August 19, 2004
Dear Everyone:
“Jeannie” is coming to spend the night tonight. Normally, I don’t allow sleepovers on a work night, but this is a special occasion. “Marshall” has a friend from high school whose son is getting married this weekend. (And yes, that does make me feel old.)
Since “Marshall” will be in
I did some work last weekend and have been working later each day this week to build a “bank” of time that I can borrow from for all of this. And I may be doing quite a bit of work this weekend.
This is because I found out just this afternoon that, as a result of this big project I’ve been working with all this time, some basic functionality changes in the document management system will affect all of the current and future Users. (For those of you who have been keeping score: UARM is still FUBAR, but apparently getting better.)
We had already decided to split training into two parts: “Beginners” and “Intermediates”. We had come to realize that stuffing a whole day’s worth of information into people’s brains doesn’t necessarily mean that it all stays there. Also, most people don’t feel that they can afford to spend an entire day in training.
So we took the basics and put them together as “Beginners”, which is expected to last no more than three to four hours. I’ve been working the past couple of weeks on this and have “Beginners” all wrapped up. In fact, I have some 40 books being printed this week and will start using them on Monday. Yesterday, I started on “Intermediates”.
I thought I had it more or less wrapped up until this afternoon. Now I realize that I will need to include pretty much all of the “new functionality” in “Intermediates”. And I have an “Intermediates” class already scheduled in “Martinez” for next Thursday. So I will have to scramble to get the additional work done and ready for the printers by Monday or Tuesday. Luckily, I only need about five books for that class.
In other news…
Last Sunday, “Jeannie” and I dropped by one of the three Honda dealers in our area. I’ve been thinking that it’s time to get a new car. The four days I spent in a company car, when we visited “Grapevine”, had convinced me that it was time to get automatic transmission and adjustable seats. And a whole lot more.
The dealer was more than happy to show us the most expensive car on the lot. Then, when he started in on “What can I do to sell you this car…?” “Jeannie” pulled him aside and “confided” in him that “she’s been looking at new cars for about eight months now”. He dropped us like a hot potato.
Once I knew which make and model I wanted, I stopped by the credit union to find out what kind of interest rate I would be looking at. It turned out that I was “pre-approved” for substantially more than I needed at a very favorable rate. So then I called the car broker.
This is a firm recommended by the credit union. You give the specifications to the broker: Make, model, color, extras, whatever you want. Then the broker starts calling dealers until he gets the lowest possible bid. He reports back to you and, if you think the deal is good enough, he arranges for the car to be delivered to you while you arrange financing with the credit union.
No high-pressure sales tactics. No extra warranties that you don’t really need.
Bottom line: By the time “Jeannie” gets back, I expect to be driving my new car, purchased at $300 below the dealer’s cost. And as for my “old” car? It will become “Jeannie’s” “new to you” car. And she can sell, or donate, her old car. And everybody’s happy.
Love, as always,
Pete
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