And Winter sets in

Well, we got back just in time to get the boat dragged out to fried’s marine and had it winterized. That is a sad day as I know summer has ended and the long winter is upon us. Where we live in Utah, on the side of the mountain called the bench of the Wasatch front we get snow, snow and more snow. So this picture is on a Thursday, and the next day we had a blizzard. We had a week of snow and cold and today it was sunny and 67 degrees. If you don’t like the weather just wait 15 minutes and it will change. I’m predicting a mild winter as when we get these early snow storms it seems to set up a high pressure zone in the great basin and the jet stream bumps up north and around us. Still it’s a beautiful winter here in the mountains.

All things in life are wondrous:

Today I sit embarking on a new adventure. My life seems like a lot of sorties (departures) to adventure. I remember as a child making my first aircraft out of my little red wagon, and unfortunately it flew! I broke an arm, ribs and an ankle, but I proved a boy with a dream could get in so much trouble, and now as a “mature” man, I have the same excitement as this sortie comes to fruition. I’m just hoping that I won’t break so many body parts, as they have become so much more necessary than I thought they were when I was flying my little red wagon off the side of a mountain.

Life is a wonder to me! Not just the good parts, but even the horrible parts where I have failed miserably and let a lot of people down. What I have learned to walk away with is failure never hurts as much as not reaching and stretching for the dream. Dreams are wonderful things, the human mind is ever dreaming of better things. With that dream we can do what we can dream, even when we have doubts. The wonders of the mind!

I have been married 3 times now, and they say 3 times is the charm. I actually believe that, as I am blessed and charmed with my wife of almost one year. My first wife of 24 years came to hate my guts, and we were not good for each other, so it was over. My second wife was an angel and so very good to me, but she decided it was time to leave this earth for a better place. That was the hardest thing I have ever experienced in my life and today I look back at this and see the wonder in Pam’s leaving. I was devastated, however I found out how wonderful my friends and family are. They came to my aid and uplifted me to the point where I could start living again. When I did that I met the most wonderful lady I have ever known. She has a very weak mind as she said she would marry me. (I’m wondering how I got lucky enough to trick her) We have been so happy together, and I look at my life and know that without all the pain, failure, and retries I would not have been strong or good enough for this great lady.

All things wondrous!

I’m selling my latest gizmo and it’s going to be in the Chicago USA today in a full page ad addressing Ed Zander of Motorola. I offer him my gizmo for his cell phones and other gizmos and we will see if he takes us seriously I could be very over worked, if not someone else will bite on it. It’s a very good gizmo. This gizmo is one that may change the world and some of the threats to civilization from terrorists. Like I say it’s a very good gizmo.
Did I tell you l love gizmo’s… ? Let me know about your gizmo!

Theater/Music Room

I like things that make noise! Since I was a very small boy I was involved with music at different levels. At the age of 7 I was playing in my first bands as a guitarist. I have had many wonderful experiences with music, and some very crazy times.
I remember back in 1962 I got my first guitar a flat top, Sears Silvertone acoustic. It was really a horrible guitar. I remember it making my fingers bleed, but I liked the noise it made. My mother had a nice Hammond B-3 organ which I hated with all my being. I had to play organ prior to getting an electric guitar. So I cried, boohooed, and had many fits while awaiting that 2 year deadline to approach. It came and I remember the day as plain as if I did this yesterday. We jumped in the Pontiac Grand Prix, and drove from Brigham City to Salt Lake City to Progressive Music and I got to pick out my first real guitar. It was amazing. A red fender music master II, with a vibro-champ amp. I was so excited I blew chunks all over the office of the Mr. Brennan. I still remember my mother putting her hand over my mouth to increase my range. So I hit about 20 new guitars and out da door I went. After we got home I plugged it in and from that day to this day I heard “Turn that dayumn thing down”.
To make a very long story much shorter I turned an empty room in my basement into the “dream theater”, yea the name has been over used, but as I work with young kids and teach them about music and how to dream, and reach those dreams. I really like Carvin PA’s, so prior to covering the walls up with sound board, insulation and such, a 32 channel snake was laid from the console to the stage area. This is a good sized room about 25 x 18. All the finish work is done except for a little touch up. I mounted the speaker brackets and lifted the semi-large 800 watt self powered speakers to their position on the walls. I also have a Dolby 7.1 surround powered by a Pioneer Elite Home theater receiver. The 65” HDTV will be centered in the rear of the stage for movies. My fronts are big JBL L100’s, and a Cerwin Vega 15” front firing sub. This room will be so much fun for a lot of people! I have a few guitars, a 2007 custom shop tele deluxe, a 98 Tom Anderson drop top classic, a 89 fender strat, and an old 66 Les Paul custom, and one 71 Martin D-35. I kept my mother’s B-3 and have an old Wurlitzer electric piano. I play thru a couple of Amps, a 65 fender twin that has been dumbled, and a remarkable Mesa Bogie MK-IV with a Tone tubby speaker. Remarkable sounds can come from these amps.
So as you may read, I like this new room. The carpet gets laid on Thursday and on Friday I will move the equipment into the room, it should take a couple of days to hook it all up. Then the rest of the downstairs will be made into a Library. My wife has BOOKS, loads of very nice books. So the dayumn noise continues, on this ol man’s dream of playing his first fender some 48 years ago.

capital reef/red river lodge

This was the view out the back door of my room! The next morning I looked out at the sunrise. This banded cloud formation was breath taking against the blue sky and the sun rays.

It's nice to be alive

Home on the range

Well, I've spent the most wonderful week at a place called the Red River Lodge near capitol reef national monument. For anyone not familiar with this area in Utah, it is simply breath taking.

Called "Wayne Wonderland" in the 1920s by local boosters Ephraim P. Pectol and Joseph S. Hickman, Capitol Reef National Park comprises 378 square miles of colorful canyons, ridges, buttes, and monoliths. About 75 miles of the long up-thrust called the Waterpocket Fold, extending like a rugged spine from Thousand Lake Plateau southward to Lake Powell, is preserved within the park boundary. Capitol Reef is the name of an especially rugged and spectacular part of the Waterpocket Fold near the Fremont River.
EARLY HISTORY
Only a few decades ago, Capitol Reef and the Waterpocket Fold country comprised one of the remote corners of the lower 48 states. Easy road access came only with the construction of a paved Utah Highway 24 through the Fremont River Canyon in 1962.
The earliest traces of human activity date from the 9th century when Native American Indian peoples occupied the flood plains and high ground near the few perennial watercourses. These people, called the Fremont Culture by archeologists, were contemporaries of the Ancestral Puebloans of the Four Corners area. Between 1250 and 1500, evidence of the Fremont Culture becomes rare and gradually ceased to exist. A complex combination of environmental and social pressures may have led to this change, but no definitive explanation has been found.
Red river Lodge is a must to see.

The Navajo call it the Land of the Sleeping Rainbow - a strange, beautiful landscape of multi-hued rock layers. Capitol Reef lies in the heart of Utah's canyon country halfway between Canyonlands and Bryce Canyon National parks. Here in this rugged natural wonderland are 2,200 private acres of pristine wilderness called Red River Ranch. Tucked away in the shadows of towering rock cliffs you'll find the Lodge, named one of the West's 25 Grandest Lodges. The Lodge has 15 rustic rooms in the authentic tradition of the 18th Century Wild West. Enjoy fly fishing, Hiking, mountain biking, horse riding, guest pastures , hunting and more.

I am fortunate enough to be involved with a group of 14 people that are enrolled in the Leadership of Northern Utah (LNU). We came from all walks of life, but are like minded in that we want to help our community have a voice and help those who aren’t as blessed as we are. So this was a leadership training exercise based to challenge the team to come together and act as a team. The facilitators/trainers were amazing, Wayne Androtti and Brenda Jensen. They did such a wonderful job over the 4 day span, and I grew to love them and who they are. We all learned about ourselves very much and that was the exercise. It was challenging in every aspect. I came away with a group of new friends whom I love very much and will work with over the next year, but probably for a life time.

While I was at Red River, I had a national ad campaign for my latest product the H3. I had a legal issue come up and I had to stop the ad until I returned home the next week to get things straightened out. I lost a pile of money for the ad, and spent a couple of days getting everything ironed out, but it happened. We start again, and the ad will come out next week. I will be running in Chicago, and if no bites, I will run the following week in NYC, but at 30 k a day, it’s tough! I’m hoping for a strike the first day and catch the big fish I’m after.

I had a few speed bumps with some folks I’m working with as they think they own my products, and were seeking to get some investment capital. Funny thing is all they have done is waste my time and energy. They called me on the carpet for making counter deals, hell I’m talking to anyone in the world trying to advance my technology. I don’t think that is a huge crime. Anyway, it’s all business confidential and I had to explain that to the boys and girls yesterday and tell them how disappointed I am with their poor behavior.

Money seems to make everyone crazy, especially when they can make a buck off of a guy, or a million or billion.

Well today is a planed slow day and I’m going to paint the theater/music room that I just finished off. The carpet dude will be here on Tuesday so I better finish.

I am certain of a loving Heavenly Father that brings good people into our lives, and pushes the bad ones out. I am so very grateful.

It all starts today 10-1-2007

It's a good time to start a Blog! Why today? Why not?

I'm interested in things that are being done by the little guys in the world that make a huge contribution to this world. Most serious inventions come from basements and people that have the drive and desire to make things happen and work.

My background in Aerospace Engineering has been rich and rewarding. I have a B.S. in Mechanical Engineering with a M.S. in Computer Engineering. To get into the masters program I had to get an Electrical Engineering degree and advanced physics and mathematics. I’ve designed everything from rocket motors, advanced aircraft, weapon systems, and the computers that became so very small. I’ve done major business systems integration and product integration. I hold 34 patents, and I’m working on new ideas and that my time allows me to do. I am fortunate enough to work for the nicest and most fair guy in the world, “ME” ;). My boss won’t give me a day off or any vacation. My wife and I own 6 high tech engineering firms. We are headquartered in Utah, with manufacturing in Bangalore India. Being part of the Ustar and Utah program of excellence for a few products we have an open door at Weber State University. Weber State University is a small but excellent resource. They have a wonderful engineering school and the people to make things happen.

I’ve had the pleasure to work for many firms where my consultation fees were as crazy as the company’s I was contracting to. But when you are a gun slinger there is much danger! Now I simply just work for my company, and work 24x7 keeping it all hanging together.

I have met brilliant people, but have also met the complete opposite. I left the corporate world in 1984 when I just couldn’t stand the machine behind the business. It seemed more important that all the little players in the company were more interested in themselves and their little positions of power than actually accomplishing something marvelous. Even great engineers wanted positions of management where they were ill equipped to carry out the mission of the product, making the company entity the God. So there were many little Gods building fences and protecting borders. The work suffered as the resources were spent on fence building and border patrol. Each little dynasty came under the command of a little God, who played nice with the other Gods and kept the work under the secrets of the kingdom.

So with this in mind when I started my firm, there are no walls, no kingdoms. If I am around anyone can come talk to me. It might be somewhat frightening as I say what I think.

As I write more, you may gain a giggle, or learn something fun. I’m hoping that you will be able to teach me something very new.

My passion are guitars, I’ve been playing for 48 years now.. Good grief how did that happen. My favorite guitars are in order: 2006 telecaster deluxe custom shop, 2000 Tom Anderson drop top classic, 1987 fender strat modified (it’s my test bed guitar) and the old standard, a 1966 Les Paul custom. I have a few amps but have played 1000’s. but the best amp I’ve ever played thru is a 1990 mesa boogie MK-IV, with a few mod’s. I only play thru tone tubby speakers which is the best thing on the market. What sweet sounds this speaker makes. So my spare time is making new sounds and trying to lock down that sound I hear in my head.