"Last Sunday was very quiet with Andrea and Melanie's family both gone. I wrote the Thoughtlet (0722.html), and ended up watching a movie. Did not work on any of my projects. There had been some talk about a Nelson Family Campout #2, and there were discussions about this in some phone calls which happened on Sunday evening. It was very tentative, and yet, as is shown by the title of this Thoughtlet, it did happen.
Monday Mike Dunn told me I am going to China. I was not a happy camper. Melanie and Jared and the kids are staying with us, and this was robbing me of my time with them. In fact, I was quite belligerent, probably because of how work had generally been going since being put in the PSDM group. However, Jared and Des are interested in going to Beijing, and so I'm going to do my best to turn the trip into a positive experience. There were 4 e-mails about this on Monday the 3rd, 13 on the 4th, 7 on the 5th, 31 on the 6th, 9 on the 7th, and 4 on the 8th. I won't copy all of these e-mails to this Thoughtlet. For those interested in historical completeness, it is my intention to provide each of my 10 children a small box (part of the education that accompanies an original Ken Turner painting as an inheritance), which will have a few Gigabytes of memory, and copies of all e-mail correspondence I have been able to capture and I've been involved in over my lifetime. Since I was an early user of e-mail, hopefully this will have some historical value, in addition to family history value. Hopefully all of this information will all be indexed, and with a context will have some actual value. But this is a long, long, long way away from where we are today.
The evening time with Melanie and Jared was quiet, and then they went out to dinner with Loren Roberts and some other High School friends. Melanie suggested I get out the Lincoln Logs, and Colby and I played with them for a while. Then we watched Squarepants Spongebob. The movie kept skipping, which was very distracting to me. Taylor and Colby didn't even seem to notice it. I reread preface to The Spanish Twins to Colby, and then he decided he did not want to read that book, he wanted to read a blue one. So after looking at several of the blue covers, he picked the French Twins, and we started this one. Later in the evening Loren Roberts and her boy friend came by. He comes across very well. Loren had a dress that was ultra short, and she looked happier than the last few times I've seen her. The visit was kind of surreal to me.
Tuesday Jiain called in and gave a report on his meetings at Tarim. This report turns out to be what caused Dave and Mike to decide I need to go to China with the hope I will be able to lay the groundwork for GDC to be paid outstanding money. Oh well! I spent most of the day picking the Top Salt horizon I've been working on. Interesting puzzle, and I wonder if it has any meaning to the customer. I got home late, about 6:00 PM. Melanie and the kids were at Jared's brother's house, and Jared went there to pick up the kids. Since I was alone again, I turned on the TV, and the third Presidential Debate was on. First one I have seen. I was duly impressed. Romney did OK. Biden did exceptional on the questions about evolution and another one. However, I wouldn't vote for him. There were some excellent answers to questions, and it is sad to feel disenfranchised from the process, and like the decision on who will win the primaries is made before we even vote on it. None of the candidates really stood out to me, so maybe it doesn't matter. When Jared got the kids back to the house, Colby and I read the first chapter of The French Twins. It is a much deeper and more meaningful book than the Farm Twins. The story is set in France when the Germans overrun Paris in the First World War. The twins save their wounded and recovering Dad when Notre Dame, where he was in a hospital, was bombed and set on fire by the Germans. Of course, Colby does not catch all of the subtles of the story. He pays pretty good attention thought.
Wednesday things started to heat up on the China trip. Mike gave me a budget of $3,000. It turned out the tickets for Justin, Desmond, and me were over $6,000. Mike said, "Just take one relative." I responded, no thanks. They need someone to talk to while I'm off with Jialin, and I'd much rather stay home with my Grandkids, daughter, and son-in-law. It was still $4,000 less than a Business Class ticket, and so he caved in. When I told George Schultz I was going, he said, "You are the canary in the bird cage." I think this is the best description I've hard about this trip all week. Mike and Fred are going over in the middle of July, and they basically want me to lay the groundwork for their trip to be a big success. Interesting. Oh well! There were also 11 e-mails centered on Wednesday with the Editor of the Canadian Geophysics Journal regarding an interview when Andrea and I are in Canada. I was able to arrange for Ethan to go to the interview with me on Thursday, the 5th of July (0727.html). Wednesday morning Andrea got back from dropping Matt off in Filmore and visiting Bobbi Sophia. Rob picked her up at Intercontinental. Things were starting to get back to normal.
Thursday there was a lot more action relative to the trip. Turns out my Passport expired in September, and they had to get me a new passport before getting my Chinese visa renewed. This ended up coming right down to the wire. Des sent his passport and visa application on Wednesday, Andrea took it down on Thursday, picked it up Friday and sent it back to Des, and he got it on Monday. I got my passport back 15 minutes before I left the office on Tuesday to go to a Doctors appointment and then to get ready to leave for the airport at 4:30 AM Wednesday morning. I almost got stressed out on that one. The Paradigm software would not grid the Top Salt maps I made, and I was stuck waiting for customer support. So I read more in Fred's geopressure book. I got a real big insight from this reading: up to 70% of unconsolidated clays is water, both in the pores and chemically bonded to make up the clays. None of the clays in any of the valleys from Calgary to Mexico City have ever been consolidated. This is why they are referred to as quick clays in the Salt Lake Valley. These clays become liquid when there is a major earthquake. Anyway, the insight is that there is probably a way to provide all the water needed for the Rocky Mountain area by figuring out how to extract water from clay, maybe with electricity or lightening or something else that has not been thought of. I think this is very exciting, and it will be interesting to see if I can ever turn this into something real. Thursday evening there was a nice thank you note from Bridget:
Friday was more China, more Top Salt, more trip, and things started to come together a little bit. I've been reading "Vital Signs 206-2007" from The Worldwatch Institute when not driving the car pool and at lunch. I chuckled as I read about Coral Reef Losses Increasing, and the words, "Reefs are like the proverbial canaries in a coal mine: early indicators of life threatening conditions." Couldn't help but think about George's comments about my role with this trip to China. And I had been so busy on all of the other stuff, I had not followed up on the Nelson Family Campout #2. It kind of looked like everyone else was in the same boat. However, on Friday it all came together. Rob was not able to join us, as he was working. We stayed at Bruscher State Park in Smithville between Columbus and Austin. We put up the big tent and my pup tent. I did a dutch oven dinner. It was very hot, and sweat was dripping off of me from when we arrived until when we left. In fact, I think I got dehydrated and sick because of it. Still don't feel up to speed, and as I write this it is 1:30 Wednesday morning, just before we leave for China.
Saturday morning we had a lot of fun playing with water balloons. I never could hit Roice on his unicycle. Melanie did very good at getting up on the unicycle. Colby and Taylor had a blast with the water balloons. Halle was very good and seemed to enjoy herself, although Jared said they would not go on another campout while she is so little. Sara Ellyn and Andrea cooked a wonderful breakfast of breakfast burritos and sausage and blueberry pancakes. I did have to go into town and get eggs and oil. Friday night Roice and Sara Ellyn had to go and get crisco. So hopefully we can write this down and do a better Best Practice next time. My favorite two photos from the Nelson Family Campout #2 are below:
 |
 |
| Andrea teaching Colby and Taylor how to fill water balloons. | Campers (except Colby who was unavailable) |
Sunday was mostly a day with the Wright Grandkids. In Sacrament meeting on 10 June 2007 I wrote a possible stanza for Prime Words based on the talk by the High Council speaker, Mike Wilkes:
I did slip off on Monday and Home Teach the Minors, even though Sister Minor and Hope were not home. Oh well! Because of the Nelson Family Campout #2 I was wiped out, and did take a nap when the kids were down. I also went to sleep fairly early.
Monday we received a nice card hand written by Ethan. It says:
I wrote him an e-mail and expressed thanks for his kind words, and I wish he was closer so he could have participated in the Nelson Family Campout #2."