May 23, 2001
Dear Everyone:
This week’s Letter is going to be a short one, owing to the fact that I woke up in “Grapevine” this morning. Not that there is anything inherently wrong with waking up in “Grapevine”; thousands of people do it every day. And they have my heartfelt sympathy, particularly this week, when the predicted high temperature is around 104 most of the week. Although the local weatherman was enthusiastically pointing towards this weekend when the temps might plummet as low as 90 in the shade.
The reason I was in “Grapevine” this morning is that I’ve been in “Grapevine” since around 5:00 Monday afternoon. I had received a call from our office there in which they asked, one might even say begged, if I could please come down and train some of their staff in how to use the software that we use to manage the many, many boxes of inactive records that we have.
So Monday, after lunch, I checked out a company car and drove to “Grapevine”. One thing I noticed is that Interstate 5 South looks remarkably like Interstate 5 North. Long stretches of dry, dusty grassland. Lots of dry, dusty-looking orchards. The usual assortment of big trucks and left-lane-losers who seem to think that “passing lane” really means “personal lane”.
It was hot (104) when I arrived. It was hot when we went to lunch on Tuesday. It was warm when I left this morning. It’s a long drive in either direction. When I got close to “Livermore”, a big auto dealer's sign showed the local temperature (at 11:00 am) was 74. I thought, “It was warmer than that when I woke up this morning!" Another reason to be thankful for the Bay Area and that lovely marine layer that comes in to cool things down at night.
This was a little “one day, two nights” trip. But, as Mother pointed out once, you have to take almost as much for one day as for a week. It’s not the clothes that take up so much luggage room; it’s all those other things. Like cosmetics, hair brush, toothbrush (and paste), etc., etc., etc. And there are all those things that you have to use (like cosmetics) before you can pack them. These are generally the same things you have to immediately unpack on your return because you need them that night or the next morning. Some things you can get “travel editions” of, like shampoo. But others have a short shelf-life and can’t sit in a suitcase for months on end.
However, I see numerous possible trips on the horizon, so I may invest in some of these. The suitcase I used for this trip had plenty of room for “etceteras”, but it’s a tad too large for carry-on. (On the plus side, when you have more etceteras than usual, it expands.) What I need now is a carry-on size case with wheels (gotta have those wheels). I’m already booked to fly to Oklahoma on another “one day, two nights” trip next month, this one in conjunction with the impending merger with “That Other Company”. Can’t say any more about that without FTC approval.
“Jeannie” also needs lighter luggage for next November’s trip to Italy. So the plan for this weekend is to go luggage shopping. In the meantime, I’ve got to go and unpack for tonight and tomorrow.
Happy trails.
Love, as always,
Pete
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