Hair, tape, Velvita, pizza

I have a list of things to get/do today. I have a haircut at 10:30 and then I need a few grocery store things and some scotch tape. My haircut is over in West Seattle (where my pool is) Had I been smart, I would have just moved my swim back and done everything in one trip but I woke up at 4:30 and my arms and shoulders were all crunched up and not comfortable so I just went swimming. It was not an easy swim. My arms had a hard time but it got easier towards the end.

I'll go back over in a bit and get everything else done. And, since I'll be over there when they are open for a change, there will be Papa Murphy's pizza for dinner!

I decided to convert all my usual patterns to copy paper. It's easier to use/measure/store/organize than the Swedish tracing paper I have been using. I am running out of scotch tape but I only have one more I want to get done now and it's the swim suit pattern so the smallest of all of them. I'll get some more tape while I'm out.

Nothing else big going on. I do need to remember to make sure my backup batteries are all charged and ready for Sunday night's blackout. Our electric company is, once again, shutting us down for a 'planned outage'. It's hard not to be so annoyed at being treated like a third world country here in the middle of an upscale urban area in the United States. They just turn off the juice whenever they want and there isn't a thing in the world we can do about it.

Grumble Grumble.

Maybe amazing ballgames??

Several times recently I've been asked 'if money were no object, what would your heart desire to buy first' and I've kind of surprised myself by really not having anything on that list. I have so much. I have no desire to travel. I don't need a car or a house. I can't build a pool in the backyard because, well, there's an apartment building there and I don't want to move.

BUT, after Tuesday night, I realized that if money were no object, I'd own Diamond Club tickets.

I spent some time last night wandering around the ticket portion of the Mariner website studying the situation. There are several levels of premium tickets but none compare to the seats available in the Diamond section. But, there are a couple of problems. The big one is that all seats are in pairs. It does not appear as if they even sell the tickets one by one. Only in groups with 2 being the minimum. And the price is pretty pricey. And they are sold out.

So I figured I'd look into next year. They had a form to fill out for more info so I filled it out. And a woman just called.

Long story short - they have one single ticket available for 15 games this season. $3,805. Do I want it? I asked her if I could think about it. I have until Monday. She sent me the games, and the seat specifics. It's in the last row of the Diamond Club so 8 rows behind home plate. And, it's in the middle of the row. BUT it IS in the best of the 4 Diamond Club sections.

I'm so tempted. So tempted. When you add in tax that's a little north of $250 per game. It includes massive food but still. It also includes parking which, of course, I would not need/use and could maybe sell for $25 per game.

I just got my cash built up a little and I will be buying new counter tops for the kitchen and a new hot water heater... but still.

I'm so tempted.

My tweets

• Thu, 12:37: If you spill on your shirt and it shows and you plan to be home alone the rest of the… https://t.co/u1ztgr6dQk
• Thu, 15:15: Android 0 and Android Pay have now kissed and made up. I had to restart several… https://t.co/PdBJ9okI1Q
• Fri, 07:57: Awwww This wonderful play is coming back home to Seattle next year. It really is a must see. https://t.co/XcGr5aaYOA

I did it.

I just sent a note to the sales lady telling her I wanted to buy her ticket. I am so excited. Here are the games I will be a VIP* for:



*For some reason that is amusing me, I'm pronouncing this, in my head, as if it rhymes with skip.

p.s. I absolutely LOVE all the 'do it!' comments I got. I am a true sucker for validation.

Continued

IBM Rochester made both the IBM System/36 and System/38 and all the software that ran them. Both computers were used by small to mid-sized businesses and were application driven. Businesses did not buy the computers, they bought the software they needed for their businesses and then the hardware needed to run it.

My office was in a small suite of offices around the office of the chief executive. This photo is of those of us in those offices. From left is the operations guy, Tom's assistant, me, two of our secretaries, Tom, Tom's secretary, the hr/admin guy and the technical guy.



We were a tight team and we all worked with each other. If any of them needed anything written, they came to me. Bruce (the technical guy) was the one who ensured I got the facts right. He'd line up experts and translate to them what I needed to know. Then, I'd turn around and make plain English out of the technobable I'd get from them. One of us plus Steve, the assistant, were often in meetings as people met with Tom. It was really important that we all understood the challenges and concerns and plans and schedules. And we all ran interference for Tom.

And then there were customers. Our customers were business executives, IT professionals, and independent application developers - a pretty darned diverse group of people.

Our charter, at that point was to bring the new machine (and software) to market. The follow on to the System/36 and System/38 was a whole new ball o' wax. The AS/400 was a BFD for IBM. (That's it in the photo with us.) When I got there we were about 10 months before the product announcement.

Besides keeping customers happy without telling them about the new product, and keeping employees happy and productive even with this guy who they thought was a major whack o' meter who was now in charge and keeping IBM executives at Armonk (company HQ) happy with schedules and budgets, it was like a 3 ring circus every day.

We all worked 80 hour weeks or more. We traveled a whole lot. It seemed like we were putting out fires every hour. And most of the time, it felt like we would never ever, even with a handful of miracles be ready for the product announcement. And that we would all be fired by lunchtime tomorrow.

I've had great jobs but this one ... these 18 months ... were really the best. I pulled off stuff I never ever thought I'd ever be able to do. Regularly. And it was invigorating all of the time.

But, of course, there were little clouds in the sky... The woman I reported to on paper, did not like the arrangement one bit. And Tom did not like her. I was the ham in the their not very tasty sandwich. Rochester was cute but really small and isolating. For most of the year, it was too cold to drive the hour to the Twin Cities by myself. There wasn't anything along the way and no cellphones so if something happened and I got stranded, I'd just die there. I didn't really have time for dating but if I would have there were no suspects. IBMers had no interest in dating anyone who worked for The Boss and the Mayo Clinic guys were mainly just weird.

Mostly, however, it was just a glorious time.

To Be Continued