It is very nice to be back home. The trip was very quick … I arrived in Belgium on Sunday morning and flew back to Pocatello on Friday. The week was full of meetings and dinners. The purpose of the trip is for our quarterly staff meeting. Each quarter all of my peers meet together with my boss for a day or so of training and then a couple of days of coordination meetings. This time the meetings were in Belgium. Next quarter we’ll meet in Pocatello, then in Manila. These meetings start early in the morning and go through dinner and late into the evening. There is almost no time for anything else during the week. I did take some video and put it together into a movie for a brief glimpse of Gent. It’s a large file (about 67 mb), so it’ll take a few minutes to download with a broadband connection.

The trip was quite uneventful. The flights were on time or early. My suitcase got completely unpacked and repacked by TSA on the return flight. That happens actually quite often and I think it’s because of the nasal CPAP machine that I need for sleeping in the suitcase. Most often the suitcase just gets opened and checked. This time it had been completely repacked. So, I’ve done my part for the security of our homeland.

I do enjoy Belgium. This trip didn’t allow time to do much other than a little bit of shopping. One item available there that isn’t available here (except by prescription) is cough syrup with codine. I got there with a fairly serious cold and a deep, hard cough. So upon arrival, I stopped at the pharmacy and picked up a bottle. Then I found that one of my collegues had just come down with a pretty serious cold, so I gave him the bottle. The next morning he was very happy with that decision as he was finally able to get a real night’s sleep. Before I left Belgium I had picked up two more bottles. Fortunately, those survived the suitcase inspection and repack. Both of the boxes had been opened as the seals were broken. But, the bottles were still there when the suitcase finally arrived at home (a day later that I got home … it spent the night in Salt Lake City because the connection time was too short).

Tomorrow is Valentine’s Day. It’s a day celebrated across much of the world. In Japan, the girls give guys chocolate on February 14th and the guys give girls chocolate on “White Day” which is the 14th of March. I think that custom is peculiar to Japan. But, I have a very special Valentine person in my life whom I love dearly. Happy Valentine’s Day to my dear wife and best friend Nina.

So far the flying has been OK. The flight from Pocatello to Salt Lake City was on time (and full). The flight from Salt Lake City to Atlanta was about twenty minutes early (and full). The flight from Atlanta to Brussels leaves in about ninety minutes. I’ve no idea if it is full or not, but there seem to be a lot of people here in the gate area already. I wouldn’t be surprised if it was full or close to it.

The weather here is cold! Temperatures are hovering around freezing in Atlanta which is abnormally cold for this part of the country. There are a lot of military troops in the airport either coming in from Iraq or headed back to Iraq. There are enough military here that there are Military Police also patrolling the terminal! I haven’t seen that since Vietnam days. I guess this must be a major transit point for troops.

My cold is just about over. There is still some residual cough and congestion, but I definitely feel much better. Maybe the serious lack of sleep last night made the difference. I’ve slept so much the past three days that last night my body simply didn’t want to sleep … just snooze and doze. It was a very long night. Oh well, I hope to be able to do the same as I wing my way across the ocean this evening. We had very good tail winds coming from Salt Lake City. Maybe they’ll continue across much of the ocean! I’d like to get in early.

On a very happy note, we’re recognizing two birthdays today. Jaelene and her husband Scott both were born on January 29th. They’ve been out east helping Daryl celebrate his thirtieth birthday, so they’re probably not doing any celebrating today! Happy, happy birthday to both of you.

Dad is home and having a lot of trouble with his TV / Home Entertainment equipment. There are too many buttons on the remote control. Dad’s fine motor control is poor (giving it a huge benefit of the doubt), so he’s forever pushing the wrong buttons. He has to use headphones to listen to the sound and has managed to catch the headphone cord when standing up and broken that cord. Things are just not quite what he needs.

So, the headphone thing can be taken care of by going with wireless / infrared headphones that have no cords. I think I’ll go buy a universal remote control. I’ll take it over to Soda Springs and program the on / off button, the volume up and down buttons, and the channel up and down buttons. Then I’ll take it apart and disable all the other buttons. That way he can push all the buttons he wishes, but doesn’t then have to call someone to figure out what’s the matter with the TV! There might be something to this idea of a primitive remote control that provides very limited functionality. Remember, you heard it here first!

My cold is still “growing” and hopefully will peak real soon now. I’m not looking forward to flying to Belgium on Saturday sporting this cold! It seems to be settling in my chest with lots of coughing. I came home from work at noon and slept the rest of the afternoon. With any luck I’ll be able to get a good night’s sleep tonight and maybe tomorrow the cold will start getting better?? It’d sure be nice.

A few days ago, I started having some pain in the right side of my mouth. By Friday the pain had gotten bad enough that I decided to call the dentist to see about an appointment. They had time this afternoon at 2:45 p.m.

Since dad came home from the hospital yesterday and Perry and Chris were visiting them, Nina and I drove over to Soda Springs this morning. The pain in my mouth by this morning had localized to my lower jaw right front and I didn’t sleep very well last night. We had a good visit with mom and dad — who is very happy to be back home — and came back to Pocatello. I went to the dentist’s office for my appointment.

Today is a Saturday. I was rather surprised that the office was even open on a Saturday! I got there and discovered why: it was full of families with kids. Two dentists, the orthodontist, and the hygenist were there, all quite busy. They took an x-ray and the dentist told me that there was some infection going on at the bottom of one tooth in the right front lower jaw. I needed another root canal. Since I’m leaving for Belgium next Saturday, they decided to do the root canal right then and there. By 5:30 I was out of the dentist’s office, the numbness had started wearing off, and I headed for Walgreens to pick up an antibiotic prescription. The dentist said that I was down to six teeth in my mouth that could possibly need a root canal in the future. All the rest are either gone or the procedure has already been done.

My dad had all of his teeth taken out when we were living in Tooele and I was going to 1st Grade. While in the gene pool, I got his predeliction for bad teeth and have passed that trait along to a couple of our kids (sorry!). So, here I sit at the computer with a rather sore mouth. The numbness is almost gone. My stomach is acting like it doesn’t like the antibiotic. I’m a bit cranky. And it’s too early to go to bed … or is it?

Dad continues to make a good recovery. He was cleared by the doctors to be able to go home for a few hours yesterday and today. My sister Terry and her husband Allan helped mother take him to the house yesterday. Nina, Ashlyn (Nina’s niece who is visiting for a few days), and I went over today (I took another short video of the day).When we arrived, he was ready and raring to go. Mother brought her car to the front of the hospital, Nina and Ashlyn helped him get in, and off we went to their house for a few hours.

Dad enjoyed being home and sitting in his chair. He watched some television and did a little snoozing. Nina had put together a nice Sunday dinner of roast beef, mashed potatoes and gravy,  peas, and Nina’s canned peaches for dessert. We had a good time and managed to get dad back to the hospital only a little late for his 6:00 p.m. curfew. He was tired, but happy.

I just got off the phone with mother for an update on dad’s progress. She talked with me between spoonfulls of soup. My brother Perry had called a few minutes ago. She was quite pleased with the day and what was happening. Today the therapist set the walker aside and dad had do a lot of walking with no assistance (other than a belt tightly held by the therapist in case dad lost his balance). I was sure that would come some day but this is earlier than I had expected. It’s a very nice piece of news. He is really looking forward to going home!

The cold weather continues to persist although the high temperatures have finally gotten into the high teens and we’ll possibly get into the mid 20’s tomorrow. My car barely starts putting out heat by the time I get to the house after leaving work. Like my brother, I’ll try very hard not to complain about the heat this summer. I like air conditioning better than running the furnace.

Traci would have been thirty-three this past Monday. Trevor would now be thirty-five. It’s been six years since Trevor was killed in that automobile accident. Both events seem like yesterday. The memory of the emergency drive to the hospital in Duesseldorf-Heerdt in the middle of the night with no idea where the hospital was located still makes my heart pound. The drive from San Jose to the San Francisco airport followed by the flight to Salt Lake City is burned in my brain as well. All of those people in the airport and on the airplane going about their happy, unconcerned lives was such paradox to me that it seemed I was in a different world from everyone else and that I couldn’t relate to their world. I’ll not write more since it’s just too hard. I don’t think it will ever, ever be easy. It just hurts.

Nina is at the womens prison tonight teaching them about journals and keeping memories. She’s been helping a couple of girls who have been released on probation to get into an apartment, get a minimum amount of furniture (such as a bed!), some food in the apartment, and a bus pass so they can get around town and find a job. One of the women remarked that for her whole life she has lived with people on drugs and alcohol. She’s never been in any other circumstance until now. This is her second time in prison and out on parole. The first time she got out, she went home and as she walked in the house, a family member handed her a hit of meth and welcomed her home. This time she’s not told anyone in her family that she’s out nor where she is. She wants to somehow break that chain and do something different with her life. I sure hope that it can happen. She deserves a chance at a real life rather than the illusion of life that she has been in before. It will be good for her to leave that world and join our world.

Happy birthday, Traci. I’m looking forward to getting to know you. Trevor, know that we love and miss you. I’m looking forward to getting to know you once again. We’ve got a lot to talk about.