January 9, 2003
Dear Everyone:
Now that the time of Christmas Secrets has passed, I can explain something I have been keeping well, secret.
Last summer, while we were all attending the First Annual Family Reunion at “Alice” and “Kelly’s” place, I had a great thought. I bought a disposable camera and took various pictures of their house and property.
When I got back to
My plan was to make this “Alice’s” Christmas present. Since I’m in charge of the Christmas List, it was relatively easy to make sure that I was the one to get “Alice’s” name last year. The fix was in.
We started in September, because an oil painting takes time. You have to allow parts to dry before you can continue (or so I’m told). The painting was completed in October, when I moved it into the closet to complete drying. In November, we took it to the frame shop where we picked out custom framing.
In December, the people who run the mailing services where I work offered special shipping rates to employees. I found a great store that sells all kinds and shapes of boxes, where we picked out a box intended for shipping mirrors. A friend at work brought in some bubble-wrap and the painting was gift wrapped, bubble-wrapped, boxed, weighed and shipped all in one morning.
Voila, a relatively stress-free Christmas gifting. “Alice” proclaimed the painting “such a thoughtful gift!” and they can have summer in their home all year round. Even when there’s eight inches of snow on the ground.
In other news…
Be careful what you wish for.
At work last Monday, we had our first face-to-face staff meeting in which all our team members were actually in the room together. This really is the only time that at least one person wasn’t calling in from “Hobby” or somewhere. And we’ve added two new people to the team, so it was their first meeting as well.
Having
just added two more people, we’ve been told that we have to cut our
budget by an additional 5%.
(In case you weren’t aware of it, the economy has slowed down somewhat,
even for XXX companies. Or,
as “Marshall” would put it, “They need a smaller rake.”)
Rather than give up someone who just got hired, our boss decided
to give up some rent instead.
Specifically the rent on my cubicle in Company
So starting next week, I’ll be commuting to our new offices in “Pleasant Hill”. For those of you not familiar with the Bay Area, it’s about 20 miles away from where I live. And, by Bay Area standards, it’s not considered a particularly difficult commute.
In addition to giving up the expense of rent, the boss also kept going on about how we must recover our costs by billing our customers for every minute that we spend on their projects. “Fine talk,” I thought. But having finished several projects right before the Holidays, I didn’t have any customers to bill. And she hadn’t assigned me any new projects.
Until yesterday. In the morning I got a call “reminding” me to contact the woman that the telephone operators work for. She needs a database designed for them and someone had suggested that I’d be a good person to do that.
Halfway through the afternoon, I got word that I’ll be working on the Document Management System Project that appears, then disappears, then reappears like a magic island. Seems it’s reappeared again.
And just as I was getting ready to leave for the day, a meeting notice popped into my electronic In Box, for a meeting this morning with someone in "Miracles and Avalanches".
So, just like that: Three new Customers. Like I said: Be careful what you wish for.
Love, as always,
Pete
PS.
Next week’s Letter will be early, late or not at all.
I’m giving a presentation on Data Conversions at the Thursday
night ARMA Dinner Meeting and can you
believe 15 people have already signed up for it?
P.
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