Love, As Always, Pete

The Weekly Letters, by A. Pedersen Wood

July 5, 2007

Dear Everyone:

Last Thursday, I was on a weekly teleconference call at work.  The person leading the call was explaining to some of the other people on the phone that he didn’t expect a lot of folks to call in the following week (today.)  That was because that Wednesday (yesterday) would be a holiday (Independence Day) and many people would have the following Friday off because it was their 9/80 Friday.  All they would have to do is take today as a single vacation day to be off for five days in a row.

I realized that he was absolutely right.  It also meant that the cafeteria at work would also realize it and cut way back on their offerings at lunchtime.  Company Park was going to look like a ghost town.  The only people who would be at work the latter half of this week would be losers who didn’t have enough vacation time, or whose bosses made them stay and work.

I took a look at my calendar.  The only meetings scheduled were standard weekly meetings that no one would call in to or show up for.  I checked my vacation schedule and realized that I still had five days that had not been scheduled at all.  So I’m taking today and tomorrow off, and still have three days to use when it’s time to replace the windows.

I spent Independence Day cleaning the bathrooms and scrubbing the kitchen floor.  These are things that virtually never get done.  But the last time “Jeannie” was at my place, even she noticed the state of the kitchen floor.  And “Jeannie” was coming for the Holiday.  The Company allows employees to park at our “Pleasanton” facility and watch the city fireworks display, which originates across the street at the Community Park.  And “Jeannie” and I had decided to take them up on the offer.

First we went to lunch.  Easier said than done.  Our first choice was closed for the Holiday.  So was the second.  The third was a larger chain, so they were open.  Over lunch, we discussed getting some plastic patio/lawn chairs.  We could use them while watching the fireworks, then take them back to “Jeannie’s” place.

There’s a lawn behind her patio where she stands and reads while her cat, Lucy, plays explorer.  Lucy can get up onto the patio fence and can jump down to the lawn, but she can’t get back home by the same route.  Instead, she relies on “Jeannie” to come around to the back and eventually lead her to the front door and back into the house.  Now “Jeannie” will be able to sit while she reads; and the chairs were cheap enough that it won’t matter if someone steals them.

After lunch, “Jeannie” bought the aforementioned chairs and the kid working at the store figured out how to get them into the back seat of my car.  We also picked up snacks and drinks to take with us.  By the time we got back to my place, it was 5:00 in the afternoon and 104 degrees in the shade.

We donned swimming suits and walked to the pool in my complex.  By that time of day, the pool is shaded by a large tree, so we didn’t have to worry about sunburn.  We hung around for about an hour.  The pool was the busiest I’ve seen it, mostly with kids who don’t live at "Twin Creeks Gardens", but no one was inclined to try and drive them out.  “Jeannie” showed me some of the water aerobics exercises she had learned when she belonged to a health club.

At 8:00 we headed over to the Company facility and found a nice spot in the parking lot that would afford us a good view of the fireworks.  The fireworks were scheduled to begin at 9:30, but we wanted to get there early, so we brought books to read.  By this time, the temperature had dropped down into the 90’s and there was a breeze that kept things quite comfortable.

They fired off a couple of advanced rounds at 9:20 and everyone adjusted their viewing position.  Right at 9:30, the display began and it was quite impressive, with two or three rounds going off at once and very little delay between firings.  And in fifteen minutes, it was over.

Unlike most people, we did not get back in the car.  From previous experience, we knew that it would take about 45 minutes for the cars to start to thin down.  Hundreds of cars, all trying to get out at the same time, equals traffic jam.  The security people and “Pleasanton” police department knew their stuff, but it just takes time to process that many vehicles.  And don’t forget all the people who went to the Community Park because they didn’t have access to the Company facility.

So we sat in our comfortable lawn chairs and read our books by the excellent light provided by the light standard directly above us until I noticed that there were no more cars in our part of the parking lot.  Then we went home and watched TV.

This morning we went to a movie (more about that next week) then took the chairs to “Jeannie’s” place in my car (we realized they would never fit in “Jeannie’s” car).  I got to “Jeannie’s” place first and just parked, with the engine running and the air conditioning going until she arrived.  At that time, it was 104 in the shade.  By the time I got home again, it was 108.

We’re hoping the temperature will start going down tomorrow.

Love, as always,

 

Pete

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