Thespian Watching

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Yesterday afternoon we drove down to North Salt Lake to spend the evening and overnight with Heather and her family. The occasion was that grandson Michael Brown was performing in three one-act plays at the Jr. High School. That was plenty of reason to leave Pocatello and warm up by ten degrees in the Salt Lake Valley. As an added bonus, Heather planned to open up their pool and have a pool party for Danielle’s soccer team late Saturday morning.

The drive down was completely uneventful (as it should be) and perhaps the Utah drivers have realized the cost of gasoline (currently about $3.70 a gallon in this area) and many have slowed down. That would be good as sometimes the traffic is way to hectic for people like us who drive in southeastern Idaho where a five cars on the freeway constitutes a traffic jam.

Michael was in all three plays produced on Friday evening. I’ve put one picture up from each of the three plays. He is a budding thespian, I think. He did a great job of projecting his lines and speaking not quite so fast. The middle play, “Great Ceasar!”, was the best of the three plays, although all three were just right for Jr. High School aged students. They seem to have a good drama teacher who also helps them to have fun doing the plays.

Heather’s household is busy! It almost makes me out of breath how much is going on around this house. I’m sure our house was just as busy when we had all the kids at home with kids in high school, middle school, and elementary school, but memories are somewhat vague (probably due to age-related leaking gray matter). This morning Ty is out cleaning the pool with the help of Michael and Danielle. Stephanie was called into work, Chris must still be sound asleep, and Heather left about 6 this morning to to go a State track meet in Provo to support a young man who doesn’t have a lot of family support.

Later this morning we’ll drive back to Pocatello and get ready to go the Idaho Falls Temple. We’ll attend a Chapel meeting at 5:15 and then do an endowment session at 6 p.m. It’s been a fun visit at Heather’s and a nice prelude to a busy weekend. I’ve got a Priesthood Meeting at 7 a.m. on Sunday morning, followed by Branch Conference in Arbon (about 45 miles south of Pocatello) at 10. This is a fun Branch Conference as they always have a Branch potluck dinner after the meetings … and we eat really well.

Mother’s Day Afternoon Drive

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Video link: Mothers Day DriveThe new blog software suggests that it has the facility to add video to a blog post. That’s true … within limits. Video files are generally huge. For instance, this afternoon we took a drive to see what birds might be found (a Nina passion). I took a few pictures, then used iPhoto (a Mac program) to make a slideshow and then GarageBand (another Mac program) to record an audio track to go with it. When it was finished, the final file size was more than 56 megabytes. The server software won’t allow files that large to be uploaded, and even if it did, it would take about twenty minutes to upload and that long to download again to anyone that wanted to see the movie. While the image size (640 x 480) is a nice size to view, the file is just simply too big.

My next step was to run the move through QuickTime Pro and export it as a smaller picture (320 x 288). That reduced the file size to 21 megabytes. Still too large to be uploaded to this web server. The upload and download times are more reasonable … about 8 minutes to upload or download, but still too long for most people to wait.

Finally, I exported it as a movie MP-4 file. That was a much more reasonable 2.4 megabytes with upload and download times of about 2 minutes. This time I uploaded the file to Amazon Web Services and set the file to start playing as soon as enough of the file had been downloaded. That’s a nice feature of MP-4 files.

So, what’s the best method of putting a video on a blog on my servers? Put the file on YouTube and link to the file on your blog. It works well. If you have questions on how to do that, give me a call and I’ll show you the process.

We had a nice day today and I succeeded in exceeding Nina’s expectations for Mother’s Day. Perhaps she’ll write about it on her blog…. Meanwhile, Happy Mother’s Day!

Mother’s Day Eve

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Soda Springs GeyserThe link is supposed to be to a video clip that I recorded earlier today when we were in Soda Springs, Idaho. I’m using the “add video” feature on the upgraded blogging software so I can see how this all works. In theory, you should be able to click on the link and somehow get to the video clip. If it doesn’t work, I’ll modify the blog entry. Update: It does work, however, the way I set up the movie you have to click on the movie title twice to actually see it.

Today is Saturday, my favorite brother‘s birthday, and the day before Mother’s Day. My FB (favorite brother) was born on Mother’s Day when we were living in Soda Springs many, many years ago. He’s older than dirt and I’m eight years older than him, so that makes me like really old. However, he’s not acting his age and has embarked on this new massive construction project that will probably take up the rest of the time he has available so that he’ll never put up another blog post … wait, he doesn’t put up blog posts now. I guess it won’t make much difference. If it wasn’t for twitter….

Today had another special significance. The Bannock County Landfill was free today. Free Trash Day == More Room In The Garage. That’s a big deal and I was quite happy to load up the backend of my Tracker and wait in line (both going to the landfill and coming back) to make my contribution to the archaeologists of the 25th Century.

This afternoon we made a quick trip to Soda Springs to take over a Mother’s Day present for my delightful mother and to set up dad’s new headsets for watching his new TV. Just in case anyone needs to know, there are instructions underneath his TV about how to turn the speakers on and off. Since he generally watches the TV with headsets on, the speakers are turned off so he can turn the sound up as loud as he wishes in his headset. When we left he was happily sitting in the chair watching the National Basketball Association news on ESPN. His beloved Jazz are down two games to one in the playoffs against the Lakers.

Isn’t it odd that the Jazz are in Salt Lake and the Lakers are in California, both teams a very long way from their original homes? The Jazz were originally the New Orleans Jazz and the Lakers were originally in Minneapolis (having moved there from Detroit). Neither the Jazz nor the Lakers changed their names when they moved across the country abandoning the few faithful fans back home. Money is king in this (and most other) sports. Except maybe Lacross … where the Pocatello team made the playoffs for the first time this year and promptly lost. It’s a building year…

Happy Mother’s Day!

Sliding Into Spring

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May DayMay first is a major holiday in most parts of the world, somewhat akin to our Labor Day in September. Our May First dawned with about three inches of snow on the ground seriously interrupting a number of local events, none of which had anything to do with the real May Day. I’m reminded of a May 1st in Pamplona, Spain where a demonstration turned into a riot causing me (and the shop owner) to take refuge in a nearby building. Someday I’ll need to get my journal out and post the story of that day.

Never-the-less, May Day here dawned cold and white. I spent the day doing some work, catching up on blogs and email, and then upgrading the blog software on all the blogs on my server. I then made a short video about the upgraded blogging software and sent everyone who has a blog on my server an email with a link to the video. A couple of people have already used the new software and seem to have survived. It is actually a very nice upgrade and I like the new features. However, the software has gotten so sophisticated that I can no longer easily modify the code to fit my taste. There’s one really urgent change I want to make and I haven’t yet found the place to make the change!

By early afternoon the sun was out and the snow was gone giving the grass a small drink of water. Today will be a nice, sunny, chilly day … more like the first day of May should be.

Last Sunday we took a drive looking for possible pictures. It was a nice drive through gray farmland and hills. The canyon I wanted to drive through was closed by snow and fallen trees about half-way through so we turned around and took the long way home. Up to that point the only wildlife had been one frightened doe. Driving back towards Inkom, Idaho on the west side of the valley, we came across a farmer’s field being flooded by irrigation water where a huge flock of fairly large birds had gathered. Looking out into the field, I spotted this group of black birds with one white bird. While the white bird may have been a pigeon, I don’t think so as the bird is far too big for that. And that was our wildlife for the Sunday drive. In a couple of weeks everything here will be green. The trees will be in bloom. Flowers (particularly wild flowers) will make their appearance, and another Sunday drive will be in order.

Motorcycles, Eyes, and Birds

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The motorcycle finally was put back together last Saturday. The entire project was to install a 12v accessory plug (aka cigarette lighter). I had to take the front end apart to get to where I could tap into a 12v power supply that was turned on with the ignition switch. It turns out there are several ways the front end can be taken apart, but only one sequence in which it can be re-assembled. I got down to the last item (speaker cover) and found that I had to disassemble everything because that needed to go on as the first thing. As it was, I dropped one of the screws down into the engine area somewhere and it hasn’t resurfaced. But, everything works as expected and the job is done.

Dad came over to see the ophthalmologist today for treatment of his macular degeneration that has changed from “dry” in his left eye to “wet”. During the examination the Dr. took a number of pictures of the eye which were very interesting. It is clear that he has a “wet” problem. In some cases they can use a laser to cauterize the errant blood vessels, but in dad’s case his problem is where a laser would make matters worse. The other treatment is to have medication injected directly into the eyeball (I’m cringing as I write this). The Dr. used a cocktail of anesthetics to deaden the eyeball and the went to the side of the cornea directly into the eyeball to deposit the medication. Dad gets three more of these injections over the next three months. Nina says he didn’t even flinch. Good for him!

bird feeder trayToday I built the tray below the bird feeders. The birds are quite picky about the seeds and toss about half of them to the side. Over the past few years the seeds tossed to the side have ended up on the ground as a feast for all the neighborhood mice. The tray should catch most of the seeds tossed aside and provide another place for the birds to feed. Hopefully this will significantly cut down on the mouse population in our yard.

I’ve also been putting poison down the mouse holes and collecting the dead mice to put them in the garbage for disposal. The poison has yielded a dozen mice (that I’ve found). That means there must be quite a colony underground. It won’t be there long, though. Next week the rototiller goes to work along that whole area and that should be the end of all the mouse holes. They won’t be missed!

Stake Conference

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Today is the General Session of Stake Conference. The majority will be a satellite broadcast from Salt Lake, along with some 67 other Stakes in the Region.

The session is available in two buildings here in our Pocatello Stake (plus out in Arbon Valley … About 45 minutes south of here). One is at the Stake Center and the other at a chapel close to the house. So I decided to go to the closer building. I was very surprised to find the building quite full!! I ended up sitting on a folding chair in the overflow area. The buillding is full, including the stage. It’s amazing. I should have gone to the Stake Center which looks, on TV, to have seats available in the chapel.

It’s a lovely day today. Nina’s at the prison this morning (as usual). After our respective meetings, we’ll take a drive and see what pictures we might be able to take.

The broadcast from Salt Lake will start in about three minutes. People are still coming in. I’ll never understand being late in the Church. Time to pay attention, I guess.

Prisms and Glasses

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My mother had cataract surgery last month and needed to get her glasses prescription changed. We also take them once a month to the Temple so that mother doesn’t have to drive there. We decided to do this all at once. Her appointment with the eye doctor was on Tuesday, so I drove over to Soda Springs and brought them back here for that. She had her appointment with the eye doctor while I took dad shopping … to the usual places: Harbor Freight, Lowes, and Home Depot.

They spent the night here and Wednesday we drove to Idaho Falls to take them with us to the temple. After that, and some shopping at Sams Club, I drove them back home to Soda Springs, getting back to Pocatello in time for some dinner before going to the Performing Arts Center for the Idaho State Civic Symphony concert.

It was a couple of busy days, for sure. We had a lot of fun. Mother has been seeing double since her surgery and has to drive with one eye closed (!!). The optometrist told her that she would have been seeing double before the surgery, but because she wasn’t able to see through the cataract, she just didn’t know. Her new glasses will have prisms in them to correct her vision:

Q: I have double vision and would like to know how prism in glasses helps to cure this. Also, is there any way I can wear contacts to correct this? — Tina, Florida

A: A prism bends light. Prism in glasses can kind of fool your eyes into thinking they are working together without strain. Prism can also help with double vision by aligning the two images into one. I prescribe a lot of prism for my patients, with excellent results (allaboutvision.com).

The new glasses will come to her in the mail, so she won’t have to come once again to Pocatello with one eye shut….

Wednesday, as promised, was cold and windy. We never-the-less had a good drive to Idaho Falls and an enjoyable session in the Temple. We had lunch in the Temple cafeteria, which has to be one of the best Temple cafeterias in the Church. We did some shopping at Sams Club and came back to Pocatello.

Sometime this fall a Costco will open in Pocatello … a welcome addition to the sparse shopping in town. A couple of days after Costco made their official announcement, Dillards announced that they would be closing their store in the mall here in town, leaving about 75 people without a job. The new Costco will employ more than that, but the store has just started construction and won’t be open for several more months. We’ve had a Sams Club card for more than ten years but won’t be renewing it next time. Costco will now have our business.

Wednesday evening we went to the Idaho State Civic Symphony concert at the Performing Arts Center. The program included Four Norwegian Dances by Edward Grieg, Piano Concerto #1 by Chopin, and Beethovan’s Symphony #1. The guest artist for the piano concerto was Peter Frankl and his capability at the keyboard was definitely amazing. The orchestra sounded wonderful. It was definitely their best performance of the year. Next year features a new Music Director and we’ve bought our season tickets.

That brings me to today … a cold, windy, wet day. We’ve had occasional rain, occasional snow, lots of wind, and a high of about 44°. I’ve gotten caught up on most things, except for 331 unread emails. I’ve still got four bolts and one fairing piece to finish up on the motorcycle. Maybe tomorrow?

Springtime in Pocatello

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When I was growing up in Soda Springs, Idaho, we subscribed to the Salt Lake Tribune newspaper (which is no longer available in Soda Springs). On the front page of the second section of the newspaper, columnist Dan Valentine wrote a daily column on things happening in and around Utah. Sometime each spring he would have a column with the same heading: “Spring is sprung, the grass is ‘riz. I wonder where the flowers is?” (I’ve written about this before….)

The significant characteristic of Springtime in the high desert area of Idaho, Utah, and Wyoming is how fast the weather changes from one day to the next. We’re in one of those weather patterns right now. It was 65° and sunny on Friday, 50° and very windy on Saturday, and today was 40° with rain and snow. The cold, wet weather will continue through most of the coming week.

Since riding a motorcycle isn’t fun when the weather is cold and wet, I tore into the front of my motorcycle on Saturday to install a 12v accessory plug. In order to do so I had to take most of the fairing off as well as the headlight. Behind all of that are the electrical wires that I’ll tap into to provide power to the accessory plug. I’m now ready to wire in the accessory plug and put everything back together.

I ran out of time on Saturday to finish the job. This is the time of year for Ward Conferences in our Stake here in Pocatello and the next set of Ward Conferences was today for the three wards meeting in the Grant Building. The ward conference starts with a session at the Idaho Falls Temple on Saturday afternoon. Nina and I needed to leave at 3:30 p.m. to drive up to Idaho Falls.

We had dinner at the Temple, then dressed in our white clothing for the session, which was nearly full. We left the Temple about 8:30 p.m. and got home last night, very tired, about 9:30 p.m. We enjoyed the session and it’s good to be in the Temple with people we know.

During this year’s set of Ward Conferences, my assignment is to conduct the Sunday School portion of the conference and give a short history of temples and temple ordinances in the Church. Today I had this assignment at 10 a.m., noon, and 2 p.m., one time for each of the three wards meeting in the building. That meant being in Church from 9 a.m. until 4 p.m. and taking a very short break from 1:00 – 1:45 p.m. for lunch. It’s a long, but very enjoyable day.

It’s also a day soon coming to an end. Driving home from the Temple last night, I drank a bottle of water. Not a good idea that late at night. I was up twice during the night because of the water! The general rule at my age is nothing to drink after 7 p.m. to give my system enough time to move the water out before going to bed. I shall sleep well tonight, for sure … dreaming (possibly, as I never remember my dreams) of a nice, warm spring day riding the motorcycle across the countryside….