October 3, 2001
Dear Everyone:
Well, I knew as soon as I said, “I have (almost) nothing to do…” the gremlins would hear and take action. The last part of last week, back-to-back meetings sprang up overnight like mushrooms. Plus, emergency dental work.
Did I mention I broke a tooth? Last Wednesday, right after I finally got onto AOL to email out the Letter, I was snacking on some almonds (because nuts are a healthier snack than potato chips), when what felt like a rock sneaked into my mouth. Only it wasn’t a rock, it was part of a tooth (upper right molar). In fact, it was the part of that tooth that was clinging to the edge of a huge filling for God knows how many years.
The dentist agreed that nuts are a healthier snack than potato chips, but that, in this case, potato chips might not have caused the tooth to break. Although I’m not so sure that even chips might not have been enough of an excuse for this particular tooth.
Anyway, the Good News is that I was able to get in to see the dentist Friday morning and, having just had a cancellation, he was able to do the preliminary work right then. So now I have a temporary crown, with the permanent one scheduled to go into place on the 23rd.
This week, we had another one of those Mandatory Safety Meetings (one every quarter and everyone expected to attend a minimum of four). This one was on “Stress Management”, made “relevant” by last month’s terrorist attacks. It was kind of a given that being attacked by terrorists is “stressful”, even if you’re not “directly” affected by it.
What I seemed to be hearing a lot in the last three weeks is that everyone should try to “get back to normal”. I’m not sure that I agree with that. There are some things that you just can’t “get back” to. You can’t un-ring the bell.
You can’t “un-assassinate” a leader. You can’t “un-erupt” Mount St. Helens (it’s still noticeably shorter than before). You can’t “un-shake” the earthquakes that have toppled freeways, bridges and homes. And you can’t “un-collapse” the twin towers.
Instead, I prefer to take the view that “this is normal now”. This is the way it is and the way it will be for the foreseeable future. The trick is to look for ways to improve “normal now” until it looks and feels a lot like “normal before”. Going “back” to normal implies a backward, “negative”, motion. Going forward is more “positive”.
For instance, when the Columbus Day Storm knocked out power for a week in Oregon in the early ‘60’s, reading by candlelight became normal. When the electricity came on, watching TV became an improvement over normal, even though it looked a lot like watching TV two weeks earlier. (On the plus side, we got a lot of reading done during that week.)
For New York City, having the Financial District torn up will be normal for a long time to come. Conversely, in Houston, having the Financial District torn up has always been normal because, every time I’ve visited Houston, the Financial District has been a mess.
In other news…
I have been assigned to a tiny cubicle in Building K in Company Park. This is so I can be closer to the “move people” as I am the System Administrator for the software application that they will be using to coordinate a whole lot of moves. (When you get moved into new quarters, you can’t go “back” to the way your old quarters looked; you can only go “forward” to make the new quarters as comfortable as the old ones were. Or maybe even better.)
This doesn’t mean I’m leaving “Livermore”. I will be “dual-located”, just as I was when I worked half the time in San Francisco and half in “Livermore”. Only “Livermore” and Company Park are a lot closer to each other. How long will this last? I have no idea.
In other words, situation normal.
Love, as always,
Pete
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