The sad news has arrived. Casey departed this earth today to join his brother Devlin who passed away on March 16th. It’s been clear for a few days that nothing short of a major miracle would make it possible for little Casey to make it. He was a fighter to the end but the odds were just too great to overcome. May the good Lord bless and keep you, Casey. You fought a valiant fight.

Casey was born on February 23, 2005 in the Grace New Haven Hospital in New Haven, Connecticut. He was the firstborn by less than a minute. On arrival he weighed 1 pound 5.5 ounces and was 12 1/4 inches long. He lived 52 days on wild rollercoaster ride of big ups and major downs. Casey, know that you were loved. Your mom and dad are special people who will carry you and your brother Devlin in their hearts and heads for the rest of their lives. Grandparents, aunts, uncles, and cousins, and family friends put all of the fervor of their prayers and wishes on your behalf. Parents should not have to bury their children, I know, but life does not seem to differentiate. You and your brother can now watch over mom and dad and help them to slowly bring a semblance of normalicy into their lives and continue on with the business of living in this world that now to them feels like a dark and dreary place.

Pete and Mo: know that we also love you and deeply feel your sadness, anger, and helplesness. Nina and I have also lost two children. Nothing prepares you for that devastating moment when a child is suddenly ripped from your lives and the hurt and anguish continue for a very long time. Having it happen two times likely seems more than you can bear. If we could we would somehow take away the hurt and the anger and the helpless feelings, but we cannot. All we can do is offer our heartfelt sympathy and love along with the knowledge that, while our losses are different than yours and your pain is different than ours, we do know a little bit about what you are feeling. May a feeling of peace somehow find its way into your hearts.

I’ve just finished filing my federal income taxes. We do get a refund — which is much better than having to pay. For the past several years I’ve used H&R Block’s TaxCut to figure out my taxes. I made the switch from Intuit’s TurboTax back when Intuit implemented a very buggy registration system in an effort to prevent more than one person using a particular copy of TurboTax. The company lost a huge portion of their customer base with that move and I’m one customer that they haven’t won back. For the first time, however, I’m not particularly happy with TaxCut!

Last year we lived in Colorado until May and then in Idaho for the rest of the year. Consequently I have to file state taxes in both states. When I bought TaxCut I also bought the state tax software and installed that for my Idaho return. I then bought another state tax package from TaxCut, downloaded it, and installed it as Colorado. After I finished my federal return (and filed it electronically), the program went on to do the state tax calculation. It went through Colorado just fine. It started the Idaho tax process and then sweetly told me that the program couldn’t handle part-year tax returns and that I had to go get the forms and figure out my taxes on paper. What kind of idiocy is that, I ask!

If I can figure it out on paper, it seems obvious to me that a computer program can certainly be written to figure it out. Now I’m out $25 because the program doesn’t do the job and I still have to go find the forms and do the paperwork. I would suggest this is pretty crappy customer service. Are you listening H&R Block?

I’ve just spent the past couple of afternoons in an overview of labor laws in Belgium. That was quite an education. The tax rates, particularly for their version of social security, are pretty steep. Makes it a bit more difficult to complain about the amount of taxes I have to pay each year, I guess. One of the people in the class remarked that we could have the same social services setup here as long as we were willing to pay the taxes for it. I think not. The money works much better when it’s in my pocket rather than when it’s in the government’s pocket and they’re trying to do something to help me. Meanwhile, our federal taxes have been filed electronically. The Colorado State taxes have been printed so I can mail them in. All that is left is to track down the Idaho forms and work out those numbers. I was planning to be done tonight, but no such luck.

On another topic, due to a health emergency with a manager in Manila, Philippines, I’ll be making a short-notice trip to Manila at the end of next week. I’ll be gone, it turns out, for three weeks kind of filling in for the recovering manager. Stay tuned for pictures and commentary from that part of the world. It should be interesting!

I’m sitting here at the computer with my iPod mini plugged in using the trademark white earphones listening to some absolutely incredible music. A new Sarah Brightman CD arrived to day from Amazon.com (this might just be a post of advertisements!!?!) called La Luna which turned out to be hard to find anywhere except on Amazon. One of the channels that’s turned on quite often on our Dish Network satellite TV system is the Sirius classical favorites music channel (it’s channel 6086 on Dish and channel 86 on Sirius). There often isn’t anything we’re interested in watching on TV, so we’ll turn on channel 6086 and let it play through the home theater system. Great music and good to have on while we’re doing something else. Anyhow, the other day they played Sarah Brightman’s recording of Scarborough Fair. It just blew me away. Finally someone has made a recording that trumps Simon and Garfield’s recording. I went right to the computer and searched for the recording, then where I could buy it. My first look was on Apple’s iTunes. It wasn’t there! I then called the couple of places that sell music in this One Horse Town to verify that the CD was not readily available. Amazon does well by our house. The CD arrived today and Nina thought first it was the book she had ordered the other day from Amazon. Then she saw what it was and her first question was “Can I rip it for my iPod as well?” Of course. For me, however, there were two tracks absolutely worth it. The Scarborough Fair track and another titled Figlio Perduto (Lost Son) based on a melody from Beethoven. It is also excellent. The CD is now on my iPod and these two tracks added to my “Most Special Music” playlist. I may wear these tracks out before the night is over!!

A lot of music that Sarah Brightman records isn’t all that exciting to me. However, when she gets into the full soprano mode and lets it all come out, it is great music. So what’s all on my “Most Special Music” playlist? I’ve made this playlist up of a number of pieces of music that I currently really enjoy. Music moves in and out of the playlist depending on whether I’ve decided something else must be there. I limit the playlist to twelve songs. So right now, this is what’s in the list:

• I’m On Fire (Live) by Bruce Springsteen
• Somebody to Love by Jefferson Airplane
• White Rabbit by Jefferson Airplane
• White Rabbit – featuring Esthero by Blue Man Group
• Night Ride Across the Caucasus by Loreena McKennitt
• Greensleeves by Loreena McKennitt
• My Heroes Have Always Been Cowboys by Waylon Jennings
• Mammas, Don’t Let Your Babies Grow Up to Be Cowboys by Waylon Jennings and Willie Nelson
• Prelude in C# Minor from Classics Regrooved
• The Erlking from Classics Regrooved
• Scarborough Fair by Sarah Brightman
• Figlio Perduto by Sarah Brightman

I took out Standing Stones by Loreena McKennitt and Overture: Die Hedbriden (Fingal’s Cave), Op 26 by Mendelssohn to make room for these two Sarah Brightman pieces. I’m finding that a lot of the music I want isn’t available on iTunes. Napster’s not really an option as it is a $15 fee per month and you can only listen to the music for as long as you continue to pay the fee. That model doesn’t work for me. RealRhapsody isn’t much better. It charges about $10 a month plus $0.79 a download. I don’t buy enough music to pay a monthly fee. So, on the rare occasion that I’m looking for music, if I can’t find the music on iTunes, then I’ll buy the CD. It’s still cheaper than paying a subscription.

Well the night is rapidly coming to an end. My ears are sore from the earphones. I need to put some gas in the car tonight as I won’t want to take time to do that early tomorrow morning (I’ve a seven a.m. meeting). Time to put this on the blog.

I just finished an AOL Instant Messenger (IM) conversation with my brother in Green River, Wyoming (a link to his blog is on the right). I heard a podcast the other day (I do not remember which one, just that it came from IT Conversations) about a person who regularly posted IM chats on his web log. I thought it wasn’t a bad idea, so here’s the first try. It turns out to be very easy to do!

Perry: Good afternoon.
Roland: Hello, Perry!
Perry: How are things in your neck of the woods?
Roland: Pretty quiet, actually. Watching conference and filing stuff that’s piled up on my desk.
Perry: Do you still have company?
Roland: They left after the first session.
Perry: They weren’t there very long, were they?
Roland: They got in about 11 on Thursday evening and left today. They wanted us to go with them to Kaysville and attend conference tomorrow at the conference center. We were more interested in staying home!
Perry: How is Nina feeling?
Roland: Much better but very tired. She’s having trouble staying awake this afternoon!
Perry: Nap time? Sounds good to me!!
Roland: Enjoying conference?
Perry: I have to admit that I haven’t watched very much so far. I watched Pres. Hinckley’s opening talk and then we went to R.S. and got home in time to watch the sustaining of the G.A’s.
Perry: Are you enjoying conference?
Roland: It’s been a pretty normal conference. Nothing I’d consider to be out of the normal course of a conference.
Perry: Are you going to Priesthood Meeting?
Roland: Yup, I’ll be going. It’s over at our stake center and I plan to get there about 10 min early. I’ve never attended psthd meeting here. We were on the river cruise last October.
Roland: By the way, cute grandson!
Perry: Thanks. I found a roll of film the other day and was not sure what was on it. So, we took it to Wal-Mart today and got it developed and put on a CD. Turns out it was more pictures from the Alaska Cruise. Mainly from the glacier and where ever it was we went to later.
Roland: How fun! Were any of them any good?
Perry: Not too bad, next time we come over I will bring them with. I have never seen the pictures that Nina took while we on the cruise, and would like to do that also when we come over.
Roland: I’ll let her know. Are we still on for April 30th?
Perry: Yes, Apr 30 is a go. Have you decided what to get dad for his 84th birthday?
Roland: Haven’t even thought about it, yet. There might be something at Harbor Freight he doesn’t have???
Perry: I doubt that. If there is it is because it hasn’t come in yet.
Roland: Well, one could hope!
Perry: Are you having a party (?) for his birthday?
Roland: I haven’t talked with Nina about it since we were there because she’s been sick.
Perry: I can understand that. Glad that she is on the downhill side of that!!
Roland: Me too. Now she just needs to get caught up on sleep.
Perry: Before I forget, Apr. 30th is Hannah’s birthday and Mindy is planning some sort of birthday celebration. She knows that you guys will be over here and as such she is planning the party after we get done blessing the boys.
Roland: Sounds good to me.
Perry: Her birthday parties are usually over fast. She did say something about cooking some burgers and such.
Roland: It’s still OK. I thought we’d pick mom and dad up about 10 a.m. That’d put is there about 1. All we’ll need to do is get them back by Dad’s bedtime.
Perry: That is what I had in mind also. Hopefully all will go well. We will make more plans as it gets closer. I still have to talk to mom and dad about the date. Sure it won’t be a problem for them.
Perry: I will call after conference is over today.
Roland: Sounds good to me. I’ll let Nina know.

This is a Wednesday night that actually feels like it should be a weekend already. We’ve had winter weather for the past week — except we haven’t had the snow and rain that comes along with winter. A few flakes will fall and nothing more. Dang. If we’re going to have the weather, I’d just as soon have the rain and snow that goes along with it. Recently I’ve been doing a lot of writing at work. Policies and procedures and such. Consequently, I’ve been neglecting the blog. I actually need to write in the blog much more often as it is quite theraputic. I’ve also been quite caught up in the Wheel of Time series from Robert Jordan. I’ve just started Book 10 and am still enjoying the series. These are all huge books (800 to 1000 pages each) and they all take some time to read. As a result, I haven’t been writing very much and I’ve also got several thousand e-mails unread from the Prop Wash Gang. These are folks that have been involved in the Air Force reconnaissance program as I was some forty years ago. Most of them were Russian linguists. A few were Chinese, Korean, or Vietnamese lingusts. A couple are Arab linguists. The commentary and stories are quite interesting. So I can’t just delete the e-mails, I do want to puruse them. I’ll catch up one of these days!

I’m listening to a podcast as I write this. Richard lives in Japan (works in Tokyo and lives about two hours north of the city not far from Tsukuba) and has put out two podcasts. The URL for his blog is www.herroflomjapan.com. Both of his podcasts so far have featured a “soundscape” from Japan. He has a couple of binaural microphones that look like earphones. He plugs these into his mp3 recorder and walks through neighborhoods in Tokyo. In this case, he’s walking through Kabukicho which is the red-light district on the west side of Tokyo (I’ve never been there). It’s quite interesting listening to all the sounds and action as he walks along, records the sounds, and comments on what he’s seeing. Sounds just like the Japan I remember.

All of the birthday cards have arrived. It was indeed fun getting a whole stack of birthday cards and all who were assigned came through with their assignment. Very cool. We’ll be going to some Chukars baseball games, buying some more books from Amazon.com, and enjoying goodies. A very nice birthday and thanks to all. My dad will have his 85th birthday in a couple of weeks, so it’s time to plan a birthday party for him. Birthdays are still good — as the unattributed quote says, “the more you have, the longer you live.” Keep ’em coming.

Nina has been struggling with a lousy cold. We’ve got some very good friends from Colorado Springs arriving tomorrow evening for a short visit on their way to Salt Lake City for General Conference. In about 9 days Nina’s sister from Ohio will arrive for a two-week stay. A few days later, Nina’s niece (daughter of the sister from Ohio) will arrive for a week. Then Ashlyn heads back up to Rexburg to start her next two semesters at college. Ashlyn’s been away on Spring Break and got back this evening. We miss her when she’s gone and will miss her when she leaves to go back to school. She’s a lot of fun to have around (and I’m sure that a couple of old farts like Nina and I make life interesting for her as well!). Ashlyn also came home with a cold. I’m doomed. So far I’ve gotten through the winter with no cold and no flu. My luck looks to be running out. But, I’ve written in the blog!

I don’t think there is anything about birthdays I can say that hasn’t been better said by a bunch of other people. For instance:

• No wise man ever wished to be younger (Jonathan Swift).
• Old age isn’t so bad when you consider the alternative (Maurice Chevalier).
• A birthday is just the first day of another 365-day journey around the sun. Enjoy the trip (unknown)!
• Birthdays are good for you. The more you have, the longer you live (unknown).
• For all the advances in medicine, there is still no cure for the common birthday (John Glenn).

I’ve now had sixty birthdays. It was only a few years ago that I thought sixty was really old. I now certainly hope not, because I don’t feel “really old.” I should easily have another twenty birthdays and with the advances in medicine perhaps even thirty or more. That actually has a nice sound to it: thirty more birthdays. That’d mean I’ve still got a third of my life left — plenty of time to get a few more things checked of the list of stuff I want to do before I die.

Since today is my birthday, yesterday was Nina’s birthday. One day of the year we’re the same age. Then we go to bed and I wake up a year older but she only wakes up a day older. I guess there’s some poetic justice in that…. However, since my birthday was one of those “major milestone” birthdays, our kids have all ganged up to send me sixty birthday cards. Most have arrived, some are still on their way. It’s been fun opening and reading all the cards. The variety of cards is very interesting and also reflect a lot of the personality of the person sending the card. I’ve enjoyed getting all of them. They’ll get eventually into a scrapbook as they make a very nice remembrance.

There is a potential problem if I buy anything close to my birthday or before Christmas. Since Nina knows my wishes and desires pretty well, she will use them as a guide when buying presents. This birthday was no different. I’ve been re-reading the Robert Jordan Wheel of Time series and am close to finishing book 8. I don’t have book 9, but I do have book 10. So, Nina bought a copy of book 9 for my birthday. However, on Friday I got an Amazon.com gift certificate from our daughter Heather. She and the grandkids came up on Friday and stayed over to today for our birthdays. Further, her oldest daughter (and our oldest grandchild) is coming up on her sixteenth birthday and is learning to drive. She needs forty hours of supervised driving practice, some of which have to be at night. So, I asked Stephanie if she wanted to get in some night driving and she could drive me over to the Pine Ridge Mall. Of course she wanted to go! Not only could she drive, but we were going to the MALL! There is a rather poor bookstore in the mall. I checked there to see if they had book 9 in stock — they didn’t. They had one copy of all the other books in the series, but not book 9 (that should have been a clue…!!). When we got back home, I proceeded to order the book from Amazon.com.

When I told Nina later that evening that I had ordered the book, she didn’t say much. She later talked with Heather about what to do, and Heather (always wanting to avoid making someone uncomfortable) suggested just taking the book back to the bookstore for a refund and not saying anything as there were other presents. Nina wanted to give me the book anyway just so I would know that she had been thinking of me (and perhaps also to remind me to not buy things just before my birthday). This morning Nina and I talked about it again, and decided that we would give Heather a hard time. Nina would give me the book first as though it was the only present. I’d open it, and she would make a big deal about my already having bought the book. That’s what we did. It went off perfectly and Heather was quite put out when we told her it was a planned act! I guess I made her pretty uncomfortable … Sorry, Heather! (and Stephanie). Maybe sometime in the future it’ll be funny (I hope).

This afternoon we drove to Soda Springs and spent the afternoon with my folks. Mother made a lovely dinner and we had a very nice visit. Dad talked about how he learned he was a father. It was WWII time, he was in the army in Germany and received a V-Mail from mother that mother was going into the hospital to deliver the baby. The day he received the V-Mail was the day his unit crossed the Rhine River. About ten days later he received a second V-Mail letting him know that a son had been born, that he was indeed a father, and that mother and son were doing well. News travels much faster today. I was reading a while back in the newspaper that a father-to-be in the army in Iraq was on the phone listening to the activity in the delivery room as his wife delivered a new baby daughter. One of the services some birthing centers provide (for a fee, of course) is a web-camera feed of the delivery room and the newborn baby. Anyone with an invitation can receive the feed over the internet and participate long-distance in the event.

The day is almost finished. Another decade has begun. This one should see momentous changes in our lives as well as the world around us. Sometime in this decade we’ll hopefully have sufficient money to retire. We’ll serve a couple of missions during the coming decade if our health holds up. We’ll do some traveling and see parts of the world as well as this country that we haven’t seen before. We’ll spend time with our family and grandchildren, present at as many of their major milestones as possible. In ten years the internet will look nothing like it does today. Will these musings still exist somewhere in the ether? I hope so!

I’m so tired of trackback spam. The online poker sites are the worst of the lot. A trackback is intended to say that someone has linked to my weblog. They have written something and put a link in their blog referencing my blog. The trackback then shows up as a comment on my site giving a link back to the person who referenced me. The trackback spam is just bogus trackbacks intended to put a link in the comments for a particular post back to the online poker site. Well, I’ve been getting anywhere from five to ten of these trackback spam messages a day. I’m tired of deleting them. So, for the time being, I’ve turned off trackbacks. Sometime in the future when the online gambling sites have forgotten about me, I’ll turn them back on (maybe). Why is it that these places take something good and turn it into crap?