Ice Storm

I had heard about ice storms before.  News reports told of roads and transportation systems shut down.  They detailed the plight of hundreds of thousands of people without electricity due to cut power lines.  But never having lived anywhere but Utah during cold winters, I had never experienced a real ice storm in person.  

In Utah, we usually only get the soft and  fluffy stuff.  It either melts almost right away, or builds up in soft piles that can be easily wiped away.  Sometimes it gets a little soggy.  But even the wet snow and slush is still squishy and somewhat easy to deal with.

Then I went on a business trip to Maryland in January.  It was cold the whole week.  That alone was notable.  Obviously we have cold in Utah too.  But the humidity in Maryland made that cold cut straight to the core.  It reminded me of how much the humidity in Brazil made the heat feel hotter.   Even once we entered nice climate-controlled buildings, the cold feeling lingered with me.  I was glad I had my lab coat to keep me warmer while we worked. 

I suppose it is that same humidity that helps in the formation of the ice in the ice storms.  Our storm happened on our third day in Maryland.  I was astounded.  Finally, I had first-hand experience to help me better understand the difficulties that come with such a phenomenon.  I walked from our hotel to a nearby restaurant for breakfast.  On my way back, I saw a car that had slid over the ice through the disability parking stalls up onto the sidewalk in front of the restaurant.  Fortunately, nobody was hurt and nothing was damaged.  Our rental car was a covered in a 1/2-inch thick layer of hard ice.  One of my coworkers was the one to rent the car on this trip.  So he got the "opportunity" to figure out a way to get it off the car.  The little bit of paper towel we had left in the car the night before apparently was just not going to cut it.  So he just got in the car, turned on the engine, and hoped the heater would melt the ice quickly.  It didn't seem like it was working, when he spied something in the rear-view mirror.  The rental car company had furnished the car with an ice scraper that had been placed mostly out of sight behind the headrest of the rear seat.  We were saved from having to walk to work that morning.  Still, the short drive was somewhat perilous.  And we did witness one car slide into a curb.

To save wear and tear on windshield wipers, and to make scraping ice easier, most drivers in the area would lift up the wipers from the windshield when leaving their cars parked while ice is possible.  Once again, this was a first for me.  But I could see the benefit of that.  Still, many people simply chose not to drive at all.  When we did get to work, we soon discovered that most of the employees at the company hosting us were either late to work, or simply opted to not go into work at all that day.  It hindered our schedule a little, but I wasn't about to speak critically of those who chose not to work that day.

Though the ice storm only lasted one day, the ice itself remained the rest of the week.  I was fascinated by it.  It was so foreign-looking and interesting to me.  It coated lawns with a beautiful solid white dome.  Sidewalks remained covered in a sheet of solid ice.  Ice like that would only form in front of my house if I neglected to shovel the snow and allowed two or three days' worth of elementary school pedestrian traffic to pack it down.  

The storm also prompted the closure of virtually all of the schools in the area as well.  This in turn compelled President Obama to complain.  Even the school attended by his daughters was closed for the day.  Obama, supposedly toughened by years of living in the frigid Chicago area, was dismayed that a little bit of ice caused such a fuss.  But I don't suppose that Obama had to personally drive out in that weather.  Had he done so, I doubt he would have been so critical of the school administrators.  

I for one do not blame them one bit.

Where Do You Sleep?

We had tithing settlement last night.  It was the best one we've had yet with the kids.

• They almost all came into the bishop's office within a few minutes of our turn starting
• They actually stayed in their seats for most of the meeting
• They didn't write on the walls with markers
• They had a great learning moment with our bishop

Sure they were wild and crazy and chased around the gym and halls while we waited for our appointment.  But hey, we've had worse ... much worse.

Our bishop was great.  He thoughtfully and kindly taught our children not only why we pay tithing, how the Church uses tithing funds, and the importance of declaring our tithing status with the bishop each year.  

Then the bishop asked each child to state whether or not they were "a full tithe payer."  It was nice watching our girls cheerfully and excitedly blurt out "yes!" when each was asked.  When the bishop asked our son, we had to pull the ear buds of Mommy's iPod out of his ears to compel him to hear and answer the question.  He answered "yes," but was obviously annoyed at the interruption of his search for Star Wars video clips.  (Isn't technology great at keeping kids still for at least a minute or so?! :)

The best part of the meeting was when our bishop asked us all if we had any questions.  Our son and younger daughter shot up their hands, eager to ask a question.  Our son was called on first.  He asked some vague question that was probably loosely relevant to the purpose of the meeting.  Then the bishop called on our daughter.  I was charmed by the way she grinned with little bright white teeth gleaming and her head slightly cocked to one side as she asked, "um ... where do you sleep?"  It was so adorable to witness her naive, but sincere curiosity in such a simple little question.  The thought of the bishop taking up residence in a Mormon church, huddled in some corner classroom on a cot was so humorous to me.  And never mind the thought of the poor former bishop, released just a year ago, displaced from his "home" just days before Christmas.  Of course the bishop was very kind in his answer.  He just smiled, perhaps holding back a chortle, and answered simply that he was just like our family, and had a home nearby, with a nice warm bed to sleep in.

Of course, to our young daughter, it seemed natural to assume that the bishop lived at the church building.  She only ever really saw him at the church.  Or, at least, if she did see him elsewhere, he wasn't dressed up in his suit.  This was her first year in the main primary as well.  So she is still learning so much and figuring out how things work.  And of course, she had seen lots of the church building, nearly every hall, chapel, and room.  There was a kitchen, and bathrooms.  But she hadn't ever come across a room with a bed in it!  Hmmm.

I guess it just goes to show how much the bishop really does do for us.  It truly is nearly a full-time job in and of itself, despite the lack of pay.  Yet the bishop, of course, still has his own family and non-ecclesiastical career to maintain.  It truly must be possible only with a great deal of divine help.  It's definitely a post I would not feel up to holding.  I am extremely grateful to those whom the Lord does prepare and help to be called to such a position.

Aloha!

So, I've been sent on another business trip to Hawai'i.  OK, so big deal.  It's not all fun in the sun and relaxation in a tropical paradise.  No really, it's really not.  I'm not kidding.  Oh, whatever, believe what you want.

This trip is all the buzz back at the office.  Everyone seems to have heard about the program that has sent people to Hawai'i.  "Oooh, now that must be a really tough assignment." [Insert sarcasm here.]  It's kind of ironic that one of our smaller programs is getting so much attention from so many people in the office.  I hear several may be attempting to discover "legitimate" business reasons to come join the traveling team to meet with customers, etc., especially the etc.

Seriously, it's not all it's cracked up to be.  Sure we do get a little bit of time to enjoy the sites, sounds, and especially tastes of Hawai'i.  But there are serious down-sides to it too.  Take our schedule, for example.  This week we meet at the hotel resort at 1 AM to begin our travel to the work sites.  The travel time on Maui from the hotels in Kihei to the summit of Haleakala is about 90 minutes.  I'm currently on the Big Island.  Our travel time from the resort at Waikoloa to the NOAA facility near the top of Mauna Loa is closer to 110 minutes.  Then we work at the site for about 6 to 8 hours; our time is limited on the sites because our customer is worried about long-term exposure to high-altitude conditions.  So we do our experiments and collect our data, and turn around and go back down the mountain.  So basically half of our 24-hour day is spent at work, during not-so-enjoyable hours of the day, and a third of that time is spent traveling.  And please note that it is not necessarily pleasant travel.  It's mostly motion-sickening winding switchback roads.  Here on the Big Island, it's also a very rough, pothole-filled road much of the way.  Right now, I also don't have a car.  So for any personal time remaining, I'm mostly limited to the locations within walking distance in the Waikoloa Beach Resort, which is about 20 miles away from anything else of significance on the island.

The worst part about it is how much I miss my family while I'm here.  Sure, my co-workers, other contractors, and the customers are all really pleasant people to live and work with.  But being away from my spouse and children for four weeks is definitely no picnic, neither for me, nor for them.

That said, there are still some really neat things about the trip.  This is my second time doing this for the company.  Last time, I got to bring Rae out for a few days before we started our work.  We stayed on Oahu and visited the Polynesian Cultural Center, the USS Arizona Memorial in Pearl Harbor, and other neat sites.  But it was really sad to send Rae off on one plane towards home while I got on another flight towards work on Maui.  But I've also been able to see a fair amount of the islands of Maui and Hawai'i.  The road to Hana is really beautiful.  And seeing live volcanic activity in action at the Hawai'i Volcanos National Park was really amazing.  I've really enjoyed visiting the La'ie Temple and the Kona Temple too.  Yes, the food in Hawai'i is really delicious too, when we get a chance to enjoy it.  Most restaurants have limited lunch and dinner hours that don't match well with our work schedule.  Much of the time they are only open when we need to be sleeping to get ready for an early start the next morning.

In case you are interested, we are testing a faster-than-broadband Internet-like connection.  I was a lead developer of the networking software for this product.  We are testing our network connections between the two mountain tops.  I have been told these two volcanos are the only two such sites at a great distance from each other, but still within line-of-sight of each other anywhere in the USA; hence the reason for this location.  What we are working on is really cool technology and actually one of the most exciting parts of this trip for me.

Here are some more pictures of my trip this year.