Larry and Jeanette Vance Family

Summer Vacation 2011

2011-09-07T14:57:00.000-05:00

Hello BLOGGER friends.

It has been a long year so far.

We took our vacation this year at the end of July and spent a week in the San Luis Valley in southern Colorado.

The Dictionary

2011-09-07T14:53:00.001-05:00

As our 7 children grew and learned, one of the things that we did with consistency was to have our meals together and sometimes have conversations at the table. When one of the children would use a word that I thought was used incorrectly or I estimated that they did not know what the word meant I would ask for a definition for the word before they could use it in their conversations.

STOP! What is the definition of that word?

Frequently they did not know the real definition of the word. If they did not know the definition of the word or were shy in presenting what they thought was the definition then I would instruct that child to retrieve the dictionary and read the definition aloud to all the family. As you can see, the dictionary is tattered and worn. This wear is a direct consequence of the use induced by dad.

I was sometimes not pleased with the definitions in the Collegiate dictionary and would make them reference the unabridged dictionary. There were times that I was at odds with what was in both dictionaries. English is definitely a living language, where words are added to the dictionary every year. If you throw in a few acronyms with the moving target of words then things are even more interesting. There are some words I have objected to the children using in their vocabulary.

SNAFU, FUBAR, and dork are three "words" that were not permitted to be used. Interestingly, these "words" are used with impunity in daily conversation and I suppose that most people do not know the etymology or meaning of these words.

Communication is very difficult without having different conceptions of the meanings of a word. Some words in our vocabulary have changed over time because people used a word to connotate something other than the dictionary definition of the word. Even the use of euphemisms to blunt the acute nature of a phrase that may be disturbing eventually becomes as acute as the original phrase and destroys the ability of using some words to convey their original meaning.

Sometimes a picture is worth a thousand words. Our visual dictionary is also rather tattered. Not all of our children have used the visual dictionary like Eric.

Julie, our oldest daughter, was delighted when she received as a gift an Oxford dictionary. Her dictionary came in a two volume set. I presume that Julie still uses her dictionaries and that she, and the rest of our family, is more able to communicate accurately because of our tradition of using the dictionary at the dinner table.

What is in your dictionary?

April 22 at Garcias: Bowling

2011-09-07T14:33:00.001-05:00

(By Debra)

The Grandparents and Uncle Eric came two hours to visit their grand-baby. It was fun for us all. We talked, watched Tangled on my computer, ate lunch, fed water to Elaine in a teacup, and we WENT BOWLING.

Dad entertained, looked after and was entertained by Elaine while Mom Eric and I bowled.

Japan's Nuclear Accident Explained

2011-03-15T07:11:00.002-05:00

Subject: JAPAN'S NUCLEAR PLANT PROBLEM

THIS IS THE BEST I HAVE SEEN FOR THE FACTS.

THE NEWS MEDIA IS PITIFUL. LONG BIT WORTH READING

This post is by Dr Josef Oehmen, a research scientist at MIT, in Boston.

He is a PhD Scientist, whose father has extensive experience in Germany’s nuclear industry. I asked him to write this information to my family in Australia, who were being made sick with worry by the media reports coming from Japan. I am republishing it with his permission.

It is a few hours old, so if any information is out of date, blame me for the delay in getting it published.

This is his text in full and unedited. It is very long, so get comfy.

I am writing this text (Mar 12) to give you some peace of mind regarding some of the troubles in Japan, that is the safety of Japan’s nuclear reactors. Up front, the situation is serious, but under control. And this text is long! But you will know more about nuclear power plants after reading it than all journalists on this planet put together.

There was and will *not* be any significant release of radioactivity.

By “significant” I mean a level of radiation of more than what you would receive on – say – a long distance flight, or drinking a glass of beer that comes from certain areas with high levels of natural background radiation.

I have been reading every news release on the incident since the earthquake. There has not been one single (!) report that was accurate and free of errors (and part of that problem is also a weakness in the Japanese crisis communication). By “not free of errors” I do not refer to tendentious anti-nuclear journalism – that is quite normal these days. By “not free of errors” I mean blatant errors regarding physics and natural law, as well as gross misinterpretation of facts, due to an obvious lack of fundamental and basic understanding of the way nuclear reactors are build and operated. I have read a 3 page report on CNN where every single paragraph contained an error.

We will have to cover some fundamentals, before we get into what is going on.

Construction of the Fukushima nuclear power plants

The plants at Fukushima are so called Boiling Water Reactors, or BWR for short. Boiling Water Reactors are similar to a pressure cooker. The nuclear fuel heats water, the water boils and creates steam, the steam then drives turbines that create the electricity, and the steam is then cooled and condensed back to water, and the water send back to be heated by the nuclear fuel. The pressure cooker operates at about 250 °C.

The nuclear fuel is uranium oxide. Uranium oxide is a ceramic with a very high melting point of about 3000 °C. The fuel is manufactured in pellets (think little cylinders the size of Lego bricks). Those pieces are then put into a long tube made of Zircaloy with a melting point of 2200 °C, and sealed tight. The assembly is called a fuel rod. These fuel rods are then put together to form larger packages, and a number of these packages are then put into the reactor. All these packages together are referred to as “the core”.

The Zircaloy casing is the first containment. It separates the radioactive fuel from the rest of the world.

The core is then placed in the “pressure vessels”. That is the pressure cooker we talked about before. The pressure vessels is the second containment. This is one sturdy piece of a pot, designed to safely contain the core for temperatures several hundred °C. That covers the scenarios where cooling can be restored at some point.

The entire “hardware” of the nuclear reactor – the pressure vessel and all pipes, pumps, coolant (water) reserves, are then encased in the third containment. The third containment is a hermetically (air tight) sealed, very thick bubble of the strongest steel. The third containment is designed, built and tested for one single purpose: To contain, indefinitely, a complete core meltdown. For that purpose, a large and thick concrete basin is cast under the pressure vessel (the second containment), which is filled with graphite, all inside the third containment. This is the so-called “core catcher”. If the core melts and the pressure vessel bursts (and eventually melts), it will catch the molten fuel and everything else. It is built in such a way that the nuclear fuel will be spread out, so it can cool down.

This third containment is then surrounded by the reactor building. The reactor building is an outer shell that is supposed to keep the weather out, but nothing in. (this is the part that was damaged in the explosion, but more to that later).

Fundamentals of nuclear reactions

The uranium fuel generates heat by nuclear fission. Big uranium atoms are split into smaller atoms. That generates heat plus neutrons (one of the particles that forms an atom). When the neutron hits another uranium atom, that splits, generating more neutrons and so on. That is called the nuclear chain reaction.

Now, just packing a lot of fuel rods next to each other would quickly lead to overheating and after about 45 minutes to a melting of the fuel rods. It is worth mentioning at this point that the nuclear fuel in a reactor can *never* cause a nuclear explosion the type of a nuclear bomb. Building a nuclear bomb is actually quite difficult (ask Iran). In Chernobyl, the explosion was caused by excessive pressure buildup, hydrogen explosion and rupture of all containments, propelling molten core material into the environment (a “dirty bomb”). Why that did not and will not happen in Japan, further below.

In order to control the nuclear chain reaction, the reactor operators use so-called “moderator rods”. The moderator rods absorb the neutrons and kill the chain reaction instantaneously. A nuclear reactor is built in such a way, that when operating normally, you take out all the moderator rods. The coolant water then takes away the heat (and converts it into steam and electricity) at the same rate as the core produces it. And you have a lot of leeway around the standard operating point of 250°C.

The challenge is that after inserting the rods and stopping the chain reaction, the core still keeps producing heat. The uranium “stopped” the chain reaction. But a number of intermediate radioactive elements are created by the uranium during its fission process, most notably Cesium and Iodine isotopes, i.e. radioactive versions of these elements that will eventually split up into smaller atoms and not be radioactive anymore. Those elements keep decaying and producing heat. Because they are not regenerated any longer from the uranium (the uranium stopped decaying after the moderator rods were put in), they get less and less, and so the core cools down over a matter of days, until those intermediate radioactive elements are used up.

This residual heat is causing the headaches right now.

So the first “type” of radioactive material is the uranium in the fuel rods, plus the intermediate radioactive elements that the uranium splits into, also inside the fuel rod (Cesium and Iodine).

There is a second type of radioactive material created, outside the fuel rods. The big main difference up front: Those radioactive materials have a very short half-life, that means that they decay very fast and split into non-radioactive materials. By fast I mean seconds. So if these radioactive materials are released into the environment, yes, radioactivity was released, but no, it is not dangerous, at all. Why? By the time you spelled “R-A-D-I-O-N-U-C-L-I-D-E”, they will be harmless, because they will have split up into non radioactive elements. Those radioactive elements are N-16, the radioactive isotope (or version) of nitrogen (air). The others are noble gases such as Xenon. But where do they come from? When the uranium splits, it generates a neutron (see above). Most of these neutrons will hit other uranium atoms and keep the nuclear chain reaction going. But some will leave the fuel rod and hit the water molecules, or the air that is in the water. Then, a non-radioactive element can “capture” the neutron. It becomes radioactive. As described above, it will quickly (seconds) get rid again of the neutron to return to its former beautiful self.

This second “type” of radiation is very important when we talk about the radioactivity being released into the environment later on.

What happened at Fukushima

I will try to summarize the main facts. The earthquake that hit Japan was 7 times more powerful than the worst earthquake the nuclear power plant was built for (the Richter scale works logarithmically; the difference between the 8.2 that the plants were built for and the 8.9 that happened is 7 times, not 0.7). So the first hooray for Japanese engineering, everything held up.

When the earthquake hit with 8.9, the nuclear reactors all went into automatic shutdown. Within seconds after the earthquake started, the moderator rods had been inserted into the core and nuclear chain reaction of the uranium stopped. Now, the cooling system has to carry away the residual heat. The residual heat load is about 3% of the heat load under normal operating conditions.

The earthquake destroyed the external power supply of the nuclear reactor. That is one of the most serious accidents for a nuclear power plant, and accordingly, a “plant black out” receives a lot of attention when designing backup systems. The power is needed to keep the coolant pumps working. Since the power plant had been shut down, it cannot produce any electricity by itself any more.

Things were going well for an hour. One set of multiple sets of emergency Diesel power generators kicked in and provided the electricity that was needed. Then the Tsunami came, much bigger than people had expected when building the power plant (see above, factor 7). The tsunami took out all multiple sets of backup Diesel generators.

When designing a nuclear power plant, engineers follow a philosophy called “Defense of Depth”. That means that you first build everything to withstand the worst catastrophe you can imagine, and then design the plant in such a way that it can still handle one system failure (that you thought could never happen) after the other. A tsunami taking out all backup power in one swift strike is such a scenario. The last line of defense is putting everything into the third containment (see above), that will keep everything, whatever the mess, moderator rods in our out, core molten or not, inside the reactor.

When the diesel generators were gone, the reactor operators switched to emergency battery power. The batteries were designed as one of the backups to the backups, to provide power for cooling the core for 8 hours. And they did.

Within the 8 hours, another power source had to be found and connected to the power plant. The power grid was down due to the earthquake. The diesel generators were destroyed by the tsunami. So mobile diesel generators were trucked in.

This is where things started to go seriously wrong. The external power generators could not be connected to the power plant (the plugs did not fit). So after the batteries ran out, the residual heat could not be carried away any more.

At this point the plant operators begin to follow emergency procedures that are in place for a “loss of cooling event”. It is again a step along the “Depth of Defense” lines. The power to the cooling systems should never have failed completely, but it did, so they “retreat” to the next line of defense. All of this, however shocking it seems to us, is part of the day-to-day training you go through as an operator, right through to managing a core meltdown.

It was at this stage that people started to talk about core meltdown. Because at the end of the day, if cooling cannot be restored, the core will eventually melt (after hours or days), and the last line of defense, the core catcher and third containment, would come into play.

But the goal at this stage was to manage the core while it was heating up, and ensure that the first containment (the Zircaloy tubes that contains the nuclear fuel), as well as the second containment (our pressure cooker) remain intact and operational for as long as possible, to give the engineers time to fix the cooling systems.

Because cooling the core is such a big deal, the reactor has a number of cooling systems, each in multiple versions (the reactor water cleanup system, the decay heat removal, the reactor core isolating cooling, the standby liquid cooling system, and the emergency core cooling system). Which one failed when or did not fail is not clear at this point in time.

So imagine our pressure cooker on the stove, heat on low, but on. The operators use whatever cooling system capacity they have to get rid of as much heat as possible, but the pressure starts building up. The priority now is to maintain integrity of the first containment (keep temperature of the fuel rods below 2200°C), as well as the second containment, the pressure cooker. In order to maintain integrity of the pressure cooker (the second containment), the pressure has to be released from time to time. Because the ability to do that in an emergency is so important, the reactor has 11 pressure release valves. The operators now started venting steam from time to time to control the pressure. The temperature at this stage was about 550°C.

This is when the reports about “radiation leakage” starting coming in. I believe I explained above why venting the steam is theoretically the same as releasing radiation into the environment, but why it was and is not dangerous. The radioactive nitrogen as well as the noble gases do not pose a threat to human health.

At some stage during this venting, the explosion occurred. The explosion took place outside of the third containment (our “last line of defense”), and the reactor building. Remember that the reactor building has no function in keeping the radioactivity contained. It is not entirely clear yet what has happened, but this is the likely scenario: The operators decided to vent the steam from the pressure vessel not directly into the environment, but into the space between the third containment and the reactor building (to give the radioactivity in the steam more time to subside). The problem is that at the high temperatures that the core had reached at this stage, water molecules can “disassociate” into oxygen and hydrogen – an explosive mixture. And it did explode, outside the third containment, damaging the reactor building around. It was that sort of explosion, but inside the pressure vessel (because it was badly designed and not managed properly by the operators) that lead to the explosion of Chernobyl. This was never a risk at Fukushima. The problem of hydrogen-oxygen formation is one of the biggies when you design a power plant (if you are not Soviet, that is), so the reactor is build and operated in a way it cannot happen inside the containment. It happened outside, which was not intended but a possible scenario and OK, because it did not pose a risk for the containment.

So the pressure was under control, as steam was vented. Now, if you keep boiling your pot, the problem is that the water level will keep falling and falling. The core is covered by several meters of water in order to allow for some time to pass (hours, days) before it gets exposed. Once the rods start to be exposed at the top, the exposed parts will reach the critical temperature of 2200 °C after about 45 minutes. This is when the first containment, the Zircaloy tube, would fail.

And this started to happen. The cooling could not be restored before there was some (very limited, but still) damage to the casing of some of the fuel. The nuclear material itself was still intact, but the surrounding Zircaloy shell had started melting. What happened now is that some of the byproducts of the uranium decay – radioactive Cesium and Iodine – started to mix with the steam. The big problem, uranium, was still under control, because the uranium oxide rods were good until 3000 °C. It is confirmed that a very small amount of Cesium and Iodine was measured in the steam that was released into the atmosphere.

It seems this was the “go signal” for a major plan B. The small amounts of Cesium that were measured told the operators that the first containment on one of the rods somewhere was about to give. The Plan A had been to restore one of the regular cooling systems to the core. Why that failed is unclear. One plausible explanation is that the tsunami also took away / polluted all the clean water needed for the regular cooling systems.

The water used in the cooling system is very clean, demineralized (like distilled) water. The reason to use pure water is the above mentioned activation by the neutrons from the Uranium: Pure water does not get activated much, so stays practically radioactive-free. Dirt or salt in the water will absorb the neutrons quicker, becoming more radioactive. This has no effect whatsoever on the core – it does not care what it is cooled by. But it makes life more difficult for the operators and mechanics when they have to deal with activated (i.e. slightly radioactive) water.

But Plan A had failed – cooling systems down or additional clean water unavailable – so Plan B came into effect. This is what it looks like happened:

In order to prevent a core meltdown, the operators started to use sea water to cool the core. I am not quite sure if they flooded our pressure cooker with it (the second containment), or if they flooded the third containment, immersing the pressure cooker. But that is not relevant for us.

The point is that the nuclear fuel has now been cooled down. Because the chain reaction has been stopped a long time ago, there is only very little residual heat being produced now. The large amount of cooling water that has been used is sufficient to take up that heat. Because it is a lot of water, the core does not produce sufficient heat any more to produce any significant pressure. Also, boric acid has been added to the seawater. Boric acid is “liquid control rod”. Whatever decay is still going on, the Boron will capture the neutrons and further speed up the cooling down of the core.

The plant came close to a core meltdown. Here is the worst-case scenario that was avoided: If the seawater could not have been used for treatment, the operators would have continued to vent the water steam to avoid pressure buildup. The third containment would then have been completely sealed to allow the core meltdown to happen without releasing radioactive material. After the meltdown, there would have been a waiting period for the intermediate radioactive materials to decay inside the reactor, and all radioactive particles to settle on a surface inside the containment. The cooling system would have been restored eventually, and the molten core cooled to a manageable temperature. The containment would have been cleaned up on the inside. Then a messy job of removing the molten core from the containment would have begun, packing the (now solid again) fuel bit by bit into transportation containers to be shipped to processing plants. Depending on the damage, the block of the plant would then either be repaired or dismantled.

Now, where does that leave us?

The plant is safe now and will stay safe.

Japan is looking at an INES Level 4 Accident: Nuclear accident with local consequences. That is bad for the company that owns the plant, but not for anyone else.

Some radiation was released when the pressure vessel was vented. All radioactive isotopes from the activated steam have gone (decayed). A very small amount of Cesium was released, as well as Iodine. If you were sitting on top of the plants’ chimney when they were venting, you should probably give up smoking to return to your former life expectancy. The Cesium and Iodine isotopes were carried out to the sea and will never be seen again.

There was some limited damage to the first containment. That means that some amounts of radioactive Cesium and Iodine will also be released into the cooling water, but no Uranium or other nasty stuff (the Uranium oxide does not “dissolve” in the water). There are facilities for treating the cooling water inside the third containment. The radioactive Cesium and Iodine will be removed there and eventually stored as radioactive waste in terminal storage.

The seawater used as cooling water will be activated to some degree. Because the control rods are fully inserted, the Uranium chain reaction is not happening. That means the “main” nuclear reaction is not happening, thus not contributing to the activation. The intermediate radioactive materials (Cesium and Iodine) are also almost gone at this stage, because the Uranium decay was stopped a long time ago. This further reduces the activation. The bottom line is that there will be some low level of activation of the seawater, which will also be removed by the treatment facilities.

The seawater will then be replaced over time with the “normal” cooling water

The reactor core will then be dismantled and transported to a processing facility, just like during a regular fuel change. Fuel rods and the entire plant will be checked for potential damage. This will take about 4-5 years.

The safety systems on all Japanese plants will be upgraded to withstand a 9.0 earthquake and tsunami (or worse) I believe the most significant problem will be a prolonged power shortage. About half of Japan’s nuclear reactors will probably have to be inspected, reducing the nation’s power generating capacity by 15%. This will probably be covered by running gas power plants that are usually only used for peak loads to cover some of the base load as well. That will increase your electricity bill, as well as lead to potential power shortages during peak demand, in Japan.

If you want to stay informed, please forget the usual media outlets and consult the following websites:

http://www.world-nuclear-news.org/RS_Battle_to_stabilise_earthquake_reactors_1203111.html

http://bravenewclimate.com/2011/03/12/japan-nuclear-earthquake/

http://ansnuclearcafe.org/2011/03/11/media-updates-on-nuclear-power-stations-in-japan/

I am Santa!

2010-12-18T08:50:00.000-06:00

I have evidence here that I am in fact Santa Claus. I have this letter that was hand delivered to me by one of the believers.

And even more impressive is this young man that wanted to come let Santa know that he was a good boy all year.

Some memories

2010-10-02T11:58:00.000-05:00

I served in Argentina as a missionary a little more than 30 years ago. One of the movies I like to watch is Evita because I see things in the movie that bring back memories of when I was there between 1977 and 1979.

I was watching the movie yesterday and came to the conclusion that there are some parallels from that situation that I see in our culture today. After the military powers conceeded to release Peron from encarceration he resigned from the military and started his campaining for political office. The labor unions were instrumental in securing his release from prison and his election as president.

The unions bonded with Peron because he made promises that enticed their senses of entitlement. He promised to restore the greatness of Argentina by strong government. The era of people just disappearing because they did not espouse the policies of Peron's government began.

The Robin Hood of Argentina took from the wealthy and gave to the poor. When I was in Argentina I saw row houses that were built by the government for the poor. Low interest loans were created to allow the poorest to become home owners.

Some of the row houses were well kept and clean. Some of the houses were surrounded by trash and dead yards with broken fences, broken windows, and no remaining floors in the house.

I came to the conclusion that those that have to make an investment to attain something take much better care of it.

This sense of entitlement led to the bankruptcy of Argentina. Industry was swallowed by the government and productivity was hampered. Inflation was rampant.

As a missionary I was prohibited by rules of the mission to discuss politics. I see that this was wise. I was ignorant of the root cause of the poverty of Argentina's people. I am now convinced that a sense of entitlement instead of a sense of opportunity is at the root of their financial problems.

I am glad that I have the opportunity to be rewarded based on my industry and investment. I can see that this is the way it should be.

Sep 24 Fortune

2010-09-27T03:00:00.000-05:00

This was in my fortune cookie Friday, September 24th 2010. Jeanette calculated three months from now -- October, November, December -- December 24th. I am looking forward to seeing good things on Christmas Eve.

25 Year Celebration at Work

2010-09-26T02:00:00.001-05:00

My employer celebrated 25 years in Waco this past week. They had a T-shirt sales with a design to celebrate the occasion. Too bad the T-shirts did not show in time. I did get a coin as a token.

Congratulations

2010-09-25T14:02:00.002-05:00

Craig and Brina have a new addition. This makes 5 grandchildren for Larry and Jeanette. We are expecting Jon and Debra to have number 6 by the end of the year.

A Major Award

2010-09-24T13:58:00.000-05:00

During my tenure at L-3 I have worked the Compass Call program the longest. I was pleasantly surprised a couple weeks ago when I was asked to attend the boardwalk at the aircraft because I was being recognized. Tony (the director for the program) gave me a coin after I was noticed at the boardwalk.

No shopping for a week

2010-05-03T19:15:00.005-05:00

Yesterday our Bishop came into the Relief Society meeting. He asked for five sisters to volunteer their family to not do any shopping for a week including no eating out of meals. We can purchase gasoline for travels to work and the guys were given permission to shop for Mother's Day if they hadn't done so.

He had already been to the brethren. We asked which men volunteered. The Vance's was the first family name mentioned. I would have volunteered if Larry had not done so though I hesitated doing so without talking to Larry. I felt we were is a pretty good position to accept this challenge.

We are to keep a journal about our experience and be ready to share with the ward on a fifth Sunday meeting to come.

So there are 7 families in the ward not doing any shopping for the week. One family started a temporary blog so we could journal there if we wanted too. The bishop gave the okay on that idea. I'll try to add a link so you can see what the other families are doing. waco2ward.blogspot.com. Some of these families have very young children, even newborns. From the looks of things we have all discovered things that we need to think about and plan for a little better. The Bishop didn't say anything about not sharing so we may just do some of that. Between all of us we may have just what we all need. That sounds like an important lesson.

My immediate concerns for our food supply was fresh milk and fruits and vegetables. I knew we had at least one gallon of milk. I also knew we had some fresh broccoli, green beans, tomatoes, cucumber. I thought we had one orange, and a zucchini. No orange or zucchini. We did have one apple, a pint of strawberries, and a half pound of green grapes. Oh and we only have four eggs.

I have decided to push myself this week and use some of our staple supplies that I don't use very often and to add some skills to my arsenal. I hope to use some dry milk, make tortillas, and bread.

Choice

2010-02-26T16:59:00.004-06:00

Choice and freedom go together. We live in a great country where choice and freedom are considered basic rights. With choice comes accountability.

My daughter Anita, when she was just four years old was participating in a family meeting where I asked the question; "How long does it take to make a decision?", to which she answered: "A brain think". This is true, a decision only takes as long as it takes to decide.

Have you ever heard someone justifying a choice by saying, "It is my life, I can do what I want!", or "It is a free country".

April 20, 1999 I was at work at Martin Marietta just south of Denver. There was a buzz at work because there was something that transpired at the high school. Parents were concerned for their children. There were phone calls from students and family saying that there was a shooting at Columbine High. My home was just across Clement Park and Wadsworth Boulevard from the school. Two boys made a decision that they were going to enjoy killing people that had ostricised them. Commencing at about 11:30 the boys had placed bombs in the cafeteria set to explode during the first lunch hour. The boys carried an arsenal of weapons that included bombs and fire arms. 15 people died that day; more were injured and some were permanently disabled. I am glad that the boys were incompetent, but look at the damage they still inflicted.

The choice these boys made extended well beyond their own lives and their own families lives. The news media had views of Columbine High on the television while the young men were assailing the students and faculty in the school.

The choice of these boys came very close to home for me. I worked daily with two men that had children shot in the incident, one fatally, the other was paralyzed from the waist down. Several co-workers had children that were hidden in closets and other enclosed areas in the school during the incident.

Choices made by these boys affected the freedom of others and themselves and their families. I have made choices that have been good and I have made choices that have been bad. Our choices should be made with the understanding that our choices determine the road we take going forward.

There are a few things I am glad I have chosen to do. I served my church by spending two years in a foreign country at my expense. I went to school and earned a master's degree in engineering. I married a beautiful and wonderful woman that shares my values. I have seven children. I was free to have a family because of my choices. You too are free to choose.

I feel like Joshua of the old testament who said; "Choose ye this day whom you will serve, but as for me and my house we will serve the Lord!

Morning or Night person?

2010-02-16T18:11:00.003-06:00

For the last five years I have been teaching Early Morning Seminary for my church. I believe at first I had to change into a morning person. When the alarm goes off at 4:45 a.m. getting up early is a no duh. That means going to be early is a must. I am the kind of girl that needs those eight hours of sleep. So off to bed at 9 p.m., 9:30 at the latest.

Today as I was driving around running errands it occurred to me that the transformation has not really taken place as I thought it had. My evidence is: I am grumpy at bed time and grumpy at wake up time, I sometimes forget to say my prayers in the morning, I come home and need a nap at about 8:30, it takes a few hours somedays to get going on the days duties.

If I take that nap then I am ready to get going. But I usually wait until after I have eaten lunch. Then it seems I am go, go, go. The list is gotten to and I move along. My evenings are usually full of things to do and get done.

Morning or night person? I'm not sure anymore.

Almost Spring

2010-02-10T12:04:00.002-06:00

I know it is a shock to some of you that Spring is almost here. I have evidence. The Ornamental Bradford Pear tree in our front yard has begun to bud out. Our only surviving apple tree has begun as well. See Spring is on it's way. The ground hog was right, six more weeks until spring. Enjoy the wait.

100 Years of Scouting

2010-02-08T07:58:00.001-06:00

CONGRATULATIONS BSA

100 years of Scouting

I just want to say hurray! I am thankful for what I know about scouting and for what I believe it has done for the boys/men in my family. Hurray for scouting.

A book read

2010-02-03T09:53:00.004-06:00

During the month of January I found a book to read. It was Man's Search for Meaning by Viktor E. Frankl. I have been aware of it for years and have heard people use lines from it. At my age I should have read it eons ago. It think it could/should be a to read for all High School students and those in the military. It was enlightening to me about people and their survivability in extreme conditions. I would never wish a concentration camp on any one. What a horrid situation. The insights of this author are magnificent. I found help and encouragement for me in my difficulties and I saw hope and help for those who are suffering in much more severe ways than me. I recommend this book to those interested in bettering themselves and learning to have more compassion for people who suffer much.

A Belated Major Award

2010-02-02T18:39:00.001-06:00

While I was at work yesterday I received a phone call from D. Vandevelde and he told me that he had an award for me. I was somewhat surprised to hear that he would have something for me. I was even more surprised when I went to the lobby of building 7601 to meet him and get the award.

He handed me a folder and a little case. He told me, "This is a little old, but L. Edinburg wants you to have it.

I opened the folder to find inside, not one, but two certificates with Tribute to Excellence awards. One award from the Waco site, ....

... and one award from the L-3 IS group. Too bad this was almost three years after the fact. I wonder what could have happened to shake this out of the cobwebs at work.

The coin is interesting.

I would like to have been recognized back when this was awarded.

The power of prayer

2010-01-11T08:16:00.003-06:00

Last night I woke in the middle of the night with a horrible dream going on in my mind. It believe it was the worst I have ever had. If it was a movie it would be rated terrible. I can't say "R" because I don't know what they are like. But it was a vicious dream. People were doing terrible things to each other and they were very angry while they were doing it. I was frightened.

Since my dreams tend to just keep going on after I wake and try to return to sleep and get back in bed I was concerned about this story continuing. I didn't want this to continue. The next part was predictable and I didn't want to see it. My thought was instantly, pray. I got up and prayed. I pleaded in my prayer that this dream would not continue. I wanted to sleep not dream this horror. My pray was answered as soon as my head was down. Other things came into my mind like songs I usually reserve for hard times. And with that song running and finishing, another song came. It lasted long enough for me to be asleep. That dream has not come back. I still remember where it left off but it hasn't continued and it doesn't occupy my mind.

I am so grateful for my belief in the power of prayer and how it blesses my life not just for this past night but for all of the other times as well. I am grateful my heavenly Father listens to me and answers my prayers. I also was prompted to be more careful in what I put into my mind through visual ways.

Fishing Tale

2010-01-09T09:55:00.000-06:00

When I was young I spent time at the gas station, either getting treats when I was under 11 and working when older than 11. Farmers and ranchers would spend some of their down time in the office sharing stories and discussing affairs that were important to them. I had the chance to hear some of the men relate how they killed a bull elk, caught a mess of fish, or killed a bear that had been killing their cattle. My father shared some of his stories about WWII and his exploits in the wild. I miss that old place and the venue to tell about my ventures in the wild.

As the youngest of 3 brothers I was not as active as my oldest in hunting and fishing with my dad as my oldest brother was. I do remember a few times that my father took me with him to go fishing. Duck lake, up above Cubres Pass, was on such location where my father took me. We had a great day and he demonstrated how to deliver a fly to the water in a way that did not make great ripples in the water and fooled to fish to believe a bug had landed on the water. I caught one fish while my father caught his limit. It was a start.

I had my own boys that needed a taste of the outdoors. My three oldest sons were Boy Scouts and we were working on the fishing merit badge. There is a small lake at the intersection of Bowles and Wadsworth, Johnson Lake, that was there before the metropolis closed in on it's shores. We went fishing there with my boys using grasshoppers. We caught some crappie and perch. Brian, my third son, caught a duck. His grasshopper was floating on the water and the duck swallowed it. That was dramatic for him. We cut the line and let the duck go, but that was a first for me.

I worked at Martin Marietta, south of Denver, by the mouth of Waterton Canyon and the South Platte River. I rode my bicycle and ran on the road that paralleled the river. One day I was looking in the river as I went along and saw a fish floating upside down by the bank. I grabbed the fish wth the intent of throwing it out on the shore to let the critters eat it, but i began to struggle. It was still alive, for a little while. I took the fish back to work with me (I ran during the noon hour) to show my coworkers the 24-1/2" fish that weighed just over 6 poounds. Some days later I was on my bicycle and noticed a fish that looked much the same as the previous keeping pace with the current in a hole. I took a rock with the intent of scaring it and threw it at the fish. It hit the fish in the head and stunned it. The fish rolled over and rose to the top of the water. I jumped in with both feet into the frigid water (it was early in the year, maybe February) and grabbed the fish. It was the same size as the previous. That year the boys and I caught so many fish that they refused to eat any more fish.

On Cumbres Pass by Trujillo Meadows there is a series of beaver dams and ponds. There was a very large trout in one of the ponds. He was elusive -- difficult to catch. It happened! My brothers and I caught Sampson. It was an ordeal to get him onto the shore without breaking the line, so I jumped in the water and managed to grab him by the tail. We wanted to take him home, but were to leave the next day and wanted him to stay fresh, so we devised a restraint for him. We tied a cord to his tail and tied it a a big dumbbell shaped rock that we left on the shore. We came back the next day and the rock was gone as was the fish. We assumed someone or something had come and claimed him. It was not until the next year we realized that Sampson had survived and was still in the beaver pond when we saw all the small fish with little dumbbell rocks tied their tails.

Fortune 8

2009-12-30T11:10:00.008-06:00

This was before I played Santa at the Loosli's.

Fortune 7

2009-12-30T11:10:00.005-06:00

I suppose I need to work on this one more.

Fortune 6

2009-12-30T11:09:00.006-06:00

I love you Jeanette!

Fortune 5

2009-12-30T11:09:00.005-06:00

After I filed my complaint with corporate ethics about how I was treated by HR I was given the chance to talk with the president the site. He treated me cordially but there were no positive results from my effort. Maybe the future has something for me.

Fortune 3

2009-12-30T11:08:00.009-06:00

Jeanette and I continued to frequent the chinese buffet on Hewitt Drive on alternate Fridays for lunch. Yet another fortune predicting a major award.

Our company publicizes that recognition is a form of motivation. There is a program to give "On the Spot" awards to people that perform beyond the bounds of their requirements. I was working on a report that had to be delivered according to a time schedule that changed and was contracted considerably. I finished the report on time and was given one of said awards. The prize for the award is a gift card chosen from one of several places for $20. Yay me!

Fortune 4

2009-12-30T11:08:00.008-06:00

Deja Vu! Another award for my outstanding performance by people I support. A card to WalMart for $20.

Fortune 2

2009-12-30T11:07:00.004-06:00

On a subsequent trip to the chinese restaurant on Hewitt Drive I received this fortune.

I have had a very trying time at work. I was the president of the company Toastmasters club. For some reason that I still fail to understand the company decided that we were not allowed to communicate our meeting times, place, or try to publicize our club using the bulletin boards or the intranet. The reason given was that any solicitation would guarantee that unions would have access to the same resources through laws that require equity in access. We are a closed club (to date) where only employees were allowed to be members.

One of the members of our club, as an Information Technologies technician, took on the task of creating a sharepoint website on the intranet. We already had a website that was hosted on company computers, but we had no direct links to that website. The IT employee went to Human Resources to verify permissions to publish the page. HR declined permission to post the web page and demanded that it be deleted.

I wrote an e-mail to the president of our company and his boss, outlining the events that had occured with our dificulties with HR and being able to run the club effectively. This propted a response much quicker than I had ever thought possible. The manage of HR sent a meeting notice to me, the director of engineering, and the manager of flight sciences for a 12:30 meeting. That was only an hour after the e-mail was sent. I touched a nerve. The manager of HR opened the meeting with the inflamatory question; "What makes you think you are smart enough to work here?" I answered that question with silence. He began then to inform me that I was not able to understand the significance of our Toastmasters club impact on the dangers of a union being started at the facility. He was wroth that I had not come to him before I sent an e-mail to the president. I told him that I did it out of ignorance because I was not aware that he was in the chain of command. He then informed me that was I not only ignorant but I was stupid. Both of the men that were there with me sat and let me be abused for 20 minutes with only one of them saying that this made us look bad like we could not handle our own internal affairs.

Ethics training is required at my company every year, with certain people having to take certain classes or training modules on the computer. As one of the modules for ethics training the participant is required to sign an affidavit that acknowledges that the participant understands the policies and agrees to abide by them and report anybody that does not. I felt compelled at this time to report the abuses that I sustained to the corporate ethics office. Retaliation is expressly forbidden to anybody making an ethics complaint. I was notified that an investigation was started and that I would probably be contacted soon. I was never contacted, but the club was evicted from the premises. So much for retaliation.

Fortune 1

2009-12-30T10:53:00.004-06:00

Over the past few months Jeanette and I have spent some time at the chinese buffet on Hewitt Drive. I have saved some of the fortunes. As Jeanette would pay for our meal I would open a fortune, read it, and stow it in my wallet. I have found that some of the predictions have been accurate from my point of view.

Last year I was told that I would be a hiring manager again. That happened in the time frame of this fortune. (You could ask if that is a reward or not, but that is my view.)

NO RABBIT EARS!!

2009-08-24T20:22:00.005-05:00

Chili cookoff tonight

2009-08-22T21:21:00.002-05:00

Debra and Jonathan Sitting in a Tree K-I-S-S-I-N-G

2009-08-11T21:44:00.006-05:00

The last train ride (recently)

2009-08-08T19:47:00.005-05:00

In Antonito I made quick friends with the crew of the train, in case we might need something en route.

Eric checked out the entrance to the engine.

All ABOARD!

And then we were on our way. From the flatland and chicos and sage to the foothills, and beyond.

We have all heard about the light at the end of the tunnel.

Here it is ....====>

Even when we were not in the tunnel, things were not always that clear.

Half way through the trip we stopped at Osier and had lunch.

OH MY! Here we go again.

Sisters

2009-08-07T18:17:00.005-05:00

Doris, Hazel, and Ruth are sisters. We had the chance to visit each of them for a short spell. The last are first, and the first are last.

Here is a shot of Doris. This just shows how happy she was to see me.

Ruth had that very same emotion. Larry? Is that you Larry?

And when we were going to leave she said, "Please don't leave!"

I had to throw in this photo of a photo just for fun.

It was nice to visit with Hazel for a few minutes.

Jenine was kind enough to allow us to park our little trailer in her yard. Jenine is Hazel's daughter.

Maybe more later.

It is a small world

2009-08-05T18:30:00.004-05:00

On our trip up north to visit Kent and Betty we took a day trip down to visit the art gallery of Kent's landlord. I was impressed with some of his work. This reminded me of somebody I know.

And another.

The figures in Magic Town were small. They were probably about 3 to 5 inches high. The other things, the buildings, and streets were scaled accordingly.

There was a giant among them.

The last Hope Chest

2009-08-04T21:06:00.003-05:00

Several years ago for Christmas I bought some plywood and other supplies to make hope chests for the the three girls. Debra received hers first. Julie received hers last year. This year I finally finished the last chest for Anita.

Here Jeanette is sitting in the shop next to the parts that were cut and near ready to assemble.

A closer view.

And the assembly.

Then for the finish; Danish Oil and Satin Wax.

Unfortunately I did not get a photograph of the finished product before we delivered it. Maybe Anita can provide a photograph back.

Another Toastmasters Major Award

2009-07-10T19:50:00.004-05:00

I did it. I earned the Advance Communicator Silver award in our local club of Toastmasters International. Below is a photograph of the letter of commendation and below that the certificate of recognition.

I will continue to work toward getting my Advance Communicator Gold. I have but 2 more awards to earn before I have completed enough to become a Distinguished Toastmaster.

I am the president of Waco Wordsmiths for another six months. As a club we were one speech away from having been awarded the president select club distinction award. Maybe in the next year we will improve our club and earn that highest distinction.

Another Major Scout Award

2009-07-10T19:35:00.002-05:00

A few years ago I was the Scoutmaster in my ward. The boys and I went to camp at Camp Tahuaya near Temple. The Senior Patrol Leader was Kevin McCann. On the first day of camp Kevin was not very interested in staying another day. Mark Jacobson was there to help with the camp. He convinced Kevin to stay another day. Kevin stayed. When Friday rolled around and it was time to go home Kevin was sad and wanted to stay longer. I think in the long run it was an experience that he will remember.

One of those days I came back into camp and found that the inside of the tent where I had my gear and I slept was covered with "Silly String". I was not pleased and figured that it was a conspiracy. I retaliated by going around the campsite and pulling all the stakes out of the tents in the campsite. As I was in the process of carrying out my revenge, Kevin came into camp and confessed that he was the one who sabotaged my tent. I had him clean it up and then I had to eat some humble pie and put back up some of the other tents.

Last week Kevin had his Eagle Court of Honor. Kevin gave me the pin noted above in recognition of the contribution that I gave him in scouting. His mother informed me that Kevin wanted to tape it to a can of silly string. I did make an acceptance speech.

"This makes up for the silly string in my tent."

It was nice to see Kevin receive his Eagle badge.

Eric has sent his papers to Hurst Texas to the scout office to be reviewed. We are waiting for his board of review to be set.

Homemade Chairs

2009-07-03T10:53:00.005-05:00

When Arlo, Craig, and Brian were young I worked at Wright's Furniture Mill in Provo Utah. I was in school and so was Jeanette for a couple years. We were rather poor. I collected scraps from projects that other people discarded their waste and I salvaged material from pallets. I fabricated 2 chairs from the scraps that I managed to acquire. When we moved here to Texas I discarded one of them. I wish I had not. The other children have all taken their turns at using this little chair.

I decided to make some more chairs for my grandchildren. I made 2 last year, one for Bradly and one for Leslie. This year I made one for Luke. Jeanette helped me in the shop with fabricating the parts and assembling them. I bought a stair riser to use for the seat and turned the legs and back supports on my lathe. The back was cut from a piece of oak that I purchased for firewood from the redwood pallet company.

The finish is danish oil; oak colored danish oil.

We are going to deliver the chair in July when we go visit for our summer vacation.

Our Garden

2009-06-28T09:58:00.003-05:00

In the past week Jeanette and I went out and harvested from our garden while Eric was off to scout camp. We harvested mostly peppers, but there were a few tomatoes and a cucumber. There are serrano peppers, and banana peppers, and jalpeno peppers. They may a good mix for chopping up and putting in an omelet. I cooked myself a bunch this morning, and Jeanette wanted some bacon and eggs. I cooked Jeanette's food in a separate skillet so as not to contaminate her food with spicy pepper oil. I used the same spatula to turn her egg. That was not what she wanted.

If you peak in there, you can see some fine peppers just begging to be harvested.

The tomatoe plants are almost passed, but they will provide me with some salsa base before the end. The potatoes are probably ready to harvest too.

I MIss An Old Friend

2009-06-28T09:34:00.003-05:00

I was released from being Scoutmaster in our ward a couple years ago. As scoutmaster I had the duty of going to scout camp a few times. Ramon Guillory volunteered to come help at camp. He would not do much in regards to scouting, but he would stay in camp and was there when the boys would come into camp during the day. I spent a few weeks with him this way. There were some memorable moments during these activities.

Brother Guillory was not bashful about expressing his views or wishes. If the boys were doing things that he did not like or approve then he would let them know. I asked him once why he volunteered for going on the scout camps and he told me it was his way of giving back what he received as a youth.

Brother Guillory was a bit eccentric in some ways, he did not like to shake peoples hands and had a phobia about contracting some illness. It was interesting to watch him not shake peoples hands during social interactions. He would conveniently have something in his hands that would inhibit the activity.

A few events that were memorable to me I will tell you. First, Ramon was sitting in camp near the fire ring during the middle of the day. A snake crawled across the camp site. Ramon reached down and grabbed the snake by the tail and gave it a good whip action and killed the snake. There were other events with finding and showing wildlife, a preying mantis, tarantulas, wolf spiders, and other insects and pests. The second event we experienced was when Ramon went into diabetic shock and passed out and fell. It was spooky to see him collapse. Luckily there was someone in a nearby camp that knew what to do to treat hypoglycemia. A bit of sugar under his tongue and in a while he came around. He administered insulin to himself and monitored his own blood sugar. Last year he was going to scout camp and the engine in his old pickup siezed. He bought another that looked about the same. He was planning to go to camp this year with troop 413, our troop.

I suspect that he was hypoglycemic when he died. He was found at his property outside.

I miss him.

Rope Bridge Again

2009-06-13T15:02:00.010-05:00

I was asked to come put up the rope bridge and do a lesson on knots with the 11 year old scouts at their daycamp. Jeanette and Eric came with me to help.

Each of the boys made a contribution by adding in a segment of rope between the upper pair and the lower rope.

The rope was well tied.

Some of the adults went over the bridge too. Jeanette promised not to take pictures while they were on the bridge, but that did not get rid of this one.

Yea Jeanette!

Group BBQ

2009-06-13T14:58:00.002-05:00

I have been a bit behind in what I have wanted to post. The people I work with sponsored a BBQ at lake Waco.

There was a fairly good turnout.

A blast from the past

2009-06-03T18:02:00.003-05:00

Jeanette has been organizing some of our letters from the past. She came across a couple specimen from two of our children in 1992.

Brian drew this scene below and even offered, " you can color it if you want".

The version by Julie is already in living color.

Creating the best life for you

2009-05-28T20:02:00.003-05:00

In the March 2009 issue of the magazine Waco Today there is an article about having a good life. It spotlighted a psychologist that has a interest in positive psychology. I thought that was an interesting area. He has written a book about having a happy life. At the bottom of some pages it gives a list of "Proven Happiness Boosters." I think they are good things to do as well. So here they are.

Booster #1: Keep a journal.
Booster #2: Express gratitude.
"Gratitude is the memory of the heart." - J.B. Massieu
Booster #3: Do volunteer work.
"Volunteers do not necessarily have the time; they just have the heart." - Elizabeth Andrew
Booster #4: Apply your strengths.
Booster #5: Forgive.
"To be wronged is nothing unless you continue to remember it." - Confucius
Booster #6: Savor happy memories.
"God gave us memories that we might have roses in December."
Booster #7: Meditate.
"Prayer is when you talk to God; meditation is when you listen to God." - Diana Robinson

I have been taught these priciples most of my life though worded differently. I think they are correct. I have some to improve upon and some that are strengths and still give me strength. I hope you will boost your life so it can be the best you can have.

He did it!

2009-05-18T07:17:00.002-05:00

Yesterday Eric finished his last merit badge required for Eagle. Now to finish the paper work and have a Board of Review. Then check he is an Eagle.

Springtime

2009-05-16T19:22:00.005-05:00

As I headed out the back door with the camera Jeanette asked, "Where do you think you are going?" I confessed that I was going out to take some pictures.

Our garden has grown quite a lot the past couple weeks. We have two watering troughs that we have converted into raised garden beds. Donnie and Gloria helped us mix the soil when they came to visit us a few years ago.

Another view....

If you look closely you can see some of the precious flowers growing on the pepper plant beside some wonderful to be soon edible green peppers.

Here is a cucumber blossom. It is climbing up on the tomatoes.

The view behind is not nearly as nice. Our neighbors children play as the the fence is a goal for their soccer practice.

Around the front where the prickly pear is blooming.

One of my favorite flowers.

Spring is here.

Maybe it is time to get some of the junk cleaned up on the driveway. That pile of compost by little gray still needs to be spread.

Where ya' been dad?

Passion, Planning, and Perserverance

2009-05-05T18:20:00.014-05:00

I participated in a program that was sponsored by L-3 Communications (my employer) and others. The program was "One Book, One Waco". The book chosen for this particular program was "Rocket Boys" by Homer Hickam. Since I participated in one of the Q&A sessions for the program at the Waco Central Library I was given a chance to dine with Homer and various city dignitaries.

Scott Jenkins and I attended the dinner with Lance Martin. Scott is an engineer and Lance is our PR representative for the site. The dinner was held at the Armstrong-Browning Library on Baylor's campus. Since I was behind the camera, Scott was in the picture as he perused some of the exhibits in the library as we waited for time to start dinner. Dinner was on a lower floor.

We checked in and were badged up. We were assigned tables. I was at table 3 with a couple of the speakers. Lauren Dreyer and Dr. Truell Hyde sat at the same table where Scott and I sat. The food was good, chicken and vegetables.

Homer Hickam was the focal point of the dinner. Here Scott and I are with Homer.

I told Homer I liked the book but I liked the movie (October Sky) more. He said, "Oh no!"

We mingled and talked for a bit, then came dinner.

Here is Lauren at the table next to me. She works at SpaceX, another of the sponsor companies. She is in marketing and is local to the area of McGregor where SpaceX has test facilities.

After dinner we had the opportunity to hear an introduction by the Baylor Student Body President. Homer gave a nice speech about things from his book and his time in Coalwood West Virginia.

After dinner we went to the Waco Hall for the main event of the evening. Jeanette and Eric came to spend the evening with me. I enjoyed the time there.

The high point was listening to Homer relate some items that were not in his book. He started out saying that the 3 P's were important for success -- Passion, a Plan, and Persistence. He told a couple humorous stories that indicated the commitment that was expected in that area. Families stayed together, even if there were troubles. He related how his mother had dated her father and he was set on marrying her. She went off to visit a rich uncle in Florida, and even had pictures of the trailer home to prove it. While she was there she was courted by Buddy Epson (Uncle Jed), but was convinced to go back and marry Homer Hickam Sr. Buddy Epson sent a wedding present, a baby alligator. She kept the alligator in the kitchen sink until it grew too large to be there. It was then moved to the bathroom tub (the only bathroom in the house). Homer Sr. did not like reptiles, if you wanted a picture window, then throw a snake on him from out in the yard and he would tear out the wall getting away from the snake. One day he was heading upstairs to when the 5 foot long alligator was coming down the stairs. Homer Sr. ran outside and yelled, "Either that alligator goes or I do!" Elsie considered for a couple hours before she agreed to get rid of the alligator.

Homer also had a couple other interesting stories about his youth, some of which are contained in the book, "Rocket Boys". I recommend the book as an easy read and maybe it will even incite some memories of your own.

Lance Martin and his son were there to represent L-3 Communications.

I had Jeanette bring my copy of the book and I had the chance to get an autograph. Homer has written other books. He related to us a story about his beginnings as a newspaper editor, a handwritten newspaper, that had a very limited distribution. His first amendment rights were taken when he wrote something about his mother that she did not appreciate.

He likes Ramen, She likes ice.

2009-04-28T17:51:00.003-05:00

Sometimes dinner at our house is mildly amusing. Eric was eating Ramen noodles and he was trying to get the remaining noodles that were floating in the vast amount of broth. His mother suggested he use the slotted spoon to drain the noodles to make it easier to eat them. He drained some of the noodles and then used the spoon to make that most important insertion into the oral orifice. It may look like Jeanette is looking on in a amazement, but I think she is just sucking on a piece of ice.

Yes, she is just working over a piece of ice by masticating and manipulating it with her tongue.

Smoked

2009-04-27T17:30:00.003-05:00

Like most things in my life, I have trouble thinking small to start. I jump in with both feet and hope things turn out well.

Saturday evening Jeanette and I hosted some of the people I work with for some smoked meat and pot luck.

The smoker was working all Friday afternoon delivering up some smoked chickens.

... 4 of them.

Jeanette was diligent in helping get things set up.

I am glad that only a portion of the people accepted the invitation to come. We would have been overwhelmed. Thank goodness for being an underachieved overachiever.

Fortune

2009-04-18T12:48:00.002-05:00

Today Eric is gone to TSTC (Texas State Technical College) for a Boy Scouts of America merit badge college. They did not camp out last night, but left this morning to do the merit badges. Jeanette and I were left here home alone. I took a movie and relaxed. Jeanette suggested that I take her to lunch...Chinese.

Now I am ready for the world because I know the secret to success.

I ate too much but the food was OK. The company was great too.

This Easter Morn

2009-04-12T04:02:00.002-05:00

Easter it appears is here to stay
With bunnies and baskets galore.
Then chocolate and grass and a whole bunch more
To entice us away from the Man.

The Man that we know is from Galilee.
Where he taught, and he healed, and he died.
The man we call Jesus, who came to redeem us
And rose on that first Easter morn.

I love the Good Shepherd of long, long ago.
Yes, Easter is here to stay.

Jeanette Cheshire Vance
March 2009

Neko is missing

2009-04-04T18:30:00.002-05:00

Last week sometime our cat, Neko, was banned from the house. She was behaving as if she wasn't litterbox trained. So outside she was now to stay. We have a screened in porch with food, water, shelter, and box for her. It has been this was for six plus years. She knows all about the porch and what is there for her.

Now that she was banned from the house I discovered that she preferred to be out of the porch more than before the ban. It was hours and hours before she would meow at the door to be let in from the big wide outdoors for some food and water.

She no longer comes to the door seeking food, water and shelter. It has been more than 24 hours since any of us have seen her.

We are wondering where she is and if she is.

Dresses

2009-04-03T17:54:00.003-05:00

Surprise! A blog post from Jeanette

A few weeks ago I mentioned to Larry that I wanted a new dress for Easter. I told the story that I remember always having a new dress for Easter and Christmas when I was a little girl. He told me to go and do it. Even get two or three. I informed him that that many were not necessary. Buying a dress has been on my list for many, many days. I finally did it today. I disobeyed Larry. I got four new dresses. I suspect Larry will be firing up the camera to take photos of me in my new dresses. I'll try to look pretty.

I am excited to have something new. Most of my dresses I have had for about four years. Wearing a dress everyday for seminary takes a toll on them. There are at least two that are leaving the house for sure.

Well it was fun to go shopping. Thanks Larry. You are generous and loving

Relation?

2009-04-01T16:25:00.001-05:00

YAMA (yet another major award)

2009-03-31T15:57:00.004-05:00

Jeanette and I went to one of the downtown schools for National Engineering Week. My employer provided us with a small token of their appreciation for our participation. Here Jeanette is showing her new windbreaker. I have one similar.

An mow for the award.

It Flew the Coop

2009-03-20T15:53:00.003-05:00

In the beginning there was an old airplane that sat in the desert for many years because it was used and was considered not to be worthy of service without expensive maintenance. There was another plane that was also parked in the desert with the first and was not worth using because most of the aircraft was not useful, except for the center wing.

The center wing was taken out of the airplane with a buzz saw and shipped to the place where I work. We worked on the old center wing and repaired things that looked to be of concern. Then came the big job of putting the old refurbished center wing into the old airplane that sat in the desert for many years. We did more work than this. We installed new radios, and cleaned up any damage that was done to the plane and added a new coat of paint. The airplane was then delivered to the government of Poland. There are 4 other airplanes that are having the same thing done to them.

And away it goes into the wild world.

Goodbye 1262.

Mono Poly

2009-03-13T17:35:00.002-05:00

Fist I ran out of cash and then had a debt to pay. Jeanette took all my assets in payment and I bowed out of the game.

It appears that Eric has a monopoly on winning.

He keeps forgetting the rule: Let the mama win!

Smoking

2009-03-13T15:16:00.003-05:00

It has been raining for 2 days. I volunteered to cook the meet for the High Priest Group social tonight. We went out yesterday afternoon and purchased the chickens.

I rolled the smoker up on the sidewalk and started a fire in the firebox. It took more than usual to get an actual fire going.

The ground outside is saturated and any walking except on the sidewalk works up a bunch of mud.

I put some of the trimmings from the ornamental pear tree on the top of the firebox to warm it and dry it while the fire inside improved and heated the cooking chamber up above 200 degrees.

The chickens are starting to look good. I will let you know after tonight how they were.

Another "Airmane"

2009-03-12T16:57:00.004-05:00

There was a big to do about one of the planes that was part of my responsibility. I wrote a large portion of the 3000 page report for the internal racks and consoles and new air handling system.

I may be in the photograph somewhere, but I am not sure where.

Here is the article that appeared in the company news on the web.

UIL Major Award for Eric

2009-03-11T16:47:00.002-05:00

Eric participated in the solo competition for UIL. He says that this is a big deal, so congratulate Eric on having the ability to perform on an excellent level in choir.

The Award

2009-03-05T18:05:00.002-06:00

The Report

2009-03-04T16:59:00.005-06:00

I arrived at the Waco Central Library a little before we needed to be there. I met Lance Martin, the L-3 Communications PR man. He introduced me to the moderator (I forgot his name). He is sitting on the left side of the table. I am sitting next to him, then Scott Jenkins, next is Tracy Duvall, and on the other end is Rick Hingtgen. Eric and Jeanette were there as support and took these pictures.

The event began with the library manager discussing the book a bit and providing an introduction.

The MC had some canned questions that he asked.

What inspired you to choose engineering as a profession... etcetera.

It seems that my answers were at odds with others on the panel in some areas. They all seemed to have a yearning to be engineers from a fairly early age in their lives. They told of people that were of great influence to them and why they chose aerospace.

I had to indicate that I was not really wanting to be an aerospace engineer, but I wanted to work on fast cars. I was slow in starting school and instead went on a proselyting mission for my church and spent 2 years in Argentina. As an end to that effort I was assigned the task of writing out my lifetime goals. Getting a degree was one of those goals. I chose Civil Engineering for some reason unknown to me. When I looked for a job I had two choices, one in Orange County California, and the other in Greenville, Texas. I chose Texas because I would probably be able to live on what they offered.

After the panel discussions were over then people were free to come and see some of the gee-whiz items that we brought. I had a fuse pin from the Trent1000 test engine program, where a Rolls-Royce engine was put on a 747 in place of one of the four regular engines. The fuse pin is designed to fail between the needed strength in service and the strength that the wing possesses. You don't want a failed engine to tear up the wing.

I also brought a poster of the Magellan Probe that went to map the surface of Venus. I did not do work on Magellan, but I was familiar with it and I worked on another spacecraft the used some similar structure. I designed the composite structural tubes that were the space frame of that satellite. I discussed with a couple people the complexities of the shear pin and the composite structural tube and fitting.

The Magellan Probe had to figure out where it was in space by using onboard computers and star-trackers. Maps of the heavens were stored on the craft and the logic in its programming had to be able to determine how it was oriented on its own. Small rocket motors on the space frame were used to orient the spacecraft either pointing at the surface of Venus or at Earth. The same antenna, the big one, was used to map the surface using SAR (synthetic aperture RADAR) and communicate with the control station on Earth. The spacecraft would alternately position itself for the appropriate task by the login on-board.

There were a few people that came and expressed their pleasure with us for having expended our time to come be on the panel.

Jeanette said that I was the smartest. Thank you honey, I love you.

Rocket Boys

2009-03-03T16:33:00.002-06:00

I am going to be one of the panel described in the article captured below. Jeanette and I read the book and we are familiar with the movie October Sky. Maybe a report tomorrow.

Eric's Major Award

2009-02-28T09:48:00.002-06:00

Major Award {insert number here}

2009-02-21T15:54:00.005-06:00

My Airmane

2009-02-19T19:06:00.003-06:00

I noticed this photograph on a news piece about how a certain operational force across the sea had operated 20,000 hours. I noticed the marking on the side of the aircraft and recognized it as one that I had worked on here in Waco.

Interesting.

Valentine

2009-02-15T10:03:00.003-06:00

Valentine's day was not too exciting for us. We exchanged some small niceties in a very informal fashion. I gave Jeanette a dozen roses.

Jeanette gave me a box of sugarless chocolates.

Jeanette also gave Eric a small box of chocolates.

At the end of the day we went to a dance at the church. Eric danced with a few girls. Jeanette and I danced a few dances, and then we came home.

The Fluids in Your Car are Important

2009-02-11T15:54:00.001-06:00

(Best speech today, February 12, 2009)

The fluids in your automobile each have a purpose and are designed as an integral requirement to function properly.

Coolant

Several years ago as a family project we bought a 1974 Caprice and overhauled the engine to let my children see the workings and intricacies of an engine. We managed to get the car running and it was relegated to the boys as their mode of transportation. My oldest son came to me and asked what the little red light on the dash that had the word hot under it meant. I told him that meant that there was probably not enough coolant in the engine and that could be really bad on the engine. He then informed me that it had been that way for about a week.

The coolant can be just simple H2O, but most of the time the coolant is a mixture of ethylene-glycol and water. The combination of these two chemicals in solution provides something that is better than either one of them alone. The solution has a higher boiling point and a lower freezing point.

If your engine gets too hot there are several things that can happen, depending on how much too hot it gets. Most engines are made from parts that are bolted together and may be of differing materials. Each material has a coefficient of thermal expansion that may differ from adjacent materials. That combined with large thermal gradients in the parts can lead to gaskets being overloaded, which will in turn lead to leaks. As the temperature of the engine increases more, then the physical properties of the material can be modified by annealing or warping. High heat can also damage lubricants and parts constructed of polymers.

The best solution is to make sure you have a 50-50 mix of antifreeze/coolant and water in your cooling system.

Washer fluid

A fluid that seems somewhat simple is the window washer fluid. I played Santa Claus for my grandchildren, but to do so I had to go to Utah and drive around the state. I rented an automobile. As I was traveling down the slushy roads my windshield became soiled with the water laden with particulates that was splashed up by other vehicles. I turned on the window washers and the fluid that discharged from the passenger side only froze on the windshield. Somebody put water in the windshield washer reservoir. This made for a dangerous situation. We managed to endure until we arrived at a warmer clime and put the real stuff in the washer reservoir.

Windshield washer fluid is usually composed of an alcohol and water. The alcohol and water perform similarly to antifreeze, except the alcohol and water evaporates. The alcohol also is a good solvent that helps clean the surface of the windshield.

Brake fluid

Brake fluid is a hydraulic fluid that has a high boiling point and is non-corrosive. The fluid is considered incompressible and is used to push hydraulic cylinders that push brake pads or shoes against the rotating part of the system to cause high friction and slow and stop the car.

Not having brakes could ruin your day, or maybe even your life.

My son Craig was driving the 1974 Caprice I mentioned earlier. He came to a stop light and stopped. He was holding his foot on the brake and the master cylinder began to leak. The pedal went to the floor and the brakes released. He was parked on a slight hill and began rolling forward and bumped into the car in front of him.

Keep your brakes, which includes the brake fluid, in good working order.

Power steering fluid

Power steering fluid is related to brake fluid, but relies on a pump to push the fluid instead of a foot pedal.

Automatic Transmission fluid

Transmission fluid is similar to brake fluid and power steering fluid. One difference is that the transmission fluid does not act only as a hydraulic fluid, but also as a lubricant, a coolant, and as a necessary part of the wet clutches inside the transmission. If your transmission fluid is low then all of the these functions are inhibited and damage will probably be induced in the transmission.

Gear lubricant

Large forces are transmitted through the transmission and differential of an automobile. Gears mesh and push tooth to tooth in order to turn the wheels and propel the car. The contact at these surfaces require lubrication to keep abrasion and fretting from occurring. Low viscosity oils do not have the staying power to cling to the gears and provide the lubrication necessary. High viscosity hydrocarbons are used for this purpose. The long molecular chains make the lubricant stick to the gear but still provide a lubricating action.

Bearing grease

Wheel bearings, and other bearings throughout your car need lubrication too. The need for the lubricant to stick to the surfaces of the bearings demands an extremely high viscosity fluid. Bearing usually do not rely on sliding one part past the other, but on balls or rollers rolling between two concentric surfaces.

Engine Oil

The engine of your automobile has parts that are exposed to extreme conditions. High temperatures and friction are the enemy of engine parts. Engine oil comes to the rescue. Engine oil is designed to be easily delivered to the parts of the engine by being pumped through small tubes and delivered to the bearings made of babbitt and steel. The tribology of oil important to the way the bearings function. Tribology is the study of the flow of lubricating fluids under motion and pressure. The bearings in your car are designed to have a specific oil viscosity. The babbitt bearings in your car depend on having a layer of oil between the babbitt and the shaft to keep the two metals from contacting and wearing. Wear is an enemy in the engine.

Over time the engine oil wears out. How can oil wear out? The molecules of oil are long chains of carbon and hydrogen. Those chains break when they are stressed by high friction or more probably the chains are broken by excess heat. Getting your engine too hot can ruin the oil. This heat can come from the friction in the bearings and from the internal combustion that takes place to propel the pistons.

An even more insidious enemy of the oil is contamination. Abrasive particulates like metal particles, sand (from dust), scale, or acids reduce the lubrication properties of the oil and may even render it as an abrasive. A filtration system is provided to help with this problem, but changing oil when it gets dirty is important.

Our family had a rotor tiller that we shared with other families. One day the tiller was brought back with a problem. The first question asked was, “Did it run out of oil?” To which the response was no. Upon taking the engine apart and finding that the rod journal of the crankshaft was charred and abraded, it was obvious that there was no oil in the bearing. The oil in the engine was right at the full mark and it was clear. Obviously the oil was added later.

Be aware that damage is not reversed by addition of fluids after the damage is done.

Take care of your car and maintain all fluids.

A Visitor (Flat Stanley)

2009-02-09T05:23:00.008-06:00

Dear Isaac, 1st grade classmates, and Mrs. Oxley,

Thank you for sending Flat Stanley to visit. He arrived safely on Friday 6 February here in Hewitt, Texas. Hewitt is a small town with about 12,000 citizens. It is right next to Waco, TX a larger city with 110,000 citizens. This area of Texas is called the Heat of Texas because it is right in the middle of the state.

Texas is a very large state with 266,807 square miles. Utah, your state, has 84,899 square miles. The capital of Texas is Austin. That is about 99 miles from my house. The state bird is the Mockingbird. The state flower is the bluebonnet. They bloom in late March and stay for about a month. I think they stink, but a field of bluebonnets is very beautiful. The state tree is the Pecan tree. You will hear Texas sometimes called the Lone Star State. That is because we have one star on our state flag. That shows that we are one state in the United States of America. You may also hear “Don't mess with Texas”. That simply means that people shouldn't litter our state. That is enough about the state facts. Let's go back to Flat Stanley and his visit.

We began our driving tour with a stop near Baylor University.

Baylor is the largest private Baptist University in the USA. It has a library called the Robert T., and Elizabeth Barrett Browning Library. Of course is has books and beautiful antique furniture. It also has an exquisite collection of Wedgewood China.

The Texas Ranger Museum is a museum about the Texas Rangers. They are police officers. It has a large collection of Bowie knives, swords, and even a display about Walker Texas Ranger.

The Dr. Pepper museum shows and tells about the Texas doctor that invented the soda pop drink called Dr. Pepper.

When the Alico building was built is was the tallest building in Texas.

The Waco Suspension bridge was another stop. It is like the Brooklyn Bridge in New York City. This was built first as a prototype for the other bridge.

This statue is brand new to the down town area of Waco. The Longhorn is a symbol of Texas.

Our final stop was at Mars Snack Foods. We can only see the outside. They do not allow tours. I know that they make Snickers, Tootsie Rolls, and Skittles at this plant. This manufacturing plant is near Midway High School. That is where my son goes to High School. I can tell when they are making Skittles because the air smells so tasty delicious.

That is all we had time to do together. There is much more to do that is close by.

We have a Zoo, The City of Moody has a working Cotton Gin and cotton festival every year, and Crawford, TX is where former President Bush has a large ranch. He stayed there very often when he was the President. We knew when he was in town because we could hear the big planes bring the necessary things to keep a president safe and Air Force one was parked outside Uncle Larry's office building. That is another interesting place, L3 Communications. Tours are very limited though because of some of the work that they do on airplanes. And then there is the rest of the state with even more adventurous places. Come on down ya'll.

Love,

Aunt Jeanette, Uncle Larry, and cousin Eric.

Grade School

2009-02-07T18:25:00.000-06:00

There was a post a while back about primary school teachers. Here are some that I remember.

Mrs. Meyers was my first grade teacher. I don't remember anything else except I attended at the old grade school where the fire escape was a slide on the side of the building and there was a big bell in the belfry. I do remember giving myself a haircut with some safety scissors. I cut it clear down to the scalp.

Mrs. Coombs taught me in second grade. She was a large woman with a very calm demeanor. I do remember she moved slowly.

Mrs. Joyce was my third grade teacher. Larry White was in my class. I was gone for a while because I was sick. I spent some time in Denver.

Mrs. Dunn taught me in 5th grade. I remember talking about the working of an internal combustion engine.

Mr. Rivera taught me in 6th grade. He was eventually removed as a teacher. All the kids disliked him as a teacher.

Mr. White taught wrestling and would travel to the gradeschools in the district.

I also took band, but I am having difficulty remembering the teachers name. I can see him visually, and I would recognize his name if someone said it, but it is hidden in the deep moldy recesses of my mind.

Where Am I?

2009-02-06T20:04:00.002-06:00

Distribution of Larry Vance Listings across the United States

This is a view of the places where people named Larry Vance have a phone number.

FACEBOOK

2009-02-05T18:15:00.002-06:00

I have known for some time that FaceBook was a social networking set of applications on the interweb. I decided that I would investigate. It turns out I was able to have cursory conversations with renowned relatives and previously know people. It has been great.

Come join me in forming new friendships and exercising old friendships.

MY FACEBOOK PROFILE

Just go to http://facebook.com and start an account. It is free. It is a great tool to socialize with people.

Another Almost Major Award, and ANOTHER

2009-02-05T18:12:00.002-06:00

HAPPY BIRTHDAY

2009-02-01T10:02:00.001-06:00

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO YOU,
HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO YOU,
HAPPY BIRTHDAY DEAR DEBRA.
HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO YOU!

Officer Induction

2009-01-31T09:39:00.005-06:00

Our Toastmasters club, Waco Wordsmiths, met at Mama Baris and had a short meeting and a meal where the officers took their oaths of office. The oath of office for each officer was given.

Tim Hess was installed as Treasurer.

Jessica Dudley, on the left, took her oath as Secretary, which was administered by Leigh Ann Moffet, the Area 43 District Commissioner.

And Brad Carter as Vice President of Public Relations.

And then there was Luis Ortiz, the Vice President of Membership.

Gary Lee Webb took the oath of office as Vice President of Education.

And last I gave the oath of office as President.

We must have had a good time.

Your Focus Determines Your Reality

2009-01-27T16:54:00.007-06:00

Qui-Gon Jinn advised Anakin Skywalker; "Your focus determines your reality". I concur with this statement. I have a few examples that demonstrate the veracity of this simple phrase.

My daughters Anita and Debra were traveling home late one evening from a church activity. Anita was driving our Ford Aerostar. She was stopped by a Hewitt police officer and was given a ticket for running a stoplight.

I listened to Anita and Debra explain what had happened. Both of them claimed that they did not run a red light. Anita entered a "not guilty" plea at the municipal building with the clerk. Her day in court followed.

We went as a family to the court to the preliminary hearing. The city attorney wanted to talk to Anita so I informed the city attorney that she needed to talk to me with Anita since she was a minor. Out came the ticket original from the police officer and the attorney read from the back of the ticket the officers statement that the vehicle came at a high rate of speed around the corner and nearly collided with the officers unit. I indicated that what the officer said did not, in any way, match the way the events were related to me from my daughters. The attorney then asked if I would like to see the video. I was pleased to hear that there was a video and asked to see it. The officer was called and asked to come while we viewed the video.

The interesting part of this is that there were 3 people that were there when the ticket was issued. The events were related by the three people as:

Anita said that the police car was up the hill a few hundred yards away when she went through the intersection and the light was yellow when she entered the intersection
Debra said that the police car was at the corner and the light turned red while the car passed through the intersection
The police officer said that the light was red and that the car almost ran into the police car

All of them were wrong. The video clearly showed that the police car was about 50 yards from the intersection and the car entered the intersection just after the light turned yellow. The car went around the corner at normal speed.

The officer was irritated and said, "Well, she didn't use her turn signal!" We rewound the video, and behold, the turn signal was blinking.

The focus of the police officer was looking for fault so he could issue tickets. His focus must have altered his reality.

My older brother, Kent, and a friend, Terry, visited a family they were assigned to visit as home teachers for church. They had a pleasant visit. When Kent and Terry left the family's home, Terry asked if Kent had noticed the collection of trophies. Kent indicated that he had not. Kent then asked if Terry if he noticed the beautiful piano. Terry indicated that he had not.

The irony of this is that Terry was interested in competitive sports and Kent had interest in playing the piano. When they returned to the home of the family it was noticed that the trophies were arranged on top of the piano.

In 1984 a young man was convicted of a crime he did not commit. A Kentucky Fried Chicken in Grapevine was robbed. A public notice of the robbery was delivered to the surrounding area. A woman heard on the radio a description of the man that committed the crime. He was described as a black man about 6 feet tall carrying a green canvas bag. Lenell Jeter matched that description. Lennell liked to feed the ducks at Greenville park and read. The police were called, Lenell was arrested, and the wheels were started in the process of convicting Lenell.

Lenell was at work the day the robbery was committed. Co-workers were wanting to testify of his innocence. The District Attorney's office made a case against Lenell and he was convicted. Lenell's co-workers knew he was innocent and managed to get 60 Minutes to do an expose' by investigating the case and putting it on national TV.

When the TV show aired, the defense attorney was interviewed about his defense of Lenell and discovered that he had not even interviewed the witnesses that could have stood in for the defense. The district attorney withheld evidence and maliciously prosecuted Lenell. The public outcry that resulted after the TV show persuaded another district attorney to reopen the case. Even then an attempt was made to release Lenell with a record and time served instead of dropping the charges.

Lenell was engaged to be married when he was arrested. After he was released he got married. He and his wife moved into an apartment and while they were moving their belongings found an electronic eavesdropping device.

I worked at the same place as Lenell in 1986. I had occasion to see him at the grocery store and was bold enough to introduce myself and ask him why he did not relocate someplace else where people did not focus on bigotry. He said, "Somebody has to do it."

Lenell was focused on helping, even in the face of adversity. We can take an example from him and remember that our focus determines our reality and choose the better things to be the object of our focus.

Gotta Sing, Gotta Dance

2009-01-25T10:44:00.004-06:00

Eric participated in the show produced by Midway High School. Eric was a sailor and sang a song with the Men's Select Choir, Dames. He performed both Friday and Saturday.

A moment of weakness

2009-01-24T07:08:00.001-06:00

Under Construction (two gross)

2009-01-21T17:36:00.003-06:00

I have grown tired of the current scheme on the Larry and Jeanette Vance Family BLOG and am intent on doing a little house cleaning. I determined that this post (number 288) was two gross (pun intended). The DADisms are being given a hiatus. The BLOG Lists are to be split into at least two groups and posted on opposite sides of the center.

Well here are the DADisms for posterity.

A hungry cook is an idiot.
Any day above ground is a good day.
Anything for YOU!
Can't is such a strong word.
Communication is such a difficult thing.
Como esta' free holy tennis shoe? (How you bean keds?)
Computers are a wonderful tool, but a terrible job.
Didn't we go to different High Schools together?
Don't hurt yourself!
Get over it.
Hurry up and wait!
I don't get even. I get ahead.
I KNOW you can.
I suppose that you CAN!
I was ____ once! (fill in blank with age, or something else)
I'll give you 20 minutes to quit that!
Just because you're paranoid doesn't mean I won't get you.
Never cut hot peppers then rub your eyes.
Never underestimate your influence
No brag, just fact.
No news is good news.
No, no, no, no; you don't understand!
People are dying to get in there. (about cemetaries)
Reading the instructions is cheating. (this applies to men only)
They say the second thing to go is the memory.
What are YOU doing here?
Why matters!
You are only happy if you think you are!
Your focus determines your reality.

Lo Hizo Yo!

2009-01-19T18:40:00.002-06:00

Last summer when we went to Utah and Idaho to deliver Debra to BYUi and visit family I bought a Bible in Spanish. I finished reading the New Testament last night (in Spanish). I struggled with some of the words. Rather than stop and try to translate them, I just read on. I understood the majority of what the scriptures said, and even had a few epiphanies.

Lunch Boxes

2009-01-17T19:00:00.001-06:00

For Christmas I was fortunate and received a yellow Popeye lunch box. It was filled with some DVDs of old cartoons. The lunchbox has been able to fit in my briefcase just fine the past few weeks. Eric dug through his stores of booty past and found a blue Popeye lunchbox. The flowers are there like the parsley that gets put on a gourmet meal.

Trying out the Cameras

2009-01-17T18:00:00.001-06:00

I was beginning to think that the new camera was broken. I could not get a good facial portrait of Eric.

With a bit of covert sneaking I thought that I could get that evasive shot. But, alas, the hand is quicker than the shutter.

I did have to resort to use of physical restraint. The focus is not the best, but with both hands busy trying to restrain the arms and hands of a teenager and then trying to get the shutter to go before the hands can again get into place, this is pretty good.

Competition

2009-01-17T17:46:00.003-06:00

I participated in a self imposed competition today. I think I failed.

At Christmas time we stayed several days with our son Craig, his wife Brina, and their two boys. We got to stay in their brand new home. It is fabulous by the way. I love the colors they have painted the rooms.

One night Brina made Lasagne for dinner. Craig helped. Dad (Larry) said I (Jeanette) make the best lasagne he has ever eaten. Isn't he sweet. Craig begged to differ.

After dinner Craig inquired if Brina had the better dish. Larry concurred. I had been misplaced. It was a sad day. (not really) I haven't made lasagne is years because Larry has given up pasta and noodles.

So now to the competition. Today I made lasagne. I was going to make some great stuff and win my throne back! Craig said Brina's secret ingredient was sausage in the meat sauce. So I added sausage. I know that Brina is good at flavorings/spices. I decided to change my recipe to include more spices. I added extra flavors to the tomato sauce and the Ricotta cheese mixture. I also used the oven ready noodles. (Great stuff and so much easier) Though you do have to have to cook the lasagne for a very long time using them.

Like I said I failed. I didn't even like today's lasagne. Eric picked through the cheese mixture and took off the top crusty cheese (my favorite part) I bet it will be better tomorrow or even Monday.

But no more competition for me. ( Ihope) I do some things just fine and I should leave them that way.

Out with the Old, in with the New

2009-01-17T17:00:00.001-06:00

Not long ago I sat in the recliner to watch some idiot tube. I noticed the mechanism did not operate smoothly. I turned the chair topsy turvey and noticed that the frame was bent and springs were missing. I decided I did not want to hassle with trying to fix it. We moved it out (of the family room) and moved in a new chair. Here you can see the chair usurped by the young Mister Vance.

I think I like it.

Beauty

2009-01-17T16:08:00.005-06:00

Isn't it beautiful?

The piles of yarn in the living room are being transformed.

Isn't it beautiful?

Getting Ready

2009-01-17T15:41:00.004-06:00

We bought a new camera to prepare for our trip in the summer. We plan to go on a photo journalling expedition to the motherland. We looked a little bit at different cameras and reviews, visited a couple shops, and bought a camera online. Julie and Clint had just bought a camera that they showed us when we were there. We copied them. It is more camera than we need for most instances. We also bought a tripod and a couple 8gig cards.

After seeing some of the 10Mp photos it can produce, I am convinced that it can produce studio quality images.

Never Cut Hot Peppers and then Rub Your Eyes

2009-01-17T05:06:00.000-06:00

I am a practical man interested in functionality. I have gained some wisdom over the years. This one piece of wisdom I want to pass on to those in my family.

Don't cut hot peppers and then rub your eyes!

I like to eat hot peppers in my food. One thing that we have successfully done over the years is grow peppers in the garden. The oils on the inside of hot peppers are responsible for that burning sensation in your mouth. I have been bold enough to grow habanero peppers (some say they are the hottest commercially available pepper). In order to process these peppers it is necessary to remove them from the plant and to remove the stem (and maybe even the seeds) so as to allow the pepper to be cut into appropriate size pieces (very small). Soap does not seem to be able to take the oil off your skin. A nonchalant rub to the eye or nose when it itches and that trace of hot oil then transfers to the tender skin around your orifices.

The oils do not seem to break down in the digestive track either. As the oils from the peppers travel down through your digestive track they cause a warm feeling that can be felt with a knowledge of just how far through the process it has gone.

Eat icecream after eating hot peppers. The burning is reduced with the consumption, and then later when you have to dispose of those oils in the sanitation system you can have a hope of the icecream coming soon after.

Hurry Up and Wait

2009-01-16T17:53:00.002-06:00

As a male I have a tendency to want to get things done in the quickest and most direct method. Speed limits are just that, limits. Many times I will be in a hurry to get to some place that the next step is to wait. 10 minutes early is just in time.

I have heard people say frequently that a group should meet ten minutes early so they will not be ten minutes late. This is very irritating to me. I have seen people set their clocks 10 minutes ahead so they could be on time, but since they know the clock is 10 minutes ahead they will live 10 minutes late and still be late.

I have always disliked waiting in queues and lines, but it seems that is the way things are going. Even to make a phone call for assistance with a warrantee it is necessary to wait in a waiting queue. Maybe they do this so they can have less warrantee claims.

Even so, I am usually in a hurry and then I have to wait.

Hurry up and wait.

Computers are a Wonderful Tool but a Terrible Job

2009-01-16T16:59:00.001-06:00

This is one that I coined myself. I first was exposed to computers when I went to BYU and started in my career as an engineer. It seems that for a long time my career was upside down.

I started working on a Digital VAX 11-750 running Berkley unix.

As time went on the VAX was changed by installing VMS, another operating system.

I began to work on my thesis and was given access to a PRIME 750.

I generated my graphics for my thesis on an Apple Macintosh.

I wrote the text for the thesis on an IBM PC.

I went to work for Martin Marietta a couple years after I graduated and then was able to use the Cyber.

When there was a downturn in engineering work I was given the opportunity to do orbital mechanics calculations and test on software written for RTOS.

The irony of all this is that the evolution of computers was almost completely backwards from my exposure.

RTOS (Real Time Operating System) -- used on small computers for machines

Cyber -- A water cooled computer that filled a room, had a flat file system, and required an operator to perform even the most basic of operations.

IBM PC -- The beginning of the desktop PC. It used an operating system that was stolen from another company and then re-branded IBM/DOS and subsequently MSDOS. A text based OS.

Macintosh -- a single user machine with a graphical user interface, prettier but slower and written for idiots.

VMS -- Operating system written by Digital (Microsoft Windows NT is supposedly a knockoff of the core of VMS) In my opinion this is a step down from unix.

unix -- an operating system that was originally written by Bell Labs employees for themselves. It grew through being distributed to universities and the changes then fed back into the OS. The mechanisms and methods are reflected in linux and are direct ancestors of the OS-X from Apple.

I'll Give You 20 Minutes to Stop That

2009-01-16T04:52:00.000-06:00

This is something that I heard when I was a youth. Warren Weston, our neighbor, had a plethora of sundry idioms that he would employ consistently. He would grab one of his boys and tickle them while he recited all the things they had been eating.

Ham
Weiners
Eggs

etcetera. But the one that stuck with me was when someone was hugging him or scratching his back he would say:

I will give you twenty minutes to quit that!

It stuck, so I tucked it away in my quiver of quotes.

Didn't We Go to Different High Schools Together?

2009-01-15T17:10:00.001-06:00

Martin Weston used to say this to people. I borrowed the saying and repeat is with some sparse frequency. It seems to draw a laugh or maybe a small conversation, so my repertoire is bolstered with yet another idiom idiom.

Como Esta' Free Holy Tennis Shoe

2009-01-15T05:45:00.001-06:00

How you bean keds?

This is a play on words between languages. I learned this from Bonnie decades ago. DECADES ago.

Communication is Such a Difficult Thing

2009-01-14T17:03:00.001-06:00

During my whole life I have had instances where what I said was taken in a way that was not even close to what I meant. There may be a couple reasons for this, but projection by others seems to be one of the root causes. What others believe and see is what they hear. An innocuous question may be construed into something entirely different, or a joke may be taken in a way that is assumed to be offensive instead of fellowship.

It is very difficult to know the workings of a persons inner feelings. People get it wrong frequently. There are situations where inside someone can be elated with a situation and not be boisterous and loud, which is interpreted by someone else as indifference. In "Pride and Prejudice" when Darcy convinced his friend Charles Bingley to not pursue a further relationship with Jane Bennett because he believed her to be indifferent, he was probably acting on his own set of feelings. Later Darcy admitted that he was hopelessly in love with Elizabeth Bennett and how he abhorred any form of deception by covering ones feelings. He did cover his feelings for a long time.

In the end Darcy finally communicated his love for Elizabeth and she in turn her love for him, but it was a monumental effort.

Measure your words and use more than just words to communicate what you will.

"Can't" is Such a Strong Word

2009-01-14T05:00:00.000-06:00

I am a Star Wars fanboy. I have relented lately in watching the movies as much as at a previous time in my life, but there is one scene in Star Wars Episode I that I believe to be true. Qui-Gon Jinn was talking to Anakin Skywalker about midi-clorians and told him that "Your Focus Determines Your Reality". A corrolary of that that was a precursor is that when you say you can't your are right, and when you say you can, you are right. Believe in yourself. Don't tell yourself you cannot do it before you begin.

Anything for YOU!

2009-01-13T16:50:00.000-06:00

Donald Arlo Vance had cited this particular phrase at some juncture in my existence. I took the phrase and appended it to my scanty list of witticisms. There is a bit of truth in every joke. There is a limit to what I will do for most people, and I say this somewhat tongue in cheek, but I do mean that I am here to serve. That is why I now have a Superman T-shirt.

Any Day Above Ground is a Good Day

2009-01-13T06:00:00.000-06:00

Yesterday we were driving home from somewhere and drove down 1st Street in Hewitt. The Methodist Church has a marquee out front that read, "Any Day Above Ground is a Good Day". It was quickly noted by Eric and Jeanette that they had taken a DADism and used it. Truth is truth where-ever you find it.

What are YOU doing here?

2009-01-12T17:50:00.003-06:00

A few years ago I was working with the nursery. Lauren Work was having a difficult time with nursery. She was new to the nursery and her father, Arlen, and left her there. She was most sad. I held her and talked to her. We went for a walk in the hall looking for her dad. The two hours in nursery went slowly for her. Eventually she settled in and began to enjoy herself. The joy lasted about 10 minutes. Time was up and her dad came to get her. She was overjoyed.

Choir was just after the block of meetings. Kari Work was the choir director. Lauren came with her mother to choir practice. Lauren looked up at me and asked in a very loud and disappointed voice. "What are YOU doing here?" I was lost for words. I probably should never repeat that simple phrase to anyone, but I do. Even the smallest can have an influence in the world.

A Hungry Cook is an Idiot

2009-01-12T16:42:00.003-06:00

I plagiarized this saying from Randy Vance. He probably found it somewhere else, but I thought it was a good saying, so I added it to my repertoire of sayings.

Take care of yourself. If you are a mechanic... Fix your car! If you are a cook... EAT!

When you fly on an aircraft that is under the auspices of the FAA then an attractive person will explain at the onset of the flight what you must do to take care of yourself in the event of an emergency. It is rather easy for me to ignore the message, as it is rote. Does this mean that it is not important? Probably not.

Listen to the still small voice and follow the promptings that are delivered to your spirit. Take care of yourself.

My Job

2009-01-10T17:03:00.002-06:00

Two people asked me to tell more about what I do with airplanes. Here is my cursory description of how I spend the majority of my life.

I am a structural engineer and I am referred to as a "stress engineer", whatever that is. My employer performs modification and maintenance of aircraft. A large portion of the work we do is related to enhancement and maintenance of military aircraft. The majority of the work is on P-3 and C-130 airplanes. Most of the work I do is in support of designers who make drawings of equipment installations and repair for damage.

I spend much of my time using a computer. I write reports, perform calculations, and track labor expenditures and budgets for my efforts and those who help me. During the course of a day I may have several people come to my office for signatures and advice on structural matters.

As a structural engineer I ensure that structural integrity is maintained when we install things on an airplane. The structural integrity depends on strength, endurance, corrosion resistance, stiffness, and resistance to damage. Other people usually provide detailed aerodynamic loading information for the structures I evaluate. I am involved in creating and using finite element models and using classical analysis methods that were developed before digital computers were available.

Stress is defined as force per area. If you were to have a string with an area of 0.01 inches square and applied a load of one pound to it, then it would experience stress of 100 pounds per square inch. Some of the materials used in my work can withstand stresses up to 160,000 pounds per square inch. It is common to see materials that can withstand stresses to 45,000 psi (pounds per square inch). Some exotic materials, like graphite fibers can withstand 1/4 million psi.

Buckling and crippling are two modes of possible failure that must be checked in an aircraft structure. Buckling is seen as waves or curves developed in a component that is in compression. Crippling happens when a thin structure crushes in compression.

There is also another phenomenon that must be detected and eliminated. This phenomenon is known as flutter. Flutter happens when the aerodynamic response and the structural natural frequency are about the same. Any structure has a natural vibration frequency. If you pluck a guitar string you can hear the natural frequency. The aerodynamic response of a structure, like a wing, is how fast it can respond to a change in the flow characteristics. Flutter is bad.

In the end, I work with other engineers to ensure that the airplane can be flown safely. My job is to make sure the installations are strong enough, have the right stiffness, and last long enough.

From Brian

2009-01-10T16:17:00.002-06:00

My Airmane

2009-01-08T17:38:00.004-06:00

Today was the first flight of the C130 that I have been supporting. This is the first of four that will be done here in Waco.