QST de N7GMT

President Gordon B. Hinckley, Prophet of God and 15^th President of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints passed from this world to the next this evening, 27.Jan.2008, about 7 pm local time (midnight UTC).

He was a great man, a loving man, a man dedicated to doing the work of the Lord in building up the Kingdom of God.

I will miss him.

He has been a part of the scenery of my life since I was a youth. He brought humor and warmth to meetings I attended as a teen, when I wished I could be someplace more exciting—or at least, less uncomfortable. As a councilor to President Kimball, he made it so I could stand sitting in the hard seats and survive the meetings I attended. During his time as prophet and mouthpiece for the Lord, he spoke with power and conviction of simple, but important matters, focusing on the youth of today, and on Temples and the work done there for our ancestors.

It’s sad—for me—to see him go, having been one of the focal points of my life. At 97 years of age and with declining health, his passing is certainly not unexpected, and yet having been such a fixture, it’s still going to take a while before I won’t feel that twinge, realizing he’s not going to be the one speaking to us from the pulpit. He has had a “good run” though, and I’m sure he is happy to be reunited with his sweetheart, Marjorie. With the life he has led, I’m sure the Savior was there to welcome him home as well.

Yes, I will miss him, but I know he has “fought a good fight”, lived a great life, and goes on to join his fellow bretheren in continuing the work he dedicated himself to here on Earth.

He was—and is—truly a man of God. Fare thee well, Brother Gordon! Huzzah!

OK, so what if it’s the third of December; who’s counting? Other than my boy, of course. And my oldest daughter. It’s not like I promised I would put up the Christmas lights this weekend … <sigh> except that I did.

But it wasn’t my fault that we got four inches of snow. We never get snow in our part of town—well, almost never. If the benches and foothills get lots of snow, we’ll get a skiff. (That is indeed a word that can be applied to snow. It means “slightly more than a dusting” I think. Just ask Mark Eubank, the former weather man on KSL News.)

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I was reminded recently that there was an entry that wanted writing. Since it’s Thanksgiving weekend and the kids are in bed I might as well get it out of the way, eh? (Now if I were really on the ball, I would have a nice new laptop, with functional WiFi so I could sit in the living room with everyone else while I write this, but I’m an anti-MS curmudgeon, and it can be difficult to convince Linux and WiFi to behave themselves on old hardware.)

Anyway…

I read a post over at my mother’s site about men up on roofs. (Shouldn’t that be “rooves?” Oh wait, this is English; it’s not supposed to make sense.) No good deed goes unpunished, so I left a comment on her entry, which stirred up memories of a weekend not too far past.

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So this weekend was the ARRL Sweepstakes for SSB. Yes, terribly exciting, I know. I wasn’t sure I was going to have time to operate at all, because Saturday was looking really booked, what with The Holy Cow finishing up, and sneaking off to Salt Lake to pick up a new sofa I’d ordered to surprise my Sweetie with.

Anyway, with the two youngest under the weather, I had to stay home from church to watch ‘em. No radio time there. You wouldn’t believe how much trouble two little boys can get into if left to their own devices. (Well actually, I know of several of you who can, but that ruins the flow of the previous sentence, so let it slide, will ya?) And if you’re the only adult in the house, who do you think they come to when they want attention? Yeah, hard to guess that one, isn’t it.

After everyone else got home, had lunch and had settled into what I like to refer to as the Sunday Afternoon Fester I figured I could warm up the radio and see how many Qs I could pull off before someone noticed. I didn’t start until about one o’clock Sunday afternoon, and the contest was due to finish by eight that evening, local time. I was puttering along when I got a gentle prod from my DX-ing buddy, N7BAN; a text message “I heer u” [sic] and a response of “38″ when I asked how many Qs he had. Twice what I had at the time; time to kick it into gear … at least for a while.

I didn’t plan on getting in as many hours as I did, and probably would have knocked off early, but I got a special treat. My son, who has been kind-of interested in getting his license for some time, came over and sat down, watching me rack up a few points. I explained sections and multipliers, and we watched the score go cross 2,000 and continue to over 3,000. By then the excitement was building; he’s just a wee bit competitive. By the time I was over 5,000 points I could tell he was itching, so I had him share the headphones, handed him the mike, and showed him all the things he needed to say to complete an exchange. We got interrupted by dinner (bah, who needs food when there are Qs to be won?), and after dinner I set us up with a pair of head-phones each. That really got him going and helped us coordinate.
For those of you out there who slowed down, took special note, and gave precedence to a young voice answering to my call, Thank You! You really made his night, and mine. Seeing the light in his eyes as we “scored” an Alaska, or Hawaii, or Virginia station was worth it all to me. The last Q we had right before the contest went dark was with K7IR, up in Eastern Washington. Since the pressure was now off, we had a chance to have a quick chat. Turns out he has a son the same age, and complimented mine on doing a fine job with the exchange. Actually, several of you gave him compliments on his operating that brought out that goofy, snaggle-toothed grin of a young man caught between childhood and the age of teens. (Precious radio funds will soon have to be devoted to adjusting the worst of the snaggles. <sigh>)

To the 87 ops with whom I exchanged today, TNX es 73.

To those who gave special note to a gangly youth (and future ham radio op), VY TNX es 88 de N7GMT.

Tonight was the annual Pinewood Derby for our Cub Scout pack. My boy’s car nearly won last year, so we had high hopes for placing well. Well, the best laid plans of mice, men, and software engineers…. Time was certainly not on our side this year; the car was a bit of a rush job, and the performance showed it.

There was one care that was a shoe-in to win. Sleek, heavy, built-backwards—in short, all the tricks that make for a winning car. He came in second place.

The first place winner? The new kid. First car he and his dad had ever built. Wobbly wheels, but a sleek design. They did something right, because that car just sailed down the track. He won the grand championship over all three dens by ¹/_100th of a second!

I guess we start planning for next year. Always another chance.

For the first time since … well, actually, I think it’s the first time ever, we went to Swiss Days in Midway—as a couple. Without any kids!

It was a nice change.

We didn’t have to deal with strollers. We didn’t have to deal with diapers. We didn’t have to deal with runny noses, lost kids, or panicking shop-holders.

It was a very nice change.

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