I learned late last night that Tom Grissom had been found dead in his
apartment from an apparent heart attack. Tom lived alone and his body
wasn’t discovered for a couple of days after his death. He is now in a far
better place.

Divorced and estranged from most of his family, Tom’s passing will likely
be noticed by very few people as it was very hard to stay close to Tom. He
was retired from the Navy for several years when he came down with a
mysterious and debilitating disease. Medical science wasn’t able to quench
the overwhelming fire that seemed to burn in his feet. Tom lived in
constant pain, sometimes enough that I’m sure in the late night hours he
would seriously contemplate ending it all with a single bullet from the
Glock 9mm pistol he kept nearby.

Many in his family could not understand Tom’s pain and that often the only
way he could deal with it was to talk almost incessantly and usually late
at night. He couldn’t keep a job and soon thereafter his marriage ended.
When I first met him about three years ago he was living in a one-room
walkup apartment that he couldn’t afford since he was under a court order
to turn half his monthly Navy pension over to his former wife. The Church
stepped in to offer as much assistance as he would take.

Social Security had denied his application for disability and he needed to
appeal the ruling. The appeal process would take 14 to 18 months,
evaluation by a number of doctors, and the services of a lawyer familiar
with government machinations and idiocy. A good member of the Church and a
respected lawyer stepped up to take Tom’s case at no charge. Finally a
little less than a year ago he got his appeal hearing. He would have to
wait another 60 days for a favorable ruling and then another 45 days
for the disability payments to start.

Meanwhile Tom was evicted from his walk-up because a housing inspector’s
surprise inspection revealed that the landlord had illegally modified the
building in a way that didn’t conform to code. Tom wanted deperately to be
able to make his own way and not have to live on charity. When he won his
appeal, he would receive disability payments from the date of his original
application. Tom kept a running tab of how much the government owed him and
in the meantime would petition eveyone around him for a loan to be paid
back when he won his appeal. This constant pleading for a loan further
estranged him from family and friends.

One day I decided to make a loan with Tom. I’d “loan” him $150 a month. In
return he would let the Church welfare pay his monthly rent. That would
give him about $400 a month of money that he could spend on food, gasoline
for his small, battered pickup truck, insurance, medicine co-pay, and a
telephone.

Tom was on a lot of pain medication. The military doctors would often
prescribe just to get on to the next patient. None seemed interested in
trying to really figure out what was wrong. About the only medication that
helped very much was morphine. Tom hated taking morphine because it made
him constipated and over time the dosage had to be increased as the
narcotic became less effective. The pain was the worst late at night as Tom
lay in his bed trying to get to sleep. Sometimes he was awake and tormented
for thirty hours or more before he was exhausted enough to fall asleep.

It was often in these very late hours when Tom would call. We would talk
about anything, mostly guns and bass fishing, to distract him from the
fires burning in his feet. Tom loved guns and had collected them for a
while. All but one had been sold to pay for medication and daily living.

Finally, the hearing as held and the first hurdle had been cleared. He had
just to wait until January of this year to get the ruling. Further, a
doctor decided to see what could be done with some kind of a bio-feedback
device coupled with a catheter down into Tom’s feet connected to a pump to
feed pain killer directly to the nerve bundle near the ankle. For the first
time in several years, Tom had several nights of normal, uninterrupted
sleep. The relief didn’t persist, but Tom’s quality of life was improved
and the late-night calls got much further apart.

After being evicted, Tom finally found an apartment in another part of
town. A different Ward picked up the financial support. I still kept in
touch and when he got the favorable ruling on his disability claim, I
talked him into letting me forgive our “loan” when he learned that he was
going to have to pay taxes on his disability payment. The last time he and
I talked was shortly before we moved to Pocatello. He was then in the best
mental condition that I had seen since I had come into his life.

He had just come back from Oklahoma where he had gone bass fishing in his
favorite spot. We had talked about this place many times and I’m sure I can
accurately describe the bend in the river, the small island, and how the
river flows into a reservoir. The big bass lie just under the northeast
edge of the island under a tall, old tree that shades the area during the
heat of the day. Tom had caught two of “the big mamas” and was very proud
of his achievement. His doctor had some additional ideas for pain
management that offered Tom some further hope. He was going the next day to
do another temple session. For more than a year he had been going
faithfully to the temple once or twice a month and fighting through the
pain to sit through a session and make the drive up and back.

A few short months later Tom is dead. His suffering is over — both with
his feet and with the estrangement from his family. His methods of dealing
with his pain had driven almost all of them away. One son who lived out
east stayed somewhat in touch, but all those who lived nearby wanted little
if anything to do with him. His circumstance now is much better. The pain
is gone and he is surrounded by family who love him.

I shall miss you, Tom, and our late-night phone calls, our visits in your
apartment, and most of all your determination to live when many others
would have ended it all. You have a special call on our Savior’s atoning
love. Goodbye and godspeed.

Nina and I are in Salt Lake City at the Hilton Hotel in downtown. We drove down this afternoon and met Ty, Heather, Daryl, and Jaelene for dinner. Jaelene flew up from Phoenix yesterday as a surprise for Heather’s birthday. The accompanying picture is looking south from our hotel room window. We’re on the 16th floor of the hotel and the view is pretty nice. I’d like a northerly view (as that’s the direction of the temple) but this will do. Our flight leaves tomorrow just before 10 a.m. and we’ll change planes in New York City before continuing on to Brussels. We’ll arrive in Brussels about 1:00 a.m. on Sunday morning Pocatello time.

Taking enough stuff without taking too much is a balance we haven’t yet achieved. We started out planning to take one big suitcase apiece. That didn’t work. We now both have one big suitcase and one small suitcase. Anything we buy will have to be shipped back home as there’s no room in the suitcases!! I’m really looking forward to this trip and will hopefully have reasonably good internet connection during the trip. If so, that’ll allow me to make regular posts to the weblog as we travel along. I might even be able to put together some pictures from time to time. So, Bon Voyage! We’re on our way!

The following short article was in today’s Idaho State Journal:

BOISE (AP) — A woman who was returning a rented minivan at the Boise Airport drove through the terminal.

A "confused senior citizen," whose name and age were not released, followed an outside "terminal access" sign Tuesday as she bumped the vehicle through a set of automatic-opening double-doors on the west end, airport spokeswoman Larissa Stouffer said.

She drove through the terminal, past the baggage claim area before coming to a stop.

"The lucky thing is she didn’t hit anything," Stouffer said.

There was no damage to the terminal building, no one was hurt and the out-of-town woman, who departed on a flight later Tuesday morning, was not cited.

Stouffer said the airport has had plans to install barriers to block the door.

We shouldn’t chuckle…. Some day that may be me!

I wonder if today will indeed go down in history along with such events as the Wright Brothers first flight, the first manned space flight by the Russians, or landing on the moon. I’ve just watched (again) the web cast of SpaceShipOne’s first of two planned flights to capture the Ansari X Prize for the first reusable civilian space craft to launch twice in 14 days and carry three people to the edge of space. For me this is a milestone date in history. It will soon be possible to buy a ride into space and not long after it will be possible to spend a night in a hotel circling the earth. I hope to live long enough to see it happen. Congratulations Burt Rutan, Scaled Composites, and astronaut Mike Melvill! It’s interesting to me that Mike is piloting this space craft at age 63 — three years older than what our stupid government will allow airline pilots to fly.

Many years ago, the first time I started to get my pilot’s license, we were living in Lafayette, Indiana. We received an unexpected tax return and I used that money to begin taking lessons. Most of the instructors out at the Purdue Airport were young kids with freshly minted instructor licenses trying to build flight time until they could get a job with one of the airlines. On my first flight, the kid who was my instructor (he was younger than I was!) didn’t pay close enough attention to where he was taxiing the airplane. He caught the right wingtip on the side of a hanger and the airplane swung like a pendulum right into the side of the hanger. Fortunately, he had just killed the engine before the wingtip hit the hanger, or there could have been some serious damage done to both of us. As it was, we both were able to climb out of the airplane and walk away. The instructor was fired on the spot (and he probably never got a job flying with the airlines with an accident on his record). I was pretty unnerved. I decided to go for age and wisdom rather than youth and exhuberance! I didn’t have enough money to go beyond solo that time, so getting a license had to wait another 15 years or so.

Eventually in the mid 1980’s I went back to get my pilot’s license at the Cuyahoga County Airport in Ohio. I looked around for the guy with the most white hair and hooked up with Jim Young. He had been a milk truck driver and flew on the side for recreation. He had learned to fly in the Air Force in one of their flying clubs and later got his instructor rating. He was an excellent instructor who stressed safety and prudent operation at every turn. "You really want to be down here wishing you were up there rather than being up there and wishing you were down here!" was something he repeated at least twice every lesson — once before and once after. He was also well past 60 and past the age that the FAA requires airline pilots to retire. Jim Young became one of my Heroes. I added another one today. Way to go, Mike Melvill! Age and wisdom will always prevail!

Today was a quick errand day during lunch. I went over to the County Courthouse to get the books needed to take my drivers tests (vehicle and motorcycle) and then went across the street where absentee voting was going on. I wanted to find out where to register to be able to vote in Idaho. I learned that I could register and vote there but needed proof of residence. So I’ll go back tomorrow with a paycheck stub and get registered and vote so that will be finished before we leave for Europe on Saturday. After that I went over to OfficeMax to pick up a couple of document frames so I could hang up the department mission statement and 4th quarter goals on my office wall. As I came out of there, I discovered that I’d only used up 15 minutes of my lunch time. Wendy’s was just across the street, it would be an easy drive-through and right on the way back to the office. I ordered, paid, and got my hamburger when my cell phone rang. It was my wife. “Hi Honey,” she said. “What are you doing?” Before I could say anything she said, “I’m right in front of you!” Sure enough. She was in the Toyota right in front of me!! I wasn’t paying any attention to who was in front of me, but she had spotted me in her rear view mirror. So, we pulled into adjacent parking places and took our take-out inside to eat-in. What a pleasant lunch surprise!

Yesterday afternoon Daryl called from Malad, Idaho to see what we were up to. He and his friend (they’ve been seeing each other off and on since High School) had gone to Malad for an open house associated with his friend’s work. Now I’m not very sure how to spell his friend’s name — it may be Randi or Randie or something that is spelled very differently but sounds like "Randy". So I apologize for the spelling…. Since they were only about 45 minutes away, Nina "persuaded" them to drive the rest of the way here and visit for a while. We had a very delightful visit and it was good to catch up on what was happening in their lives. They stayed until about 9 p.m. and then drove back to Ogden (to drop off Randy) and then on to Salt Lake City (where Daryl lives). I’ve deliberately not used the word girlfriend — perhaps a better connotation is a friend that is a girl. They seem quite comfortable around each other and we think highly of Randy. She’s very bright and fun to talk with. They can come and visit (together or separately) any time they wish. Thanks, Daryl, for the visit!

The fence is now up on the yard. I’ve three pictures of the fence also to add to this post and hopefully enough text so that everything lines up reasonably well. The first picture was taken from the deck looking towards the southwest corner of the yard. I set the self timer and hustled back towards the corner to try and get a better perspective. The fence is about six feet tall and covers most of the backyard. It is set twenty-five feet back from the road on the north to accommodate local ordinances. Never-the-less, the yard is very large with plenty of potential. Just behind where I’m standing we’d like to put in a pond with a waterfall (or two) with bushes and shrubs around. Just what to do with the rest of the yard is still open for discussion. We’ve invited a landscaping company to draw up a couple of plans and suggestions and discuss them with us. Whatever we do won’t happen before next Spring anyhow. We’d like to have a nice garden area that is a complete change from the outside world. We’d also like a BBQ pit with a picnic area. Nina would like to have a garden.

The second image is looking towards the northeast corner of the fence. The clouds hanging over the mountain are visible in the distance. The day I took these pictures was very overcast with occasional showers. One of those showers had ended a few minutes before I went out to take the pictures before it got too dark. You see, Dawnmarie wanted to know why we hadn’t posted any pictures of the fence on the internet! So, Dawnmarie, thanks for the encouragement and here are the pictures. Of course, they’ll probably take a half-hour to download to your computer….

The yard slopes towards the north and the slope is fairly significant. I’m quite curious to see what the landscaping company recommends. Since I fully expect to be here for many more years, it will be a nice way to spend some money to have a pretty and inviting back yard.

The final picture is looking towards the south from the fence line on the north. So far all we have is grass, weeds, a deck, and a hot tub in the backyard. On the south side of the house big machines have been in moving dirt for the past several weeks. They are probably now ready to pave the roadways for an additional 17 houses to be built in this new development section. However, the machines have been digging and moving dirt — the wind has been blowing — and we have dust EVERYWHERE. The fine dust gets into the house, regardless of whether or not all the windows are closed. Keeping the dust under control has been a huge problem and I’m getting tired of having dust and dirt all over everything. It’ll be a big relief to have the pavement done so that all the major earthwork will be finished. That should finally result in a significant reduction of dust.

Another effect of the dust is on the hot tub. The dust and dirt seeps in the seams and muddies up the water. As soon as we return from Europe, I’ll need to drain the tub, clean it out, wash the filters, and replace the water. It is not currently very usable.

Today is Sunday, the last Sunday that we’ll be in Pocatello for the next month. After church we loaded up the car and took Sunday dinner with us to Soda Springs where we visited with mom and dad and had dinner with them before driving back to Pocatello. We enjoy these afternoons and the visiting. They enjoy the company and the food. It means that occasionally mother doesn’t have to cook dinner for her and dad. Dad has almost completed the building of his workshop in the backyard. This week should finish off all the remaining work, which isn’t much. Then he can get his tools and machines set up the way he wants and get on with his woodworking hobby — making lamps. It is a very nice shop! I think he’s going to enjoy working out there as soon as he figures out how to get heat into the building.

No 6 a.m. meetings this week! The earliest meeting is at 7:00 a.m. on Tuesday. Otherwise, I will be going into work at a much more human hour of 8:00 a.m. That will be pleasant! The day is almost finished and I am as well. I’ll read few e-mails and then get ready for bed. Pleasant Dreams!

For the past three days I’ve had a work meeting starting at 6 a.m. Two of
the three meetings have been video conferences, meaning that the meeting
setup starts 15 minutes earlier.

Unfortunately, video conferencing is still too primative and always adds
significant technical issues to the meeting. Getting everything set up and
working correctly for the video conferences has caused both of these
meetings to start about 15 minutes late — meaning that it took a half hour
to get video conferencing set up and working. The result is a meeting that
finally starts with the meeting technology being the initial subject rather
than the real purpose of the meeting.

My view is that video adds no appreciable value to the meeting but rather
detracts significantly from the meeting. Our European conference rooms are
set up so the camera zooms in on the person speaking. During a lively
discussion the camera jumps all over the place and never gets focused. The
result is a very blurry and pixelated picture. Further, the sound volume
coming from the speaker when some other location is talking causes the
camera in Europe to focus on the wall!

Our technology today is only marginally useful for these meetings. At least
half the time when someone starts talking, they will stop and ask, “Can you
hear me?”. This is because the camera response is too slow and that the
fine facial detail does not pick up on the camera. Meetings just go better
without video conferencing. It’s just not worth getting up at 4:30 a.m. to
to hassle with a video conference!

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Sent from my BlackBerry Wireless Handheld