"This week started in Priesthood Meeting on January 9th. When we walked into the cultural hall, it was pretty obvious that Tim Gebauer was going to be talking to us. There was an aquarium on the stage, with a bunch of fish in it. Later I found out these fish were really bait for when he goes fishing. There were also several rods and several reels, a tackle box, and posters with pictures of kids fishing and also showing the number of trout that were going to be put in the pond at the Katy Peckham Park for fishing. And his presentation was classic Tim Gebauer. I guess he repeated the same presentation for the Katy 2nd Ward, and it was a real hit with them. The bottom line is that on Friday night, the 14th of January, he wanted a bunch of boys to camp out with him, with the promise everyone was going to catch their limit of fish that night and early the next morning.
As he talked, I recalled my Dad taking me fly fishing on many Friday nights during the summer. Dad also had it mapped out as to where the best place to go was. Early in the year, while it was still cold, we would go to Minnersville reservoir, which was just off the road between Minnersville and Beaver. Then we would go to Newcastle Reservoir, which was between the mountains just east of Newcastle, which is 20 miles from Enterprise, where Calf Springs Ranch was. Then, as it got warmer, we would move up the mountains, starting with Paragonah Lake, which is up Paragonah Canyon, the town just north of Parowan. Next was Yankee Meadow Reservoir, which was up Parowan Canyon. Then when it got hot, we would go to Kolob Reservoir, which is on Cedar Mountain, up Right-Hand Canyon, and turning to the right instead of over to where the Nelson cabin is. Sometimes we would go to Duck Creek Reservoir, or maybe Panquich Lake, which are on the other side of Cedar Breaks. When Uncle Lloyd would come to visit Grandma Nelson, he would take me stream fishing on Mammoth Creek, Mirror Lake, or the creek out of Duck Creek. Once each year Dad would take me on a weekend campout to go fishing at all of the reservoirs up Beaver Mountain. Bob Goodwin and his oldest son usually went with us, and Sara went at least once. When we went through Parowan we would always stop and get a black raspberry malt.
Maybe I got burned out on fishing? Or maybe I never learned to play? I do feel like I let down my boys in terms of both teaching them to fish and just spending time with them. When I went fishing with Dad, I was usually on my own. He was out in the lake with his waders fly fishing. I spent much of the time trying to unravel tangled lines and get the reels to work. As time went on, I learned to take care of my rod and reels, and I learned to fly fish. I did enjoy tieing flies, i.e. making my own flies for fly fishing. Dad had some unique ones he had invented, and he could usually catch more fish than anyone else because he know which fly to use on which lake at which time of the year. I learned to tie those flies, although I have not made any of them since at least 1967, which is 38 years ago. Wow! How time flies when you are having fun.
Tim Gebauer has kind of adopted Matt, and Matt likes to go fishing with Tim, so on Sunday they were making plans as to when Tim would pick Matt up, what licenses he needed to get, etc. I think it is neat to see Matt bond with Tim, and I wish I could get excited about going fishing. It just seems like there are so many things, each of which are so much more important, that I have no desire to go fishing and to sit around waiting for a fish to bite on a worm or some fluorescent fish eggs, which is what fishing in Texas is like. Guess that besides being burnt out on fishing, I was spoiled by growing up in some of the best fly fishing country in the world. And the fish we caught were typically 2-4 pounds, not these 6 inch minnows that don't weigh anything, and which are stocked for Peckham Park Fishing. So even though I failed my boys, in terms of teaching them to love fishing like my Dad did, hopefully there were some other things which I did OK.
As I look back and contemplate this week, it seems like
this feeling of failure was a theme. It was the first of
the year, and it was time to start a new spreadsheet for
my swallows. This meant it was time to look at where I
went with regards to weight control during 2004. As the
first attachment shows, not so good. I actually gained
much of the weight I had lost in 2002-2003 back, and ended
up the year back at 250 pounds. Oh well! At least now I
have enough data I can do some trend analysis and really
consider what I need to do to loose weight. The second
attachment shows some of the charts generated using the
Spotfire data mining software. Of course the results are
not much more than a restatement of the obvious. If I
exercise, and don't down too many swallows, I tend to
loose weight. If I sit in my car commuting, and do not
do my exercises, then I tend to gain weight. Oh well!
Maybe I can learn to commute and to do exercises.
Because of the on going problems with my ankle, because
of the time it takes to commute to work, and because of
President Hinkley's comment when interviewed by Larry King
about all of his friends who jogged being dead, I've
decided to stop running. Carlos Venegas gave me an
alternative this week. So starting Monday, the 10th of
January, I have climbed the stairs from the 2nd to the
20th floor at One Riverway, each weekday, except the two
days I was at NAPE 2005 (0505.html). It has gotten a
little bit easier over three weeks, and it is still very
obvious how out of shape I have become, just since I
started working at GDC. Oh well! I've adjusted my
weight goals to reflect current reality, and plan to
enforce meeting these goals by simply not eating dinner
any night my weight is more than my goal. It is obvious
from the 2003-2004 charts, that it is not simply how
much I eat, but it is important that I exercise if I am
going to loose any weight. Hopefully all of this is
going to help me figure out my body.
The other thing I really failed at in 2004 was keeping up with Grandkidlets. The last one I wrote was on the 7th of March, which was right after I went to work at GDC. I asked Ben for some information, and it was slow in coming, however, the real issue was time, the commute, and fitting everything in. Although I'm still behind, I've kept up pretty good with the Thoughtlets. And frankly, because I'm a long-term thinking, grand kids are more important than kids to me, so one would think I would do a better job of keeping up. I didn't. Oh well! I have in my mind that I am going to sit down one Saturday and spend the entire day writing out the rest of the physics story for Ethan, and then start on Grant's first story, and then get all caught up and maybe even ahead before Colby turns 3 on April 29th. It will be interesting to see if this happens in 2005, or if the Grandkidlets remain one of those important good intentions which continues to slip through the cracks of my time. Maybe I need to learn to spend some time at Peckham Park fishing.
There was one Sunday about this time when I wrote down some interesting notes on my calls to the kids. Ethan was willing to talk to me, and he was telling me all about carnivores and herbivores. He knew which Stegastoras and T-Rex were, and was very definite about his knowledge. Ben said they had chipped away from a plaster-of-paris type of substance to find a set of dinosaur bones. I wished I could have been involved in this learning experience. Oh well! When I called Melanie, Colby wanted to get on the phone. And every time he would pick up the phone he would say: `So how you doing?' It was so funny. Taylor is already walking. Colby sang his ABC's with me, as well as `Old McDonald.' Anyway, I am motivated to get caught up on my Grandkidlets.
Getting back to my diary, on Monday the 10th Christian Singfield called and we talked about using his image management software for some things GDC is pursuing. He said that he would sell 10 seats for $25,000 each, or 1,000 seats for $1,500 each, or 100,000 seats $500 each. I continue to think Christian's work is going to break open some new doors. However, no one else seems to hear me nor Christian, and he continues to struggle.
Melanie sent me the following note on Monday, the 10th:
I responded with the following on Tuesday, the 11th:
January 12th was Ben's Birthday. Last year I did not have
my new calendar caught up, and I forgot to call Ben on his
birthday. So this year I called Sunday and sang `Happy
Birthday' into his answering machine. Then I called on
Wednesday morning at 9:00 Houston time, and 7:00 AM in
California, and woke him up. He told me:
I was mostly getting caught up this week. There were
meetings on the TilesTM, and on the Chinese Training
which started the following Monday. I was asked by Lee Bell
to set up a lunch with George Schultz and to recruit him to
work for GDC. Lee was in London. Richard Randall, George's
old boss, took George to lunch on Tuesday. Wednesday evening
I worked with Tony Traweek on the Tiles. We had disk space
problems on my Sun workstation. I was so frustrated I
left about 6:00. Tony solved the problem and was able
to do some good work.
On Thursday, the 13th of January I fasted for Ken Turner's bypass operation. Earlier in the week, Ken was told he was going to have six bypasses, and he ended up having three bypasses. I was surprised how fast the week went by. On Friday evening, Tim Gebauer picked up Matt at 9:00 to go to Peckham Park fishing. It was pretty cold, and so I was glad I wasn't going. I had been asked to do some work for Lee Bell, and ended up spending all Friday night, while watching Enterprise and JAG, working on this stuff.
Andrea had a seminary training class on Saturday morning
at Bering Drive Chapel. Matt called first thing on Saturday
and wanted a ride home. He was sick, and needed to come
home and get ready for the Young Men's basketball game. I
was in no hurry to pick him up, and went out there after
dropping Andrea off at our church to catch a ride to her
training meeting, going back home, and getting ready. Matt
wasn't sick at all, he just wanted to leave. Right then!
I stuck around the Peckham Park fishing for about a half an
hour, and took several photos, one of which is below. Matt
was up until about 2:00 AM helping Tim set everything up.
There were about 20 tents set up for kids from Nottingham
Country and Katy 2nd Wards. Matt was very good with
everyone at the park. I wish I knew why he is always in
such a big hurry to get away from people.
When we got home I went for a bike ride. It was a beautiful morning, and so I decided to keep going past Highland Knolls, past the new bike trail in Barker Reservoir, and up the road past Maudeen Marks ranch. However, when I reached the sign that read `1500 to Buffalo Bayou' my back tire went flat. I was about 5 miles into a 10 mile bike ride, and ended up walking up past Maudeen's, over to Barker Cypress, past where the Stine's used to live, past the park by David and Karen Kessler's place, along Kingsland, and the back into our house. I got back just after 12:00, and Matt was suppose to be at a basketball game at 12:00. I woke him up and we hurried over to the church, only to find out the game was at 2:00.
So we went home, I got cleaned up, and took Matt back to the church. Then I drove down to the Bering Drive Chapel and picked up Andrea and we went over to St. Lukes to see Ken Turner. Ken looked really good, and Nell was there supporting him like a trooper. Joe Roberts had told me the day before that there is a new hotel going to be built in The Galleria Area, by the waterfall, which will be dedicated to Ken. There will be a Giclee of a different Ken Turner painting in each of the rooms on each floor, and originals will be in the lobby. The hotel is one of the Marriott franchises, and Joe had no idea that the Marriotts are `Mormon.' Joe asked me to not tell Ken, and so I didn't, but I did say that I expected Ken would have reason to worry about staying humble soon. Andrea was pleased with the news, which I passed on to her as we left the hospital. My body ached from climbing stairs and bike riding and walking. Oh well!
On the way home we went to a big Edward's Cinema, next to Greenway Plaza, and saw the movie, `Hotel Rwanda.' Anyone reading this needs to see this movie, especially since Sara Ellen is serving in the Peace Corps and living in conditions exactly like those shown on the movie. At least they do not have a civil war going on in Benin. It is so sad what people can do to each other.
Sunday, January 16th, I wrote the following three possible stanzas for Prime Words:
The week ended as it began, in Priesthood Meeting, with
Tim Gebauer and his aquarium and his poles and his stories
about 72 trout (minnows) caught, and Peckham Park fishing."