cc: file, Andrea, Tony Hafen, Sara and Des Penny, & Maxine Shirts
Dear Family,
As you can see by the date below I have been attempting to get the system set up so it will send out the Thoughtlets again. Hopefully we have got everything fixed and this one will go through.
Let me know if you receive this, and let me know if you get any spam sent by rnelson@walden3d.com. Marc has set it up so each of you that have mail forwarded to you by walden3d.com will create your own confirmed list of e-mail sources. If you get spam and want me to block an e-mail address from forwarding e-mail through yourname@walden3d.com let me know and I will add their e-mail address to the blacklist.
As mentioned below, I have a lot of catching up to do. Hopefully I will be able to make a big dent in catch up before Andrea and I go to the SEG in Denver on the 9th of October.
Love,
Dad
"Well, I'm behind 5 Thoughtlets again, and I expect it will be 6 by the time I catch up. It is interesting how many words it now takes me to write a `little thought.' The really sad thing to me is that I am behind 24 Grandkidlets, or six months (see http://www.walden3d.com/grandkidlets). Great plans, and yet sometimes I don't do very good on the execution. I'm also behind on posting Grant Matthew's notes (see http://www.walden3d.com/GrantMatthew) and letters from Sara (http://www.walden3d.com/benin/letters). Oh well! Hopefully I will get caught up, and everyone will only remember my good intentions and what I did.
When I was in Utah I learned that the last several Thoughtlets haven't been coming to any of you. I did send them. However, Marc Roulston did some system changes, attempting to make it so spam e-mail can not be forwarded to any of you through the Walden 3-D site, and he ended up making it so none of the e-mails forward. Oh well! The Thoughtlets are posted at http://www.walden3d.com/thoughtlets, and those of you interested can catch up with them there. I got in funk after the party in Galveston, and you might not be interested in what I wrote because of where my mind was. After I sent the last one Andrea told me I was just having a pity party. And when I told Aunt Sara, she said, `We love Andrea. She calls it like it is!' Oh well! Oh well! Oh well! Anyway, Marc came again this week, and hopefully the e-mail forwarding is fixed. I'll send this first one today, so I can learn if they are being forwarded to you all.
Since I have already lived through the last few weeks, and have outlined what I will write about in each of the respective Thoughtlets, I will give you a preview of what is coming in the e-mail or what will be posted on the web:
This first thoughtlet is being sent before the others are finished because I want to see if Marc Roulston was able to fix the thoughtlet forwarding program before I send all of them.
Ella Dawn Nelson's Blessing happened on Sunday, the 29th of August of 2004 in the Buena Vista 2nd Ward in Washington, Utah. However, there were a full week of activities to write about, before I get to the baby blessing. After all, these thoughtlets are my journal, and hopefully, for those who read these words, every once in a while there will be an insight which you will find useful in your own lives.
I've listened to the Book of Mormon on tape the last few weeks while commuting. There are so many examples of what worked and what didn't work in the society written about in the Book of Mormon which are directly related to things that are happening in our world today. This is certainly true of terrorists. In the Book of Mormon terrorists are called Gadianton Robbers. The threats of a beheading are more like threats of total annihilation, and the motive of seeking power is exactly the same as today. I will quote one chapter and verse, and encourage you to read Alma, Helaman, III & IV Nephi, Mormon, and Moroni to discover the depth of this insight for yourselves. The only way the Gadianton Robbers were ever brought under any kind of control was when the people did as written in Helaman 6:37:
Along this line, Steve Joseph sent me the following on
August 25th:
A day later this message arrived from Aunt Sara to Sara:
When I got to Cedar City, Aunt Sara had several things for
me, including the following obituary:
I wonder how a former German prisoner of war and brother
to one of the first soldiers into Japan after the Atomic
Bomb (see 0419.html) felt about terrorism? I wonder what
kind of a world Ella Dawn Nelson is going to grow up in,
especially if we do not stop the modern day Gadianton
Robbers. There was an interesting article in The Houston
Chronicle back when this Thoughtlet was scheduled to be
written, and I think it is worth quoting:
So having written a lot of words to get across the little
thought that terrorism absolutely must not be tolerated,
let me write a little bit about my week.
It was a very busy week. I spent Monday afternoon doing a consulting job for John Benard. It was at the home of an independent oil man, Jim Cole. What a neat house. There were full tree trunks as the corners of his house. The house was the first one built next to an old gravel pit, and his kids grew up with their own private swimming hole. There are six houses around the pond now, each on an acre of land, and this is Between Memorial and Westheimer off of Hillcroft. And his project was very interesting. It made my heart ache because I was not able to put together drilling deals while I was spending full time working on Dynamic Resources Corporation. Oh well! I left from his home office and drove to Chris Schmidt's new office in Katy where Jeff Jurinak and I were the witnesses to Alan and Patrice Peterson's wills. Here I found out that Alan has prostate cancer and was having radical surgery the next day. Alan is younger than I am, and one of my best friends in Nottingham Country Ward. I was in shock.
Tuesday I gave a talk to Kerr McGee with Dave Johnson and Pamela West. I thought it went well, and they came back and said they are not interested right now. Oh well! On Wednesday Fred Hilterman and I did a similar lunch and learn talk to El Paso. Pamela was there too. It has been a long time since Fred and I have given a presentation together. We play off of each other very well. It turned out to be a good presentation. However, they have not committed to purchase our GDC TilesTM.
Thursday morning I got up early and drove to Hobby airport and took a Southwest flight to Macallan with John Walker. I had signed up to attend seminary with Matt, and had to postpone this until later (0437.html). Luis Viertel met us at the airport and soon we were across the border in Reynosa.
We stopped at the BGP office and met the manager of their Mexican operations Yang Yuchen. It was an interesting meeting, and hopefully there will be some processing work come out of it for GDC.
Earlier in the week I had written a note to Luis about reservoir characterization, which he had passed on to Pemex management. My last minute visit was to give a presentation along the lines of my note. A couple of points that are interesting to me. After I sent the note, Dr. Lee Bell, President of GDC and my boss, talked to me about how there was nothing new in the note I sent, and gave me the name and examples of the work of someone who had done everything I refereed to in my note at Western Geophysical when Lee had worked there. Second, the folks I gave the presentation to absolutely loved it. At the end of the presentation they informed us that we were now one of the three companies which will be allowed to bid on a US$3 million and 3 year reservoir characterization study. Luis and John were ecstatic. Later Mike Dunn sent an e-mail saying I should be given a bonus if it goes through. That made Andrea happy. It was a good trip, and I was tired by the time I got home about 10:30 PM.
I took Friday as a vacation day. I was up late, and was still packing when it was time to leave the house. Andrea and I got to the Peanut Butter Factory about 9:10 (our assignment started at 9:00, and they had not started yet). I have always enjoyed working at the Peanut Butter Factory. John McReynolds was there. I think he enjoyed it, and yet as he left he said he would never eat peanut butter again. It is amazing to consider how much more mechanized and formal the process of making peanut butter has become over the 24 years I have lived in Houston. The peanut butter still tastes the same, and the larger quantities packaged in jars in the same amount of time is not driven by all of the OSHA and other government regulations that have obviously been met with the factory `improvements.' It would be interesting to figure out if any of the improvements are a result of the regulatory agencies. I doubt it. We bought 3 cases of Peanut Butter, and I took one on the plane with me to Utah for kids that want it. Sara and Des don't care for peanut butter, nor does Heather, so Rachel and Grandma Shirts get the case, with some for Audrey when she stops in Cedar on a trip. Brian and Bridget you are also welcome to pick up some. The funny thing is that the case must have broke open somewhere along the way in one of the airports, and when it was taped back up, someone stole three jars of peanut butter out of the box. I could not believe it when I opened the box at Grandma Shirts' house. Oh well! We have had a lot of laughs about this stolen peanut butter over the last few weeks.
While I was in the Houston Airport Melanie called me. Colby had just drawn all over the kitchen table, and when Melanie started to get mad at him, he looked up at her with his biggest eyes and said, `I drew it for Grandpa. He will like it.' What a wonderful way to start off a vacation trip.
I stayed with Aunt Sara and Uncle Des instead of Grandma Shirts on this trip. The main reason was I didn't have a car, and it was closer to Ray Gardner's office. The trip was kind of a spur of the moment decision. The idea came when I suggested Paul and Kate bless Ella Dawn in Washington, rather than in Provo. Kate's Dad (actually step-father, but she calls him Dad) was recovering from a stroke, and so I knew it would be hard for him to travel to Provo. Aunt Shirley and Uncle Willis were having their 50th Wedding Anniversary on Saturday night the 28th of August. The Hafen Reunion was on Labor Day weekend, the 4th and 5th of September. GDC gave me four weeks of vacation as part of my employment. I used one week to go to the Shirts Reunion in Coeur d' Alene, Idaho (0429.html), and figure I would use one week at Thanksgiving and one week at Christmas. I didn't see when I would use the fourth week, both because of Matt's school and because we do not have nay extra money. I have been thinking a lot about building my prototype city in Barker Reservoir, and so I decided to take a week away from the commute and to work on the Barker Reservoir idea with Ray Gardner. I also wanted to spend a bunch of time writing `An Open Mind.' I have been e-mailing to Neil Nelson for some time about on-line genealogy, and I figured this was a good time to bring some closure to the initial work that had been done by Neil. I figured that showing the work to date at the Hafen Reunion would create a basis for proceeding with the project. Also I needed to get to Utah for some think-time and to get out of my pity party. The downside was that Andrea could not come with me because of seminary just starting. However, I knew she would be busy and wouldn't miss me, and so I decided to go ahead and go. A significant factor was that I had one of those premonitions that it was important for me to be in Utah this particular week. Of course, the trip did not turn out anything like I imagined, expected, nor like I planned (0436.html). Time will tell whether it was actually important for me to be there that particular week, or not. Oh well!
Saturday morning I got up and went for a walk up Cedar Canyon along the trail next to Coal Creek. What a beautiful walk. By the time I was back to Aunt Sara's and Uncle Des' I was ready to call the office, turn in my notice and tell them I was moving back home to Cedar City. It was Saturday and the office was closed, and so I didn't do this, which I'm sure is a good thing, if for no other reason than our lack of financial stability. Uncle Des asked if I would like to go to some plays, and he ended up buying me six tickets to plays (one was for Rachel). They only cost US$15.00 each. What a deal!
Saturday evening Sara and Des and I went out to the Gurr 50th Wedding Anniversary, which was at the church by Mom and Dad's house. As we walked in, there was Uncle Lloyd and Aunt Luana. I spent much of the evening talking to them. It turns out much of the discussion was about the war in Iraq. Because of their missionary experience in Pakistan, they have an understanding of the Muslim mind. They are politically inflamed by the Iraq War and the way Bush and his colleagues are running it. Uncle Lloyd pointed out how Muslims are your best friend, even if they disagree with you, when you visit their homes. However, if you attack them, you are their enemy for life and for the life of their children. Once you have crossed the line, you can never be forgiven and never be their friend. He tied it to the basic Old Testament concept of an eye for an eye. In other words, the US attacks Muslim's (Iraq), basically continuing the ancient crusades, then Muslim's will spend the next few centuries returning an eye for an eye. I understand this logic, and I was pleased how much others I care about approved of this approach. I do think it is good to talk about it and to express our views.
However, part of my reaction to this conversation, and the Gadianton Robber portion of what I have written in this thoughtlet, are a measured response to Uncle Lloyd's debate points. I think part of the debate is that Uncle Lloyd just likes to debate and to think, and so he wants to get others thinking and not just following blindly. This is good. And he can cast his vote how he wants, and I will cast my vote how I feel is best. Putting aside my strong reactions to Kerry and the Viet Nam war, the single most important issue in my mind is abortion, and the ongoing killing of babies before they can make a choice. Kids old enough to enlist can make a choice, even if that choice is to immigrate to Canada. Babies that are killed because of the selfishness of their parents never have a choice. And this is absolutely unacceptable to me. As I held Ella Dawn Nelson, and looked into her eyes, my mind went back to when I held each of my birth children, and I could feel how Andrea felt as she held each of her children. And even though I do not agree with choices some of you make, I could never imagine committing or letting anyone be a leader who justifies the absolute evil of abortion.
I really did enjoy the Gurr 50th wedding anniversary. I strived to talk to all of my cousins that were there. Darrell and Nancy Krueger were there. He had a neat newspaper article describing his decision to retire at the end of this year. It was the first time in a long time to sit and talk to Paul and Sharon Nelson at some length. Paul wanted me to tell my Paul hello. Annette and Mike were there with her children. They are sure getting big. I was telling someone about where all of you kids are and what you are up to, and Uncle Dick spoke up and said `The smarter kids are, the farther they move from home.' Sara and Ben, is that true? I hadn't seen some of the Gurr cousins for a long time. I wish Andrea and each of you could have been there and that if you were there that you would have enjoyed the moment as much as I did. Good food. Nancy put a joker's hat and a big bright clown bow-tie on her Dad, which I don't think he liked, but which was really funny. Then Neil arrived, and we talked genealogy for quite a while. Neil gave me a ride back to Sara and Des'. It was a good evening.
Sunday morning I slept in. Sara and I left in time to get to the Jones' sacrament meeting by 8:45. We got there early, and went past Ward and Fern Abbott's house as well as some of the houses along the golf course. Uncle Lloyd came over to Ella Dawn Nelson's blessing. The blessing was before the sacrament. I'm not sure if Heather and her fiancee Bob Wrench got there before the blessing or not. I do know that Paul did a wonderful job. As I listened to his words, I heard the words I said at Roice's, Ben's, Paul's, Melanie's, Sara's, and Rob's baby blessing. I wondered where my faith is, and whether all of the promises of all of those blessings will be fulfilled in this life or whether some will be after the resurrection.
The Buena Vista 2nd Ward is a fairly big ward. There was a good spirit there. They have six missionaries listed on the program: Sister Abrahamson in Chili, Elder Harding in Brazil, Sister Monica Staheli in Portugal, Elder and Sister Coombs, a missionary couple, and Elder John Stubbs in the Texas Houston East Mission. All in foreign lands. I wrote down two possible stanzas for Prime Words during the sacrament meeting talks:
We took photos all during Sunday School. Plus I got to
meet Bob Wrench, Heather's fiancee. I was busy taking
photos and holding Ella Dawn, and was not very focused
on Heather and Bob. Uncle Lloyd talked to Bob, and I
listened as I could to what was said. After the photos
we talked a little more directly, and Bob told me about
the 4 years running he won bike races in Texas, including
the time he beat Lance Armstrong. Aunt Sara took Heather
and Bob to lunch, and I went to a joint Priesthood -
Relief Society meeting with Paul and Kate. I left my
first meeting with my future step-son-in-law, who is 7
years older than me, feeling that he genuinely cares
for Heather, that he was selling very hard (sports and
other stuff which has no interest to me and little
relevance for something as significant as marriage), and
that the whole experience was somewhat surreal. The
joint Priesthood-Relief Society meeting talk was on
health, and specified 12 super foods, which I found
an interesting concept:
Then when we got to Kate's parents house, Kate's Dad, Val Jones, showed me the wonderful wood telescope he made, and all of his work in hydrophonics. There is a book he showed me called Hydroponic Food Production by Howard M. Resh, Woodbridge Press Publishing Company, P.O. Box 209, Santa Barbara, CA 93105 which I would like to add to my library some time (hint, hint). Grant and I went for a walk, and then Paul joined us on his bike and we went all the way around the block in the hot Dixie sun. There was a wonderful meal (steak 7 swallows; pork & beans 7 swallows; funeral potatoes 8 swallows; fruit 8 swallows; rolls 10 swallows; water 8 swallows; butterscotch brownies 13 swallows; muffin 4 swallows; pear 12 swallows; and Rice Krispy Treat 6 swallows). Then Paul drove me back up to Cedar City, and we had a bit of a chance to talk. Paul I am very proud of how well you are doing and the choices you are making. I'm sure you will be blessed tomorrow for your choices today.
All in all this was a good week, and it was very special to participate in Ella Dawn Nelson's blessing."