Do you have "female troubles"? Take a soak in the Suwanee Springs.
Thursday, October 27, 2005
Live Oak?
Okay, this week I made my first trip to Northern Florida. I flew into Jacksonville and drove for about an hour west to Lake City (where I'm staying). The radio had dozens of channels but only offered two things: country music or bible bashing religious spew. I have finally found a place where there are more churches than Happy Valley. This area seems quite removed from the rest of the hustle and bustle of city/town, USA. For starters, there are few places to eat which tells me that people don't eat out much. For lunch the other day we went to this cafe where I was told that the old timers meet EVERY morning at dawn to discuss any and all issues related to Live Oak. People are really nice here and very down to earth.
My days are pretty predicable; I get up, drive to the Water District, work, find a place to eat dinner, call the family, exercise for a while and go to bed.
Today during the lunch hour the folks that I'm working with took me to the Suwanee River. Very pretty and serene. Do you know who Steven Foster is? He is the author of the famous song "The Swanee River (Old Folks at Home). Looking for the words of the song, I found another interesting thing. The song is THE official song of Florida. Well, here you go:
My days are pretty predicable; I get up, drive to the Water District, work, find a place to eat dinner, call the family, exercise for a while and go to bed.
Today during the lunch hour the folks that I'm working with took me to the Suwanee River. Very pretty and serene. Do you know who Steven Foster is? He is the author of the famous song "The Swanee River (Old Folks at Home). Looking for the words of the song, I found another interesting thing. The song is THE official song of Florida. Well, here you go:
The Swanee River
(Old Folks at Home)
Written by Stephen C. Foster
Way down upon de Swanee Ribber,
Far, far away,
Dere's wha my heart is turning ebber,
Dere's wha de old folks stay.
All up and down de whole creation
Sadly I roam,
Still longing for de old plantation,
And for de old folks at home.
Chorus
All de world am sad and dreary,
Eb-rywhere I roam;
Oh, darkeys, how my heart grows weary,
Far from de old folks at home!
2nd verse
All round de little farm I wandered
When I was young,
Den many happy days I squandered,
Many de songs I sung.
When I was playing wid my brudder
Happy was I;
Oh, take me to my kind old mudder!
Dere let me live and die.
3rd Verse
One little hut among de bushes,
One dat I love
Still sadly to my memory rushes,
No matter where I rove.
When will I see de bees a-humming
All round de comb?
When will I hear de banjo strumming,
Down in my good old home?
Lost Vegas
After the advanced course in Utah, it was off to Lost Wages. The hotel where we have held courses in the past was under renovation. It's converting to a Hooter's hotel. Sweet! So we went with a nearby hotel. Not very good. The attendees had NOTHING good to say about it. Probably the two highlights of the week was 1) spending the week with a longtime colleague, Mike Kennard. He and I have had a handful of trianing experiences, including our trip to Cairo several years ago. The other highlight was visiting worlds tallest and largest volume chocolate fountain. This is located in the Belagio hotel. Yum yum!
No New Orleans
After the damage of Katrina, we had to move our GMS advanced course somewhere else. I was disappointed that I wouldn't be taking my wife to all of my favorite eating establishments in NO. I don't know of a better place for good food and good music. I decided to have the class near our office. That was nice since I would be traveling quite a bit over the next several weeks. It is always good to see friends come back for additional training and help. One of these friends is my friend Alan from Pennsylvania. He brought his wife out to Utah for the first time. After the course, Marcella and I had the pleasure of taking the two of them downtown SLC. We walked around Temple Square and the visitors centers. The tabernacle is under construction right now but they loved the Christus statue.
The highlight of the evening was taking a tour of the LDS conference center. What a marvelous building. One of (if not the largest auditorium) in the US. Although I've been in the building several times I've never taken a tour. What a treat. What an opportunity for Marcella and I to share the gospel with Alan and Leslie.
The highlight of the evening was taking a tour of the LDS conference center. What a marvelous building. One of (if not the largest auditorium) in the US. Although I've been in the building several times I've never taken a tour. What a treat. What an opportunity for Marcella and I to share the gospel with Alan and Leslie.
Wednesday, October 26, 2005
Wednesday, October 19, 2005
Stingrays, shells, shrimp, and pottery
Okay, I am determined to keep writing. I've been up past midnight working for the past three nights. I'm making plans to go to Australia and trying to get a bunch of work stuff done. I know that I have to log my Holland trip, my Hawaii trip AND also say something about our family trip to Sandpoint. Oh well.
This week I'm back in Panama City, FL. Before I came here I told the townsfolk to get out their Tiki gods and make sure no hurricanes would show up here. Things looked good until today. Now Wilma, the 12th hurricane and 21st named storm, is now heading up the Gulf still unsure of its path. No worries here.
At any rate, I've been working with a consulting group here this week and this afternoon we set out on Joel's boat to do some field work. I'm bugged that I left my camera at home. I could have taken some very cool pictures. Well, we never actually made it to the project site but we did do some cool things. First they took me to Shell Island. Guess where it got its name? I gathered several shells to take home and give to people at the office. Next we drove across the bay (East Bay). Beautiful sunny day. Then Joel took us to the back side of Tyndall Air Force Base. We anchored the boat in about 3 feet of water. We then got out and walked close to the shore. In this warm water, there was lots to see and lots to be VERY careful about. First there were the stingrays. There were enough of them to keep you on your toes. They are fun to watch but don't step on them. Next, there were the shrimp. TONS of them. All over the place. They swim around your feet and are so fast. Really the only way to catch them is with a net. There are also dangerous oyster clusters on the sand that will rip your feet open if you happen to step on them. I had a nice sized jellyfish between my legs. I didn't see any aligators but they are around in plenty of numbers. So why come here? Besides the pristine nature, and beautiful scenery what we were searching for was pottery. Pottery? Huh? Because of the recent hurricanes, the shore and beach fronts have been greatly eroded. So we started digging and found several pieces. Now, how old are these pieces? It's hard to say. The pieces are attributed to the Woodland Phase Indians. I know very little about this group of people but it was cool to find pieces of pottery that was hundreds (if not thousands of years old).
At any rate, what an interesting afternoon. Thanks, Joel.
This week I'm back in Panama City, FL. Before I came here I told the townsfolk to get out their Tiki gods and make sure no hurricanes would show up here. Things looked good until today. Now Wilma, the 12th hurricane and 21st named storm, is now heading up the Gulf still unsure of its path. No worries here.
At any rate, I've been working with a consulting group here this week and this afternoon we set out on Joel's boat to do some field work. I'm bugged that I left my camera at home. I could have taken some very cool pictures. Well, we never actually made it to the project site but we did do some cool things. First they took me to Shell Island. Guess where it got its name? I gathered several shells to take home and give to people at the office. Next we drove across the bay (East Bay). Beautiful sunny day. Then Joel took us to the back side of Tyndall Air Force Base. We anchored the boat in about 3 feet of water. We then got out and walked close to the shore. In this warm water, there was lots to see and lots to be VERY careful about. First there were the stingrays. There were enough of them to keep you on your toes. They are fun to watch but don't step on them. Next, there were the shrimp. TONS of them. All over the place. They swim around your feet and are so fast. Really the only way to catch them is with a net. There are also dangerous oyster clusters on the sand that will rip your feet open if you happen to step on them. I had a nice sized jellyfish between my legs. I didn't see any aligators but they are around in plenty of numbers. So why come here? Besides the pristine nature, and beautiful scenery what we were searching for was pottery. Pottery? Huh? Because of the recent hurricanes, the shore and beach fronts have been greatly eroded. So we started digging and found several pieces. Now, how old are these pieces? It's hard to say. The pieces are attributed to the Woodland Phase Indians. I know very little about this group of people but it was cool to find pieces of pottery that was hundreds (if not thousands of years old).
At any rate, what an interesting afternoon. Thanks, Joel.
Lost my SMF
Okay, I am finally writing about my trip to Sacramento. Just a few months late but I was thinking about it the other day and I completely forgot about the highlight of the trip. First off, I went there to teach a bunch of regulators about groundwater modeling. The course was set up by a third-party organization. I knew that I was off on the wrong foot when I kept thinking the course was in Seattle. I was excited to go because a good friend of mine (at least I thought he was a good friend) lived just outside of Sactown (at least I thought it was just outside). The course went well. I had a nice lunch in Old Town sitting next to these two old ladies. I ate at this Japanese place a couple of times and it was scrumptious. I do NOT recommend staying in the downtown Holiday Inn Express. Although they had a decent gym and bananas and juice for breakfast, they did NOT have curtains over the windows so that it was light in my room ALL NIGHT LONG. Anyhow, a couple of nights I went to see my buddy, Sean Kelly who lives in Lodi. Lodi is in the freakin' middle of nowhere. I'm told that they now have an In-n-Out. It was good to see him and his family and I even brought my basketball gear and played one night at his Church. It was fun.
Okay, here is the most memorable part of the trip. On Saturday it was time to go to the airport. I start driving and I'm just about there when I start looking around for the terminal and car return place. There are very little cars around and I think it very strange. I then saw a plane fly over so I knew it must be close. I drove around the airstrip looking for the terminal. I would say after about 20 minutes or so, it hit me like a ton of bricks. I WAS AT THE WRONG AIRPORT!!!! I had driven to some freight type airport (UPS, DHL, etc). I had NO idea where the airport was? How was that possible???? Anyhow, I called my Skymiles rep and explained the small problem. She was based out of SLC and she quickly changed my flight to the next one out (luckily it was only about an hour and half later) and gave me directions to the airport. I just couldn't beleive that I had done that? I called my wife and explained that I'd be home a bit later. She just laughed.
Anyhow, hopefully the next time I'm in Sactown, I'll pay more attention to where I'm going.
Okay, here is the most memorable part of the trip. On Saturday it was time to go to the airport. I start driving and I'm just about there when I start looking around for the terminal and car return place. There are very little cars around and I think it very strange. I then saw a plane fly over so I knew it must be close. I drove around the airstrip looking for the terminal. I would say after about 20 minutes or so, it hit me like a ton of bricks. I WAS AT THE WRONG AIRPORT!!!! I had driven to some freight type airport (UPS, DHL, etc). I had NO idea where the airport was? How was that possible???? Anyhow, I called my Skymiles rep and explained the small problem. She was based out of SLC and she quickly changed my flight to the next one out (luckily it was only about an hour and half later) and gave me directions to the airport. I just couldn't beleive that I had done that? I called my wife and explained that I'd be home a bit later. She just laughed.
Anyhow, hopefully the next time I'm in Sactown, I'll pay more attention to where I'm going.
Monday, October 10, 2005
Orvil and Maxine Davis
My aunts are putting together this book to give my Grandma. I've been putting off the requested materials for several months now. This weekend I finally sent the family picture, I helped my son put together the family group sheet, and last night I wrote down some of my memories of them. Afterwards, I thought that it would be a good thing to post here. So.....
Being the oldest grandson of Orvil and Maxine Davis, I have close to 39 years of fond memories of my grandparents. More importantly, besides the memories I have lots of life's lessons that I an attribute to both of them.
Since for the first several year of my life, my family lived in Southern California. I remember any visits from Grandma and Grandpa for birthdays, baptisms and blessings. When they weren't coming down to visit we would be traveling to Utah to visit them.
Christmas time was especially memorable. Everything about their home spoke of Christmas time. The window paintings, the gingerbread houses, and all of the other decorations. Of course there was always the tradition of doing the nativity scene in Grandma's living room.
One of my most memorable visits is when I got to spend a few weeks one summer at Grandma and Grandpa's home. I think I was probably 9 or 10 and it was such a memorable time. I spent many hours irrigating the pasture and yard with Grandpa. The big black boots barely stayed on. I was fascinated how this whole irrigating thing worked. I can really say that to some extent, those days spent with Grandpa created that desire to become and engineer (a water engineer no less). It wasn't easy (irrigating) and I learned to work hard. Pulling the pipe around, hooking things up, and moving the boards ONLY when Grandpa said it was time. Grandpa taught me the value of work.
Besides playing in the water, I also had "fun" weeding the garden, picking fruit, snipping beans, and canning everything you could think of. I am just amazed at how much we did and how much we could accomplish when we all worked together. It is just something my children will never know or understand. Today seems so far distant from those days of canning and bottling.
Grandpa is THE person that taught me how to milk a cow, how to feed the farm animals, and what it meant to have a farm. No one else taught me that.
Grandma did her share of teaching too. From her I learned how to make yummy bread, yummy strawberry jam, and of course the best homemade ice cream. Like I said before, it just seems so far in the past the days of skimming the cream off the gallon jars of milk (that you helped milk earlier in the day).
Another fond memory that I have of my Grandpa is that every time we visited, he would give me and my sister some kind of notebook. You know those red spelling tablets or maybe one of those green stenographer books. My grandparents always wanted us to study hard and learn and do our best. I bet Grandpa handed out hundreds if not thousands of those spelling tablets. I loved the cool unit conversions and facts that the tablets had on the backs of them.
Family was always so important to Grandma and Grandpa. We got together often. Birthdays, Easter, Memorial Day, 4th of July, 24th of July, and of course Thanksgiving and Christmas.
I learned the tradition of visiting the graves on Memorial Day of all of these relatives (many of whom I had never met). Grandpa and Grandma would tell stories about these people because they thought it was important that we knew about it. That had an impact on my life and now I continue that with my own family and tell stories to my children about my relatives that have passed on. Get togethers weren't just limited to just cousins, aunts and uncles. At least twice a year we would get together with Grandpa and Grandma's extended family. This usually was on the morning of the 24th of July (up at Canyon Glen park for breakfast) and then on the 26th of December at some school. Grandma and Grandpa taught me the importance of family and remembering our ancestors.
Another fond memory that I had with Grandma and Grandpa is spending the week of the 4th of July down at Clear Creek. Last year I had the opportunity to spend a couple of days at the same Alpine School District with my son, Jake. Boy, a flood of memories came back. Each family would stay in a cabin. I usually got to bring a friend. There were games, lots of crafts (like shrinky-dinks) and of course the campfires and weenie roasts. None of this wouldn't have happened without Grandpa and Grandma. After several years of going to Clear Creek we started going up above Heber City. This was more of the camping experience and there were lots of fond memories those years as well. When I close me eyes I can easily picture everyone gathered around Grandpa and Grandma with everyone wearing their Camp Davis t-shirt.
The last memory that I wanted to recount (I think I have gone on long enough) is the famous Easter tree story. One Easter weekend, we had gone up to the foothills about Grandpa's house for a weenie roast. After eating and playing around in the hills, the teenagers wanted to go back to the house. So we walked down the hill. On the way, we found an old dried up Christmas tree someone had dumped in the fields. I got the great idea of taking it to the house. I thought it would be so funny to put the tree up in Grandma's living room and decorate it. So we did. It became a lovely Easter tree. Imagine Grandma's face when she returned to see this dried up tree in her living room. We laughed so hard and we will always remember that Easter. I do not believe there has ever been such a tree. There were probably many other pranks pulled over the years but I will always remember that one.
Grandpa and Grandma, I love you and I'm grateful for all that you have taught me.
Jeff
Being the oldest grandson of Orvil and Maxine Davis, I have close to 39 years of fond memories of my grandparents. More importantly, besides the memories I have lots of life's lessons that I an attribute to both of them.
Since for the first several year of my life, my family lived in Southern California. I remember any visits from Grandma and Grandpa for birthdays, baptisms and blessings. When they weren't coming down to visit we would be traveling to Utah to visit them.
Christmas time was especially memorable. Everything about their home spoke of Christmas time. The window paintings, the gingerbread houses, and all of the other decorations. Of course there was always the tradition of doing the nativity scene in Grandma's living room.
One of my most memorable visits is when I got to spend a few weeks one summer at Grandma and Grandpa's home. I think I was probably 9 or 10 and it was such a memorable time. I spent many hours irrigating the pasture and yard with Grandpa. The big black boots barely stayed on. I was fascinated how this whole irrigating thing worked. I can really say that to some extent, those days spent with Grandpa created that desire to become and engineer (a water engineer no less). It wasn't easy (irrigating) and I learned to work hard. Pulling the pipe around, hooking things up, and moving the boards ONLY when Grandpa said it was time. Grandpa taught me the value of work.
Besides playing in the water, I also had "fun" weeding the garden, picking fruit, snipping beans, and canning everything you could think of. I am just amazed at how much we did and how much we could accomplish when we all worked together. It is just something my children will never know or understand. Today seems so far distant from those days of canning and bottling.
Grandpa is THE person that taught me how to milk a cow, how to feed the farm animals, and what it meant to have a farm. No one else taught me that.
Grandma did her share of teaching too. From her I learned how to make yummy bread, yummy strawberry jam, and of course the best homemade ice cream. Like I said before, it just seems so far in the past the days of skimming the cream off the gallon jars of milk (that you helped milk earlier in the day).
Another fond memory that I have of my Grandpa is that every time we visited, he would give me and my sister some kind of notebook. You know those red spelling tablets or maybe one of those green stenographer books. My grandparents always wanted us to study hard and learn and do our best. I bet Grandpa handed out hundreds if not thousands of those spelling tablets. I loved the cool unit conversions and facts that the tablets had on the backs of them.
Family was always so important to Grandma and Grandpa. We got together often. Birthdays, Easter, Memorial Day, 4th of July, 24th of July, and of course Thanksgiving and Christmas.
I learned the tradition of visiting the graves on Memorial Day of all of these relatives (many of whom I had never met). Grandpa and Grandma would tell stories about these people because they thought it was important that we knew about it. That had an impact on my life and now I continue that with my own family and tell stories to my children about my relatives that have passed on. Get togethers weren't just limited to just cousins, aunts and uncles. At least twice a year we would get together with Grandpa and Grandma's extended family. This usually was on the morning of the 24th of July (up at Canyon Glen park for breakfast) and then on the 26th of December at some school. Grandma and Grandpa taught me the importance of family and remembering our ancestors.
Another fond memory that I had with Grandma and Grandpa is spending the week of the 4th of July down at Clear Creek. Last year I had the opportunity to spend a couple of days at the same Alpine School District with my son, Jake. Boy, a flood of memories came back. Each family would stay in a cabin. I usually got to bring a friend. There were games, lots of crafts (like shrinky-dinks) and of course the campfires and weenie roasts. None of this wouldn't have happened without Grandpa and Grandma. After several years of going to Clear Creek we started going up above Heber City. This was more of the camping experience and there were lots of fond memories those years as well. When I close me eyes I can easily picture everyone gathered around Grandpa and Grandma with everyone wearing their Camp Davis t-shirt.
The last memory that I wanted to recount (I think I have gone on long enough) is the famous Easter tree story. One Easter weekend, we had gone up to the foothills about Grandpa's house for a weenie roast. After eating and playing around in the hills, the teenagers wanted to go back to the house. So we walked down the hill. On the way, we found an old dried up Christmas tree someone had dumped in the fields. I got the great idea of taking it to the house. I thought it would be so funny to put the tree up in Grandma's living room and decorate it. So we did. It became a lovely Easter tree. Imagine Grandma's face when she returned to see this dried up tree in her living room. We laughed so hard and we will always remember that Easter. I do not believe there has ever been such a tree. There were probably many other pranks pulled over the years but I will always remember that one.
Grandpa and Grandma, I love you and I'm grateful for all that you have taught me.
Jeff
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