July 13, 2006
Dear Everyone:
Errata: I was mistaken. Invoking Mary’s Woods at the Lakeshore Inn didn’t save us $21. It was more like it saved us about $22 per night. Good to keep in mind.
I failed to mention last week that we also visited our old stomping grounds: 2609 Glenhaven Road, Lake Oswego, Oregon. The house had been bought and sold any number of times, most recently by a builder. The sapling we planted in the front yard 40-plus years ago is now a sturdy, tall tree. “Jeannie” pointed out that it once had a twin, but that was a long time ago.
As for the house itself, only the footprint still exists. The builder completely gutted the interior and rebuilt it. The front porch, which used to be on the left of the kitchen, had been moved to just next to the two-car garage (which looked very small.) Once we realized that no one lives in the house, since it was the builder trying to sell it (price recently reduced), we parked in the (very new) driveway and took a look around.
The backyard was now fenced off to the right of the house, but I tried the latch on the gate and it opened easily. We made our way down a very steep concrete path to some steps that led to a patio that now stretches across the length of the back of the house. The builder had extended the upstairs floor out over this patio on struts. What used to be the upstairs porch had been enclosed and there is now a chimney in the middle of the roofline overlooking the backyard.
Where the downstairs family room, with its own entrance, had been there are now French doors leading into an airy room (more windows). “Jeannie” went up around the far side of the house while Mother and I admired the newly landscaped yard. The trees planted along the property line have all grown to the point where you can’t even see the neighbors’ houses. The yard is totally enclosed. The landscaper even kept a few of the old boulders that we used to play on, incorporating them into the slope coming down from the yard that used to belong to “Debbie and Mark Athens”.
“Jeannie” came back to announce: “There’s a wet-bar in my old room. Can I move back in?”
In other news…
I spent this week flying to “Hobby” to meet with one of my customers. They wanted me to spend a couple of days retraining the person who will be their document management Subject Matter Expert (SME, pronounced “smē”). I spent pretty much all Tuesday morning showing her the “Beginners” training. She had used the system about three years ago, so it was mostly “Oh, that’s new” and speeding through the old stuff. Then we spent the afternoon going over some of the more advanced features of the document management system.
After she left for the day, it was only 2:30 on the West Coast, so I took the opportunity to call into a regular Tuesday afternoon meeting with one of my other customers in California. Then I answered a lot of document management questions via email and headed back to the hotel.
Yesterday was training for the rest of the “Hobby” Project Team. They can’t really start using the system, since they have no Cabinet as yet, but they can play around in the training environment and get a feel for what kind of special needs they may have before committing to using the system. They’ve been trying to get this project off the ground for five years, so they’re well motivated.
I started this Letter this morning in the “Hobby” airport, knowing that I had time to kill waiting for my flight. I hate running through airports, so I got up extra early and took a cab instead of waiting for a shuttle at the last minute. I’ve been up since 3:00 am, but that was Central Daylight Time. I’m tired. I’ve set up the VCR and I’m going to bed. Thank God tomorrow’s Friday.
Love, as always,
Pete
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