Chapter the Eighth: I fly everywhere and talk about everything.
It's now November, and I'm thinking it's been a really busy quarter! Without a doubt, the busiest part of it has been my professional life, which has been filled with travel and work.
Earlier this year, I'd booked a number of speaking engagements for STC chapters and conferences. This seemed like a good idea at the time… well, honestly, it still seems like a good idea now, but it's been a busy job fulfilling all of these! September 14, I flew to Illinois to speak at the Central Illinois chapter of the STC. That was fun and I got to see Nancee Moster and her husband Rick at their farm (which is very pretty). I flew back to Seattle, then flew to LA, where I stayed with Jack Molisani (of Clarity Technical; be sure to look there if you need to find writers or you are a writer yourself in need of work) and spoke at the LA STC chapter on September 18th, followed by a presentation the following evening for the San Fernando Valley chapter. I also took advantage of being in the neighborhood to stop in on my great-aunt Kay in Moreno Valley (near San Bernardino), who's a real joy. Her health has been a bit dodgy lately, but she's 94, so I think that's not overly surprising.
(As it happens, I flew home from SoCal on the same plane as the band "Quiet Riot." Their bass player, Rudy Sarzo, sat in the seat next to me and, when he found out I write computer books for a living, he asked me questions about Windows ME at great length. I was able to reassure him that the problems he was having with ME not talking to his desktop system running Windows 98 Special Edition were almost certainly not him but rather dat ole debbil Microsoft in yet another guise of evil. He was much reassured. Rudy also dug out his Compaq Presario and played me some bass riffs he was doing for Sound Forge and even put me on the guestlist for the band's concert that night. It was very cool and a lot of fun to meet a famous rock star.)
In October, I started my epic of travel by going to the Pan-Pacific conference (for STC Regions 7 and 8) in Honolulu on October 18. It was held at the Renaissance Ilikai hotel on Waikiki. This in itself will probably mean nothing to you, but you've seen this hotel a lot. There's a marina adjoining the hotel that you've probably seen a couple hundred times—it's the marina that the S. S. Minnow sailed out of in 1964 for a three-hour tour. (Sonomagun!) And you've also seen the main tower of the Renaissance Ilikai, too: Jack Lord stood on the balcony of one of the rooms at about the 16th floor when the camera zoomed in on him at the opening of "Hawaii 5-0." I dunno 'bout you, but I think that this is pretty cool stuff! J While I was there, I played in the sun, swam in the ocean several times, got a leetle sunburned, and had a lot of fun. A bunch of friends and I went around Oahu in a van for a day and swam at Hanama Bay and Waimea Bay, which were completely different beaches: Hanama Bay was rocky and rough with fine sand, but Waimea Bay had very coarse, multi-colored sand that felt ecstatically good to walk on barefoot, and a smooth, sudden drop-off a few feet from the shore. I also tried snorkeling at Hanama Bay, but I wasn't able to because the water kept coming up under my mask around the mustache—I need to put a thick layer of Vaseline on my mustache and use a mask with a really soft rubber liner on it next time. Phylise and Bonni went out about 50 yards and swam with giant sea turtles. (Phylise had several experiences with sea turtles while swimming and has been very taken with how cool they are.) I also did a bunch of shopping at Hilo Hattie's, one of the premiere shops in Honolulu for aloha shirts and tourist tat. I bought shirts and swim trunks for me and I also got shirts for Marilyn and her kids. The conference organizers had made me the official conference photographer, so I snapped about 120 pictures of people and happenings while I was there.
I got back from Honolulu on Monday morning. The following Wednesday evening, I took off for Tucson to give a speech to the Tucson STC chapter on October 26th. Friday night (the 27th), I took part in a Spiral Dance at the Unitarian church I used to attend when I lived in Tucson. And Saturday morning, I attended my niece's 8th birthday party at Chuck E. Cheese, where adults (and parents in particular) tend to fear to tread, usually because of the noise level. I gave Addison more things I'd bought in Honolulu: a big bag of sea shells, a coconut husk monkey bank, and a red sarong.
The week after I got back from Tucson, I went to Tucson again. Okay, so this one was more for fun than work: I went for the induction to my high school's hall of fame. Marilyn joined me for this trip, so we had a chance to try out traveling together (even if it was just a leetle trip). Lorraine's sweetie John (from New Zealand) was up for the weekend, so we all got a chance to meet everyone else at last. Seemed like a long way to go to get there, but what the hell?
It's worth noting that both Marilyn and I had the cold from hell during this trip. Wed both started coughing and wheezing the week before and it was giving us grief all weekend. We flew in late Thursday night and got to the B&B (the Adobe Rose Inn, a nice place) and collapsed. Unfortunately for us, breakfast was only served until 9:00am, so we had to get up far too early for our tastes. We pottered around the room afterwards for a while and then went out—first to Gael's store, where I bought Marilyn another chemise—a full-length drawstring number in thin muslin this time—and then to Sahuaro High School, where I connected briefly with Carol Orcutt Holly and showed Marilyn around a little where I'd been to school. We were able to get down to the Little Theater and I showed her some pictures of me and of friends from my HS days. There was one in particular that I'd wanted to show her—me as Charlie Brown in a still-familiar pose with my chin on my hand—but it wasn't there for some reason. Humph, I said!
We had an afternoon date with Bill Burgess and John Heefner at their place, so we truffled on over. After only a few minutes of getting lost (I just know that street's around here somewhere!) we made it right on time. Marilyn enjoyed Bill and John very much. Karen Campbell, another teacher from SHS, was also there. We chatted about stories of people and times in HS and shared anecdotes of practical jokes we'd played The missing picture also made an appearance: Bill had cabbaged it along with some others to show what we'd looked like in HS. Ah-ha!
From Bill's house, we headed off to meet Gael and Jake for cocktails at El Charro. Marilyn and I chatted about legal liability and damages and weirdness in the law for a while until Gael arrived. Jake arrived shortly hereafter and we had drinks and nosh and talked about all sorts of things until Lorraine and John arrived at 6:30 for dinner. Gael and Jake bade s goodbye and we sat and talked and ate for a couple more hours. Marilyn and I left quite stuffed and very sleepy. We curled up and slept as best we could, although the cold gave both of us grief during the night.
Saturday morning came far too early. The breakfast was at 8:00am and we had to drive across Tucson to get there and we were both feeling pretty ratty around the edges, but we made it there on time. I was very pleased to see Kent Markle, a good friend from HS, who'd driven in from his place near Rodeo, NM, to see me. Gael, Lorraine, John, and Pat Jordan were there as well, and there were a number of teachers ad administrators: Bev Elcess (who'd worked in the Dean's office), Bill Ismay (Dean of Boys), Karen Campbell, Harry & Fran Johnson, and many others.
After a brief Cougar Foundation business meeting, the awards portion of the morning began. James Gooden (class of '74) was inducted first. James has been one of the lights in community theater in the area for years. Greg Williams (class of '79) was inducted next. Greg was a star track athlete for a number of years until he was sidelined by a knee injury; after which, he got into finance and founded the Paragon Mutual Fund in Phoenix, which currently has assets of more than $400 million. Sadly, he couldn't be there in person to accept, although he did a very nice taped speech. I was the final award. Bill Burgess had a very nice introduction for me. I had been writing my speech during breakfast: I'd had a number of thoughts that had not quite gelled, but I was finally able to put them together into a good speech. Marilyn read it and made a good correction so I figured that I was ready to go. Then, while James had been talking, a thought occurred to me and I added another page with some comments about being an author and thanks to the people who'd gotten me here. I actually did okay with the speech for the most part. I started by talking about how I'd been putting this together and that some of what I had to say was going to be the speech and some was going to be things that occurred to me to say as I was talking (which got a laugh). I managed to avoid choking up until I got to the point where I thanked Bill for teaching me everything I'd learned about speaking and that did it. I had to stop a couple of times in the remaining paragraphs to clear my throat and swallow, but I did manage to finish without blubbering entirely.
After the breakfast, Dave Ashcraft let us into the Auditorium so we could see where our pictures would be hung on the wall. Marilyn and I toddled off and joined Kent Markle at a place where we could get latte (at last!) not far from our B&B and talked for a few hours. Marilyn said afterwards that she found Kent to be ruggedly handsome, which I had to agree with. Yes, Kent was indeed always that good-looking, I told her, though not nearly as rugged back then.
After bidding good-bye to Kent, we went back to the B&B where we slept. We both felt much better after a long nap (in my case for about 5 hours) and we had leftovers and nibble things for dinner and I taught Marilyn to play gin rummy. We watched TV and went back to sleep. Marilyn looked fabulous in her new nightgown, too!
Sunday morning, we joined Bill & John for breakfast at the Doubletree Inn, then went back to the hotel where we were met by Lorraine and John for a trip to the Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum, one of my favorite day-trips in Tucson. It was a lot of fun as always. For some reason, I enjoy seeing the javelinas. Lorraine is not nearly so keen on them, as there are a family of wild javelinas that come into her apartment complex frequently and they do smell, after all. John wanted to see the hummingbirds (which are fascinating) and as we traipsed off to the hummingbird aviary, Marilyn said to Lorraine that it wasn't a good idea for me to go into the hummingbird aviary as I'd teach them the words. "The words to what?" Lorraine asked. Oh, well, Marilyn and I thought it was a really boffo line….
We headed off to a steak house called Lil Abner's that knew how to make a rare T-bone, and returned home to our B&B where Lorraine and John bade us farewell. Marilyn and I packed up and got ready for our return flight (we had to be up at 5:00am to leave in time for a 7:05am flight—shudder!) and turned in. I set all the alarms I could. I don't do 5:00am willingly. We made the flight without any problems and wheezed and hacked our way home to Seattle. I said to Marilyn that I was pleased to have traveled with her but that the next trip would be better, doubtless, as we wouldn't be sick. OTOH, I said, this was kind of nice because it did give us a chance to try out "in sickness and in health" and it looked like we'd one pretty well with it.
Coming up later in November is my penultimate business trip this year: I'm speaking in Dallas, Oklahoma City, and Houston. This is all for STC chapters, but I'm also doing a speaking gig for a company in Dallas while I'm there. It's another whirlwind gig and I'll be on the road for a week, after which I get to COME HOME and sleep in my OWN BED with the cats glued to me. And then I don't go anywhere until December, when I speak at a conference in Orlando. Well, at least it'll be warm there.
Marilyn and I keep doing better and better. We've still not been able to do one-tenth of the things we'd like to do together, largely because we only can see each other on weekends. (Well, when you've gotta work and you're in Tacoma and Seattle, it does put a crimp in your time together, I haveta say.) We're having delightful amounts of fun with each other even if we're just snuggling on the couch and watching TV and playing Scrabble. I am blissfully happy with her and she with me. It's wonderful to be loved for being just who I am right now and not having to jump through hoops. Life is good.
Work has been very busy, too. I've been doing a consulting job at VoiceStream Cellular, doing all kinds of interesting things. I've also been doing some SDK work for a really nice client. I've also been writing white papers on DSL for a very large electronics firm. And I've even been formatting a DIY guide for assembling small (well, medium-sized) office waterfalls that are very very cool. All of this is Really Busy Stuff as you can imagine, particularly with all this travel thrown in. Truly is it written that this business is feast or famine.
That's most of what's been going on lately. I'm not writing books at the moment because I wanted to take a break and build up some bucks now to pay off a few bills (all these contracts will go a long way towards doing that). Marilyn and I are making some tentative travel plans for this winter—little weekend runaway trips, mostly. I'm already booking slots this spring for more STC speaking gigs: I'll be in Vancouver, B.C., Tampa, Columbus, OH, and Orange County at various times, and then there's always the annual conference in Chicago that I'm really looking forward to.
I feel so virtuous: I've got all of my Yule card shopping done already (bought 'em in January at the British Museum shop, as a matter of fact), so all I have to do for Yule cards this year is print out the Yule letter, do address labels, and send them out. (This does take a bit of time, mind ewe; my Yule list is about 250 people these days.) Getting the Yule letters done takes a few days, but I do so love it.
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This page last updated July 8, 2002.
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