Sam and John Embark on a Grand Adventure!

Sam finished his work at Stoughton Trailers on June 8th and packed up to return to BYU in Provo, UT!

We left Saturday morning, June 11th and I finally made it home after adventures and misadventures on June 23rd after traveling 5102 miles! Wait! Why did we need over 5100 miles just to get to Provo and back? Here's a photo of the rather round-about trip to see the prettiest scenery I expect I'll ever see.

Our target was Banff National Park, about 90 minutes NW of Calgary and we arrived at our hotel there the evening of June 12th. More to come!

On the Road Again...

We left our home in Salida this afternoon. Good bye! It's been a great 12 years in Salida and we'll miss our friends there.

Packing and Moving

Today is packing day and the movers are packing the house VERY quickly.

We should be on the road by tomorrow afternoon. I'll post our path shortly.

The 50th Anniversary of NASA

I recently watched a 90-minute documentary about the history of NASA dedicated to NASA's 50th Anniversary. (I realize the anniversary occurred a few years ago.) This is a very interesting and informative video. It was also reverent when discussing the Challenger and Columbia disasters. I recommend it highly!

Dad, you'll love it! Maybe you'll recognize some old friends and co-workers. You'll definitely recognize some old projects.

Here's the link: http://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/nasa-50th-anniversary-moments/id282901894 and what you will see.

Enjoy!

July 3, 2022 Update: Sadly, that podcast isn't available now. - John

Living on Puerto Rico Time

I began my work shift last night at 5 PM. That's been pretty common lately. But soon after, I received word that a representative from a vender who's equipment we have been having problems with was flying into town and would arrive at the plant at 8 AM this morning to help troubleshoot the equipment. Also, that I should go home to sleep and arrive back at the plant at 8 AM.

I couldn't sleep. I've been on the night shift for weeks now and sleeping at night is not normal. Besides, I slept until just before I left for work. I wasn't very tired.

End result? I got maybe 4 hours sleep, but got up on time and struggled through the PR traffic to make it to the plant on time to meet the vender.

It's nearly 10. He's not here. He was too tired to get up and make it to the plant on time.

I would be roasted alive if I pulled that stunt.

Insert shaking fist and gnashing teeth here.

Study Notebook at LDS.org

The Church has finally added some help information for the My Study Notebook feature on lds.org. The feature itself appears to be working better as well. That's good. It looks like it could be a very useful tool, but until recently was difficult to use, especially without good directions.

Here's a link to the help screen. There are other help features as well that I am investigting today.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EvOQdUE2CCA&feature=player_embedded

And here's an example of what I have so far.

Hope this is helpful for you.

Navy Ship Sighted in San Juan Harbor

If you're following Bizzy's Blog, you'll know that we visited Old San Juan again today. As we entered town today, we noticed a new ship in port and it sure looked like a navy ship, but not one of ours. After a little research, Bizzy and I determined it's the Dutch Navy's HNLMS Rotterdam, an amphibious landing platform dock. Here's a link to some info about it: The Rotterdam. The description has some interesting notes about it's medical services capabilities, but says little about it's naval systems, like the fact that has a helicopter landing pad and hanger on the stern. (I found a summary of it's equipment along the right-hand side of the web page.)

Here's a photo from Wikipedia. It doesn't show the small gun on the bow or the CIWS (Close In Weapons System, commonly called on our ships R2-D2 because of it's resemblance to the famous droid.)



Here's the photo Bizzy took of the Rotterdam in port today through the trolley window.

When we realized it was a Dutch ship, we thought that its presence was a little ironic as we had just learned during our Old San Juan tour of El Morro about the Dutch's invasion of Puerto Rico in the 1600s. Think of what the Rotterdam can carry. Hmmm.

For comparison, here's a link to the current US Navy's version of the LPD: San Antonio Class. Very impressive! Perhaps the most famous ship in this class is the USS New York, LPD-21, which was partially constructed using steel from the World Trade Center debris, of which I've emailed previously.