"I remember four Regional Conferences since I've lived in Texas. The first was while we lived in Dallas, about 1977. I was the Elder's Quorum President, and was invited because of that calling. We rode down to Houston in a bus. The meeting was at the Hafer Road Stake Center, across from the Peanut Butter Cannery. This Regional Conference was actually called a Solemn Assembly. All 12 of the apostles and President Spencer W. Kimball were in attendance. Once we were all seated, the General Authorities came in and took their seats on the stand. They were all dressed in pink tinted white suits, reminiscent of the red robes the Savior will wear when he comes to the earth at the Second Coming. What I remember about this meeting is that the 12 Apostles blessed and passed the sacrament, the remembrance of the Savior giving his life for our individual sins. This was a sacrament service with no dry eyes in the audience. There was no question about the Savior's presence and that this meeting was under his guidance. The instruction was a strong warning about the times and seasons and the power that would be demonstrated by Satan in the coming months and years. I can certainly bear witness that I have seen the things which we were warned about come to pass.
The second Regional Conference was when we lived in the Maplewood II Ward, sometime between 1980 and 1984. For this conference the church rented The Summit, which was where the Rockets played basketball, and which is now The Lakewood Church. We had a lot of little kids in those days, and it seems like it was very hard to pay attention while keeping up with kids, who were distracted by all of the people and all of things going on in a very large hall. However, I know the spirit of the Lord was there, and the messages were very positive and relevant.
The third Regional Conference I remember happened in 1998, a couple of years after I started writing these Thoughtlets (../9839.html). I remember Sara and Rob went with me and we sat with Larry Law and Jane Moreles. I remember we were sitting way up and that the Astrodome was packed. I remember that Rob and Sara took Blaine Taylor and me to the airport to catch a plane to Norway right after the Regional Conference. And I remember later learning that church security checked on me prior to the Regional Conference, because I was labeled as some kind of weirdo because of letters I had written to Sheri Dew (../0219.html). Oh well!
The fourth Regional Conference was Saturday and Sunday, the end of this week. Going back to the first of the week, Monday morning I was ready to leave for work about 6:00. Matt and Andrea were at seminary, and as I do every so often, when no one else is around, I pulled out my guitar, flipped open my notebook full of songs and sang the song song the book turned to. This morning the one that I turned to was written on April 30th of 1994. I've thought about singing this song several times this week. Especially on Saturday, when Andrea called from Utah, and when she told me I need to rethink how I do the Thoughtlets. She pointed out how much better it will be if I leave the baggage of the past at the front door, and simply showing you kids how much I love you by example and by how much I love life. Great advice. And like each of us, I don't change easy. So here are the words I sang to myself Monday morning, which I don't think any of you have read:
Monday morning on the way to work I wrote a couple of
possible stanzas for Prime Words, based on Dr. John
Lienhard's radio program The Engines of our Ingenuity,
program # 1686:
The rest of the day was mostly spent finishing up my talk
for the SWLGS (Southwestern Louisiana Geophysical Society,
pronounced swiggles, and meant to represent the wiggles
in a seismic trace). There was also stuff having to
do with China and Mexico and Tile-02 in West Cameron.
It was about 5:00 when I shut down the computer and
left for Vidor. I arrived about 7:00, and Melanie and
I played with the kids until Jared got home at 7:30
with dinner from Wrights Bar-B-Que. Melanie said this
was the first time Jared had brought home dinner from
work. It was smoked pork chops, and fixings. Very
good. This was my first time to stay with Melanie and
Jared, and the first time to stay in their new house.
The fence around the back yard is finished. They have
a very large back yard. Great place to raise kids. I
am looking forward to designing and building a geodesic
fort for their back yard. They had me give a Family
Home Evening lesson. I read `My Turn On Earth,' which
was a little too old for Colby. However, he actually
did very good at paying attention. We had vanilla ice
cream with peanut M & M's for a treat. Really good.
Then Melanie pulled out a strobe light, and they had their traditional family dancing. It has been a long time since I've seen a strobe light like this. The first one I remember seeing was at a dance the summer after my Junior year of High school in Las Cruces, New Mexico at the JESSI (Junior Engineers & Scientists Summer Institute) summer program I went to. When I came home from this, I wanted to build a strobe light for The Keynotes. I didn't understand the electronics, and so I invented my own. I cut a 12" circle of wood, built a vertical pivot in a box where the wood would circle at the front, powered the rotation of the wood circle with my erector set motor, and put the big light bulb that is still in my closet in the box to shine out on the audience. The wood moved too much air, and so it did not rotate fast enough to create the same effect as a strobe light. So we hired an electrician to build a control box that turned on and off a bank of 8 colored patio lights. This light panel became the standard for Keynote dances. I think that Alan Grimshaw and his group got hold of the lights from the High School stage once, and took it to Panquich for a dance they played for. Anyway, as I watched Colby and Melanie dancing in the strobe light, there were a lot of good memories that came flooding back into my mind.
After the kids went to bed, I continued working on my talk. I ended up working until about 12:30 AM, then I got up at 7:00 and worked until about 8:30 before I was finished putting it together. After a shower and one of the biggest breakfasts I've eaten in years I took off for Lafayette.
I had it timed so I would get there about a half-hour early. However, I missed the turn-off, and drove right past Lafayette. About 10 minutes before I was suppose to be there I found myself entering the no exit freeway over the Henderson Swamp, and I started to panic. It was 90 mph until I finally got to an exit where I could turn around, then 90 mph back to where I could turn into Lafayette, then I got lost and they had to guide me in by cell phone. Oh well! I made it about 10 minutes after they started eating, and I was so nervous about being late, I ended up finishing eating before everyone else at my table.
I started my talk with, `I'm glad to be here. And I will just leave it at that!' Everyone laughed. My stomach was still churning. Oh well! The talk went over very well. In fact, there were a lot of questions, and I was still talking to people 45 minutes after it was suppose to be over. One of the Professors from ULL (University of Louisiana at Lafayette, formerly Southwestern Louisiana University) whom I had worked with back in the Seismic Acoustics Lab days was there and we had a long conversation. He still wants to follow-up on the Continuum Sound Patent Ideas. Also, they are building a 6-wall CAVE, and want to have me involved in this. Melanie and Jared, maybe I will be coming to stay with you regularly on my way to Lafayette.
After the lunch, Mike Bennett, one of the GDC salesmen, and I went to Stone Energy, where we talked to a group of professionals for almost 2 hours. It was after 4:00 when I finally left Lafayette. I met Melanie at Wrights Bar-B-Que, where I had another great dinner. Colby and Taylor were cute, and we had a good time. I let Colby sit in my lap as I drove the car around the lot before leaving for Houston. It was about 10:00 PM when I got home.
Wednesday morning Bjorn Wygrala came in and installed the IES software on my system. In conversations with Lee Bell and Bjorn, I realized that I could use this software to build a hydrological model of Red Cove and Cedar Valley. Interesting. The rest of the day was spent catching up on all of the stuff that had not been done because of the talk and from being gone for two days. In the evening I worked until about 6:30 and then went over to the Bering Stake Center and joined Matt and Andrea for a CES (Church Educational System) fireside about Church Schools. They did a very good job. Lots of videos and lots of audience interaction. There was a particularly funny video about a seminary teacher doing fancy stunts on a bicycle. Then there was one short video by the late Neil A. Maxwell, one of the 12 apostles. I wrote the following possible stanza for Prime Words based on his comments (a):
Thursday morning started with my annual visit to Ron
Crabtree, my dentist. I had some gaps in an old
cavity, and he replaced it. Second cavity I have had
since 1990. Then I went to work, checked out some data
for Tile-02, ate lunch downstairs since I forgot to
bring a lunch, had a nice discussion with Richard Randall,
which could result in some joint work on the Landmark with
the GDC processors, and worked on catching up on e-mail.
I left at 2:30 for my first physical exam in a couple of
years. I enjoy Dr. Solis. There are some follow-up tests
I need to do, but I'm pretty healthy. Andrea had Relief
Society in the evening. We watched ER at 9:00, which is
pretty typical for a Thursday evening, but the program
was quite different. It was about an x-inmate who died
from liver problems, and it went on several trips in
his mind with him. Quite interesting.
Friday morning I found myself ready to leave for work at 6:00, and decided to open up my book and sing a song. I sang two, numbers 99 and 100:
Andrea left at 2:00 for Utah and to meet Audrey's intended
fiancee, Joshua. In the morning we had the presentation by
Velocity Databank which had been working to get set up. Lee,
Mike, Dave, Richard Verm, and Scott Burns were all in the
room. I thought Tom Pilitary and Bill Gray did a great job.
Joe Roberts was also there. In the afternoon, I finally
received the data from Carlos, and so I expected I would be
working late to finish up the maps for Tile-02 in West
Cameron. However, I was able to finish up by 5:00 and
after stopping to pick up a bucket of Kentucky Fried, was
home by 6:30. I watched Enterprise, for the first time
this season (no football games), and a new JAG. I enjoy
these two shows. I worked on my Book of Mormon patterns
while watching these shows.
Saturday morning I went to Target and got two new tires for my bike and got it fixed. I also got my application for my State Geoscientist License renewal notarized at the bank. Then I took some roses down to Joe and Linda Roberts, in remembrance of the second month anniversary of Jeffifer's death (0438.html). Andrea had suggested I do this, instead of get her roses this week. Joe had already left for his bike ride, and Andrea called as I was driving back to the house. I talked to Andrea until I got home, got on the bike, ride down to Kingsland, and was back in the Barker Reservoir George Bush Park as suggested by Joe Roberts. In fact, I passed Joe and one of his friends while I was still talking to Andrea. It is pretty back in the park, and it is a very nice bike ride. One trail goes all the way over to where Baker Road backs up against the shooting range. The other trail goes to the soccer fields. The ride made me want to work on my Barker Reservoir city all the more. Oh well! Time will tell. Back at home I fixed the ladder into the attic which had broke last Christmas. I also checked out the two furnaces. In the evening, at Andrea's suggestion, Matt and I went to see The Incredibles. Definitely a good movie for kids. We will have to get a copy for when Grand kids come to visit.
And today was the fourth Regional Conference I remember since moving to Texas. The main building was at Hafer Road, where I went to the Solemn Assembly, and was broadcast to 47 other buildings. It was translated into five languages. There are 13 stakes in the Region, 109 Wards, 29 branches, and over 48,000 members. Stanley G. Ellis, an Area 70 conducted. His wife and Sister Hales bore their testimonies. Apostles Robert D. Hales and Thomas S. Monson were the main speakers. Great talks. I was particularly touched by President Monson's talk. He focused on how the Lord talked a lot about house building, not building on sand, building on the rocks, that he was a carpenter, and how he compared our bodies to temples. And then he went into detail about establishing a house of prayer, of fasting, of faith, of learning, or order, a house of God. I took five pages of notes, and I won't replicate all of them here. I couldn't help but think about my plans for Barker Reservoir and for Red Cove as I listened to the keynote talk at this Regional Conference."