WHY I DON'T LIKE SNOW VERY MUCH

These are pictures of a parking lot on campus, taken 15 December. Yes, the snow is already piled in big dirty piles that will likely stick around well into March.
Snow looks beautiful, serene, and peaceful for about 10 minutes. Then, life takes over and we must get it out of our way. No snow days taken in Utah - no matter how deep it gets, or how fast it falls! This is my 13th consecutive winter here, and nothing has been cancelled for snow. Ever. Not even once.

It becomes dirty, nasty and totally ugly. I can feel good about calling it
"Mother Nature's White Trash."

WHERE HAVE ALL THE YOUNG MEN GONE? GONE TO SOLDIERS, EVERY ONE.

We have added a name to the Memorial Hall wall of heroes. Another young man, CPT Corey Jenkins, USA, was killed in Afghanistan on Aug. 25, 2009. He was serving as a Physician's Assistant. He was returning from a humanitarian mission to give cholera vaccinations to a local village. On their return, he and 7 others were killed by an IED. Today, we memorialized him at BYU.

This is the third name we have added to the wall since I began working here in April 2001. I hope it's the last. It's probably not.

I look at all the other names, dating from WWI, and think of the collective grief that each name represents. One long side of the Hall is all windows, facing east, framing Y Mountain. It seems fitting to be able to see the majesty and permanence of the mountains from this room.

The mountains give me a necessary reminder of my place in the scheme of things.