February 28, 2008
Dear Everyone:
I love
my new phone system. Now
when the phones ring, unless I’m in the bathroom, I can quickly look to
see if it’s anyone I want, or need, to talk to.
Last Sunday the phones rang and I picked up the one in the
bedroom. I immediately
recognized the number as being that of “Jeannie’s” friend, the one
“Jeannie” sometimes dog-and-house-sits for, so I pressed the button and
started talking with “Jeannie” without having to wait for the answering
machine to pick up.
At other times, the phone rings and it’s St. Jude
calling. Not the one in
heaven,
St. Jude Children’s
The reason “Jeannie” called last Sunday was to tell
me that she decided not to drive down to my place and watch the
Academy
Awards with me. This was
because of a terrific storm that was barreling through the
Bay Area that
day that she didn’t want to have to drive in.
Plus her dog-and-house-sitting friend wouldn’t be getting home
until almost after the ceremonies began.
Since “Jeannie” wasn’t coming, I didn’t have to go
out into the storm to do any grocery shopping; I could do it the next
day, which I was taking as a Personal Choice Holiday.
I could also put off laundry and cleaning the upstairs bathroom.
So instead I decided to open the
Christmas present
that “Santa” got for me last year.
This was a wireless router, which I got for the price of the
sales tax, thanks to a gift card from work.
I had heard on
60 Minutes
on TV that “…half the wireless routers returned to…” the Big Shiny
Electronics Warehouse Store were brought back by people who couldn’t
understand the instructions.
But “Richard” had a wireless router in his place in
“Boulder” and he’s not the most technically inclined person I know, so I
figured I’d just try and see what happened.
I was a little perturbed that there were
no instructions in the box,
other than “insert the CD and follow the prompts” on the screen.
Apparently, I chose the right brand to use.
The CD instructions were very clear and even provided little
sketch “videos” demonstrating how to pull the cable out of your laptop
and where in the back of the router to plug it.
It took about an hour to complete, but the software did most of
the work. All I really had
to do was pick a name and password for my
network.
When it was all done, I took the laptop downstairs
to the living room, turned it on and headed for the
Internet.
No problem. This
evening, I took it into the bedroom so I could look up the name of a
guest actor on a TV show I’d taped last night.
This I like.
Next up:
Another wireless gizmo to work the printer so I can print from
anywhere in the house. Or
the patio. Of course, I’ll
still have to go into the office to pick up the printouts.
Technology can’t do everything just yet.
In other news…
Our management decided to have a two-day “offsite”
IM Consulting Workshop this week.
The location was in a nearby hotel (some people came from
“Hobby”) which was very convenient for me.
It took me less than five minutes to get there.
We met in the hotel meeting room (maximum capacity
32 people) around four tables.
The first day began with one of those Consultants who begins a
section with, “I usually cover this in a four-day seminar, but I’ll try
to touch on the high points in an hour…” followed by brainstorming.
The first day ended with the Mandatory Merriment:
Dinner and Bocce Ball (“
The second day had various “guest speakers” from
within the company. Then we
hammered out the manager’s Performance Management Plan (PMP) which then
“cascaded” down to our supervisor’s which will again cascade down to
each of us. This certainly
beats last year when we began with the Operating Company President’s PMP
cascading down like a tidal wave.
So today was my first actual day in the office,
back working on the “Winks” Group’s destruction review.
I opened one box to discover that it was nearly filled with
publications, mostly books.
Since publications have no retention requirements I just put them with
the growing piles of “no formal review needed” stuff that will go
directly into recycling once we know how big a recycle bin to order.
That was easy.
Love, as always,
Pete
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