cc: file, Tony Hafen, Pauline Nelson via mail, Sara and Des Penny, and Maxine Shirts
"Our former Home Teacher and his wife, Grant & Marion Ostvig, visited today from Kobar, Saudi Arabia. This is where I lived when HyperMedia had the big contract with Aramco. After church they came over to the house for lunch, and we had a very nice conversation. It was fun, and I hope we do more things like this in the future.
After they left there was a money pouch and a room card key that had fallen out of Grant's pocket, and Andrea said go catch them and give it to them. So I drove out of the subdivision and up to the freeway. Didn't see the car anyplace. So I went along the frontage road. It had rained really hard, I was driving too fast, and so I slid past Greenhouse Road and had to go over to Barker Cypress. On the way back to the house I thought I saw their car, so I did a U-turn, and pretty soon I was passing them on the Katy Freeway, getting on the inside lane, and sticking my arm out to hand Grant the money and the card. It wouldn't work, so we both pulled off to the side of the freeway. Don't ever do this. There was so much traffic, I thought I'd never get back on the road and back to the house. I did, or I wouldn't be writing this. So it worked out.
I have talked to Roice, Sara, and Mom tonight, and Paul the other night. Hopefully everyone is doing OK. Mom moved from Porter's this week. She now lives in LaVerkin, Utah. For those who haven't been there in a while, LaVerkin is over by Hurricane where you go up the hill to get to Zion or to the ghost town where Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid was filmed. It would be nice of each of you to visit, send a note, or call when you have a chance. Mom's new contact information is:
As far as my week went: busy! I started a new project, for
my spare time. It is a book I titled: An Open Mind; and it
is about my personal reconciliation of science and religion.
I hope you each enjoy it. I'm pleased with the way it has
progressed working on it a little each morning. I started it
in response to Laurie Schultz' comments about having to put
aside science to have a testimony. Needless to say, I do not
believe this at all, and I fear too many do.
Most of the rest of my week has been spent working on Jude's stuff. He left Tuesday for Nigeria. I was up all night Monday getting material put together to support a major presentation to the government requesting Nigeria leave OPEC, or at least that all Nigerian deepwater exploration be exempted from OPEC controls. I think this is a very important move on the international political chess board. I have 7 3-D seismic surveys to interpret by the 15th of August. Even with the wonderful technology of Landmark Graphics workstations, each survey needs two to six weeks to evaluate. Doing 7 in a couple of weeks is stretching. I expect to get a release to show some of the results to you all. Hopefully you will each find it to be somewhat as interesting as I do.
Wednesday was Matt's 15th birthday. The Teachers were having a bike ride. However, there was only one other Teacher that was not on vacation, so Matt's suprise birthday party consisted of 4 adults, and 1 youth. I think he had a good time. He got a nice stereo for his birthday. It has been nice to watch him grow up through the Priesthood and Scout ranks. Challenging sometimes, and that is OK. Matt, I have really come to love and like you, and even though you don't want to admit it, I think the feelings are mutual.
Friday I got home from II&T at 11:30 PM, where my Landmark software license is and where I am doing the interpretation, which happens to be exactly one floor above where HyperMedia's office was for a couple of years. Yesterday, I went in to II&T at 9:00 AM with oreo's from the birthday party, a bag of carrots, and some fruit. I left at 1:30 AM, having completed the first phase interpretation on the 3rd project. It is like getting paid to put crossword puzzles together, and I really do enjoy interpretation. Especially with the probability of participating in any hydrocarbon's defined. There are some very exciting exploration opportunities coming out of this work. Fascinating geology. And the pictures are art. I was so wired when I got home, from an intense day of puzzle putting together, I turned on the TV. There was an old Clint Eastwood western just starting and I ended up watching it until 4:00 this morning. Not the right way to start a Fast and Testimony Sunday. Oh well! I got the ward calendar and the agenda for my Activity Committee Meeting printed off during the commercials.
No one came to the Activity Committee Meeting, even though the High Priest Quorum Group Leader, the Elder's Quorum President, and the Relief Society President had promised to have some in attendance at the last Ward Correlation meeting. I went back home at 8:30 and slept until 10:15, when it was time to take the Ward Calendar's to church to distribute. It was one of the first times Matt helped prepare the Sacrament, and I was very proud of him. Brandon Peterson has graduated from BYU with a Master's Degree in Information Technology, and I was able to give him a couple of job leads. I gave Lori Schultz a copy of the index and preface for my new book project: An Open Mind. Matt and I had a good Home Teaching Visit with Brett Thompson.
When we got home Grant & Marion Ostvig were here, and the rest is history. To show what a small world it is, Todd Stahli is their new Branch President in Saudi Arabia. It was good to catch up on friends and acquaintances. They had been out to Ken Turner's yesterday to finalize their family painting, which I think was inspired by the Family Reunion painting. Ken told them about our trip to China and the dinner with Yan Dunshi (0225.html). They seem to be doing very good.
It is the week to report on swallows. No progress this month. Weight is still the same, as it has been for a couple of months; i.e. 233. I'm 10 days behind on catching up the spread-sheet, and so this is the only report for this month. Hope each of you have a good week. My prayers and thoughts are with you."