Union Pacific's Great Excursion Adventure

Easter 2022

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Sunday – 17 April 2022

Happy Easter / Resurrection Sunday to those who celebrated it today. Wishing you all the peace, joy, love and hope that the day promises.

Today was the first holiday without my uncle.

Which means that it was also the first holiday on which he did not call to wish us well. There was a little bit of melancholy attached to that fact. But, that did not mean that it was a bad day. Far from it, in fact…

I spoke with my parents and two of my siblings.

There was an Easter egg hunt for the ladies.

We had a lovely late lunch/early dinner with Sara’s side of the family.

And Mario Kart. Because, with the advent of the newly-released – or, at least, recently-released – tracks, there’s a renewed enjoyment of the game for Team DiVa.


For those who are interested, below is the tribute I wrote for my uncle’s memorial.

I meant to post this a week ago, when I got back from North Carolina, but Life, the Universe, and Everything (along with a heaping helping of “I just forgot”) conspired to keep me from doing so.

Good day and, on behalf of our family, thank you for your thoughts, your prayers, and most importantly: your time. We appreciate that you have come to share with us as we celebrate the life of Dr. Ronald Joseph Smith. 

Many tributes will tell you of the accolades of the recently departed. This is not that tribute. 

Instead, I am here to tell you about the MAN behind the DOCTOR. 

Ron Smith was my uncle. 
My Godfather. 

But, more than that: He was my friend. 

He had a magnetic personality and knew no strangers. And, if you knew him, you also know that his laughter filled rooms. 

He was a man of faith. He served many roles in and was beloved by the congregation and clergy in his home church. This was no more evident than when word of his passing reached a former priest – now a bishop – he said that he would clear his calendar to attend his memorial in New York…. coming from his current post in Africa. 

He believed in and strove for excellence. In his life. In his work. He also sought it in, from, and for the people around him. 

He loved the works of Beethoven, finding perfection in the structures of his music. 

He is the man the one who suggested – in the middle of the eye of a hurricane – that we go out to pick up a pizza. 

He’s a man who faced and embraced his fears. He called me after completing a drive down California’s Route 1. He was audibly shaken. He set aside any pretense of ego and asked me to meet him in California and help him drive across country. I don’t recall “why,” but I didn’t. And he also enjoyed never letting me live that down. 

He would call me and my family every couple of weeks, to make sure that we never lost touch with each other and that our family bonds remained strong. And, depending on when he called, he might also rub in a Steelers’ win over the Ravens. 

He may be gone from us, but I also know that he is still here.  

There is a saying that my Jewish friends use upon the passing of a loved one: “May his/her memory be a blessing.” 

There are many phrases in the Jewish tradition that address death in different manners, but they also focus only on the dead or only on the living. 

“May their memory be a blessing” speaks to both. It comforts the mourners and honors the memory of those they mourn. It is an active statement that people offer to one another, wishing something for the dead while at the same time acknowledging and maybe easing the pain of the living. It’s not a descriptor. It’s not a sharing of information. It is, itself, a kind of blessing. It’s a kind of injunction. It wishes not only that when the living think about those who have died, they do so with warmth and joy. It also offers the possibility that the lives of the dead serve as a blessing, marking the ways those lives have mattered and continue to matter in this world, even if they are no longer in it. 

In closing, I challenge you to embrace your fears. Laugh and bring laughter to others. Keep your faith. Strive for excellence. Keep and be strong in your faith. Love your family. 

May the memory of Ron Smith be a blessing.  

Merry Christmas 2021

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Saturday – 25 December 2021

Merry Christmas from our family to yours!

Wishing you all the best in the year to come!

Merry Christmas 2020

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Friday – 25 December 2020
Merry Christmas from our family to yours!

This year’s card layout (above) was chosen by Team DiVa.  🙂

Wishing all the best for you and your loved ones for the new year.

Merry Christmas

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Wednesday – 25 December 2019

Team DiVa – Winter 2019
Sara – Winter 2019
Rob – Winter 2019

Merry Christmas from our family to yours!

May the peace, love, and joy of the Christmas, Hanukkah, and Kwanzaa season be with you and may you spend it in the company of family and friends.

Wishing all the best for you and your loved ones for the new year.

Merry Christmas!

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Tuesday – 25 December 2018

Christmas 2018 (Click for original image)

Merry Christmas from our family to yours!

May the peace, love, and joy of the holiday season be with you and may you spend it in the company of family and friends. Best wishes for the new year.

Merry Christmas!

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Monday – 25 December 2017

Christmas 2017

Merry Christmas from our family to yours. May your holiday season – no matter what holiday you celebrate – be joyous, safe, and spent in the company of family and friends you hold dear. Best wishes to you for the new year.

Saturday Night Musings

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Saturday – 28 January 2017
Happy Chinese New Year!

Another week comes to a close. Between being sick earlier in the week, having a vmware host decide to go on break – and take a few servers with it – in the middle of a workday, and the political shenanigans that have been going on here in the U.S., I can honestly say that I’m glad to have it in the rear-view mirror (or back-up camera, for some of you).

This isn’t to say that the week hasn’t been without its bright spots. Thankfully, there have been a few.

Stray Toasters

And that’s all for now.

Namaste.

“You will be assimilated. Resistance is futile.”

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Tuesday – 09 August 2016
Have you ever had one of those moments when you read something and it seems perfectly logical in your head – for a few seconds, at least – and then you have to retrace all of the steps to make sure that you really read it properly?

Huh.

Yeah, okay… that makes sense.

You have?

Good.

How about one of those moments when you read something AND it seems perfectly logical in your head AND you retrace all of your mental steps… yet it still seems a little off?

YeahbuhWHAT....?!

But… that… doesn’t even make good crazy peoples’ sense…

That happened to me a short while ago.
And it proved to me that I’ve been in Utah too long.
Naturally, it came by way of Facebook…

A friend’s wife posted something about a family they know who is moving. She added:

“Thank you to all the First Pres worship team who came to celebrate…”

And the first thing in my head was: “The First Presidency1?!”

Nope. She meant “First Presbyterian.”

D'oh!

*derp*

1 – For those of you who either: A) don’t live in Utah or B) not Mormon, the First Presidency is the presiding or governing body of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

Hell: The Musical

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Monday – 18 July 2016
It’s the day after National Ice Cream Day and, for my sin of gluttony, I think I’m going to Hell.

Okay, that’s not entirely true.

Yes, yesterday was National Ice Cream Day.
Yes, I did eat ice cream.
Yes, I ate “quite a bit” of ice cream.
(And, yes, there’s still a lot of ice cream in our freezer.)

But, those are not the reasons I probably have an eTicket to Hell reserved in my name. Like so many others, my road to Hell was paved with good intentions. And it even started so innocuously. Need proof? Here it is:

Earlier, I received an email with a link to this article: Incredibly Epic Statue of Ancient Chinese Warrior God Unveiled. And they weren’t just whistling Dixie (or any other song, for that matter); this statue is rather epic. Bonus points for truth in advertising. Seriously, check out this statue:

Guan Yu - photo (c) CCTV News China

Guan Yu – photo (c) CCTV News China

So, I’m looking at this statue when, out of the blue, a thought pops into my head:

Battle of the Titans: Guan Yu vs. Big Butter Jesus!

 

It proceeded to go downhill from there. Rapidly.

For the unfamiliar, here’s some information about Big Butter Jesus and here’s a look at His Oleo Holiness:

Big Butter Jesus - photo (c) The Huffington Post

Big Butter Jesus – photo (c) The Huffington Post

I know what you’re thinking: “That’s, quite obviously, a statue of Jesus… and it’s not made of butter.” You’re right. It is and it isn’t, in that order. So, how did it wind up with the sobriquet “Big Butter Jesus?” Because of Heywood Banks and this song:

So, yes, thanks to a couple of giant statues, Heywood Banks, and the way my mind is wired, I’m going to Hell. Handbasket. Gasoline draws. At least I’ll have something to listen to on the way there:

Namaste.

Thursday Night Something-or-other

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Thursday – 11 February 2016
Today was supposed to be #NoBadNewsThursday. It started that way. About a hour-and-a-half into it, however… not so much. One of the servers at work decided to try a new trick:

  • It was powered on.
  • It could see – and transmit to – the network.
  • NOTHING on the network could see it or any of the traffic it generated.

And, to make things even more interesting: This was tied to a production (as in “manufacturing”) system. So, it was “kind of” important.

To quote Dr. Sam Beckett: “Oh, boy…”

I – and a couple of network engineers – troubleshot it for about an hour before we came to the inescapable conclusion that it was not a network problem. Digging into things a little further, I saw that it was pending a reboot. That didn’t solve things. Next up: Check its updates queue. There were a few sitting there that needed to be run. So I let ’em fly. Reboot 2: Electric Boogaloo. Nothing. Well, that’s not entirely true. It started rolling back the updates. (That’s usually not a good sign.) I checked update error messages when it came back up and saw that they failed because the hard disk was full. As in “Zero. Bytes. Free.” There was a good bit of cursing on my part, to be honest. Then it was a dive into the storage array and VM systems to make space appear. Then present it to the server. That all worked. Then I tried the updates again. Lo and behold, they all went through with no problems. (There may or may not have been a few “Amens” and “Thank yous” that went up at this point.) And, almost automagically, networking traffic all worked again. I verified with one of the network guys and an end user that all was right with the world again… and it was. Selah.

Part of getting through the day included being taken to lunch by networking vendors. It was not only a good change of pace, but it brought my day back from the Precipice of Doom.

After work, I picked up Team DiVa from daycare. Home. Dinner and dessert. They even got in almost 20 minutes of Disney Infinity playtime before it was time to start bedtime prep. Selah.

Carve Away the Stone
I’ve made halting steps at getting back to the gym. Last night, I considered going… then I opted out, because it was damned cold outside. I did, however, still manage to get in a bit of a workout, courtesy of my dumbbells, Swiss ball, and a couple of suggestions from YouTube. Was it quite the same workout I would have gotten at the gym, no. But, I wasn’t just sitting on my duff doing nothing, either. I’ll call that a win.

Stray Toasters

Alright, that’s it for now. I think I’m going to catch up on a show or two before calling it a night.

Namaste.

Tuesday Musings

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Tuesday – 25 August 2015
Today is my “Monday,” due to staying home with a sick little girl (and a non-sick one) yesterday. I thought that I might be able to squeeze in a bit of work, but opted to just hang out with them. And, in my humble opinion, that was the best call. We had a fun day. And, last night, we assembled a play castle for them.

The started decorating it last night. And resumed this morning, after breakfast.

Over the weekend, we also took them on their first visits to a trampoline park (for a friend’s birthday) and to the “planet museum,” as they have taken to calling the Clark Planetarium. Both were fairly big hits, although Vanessa was definitely not a fan of the “motion” in the movie – Perfect Little Planet – in the planetarium dome. To be fair, I don’t suffer from motion sickness, but I could easily understand how someone could succumb to it while watching that film.

Stray Toasters

Namaste.

Happy Easter

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Sunday – 05 April 2015
Happy Easter! May the joy and peace of the day be with you and your loved ones.

easter_crosses

easter_chicks

Namaste.

Tautology

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Wednesday – 18 February 2015
Today is Ash Wednesday. It is also NBN Thursday Eve.

I was going to post something last night, but I got too distracted by The Flash and Firestorm(!)1.

And a RubySnap cookie and a glass of milk.

And Titanfall.

So, I’m posting today.

This past weekend, Sara!, Team DiVa and I took a trip to Promontory, UT to visit the Golden Spike National Historic Site (read: “TRAINS!!!”) and Robert Smithson’s Spiral Jetty. (For pictures, click here.) It was only a couple of hours to Golden Spike, which wasn’t as bad as I had thought. The site is way out in the middle of God’s own country, though. I commented to Sara! that for all the time – not really that much – that it took to get there at 65 MPH+, I could only imagine what it must have been like to try to cover that distance via horse, or wagon. Or, slower still, while trying to lay miles of railroad track. The site was nice, but I was a little disappointed that the locomotives weren’t on display. (That just means that I’ll have to head back up there to see the reenactment of the driving of the golden spike in May.)

From there, we headed out to the Spiral Jetty. While the two sites are only 15 miles apart, it took about 45 minutes to get from Golden Spike to the jetty. The water level on the Great Salt Lake was low. Very low. So low that we were able to walk out to the end of the jetty – 1500 feet – and we were still at least 300 feet from water!

Sunday, we decided to tackle a painting project: Our bedroom. Furniture out. Ladders in. Paint on. We moved our bed to the living room Sunday night, which threw Team DiVa for a bit of a loop Monday morning:

Diana: Why is your new bed in the living room?

Me: It’s not a “new” bed, we just moved it out here.

Diana: Oh.

We went on to explain that we did it since we were painting the bedroom; that answer appeased them.

Sara spent Monday morning/afternoon re-doing the baseboard and crown molding paint, while I vacuumed and shampooed the carpet, replaced four electrical outlets… and then tried to suss out why the overhead lights wouldn’t turn off.

*braincramp*

After a quick consultation with my father-in-law, he suggested that I check the old outlets and verify that they had broken metal connectors on the hot side. They did.  I broke the connectors on two of the new outlets and the lights worked in the manner to which we were accustomed once more!

We moved the furniture back in and slept in our newly-painted room on Monday night. Selah. It was a lot of ass-busting and elbow grease over two days, but it was worth it.

Stray Toasters

  • I stumbled across a picture of VP Biden holding/rubbing/whatever the shoulders of the newly-appointed Secretary of Defense’s wife last night and couldn’t pass up the opportunity to add a caption:

    Creepy Vice-President is creepy...

    Creepy Vice-President is creepy.

  • Windows Updates. *sigh*
  • Despite the fact that Krispy Kreme UK unwittingly deemed today “KKK Wednesday,” I kind of still want a doughnut.
  • Today is apparently “National Drink Wine Day,” as well. I might have to imbibe a glass or two tonight.

And with that, I think I’m going to get “right on to the friction of the [rest of the] day.”

Namaste.

1Firestorm: The Nuclear Man debuted in 1978. I didn’t really become aware of the character until the second series, which started in 1982… but from then on, I was a fan. I haven’t been as invested in the New 52 version of the character, but I still like the character and the concept. So, when the news broke that he/they would be appearing on CW’s The Flash, my curiosity was piqued. The origin had been tweaked to fit the show, but it was close enough to the original for me. And, it featured all three of the main Firestorm characters – Ronnie Raymond, Martin Stein, and (in a nod to the updated, pre-New52 character) Jason Rusch.

Day Eleven

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Sunday – 11 January 2015
Day 11: Memento mori. “Remember that you will die.” Admittedly, this isn’t the most pleasant topic. There is, however, great benefit in meditating on the reality that at some point, you will in fact die. It motivates you to live the life right now that you want to be living. Meditate on this, and write out your thoughts. Does death scare you? Does it motivate you? It’s okay to be honest.

I’ve pondered this at various points in life. My thoughts have kind have been all over the place on it: I’ve thought about it as “the next phase.” I’ve worried. I’ve found solace in my faith. I’ve feared. I’ve tried not to think about it.

At this point, I think that it’s reasonably safe to say that while I don’t necessarily fear dying, I don’t have any intention of meeting The Lady Death anytime soon. Even if she looks like this:

Of The Endless…

 

That said, I hope to live a long, full life. My prime reason? are these three:

IMG_0159

I want to be around for them.

One day, I won’t be here. I hope that when that time comes, those I leave behind can say that I was a good son, brother, husband, and friend. That’s my motivation and the legacy that I want to leave behind. What more can I ask for?

Namaste.

 

Back again…

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Thursday – 12 December 2013
It’s another No Bad News Thursday.  (At least it was when I started this…)
It’s also 13 days to Christmas. (12)

Now, it’s Friday the 13th. *cue ominous music*

This has been a less-than-stellar week, primarily because I’ve been sick. Fortunately, I don’t usually get much worse than a head or chest cold, but whatever I had was bad enough to make me leave work Tuesday and crawl into bed. Yeah, many levels of double-plus ungood “fun.” On top of that, Team DiVa has been feverish, as well… which means they’ve been a bit clingy for the past few days. But, the three of us are feeling better. And the Lady SaraRules? Not only did she not get sick, but she managed to nurse us all back to health. Single-handedly. In a snowstorm. Uphill. Both ways. (Okay, there may have been a few medicines here and there that helped, but she did a great job of looking after us.

Speaking of Team DiVa, here are a few shots from the past few weeks:

"We're spreading out our library books so we can figure out what to read first!"

“We’re spreading out our library books so we can figure out what to read first!”

Christmas cookies!!!

Christmas cookies!!!

Team DiVa: Snow Bunny Edition

Team DiVa: Snow Bunny Edition

"Can we stop taking pictures and go outside now?"

“Can we stop taking pictures and go outside now?”

Reading time with Mommy

Reading time with Mommy

Vanessa, trying out the new coat Grammy G got her... and a pirate hat!

Vanessa, trying out the new coat Grammy G got her… and a pirate hat!

Diana, trying out the new coat Grammy G got her... and a pirate hat!

Diana, trying out the new coat Grammy G got her… and a pirate hat!

Stray Toasters

That’s good for now.

Namaste.