December 18, 1998

Dear friends and family,

Happy Christmas and merry new year! Bob, Glade and I have had a tremendous second year together. Glade is six, and as golden and lively as ever. Our evenings and weekends seem always busy, but as I prepare this letter, I’m struck with the realization that much of what we spend our time doing is probably not too interesting or comprehensible. Nevertheless, I’ll attempt a bit of explanation.

For example, both of us love fooling with old electronic equipment; so many of our Saturday mornings are spent at flea markets combing for old stuff of interest to possibly only a few silly collectors like us. I recently passed my advanced class amateur radio license. I enjoy looking at, and occasionally dickering for and buying ham gear. Bob also likes to collect and restore old computers, and Silicon Valley is the place to find flea market goodies. I feel so lucky to have another dedicated treasure-hunter to enjoy this hobby with.

I lost my job in July when the division I worked for was bought. The last time that happened, I got depressed and had trouble getting motivated to send out resumes and seriously commit to my job search. This time I didn’t let myself get into a funk; I started looking for work as soon as I knew this job was ending. I found a new job almost immediately. I now work at Caere, a company which makes OCR software. This is the software that enables you to scan printed material into your computer and convert it into editable text. I take telephone calls from customers all day and solve their scanner and computer-related problems.

At his job, Bob has been promoted to one of the senior managers with lots of projects he’s working on. TeleSensory, where he works, makes screen-enlargement and reading systems for people with limited vision. Bob has been a software engineer for a couple of decades, but this job gives him the chance to also work on hardware. As a manager, he’s also responsible for seeing that others’ efforts are successful, and the people challenges are often more difficult than the technical ones.

One of the strengths of our friendship is that we both understand each other’s jobs; the stresses, rewards, technical problems and triumphs. As we get older, we are more tired when we get home evenings than our younger, perpetually driven counterparts. As I mentioned in last year’s letter, this industry is highly competitive, with the requirement that computer people keep their skills current and sharp. The exciting part is learning new stuff; the downside is that high-tech companies are bought and sold with no regard for employee loyalty. We often wish for a career that would be equally, or even more meaningful, but generate less stress and not take up quite so much time!

We’ve been looking into starting a mini-business, called "Spare-Time Gizmos" to sell some of the interesting electronic gadgets that Bob has designed or built. Many of those projects involve writing firmware which is something I am enjoying learning how to do. I’m also designing a web page for us and Bob’s busy teaching me new aspects of computer programming and building more gizmos. This may lead everywhere or nowhere for us, but will keep us working together on something fulfilling.

Rereading the last few paragraphs, I reflect again on how much our achievements result directly from our own efforts. I’ve been through both lucky and unlucky times, but believe that bad luck and lapses in self-confidence are temporary.

We have been working on some interesting home improvements. We had a new lawn put in and there is no longer a single blade of crab grass in our front yard. It was an experience for me to go through the process of collecting bids, tracking down references and eventually selecting a contractor. We plan to have a new roof put on next year – ours isn’t leaking yet – and we’ve contracted for some garden improvements which will soon be underway. It was especially difficult for me to find help to do the garden projects I wanted; the contractors were either fancy landscape architects who tried to convince us we needed thousands of dollars of work, or they were simple pruning services who didn’t seem to know how to properly install sprinklers. I finally selected a guy who is a licensed contractor with a pruning/mowing service. He seems to follow directions, do quality work and (thank goodness) not have got himself burdened with some overpriced landscape design degree. He will repair some uneven brick paths, add a sidewalk (so I don’t have to tramp through the mud to take Glade out on those cold mornings) and best of all, build me some eagerly--desired raised beds. Hopefully, Bob will at last have a beautiful garden he can show off!

I finally sold my house to Alameda County flood control. This was the fixer-upper I owned and lived in before I decided to reside with Bob. This Last winter’s El Niño rains damaged it further and I was very pleased to be rid of it. The neighbors are delighted that County flood control bought this house because the damaged embankment is shared by the neighborhood, so having a responsible government entity nearby to repair flood damage produced a win-win situation for everyone.

Everybody in our local family has been safe and well. My parents continue to enjoy line dancing and even teach it sometimes. They have a cabin in the Sierra foothills they’ve been busy fixing up. My parents came to our house for Thanksgiving and that was a lot of fun. Glade has gotten over this summer’s skin problems and my sister, as well as my other friends, and Bob’s friends are all doing fine.

Another thing keeping us real busy lately is Christmas. I got organized this year and bought a lot of our gifts mail-order and early. This meant I was able to get wrapping and packing early also. Then I spent a few weekends goofing off, and now I’m a bit late getting this letter out!

Well, even though I’m more talkative than Bob, I’m out of things to chat about, giving me a good excuse to close. I hope this letter finds each and everyone of you well, and never forget to be happy and grateful for the good things in your life!