RECCWG FEMA Region VIII

I am attending the 8th meeting of the FEMA Region VIII Regional Emergency Communications Coordination Working Group (RECCWG). This meeting is being held in Billings Montana.  

I always look forward to these meetings. We just heard from Robin Finegan, the FEMA Region VIII Regional Administrator.  I think she put it best when she said "The RECCWG meetings provide opportunities for creating and improving relationships and increasing our capacity for networking."  I look forward to each of these meetings, and renewing the friendships I have with representatives from some of our nearby states.  These are friendships that I probably never would have realized without these face-to-face meetings.

For the last four years, Brian Carney has done an admirable job of obtaining funding for these meetings.  Brian is the National RECC Coordinator, and champions what we do.  With all of the negative press given to some recent expensive federal conferences, it is politically easy to simply cancel these kinds of meetings.  It takes guts to stand up and defend the continuation of these RECCWG meetings.  Brian works hard to defend these meetings.

Dennis Fisher is the FEMA REC Coordinator for Region VIII.  He and his team work diligently to get the most out of the limited funding that Brian can get his hands on.  Our meeting locations are heavily based on where we can have the least financial impact on the travel budget.  Meals, snacks, and other niceties are not provided.  We often meet in buildings where we can obtain free use of conference rooms.

If more working groups provided the ROI that the Region VIII RECCWG does, our tax dollars would be far better spent.

I'm a grandpa again!  Last week a granddaughter, this week a grandson! This is starting to become a habit.  


Joseph Michael Norris II was born at 9:47 am (Atlanta time), weighing in at 8.5 lbs and 20.5" long.  Mom and son (and dad) are healthy and doing fine.  I guess I'll have Georgia on my mind all day today.  Way to go NaTasha and Joe!


I guess birthdays will be cheap.  We only have to buy presents once every four years. (February 29)  : -)~

A New Generation

Break out the suspenders and red plaid shirts.  I'm a grandpa. Jessica just gave birth to a baby...something.  It's 2:00 am.  KaReen and I are sitting in a hotel room in Beaver, UT. Brandon's last text told us that Jessica was almost done pushing, so we are waiting to find out if it is a Calvin or an Amya. Jessica and Brandon decided not to find out what sex the baby was.  They prefer to be surprised.

Jessica was due on (or rather the baby was due on) February 13. Someone forgot to tell the baby.  Eight days later, Jessica still had to be induced. I guess if I had to go through labor (heaven forbid) I wouldn't be in a hurry either. Maybe the baby just likes twos.  02/21/2012  2:00 am.

This just in (2:12 am): it's a girl!  Happy Birthday Amya Clair Butcher! This rounds out nicely being a grandpa because NaTasha is due tomorrow, and we already know it is going to be a boy.  Double-grandpa within a couple of days.  In for a penny and all that. We're waiting to hear (er...receive text) on height/weight. Should be a good size, having been basted an extra week in the oven.  We imagine Brandon is busy cutting the cord and watching Apgar tests etc. Jessica is no doubt busy not feeling like she's being turned inside out. Soon, she will feel that common hatred of nurses who like to squeeze recently empty wombs back toward their normal size.

Having been there for the birth of all six of my kids, it feels strange not to be there in person, but this is Brandon's moment.  We'll be looking forward to returning home and meeting Amya after a few days of conference-going in Nevada.

OK, here are the stats:
Height: 20"
Weight: 7 lbs 3 oz

Gluten-Free is Spreading

I was in St. George,UT this weekend to say goodbye to a recently departed friend. I did some web surfing for restaurants that provide gluten-free items on their menu (my wife and wheat aren't on speaking terms any more). Although eating establishments are slowly getting better at catering to consumers who deal with Celiac disease, it is still quite difficult to find decent choices --even when restaurants do offer a few menu items. Then I ran across an outstanding menu of gluten-free choices!

Outback Steakhouse has a full menu dedicated to GF items. We've seen the occasional menu inserts with a half dozen or so items, but this one is refreshingly replete with dozens of outstanding choices. We have our new favorite restaurant!

Sometimes it's the Simple Things

I've just spent the last 45 minutes of a road trip trying to adjust the brightness on my laptop.  My wife is driving so I could get in a little extra time on an assignment (I'm working on another degree at WGU). The display was so dim I could barely make out any detail at all.  I tried various help pages for the operating system and laptop manufacturer.  I tried loading updated drivers.  I went to several blog pages and tried many of the ideas that were posted there.  All to no avail.  Then I noticed the little light sensor at the bottom of the screen, and wiped my finger across it.  Voila!  If the screen were any brighter I could toast marshmallows.

This reminds me of when we took the kids to Hogle Zoo a few weeks ago.  We rented one of their larger strollers so we could put the little one and a cooler in it. One of the bigger kids pushed it around for awhile, all the time complaining that it wasn't very easy to push.   Finally, tired of hearing all the whining, I took over, and immediately noticed that it really was kind of hard to propel forward. By the time we made it back to the rental stand at the end of the day, I was ready to give them a piece of my mind.  How dare they issue a stroller before at least checking it out for proper operation.  The young man operating the booth was very kind as he showed me how to release the parking break.

I think we often make life more difficult than it needs to be. When you feel you're reaching the end of your patience, start looking around for the parking break. Really.

Region VIII RECCWG Meeting in Park City

It's good to once again meet with my fellow FEMA Region VIII state and local government RECCWG representatives -particularly on my own Utah turf. We're meeting in Park City.

As always, I appreciate the agenda that has been put together by our federal hosts. The individual reports from each state are an outstanding opportunity to learn from the failures and successes of one another. Without a doubt, my favorite activity is the networking we do during the breaks in the hallway where we share rumors, ideas, complaints and solutions. The friendships and working relationships that have been established are growing stronger and more valuable as the RECCWG continues to mature.

The National Emergency Communications Plan is a great concept, but it will remain a concept until it is discussed and adopted at all levels of government. Interoperability discussions become focused and meaningful --with measurable output, when professionals with a passion for emergency communications champion efforts such as The RECCWG. My thanks to Brian Carney and Dennis Fisher for making theses opportunities possible. Lives and property have and will continued to be saved because of the efforts of dedicated professionals like these.

There were many valuable presentations.  I was particularly impressed with the presentation by representatives from our Salt Lake UASI group. They have not only put together valuable rapid deployment communications assets, but their operational teams are knowledgeable and well trained.

Pop's Fence

While attending a conference in Casper Wyoming this last week, I took some time and drove out to a residence where I spent a summer with my grandparents.  They only lived there for a few years, and I only spent the one summer with them back in 1977 when I was eleven years old.  Nevertheless, the memories of that summer are strong. 

Pop (that's what I call my grandfather) let me help him build a fence.  Pop was never comfortable with building 'regular' things.  chainlink or even a wooden slat fence was not good enough.  He bought lodgepole pine trees and was determined to build a ranch-style fence with three horizontal levels of rugged round wood.  I sat straddled on many a tree with a bladed bark-stripping tool.  Once the bark was stripped, Pop would soak the wood for several days in 55 gallon barrels of oil.

Once the verticle posts were cut to length and notched to receive the horizontal menbers, we hand-mixed post concrete in an old horse trough and set the posts at exact heights with levels.  Then we notched and nailed the horizontal members.

Just as we were finishing the fence, Pop suffered a very serious heart attack.  We very nearly lost him that day as he lay in the driveway, and I don't mind admitting that I was scared to death.  Pop was always immortal to me, and if he could die, then every other unimagineable nightmare could also become a reality.  He received one of the first valve transplants from a pig that was ever done.  The doctors said it might give him a chance to live a few extra years -though he was not expected to ever fully recover. 

Pop never cared much for that prognosis, so just to be obstinant he lived for more than twenty five more years.  He went on to raise (and yes, ride) award-winning cutting horses in Thermopolis Wyoming.  Of course he had to build -by hand mind you, his own indoor rodeo-sized arena.  He finally died on Easter morning while performing his morning exercises, which included walking several miles.

Now that I think of it, he never really lost his immortal status with me.  He never stopped living.  He never accepted his own weaknesses, and never expected less from me than my very best.  It was like a tall glass of cool well water to a man dying of thirst when I stopped by that house on Yesness Lane last week.  The thirty-three year old fence is still standing strong.  It looks rugged enough to go another few decades. I'm sure Pop would expect no less from me.