Wednesday, October 30, 2013

Nampa Mayor & City Council Elections

I went to the Nampa Mayoral Debate last night. A couple times Bob Henry brought up Mayor Dale being the the tie breaker vote in certain situations, as if that was bad. When there are members of the council that are always voting "No", then the Mayor has to step up and break the tie. You can get much always being the "No" vote. The city can't shut down. Tom Dale has been a great leader for Nampa and I see that continuing. He didn't build the Idaho Center and the Public Safety building and the new library will only draw people to Nampa. Opposing roundabouts and  saying "No" just to say "No" will not bring business to Nampa. Property rights are important, but saying that a roundabout is government waste is wrong. Being the party of "No" is no way to serve the public good.

Sunday, September 22, 2013

Wednesday, September 11, 2013

9/11. Where was I on 9/11/01? I was working. I was a Help Desk Coordinator for EDS, and HP contractor. I worked at 6 am so that we were available at 8 am Eastern. All of the sudden the calls stopped. No one knew why. Then we were having issues getting to some of the few internet sites we could get to. Then a few people were able to see reports on news sites about planes crashing. Then another person got a TV up and running and we saw the news of the tragedy. 

It effected me. I had been married for 4 years and Gabe had been born in January 2001. What was the world coming to. In the years since I have thought many times about that day and how I can help my children do the most with the time that they have in this life. 

Here is what I thought in the past on this day.

 9/11. There is not much more to say than that. I wanted to share a memory that I have from 9/11/2001, not what I was doing, but about someone I knew.When I returned to Rexburg, ID and Ricks College in 1995 I began working at a gas station/ video store "Horkley's". When I started I was the only person that was not a local. It was a fun place to work. Many of my coworkers mentioned to me another person that had worked there before he went on a mission and that he would be returning in the spring of 1996. That is when I met Brady Howell. He and had fun when we worked together, we would swap mission stories and give the less active members that worked with us a little nudge (like slamming the cooler door when they would come into work in the morning with a hangover). He and I didn't work together a lot as we were both over 19 and could sell alcohol. But when we did it was fun. We shared some good times that summer.When I graduated in August of 1996, I left Rexburg and moved back to Nampa, ID. I didn't really think much about Brady except when thinking about working at Horkley's as a whole. Then 9/11 happened. After the attacks the names of the people killed were released and I heard the name of Brady Howell. When this occurred it was years since we shared the cash register in Rexburg. By now he had married and was working in Washington D.C. at the Pentagon. When I heard his name I remembered him and realized that 9/11 touched everyone.Every year on the anniversary of 9/11 I think about Brady's widow and what her life has been like since the loss of her husband and how every year there are many reminders of her great loss.