The Big Excitement!

Over the weekend, Novell is placing new HVAC units on the roof of our eight story building in Provo. In order to do that, they have brought in this enormous crane! This thing is humongous! It is so large that the ladder-like sections used to extend the crane and make it longer are not actually attached to the crane yet. The big crane arrived, they placed ten railroad ties on the ground under each of the four outriggers then lifted the entire thing off the ground with the outriggers. Now they have a smaller crane that is helping to lift the sections up and attach them to the big crane. It's probably just a guy thing but a crane so large that it requires a smaller crane to assemble before it can be used is just really cool to me! They will be lifting the HVAC units tomorrow...I'm thinking two of my three kids would like to watch it, but I don't know if I can find out what time the actual lift will be at.

Must Hate Money

I guess the manager of Wingers in Lehi just hates money. We walked in for lunch with our whole church group and kids for a total of around 17 people. Now when we walked in at 12:30 we were the only people in the place. We sat in the large party area with it's own door and got our drinks. Then a family if 4 came in and they sat them in our section. When we asked the manager if we could have our own space we were told no. We explained we were there for a meeting and we needed some privacy but the manager was unmoved. Rather than allowing us to have an area for us the manager told us it was his way or the highway so we all got into vehicles and hit the road. The guy must not want money from this large party.

Good Day

I had an enjoyable day today. I haven't done some of the stuff I enjoy in a while because of my ongoing back thing. Today I was able to break that streak. Even though it was below freezing and snowing I kept my appointment with a friend and headed out into the elements to go shooting today. We both brought our oldest boys with us ANS even though it was cold, the boys and the adults had a great time! We set up a bunch of clay pigeons and blasted away with various firearms. After we couldn't feel our fingers any longer we fired the trucks up again turned the heater on high an went back to home. It was a good time we'll have to do again soon.

Goodbye, Larry H. Miller

Larry H. Miller, businessman, Utah Jazz owner, husband, father and grandfather passed away yesterday due to complications from his diabetes. We meet for church in his theater at Thanksgiving Point. He has been a mainstay here in Utah for as long as I have been living here and he has made an impact on a ton of different peoples' lives. The full story is on the Utah Jazz site here.

More Job Losses

Every year, it seems, I lose friends from my job at Novell. This year there were a couple of people that had been working there for well over 15 years. One of the traditions when somebody either leaves voluntarily or is reduced is to send off the final email. One of the guys I know really summed up my feelings well on it. He said:

Hard to know what to say when it still feels so surreal.
Today, I parked my car, smiled and said hi to the receptionist, and open my office door for the last time. One final day, I'm lucky to rub shoulders with and learn something new from some of the most intelligent, yet kind people I've ever meet.
It's hard, knowing you all, and leaving - it's significant to me.
Usually taken for granted, the pleasures of problem solving, inventing, struggling, hoping, and celebrating success with you all are what I'll miss. I've grown and evolved and become something I never-ever imagined because of the support and encouragement of the people I've worked with.
If it turns out that you all represent the type of people I encounter after Novell, then I have hope that the next 20 years of my career will be as rewarding as the last.
Once I've been deprovisioned :) I'll be available at xxx@gmail.com
<adjective showing sincerity, sadness, hopefulness, joy, anxiety and gratitude here>,
xxx

Mobile?

So I found a program that allows me to blog from my iPhone without having to use the browser. This is the lite version to try but they want me to purchase the full version. I figured I would five it a shot and see how it works out.

Good Lunch

After church yesterday we RCCers all took off to have lunch together at Golden Corral. We had so many people come they had to open the room divider to fit us all! We had the opportunity to not only sit down and chat with everybody there, but Randy asked us each to introduce ourselves publicly and tell everybody something they didn't know about us. It was a tough one since I have spent so much time up front talking about my life and all but I gave it a shot and talked about my stint as a musician. I spent a few years when I was younger playing the viola. Started in school, then left that program and had a member of the Utah Symphony give me one on one lessons. That was my big secret...I can read music!

Road Courtesy Redux

It seems there are some folk who have given this a lot more thought than I have. Diahretic Expostulation actually has placed a formula on it to prove their position. While the New York Times is using the terms sidezoomers and lineuppers in their discussion with various other bloggers on the topic. What's your thought?

Road Courtesy

If we have road rage shouldn't we have road courtesy as well? It continues to dismay me to see how poorly people decide to act after they get behind the wheel of a car. Just yesterday, when I merged on to the freeway I experienced this. The freeway was closed down to a single lane for repaving. When I merged from the on ramp, the person behind was kind enough to leave me room and allow me to join the freeway. Everybody had already merged into a single lane around 1/8 mile from where the orange barrels required it. For a short time, it was okay, but just before there was only one lane a string of four or five cars came flying up the other lane to push themselves into line ahead of everyone else. They act as if they are more important than all of us in line and we should give way to them so they can get to their destination 20 cars ahead of us. But why? What is the motivation to pass cars 50 mph than they are going and push themselves into line? Is it just because they can? Is it the anonymity a vehicle gives a person? While I am very aware the vehicle I choose to drive tends to make it very obvious who is driving, thus removing the anonymity of driving from me, I also try to treat others as I want to be treated when driving as well.