Sunday morning in Chandler, Arizona and it isn’t raining! We’ve got partly cloudy skies, 52 degress, and 92% humidity. Maybe that means it’ll rain later? I went out into the backyard of Jaelene’s house and Colten came out to play a little bit. He immediately went back in because it was “cold” and he was “freezing!” He put on a jacket and came back out so I could take some pictures. This is the picture he selected since it shows him in front of the scoring net. He really likes hockey and the backyard is somewhat set up to play hockey.

Backyard is a bit of a misnomer. What isn’t in concrete or swiming pool is gravel. The plants in the gravel are mostly cactii and palm trees. It is a nice back area, however. We’re enjoying our time here. We didn’t make it to the 8 a.m. church as we’ve learned there is a closer building with meetings starting at 11 am. That’s where we’re headed in a couple of hours. Good morning!

Arizona has had copious quantities of rain over the past couple of months. As we made our approach into the Phoenix airport I was surprised to see how green and lush the vegetation is here in the Phoenix area. It was raining when we arrived and has rained through most of the day today. Rain is forecast for tomorrow as well. It’s currently 58 degrees with 88% humidity. It’s still better than snow, however. We think it is warm. The locals are all freezing. I’ll only be here a couple of days and by the time I leave, perhaps I’ll think it is cold as well (but I doubt it)!

My son-in-law Scott drove me over to Frys — the electronics store — this afternoon. Since I don’t make my regular trips back and forth to San Jose, California any more, I don’t have the opportunity to shop at Frys. The store here in Chandler is massive — perhaps the largest Frys store I’ve seen. It was also very busy. Lots of people buying stuff. There was also a fairly long line of people making returns. I was interested in buying a cheap wireless card for a desktop computer that I’m setting up for Ashlyn and I found it at Frys. I got my fix and am good for a while longer. One of the things I miss in Pocatello is a good computer and parts store. The best available is Best Buy in Idaho Falls and they don’t hold a candle to Frys. In California I’ve run across people who really rail (according to Webster: to revile or scold in harsh, insolent, or abusive language) on Frys. They don’t like how Frys hires the cheapest labor possible and doesn’t treat their employees well. They complain about the returns process. They don’t like the fact that people working on the sales floor have no product knowledge — and in fact often give very poor and misguided advice. Nevertheless, the stores have the lowest pricing on a wide range of products, turn over a huge amount of inventory, and make good money. They also provide employment for a lot of people who learn some basic skills and become much more employable. I’m in favor of Frys and am glad there’s one here in Chandler.

The grandkids and family here in Chandler are doing very well. We’ve had a good time playing with the grandchildren and visiting. Both Scott and Jaelene are doing very well as parents and in their work. They have a lovely house in a lovely neighborhood. They are happy with each other and their family. It is good to visit with them and be a part of their lives for a few days. Scott is incredibly knowledgeable about residential automation systems (including security, ambiance, home theater, and comfort systems). He comes at technology from a completely different direction than how I come at technology. I enjoy talking with him and learning from him. I’d like to have a lot more intelligence in my home and the systems that are in our house and he is able to provide excellent advice and insight into where this whole side of technology is going.

We are both quite tired tonight. We’ll be in bed for sure by 10. There is a church building nearby that has meetings starting at 8 so we’ll head over there for sacrament meeting in the morning. Life is very good and we’re delighted to be visiting here in Chandler, Arizona. Perhaps tomorrow I’ll have some pictures!

The amount of daylight is definitely increasing and I’m happy about that. Having some sunlight for a while after I get home from work makes the workday seem shorter and going to work in real daylight is a good start to the workday. Today’s sunrise was at 7:26 a.m. and sunset was at 6:02 p.m. That works out to be about 10 and a half hours of sunlight. In another a month we’ll have more sunlight than non-sunlight and that means the snow and cold will be gone soon as well. I’m right ready for some springtime!

I visited with the gastrologist this afternoon. He showed me pictures of my esophagus and the scar tissue from the acid reflux problem both before his procedure and after the procedure. The opening certainly appeared to be larger and rounder. The tissue samples he took were also completely benign — simply confirming his diagnosis of acid reflux induced dysphagia which is a fancy way of saying difficulty in swallowing. Previcid will allow the esophagus to heal in about four to six months by keeping the acid production down. The literature with Previcid says that it is for the “short-term treatment of erosive esophagitis.” Quite comforting. I don’t need to go back to the gastrologist. I’m to see my normal doctor in about six months to see if further treatment is necessary. Meanwhile, I’ve had no issues or problems since the procedure, no side effects from the medication, and I’m a happy camper. His only comment was that I should have come in to see him earlier and gotten rid of the problem sooner. That’s a hard call to make. How do I make the right decision about when to take a possible health problem to a doctor? It takes time and money to see the doctor as well as his time that could possibly be better spent with someone else. I’m certainly not as stubborn as my dad about going to see the doctor, but perhaps I should be a little less conservative. Perhaps.

This weekend Nina and I are off to Phoenix, Arizona. Our daughter Jaelene has the week off from work and we can use a short vacation and, in particular, a grandkid fix. We’ll fly to Phoenix on Saturday morning. I’ll return Tuesday evening and Nina will come home the following Saturday morning. I’m looking forward to some warmer weather. Phoenix will have a low tonight of 45 degrees and will warm up to 68 degrees tomorrow. Contrast that with a low tonight of 5 degrees in Pocatello and a high of 36 degrees tomorrow. It’ll be shirtsleeve weather for us in Phoenix while all the natives will be wearing coats, hats, and gloves! I’m sure that’s how the locals pick out the snowbird visitors.

Someone asked me the other day why I never talk about work in my blog. The easy answer is that few people would really be interested in my work. The more complete answer is that companies take a very dim view of employees who write about their work. Some have lost their jobs because of content on their weblogs. The courts have upheld the precept of “employment at will,” meaning a company needs no particular reason to dismiss an employee. While I don’t think I would have anything particularly interesting to say about my employer, it’s just better to leave the company completely out of the picture. There’s plenty to blog about without including my work!

A few weeks ago as I was in the Brussels Airport, I saw the latest Robert Jordan Book, New Spring, in paperback and decided to read it on the flight back home. It turned out to be a very good read, so much so that I actually read it twice. The book is set about twenty years before his first book in the Wheel of Time series and provides a very rich background for the series. I enjoyed it so much that I just continued with book one (The Eye of the World) and today I started book five (The Fires of Heaven). The last time I read the series, I got bogged down and never finished book 8 which was quite disjointed and seemingly caused the whole storyline to come unraveled. Since then books 9 and 10 have been published. My sons have told me that book 9 was much better and book 10 was back to the clear writing and tight storyline that the earlier books in the series contained. I’ll soon know. I spend most of my spare time reading now rather than sitting on the computer reading e-mail and surfing the web. It’s a great series of books overall and I’m enjoying reading through them once again. The unfortunate part is, since I’m spending all my time reading, I don’t write so much in my blog anymore….

Tonight my Church assignment was to team up with the full-time missionaries. Some places these are called missionary splits; in this mission they are called team-ups. Essentially my job was to drive the missionaries to their appointments and participate as needed. We have two very fine missionaries assigned to our ward. One is from Springfield, Missouri, and the other from Memphis, Tennessee — Elders Conrad and Stanbaugh. They are good, dedicated young men anxious to work and to make good use of their time as missionaries. Their families should be pleased with these young men and their service. We visited a family in a neighboring ward tonight and then spent some time with the Stake President. As far as missionary team-ups go, this was one of the better. Quite often they are frustrating as nothing was planned and even less was accomplished. Not so with these two young men. We had a good evening and it was good for me to be along with them.

I spent yesterday afternoon being scoped and scooped by Dr. Davis. For some time I’ve had occasional problems with food getting stuck at the bottom of my esophagus. It usually would happen with meat and sometimes getting it to either go up or go down was nearly impossible. I finally made an appointment with a doctor to see what the problem was and determine what was needed to get it fixed. He explained that the likely cause was dysphagia, usually caused by acid reflux and that he would need to put a scope down my throat, take some pictures, and inflate a balloon to break up the ring of stuff that was constricting the bottom of the esophagus. The procedure was done yesterday afternoon. After starting an IV drip and wheeling me on a bed into the procedure room, the doctor injected some pain medication and sleep stuff into the IV and within seconds I was gone. Everything went well. The procedure seemed to work and he also took some tissue samples to be biopsied. He had told me occasionally the acid reflux problem will create some pre-cancerous lesions. I’ve a followup appointment next week when he’ll show me the pictures and tell me what he did and if he found anything interesting. In the meantime, I’ve added another prescription for a Prevacid to start clearing up the acid reflux problem.

The last time I was put to sleep was when I had my tonsils removed at about age 3 or 4. I don’t remember that, of course. The process yesterday went very smoothly and I’ve decided that’s the best way to do dental work as well! I’ve heard some recent advertisements from a local dentist who does dental work while the patient is under. A very good idea in my opinion!

Finally, a year ago when our granddaughter Madison was being baptized, Nina and I went out to New Wilmington, Pennsylvania for the event and stayed at a lovely bed and breakfast — The Jacqueline House. We had a great time staying at this bed and breakfast (and was it only just a year ago that we were there?). Today the owner of the establishment found my posting about their bed and breakfast on a search engine and posted a comment. It’s always interesting to me who finds the web log and reads it! It’s not just for family any more, I guess.

It’s a nice, quiet evening in Pocatello. It’s also cold with haze and fog. The days are getting a little longer as I now can leave work and drive home in daylight (if not twilight) rather than in the dark. The weatherman thinks we may get some snow over the coming weekend which is a good thing. Spring isn’t all that far away. Just for the record, it’s 22 degrees outside with a wind chill of 21 degrees, humidity of 91%, and a dew point of 20 degrees. The wind is calm. As I said, a nice, quiet evening.

I spent an hour in the dental hygenist’s chair this afternoon. The company’s dental plans offer Willamette Dental as an option. They are primarily oriented towards preventative care and do a pretty good job of that. The office never seems to be overly busy. This afternoon only the hygenist and the receptionist were there. It actually turned out to be an OK visit. I don’t enjoy being at the dentist office (who does?) but because there was no hustle or bustle, and particularly no other dental office noises such as drills and saliva evacuators or whatever they’re called, it didn’t seem very much like being at the dentist. They hygenist was very pleasant and just prattled on about life and things as she poked and pried around my mouth. Nothing that I needed to respond to or answer. I just sprawled in the chair, closed my eyes, and tried to drift off into la-la land. An hour later and I was on my way back to the office.

The week has also been full of political news both at home and internationally. President Bush delivered his State of the Union address last night. Last Sunday elections were held in Iraq and despite major threats of violence, more than 55% of eligible Iraqi’s voted. A political cartoon in paper today showed a fellow watching someone on TV going to vote in Iraq while dodging bullets and suicide bombers. The TV-watcher said, “Remind me of this the next time we have elections!”

There always seem to be very loud voices proclaiming that “it can’t be done!” and the elections in Iraq are a typical case in point. For months naysayers have been proclaiming that elections couldn’t be held, it was too soon, not enough preparation, too many people would be killed trying to vote, no one would turn out to vote, and on and on and on. Goverment officials are derided for trying to stay the course. Horrendous predictions are made about the outcome and strident voices shout that the elections must be postponed. I’m pleased that neither our government nor the Iraqi’s listened to the doomsayers and proceeded to plan and hold elections on schedule and as promised. The Iraqi people certainly made a statement to those who were sure the election could not be held and if it was, would be a failure. Congratulations to the people of Iraq who have proved once again that people truly want a say in their future.

We’ve had a visitor here for the past week. A good friend, in her mid-80’s, who worked with us at the Denver Temple came over last Saturday and will fly back home on this coming Saturday. She’s been widowed for several years and works faithfully two days a week in the temple. She’s been fun to have around for the week and I hope that she’s enjoyed being here. I’m sure we’ve also worn her out! I hope to be that spry and healthy when I’m her age. Life continues to be good!

Getting home to my own place and my own bed is always quite satisfying. I’ve been out of town for the better part of three weeks and should now be at home for the next month of so. Except, of course, that we’re planning to possibly take a short trip around President’s Day to Arizona to warm up the bones and play with the grandkids. That isn’t really being gone — just like a vacation isn’t really being gone. Only business trips count in the “being gone” category!

And there is still a lot of snow on the ground. This morning the temperatures are right at freezing. Snow is both melting and falling from the sky. The weather maps indicate some heavier precipitation west of Pocatello and a little bit south. We’re headed to the Salt Lake Airport in a few minutes to pick up a friend of ours who is flying in from Denver to spend a week. Helen lives in Castle Rock, about twenty minutes south of the Denver Temple. We picked her up each week on our way to the temple and took her home after our shift working at the temple and become good friends. She’s in her mid-80’s and very spry and adventuresome and we’re quite delighted to have her come over for a week. The Denver Temple is closed for winter vacation this week making her time available to visit with us. We’ll probably drive through some snow on our way to the airport, I think. If there’s any weather around, it’ll show up as we drive over Malad Pass and into the Great Salt Lake Valley. Snow is a good thing, however. The water is very important!

What an experience! As part of the Lotusphere Conference, one of the business partners salesplace.com had their launch party at Epcot Center last night. As part of the party we were treated to a ride or two on Mission Space, a new attraction in Epcot. I can only describe the experience as “stupendous.” Folks who have difficulty with tight, cramped spaces, spinning, and some disorientation probably need to stay away from the ride. I was able to get two rides in and would have gone several more times had the opportunity been there. Two thumbs up — four stars — V for victory — however it can be said, this is one awesome experience.

When I got back to my hotel room at DisneyWorld this evening, I found that a comment to my last post was waiting for my approval. Apparently, someone at IBM searched through weblogs looking for references to Lotusphere and posted a comment to every blog that had this ability! I’ve approved the comment just for curiosity sake.

I expect that this comment has to do with the major winter storm that crashed into New England yesterday along with the big Canadian storm that came through the midwest at about the same time. Logan Airport in Boston was closed this morning along with other airports along the east coast. Meanwhile, many airports in the midwest like Detroit and Cleveland had most of their flights cancelled yesterday and today. That will certainly affect many people’s plans for getting to Orlando and attending this conference.

The weather here is Dang Cold! The temperatures will be much below freezing tonight with a crystal clear sky. There is a fairly strong wind out of the north as well on this almost-full-moon night. It’s nice to be inside a warm hotel room this evening.