April 1, 1999
Dear Everyone:
In all the excitement last week, I forgot to
mention that we’ve finally decided on a new
Records
Management software. The
Winner Is…extemporé.
Silly name, I know; but software companies seem to feel compelled
to come up with something clever, even if it doesn’t make a lot of
sense. This company wanted
to name their product “Select”, but gosh-darn, somebody else had thought
of that first.
Whatever.
Having evaluated and selected an application, we finally move
into Phase II. This will
consist of testing, negotiating and generally working all the kinks out
of going ahead with Phase III, which will be the actual data conversion
and implementation. Lots of
fun stuff ahead. Luckily, I
don’t have to do all of this myself.
CITC (Company Information Technology Company) has plenty of
people to help me with the particulars, for a price, of course.
I say, the more we pay someone else to deal with it, the fewer
headaches I'll have.
In other news…
I did get my
taxes completed last Sunday, with help from Phineas.
Only took a couple of hours.
And I’ll be getting refunds on both federal and state.
For those of you unfamiliar with the concept of “refund”, that’s
when the government pays you instead of you paying the government.
Personally, I like it better that way.
As for the
treadmill, which I
bought nearly three weeks ago, and have been waiting to use until a new
power cord could be installed…
Last Sunday was a beautiful Spring day.
Absolutely gorgeous.
Blue sky; soft, cool breezes.
I said to myself, “Open some windows.
Let some fresh air into the place.”
Now, to open the window in the west bedroom (where
we placed said treadmill), you have to angle around the futon sofa to
reach the window. The
alternative would be to climb up onto the sofa itself, which is also a
possibility. As I was
opening the window, I happened to look down at the wall behind the sofa.
This is where the electrical outlet is that the
treadmill would be plugged into.
It really is the nearest outlet since the treadmill is positioned
right in front of the closet and there are no outlets in the closet.
I had acquired a special, heavy-gauge extension cord, just long
enough to do the job. The
idea was that the extension cord would only be used when the treadmill
was actually running. Any
other time, the treadmill would be unplugged and the extension cord
would be safely tucked out of the way, under the sofa.
Now, you will recall that when the treadmill was
delivered, a week ago last Saturday, the power cord was damaged during
delivery. So, when the
treadmill refused to start up, both the young man from the store and I
assumed it was because of the damaged cord.
But, on Sunday, as I was opening the window, and looked down, I
realized that the extension cord was not fully plugged into the outlet.
The young man had sort of tugged on it when he went to plug in
the treadmill.
I climbed onto the sofa (no small feat, since it is
currently covered with all of the emotional baggage that Phineas brought
with him; i.e., extra diskettes in case installed software didn’t quite
work; operator’s manual for the sound system; many, many
CD’s, etc.) and
tried plugging the cord back into the outlet.
Sure enough, no sooner had I done that, and plugged
the treadmill into the extension cord, than the treadmill lit right up,
business as usual, ready when you are.
I’ve been using it all this week.
And I love it. I’m
already up to about 45 minutes at around 1.8 mph, that being the
duration of a typical Law and
Order episode taped off
A&E in
the afternoon. Unless I have
some more current deferred viewing on hand, of course.
In the meantime, the new power cord arrived, along
with the Owner’s Manual.
I’ll take a look at the two of them just as soon as I have time.
Speaking of which,
Daylight Saving Time begins this Sunday.
Brace yourself.
Love, as always,
Pete
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