Today is the third anniversary of Trevor’s untimely death. He was killed in an autombile accident sometime during the early morning hours of January 18, 2001. We continued a small tradition this afternoon. Nina inflated ten helium balloons, put an inscription on each of the balloons, and we took them outside for release. We let them go one at a time. There was a breeze blowing towards the northwest which took the balloons past our neighbor’s house and out towards the ridge of mountains in the distance. According to the internet, latex balloons will rise to equilibrium altitude of around 7,000 feet and then travel with the wind until the helium leaks out and they descend. They generally don’t burst (whereas mylar balloons almost always burst). As best as I can figure, the balloons will travel fifty miles or more before coming to the ground. That means these balloons will come down somewhere around Deckers, Colorado. Trevor would like that the balloons will come down in the mountain wilderness.

We miss Trevor immensely. His death has left a big hole in our lives that will take many years to begin to fill. I’m sure that he wasn’t thinking about any of that when he and John were driving drunk and high on that fateful night. Sometime in the next life we’ll meet again and I’m looking forward to that delightful reunion. King Theoden, King of the Rohan, in the film The Lord of the Ring, The Two Towers grieves for the loss of his son saying, "No father should have to bury his son." I understand that feeling. Our kids are supposed to bury us, not the other way around.

We actually remember two deaths at about the same time. Our daughter Traci died shortly after her emergency birth on January 15, 1974, just after we arrived in Germany. Sometime in the next life we’ll meet her for the first time and it will be a joyous meeting. Greetings, Trevor and Traci. I hope that your lives are pleasant and happy!

We’d sure like to get some winter weather! The last snow in our neighborhood was on January 2nd. A fair amount of snow has fallen in the mountains, but not nearly enough. There’s still time, however, so long as it doesn’t snow this coming weekend! I have to go to California a week from Monday. It’s been a long time since we’ve been up to Soda Springs to see mom and dad. So, we’ll try to get this all together. We’ll drive to Utah. I’ll fly out to California and come back on the following Friday. We’ll go up to Soda Springs for the weekend and then go back down to Utah. I’ll fly back out to California for two days, and then we’ll drive back to Colorado Springs. The temple is closed for two weeks, so this allows us the time to make the trip. The weather can wait until we’re finished with this trip!

At the end of our stay in Chandler, Arizona, we drove down to Tucson and spent some of the day at the Pima Air and Space Museum along with a bus tour of the airplane boneyard at Davis Monthan AFB.

The Pima museum is a fantastic place. There were a couple of Mig 17’s and a (Polish) Mig 21 on display.

When I was in the Air Force (late 1960’s) I was a Chinese linguist. I generally didn’t fly reconnaissance missions where we’d see these airplanes. If a People’s Republic of China MIG came over water within 50 miles of our mission aircraft, we went home. However, I was sent as analyst on a late afternoon Russian reconnaissance mission up towards Vladivostok one day in 1967 as a replacement for a guy who fell getting on the bus to the flight line. Since I was handy, my manager said it’d be good for me, the Airborne Mission Supervisor agreed, so off I went. I do not remember much else about the mission other than we did get some company and I spent several minutes at the porthole watching in amazement. I think the escort was a Mig 17, but age has erased the specifics of that memory. I just remember being furious that I’d left my camera behind.

This was about the time that we on the Chinese side of the shop were paying a lot of attention to the Chinese Mig 21’s. For a long time what few Mig 21’s the Chinese had were quite a ways inland, west of Beijing. Surprisingly, a handful of them showed up one day on the coast at an airfield on the Shantung Peninsula and started practicing zoom climbs. Shortly after that one of our reconnaissance missions caught the action as one of these guys took out a Chinese National U-2.

All of the pictures from the museum have been developed. In the next few days, I’ll put together some pictures and commentary. Meanwhile, we’re enjoying the nice winter weather here in Colorado Springs!

We arrived safely back in Colorado Springs about 7:30 p.m. last night. The last three hours of the drive were pretty bad. Just north of Trinidad we drove into a snowstorm and were in the storm the rest of the way home. While we had no issues at all, several other cars and trucks were off the road. In one case just north of Pueblo, we were in the right lane going about 50 mph on snow-packed roads. We were coming up on a pickup truck in the left lane which had recently been plowed. I don’t like to be in recently plowed lanes if the snow is packed in the other lane as plowed lanes get pretty slippery. This proved to be the case. Just as we came up on the right rear of the truck, he lost control. The backend slid to the right, the truck did a 180 degree turn and went off the road into the median. Somehow he managed to come up the other side of the median and end up on the bearm of the southbound left lane, pointed south. He drove away…. Several others weren’t nearly so lucky.

I’ve put some pictures from our trip to Jaelene’s in the picture collection. Click on "Pictures" on the right sidebar and select "Samsal1203" from the list of pictures and enjoy. Happy New Year!

Today seems pretty much the same as the other days in the past week or so as we’ve been in Chandler, Arizona visiting our daughter Jaelene. Other than that someone has decided that this day will be the end of this year and tomorrow will be the beginning of the next year, there isn’t much to distinguish this particular day. Yesterday’s newspaper had a long article about web logs and how they have become a particularly potent political force, one that came into being just this past year. They cited several blogs that have been shaping the political landscape during the past year. It seems that unfettered access to the internet without having to go through multiple levels of approval — without even having to be truthful — is changing how voting citizens make decisions about their candidates. Don’t make any decisions by what you read here!

I’m not certain that there’s a good definition of web logs — this certainly is one. I read slashdot quite regularly and that certainly is a web log. There’s a fellow named Fred that puts one out that I read occasionally, even though quite often it’s fairly banal. Otherwise, I don’t spend much time with web logs. Is it an age thing? Probably so since most folks my age don’t do much with computers while my grandkids navigate through technology with ease. I’m often a bit jealous at how comfortable they are with technology.

Yesterday we stopped for lunch at the Hanger Cafe at the Chandler Airport. The airport is quite busy with normal general aviation as well as flight instruction. The Hanger Cafe was a great place for watching flight operations as well as for good food. Folks fly in for breakfast…. It sounds like a lot of fun. These Piper Super Cubs were parked in front of the cafe. They were available for rent (with an instructor). I think that would be delightful. I think the first airplane I ever sat in was a Piper Cub at the Soda Springs Airport when I was about twelve. A couple of us had ridden our bikes out to the airport and the Cub was parked near the fuel pumps. It wasn’t locked (I don’t think there’s a way to lock these things, anyway), so we both took turns sitting in the cockpit dreaming about flying. I love to fly and wish I had the money and capability to have flying be an integral part of my life. One of these airplanes probably costs about $60,000…. That’s a significant chunk of change for something that I wouldn’t be able to use very much. I don’t even get to ride my motorcycle anymore.

In a few minutes we’ll go to the mall. I’ll spend some time in Barnes and Noble looking at books. I’ll watch the kids playing at the play place while others shop. I’m so excited. In the end, this day won’t be very distinguishable from the other days in the past week or so. Maybe I need to go rent a ride in one of these airplanes! Meanwhile, Happy New Year!

It’s a quiet Sunday afternoon. Nina and I have been to Church. Scott is taking a nap (as is Austin). Jaelene is still in her pajamas. Nina has gone to visit a good friend. Jackson is also taking a nap (must be a theme here??). A couple of cousins have come over to play, so toys abound everywhere. Everyone seems to be having a good time.

We’ve had a good Christmas holiday. I enjoyed watching the kids open their presents and their joy at seeing what was in the next package. Jackson got a big play kitchen and has enjoyed playing with it. In fact, he eventually got so the other presents weren’t interesting; he just wanted to play with the kitchen. Colten has a new bike, but the real hit was a new set of yugio cards. He is absolutely enthralled with yugio, the TV show, and the associated ‘dualing’. He certainly understands everything about the game, but it’s all Greek to me! I was also well taken care of this Christmas as well.

We are also certainly eating well! There’s candy around everywhere (which Bradica The Dog enjoys), all kinds of food in the fridge, as well as a huge batch of fudge just for me.

This has been a nice, quiet vacation so far. Jaelene is coming back well from the birth and we’ll do some sightseeing out and around the area next week. I think we’ll leave on Saturday to drive back so we have some time to get things a bit in order before all the obligations of the new year start. Tomorrow I’ll do some work — visit a data center in north Phoenix. This is a place that we’re considering doing some outsourcing with. The big value is that by making this visit on Monday, I can turn in an expense report for the mileage. It was about 700 miles down here. It’ll be a nice reimbursement.

Interesting people and interesting things are here. Almost every car here is an expensive car. The more expensive, the older the driver (and often the worse the driver)!. Everything is flat. I don’t think there’s anything taller than two stories for miles around. There is real estate development going on everywhere, all in walled communities, some in gated communities. Huge tracts of land are being developed with highly restrictive covenants, meaning everyone has to drive somewhere else to work. The newspaper is filled with information about lawsuites, all related to real estate and many related to the dairy farms and land fill that were here long before the developments were here. We’ve become a very litigious people and I suspect there are few places more so than here. I think water and access thereto will soon be the major topic here (once again). I’m sure there isn’t enough water in this desert area for all the development that’s happening. I think I’m going to walk around to the supermarket and buy a newspaper. Something interesting may have happened around here besides people suing people! Besides, reading the newspaper is a good thing to do on a quiet Sunday afternoon.

Nina and I picked Jaelene and Austin up from the hospital this morning. While we were waiting for the hospital to get everything done so Jaelene could be released, I used my new cell phone to take a picture. He’s not even two days old and is already featured on the Internet! This is quite an age that we live in.

As we were driving here from Colorado Springs, we spent some time talking about how much technology has changed our lives, particularly in ways that we completely take for granted. DVD movies, microwave ovens, Internet, MP3 players, wireless devices, phones with cameras in them…. The list got quite lengthy as we were discussing the subject. About a century ago, people’s lives were defined by how far they could ride a horse or walk. Today we can be in any part of the world in less than a day. Then trying to visualize what technology will be available even 50 years from now is very difficult! Our grandchildren will be taking things for granted that we will find simply amazing. I’d like to be around then! Have a great life, Austin!

Austin made his debut this evening at about 8:30 p.m. MST. What a grand thing is childbirth! Jaelene called shortly after the delivery and we heard him squawl as they gave him a shot. He’s got lungs — and all other important body parts. Weighing in at six pounds ten ounces and nineteen and a half inches long, he’s now ready to start life in this world.

Austin, we’re so happy to have you here. You’ve got good parents who will nuture and love you. They’ll teach you not only how to live, but how to make a difference in this lifetime. I hope that you’ll listen to them but still develop an independent and inquisitive spirit that will be channeled in appropriate directions. Welcome to this life, Austin!

Yesterday afternoon Dawnmarie and Kirk were able to bring their new daughter Jillian home from Pittsburgh Children’s Hospital. Her problem with reflux is under control, she’s eating well, and can now be cared for by her parents. Welcome home, Jillian! I’m so happy that you’re home!

Austin must be on his way. Jaelene called a few minutes ago to tell us that her water has broken and she’s headed to the hospital. So, if all goes well, little Austin will make his debut within the next twenty-four hours. Jaelene is very happy to think this pregnancy just might be coming to an end.

Two grandchildren in two weeks. This is pretty special. I suspect, however, that these will be the last grandchildren for a while until either Daryl or Jared start their families. Time enough for that, however. Merry Christmas to all!