cc: file, Tony Hafen, Pauline Nelson via mail, Sara and Des Penny, Claude and Katherine Warner, Lloyd and Luana Warner, Diane Cluff, Maxine Shirts via mail.
"Monday seemed like it was the first day in years where I did not have meetings and other `things I was supposed to do.' Not even any vacation plans. Mom, I expected was still tired from the ride to Pinto on Saturday, and so I did not even plan to go to St. George on Monday. Sunday evening Aunt Sara invited me to go to Parowan with her to see the Iron County Fair Labor Day Parade, and Brian's part in playing the guitar with a group of `hoe-down' violinists. So I went for a run past the lighthouse (I think it is so funny for Cedar City to have a lighthouse. Maybe it is for all of the sailors out at Rush Lake. When I was growing up we always told people we were from senic Enoch on the shores of the mighty Rush Lake where there are millions and millions of miles of beach.) and got over to Sara and Des' house about 9:00.
When we got to Parowan we parked, Brian went off with his acoustic guitar to find the Cedar High School Float, and Sara and I walked down to main street. The Lion's Club was hosting a pancake breakfast, which Sara noticed. Thanks for breakfast. As we walked up my cousin Mark Nelson hollers `Little Roice! How the heck are you!' We had special service and extra large pancakes with eggs cooked just right, a big slab of ham, and orange juice. As we were finishing eating my cousin Lynn Nelson and his wife Ann came by and talked to us for a while. It was neat to see them both and to be there with my sister. So then we went over and found a place to sit on the curb. It turned out we were right in front of the three judges. By the end of the parade Sara and I were turning to the judges and saying things like `That is not a float, that is a malt, a really special float that deserves a lot of extra points.'
We were sitting on the first turn, where the entries turned onto Main Street. They kept the new events going, and it took over an hour and a half to put all of soldiers in the honor guard (4), bands (3, the first one was Uncle Steve's and he was working so hard to get them all in step Sara did not want me to distract him), older ladies dressed up to be the flag of The United States of America (4, each with sequined star glasses), clowns (3), John Birchers (87), cheerleading units (6), tractors (15), Clydesdales (4), firetrucks (5, one of which shot water down mainstreet and soaked the audience), apostles (1, L. Tom Perry), mayors (3), marching groups (4), tanks (1, and it was a big one), search and rescue units (7, including one truck with 6 4-wheelers, one with 4 ski jets, one with 4 3-wheelers, and one pickup that looked really dinged up [it was the designated fund raising truck]), giant 30 foot tall model of a hereford bull (1, with three little girls next to it), state political officers running for re-election (5), Iron County Royalty (3 on a float, with Miss Iron County in a white satan off the shoulder white gown, chewing gum, holding a bag of starbursts, and throwing candy to the old men like me), Washington County Royalty (3, each on a horse), Tin Lizzies from Las Vegas (6, each with their own little antique car with wheels about 8 inches in diameter, the last one a tow truch, and follow-up by the Tin Lizzie Pit Crew in a big new pickup), horses (16), cub scout groups with shovels and wheelbarrows to pick up after the horses (2), floats (9), old cars (6), other cars (17), Grimshaw sound system entries (3), etc. (Jared, you might wonder how I remembered all of this. I guessed.) Needless to say, sitting 1 hour and 45 minutes on a cold cement curb watching hoards of kids run into the street every 2 minutes to pick up candy thrown by clowns, politicians (is that a repetition), royalty, city and county officers, water district managers, horses, and others, while a shiny new penny (the only thing of real value that I could see) was sitting 4 feet in front of us 3 feet out in the street, had a major impact on me. I must admit, besides the impact on my backside, the next biggest impact was that after the parade I walked over and picked up the penny. It was fun, funny, and a great way to start out a day of nothing to do.
Brian got lost in downtown Parowan, and we saved him after some parents told Sara where he was. He thought the best part of the parade was when some of his friends started head-banging to Metallica as his country music float passed. I don't think I want to know what head- banging is. On the way back to Cedar we stopped at a fruit stand so Sara could buy some overpriced fresh peaches on the way home. She had to wait for the Tin Lizzies to purchase theirs first. While Brian and I waited I reminisced about going to the Iron County Fair in my youth. The one time I remember I rode the octopus something like 17 times in a row and got off and threw up. Then there was the Ayres girl I took on a date to see `My Fair Lady' in Cedar on a double date with Charles Garfield, and I got in trouble for not telling the truth to my Dad about my route home. I wonder if her Mom called Dad? I find it sad to drive south on I-15 and to see all of the sprawl in Cedar Valley. Oh well! I dropped off Sara and Brian, stopped and talked to Ray Gardner for a while, and went back to Grandma Shirts' house.
I spent the afternoon thinking about what I want to do with the next phase of my life. Specifically I was reworking the Walden 3-D Knowledge Backbone (SM), and more specifically the process of recreating the HyperEdge Network-of-Minds as a group of W3D Associates, joint projects, and W3D Principals. If you want to follow how this thinking goes over the next few weeks click on the top blue bar, which is a link to the W3D Knowledge Backbone (SM) and is on almost any page at http://www.walden3d.com.
At 6:15 Audrey showed up, and at 6:30 Grandma Shirts, Audrey, and I went over and picked up Heather and Nate. We went up Cedar Canyon, where I had made reservations, to a family meal at Milt's Stage Stop. What a great restaurant. Everytime I go someplace like this I think of verse 3 in my song `I Once Saw A Family':
The entire song is written out in the Thoughtlet titled Family (../9652.html), and it is referenced in Post Cards (../9825.html), Pinto (../9836.html), Mountain Meadows Massacre (../9901.html), and Eternal Family (0003.html). As I listened to the conversation, I had an image come to my mind of all of the spiritual giants in Utah. I saw them as a redwood forrest. And I realized they might have very shallow roots, yet because they are all together to protect each other from the storms, they grow very tall. Then I saw those of us who have chosen to live in the mission field, and all of our weaknesses and flaws and dead branches. Ken Turner's image of the Bristlecone Pine Tree at Cedar Breaks came to my mind, and I realized how glad I am that I have deep roots, even if there are flaws and parts of me that have died.
When we came down the mountain, Sara brough Brian and some games over to Grandma Shirts' house. Heather was doing laundary. Audrey thanks for asking for a Father's blessing. I felt you were disappointed. It was very nice to have a child I have come to love ask for this, and I hope it helps as you start a new semester and recover from the emotions of breaking up with Scott. Brian taught us how to play Cribbage, and another game. He had already beat me twice at chess during the week. He does not give any quarters at games. I expect we will see great things out of Brian Penny. Sara came back and picked him up at 10:00, and I was tired and so I went to bed. Heather still had laundary she was working on.
Tuesday morning I met Ray Gardner at 8:00. We went to a couple of places in town and got the ownership info on Shirts' Canyon. I plotted it on the USGS maps I purchased on Saturday. Then I went to Bulloch Brothers Engineers and met Sue Finstick who has been studying the wells in Cedar Valley. I agreed to pay her $100. to get a college student to make copies of the descriptions of all of the water well data for the valley. I intend to build a 3-D model out of this data. I stopped by Sara's to say good-bye. As she walked me out to the car she said, `Please get a real job.' I have been thinking about this comment ever since. Please: politeness or emphasis in a request. Get: to gain position of. A: one, some. Real: of or relating to fixed or immovable things, not artificial: genuine. Job: a piece of work. Maybe I have lived in artifical computer generated worlds too long, or maybe I have not lived there long enough. Sometimes it is very lonely when you are in the midst of reinventing society. I wish I had the words to describe the things I know need to be done, and the things I am going to do, if God is willing to let me, which means He will be guiding and helping and opening the doors for me, planting the ideas in mine and other people's minds, for the purpose of making the world a better place for you kids and your kids.
Mom and I went to lunch at Hunan. Mom, it was good to see you feeling like yourself again. I enjoyed the meal and the conversation a lot. I stopped to see Uncle Lloyd and Aunt Luana. They are good. Their youngest son, Dean's wife, has an immune deficiency disease which has affected her liver. It is very scary. Their cabin at Panquich Lake sounds like it is very nice. It was really good to spend a few minutes with them. In fact, I was not watching the clock, and by the time I drove to Las Vegas, turned in the Alamo rental car, and got to the gate, the plane was already loaded. Andrea was waiting for me when I got to Hobby, and it was sooo good to be home.
Most of the rest of the week was spent working on some material for Shell, Schlumberger, and Exxon on knowledge management (http://www.walden3d.com/knowledge_backboneSM). Within the next couple of weeks I will know what real interest there is in this stuff. Townsend Dunn and I had lunch on Wednesday. We have been friends since Roice and Delaney were born when we worked together at Mobil in Dallas. He has retired from Conoco and is going to work in the SAP consulting world. As he described the position he will be taking, it does not sound like a `real job' to me. So maybe I should not worry about my plans. At the invitation of the Middle- Upper Grade Principal, I spent Wednesday evening at an Open House at Briarwood, Rob's school. I am really impressed by each of the teachers, the class size, the program they have him on, and the progress they reported he is making. Despite what I am learning at Climbers, maybe I do not need to be such a tough love guy. I expect I will have to be more aggressive than I am comfortable being unless I am angry. Thursday I had lunch with Karla Jordan and Pam Smith of Landmark to discuss their participation in the GCAGS Immersive Reality Tour in October. The rest of Thursday and all day Friday was spent working on knowledge management.
Friday at 5:00 Ken Turner came by for the first HGOL meeting in 6 weeks. Andrea had prepared a good agenda, and after we finished going through most of the agenda, it seemed Ken just wanted to sit and brainstorm. The big concern is how to market HGOL. I suggested Ken paint a Bush Family Reunion and present it to George W. on the eve of the election so the press picks it up whether he wins or loses. Ken mentioned that Harris County Judge Robert Eccles had asked him to hang the San Jacinto painting at the County Courthouse, and then plans to take it to the State Capital. We ended up talking about this for about an hour. It turns out Ken was waiting until 10:30 to pick up his son. After we finally broke up, and got some dinner, Ken was sitting there reading and the phone rang. It was Judge Eccles. Ken is going to take the painting of the Battle of San Jacinto down there on Monday. Ken wrote out a brief history about the painting, and I turned it into 100 brochures on Saturday. The words are:
I find the call by Judge Eccles, after our extended conversation about the next step for HGOL, and the resulting advertisement which will be placed at the County Courthouse, to be another excellent example of another guided coincidence (../9715.html). As I thought about this Saturday morning, when Andrea and I went for a run around the block, and as I printed 100 copies of the painting and description, I could not help but feel the most real job is when one is lead by the spirit. I feel very good about the stuff I am working on, and if I can show success over the next couple of months, there will not be the need to take a traditional job. Time will tell, and I have no intention of putting my family at risk.
Saturday we had a $5,000 check for renting Landmark software from Continuum. Andrea talked me into going to a men's clothing sale at Foleys. We spent an hour and spent $300. (one hour of consulting on some of the stuff I plan to work on). As we left, I told Andrea it is not a bad idea to buy some new shirts and pants every 5 or ten years. She laughed. We stopped and picked up some ballasts for the florscent lights in the kitchen and I replaced the two that had burned out later in the afternoon. Andrea went back out and bought a new bedspread, pillow covers, sheets, and towels. It is nice to see her making the house more and more after her own image. As I was working on the knowledge management stuff in the evening, Alan Peterson called and said Mike Pickerd had just called to tell him there were some excellent guitar players singing for a Stake High Priest Party at the Stake Center. Andrea and I got there in time for the last three songs and root beer floats. Because I was not at church and work in the Young Men's I did not know about it. It was nice to talk to the Burgerners, the Smiths, Alan, the Pickerds, and others of our friends.
Today Mike and Susan Reed came back from San Antonio for Ryan's missionary homecoming. At the beginning of the meeting Rachel handed a note to Andrea which reads:
I wonder what kind of real jobs there are in Cedar City for an entrepreneural geophsicist with dreams of immersive reality and knowledge management tools and processes to fundimentally change how the biggest corporations in the world work? I cried all through Susan's talk. Partly because she did. Partly because of her message and how touched she was by the week she spent in Peru to pick up Ryan. She said:
I cried partly because I felt so sad for Marti and Paul and me, and felt remorse over the fact the waste tied to divorce payments were more important than being able to have this same kind of an experience in Russia. Oh well! The Lord giveth and the Lord taketh away. Sara I really appreciate your concern. I am concerned too. Concern is the reason I have been thinking about your off the cuff comment all this week. Thank you for your concern. I am firmly convienced I am on a path that is acceptable to the Lord, and I have placed my life in His hands. In my mind, and based on the fact I have never wanted for food nor essentials, what I do is a real job. So in the future, when I ask one of you to `Please get a real job!' I hope you will understand, like my sister I am simply concerned, and I hope you will be able to tell me with all sincerity you are on the Lord's errand and it is a real job. Have a great week!"