my kids and family this week, and if you are interested in being on in regularly drop me a note saying so. For everyone else, Thane, Uncle Glenn's, Mom's youngest brother's, second son, sent me a wonderful Christmas Story on Tuesday, and I want to start this week's Thoughtlet with it:
This week started with a wonderful blessing, in it's own way, kind of like Thane's story. We received a FED-X package at 2:35 PM on Monday with a check in it for $5,000. I was expecting the package, yet feared something had happened when it had not arrived by 2:00. Also, I'm afraid Andrea has also become a little skeptical of my optimism. Anyway, the check came, we met our obligations, and life is wonderful. I am reminded of a quote from the Savior in the New Testament (Matthew 6:24-34:
I'm certainly not advocating not having insurance, savings, nor not paying tithing. However, as any entrepreneur, I have learned there are times of building and times of growth. We are in a time of building, and sometimes it seems a little tight financially. Yet, we always seem to be blessed and always seem to find a way to make ends meet, even in the building times. I was very touched on Friday evening, as we took Melanie, Jared, Sara, Rachel, and Matt out to dinner to celebrate Melanie's graduation, and how both Sara and Melanie were trying to pay for their portion of the meal. You both exhibited the self-reliant type of spirit I am most proud of in you kids, and I'm glad you didn't argue when I paid the tab. It is going to be OK. And that message especially goes to Heather and Audrey, because I know you are both very worried about tuition for next semester at SUU. It's going to be OK. And I admit I am writing these words to comfort me too, even though I truly do believe our current cash crunch is going to work out just fine.
I had another busy week, although not as busy as last week. Gary Crouse and I had lunch at Lupe's on Tuesday, and he gave me several good suggestions about how to get the technologies and drilling projects we have been working on into oil companies. I'm busy following up on these suggestions.
At 9:00 Wednesday morning Dick Coons, Sam LeRoy, and I spent an hour and a half with three geoscientists at DDD Energy. They have 60 3-D seismic surveys and no one to interpret them. It also seems they are short on cash to pay upfront for G&G work. However, once they get though a reorganization this month, it looks like this client alone will keep Dynamic busy and in positive cash flow for the next couple of years. I can hear some of you reading these words and thinking: paycheck; insurance; credit card bills; savings. Oh well! The world needs optimists to counter all of the stuff!
Thursday evening the missionaries cancelled a missionary split, and so I went to a dinner hosted by a Manhattan Company named Data Synapse and my friend Tom Eliseuson (../9745.html). Some of you might recall me mentioning Tom Eliseuson at the recent SEG convention, and the fact his new company had 3 employees on the top floor of the World Trade Center Tower, the first to be hit by the terrorists and the second to collapse. This is that company. They only have 37 employees. I had a very nice discussion with the two founders, and expect I will end up on a technical advisory board and have a couple of meetings a year in Manhattan (Melanie, maybe this can fit into your New York vacation desires). I was also able to talk to a couple of other friends which might lead to some business. Friday I went by Chroma and talked to Bob Wentland about the Analog Atlas (0149.html) and how I see the geologic geometries we plan to capture in the Atlas will guid geologic fingerprint pattern development in the next releases of Chroma technology. My other meetings on Friday were postponed until next week.
Friday after school Rachel, Matt, Andrea, and I packed our bags and headed out for Austin. Our first stop was at Ft. Bend County Line Road to pick up the digital camera from Ken and Nell Turner. Isn't it amazing how we can coordinate things with a cell phone these days. We got to Austin at about 6:00 and had the wonderful Chinese celebration dinner mentioned above. Melanie, you really are a beautiful woman. And you glow with your pregnancy. It was so much fun to watch the sonogram. Jared, can you convert some of the best parts to a digital file and e-mail them to me, and I will put them up on the web. I am so proud of both of you. It was fun to go see the movie `Behind Enemy Lines' with you. I chuckled as you stopped and talked to Kurt Williams in the Movie parking lot in Austin, with his the knowledge his parents live two blocks from our house in Katy. For those interested in my reviews, I enjoyed the movie as an action movie. I don't care for whining, spoiled Americans, as the pilot/star was depicted, and I doubt if the movie had much more related to what actually happened to the actual downed pilot than the facts he was downed and rescued. The story line seemed pretty implausable to me, and the movie felt like a composite of dozen's of local Serb/Bosnian's experiences, not U.S. Airmen. Rachel, Matt, Andrea, and I stayed at the LaQuinta Inn where I stayed when I worked at the Bureau of Economic Geology. Between getting there at about 12:30 and the blackout curtains, we slept in until 9:30 Saturday.
We got to Melanie and Jared's about the time Ben, Sarah, and Ethan arrived. Both Andrea and I were super impressed with both Melanie and Jared's and Sara's apartments. Much different than living environments when we went to college. Melanie's Graduation was nice and short. One hour from start to finish. Afterwards we all gathered for a photo and to find out the Doctor wrote: `It's a girl, we think.' It will be nice to have a Granddaughter in the Spring. And with a lot of driving time to reflect on it since then, I feel like Melanie will be an absolutely wonderful mother and Jared an equally wonderful Dad for an oldest daughter. Congratulations. What a wonderful celebration and graduation.
Matt, Rachel, Andrea, and I left at 2:00 for Denton, north of Dallas and Ft. Worth. We arrived at her cousin's wedding reception at 5:30, and it ended at 6:00 PM. We talked until almost 7:00. I took a lot of digital photos, which I hope to get put in the photo directory (http://www.walden3d.com/photos/family) sometime before Christmas (of course, I still have last year's Christmas photos to put on the web site). Carol Joy was Andrea's Dad's youngest sister, and she has 5 children. As Andrea told me the trials of their family, I couldn't help but remember Randy's comment to me that `Andrea is the only divorce our family has had.' Just as I went through a similar experience to my Uncle Tony and Uncle Glenn, Andrea went through a similar experience to her Aunt Carol Joy and Aunt Nadine. There are family scripts we too often end up playing out, and it is up to us to be the renaissance person and to stop the scripts. The older I get the more I am convinced this only occurs by our serving (giving the 12 days of Christmas nativity to someone in need) and faith (trusting in our Lord and Savior that He will provide for us and guid us). We got back to the house at curfew time (12:01 AM) this morning. It was a great trip and provides hope and faith in the future.
And Melanie, congratulations again, and thanks for the opportunity to participate in your celebration and graduation."