"Monday was Labor Day. It was also the last day of the Hafen Reunion in Pinto. And I was in Houston. Life is full of trade offs, and I often do not have any idea as to what trade offs are available or which I should take. Should I have gone out to Pinto for the weekend? I am scheduled to run the reunion again next year for the Grandpa's family. What is appropriate to do and what is looking beyond the mark?
Anyway, we were in Houston and not in Pinto nor Southern Utah for Labor Day. I still had a job at Geokinetics, and this was a company holiday. So we took the day off. Luis wanted me to come and see his daughter, Nina Norma Martinez, perform in her first big ice skating championship. It was at the ice skating rink Chris Schmidt takes his kids to each Saturday. So we went, and I took a lot of digital photos (see http://www.walden3d.com /photos/Friends/Viertel_Luis/070903_Nina_Vertel_ice_skating/). Nina is a really cute little girl. The other girls she is with are also cute. They made a sweep of first and second places. Expensive costumes. All of the competition of a soccer game. It reminded me of all of the games and practices and cheer leading competitions and dance concerts and scout activities I took you kids on in my efforts to be a good Dad and to show you how much I love you. At the same time, as folks stood for photos, I saw the definite ego boost parents derive out of the process. Life is a balance. Hopefully you kids will do a more acceptable job of keeping this balance for you kids that I did for you. I say this because a majority of the 10 of you have pretty much cut yourself off from communicating with me, and I'm assuming this is because of my mistakes in raising you. For what it is worth, I did the best I know how to do. And for what it is worth, I love each one of the ten of you.
Carlos, Paula, their babies, and her parents also came to the competition. It was good to see them, and to meet the new baby, Sophie. Their oldest girl Audrey is growing up so fast. John Walker also came and brought his daughter, Elizabeth, with him. It felt good to see these folks out supporting Luis and his family, especially since I was the one who invited them. In addition, Carlos' friend, who works for Paradigm Geophysical was there. He is leaving Paradigm, which was big news for Luis, who has been quite unhappy at Geokinetics and had been talking about go to work for Paradigm to work with his friend. After taking the photos and talking to everyone for a while, Andrea and I left the ice skating competition to do something else. It has been so long ago since Labor Day (3 months), that I do not remember where we went or what we had to do. And it is not in my notes.
Later that afternoon we went to John and Susan Walker's for lunch. We did not realize it was a party for all of Susan's family. I had suggested to John he invite Luis and his wife Norma to come to the dinner too. He did, and when we got there, I was surprised to see Susan's whole family there. I felt bad about suggesting Luis be invited, and yet it turned out just fine. It was fun to get to know Susan's brothers and her parents better. Their house is a beautiful little house in Memorial with a white picket fence. I was very impressed with what John and Susan have put together with their new marriage. Susan asked me if I had brought my guitar. I had, much to Andrea's surprise, and so I ended up singing to Susan's family: gThe Wooden Shoe," “I Once Saw a Family," and “Froggie Learns the Gospel." Then I made up some songs for Nina and for Elizabeth. They would strum and I would play the guitar chords and sing made up words. It was fun. Nina wanted me to sing a song about going into space, and so we made up some words for her. I truly did enjoy the afternoon / evening. I forgot all about not being at Pinto and the Hafen Reunion until I wrote these words and thought about the experience in the bigger picture of what is important in life, and how important it is to have good relationships with our family. After all, it is our family whom we are sealed to in the temple and to whom we have the opportunity to be with for eternity.
Tuesday morning Mike Schoemann drove. George Schultz was in Florida with Kevin. Mike told me about a book called gBlue Gold," explaining how important water is going to become for us. I want to get and read this book. Time, time, time, not enough time, time, time.
Wednesday I made the following notes for a call to Mrs. Yan, Jialin's Mom:
She does not like me calling her, and when Jialin will not answer the phone, I do not know what else to do. Oh well! I had no notes for Thursday. Friday I bought some black shoe polish when I purchased Andrea's weekly rose installment. We went to see the movie gThe Nannie Diaries" in the evening. OK movie, especially for teenage girls and their mothers.
Saturday morning there was yard work. I have had my suit held together with safety pins for months, and so we finally went to Macy's and bought me a new suit. It really was not that expensive. In the evening we went to the Adult Session of Stake Conference. When we got back I read Time magazine and there were two articles about the same stuff I have been putting a lot of time into thinking about recently: gEcoVillages" and “Green Acres." Each of these articles were directly related to all of the work I have been doing on the Deerwood Drive property (see http://www.walden3d.com/w3d/design/Deerwood/technology.html). Why am I so good at identifying trends and yet so poor at implementing plans to turn these insights into cash? Oh well!
Sunday was Stake Conference. We walked over to the Kesslers to return the horn which Andrea had borrowed to use in her seminary class. They were not home. We walked back. I got blisters on both of my feet. Definitely do not want to use my slip on shoes to walk very far anymore. I thought about the height of trees we saw on the walk, and decided I needed to go down to the Deerwood Drive property and measure the height of the trees so I could include this data in the model I was building. All in all the afternoon helped me realize I have never entered nor won an ice skating competition."