Love, As Always, Pete

The Weekly Letters, by A. Pedersen Wood

August 26, 2004

Dear Everyone:

Last Friday morning, I drove “Jeannie” to the airport for her visit with Mother in Oregon.  A few hours later, my new car arrived at my office.  (Temporary name:  “Odysseus”.)

I have to say, this business of using a broker to find your new car has a lot going for it.  Two guys drove my car from Tracy to San Ramon, showed me how the keys work, pointed out some nice features, highlighted all the places for me to sign on the paperwork, then left.  No “don’t you want to sign up for this warranty scam or that?”  Just, “Here’s your new car.  If you have any questions or problems, give us a call.”

Odysseus is “Desert Mist” (i.e., beige) with an “Ivory” (light beige) interior.  (This is one reason I decided to meet “Jeannie” in baggage claim, when she returned on Tuesday, instead of having her wait for me outside the airport.  I realized she’d never recognize the car.)

He has dual climate controls, which means I can set my side of the car to “refrigerate” and “Jeannie” (or any other passenger) can set hers to “really warm”.  Or she can just turn on the seat warmer.

I haven’t had time to learn all the bells and whistles.  Or to transfer all the “stuff” that I keep in the trunk from my “old” car, Odin, to Odysseus.  In the meantime, Odin has been hanging out in the parking lot at my “Pleasanton” office.  I just have to move him every few days so no one thinks he’s been abandoned.

The plan for this weekend is for “Jeannie” to come down to San Ramon and lay claim to Odin.  I have the “pink” slip ready and waiting.  I also have a possible new home for “Jeannie’s” “old” Civic.  A co-worker mentioned another co-worker who’s looking for a used car for her offspring to drive between school and home.  If that doesn’t pan out there are several worthy charities that will take a car off your hands, even if it doesn’t work, for the tax write-off.

In other news…

“Jeannie” reports that Mother is doing well, all things considered.  We’re thinking of driving up to Oregon in a few weeks to show Odysseus off and have some fun.

As for work, the UARM “Go Live” date is now considered DOA.  (UARM = Upstream Active Records Management.)  It has now been about a month since we started training Users.  If/when the programmers get UARM up and actually running, we expect we’ll have to go back and start training all over again.

In the meantime, lots of training going on in general.  We have split the regular, day-long training into two half-day sessions, one for “Beginners” and the other for “Intermediates”.  And we’re working on a “model” of what training should look like from a high level.

In other words, lots to do, keeping me employed and able to start making monthly car payments beginning in October.

Love, as always,

 

Pete

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