Utah Trip - March 2009

Dorine, Kiley, and I went to Provo, Utah last Friday, March 20, staying until yesterday, March 26. The primary reason for the trip was to see our daughter Devery and her husband Easton (D&E), but we ended up seeing lots of family and old friends. We left Albuquerque at about 6:00 pm on Friday and made pretty good time, arriving in Provo at 3:15 am on Saturday morning. We crashed that first night (i.e., morning) at D&E's apartment in south Provo, but then we spent the next five nights at the Provo Super 8 Hotel on Canyon Road at University Parkway. (That particular Super 8 is a decent hotel for the price, having all the amenities that I require, anyway -- free wireless internet, a continental breakfast with waffle machines, an exercise room with a treadmill, and an indoor pool and spa.) We have acquired the habit of listening to the Harry Potter audiobooks on long trips in the car -- for which Kiley's 30-gig iPod comes in handy -- and on this trip we finished off the seventh book (Deathly Hallows) and started over on the sixth book (Half-Blood Prince).

On Saturday, after sleeping in to recover from the long drive up, we went to eat at a Village Inn, and then we did some shopping at the mall in Orem. That evening, D&E took us out to eat at a Training Table restaurant on University Parkway, and then we went back to their apartment to watch Cold Comfort Farm, a British comedy that we fell in love with (and which I have since bought on eBay and can't wait to watch again). The next morning, we went to sacrament meeting with D&E in their BYU ward, and then we had lunch with them at their apartment. That evening, we took Devery and drove out to Pleasant Grove and had dinner with my brother Roger and his wife Lynnea at their home.

On Monday, we went shopping at the Provo Towne Center in the morning. Later we went to visit my brothers Jeff and Robin (and their wives, Marlyn and Karolyn) at their place of work in Pleasant Grove before driving on to Salt Lake City, where we picked up Devery from work and then went out to Grantsville to visit Dorine's brother Brian, his wife Dona, and their kids. On Tuesday, we spent most of the day with D&E, as Devery took the day off work and Easton had only one scheduled class. We shopped around town all day, then went and had dinner with Robin and Karolyn at their home in Pleasant Grove.

Wednesday was a "guys' day out," as I spent the day with Bob Maes, my old BYU roommate, who lives in Cedar Hills with his wife Marti and works in Salt Lake City as a postal inspector. (Dorine took Kiley up to Salt Lake City to visit with Dorine's relatives.) Bob and I had lunch at Iggy's Sports Grill in Orem with Jeff Aldous and Chuck Canfield, who also lived on the seventh floor of "T" Hall in BYU's Deseret Towers dorm complex during the 1977-78 school year. (I hadn't seen Chuck -- a physician who lives just down the street in Highland from Lenard Brunsdale, one of our old bishops when he lived here in Albuquerque -- since the end of winter semester in April 1978. I also hadn't seen Jeff, a lawyer who lives in my brother Kelly's stake in north Provo, in a number of years.) We sat at Iggy's and talked for a solid three hours, catching up on the events of the last 31 years; the attached photo, taken with my cell phone's camera, shows (L-R) Chuck, Bob, and Jeff. Bob and I talked about going backpacking this summer in New Mexico's Gila Wilderness -- I need to look into possible routes. That night, Dorine, Kiley, and I went out to eat one last time with D&E, also inviting Devery's cousin Hillery John and her husband Kevin, at a decent Chinese buffet out on State Street in, I think, Pleasant Grove. And later, D&E came back to our hotel for a swim before Devery had to go home to bed.

We came home the following day, Thursday the 26th, running into some bad weather and snow-packed roads, especially in Price Canyon as we left Utah Valley. However, we took it slow and made it through the canyon okay, and the roads were clear the rest of the way to Albuquerque. (Then it snowed last night in Albuquerque.)

Latest on Darren's Mission

Here's a recent picture of Darren (L) with his companion, Elder Rose, along with their zone leaders, Elder Avalos and Elder Merrill. Darren has been in Cerro Grande with Elder Rose now since November, which has been his longest companionship to date. Apparently, all four elders have a standing dinner appointment on Sundays with the church area authority, Elder Duarte, and his family, who live in Darren's area; this photo was taken a couple of Sundays ago by a lady named Healy who was visiting Honduras in connection with Operation Smiles and happened also to be visiting with Elder Duarte and his family that day. (She was kind enough to e-mail us this and other photos from her trip.) As I mentioned in an earlier post, Darren has been out for eighteen months now. It's practically certain that he'll be assigned to at least one more area (and to at least a couple more companions) before he comes home, but he's enjoyed being in Cerro Grande -- that is, apart from losing his camera (and his memory cards, which of course is the real loss), a tape recorder, a guitar, and other items in a burglary of their apartment.

The Passing of Matt Porter

I feel greatly saddened by the death of Matt Porter on Monday, March 9, 2009, as the result of a small-airplane crash. Matt had commuted by air for years to his job at Los Alamos National Laboratory from his home in Edgewood, New Mexico (which is located about twenty minutes east of Albuquerque along I-40), hitching a ride on a single-engine aircraft belonging to, and piloted by, his friend Randy Rupert, who was also killed in the accident. The crash appears to have been weather-related, as it was raining and snowing early Monday morning. Matt was serving as bishop of the Eubank Ward, the singles ward in our (Albuquerque East) stake, and it's obvious he will be missed there. This is the second time in roughly ten years that tragedy has struck the Porter family, as Matt and his wife Paula (see photo) lost a daughter, Sara, in an accident on I-40 in 1999 that claimed the lives of several LDS kids who were en route from early-morning seminary in Edgewood to their high school in Moriarty. I don't know how Paula and her other kids can bear such bereavement a second time, except perhaps to take comfort in the thought that Matt and Sara are together now.

I can't remember when Matt's family first moved to Albuquerque, but he and I were members of the same Aaronic priesthood quorums growing up together in the old Albuquerque 6th Ward. We were all pretty rambunctious youth, but thank goodness most of the wildness wore off over time! Matt moved with his parents back to Colorado sometime around the beginning of 1975, so we didn't graduate from high school together; however, he later moved back to New Mexico after marrying Paula, who's a native of the Albuquerque area. (A couple of my brothers used to play high school basketball with her brother Roger Switzer.) I'll always remember spending a long night in 2003 with Matt in Ft. Stanton Cave, as he and I formed part of a rescue team trying to get an injured young man out of the cave. The following morning we exited the cave a couple of hours ahead of the main rescue party, and the local news media, hungry for information about the kid's condition, pounced on us. Matt, the smart one, ducked out and left me there to be interviewed live on television; I still don't know if I had anything coherent to say.

It's hard for me not to ponder the idea of living in a semi-rural area like Edgewood and having to drive on I-40 (which tends to be clogged with heavily laden trucks) to get anywhere -- not to mention having to fly in a single-engine plane every day to get to work in Los Alamos. Clearly, living in Edgewood entails certain risks that now have twice deeply bitten the Porter family. It makes me appreciate living in town and having a fifteen-minute car commute to work that entails no freeway travel.

[Update: I found out that apparently four people commuted regularly to Los Alamos on the plane that crashed -- two of them reportedly declined to fly that day, presumably because of the weather, which puts the question of risk into sharper relief. Also, I hadn't realized that Matt and Paula's son Silas is still on his church mission; Silas decided not to come home for the funeral, instead sending a very thoughtful, mature letter that one of his father's friends read from the pulpit during the service. When I was a missionary, my worst nightmare would have been to lose a parent while I was away; thus I think Silas's ability to take the long view of things is admirable in the extreme.]

Aaron's Mission

Our nephew Aaron P______ flew up to Utah this evening in order to enter the LDS Church's Missionary Training Center (in Provo) tomorrow, March 11, 2009. He's been called to serve in the Russia Moscow West Mission, which ought to be all the adventure a young missionary could want. He'll be spending two-and-a-half months in the MTC before traveling on to Russia, which is longer than a person could reasonably be expected to bear, but he's excited about it and we're sure he'll do well. Interestingly, Aaron will enter the MTC almost exactly 18 months after his cousin, our son Darren, did so in September 2007, which means that the two will not have seen each other for a full three-and-a-half years by the time Aaron gets home in March 2011. Watching Aaron go through airport security, and then walk down the corridor toward the gate from which his flight was to depart, was scarily reminiscent of the morning we said goodbye to Darren; however, it was heartening to realize just how quickly the last 18 months have passed. The accompanying photo shows Dorine, me, and our granddaughter Kayla with Aaron just a couple of minutes before he left.

The Slow Death of Old Media

Lately I've seen a number of columns and commentaries lamenting the passing of various newspapers and news agencies. They all say something to the effect of: "The new media or blogosphere is great, but we need to preserve traditional news sources if only to have trained reporters who know how to ferret out the facts and have the resources to do the primary research on which members of the new media must rely." Frankly, I find abject irony in such statements. Of what use are a journalism degree and research skills if a reporter can't report a story with at least a modicum of objectivity -- if there is little or no difference between his "news" reporting and the editorial page? All the research in the world means nothing if the reporter can't detect an obviously fraudulent document (as in the so-called "Rathergate" incident in 2004), simply because he desperately wants it to be genuine, or else ignores great mounds of evidence, often attacking the messenger (as in the ongoing "anthropogenic climate change" controversy), because it doesn't fit a certain political narrative. Old media are dying because virtually no one likes such propagandizing, and if no source can be trusted to give an even-handed accounting of the news, the average consumer will naturally listen to those commentators who share his viewpoints.

A Weekend at The Cabin

Kiley, Dorine, and I spent two nights at the cabin this weekend with Kristy, Chris, and their kids. I had fun playing with the kids and hanging out for a few hours in Pagosa Springs. As you can see from the attached photo, there was a lot of snow up there, although all of it was old and crusty -- and, in fact, it got up above 50 degrees F. both days we were there. We've actually spent a fair bit of time at the cabin in the last year: this is probably the first time in fifteen years or longer that I've been there three times within a given twelve-month period. I still miss the old snowmobiling days, but just walking along the frozen-in-places Rio Blanco with the kids gave me a lot of pleasure on this trip. We drove our old, battered 1994 Dodge Shadow up there this time; despite its being fifteen years old, it still got 31-32 miles to the gallon out on the highway.

REI and The Compulsion to Buy

I'm a firm believer in the notion that the spice of life lies in being able to spend money frivolously, at least once in a while. For a long time, one of the primary beneficiaries of my whimsical consumerism was Recreational Equipment Incorporated, better known as REI. Over the years, I've bought all kinds of equipment, footwear, clothing, and books at REI related to hiking, caving, camping, backpacking, and climbing; however, I find myself buying less and less stuff there as time has gone on, and for multiple reasons. First, I naturally have acquired pretty much all the gear I can use, most of which is extremely durable, and my "frivolity" generally doesn't extend to replacing equipment just because the manufacturers have come out with new designs or models. Second, I liked the "old" REI store in Albuquerque, which was located down near Old Town (adjacent to the Natural History Museum), much better than the "new" store, which is located near the intersection of Montaño Road and I-25. (Years ago, I would periodically take a bit of an extended lunch on a slow work day to go look around the "old" store before stopping by the Sunset Memorial cemetery on the way back to visit my father's grave and polish up the headstone; now that REI has moved, however, I rarely visit either it or the cemetery.)

Third, I don't have as much disposable cash as I once had, so I've had to rein in my spending a little. Fourth, my interest in playing the electric guitar has expanded, and thus lately I've bought guitars and amplifiers where I once might have bought tents, backpacks, headlamps, or climbing shoes. Fifth, the rise of online outdoor-gear vendors has often caused me to shop for better prices than REI typically offers. And, sixth, I guess I've come to regard REI as something of a "snob-a-torium" whose best customers are more interested in being seen wearing/using expensive outdoor clothing and gear than in the intrinsic utility that such clothing and gear represent. (I'm not above wanting to own name-brand clothing and gear -- although I'll never pay $400 for the latest "technical" shell jacket or $600 for a backpacking tent -- but neither am I above wearing very comfortable and durable "convertible" hiking pants, as I am doing as I write this, that I got on clearance at Wal-Mart for $9.00.)

Thus, I still go to REI once in a while to look around, but mostly I leave without buying anything. I must confess, however, that at this moment I'm waiting for a new pair of Vasque hiking boots to be delivered to the REI store here that I purchased on the "REI-Outlet" website. Sometimes I still can't resist temptation!

The Demise of My Favorite Retailers

I've been thinking about how a lot of my favorite midscale department-store chains seem to be going out of business. It started when Montgomery Ward closed its retail operations in 2001, an event that still bums me out, especially since it proved catastrophic for the Winrock Mall here in Albuquerque. (Winrock, a favorite place of mine since I was a small child, and the source of countless youthful memories, essentially now consists of a Bed, Bath & Beyond, a Dillard's store, and a Big 5 sporting-goods store, all of which are generally accessed from outside the mall, which isn't even heated these days. There are plans to renovate, but I'm not sure it will ever happen.) And now Mervyns, which by default became my favorite store when Wards closed, shut down operations after the most-recent Christmas shopping season. All of which leaves me fearing for J.C. Penney and Sears, my remaining favorite department stores -- and, indeed, for the future of the entire Coronado Mall, the other "indoor" mall in the Uptown area. It's apparent that low-end pressure from stores like Target and Wal-Mart, not to mention the universality of online shopping, is making it very difficult for the midscale chains to compete; however, if it comes about that the only places I can afford to buy clothes and sundries are Target and the internet, the world will be a significantly bleaker place for me!

My Favorite '70s Music

My Favorite '00s Music

My Favorite '90s Music

Is it really February already?

It's getting harder and harder these days to think of things to write about. Barack Obama as president is pretty much living up to my expectations so far, but I don't have much else to say about him. (However, one statement he made -- that we should be less concerned about how much government costs than how well it works -- was a real eye-roller. How do you reason with someone who can't even seem to grasp the notion of weighing benefits against costs, especially a politician for whom government cannot, by definition, cost too much?)

My sleep habits have not improved dramatically. After we re-arranged our bedroom, I found I had to block the heater vent to ward off a hot-cold cycle that was keeping me awake. I also had to get the medical supply company to switch out the humidifer reservoir for my VPAP Adapt SV machine, because the old one was leaking water around the metal disk that contacts the heating element. However, I'm coming to see that the primary factor impeding my sleep at this point is the air that the machine causes me to swallow and the resulting stomach upset; I think it is what wakes me up early and keeps me from falling back asleep. I'm trying to deal with it without medicating myself, but I can't overstate how annoying it is to be bone-tired and still not be able to sleep through the night.

Darren is still with Elder Rose in the Cerro Grande sector of Tegucigalpa, and they recently baptized a young fellow named Victor (see photo). He (Darren) will hit his 17-month mark in another week, and it's looking more certain now that he'll be able to come home sometime in the latter half of August so that he can return to BYU for the fall semester. He recently consulted with an American doctor about his eye injury (which he sustained on taking a soccer ball to the face), and the doctor told him that his dilated left pupil is a permanent condition; it won't affect his vision, per se, but obviously it will look a little funny. Properly viewed, it is a "war wound" suffered while in the Lord's service!

Not much is going on in our family at present. Kiley has a band trip to Durango, CO next month, and of course she goes to Australia with the Youth Symphony in June. We still need to get her signed up to take the ACT in April. Dorine, Kiley, and I will be going to Utah next month, but I'd like to take a shorter trip somewhere before then; I've been thinking about taking my mother down to Ruidoso to see the Hubbard Museum of the American West, which has numerous items collected by the last wife of one of Mom's uncles. (I'm not sure when Mom will feel up to the trip, however, after she took a fall in the temple parking lot last week, hitting the back of her head on the sidewalk, as she was arriving there to do her usual Thursday afternoon sessions.)

I just finished reading the autobiography of Eric Clapton that came out a couple of years ago. He led a pretty tawdry existence for most of his life before finally becoming clean and sober in his forties and, later on, finding domestic bliss with a young wife and kids (and even kicking a tobacco habit along the way). I don't have much in common with him inasmuch as I have never had issues with alcohol or drugs, have never had to worry about struggling with the trappings of wealth and notoriety, and don't have a tremendous natural gift for music. However, I did identify with his talk of unresolved psychology, his unchanneled-but-undeniable spirituality, and the fact that his music was the one influence in his life that saw him through all the dark times. I found myself wishing I could write songs with him, as I'm sure he could take all the nascent ideas bubbling in my head and bring them to fruition.

Working in the Albuquerque Temple

As mentioned in earlier posts, I now work Wednesday evenings in the Albuquerque LDS temple, pictured here from the front (left, facing Eubank Blvd.), and from the back (right, where the main entrance is located). It is not large as some temples go, but it is large compared to most of the temples being built currently, as it has two stand-alone ordinance rooms, three sealing rooms, two initiatory stations for both the brothers and the sisters, a chapel, a decent-sized baptistry, a laundry, and a cafeteria. I've come to enjoy very much my service in the temple, especially now that I've learned the basic ordinances and thus far have officiated a couple of endowment sessions. I've even memorized the initiatory ordinances in Spanish, although I may not ever have occasion to administer them on Wednesdays; however, one of the two monthly Spanish endowment sessions takes place every fourth Wednesday evening, and I look forward to helping out there.

Why do I enjoy serving in the temple? I think there are several reasons. One, the temple is a very peaceful, spiritual place, and I simply like to be there. Two, my service has a very definite start time and ending time every week, and I don't have to agonize over what I'm not doing when I'm not there. And three, in the temple we're all pretty much equal once we pass the recommend desk; after that, there's almost nothing else that denotes or connotes relative "worthiness" among members, unlike Sunday worship and one's other interactions with the members of his ward. It's sad to say, but if I could work two shifts in the temple every week in exchange for taking a pass on Sunday meetings, I'd consider it a bargain!

My Mother's 88th Birthday

Today is my mother Wanda Kartchner's 88th birthday. I don't know what to write to pay an adequate tribute to Mom, but I do remember giving a talk about her in sacrament meeting about half-way through my stay in the MTC. I described how, when I was a small child, she often sat up with me at night as I experienced horrible growing pains (or what she and I used to call "legaches"), applying hot, moist towels to my legs to lessen the discomfort. I compared the experience of becoming a missionary to childhood, stating that the Savior would do as my mother had done -- assuage our "spiritual growing pains" with comforting reassurance -- if we would put our trust in him. It wasn't the first time in my life that I thought of my mother as a Christ-like individual, and it certainly hasn't been the last.

"I can't believe this is really happening to me" - My First Day at the MTC

I mentioned in my last post that it's now been thirty years since I entered the Missionary Training Center in Provo, Utah. This photo should be good for a laugh or two, as the expression on my face precisely reflects the mood I was in that day. The fact that the person who took the photo (probably my sister Kristen) shot it slightly off-kilter only adds to my Twilight-Zonish memories of the day when I said good-bye to my parents for two years, which at that point in my life might as well have been twenty. (I remember thinking that they should have had a sign over the doorway that said "Abandon hope, all ye who enter here.") I really did want to serve a mission and was as prepared for it as I would ever be, but for me there was nothing easy about taking that first leap! Luckily, I had already spent my freshman year of college away from home, and so I was able to adjust quickly to my new routine.

Post-Holiday Blues

Today is the last day before I have to go back to work after eleven days out of the office. It's really hard not to be depressed about the end of the long holiday break, especially with so much uncertainty at work right now due to ongoing personnel changes. However, one of the great things about being employed at Sandia National Laboratories is being able to work a "9/80" schedule, under which I get every other Friday off -- and I have this Friday off! I'm hoping to plan out a couple of trips in the next few months, perhaps to Las Vegas next month and then to Utah during spring break. (The attached photo shows me assembling one of my Christmas gifts, an office chair. Man, I'm looking more like my father all the time!)

I didn't get to do most of the things this last week that I wanted to do, but we did succeed in re-painting our bedroom and re-arranging the bed and furnishings. (We painted the room in darker colors, gold and burgundy, which, if nothing else, make it seem more like a place to sleep.) I bought a new "old" Line 6 Spider 210 amplifier on eBay -- sort of a Christmas present to myself -- to replace the Spider 112 that blew up on me. (I missed the tones and effects of the Spider 112, which my Spider II 112 doesn't quite produce.) I also bought most of the "MXC" television shows on DVD, and we've spent a lot of time watching "the world's toughest competition in town."

Devery and Easton spent about ten days with us, and I had fun visiting with them. Devery has now graduated from BYU and has accepted a full-time IT position with the LDS Church in Salt Lake City. Except for the heinous daily bus commute from Provo to SLC and back, which will make for long work days and additional time away from home, it sounds like a good situation for Devery that should enable them to get Easton through school with little or no financial hardship. (Reportedly, the church is planning to move at least some of its database operations, including Devery's position, to Riverton in the next several months, which would at least shorten her commute somewhat.)

Our gym Defined Fitness is about finished, finally, with its remodeling and expansion -- and it has acquired about twenty brand-new treadmills (hopefully, they'll replace the rest of the old equipment soon), which I'm hoping will encourage me to go more often in 2009. I ran a total of 424 miles on the treadmill in 2008, which isn't too bad considering how many nights I skipped the gym due to physical exhaustion caused by sleeping poorly. (I'm still struggling to stay off hypnotic sleep meds, but sometimes it's all I can do during the day not to collapse in a heap.)

This last week also marked several milestones in the family of my in-laws, the P______s. Hillery married her long-time boyfriend Kevin John in the Albuquerque Temple on the 27th, and their reception was held that night at the P_____ s' home. Aaron got his church mission call to the Russia Moscow West Mission, and he received his temple endowment on the 26th at the same time as Hillery. Brendon, who's attending dental school at Ohio State University, blessed his baby boy Kent in sacrament meeting on the 28th. On my side of the family, my niece Andrea's husband, Kevin Cupp, was baptized and confirmed the weekend before Christmas.

Given that the temple was closed the last two Wednesday evenings due to the Christmas and New Year's holidays, I volunteered to work a shift on Friday morning. I'm continuing to make progress in learning the temple ordinances and have the initiatory ordinances memorized. I can "follow" an endowment session but have not yet "officiated." I know the veil ceremony in Spanish, but I plan to learn the Spanish initiatory as well. I'm still hoping that the promises made to me in my setting apart will be fulfilled -- that working at the temple will help me (a) to develop more affinity for other church members and (b) to set a good example for my family.

Today marks thirty years since I began my church mission by entering the Missionary Training Center in Provo, Utah for a two-month stay in preparation for going to Chile. It seems incredible that so much time has passed, but then I've really started feeling my age lately. What seems odd now is that "only" four years passed between the end of my mission and my marriage, a period that seemed interminable then but now seems like a mere moment in time. Darren is approaching the 16-month mark of his mission, leaving only eight months to go; I experienced perhaps my greatest trials at about that stage of my mission, but I hope Darren is having an easier go of things!

The two posts below are music playlists from "Playlist.com"; the first consists of some of my favorite 80s music, and the second contains most of my favorite mid-60s "garage rock" tunes. The sound quality isn't uniformly good, but I hope you enjoy listening!

Random Thoughts

I like to read the writings of Thomas Sowell (left), especially his "Random Thoughts" columns. I thought I'd do something similar today:

1. Why is it that Democrats think it’s evil “dynastic politics” when the offspring of Republican politicians seek public office, but that somehow it’s wonderful when the offspring of Democrats do so—even going so far as to support Caroline Kennedy for appointment to a Senate seat with absolutely no prior experience in elective office (not even as “co-president”)?

2. A generation ago, perhaps the biggest concern of environmentalists was particulate air pollution—i.e., smog, or soot in the air. Several decades of stringent air-quality laws have caused a tremendous reduction in particulate air pollution, leaving the current generation’s environmentalists with little to gripe about in that regard. Could this be the driving factor behind their seemingly zealous search for a new class of air pollutant—in this case, an old, naturally occurring substance called carbon dioxide, or what plants “breathe” to produce oxygen? Following a “logical” progression, one wonders what will happen when/if hydrogen-powered cars come on the market and become the prevalent form of human transportation. The product of hydrogen combustion is not particulates or carbon, but simple water vapor. If hydrogen-powered cars eventually cause elevated levels of O2 in the air—that is, what human beings and other animals need to breathe—will the next generation of environmentalists want to classify oxygen as a pollutant? (Consider that water vapor provides about 90% of the "greenhouse" effect that warms the Earth.) It sounds absurd, but then who would have thought thirty or forty years ago that people would be saying the same today about a relatively innocuous substance like carbon dioxide?

3. I’ve sometimes wondered why I don’t like to watch basketball anymore. Undoubtedly, some of it has to do with the insufferable attitude that so many of today’s athletes have, physically gifted and rich though they may be. (And don’t get me going on the notion that college and pro basketball players and teams from the 1960s and 1970s could match their modern-day counterparts—there simply is no comparison in terms of skills and athleticism, and anyone who thinks otherwise is a fool.) However, I think the real reason I don’t watch basketball anymore is rooted in three de facto rule changes that make all those sparkling moves possible. The first is that “palming” the ball is hardly ever called anymore. The second is that “traveling,” likewise, is hardly ever called, either before or after the dribble. And the third is that, thanks to “breakaway” rims, hardly anyone is ever given a technical foul for hanging on the rim, which in turn makes it relatively “safe” to dunk in traffic. Many actual rule changes have been instituted since the 1970s—the three-point shot, the “alternating possession” rule on held balls, the institution of a shot clock, the rules regarding how many foul shots are awarded and when, etc.—but the changes I’ve mentioned have made basketball, at all levels, a completely different game from what it once was. I’m not saying it’s worse, but it’s definitely not as interesting to me.

4. Concerning the passage of Proposition 8 in California and its chances of actually taking legal effect, I’m left wondering (a) when it supposedly became a “fundamental civil right” for someone to be able to marry another person of the same gender (given that marriage in general was never considered a fundamental right under common law), and (b) how a person can be a “bigot” for supporting traditional marriage between one man and one woman. Personally, I favor the idea of civil unions between homosexual couples, with all that implies, but, setting aside all religious considerations, it doesn’t seem unreasonable to reserve the term “marriage” for what it has always been. The fact that homosexuals want the courts to say otherwise is instructive with regard to their intent, which obviously is to use the courts to bludgeon society into accepting homosexuality as the functional and moral equivalent of heterosexuality—and, more importantly, to impose sanctions against individuals and non-government organizations that refuse to do so. That’s a scary thought, but when legislatures abdicate to the courts their responsibility to make policy decisions, there simply is no telling on what rocky shore the resulting tidal wave might throw us.

1975 Bi-Stake Holiday Tournament MVP

This photo of me has an interesting story. My mother took it in January 1975, shortly after our ward young men's basketball team won a two-stake, double-elimination tournament during the holiday break. I received the most valuable player award, which was not only a very exciting thing to me personally but one of the few times I can remember receiving, as a young man, positive feedback resulting from a church-related event or activity. I was a fifteen-year-old sophomore in high school (still about eight months away from his first set of contact lenses) who had, after some dithering, decided not to try out for the high school basketball team. (It was a decision about which I felt quite a bit of regret until just a few years ago, when I finally realized that it wouldn't have been worth the effort. Even if I'd played school ball, my high school had one of the best programs in New Mexico, blessed with both gifted star players [mostly jerks, unfortunately] and a lot of depth; I wouldn't have made the varsity team until I was a senior, and even then I wouldn't have played much.)  However, it meant a lot to me to be told I was a good player -- especially as a tenth-grader -- even if it was in the context of church ball.

The tournament itself was an adventure. Our first game was against 5th Ward (of the Albuquerque Stake) at the Haines Street chapel, which we won by, I think, six points after struggling against their full-court press. The next evening, we lost a close game to 7th Ward (of the East Stake) at the Eubank chapel, then immediately we had to rush back down to Haines Street to play 4th Ward (of the Albuquerque Stake) in a late losers-bracket game; I remember winning a real nail-biter on a teammate's late free throws. 7th Ward went on to lose to 8th Ward (our arch-rivals from the East Stake, and the ward with the most good-looking girls, including Dorine), so the next day we played 7th Ward one more time, again at the Eubank chapel, this time winning by a few points. That put us in the championship game against 8th Ward, although of course we needed to beat them twice to win the tournament. We won the first game at the Eubank chapel, but apparently no one had contemplated the need for an "if" game, as there was another activity scheduled at the Eubank building that afternoon, and the tournament organizers had to scramble to schedule the Haines building for the last game. We managed to win that game, too, which was a very sweet feeling -- made positively exquisite by my winning the MVP trophy.

After my mother shot the photo above with her Kodak Instamatic camera, that particular roll of film lay in a drawer, forgotten, for what must have been six years. I can remember coming home from my mission in late December 1980 and going with my mother, sometime in the next few days, to the old Skaggs drugstore down in Fair Plaza (at the intersection of San Pedro and Lomas in Albuquerque). Skaggs had some ridiculous special on film development and prints (something like a dollar a roll), so my mother took her old rolls down to have them all developed at once. Needless to say, the resulting pile of photos included this one -- time had caused the negative to fade somewhat, but it was an amazing feeling to see it, not knowing it existed, after six years! It brought back nice memories then, and it still does so today.

Photos from the Cabin and Pagosa Springs

Here are some photos from our trip to the cabin with Mike and Judy. The first shows Mike, Judy, and Dorine having ice cream at the malt shoppe. (They serve huge sundaes and cones there!) The second shows the view east from the malt shoppe on the eastern end of Pagosa Springs. (Pagosa is a very pretty town in the wintertime.) The third is at the underground candy shop near the movie theater in downtown Pagosa Springs. (We bought a bunch of fudge there.) The fourth shows Dorine and me on the deck at the cabin. I had a fun time and wished we could stay longer!

The Albuquerque Youth Symphony Luminaria Fundraiser

Here's a photo that Dorine took of the assembly line at our luminaria "workhouse" on Saturday morning, December 6. The sand pile pictured was already significantly smaller at that point in time than it was when we started at 7:00 am, and I'm sort of amazed that the sand was completely gone, and that all our deliveries were made, by 1:30 pm. We had an extremely hard-working, competent crew! Likewise, all of our preparations and planning paid off; Dorine deserves most of the credit, especially for learning how to use Microsoft's "Streets and Trips" to make the delivery routes. Dorine received several compliments from people assigned to work at our house regarding how well-organized everything was. I think we only had about 760 dozen luminarias to assemble and deliver, whereas some workhouses had double that number -- which explains why we ended up at another workhouse in the afternoon, and why Zach and I ended up making a few deliveries in the South Valley at the end of the day. It will be interesting to see how much we earned toward Kiley's Australia trip -- hopefully it will have proved to be worth our while!

At the Cabin with Mike and Judy

Dorine and I are spending a few days at Pinegrove Cabin (near Pagosa Springs, CO) with Mike and Judy P______. This trip is in lieu of our usual trip to Ruidoso, NM to celebrate wedding anniversaries. (This month marks 34 years for Mike and Judy and 24 for Dorine and me.) It's fun to come up here, and Mike and Judy are always good company. The attached image from Google Earth shows the neighborhood in which the cabin sits -- it is the smaller of the two structures pictured in the bottom center. (The larger structure is inhabited year-round, at least for now.) Access from U.S. 84 is from the right (east), and one must cross the Rio Blanco on the whitish-colored bridge. You can also see the Rito Blanco, and its confluence with the larger Rio Blanco, in the upper part of the image. The cabin property takes in most of the land between the river and the road, along with much of the wooded hill at the bottom of the image; thus there are plenty of places to play, hike, and hide away. I look forward to going into town this afternoon to shop and knock around town.

The AYS luminaria fundraiser on Saturday went very well. We finished our orders at around 1:30 pm, although then we were assigned to another "workhouse," and Zach and I ended our day making deliveries in the South Valley using maps that provided very few reference points. (Not knowing the area very well, it took us over an hour to find the last house on the route, by which time it was after dark -- very frustrating!) Thank goodness it's over now!

Inter-Holiday Family Update

I can't think of anything in particular to write about, so I'll post a general sort of update. I'm sad today because I found out that Mike Prairie, the senior manager I've supported at work, died over the long weekend from his brain cancer. We knew he was ready to check out because his aggressive chemotherapy regimen had failed to arrest the growth of his tumor(s), but his death at this juncture was still a surprise, given that it came so soon after he stopped receiving treatment. If nothing else, I'm glad that his suffering was cut short -- anyone who's had to watch a loved one die of cancer knows that death itself can be a blessing.

Last week, I was able to exchange my existing "VPAP Adapt SV" breathing machine for one of the "enhanced" units; I owe both A&R Medical Supply and Resmed a debt of gratitude for working together to make that happen. So far, it appears that heightened pressure settings do help me significantly, although I'm currently experiencing yet another health issue that's impeding my sleep: debilitating stiffness and pain in my left hip that seems to be radiating from my lower back. I saw a doctor about it this afternoon at my employer's medical clinic; he diagnosed it as probable sciatica and gave me a stretching regimen and a prescription for a strong painkiller (which, for obvious reasons, I want to use only sparingly).

We had a nice Thanksgiving dinner at home with much of our immediate family and various members of Dorine's extended family. (My mother elected to stay home and cook for my sister Kristen and her family.) I'm looking forward to my extended Christmas/New Year's holiday from work, but there are still a couple of intervening events this next weekend. First, we have to get through the Albuquerque Youth Symphony's luminaria fundraiser -- we'll be busy inasmuch as our home will be one of a number of "workhouses" where luminarias are assembled and from which vehicles will make runs to deliver them. And second, Dorine and I will be driving to Colorado to spend time at the cabin with Judy and Mike P______; hopefully, we'll get to leave on Saturday afternoon after all our luminarias are made up and delivered, as three nights up there sounds much better than two! (This cabin trip will be in lieu of our usual "wedding anniversary" trip to Ruidoso -- it didn't make sense to spend a load of money on a cabin in Ruidoso if we could stay at our cabin in Colorado for "free.")

Devery and Easton went to Tucson to spend Thanksgiving with his family; however, they'll be coming here for Christmas, partly because Devery's cousin Hillery P______ is marrying her fiance Kevin John on the 27th in the Albuquerque Temple. Devery will finish her BSIS degree this semester and is interviewing for jobs in the Utah Valley/SLC area. We thought that Darren would stay in Jesus de Otoro through the end of the year, since he'd been trained in how to conduct tithing settlement; however, we found out today that he was transferred last week back to the Tegucigalpa area and is training another new missionary, Elder Rose from Morgan, UT. (The photo above was taken from Darren's mission's blog -- Darren is the second from the right, and I'm assuming the elder on the far right is Elder Rose.) Kiley has been pretty sick and has been struggling to manage all that she has on her plate; sometimes it seems like neither Dorine nor Kiley nor I get nearly enough sleep at night.

I don't have much of a Christmas wish list this year. I need another pair of running shoes, and I could always use an iTunes gift card. I'd really like to get my "old" Line 6 guitar amplifier repaired, as the newer one I bought doesn't produce the same heavenly tone (with a touch of chorus, a little digital delay, and some reverb) that made me fall in love with the "old" one. Knowing the cost of electronics repairs these days, however, it would probably be less-expensive to go on eBay and buy another of the old model.

Jugging Out of Hidden Cave

Here's another photo from my caving trip a couple of weeks ago. Jimmy Williamson took it as I was climbing the rope on mechanical ascenders to get out of Hidden Cave. "Jugging" up a rope is a pretty strenuous exercise no matter what technique one uses, but we use the "frog" setup, employing one handled ascender, attached to a foot loop (with a safety line attached to the harness), in tandem with a non-handled ascender, attached directly to the harness and held flat against the chest by an improvised "chest harness." The "frog" setup is a simple but efficient system -- read more about it here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Single_Rope_Technique.

A Few of My Favorite Things

I'm sort of a compulsive list-maker, and periodically I like to list my favorite things by category. For what it's worth, here are a few of my favorites:
Food: Steak. (Sirloin will do, generally.)
Beverage: Vanilla Pepsi from Blake's Lotaburger (I love to eat the ice as I'm downing the drink, so I ask for extra ice), followed by Dr. Pepper and Mountain Dew. (I sure wish these drinks were [more] available in non-caffeinated versions!)
Snack: Yoplait yogurt (peach or strawberry).
Musical Group: The Who (I'm more song-oriented now than when I was younger, but if I have to choose a favorite group, it's the Who).
Song: "Typical" by Mutemath. (These days, I really don't have a favorite song as such, but I really like "Typical.")
Book: (nonfiction) Camp 4: Recollections of a Yosemite Rockclimber, by Steve Roper; (fiction) Mutiny on the Bounty, by Charles Nordhoff and James Norman Hall.
Movie: The Sting (1973).
TV Show: MXC, SportsCenter. (I don't get to watch MXC much anymore, since it's been consigned to a late-night slot on Spike TV, but I still find the show's innuendo-laced English commentary, dubbed onto video from the old Japanese television show Takeshi's Castle, to be absolutely hilarious. As for SportsCenter, well, I may not like to watch many actual sporting events on TV anymore, but I still like to watch the highlights.)
Place: Ruidoso (NM), Pinegrove Cabin (CO), Sandia Mountains (NM). (For years, I practically lived for my trips to Las Vegas, but it's pretty much fallen out of my life now.)
Sport: Soccer. (I especially like to watch the English Premier League and the Italian "Serie A," although our satellite TV package doesn't include any channels that regularly show European soccer.)
Team: The U.S. men's soccer team. (The U.S. isn't in the upper echelon of national sides, but I still root for them and watch them every chance I get.)
Clothes: Jeans, long-sleeve t-shirt, trail-runners, ball cap.
Camping Spot: Oliver Lee Memorial State Park (NM), Villanueva State Park (NM), Sentinel Camp (Guadalupe Mountains, NM), Deer Pass (Sandia Mountains, NM).
Video Game: Dr. Mario. (We still have "Dr. Mario" for the old Nintendo system, but I'd have to learn to hook it up to play it.)
Cereal: Cocoa Pebbles.
Flavor of Gatorade: Glacier Freeze.
Scripture: Ether 12:27.
Website: National Review Online.
Car: Mitsubishi Eclipse.
Guitar: Fender Stratocaster. (I'm starting to lust after the Gretsch Electromatic Double Jet, however -- check it out: http://www.guitarcenter.com/Gretsch-Guitars-Electromatic-Double-Jet-Electric-Guitar-511589-i1147139.gc.)
Decadent Meal: Fried eggs and sausage. (Just thinking about them starts my arteries to harden.)
Genre of Music: Mid-60s "Garage Punk." (1966 was a watershed year -- tons of cool music came out then.)
Temple: Albuquerque. (Of course -- but I still have fond memories of going to the aesthetically pleasing Las Vegas Temple, with all its woodwork and almost-complete lack of interior right angles.)

Sleeping In Limbo

I've now been off sleep meds for 14 weeks, but my sleep habits haven't improved noticeably in the interim, despite the fact that I do feel I've become more accustomed to the various physical discomforts or environmental issues that I've discussed in previous posts. In other words, I don't think the bulk of the problem lies in my sleep environment, nor do I believe it's primarily a psychological issue, as I don't have any particularly crushing psychological concerns or burdens at present. All of which leaves me wondering if my "VPAP Adapt SV" breathing machine really is fully remedying my problems with complex sleep apnea.

Adding weight to my suspicions is the fact that the results of my last sleep study indicated that I might do better with increased minimum/maximum pressure settings on my machine. However, when I tried to enter those settings, I quickly discovered that the unit I have is an older model that won't go above the levels at which it was originally set when I got it in February. (In contrast, the machine I used at the lab for the sleep study was a newer "Enhanced" model that provides higher pressure levels.) That obviously could be a major problem, given that my insurance company and I have already made payments for ten or eleven months on the thing: (1) the medical-supply company wouldn't simply hand me a new "Enhanced" unit out of inventory; (2) my insurance company won't start all over, paying for a new machine from scratch; and (3) the manufacturer, Resmed, might not accept a trade-in, with or without additional consideration.

I'm informed, however, that the doctor's office and the medical-supply company are negotiating with Resmed to try to get it to trade out my machine for an "Enhanced" unit. They seem pretty optimistic that it will happen, although I don't yet know if any strings will be attached. I can't say for certain that the "Enhanced" model will solve my residual night-time breathing problems, but at this point it looks like my only chance to start sleeping all night without resuming regular use of hypnotic medications; thus, right now I'm in wait-and-see mode. However, something has to happen soon, because I'm actually feeling more run-down and miserable now than when I was taking combinations of prescription and OTC sleep meds every night!

November Caving Trip to the Guads

I took my long-anticipated caving trip to the Guadalupe Mountains (in southeastern New Mexico) on November 7-9, 2008 with Rod Williamson, Jimmy Williamson (Rod's son), and Brett Colter (a friend of Rod's and the son of Craig Colter, a member of our ward). Our friend Jim Rasmussen had planned to go, but finally he was too busy at work to get away; consequently we ended up being a party of four. (Taking only four people was a little bit of a waste in that the USFS caving permits were, as usual, for six people, but at least it enabled us to travel down in one vehicle -- Rod's four-seat Toyota Tacoma.) We left Albuquerque at about 10:00 am on Friday the 7th and stopped to eat lunch at Chili's in Roswell; it was already starting to get dark by the time we made it up to the high Guads, so we decided to pitch tents first at Texas Camp and then walk back up the road to go see our first cave, the entrance passage of Cottonwood Cave. Cottonwood Cave has some huge, very beautiful formations, although the entrance passage (as opposed to the second parallel passage, the entrance to which is gated and kept locked) isn't much of an adventure. Later we fixed dinner (I had decided to eat well on this trip, so I had stir-fry with chicken chunks), lit a campfire, and shot the bull before retiring.

The next day we planned to do Black Cave first and then come back up the hill to Hidden Cave; however, I was a little unclear how to get to Black Cave, and we ended up on the fork in the road that goes to the trail to get to Hidden Cave. Rather than backtrack and have to come back later, we decided to do Hidden first. A combined 80' rappel is required to get from the entrance to the "lower" half of the cave, which is about all the adventure on a rope that I can handle these days. (A second cave entrance to the northwest has now been blocked off.) We had a lot of fun scrambling around in the "lower" half of the cave, and in the end we didn't even bother going to see the "upper" half. At one point I jugged out of the cave to fetch a second rope so that the other guys could do a short rappel at the end of the longest passage. Unfortunately, as I was rapping back into the cave, Dorine's camera fell out of my pocket and dropped about 40'; needless to say, it didn't work too well after that! (I bought a replacement camera at Wal-Mart in Roswell on the way home.)

Later, we ate lunch back at the truck and then set out to find Black Cave, which Rod and I had already visited twice on previous trips. I thought had a pretty good idea how to find it without using the step-log provided by the USFS, but if there was a constant on this trip, it was that my memory of dimensions and distances was often way off. We did, finally, find the cave, but not before Rod had a few doubts about my cave-finding skills! All of the caves we saw were pretty moist, but Black Cave was sopping wet -- slippery and quite treacherous. By that time of the day I didn't really care much about seeing the whole cave, but we did slip-slide our way down to the end, poking around a little in one of the parallel passages before heading back out. We were hoping to get back to camp before dark, and we succeeded, but unfortunately, one of Rod's tires suffered a sidewall puncture on the way back. We put the spare tire on back at camp, but our not having a spare tire pretty well killed the idea of making the rough drive up to the "Pink" parking area the next day (Sunday) and hiking to Pink Dragon Cave.

That night I had an excellent sirloin steak -- medium-rare with Montreal seasoning -- for dinner, along with mixed veggies and a couple of hashbrown patties. Rod and I later walked down to the Dark Canyon Lookout (which has a decent privy) and had a nice talk on the way. We camped out again, then packed up and headed back the next morning. I'd like to go back sometime in the next year, but only if we can get permits to some different caves (hopefully not Sentinel Cave, which is still the stuff of my nightmares). It might be worth going on a cave-restoration trip just to see other caves -- Hell Below Cave, Three Fingers Cave, the lower part of Cottonwood Cave, maybe the Cave of the Madonna, etc. We'll see.

[The photos above show (a) the "Chinese Wall" formation in Hidden Cave, (b) Brett, Rod, and Jimmy in Hidden Cave; (c) a view out over the Guads from the Dark Canyon Lookout tower; and (d) our campsite at Texas Camp (a favorite caver's hangout). The video embed below shows me doing the first 25' or so of the drop into Hidden Cave.]

Ready to Join the Grateful Dead

We had a Halloween party at work on Thursday, October 30, and this is how I dressed for it. I look at this picture and think "Yikes!" (The guitar is a Squier "Affinity" Telecaster, with a great neck and extremely low string action, that I picked up on eBay several years ago.)

[Update 7/7/10: This picture was taken in Conference Room B9 in Building 880 at Sandia, which no longer exists. Facilities, in its infinite wisdom, commandeered the space this spring and tore out what was one of the best conference rooms in the company. It will probably end up as part of another cubicle farm.]

Election Postmortem

Well, the election went about as badly as I feared it might, with the Republican Party getting waxed at every level. I'm afraid of what Barack Obama will do as president, but there is a bright side: the election of an African-American (which I view as an extremely positive notion in the abstract) should lead to the "descendancy" of professional grievance-mongers and racketeering race-baiters like Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton. As Stuart Taylor noted in the National Journal, the question remains which Obama will show up in January to be sworn in: the left-wing ideologue that his record indicates he has always been, or the post-partisan, post-racial "agent of hope and change" that he campaigned as. I agree with Taylor that if Obama pursues a purely leftist agenda, he will be a complete failure as president (Jimmy Carter II!), but, unlike Taylor, I have little confidence that Obama knows how to be anything but a left-wing ideologue. I think we'll know for certain early on, when Obama is faced with decisions such as: (a) whether or not to reinstate the so-called "Fairness Doctrine" (which would be clearly aimed at censoring conservative talk radio); (b) whether or not to repeal the Patriot Act and other legislation enacted to fight the War on Terror; (c) whether or not to close down the military detention facility at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba; and (d) whether or not to end the U.S.'s military involvement in Iraq in general. However Obama chooses to govern, he will almost certainly disappoint either his DailyKos base or the millions of moderates who voted for him in the expectation that he will be president of the entire country, not just one extreme sector of it. (As Jonah Goldberg observed this morning, if Obama governs to the center, it will be good for the country, and if he governs to the left, it will be good for the Republican Party.)

What enabled Obama to win the election? Clearly, the majority of the country wants to take a different course, and, just as clearly, George W. Bush's unpopularity has created tremendous ill will toward the Republican brand. Yet the polls seemed to indicate that the ongoing financial crisis was what finally turned the tide inexorably in the Democrats' favor. The meltdown was caused primarily by the subprime mortgage crisis, yet it was the Dems who fomented dubious mortgage-lending practices, first by enacting legislation such as the Community Reinvestment Act and then by fiercely resisting heightened regulation of FNMA and FHLMC at a time when it was obvious to most people in Washington that things were going very wrong in the home-loan markets. That they were then able, in a classic case of projection, to direct blame at the Bush Administration -- and all those greedy capitalists on Wall Street -- is ironic in the extreme. (The mainstream media assisted them greatly in that endeavor, which underscores the fact that, contrary to the wishful thinking in one of my earlier posts, they still have great power to influence public opinion, or at least the opinions of the squishy swing voters who decide elections in this country. The sad thing is that the media obviously have come to see that as their raison d'être, becoming the de facto propaganda arm of the Democratic Party.)

John McCain, then, was the victim of a "perfect storm" in which fate and chance repeatedly conspired to kill his chances of winning. In the end, he was left throwing various pieces of poop at his opponent in the futile hope that something would stick, which is never a position in which a candidate for office wants to find himself. It could also be argued that Sarah Palin, McCain's running mate, wasn't ready for the national stage, although I still believe otherwise. She failed to help McCain capture the moderate middle, but, with the unfair, relentless battering she received at the hands of the media -- which highlighted their boundless capacity for seeking to achieve the destruction of women and minorities who dare to stray from the liberal plantation -- it's difficult to see now how any running mate could have done that. I hope, moving forward, that she stays in the national spotlight, as I have no doubt she'll prove her critics wrong over time.

As far as New Mexico goes, we ended up with a congressional delegation composed entirely of Democrats, which makes it hard to dispute that we are now a solidly "blue" state. Unfortunately, Tom Udall as senator will be no Pete Domenici -- he's more like a featherweight version of the already-lightweight Jeff Bingaman -- suggesting that our two senators will wield very little influence in Washington. That doesn't bode well for New Mexico's national labs, and, honestly, I'm not sure either Bingaman or Udall really cares, notwithstanding the tremendous economic impact that federal spending has in this state. Our new congressman in the First District will be Martin Heinrich, a former city councilor who might not have defeated Heather Wilson (our departing congresswoman, who decided to vacate her seat to run in the senate primary election), given even the current political environment.

In closing, I wanted to say something about the Bush presidency. Although he will be leaving office as one of the most unpopular presidents of all time, I tend to believe that historians will be kind to George W. Bush, and for three simple reasons: (1) after 9/11, his policies prevented further large-scale terrorist attacks against America or its interests abroad; (2) the establishment of a middle-eastern democratic beachhead in Iraq may still serve to quell the fascistic sort of fervor that gives rise to terrorist impulses in the rest of the Islamic world; and (3) his humanitarian initiatives in Africa have already done much good for a continent about which the rest of the world has largely forgotten. In four years, I think we could easily be looking back with great nostalgia for the Bush administration.

Photos from Darren

Here are a couple of recent photos from Darren in his current area in and around Jesús de Otoro, Honduras. The first shows Darren fording a fair-sized river -- the only way to reach the house of a family he and his companion have been teaching -- and the second shows him, his Bolivian companion Elder Capiona (left), and another missionary with their latest convert, a lady named Argentina (who has a disability and must use crutches to get around). It's fun to know he's having such unforgettable experiences as a missionary! He gets along well with Elder Capiona and was happy that his mission president left them together for a second six-week "transfer" period. In another couple of weeks, Darren will have completed an entire year in Honduras.