"On Monday, May 30th, I wrote a Thoughtlet about the week of April 10th about New Orleans (0515.html). Now it is June 19th, and I'm writing the next Thoughtlet in line, and so I need to adjust what was written as a preview to upcoming Thoughtlets. This adjustment includes deleting 2 and adding 5 planned Thoughtlets:
| # 0517 | Sara Ellyn & Sarah Elizabeth | 24 Apr 05; |
| # 0518 | Overnight Trains | 01 May 05; |
| # 0519 | Joshua & Audrey Waldron | 08 May 05; |
| # 0520 | My Second Sixth Anniversary | 15 May 05; |
| # 0521 | Dead Battery | 22 May 05; |
| # 0522 | Matt's High School Graduation | 29 May 05; |
| # 0523 | Virtual Stake Conference | 05 Jun 05; |
| # 0524 | Magnet for the Bizarre | 12 Jun 05; |
| $ 0525 | Truth | 19 Jun 05; |
| # 0526 | Investment Deadline | 26 Jun 05; and |
| # 0527 | Empty Nest | 02 Jul 05. |
According to my notes, the week of April 17th was a very busy week. Monday morning I met with Don Vossler at 7:30 AM at GDC to get some test processing which he had done for the trip to China and for Pemex. Tuesday morning I was at dGB's office at 7:30 AM and Friso was helping me get data loaded for the trip to China. Tuesday was the day I finished the white paper on indexing for IW-GEO (the Presidential Interagency Working Group on Earth Observations). I didn't expect anyone to pick up on it, and two months later no one has. However, I think it is important. For those interested in reading it it is at: http://www.walden3d.com/whitepapers/IW-GEO_Indexing_Strategy.pdf. Tuesday Andrea bought tickets for Sara Ellyn to fly from Beaumont to IAH to Salt Lake City on May 5th for Audrey's wedding. Tuesday evening I took a couple of academics from the University of Maryland out to dinner for Rick Zimmerman. It was an interesting discussion, and they obviously know nothing about the oil and gas exploration and development industry.
On Wednesday, Sara left me the following note on my table:
Based on what I've learned since then, I'm not sure I agree with
exposing elementary kids to the idea of going into the Peace Corps.
I had originally planned on Sara to give some talks to the kids at
church. However, she hasn't been in town long enough to discuss
this idea, let alone set it up. Oh well! I guess things like this
work out just fine without me getting in the middle of it.
As part of my trip preparation I sent the following e-mail letter to Ed Rogers on Wednesday, the 13th April:
On Wednesday I also received an e-mail letter from Rhonda Hartmann
saying she is starting a job search and wanting me to be a
reference. We never know how paths with friends and acquaintances
will cross (0524.html).
It was extremely busy at the office getting everything ready for the trip. There was a new PC to purchase for Frank. There was a Sun workstation to rebuild and get all of the software loaded on it to take over so Frank could do modeling in China. Richard Verm refused to help in any way until the very last minute, and then he helped with stuff that turned out to not be that important. The important stuff, he was able to say he had not helped with it and so he didn't understand why we were so incompetent and could not put things together right. Needless to say, working with Richard at GDC has not at all been like working with Richard at the Seismic Acoustics Laboratory. In fact, it is rapidly becoming more of an issue than the commute down the Katy Freeway, and that means it is really, really, really, really, really annoying. Oh well!
Thursday was the day to tie everything together in our trip preparation. Richard came it at the last minute and helped me tie wells into the seismic volumes. However, he did nothing to help make sure the software was correctly loaded, and two months later I'm still fighting battles because of this. Several people did help, and it was 9:00 when I finally left the office. After all of the computers were placed in the car, and as I turned onto Woodway I had a stroke of inspiration and realized it was possible the main power chord for the Sun might not have been packed. So I turned around, got the guards to let me go upstairs, and sure enough, there was the power chord. Imagine trying to replace a power chord in China. On all of the trips I have taken over all of the years I have been taking trips, this type of inspiration has consistently proven to be a key component of the trip preparation. Sometimes it seems I'm just being paranoid. And sometimes even though I trouble and triple check things, I forget something. However, on more occasions than I can count or remember I have had brought to mind things which I need to do, which turn out would have been critical to the entire trip. Hearing a voice in my head tell me to turn the car around and check to see if a power chord was packed, and following this voice, may seem like a little thing, and yet it is a strong witness to me of the blessings flowing from strictly living the Word of Wisdom:
When I got home, Sarah Elizabeth was just starting on taking all of
the braids out of Sara Ellyn's hair. It took several hours, and
there was a big pile of hair and fake end hair on the table when
it was all finished. The evening's progress is shown on the digital
photos starting at: http://www.walden3d.com/photos/Family/07_Sara/0504_China_Trip/DSC01038 and continuing through .../DSC01043.JPG. I was getting music together
and practicing to sing in the park with Jialin's father, and ended up
singing two songs for Sara Ellyn (her song) and Sarah Elizabeth
(Roice's
song). It was a nice evening, and seemed like a good start towards
what I hoped would be a wonderful trip. The girls went to sleep
about 2:00 AM. I stayed up all night catching up on various things.
For instance, I wrote the following note to my cousin Darrell
Krueger:
As we left on Thursday morning I was concerned that my trip
preparation was not sufficient for what needed to be accomplished.
Oh well! Isn't that the story of our lives. We probably did not
feel prepared when we came here from the pre-existence. If we
are blessed, we might make a few hundred trips during our lives,
and often our trip preparation is insufficient. And when we return
to Heavenly Father, to report on our life trip, we will see how
totally unprepared we were. Thanks be to an elder brother,
Jesus Christ, who is our advocate and has taken on all responsibility
for our inadequate trip preparation "after all we can do"
(II Nephi 25:23). On the freeway the car was wandering all over
the freeway. I put it down to the bags and people in the back
seat. I just got the car serviced this week, over 2 months later,
and it turns out the back two tires were under inflated by over 10
pounds each. We haven't noticed the wandering front end since
the tires were filled up and there was an alignment.
So we got to the airport an hour and a half early, 6:00 AM, for our 7:30 AM flight. I attempted to change my return flight to stop in Salt Lake for Audrey and Joshua's wedding (0519.html). They wanted $550 to change the $850 round trip ticket to China. I said no thanks. The three of us were very tired as we sat down at the terminal waiting for the plane to load. We waited and waited and waited and they started telling us they were short a stewardess and could not load the airplane until she arrived. It turns out Nancy slept in, and she arrived at the gate about 8:00 AM. We were asked not to clap for her or to otherwise give her a bad time because she already felt bad enough. Then there was a mechanical problem, and the plane finally left Houston at 9:30 AM. This was 3 1/2 hours after we got to the airport and I was concerned we might not make our connection in San Francisco. Was all of our trip preparation going to be for naught?
So we arrive in San Francisco about 3 hours late, and hurry to our connecting flight to Beijing. There were very long lines through security, and it was very frustrating. By the time we got to our gate, the plane was already loaded. And Uncle Lloyd and Aunt Luana had not checked in yet. I left my business card with the person at the ticket counter and asked her to give it to Lloyd if they missed the plane. Their plane was also delayed out of Salt Lake City. Anyway, they made it, about 5 minutes after we did, and we were all on our way to Beijing.
Even though Sarah Elizabeth had stayed up most of the night she could not sleep on the plane. It was a long plane ride for her. I think she finally did catch a little bit of sleep. Sara Ellyn and I slept like logs.
Jialin was waiting for us at the airport with a van and a car. As we worked our way from baggage claim outside and across the street to where the cars were parked it became obvious that Uncle Lloyd has slowed down a lot since his hip replacement. While we were walking to the car, Sara Ellyn was asking Jialin what it was like working with her Dad. He told her `Roice is a work-acholic machine.' We all had a laugh.
We were taken to the Celebrity International Hotel where we checked in and then Jialin and his wife took us to a fancy restaurant owned by one of his brother's friends. It has just opened and is at the new museum of different Chinese cultures in the part that represents the type of buildings in Urumuchi and far Western China. We were among the first 200 guests and so we were each given a beautiful original Chinese vase. We had what for me is the normal awkward moments surrounding not drinking tea and alcohol. Then we had a feast. It was very nice, and probably very expensive, although we did not see the bill. After the wonderful dinner I suggested the owner give Sara Ellyn a tour of the kitchen because she wants to be a cook. They made everyone that went on the tour (Sarah Ellyn, Sarah Elizabeth, Aunt Luana, and it seems like some others) put on white coats and chef hats. They cleaned the entire kitchen before they took them on a tour. After they got back Sara Ellyn turned to me and said, `No wonder you like to travel. They treat you like a king.'
We went back to the hotel and our `little beds.' Sara Ellyn and Sarah Elizabeth noticed the size of the beds more than I did because they shared one. I slept well, and woke up on Chinese time. It took longer for the girls and the Warners to adjust to the time change.
Saturday I ended up spending all day working with Jialin and Frank attempting to get the Sun workstation and the PC working. At one point we plugged in the 115 Volt Sun workstation into a 220 Volt plug, and it sounded like 15 firecrackers went off all at once. After all of the effort we put in attempting to get ready for the trip this was one of the most disheartening moments I have felt in a long, long, long time. It turned out it only destroyed the power supply and Jialin was able to get another power supply. However, I brought over three computers (my laptop, a laptop for Frank, and the Sun), and they each had a different version of the GDCMOD software on them and each had a different database. It was a mess, and 10 weeks later we still do not have most of the stuff working. Frank just came to Houston and brought the disk from the Sun and his PC to see if we can get them working correctly before he goes back to china in about three weeks. There definitely was not sufficient technical trip preparation this time.
The idea of leaving on Thursday was that I would be able to spend Saturday touring with the kids and Warners. Oh well! It was a very frustrating Saturday. I got back to the hotel in time for dinner. Dave Johnson just arrived from Algeria, and he took all of us out to dinner. It was a nice evening, and I'm sure my frustrations with the hardware and software problems were shining through my attempts to be pleasant. Oh well! From my experience it seems there are always a lot more problems come up than you anticipate, and the key is to be able to meet and solve the challenges the best you can on the fly. It is also a good idea to do sufficient trip preparation."
