I enjoy surprises. I enjoy surprising folks as well. Throughout our marriage, Nina and I have delighted in perpetrating surprises on family members.

When we were transferred to Germany, we suddenly showed up in Soda Springs at my parent’s home for Christmas … a surprise. When our daughter Heather announced her engagement, we drove out from Ohio to surprise her in her dorm room so that wedding plans could be constructed between mother and daughter. Just this month our visit to our daughter Dawnmarie and family was a planned surprise for the grandkids. That surprise worked out marvelously and we’ve had a great visit with them.

There are, of course, other kinds of surprises. I love magic just because it always seems to surprise me and delight me. A few weeks ago at our weekly Rotary Club meeting, the presenter brought along two magicians who did several table-top magic tricks. They were just amazing. The Chamber of Shadows at the Mystique Theater in Pocatello is a new venue in town that consists of a fine dinner followed by about 45 minutes of table-top magic. It should open sometime in early Spring and I think we’ll go so I can be surprised once again.

Occasionally the surprise is really stupendous. One such happened on March 14th this year when our daughter Dawnmarie very nonchalantly walked up to our car in Lava Hot Springs, a very long way from her home in Pennsylvania, all the while talking with Nina on her cell phone and refusing to hang up. As far as surprises go this year, that one leads the list.

Ta ta for now!

This past year has brought some very interesting new discoveries. Here’s my list of those that just might have the most impact on my future:

• Electricity has been very difficult and expensive to store. The battery technology in use today hasn’t changed dramatically in the past twenty years or more. I’ve kind of thought that the breakthrough will not be in battery technology, but in the ability to generate electricity as needed, on demand. Recent work at MIT will probably make fuel cells much cheaper and more readily available using a catalyst to separate water into hydrogen and oxygen. This is interesting work! Now couple that with the new solar shingles that Dow is bringing to the market, and a 24-hour-a-day capability is born.
• Gene sequencing has really taken off in 2009 with the cost of sequencing a person’s genome dropping below a thousand dollars. Some of the most interesting work is happening in the research on autism, alzheimers, and obesity. While some of the work is still being stymied by drug companies patenting gene sequences (a very stupid practice that needs to be outlawed). I think the prediction that my great-grandchildren may never have to die may be possible.
• We’ve been taught that oil has an organic base and is the result of eons of chemical reactions on long-dead creatures. That has never quite computed in my brain and this year scientists figured out that isn’t the whole story. Oil can be produced in a variety of non-organic processes, meaning that current methods of prospecting for oil are probably missing vast reserves. I want very much for our dependence on so-called fossil fuels (we now need a new name!) to go away entirely. That’s why electricity is at the top of my list and will continue to be there for a long time.

There have been many other discoveries this past year, some significant and game changing, others just interesting. We continue to discover planets out in the universe with a recent discovery of a planet with water. The exploration in the seas are turning up more and more unknown creatures. The work in physics, and quantum mechanics in particular, are turning up more and more strangeness that needs to be understood. But, this is my list of the three areas where incredibly beneficial outcomes are just over the horizon.

Ta ta for now!

I have a number of blogs that I write in (or at least create content for) and a number of other blogs that I’ve set up for other people. This particular blog has been active since April 2002 (close to eight years!). I started putting entries from a hand-written journal from 1975 into this blog and then decided that there must be a better way for that journal to be put online. Maybe sometime in the coming year I’ll get back to that.

I like writing in the blog. As I’ve said on a number of other entries, my process is to write with me sometime in the future as the audience allowing anyone who wishes to read along. The format is generally OK and the process has certainly gotten a lot easier as the WordPress software has gone through additional releases. I installed the latest release (2.9) on this blog a week ago to test it out and immediately got bit by a new bug. It seems that scheduled posts don’t get released! I had written a number of “2009 in Review” entries before we left home on our Casual Trip East and scheduled them to release on the planned date at 8 p.m. Mountain Standard Time. I suddenly noticed a few days ago that the release wasn’t happening. There’s a release 2.9.1 coming in the next couple of days that will fix this bug. That did give me a chance to reschedule a couple of entries and write some new ones to replace them.

My other blogs that pertain to me include:

Raised Bed Gardening – I built this site last Spring to support my effort to sell some raised garden beds at the local farmer’s market. I did get a little business and a few visits to the website, but not nearly like I was hoping. I’ll do some revisions to this website in February. I think that there’s still some opportunity to sell stuff at the market, just need to figure out what I can make at a less-than-thirty-dollar price tag that would sell. Suggestions welcome.

My Twitter Stream – This website is automatically maintained by a program I wrote that pulls down everything I send to Twitter and everything anyone on Twitter addresses to me. The program runs a little bit after midnight each day and puts the results out as a blog entry. For the most part the site has worked fine. Every once in a while, Twitter changes (without any notice) how their program interface operates and I have to modify my program. This same program also captures the twitter stream for my favorite brother (Perry) and my oldest son (James).

Get My Ham Radio License – I put this website up in November to document my process of getting my ham radio license. I’m completely revamping the website. It started off as a blog, and I will continue writing blog entries, but the focus will change now that I have the license (I’m officially K7OJL!). I haven’t found any really good websites oriented around the “how-to” of Ham Radio. For instance, I’d like to try some of the data modes of communication. What I’ve found on the web has not been helpful to me at all. So, the new version (which should be out in early January) will be much more of a how to do something along with the blog of my experiences with ham radio.

Blogging still isn’t as easy and straightforward as it needs to be. The basic premise of blogging is that the most recent post is at the top of the list. However, the archives should be organized oldest first to newest (they aren’t at present). Tagging isn’t particularly easy. Being able to grab stuff directly from iPhoto, SmugMug, or Flickr would be very helpful. Being able to automatically generate a table of contents and an index would be delightful (more along a book model). I expect that some of this will happen in the coming year, which will definitely be goodness.

Ta ta for now!

This year for Christmas we came out to Pennsylvania to spend the holiday with our daughter Dawnmarie and her family. As part of the Christmas celebration, they had decided to institute a new tradition in their family: exchanging hand-made Boxing Day gifts. The plan was that each person in the family would hand-craft something for each other member of the family.

Boxing Day originated in England and is a holiday throughout most of the Commonwealth. Celebrated the day after Christmas, it has become a day when people remember and remunerate folks who provide services to them such as civil servants and tradesmen.

This evening after dinner all the family gathered in the living room and handed out the gifts. They ranged from cut-out snowflakes to cookies and fudge to pictures, boomerangs, swords, hand warmers, bulletin boards, coasters, and a newspaper from the Civil War.

The newly inaugurated event went extremely well. Nina and I put our things together before we left Pocatello to drive out here. The past few days other members of the family worked on their gifts with Kirk finishing his up minutes before the exchange.

Everyone really enjoyed the process and because the items exchanged were hand-crafted they had particular sentimental value. Time and effort had definitely been put into each gift with the recipient clearly in mind. In a small way this seemed to more closely represented the Spirit of Christmas. I love traditions (this coming from the guy who willingly eats either oatmeal or farina for breakfast every morning). This tradition is a keeper and highly recommended!

Ta ta for now!

We’re spending this Christmas in New Wilmington, Pennsylvania with our daughter Dawnmarie and her family. This is the first Christmas we’ve spent with their family. As we were preparing to leave lots of people expressed surprise that we’d drive across the country at this time of the year. In the back of my mind I was thinking, “Why not? Truckers do it every day!” However, just behind us a major winter storm has blown into the midwest closing freeways and generally making travel pretty miserable. All that should be cleared away when we head home around the 4th or 5th of January. It’s been raining here all day and what little snow was on the ground is pretty much gone. It seems the weather is going all around this part of the state of Pennsylvania (and we’re not complaining).

I enjoyed the process of doing Christmas here at the Lunnen household. Last night Kirk and Dawnmarie organized everything under the tree into groups of presents, one for each child in each group. This morning the kids “patiently” waited on the stairs until 7 a.m. when they were allowed downstairs. After going through their stockings and Santa presents, then the presents under the tree were handed out in groups, one present to each of the six children. They then opened the presents in order from youngest to oldest so each could see what the others had received. It was a lot of fun and enjoyable. Perhaps my biggest surprise was when Kate opened a present that consisted of a tube of toothpaste and an electric toothbrush. She jumped for joy! It turns out that was her #1 request for Christmas. Her wish was nicely fulfilled.

Last night the missionaries came over and joined the family for dinner followed by a Christmas Eve program. Dinner was delicious and the program delightful. Each person did something … read a story, played a song, told a story, played something on an instrument, etc. It ended with reading the Christmas story from Luke and singing some Christmas carols. Then all the children were off to bed.

Over the years my thoughts about Christmas have certainly changed (and probably matured a lot as well). It’s fun being around family at this time of the year. The kids make lots of noise, argue, cry, and tease, but it’s all good. It probably helps that they’re grandkids rather than my own children and the responsibility for them is one generation removed. Christmas is definitely a multi-dimensional event. One aspect is the Santa Claus for the little children. Another aspect is the buying and exchanging of gifts. Getting together with family and loved ones is another dimension. Good food and good times adds another dimension. And, overarching all, is the religious dimension which enables the entire season for me.

This Christmas day is rapidly ending. Some of the grandkids have already gone to bed. Others are playing a game. One granddaughter has finished all three books she received as presents today. A few are watching a movie. Nina’s been talking with all our other children. And, I’m at my computer at the corner of the dining room table, feeling quite content. Merry Christmas … only 365 days until the next Christmas!

Ta ta for now!

The other day Nina asked me what my favorite Christmas present was as a child. I’m sure there were plenty of them, I just don’t remember any! I have a vague memory of a bicycle and then being quite frustrated that it had snowed overnight and it wasn’t possible to ride it outside, and there was no room inside the house, either. That’s pretty much what comes to mind!

Christmas has always been an important holiday in our family. Our children probably have different memories of the same Christmases than Nina and I have (sometimes I wonder if we were even in the same universe sometimes for some events), but there are a few that stand out in particular.

When we were living near Munich, Germany in the mid 1970’s, the big Christmas gift for the girls was a doll house large enough to really play with it. I spent several evenings constructing the building which stood almost as tall as they did. We were living in a duplex and the neighbors were particularly unhappy with the construction sounds, and let us know on several occasions. Jim’s gift that year was a skate board and he vigorously rode it up and down the hallway … occasioning another irate phone call from the neighbors. I ignored them. Jim and the girls were having too much fun!

Our daughter Heather and her fiance Ty decided to get married just before Christmas when we were living in Chardon, Ohio. We held their reception in our house where we put up a huge tree with special ornaments in their wedding colors. It was a beautiful tree and is still a delightful memory.

Of course, in Chardon we had the special Christmas that I wrote about in the blog post titled Five Dollar Christmas Tree Topper.

While we were living in Japan the last time (1995 – 1998), we enjoyed Christmas with our Japanese friends. Nina was teaching conversational English at the Church building and invited her entire class to come over for a Christmas party. Our house was packed with Japanese friends who were very curious about how Americans celebrated Christmas. We had a delightful time that evening trying to teach them a couple of Christmas carols.

The last few years, Nina and I have gone to visit children and grandchildren for Christmas. It’s easier for us to travel than for them to pack up everything for Christmas and come to us. We have really enjoyed being with grandkids for Christmas and seeing their delight on Christmas morning. Over the years we’ve developed a number of Christmas traditions and it’s fun to see them being perpetuated in the upcoming generations. Those traditions include remembrances of the whole reason for we celebrate in this season … the gift of life from our Father in Heaven.

Merry Christmas!

Ta ta for now!

Troublesome is an interesting word. There is a whole spectrum associated with the word from something that is an annoyance to something that makes live downright difficult. At the end of November when I made up the list of topics I would write about during December, I had a different idea about troublesome than I do right now. I’ve already written about a number of troublesome items in the past 22 days! What else is there to write about that I would consider to be troublesome?

So what is bothering me right now?

I’m quite concerned about the increasing amount of selfishness being displayed … the “it’s all about me” attitude that seems to pervade our society.

I’m bothered about the debate about marriage with the idea of changing the definition. My perspective comes from my Mormon belief and a strong belief that marriage between a man and a woman is ordained and established by God.

On a trivial front, I’m unhappy with the poor AT&T cell phone coverage across Wyoming and Nebraska. I’d wish they’d spend more money on upgrading their network and less on television ads.

I wish time didn’t move along so rapidly. As I get older, there seems to be less and less time to do the things I want to do.

So what is the most troublesome? On this day before Christmas Eve, I’m not troubled by very much, actually. Just that I wish we’d have fewer reasons to shoot at people, more desire to treat people as humans, and a much better way to treat drug addiction than locking people up in prison. Maybe all of that is the most troublesome today.

Ta ta for now!

There are lots of interesting gadgets available. I kind of think we’re just on the cusp of a whole bunch of new special-purpose gadgets that’ll be coming out. One of the attractions of the personal computer back in the 1980’s was that it was a general purpose machine capable of being programmed for a whole variety of capabilities. Computers were expensive enough that having dedicated, single-purpose machines was not practical.

In the mid-1800’s when electricity was becoming generally available, the electric motor was particularly expensive. General Electric planned to build a “house motor” to which a variety of attachments would be available, each taking advantage of the one motor. The concept was brought to market, but by that time the electric motor technology began making great strides and the single motor idea was abandoned. The same idea made it’s way into farming where the tractor became the “big engine” to which a variety of attachments were available, each drawing on the tractor’s universal power system to operate.

The computer has followed the same route. Initially, the thrust was to build bigger and faster computers with more and more memory. In the past few years, however, that has changed into building more and more special-purpose machines. My favorite at the moment is my iPhone!

I love my iPhone. I really like iTunes and the application store. The entire eco-system works wonderfully well. In the next year or so I’m sure that Apple will loose the tight control they exercise over the entire iPhone system. Other companies will finally figure out that ease of use trumps geekiness! Meantime, the iPhone is quite delightful.

The device that I’m looking forward to is something like the Amazon Kindle, except capable of doing vibrant color (the current Kindle is gray-scale only). I think that kind of a device that will prove to be the resurrection of magazines and newspapers … given that Amazon puts together an eco-system similar to what Apple has done for the iPhone. Ease of use will again trump everything else.

Ta ta for now!