Jordan riding through the grass-lands out east. He bought the bike after saving his money from his job as a lifeguard. It's actually a pretty cool concept of a bike, it folds up so you can put it almost anywhere. swiss bike

How quickly summer fades. It's snowing outside right now, Loveland ski area is officially open (earliest in 40 years). I heard schools are having a snow day in Rexburg, earliest ever. Must be global warming. Farmer's Almanac, historically very accurate, predicted a very cold, very wet winter. I think they were onto something.

My brother Joe went into the hospital a couple days ago with a blood clot at his lung. He nearly died, and would have, if the clot hadn't been so big that it couldn't actually get into the lung itself, instead it just blocked the blood flow, which caused extreme pain and a massively damaged lung. He's being well cared for, it sounds. I hope he recovers fully.

I took Lacey and Cassidy to Grandma Gwynne's funeral in Cedar City. We had a good time together. It's not too often the girls get a daddy daughter date, and this was an extended weekend together. It was a lot of fun for us, despite the whole funeral aspect. We got to see cousins and uncles and aunts we haven't seen in decades. We've all aged a lot, but no one changes much. The girls swam every chance they could get, which was a lot. Lacey got to hang out with her cousin, Olivia, which was the primary reason I was talked into going at the last minute.

My favorite moment of the trip was sitting outside on the patio, watching the kids in the pool, and chatting with my brothers and sisters. We had some funny conversations, and got to catch up on everyone's activities. Mom and Wally stopped by the hotel Saturday night, and we had a good time talking together.

This last week a good friend of mine asked to go out to lunch with me, said he was hating life at his job and had some other issues going on. I haven't seen him in a year or so, and haven't worked with him for five years. When I knew him best, he was an energetic and youthful individual. He was a prankster and always had a good joke, or an entertaining story -- usually involving fast cars and police. He's changed a lot. There was no more humor in his eyes, or the thrill of life. He was unhappy. He wore it like a uniform. Years ago, at one point, he asked if he could get a copy of the Book of Mormon. I happily obliged, and hoped he would read it. He came to church with his family a couple times, but soon made it clear he was going to become active in his own church. That was that. It wouldn't be the first time I've re-activated someone to their own church, and I'm not entirely disappointed by that. Most churches have a lot of good in them.

It was good to see him again, and talk with him, but he was in just about as bad a depression as I've ever seen, especially given the contrast with who he used to be. He hates his job, and he's been separated from his wife for a year, and just wants to end his marriage as soon as he can. He can't find peace and feels that he's missed his calling in life. I didn't know what to say. I love him like my own brother, but nothing I could think of, that wasn't gospel oriented, could possibly help. So, I e-mailed him after our lunch, told him I couldn't stand seeing him like this and told him I was going to offer him the one thing that meant more to me than anything in this world, that has never let me down, and has always led me to happiness. I offered him a chance to sit down with myself and the missionaries and talk about these important things. So far, he has ignored my e-mail, which I'm taking to mean he doesn't want to talk about religion.

It's very sad for me to see. I feel like I have the only thing that could possibly make any real lasting difference in his life and his families life, but for some reason he has made up his mind that whatever it is he's looking for, whatever will fulfill his needs, whatever will finally strike him as his "calling", whatever that is that he hasn't yet found, it isn't the Mormon church. So, he will go on and we will part ways once again for a few years.

Unfortunately Satan has great hold on people's hearts these days, enough to convince them that however dark it gets, the answer lies elsewhere. Nothing to see here, move along. As things become increasingly bad in this world, the better he gets at convincing them that happiness is always somewhere else. Anywhere but right in front of them, and especially not those dorky young guys in white shirts and ties.

But, I'm not giving up hope. He might still answer my e-mail with acceptance, or I might try again in awhile.

My heart goes out to him. I hope he finds happiness, but I know that only through the true and living Gospel of Jesus Christ can anyone find true and lasting happiness. Everything else is lacking, and will always leave us wanting. This much I know.

I wish I could tell you what I've been up to this week, but it's top secret and it would probably bore you anyway. It's pretty darn exciting to me though, and it's really consumed pretty much my every waking hour -- Julie was ready to divorce me Saturday night at 11pm, going on my 80th hour or so this week, and I had said about three words all week to anyone (unless muttering to myself counts). I just had my head wrapped around this project and I was trying like a mad-man to get it coded.

You ever see a comic where the dude has a light-bulb go on over his head? Yeah, that's pretty much what happened, only times 1000.

I haven't done math like this since grad school, and I remember now why I got into engineering in the first place. Yes, I'm uber-geek, but that's okay, it pays the bills. I'm actually chomping at the bit right now to get back to it. It's still running through my head and I'm just dying to get back to it. But a day of rest will probably do me a lot of good.

Juliette and Chris, I heard, are moving to Colorado! Yay! They couldn't be much further away and still living Colorado, but they are technically in Colorado. Grand Junction, actually. It's a very nice place to live, like totally incredible. There are places within an few minutes drive there that are mind-bogglingly beautiful. The area itself is pretty much ideal, I think. Good luck to them in their move. I hate moving, so I'm sure they're not thrilled about packing everything up and moving into the unknown, but it is an adventure.

There's a pretty cool bike race there I'll have to do so I can stop in and see their new place.

After reading Grandma Gwynne's auto-biography I'm pretty sure that we have no idea what adventure even means these days. Putting all your stuff in a comfy large moving van and driving in air-conditioning a few hours away is not quite the same as breaking down in interior Alaska, winter setting in, in an army surplus jeep which contains all your family and all your posessions and $50. And then say, "hey this is nice, I think we should live here." That's truly an adventure.

Layoffs came and went. I am still employed at Seagate. That was a relief to me, as well as the other members of my group. There were a few people around the area that were let go, and it was tough to see them packing their things...especially with times as tough as they are now to get another job. Looking around at other job prospects as the rumors circulated, I found a few things that were very specific to my experience, but they are much more rare than in years past.

I told the kids and Julie that if I did get let go I was going to go be a bush pilot in Alaska. The second choice was to move to India and start growing the branch there. My Indian friends here at work tell me I could easily get a job there and that with my income I could live like royalty. There is the whole thing about raw sewage flowing in the rivers and such, but the education is top notch!

I've been flying X-Plane a lot lately. I got the flu over the weekend, and it was about all I could do to stand up, so I had a good excuse to play a lot. It's a pretty amazing flight simulator. It's so good, actually, if you have the right hardware, it's the same software that has been certified by the FAA to log actual hours and get your pilot certifications. The long and short if it is....I have GOT to get an airplane soon. It's just too much fun. Bush pilot. Definitely.

Mom's blogging now, and mentioned I haven't updated in awhile. Reminds me of a quote I heard about blogging "Never has so much been said by so many about so little." Pretty much sums it up.

So, I'm in a holding pattern at work, I guess. The rumors of layoffs have been going around for awhile -- well not so much rumors as an announcement by the CEO, who said in December "I look forward to discussing the re-org with you in January". Odd turn of a phrase, but whatever. Well, it's January and the hammer is coming down. Word is this Wednesday there will be something like a 20% layoff. That's never good for anyone. Times like these are tough, I hope things work out.

I've been looking at various jobs out there for the likes of me, and it looks like it's not as terrible as people are saying. There are still some good positions open, but I'd probably have to move, or take a government job, or both. I'm not overly concerned about losing my job -- but layoffs always get you thinking about such things.

Morale has been pretty low. Some of the best people I know are like "I'm not about to start anything that requires any brain power until after Wednesday." I mean, sure, why would you? I told my co-workers I'd rather be a week behind next Thursday than caught up and laid off.

The family is doing well, though nothing new. Jordan is 15 1/2 now and wanted to go meet a girl at a basketball game last night. Denied. I figure now is the time when teenagers really try to start blurring the line, so I told him it sounded like a date. He'll thank me later.