Thursday, October 30, 2008

Well, I think that Jordan has finally decided who he wants to work for.......

.....And the winner is: El Paso Energy, independent E&P company, with their main office just two blocks away from Devon, along with district offices in Denver and Corpus Christi.

In the end, I think Jordan was excited about the 2 year training rotation, that would expose him to several disciplines and at least two geographic areas - sounds like a good balanced start.
Like most Petroleum Engineering grads, he got a good salary, with attractive benefits thrown in. After all the work he's done, he's earned it! As for salary, let's just say; He'll be able to afford to take his Dad out to lunch once in a while!

We spent a very nice weekend in Wimberley. Imagine waking up to temperatures in the 30s! Mom & dad joined us for a couple of days, and we had dinner at Marty's mansion on Canyon Lake! A very nice weekend.

Wednesday, October 22, 2008

We just heard from Jordan, and he recieved some encouraging career news today. Of course, I'm not going to tell you what it is - you'll have to ask him! I will say, however, that we are very proud of him and always had faith that this day would come. All that hard work DOES pay off! Congratulations Bud!

Monday, October 20, 2008

Be Careful About Me
(Chuck's Mantra)



Be careful about me. Be careful about my (ancestral) country and my people and how we tell our history. We Irish prefer embroideries to plain cloth. If we are challenged about this tendency, we will deny it and say grimly: “We have much to remember.”

“But,” you may argue, “isn’t memory at least unreliable? And often a downright liar?”
Maybe. To us Irish, though, memory is a canvas—stretched, primed, and ready for painting on. We love the “story” part of the word “history,” and we love it trimmed out with color and drama, ribbons and bows. Listen to our tunes, observe a Celtic scroll: we always decorate our essence. This is not a matter of behavior; it is our national character.
As a consequence of this ornamenting, we are accused of revising the past. People say that we reinvent the truth, especially when it comes to the history of our famous oppression by England, the victimhood that has become our great good fortune.
And do we? Do we embellish that seven hundred years since the Norman barons sailed to our southeast shores? Do we magnify those men in silver armor, though they stood only five feet six inches tall? Do we make epic those little local wars, often fought across rivers no more than some few feet wide? Do we render monumental the tiny revolutions fought on cabbage patches by no more than dozens of men with pitchforks and slings?
Perhaps we do. And why should we not? After all, what is history but one man’s cloak cut from the beautiful cloth of Time?
Customarily, history is written by the victors; in Ireland the vanquished wrote it too and wrote it more powerfully. That is why I say, “Be careful about my country and how we tell our history.” And in this account of my life as I have so far lived it, you will also have to make up your own mind about whether I too indulge in such invention, in particular about myself.
All who write history have reasons for doing so, and there is nothing so dangerous as a history written for a reason of the heart. The deeper the reason, the more unreliable the history; that is why I say, “Be careful about me.”
Frank Delany
"Tipperary"
2007

Sunday, October 19, 2008

I am starting this Blog with a dubious perspective: I don't know whether I want this Blog or not.

My ideas, my "lists", my dreams, my "posts" and "pet peaves", are just that - mine. Do I want to share them in a public forum? Will they be cheered, challenged, discussed behind my back, ridiculed? I don't know how to answer these things, so I sit hear wondering....... Who really cares about me that much that they want to spend their valuable time reading my "stuff"? It's a fair question. If I am asking it of you, maybe you should be asking it of yourself.

Let's see what emerges here over the coming weeks & months. I'll let you be the judge, but know that I am judging tto!