cc: file, Tony Hafen, Pauline Nelson via mail, Sara and Des Penny, Lloyd and Luana Warner, Diane Cluff, and Maxine Shirts.
"Friday morning I got up at 5:15. Shaved, showered, weighed myself, learning I had gained 4 pounds (Oh Well!), and got ready by 5:45 AM. I had agreed to take Sara to the airport at 6:00 AM. I called her cell phone. No answer. Called Marti's number. The line was busy. Called her number again a few minutes later. No answer. And decided to do my daily scripture reading and to read the paper. At 6:15 AM Sara called and said, `Dad, could you pick me up at 6:30?' So on the way to the airport we were having a good discussion and there was something disappointing, and I said `Oh Well!' She started to laugh, and said, `OH WELL, EXCLAMATION PONT!
I explained I learned to say `Oh Well!' when I went to PAIRS from Nancy White. And it is useful to realize there are a things we have no control over, and sometimes we have to let the water run across the furrows (sometime I will write about irrigation, and explain that phrase). Sara then explained how funny it was to her that I could write about the most devastating event in my life, and then pass it off with a simple `Oh Well!' We laughed about it, and I decided to use it for my my theme for this week.
As an aside reference, the first time I used the phrase `Oh well,' was the 13th week of 1997 (../9713.html), I used `Oh Well!' the 31st week of 1997 (../9731.html), and I have used these two variations 280 times in thoughtlets up through last week. Maybe this is an emotional barometer, like counting swallows us a weight barometer for me (../0153.html). Since starting using the phrase `Oh well!' there have been 41 weeks where I used the phrase 2 times in a thoughtlet, 19 weeks it was used 3 times, 6 weeks it was used 4 times, 4 weeks it was used 5 times, 4 weeks it was used 6 times, and 1 week it was used 7 times (this was thoughtlet ../9931.html, which is titled `Space Center Houston' and does not read like a particularly trying week). Of course, these statistics are prior to today, where I wrote the words `Oh well!' 43 times.
So how was my week. Oh well! Monday afternoon I met with Chris Platt of GeoServices. These are the folks who talked Christian Singfield to come to Houston from Brisbane. However, they have been unwilling to pay more than the $3,500. advance they sent him (they promised $15,000), and so he is funding his whole excursion on credit. They have given him a booth at the AAPG, and we are working to exploit this opportunity to get in front of a lot of folks in the industry. However, if Christian doesn't close some cash investment by the end of next week, he goes home to Brisbane on Sunday a broke and bitter man. Oh well! The good news is Chris wants to put a team of companies together to do work to see porosity ahead of the drill bit. He wants me to head the team up. Christian's technology is key to the entire process. Alf Klaveness' pulsar will be the actual see ahead of the drill bit technology. Chris is taking it to Paris this next week, and hopefully we will know something before Christian has to leave because he can no longer pay for a rental car and cell phone for a remote office. Chris Platt says he can not make any commitments until he goes to Paris. Oh well!
Tuesday started with an 8:00 AM breakfast with Swede Nelson and a 6'9" 26 year old multimillionaire named Seth Deutsch. Interesting meeting. I had worked all Monday and late into the night preparing a proposal describing Dynamic's AMI with Parker Gay and Dynamics' TMI with Christian Singfield. Seth didn't even take a copy. `How long have you been doing this Roice?' Answer: 14 months. `How many sales have you had?' Answer: none. `Come back and talk to me after you have had three sales and have repeat business from each of those three sales. It is a waste of time for me to talk to you anymore. I have a meeting to close $50 million worth of Schlumberger smart cards to Chevron in 30 minutes, and I need to leave. They will be distributed to all employees starting next month, and the cards will handle all insurance, benefits, reporting, project, and other information. Got to go. Good bye.' Oh well!
I went out with the missionaries on Tuesday evening. Elder Taylor returned to Cedar City on Monday. Audrey, I think he wants to look you up. The new elder was in Katy 2nd six months ago. We spent the evening visiting people in Katy 2nd he used to know. Guess it is part of missionary work, and I shouldn't expect to always teach someone the truths of the restored gospel. Oh well!
Wednesday at 11:30 I met Keith Cote and his partner from SpotFire at Beef 'N Bird Rotesserie for lunch. Keith had asked me to set up a lunch with John Howell and Richard Nehring. So I did. Interesting lunch. Learned some more about portfolio analysis. Spotfire paid for my steak salad. And there is no consulting work for me. Oh well! I went from the restaurant to the Westin Galleria to the ESRI User's Conference. The booths had been taken down, and so I didn't get to see any of the material which is competition to Dynamic's Infinite Grid (SM). Oh well! From here I drove to Clear Lake City and arrived at Tietronix's office at 3:15. Lac Nguyen has replicated most of what had been done on the large Silicon Graphic's at the VETL by Bowen Loftin and company on low end PC's with high end graphics. They have looked at purchasing Continuum. Lac and I worked together for 10 years with Bowen Loftin at the VETL. Lac has done some really good work, and it will be an alternative to the Continuum software for Dynamic. They want me to work for free to help them sell their technology into the oil industry. I have done this kind of stuff in the past. Not now though. Oh well! I got back to the house after Andrea and Matt had gone to Young Men's/Young Women's. Rachel had an operation on her ingrown toenail, and wasn't about to go anywhere. Oh well!
Thursday was bad day news. Maritech called and said they could not justify paying Dynamic to work up the South Pass and West Delta area. I thought we had a $200,000 contract with them. Oh well! They are willing to buy any properties we can come up with that oil companies are willing to trade for covering all of the oil field abandonment requirements. And they will give Dynamic a nice ORRI (OverRiding Royalty Interest) on any of these properties once they close. I just have not figured out how to pay for the six months work it would take to close the first deal, and the eighteen months it would take to get cash flow from an ORRI. Oh well! I have been working with Bob Rice at Royal Exploration ever since Sam and I visited him last week (0209.html). We put together a bunch of maps showing why we thought it was important to work with us and how Dynamic could help bring value to their Freeport Salt Dome Project. He wanted to work with us. He presented to his partners on Thursday, and called me Thursday afternoon. No way! His partners were mostly engineers. They said, `We are not going to fund some science fair project!' Oh well! This was only a $35,000 project! Oh well! I did get Bob to tell me the real issue is their lease runs out in July, and they need to drill a well to keep the lease by then. This doesn't leave much time to come up with a location. They are giving the 3-D seismic survey to several oil companies operating in the area to see if they are willing to drill the well. I don't have the cash to do the work on spec, otherwise Dynamic could probably get access to this $1 million + 3-D seismic survey for free. Oh well!
Actually, Thoughtlet themes like `Oh Well!' aside, I was really disappointed with these two pieces of news. I had a dinner with Sam LeRoy and Richard Nehring at 5:30, and I was pretty much dispondent most of the evening. First time in a long time I felt like I had lost any optimism and was really dragging. We ate at a Chinese restaurant. My fortune read `Rome was not built in a day. Be patient.' Sam's read `You will win favors when you expand your social circle.' And Richard's read `No one knows what he can do until he tries.' We all felt like it was time to go do something different until oil and gas prices come back up or until investors are willing to invest in the oil patch again. Oh well!
Friday morning I took Sara to the airport. Sara, it was nice to be able to talk to you (actually to be able to listen to you, since I don't talk much). For the rest of you, her friend's Dad is a pilot, and they got to fly free on standby to Seattle to visit her friend's sister for a week. They had no plans. So I suggested they visit Bob Mishler, my friend at Boeing, Forest and Amy Warner, who lived with us the summer he worked for Landmark and who was Sara's surrogate Daddy in a dance routine she did, and Julia Grua. Sara, it will be interesting to see if you contacted any of these folks. I wish I knew a way to spend more time with each of you myself. Oh well!
I got back about 8:00 and cleaned up e-mail and did several other things until it was time to go to Matt's annual ARD meeting at Taylor High School. When we got to the school Andrea signed us in as Rick and Andrea Nelson. Oh well! I still love and miss the Marti I married and knew for many years, even though I know marrying Andrea was the best thing that could have ever happened to me. And I regularly find tears when I think of the impact of two divorces on 10 lovely kids that I love. Oh well!
I left the ARD early and Andrea had to walk back
to the house. Oh well! I had a meeting with
Christian Singfield, Ken Turner, and Robert
V. Abbinanti, President of Que Imaging.
Christian was there when I got there 15 minutes
late. Oh well! Ken got there 15 minutes after
I did. Oh well! He had his new painting about
what has come out of the terrorist tragedy of
9/11 (see attached image). There is a real
syner
management software
Christian has put together and the needs for
distributing art on the Internet through portals
like Heritage Gallery On-Line, Inc. (see
http://www.hgol.net). We had a very animated
conversation with the four of us, and I am
optimistic there can be something put together
which could be a very nice business. Focus
is all that is required. Oh well! Ken took
Christian and his son to lunch at Beef N' Bird,
and I headed back to Katy, because I had
another meeting set up at 1:00. Oh well!
I was 10 minutes late for my meeting with Horace Snyder. When I learned that Horace had left Enron a few months ago (well before the collapse), I invited him to the house to hear the Dynamic story. This was probably back in October or November. He had been the Vice-President of Exploration, and had put together a $1 billion+ oil company two different times. I wanted him to help me with Dynamic. He told me he didn't know what he wanted to do. He was very gracious about my interest in working with him, and said he would let me know once he decided what he wanted to do. I had shrugged my shoulders, said `Oh well!', and forgot about the conversation. I didn't even document it in a Thoughtlet. Oh well! Well Horace had called me at 2:20 PM on Tuesday March 5th, said he and two of his friends decided to start an oil company, and wanted to know if I was still selling Prospects. They want to have first-right-of-refusal to sell Dynamic's deals, and if they can't sell them, to drill them. When I hung up the phone I told Andrea, `This is the phone call I have been waiting for for the last 14 months!' Then Horace didn't call back. Oh well! Thursday morning I called him and he said he was just going out the door to meet with his partners. I called Thursday evening, got his cell number from his wife, and left a message. He called back while Richard, Sam, and I were finishing up our Chinese dinner (which, even though it wasn't that many swallows was the cause of me gaining 3 pounds on Friday morning). He said he was too tired to talk, and asked me to come by on Friday morning. I told him I had meetings, and said I'd come by in the afternoon. He kind of acquiesced, and I figured I'd blown it. Oh well!
The meeting with Horace went well. He said he was interested, and said he would talk to his partners and see if they were interested. No other commitment nor comments. Just `Thanks for coming over.' And `I'll call you later.' Oh well!
Shortly after I got home Horace called. He asked when we could meet. I told him the AAPG was on Monday, we are going to Utah on Tuesday, and I prefer to not have business meetings on Sundays. He asked about Saturday. I said fine. He called back in five minutes to say the meeting was set and he would pick me up at 9:30 Saturday morning. Nothing else was said. Oh well!
Andrea and I went to Matt's Moot Court Friday evening. It was Bevius and Meathead, and Matt was the deputy investigator who spent the evening hitting on Anna Schmidt. It was funny, and some of the best entertainment I've been to. However, the story was about a sausage partnership where one partner was accused of killing his partner and grinding him up in a sausage machine. There was DNA evidence by Mr. Tallguy (played by Brother Short). There was a knife with blood on it, and blood sausage, that was extra juicy. I could go on and on about the case and the Moot Court, and I won't because I grew up working in a meat packing plant and grinding hamburger, and the things described were a little too close to home to me. Oh well! It was a fun evening, as long as I didn't put my past in front of me.
Saturday morning I was up at 5:00, and spent 4 hours getting ready for my meeting with Horace Snyder and his partners. Horace was on time, traffic was light, and we ended up at a Starbuck's at the Galleria for an orange juice and coffee to kill a little time and be on time. The partners are Joe Michael McKinney and Johnny A. Kopecky. The meeting was really interesting. They are going to think about it, and get back to me. They will probably offer to put Dynamic on retainer in exchange for first-right-of- refusal on any Prospects we come up with. I pushed them for a check immediately to show their interest, and so when we go to Utah I could look Mrs. Shirts and Randy in the eye and say I'm taking care of Andrea and the kids in a responsible way. They said they would talk and get back to me. Oh well! It is an exciting opportunity, and I hope it happens.
Saturday afternoon we all went to the Youth portion of a Know-Your-Religion presentation by a BYU history Professor named Richard O. Cowen. It wasn't that good, and Andrea said she was sorry she asked me to come with her. Oh well! In the evening, for the adults, he was going to talk about Temples. We decided to come back, instead of go to a art gallery opening where they were showing geology photos. We got there at 7:00. It started at 7:30. Oh well! They needed a slide projector. So I ran home and got one and brought it back. Andrea and I were asked to give the opening and closing prayers, respectively. It was an excellent evening, and one of these weeks when nothing happens during the week, I will use my notes from this meeting as the basis for a Thoughtlet. I ended up watching a Star Trek and an Indiana Jones movie with Rachel and Andrea. Kirk's Uncle is from Idaho and Indiana Jones' Dad was from Southern Utah. Wonder what the chances are they are both Mormon? Oh, that's right, they are just fictional. Oh well!
This morning I prepared the draft ward calendars for next week's correlation committee meeting. Rachel received her Excellence in Young Women's Award in Sacrament Meeting (the equivalent of earning an Eagle Scout Award) and gave a wonderful talk. Sunday School was about Abraham and Isaac. Priesthood Meeting was about Testimonies. I loved President Lee's words about how `testimonies are as elusive as a moonbeam and as fragile as an orchid, and must be recaptured every morning of our lives.` Then how with a testimony `we can stand as an anchor against all the storms that shall beat upon our house, ... and be as the house that was built upon a rock.' Matt and I made our first home teaching visit as the Schmidt's Home Teachers. Matt drove the car from our driveway to the Schmidt's house, as his first time to drive. He was very nervous and excited. The Schmidt's son was all over everything. They have their hands full. Oh well!
This evening I was working on this and Andrea called me in to see a two hour special video on the fireman of Ladder 1 in a firestation next to the Twin Towers. Excellent video. I cried. I thought of Ken's painting. I wish I could reach out and cure all of the ills in the world. I can't. Oh well! I'll leave that up to my 10 wonderful kids, your spouses, and your kids. And if you ever get discouraged, Oh well!"