Tuesday

It was really lovely to swim this morning without a tooth cutting into my cheek with every breath. That sucker had been slicing me for way too long. I went to the good pool today but I wasn't the only one. It was packed. So today I'll call the closer pool and see if they have their chemical shit cleared up and, if so, go back to them tomorrow.

Today's task is to figure out why, when I plug in my phone at night and the indicator says it's charging, I wake up in the morning and it's at less than 50% charged. Not every night but most nights. Weird. Suspects include the cable, the wall outlet, the wall wart.

Nothing big on the agenda today. I do need to get out and get some walking done - even just a little bit. I think I'll combine it with lunch and maybe go up to the teriyaki place. The baseball game is at 4. There will be sewing and knitting.

My tweets

• Mon, 15:59: Dear Amazon, WHEN are you ever going to open up Amazon Fresh Pick UP for the rest of… https://t.co/5y4O1wVOoC

Debating

It's warm out. It was really warm on Sunday without electricity. It's going to cool off a little tomorrow but then be warm for Memorial Day weekend. So. Is it time to bring the air conditioner in from storage? I think so but I thought I'd procrastinate and write about it first (and, of course, after).

I finished off the latest shirt. I think I need to stop and tidy up the sewing room. Tomorrow is house cleaner day and, honestly, the sewing room is too messy now for her to even get in there to vacuum. So that must done today.

I did take a walk. I went the long way to the teriyaki place and discovered 2 places are now empty store fronts - one antique store and one bar. And there's a huge new upscale Mexican-ish restaurant that looks lovely with an interesting menu.

I did a load of laundry that included several of my new shirts. I love putting on a new shirt after I finish it but the next big jolt of joy is when it comes out of the dryer and looks just like it did when I finished it. Very satisfying.

I spent a fair amount of time with my finances. I'm running thin due to the Mariner purchase. My goal is to get by with my routine monthly income and not touch the investments beyond that. I think I can do it if I lay off the buy button. But, you know what? If I don't, I have the back up resources and 1. I'm not saving it 'for the kids' and 2. I can't take it with me. So... spending it won't kill me.

And speaking of buy button. I'm getting ready to hit the trigger on the Come From Away soundtrack. Someone posted a video of the cast appearance on a recent late night talk show and it was so wonderful to hear again.

I called the pool. The bromine (used instead of chlorine) pump was plugged which is why it was green. (Not, as ye wise front desk person so snarkly accused, because people don't shower first.) All fixed now. Clean, not green. I'll go back there tomorrow.

My brother and I had a rare but wonderful phone chat this afternoon. He was sharing some good business news and I'm just so thrilled for him.

Ok. Air conditioner time. I'm goin' in.

Air Conditioner In!

I've had now 3 different portable air conditioners. I got the first one in 2002. And ever since, I've been documenting what day I set it up and what day I put it away. It used to be a huge annoying deal on both days. And then I got a new one and it was knocked down to a BFD. And then I got the one I have now. I thought I got it last year but I was wrong.

Today, it took me less than 10 minutes from the time I got up out of this chair until the deed was done and I was documenting. And that including Instagramming it. But the funniest part is that I looked up the entry from last year's set up and I said exactly what I was going to say here except I need to add another year. "Two years ago, I switched out my old air conditioner for a new one and I forgot until today how much smaller and lighter it is than the old one. Setting it up is really a good 10 minute job instead of the hour of stress that it used to be." Ha! I do love this one though. It's quiet and smaller and easier and way more efficient than its predecessors. I got it at Costco. Good get.

Now I've got hot weather insurance. Whew.



Edit: er, ah make that 5/23/2017. how'd i lose a year???

Continued

As we marched towards the product announcement for the AS/400, there were lots of interesting challenges.

We had a new team player. The marketing people gave us this hot shot named John. I thought, originally, that he was way too full of himself and I actually told Tom that I didn't think he was going to work out. Tom said we were stuck and I needed to make it work. Ugh. Once again, however, it turns out I was wrong. John quickly turned out to be one of my best friends ever and a key reason why I found Seattle, but I'm getting ahead of myself.

Our particular system of computers had a huge and powerful usergroup called Common and their annual meeting was a really BFD for IBM in general but the winter before the AS/400 announcement was a major deal for all of us. That year it was in Toronto and, as it turned out, also involved a major fire drill to fix an operating system problem. John and I were in Toronto when that operating system news broke and we worked nearly 24 hours a day for 3 days to get the fix 'spun' and announced and help both the users at Common and the IBMers in Toronto (who had actually done the software) not kill each other.

It was dead of winter and we were staying in the middle of town. The underground tunnels saved our bacon that trip. We could get from our hotel to the IBM offices all underground out of the cold and ice. And pick up meals along the way. We felt like moles. But, it was fun.

Tom and John and I ended up traveling quite a bit as we got ready for the product announcement. Part of my job was to make sure Tom always looked and sounded great. I taught him how to tell the difference between white shirts and which ties to wear for which events among other things. He was grateful and I enjoyed it. John always looked very classy. He needed no direction. His flaw was this tacky man bag he always carried on trips. It was an old thing he'd had for years and it looked it. I harassed him about it constantly. It made us all look shabby, I told him.

For my birthday that year, he and Tom gathered a handful of fun folks we worked with and took us all out to dinner. They even had a stack of nice wrapped gifts for me. The last one was a very big box and as I opened it, someone was perfectly positioned to snap one of my most treasured photographs.

It was that FUCKING bag!!



That's John behind me. That picture nails the moment perfectly. The only problem is that the bag does not look nearly as gnarly as it really was. Fun times.

One of the times that was not so fun was the NY Times. I was the press point person for System/36, System/38 and AS/400. 99% of that was article placement and responding to inquiries from trade magazines. But, once in a while, the big boys would call. The Wall Street Journal was easy. The guy was nice and he always got everything correct. But then one day, the NY Times called.

The reporter had a story about something that he wanted a quote for. So I gave him one. Innocuous enough until he started getting the details for attribution. My name and title and then 'Are you married?' 'What??' 'Are you married. I have to reference you as either Miss or Mrs. depending.' NFW. With some fancy footwork, I talked everyone into attributing the quote to John.

And then I started making noise. My manager, who was female, said I should not have done that but should have told him I was divorced or single but not have skirted the issue. NO. Wrong answer. As it happens, I had a meeting with other IBM communications people in New York that next week. The Vice President of Communications for IBM was our guest speaker and after he finished he asked if we had questions. And I stood up and asked why it was OK for the New York Times to require I divulge my marital status.

To his credit, this old white guy, did not bat an eyelash. He asked for specifics and I told him and he said "I think you handled that situation admirably. But, next time, just tell him that it's not information that he has a right to know." I was so impressed. And relieved. And vindicated.

They never called me for a quote again and they removed the requirement for that information shortly thereafter by adding Ms. to the mix and using the title selected by the person quoted. I had apparently caught the tail end of that tacky era.

To Be Continued