Plan "B"

Well, I did it! I bought a condo. It's not big. It's not fancy. It's mine though. Provided property values double every year, I'll be in pretty good shape. It's in a complex that recently reinitiated their CC&Rs, so the neighborhood has some catchup to do. There's no burned out mattresses on the street corners, or cars up on blocks, but it's not paradise either.

A little sactuary. A little privacy. A little place to call my own.

I'm really going to miss Los Gatos. She's been a good little town. I'm going to miss walking around her tree-lined streets on my nightly walks. I'm going to miss Borders bookstore with the funny baristas. I'm going to miss the quieter pace of life there. I'm going to miss going to the flower shop on Santa Cruz Blvd to buy a single large sunflower for the "mantle". I'm going to miss the occasionally quiet beer I could enjoy at Carry Nations.

Most of all, I'm going to miss my Saturday morning ritual. When I wasn't busy putting in Saturday hours at work, I'd get up and make a cup of Cafe Americano. I ran out of filters about 2 years ago, and I've been making cafe americanos exclusively in my "crappy coffee maker" - a really nice gift from my brother - but that's another show. I'd fill my Club 33 mug and put on my bathrobe. Then, I'd wander around the 2 1/2 acres of beautiful landscaping of my private garden. O.K. it's Marta's backyard, but on these Saturdays I felt like it was my own private villa just off the Mediterranean.

It's the most relaxing way to start a weekend. I felt like a different person, even if only for a moment.

I went to Godfather training this week along with my regular 80 hour week. I think it's important to make time for family - and not just because my nephew reads my blog. Godfather training was interesting. I got a sidways look from the priest when I told him I was not a practicing Catholic. Neph seemed dismayed a bit as well.

I asked what the role of a Godparent was. The priests response was something like - take care of the child in case something happens. I see it as something more. I feel some need to train the child up in the ways of Christianity. Certainly the parents will do this also, but I hope to be something like a spiritual guide in areas that she may not feel comfortable talking to her parents about.

I remember when I was growing up, I would sometimes seek out people in whom I had great respect to ask my questions that I didn't want to ask my parents. I appreciated being able to talk to a grownup who wasn't directly related to me.

Or, maybe I'll just be that wierd uncle/Godfather who tells dumb jokes and squeezes hands too tightly when handshaking. Yuck! I didn't like them either.

In other news, the person who normally manages our BlueGene is going to be on vacation. during his absense, the machine needs to be brought down and back up again. I wrote him a note: "Doug - I feel *REALLY* uncomfortable with bringing down the 13th most powerfu computer in the world without any training."

Having never mentioned her before, I'm going to use a pseudo name for "Ms. Holly Golucky". In the two years I've really known her, she's always been a great multitasker. If she was ever confused about what needed to be done - she rarely showed it. The more I got to know her, the more I was impressed with the speed at which she picked up new technologies and level of expertise she quickly attained at whatever she tackled.

It seems now that project management is in her forte as well. We've been asked to come up with some pretty impactful programs that have the potential to greatly increase the productivity of everyone at our company. And, we've been given a month to do it.

Holly came right to bat, and instantly started driving the project and somehow keeping an eye focused on each component. I had a hard enough time just trying to figure out the database, but Holly? not a problem. She can track progress of the database, web portal, issues, fires, and face time with executives.

Needless to say, I'm impressed. And why not? She's a true multitasker. We've been working nonstop for 4 weeks, 80 hour weeks, plus weekends. I've run out of clean clothes twice, and have threatened managment that I'm going to show up for work in a bathing suit because it's all I have left. I've gotten so punchy that typos have taken me back hours instead on seconds.

Somehow, it seems Holly has it all together.

Oh, p.s. I bought a condo.

So, I'm here at Border's bookstore on University Ave listening to launch.yahoo.com's "Big Hits of the 80's". I think they missed the mark on the title. It should have been, "Songs that sucked in the 80's (and still suck)". Back to back in the last 20 minutes I've been subjected to:

Bryan Adams - Straight From The Heart

Richard Marx - Right Here Waiting

Toto - Africa

Don Henley - All She Wants To Do Is Dance

So, here I am again - working late on a Sunday after having worked Saturday too. I am only consoled in the fact that Erika is down the hall working late and over the weekend too.

I took a break to get some Chinese food which took the better part of an hour from start to finish. She got Veggie Delight - it's veggie - it's delight - it's delicious!!! I went with beef fried rice.

So, here I am taking a small break while I eat and I'm just sort of wandering around the ol' Internet. I started going through a series of stories about what people find in their candy bars. Ummm, maybe I should just eat, eh?

I want you to listen to the attached file --> HERE <--. I hope you're able to. It's only about five and a half minutes long, but it could change your life. The quality is bad and the microphone appears to be too close to the speakers mouth.

Indeed, it is. It's a tape that I got from an usher about 10 years ago while attending Church of the Highlands in San Bruno, California. Now, time has erased some of the details surrounding the facts behind this tape, but the basic premise is here...

We had an usher at Highlands who was very excited one Sunday. His brother was an adult Sunday school teacher in another city. He had done this for years, and the congregation really enjoyed his lessons. He was diagnosed with a throat disease, and as a result his voice had been reduced to a whisper as the disease did some nerve damage in his vocal cords.

The congregation was so sad to learn that he would not be able to speak at their class that they fashioned a microphone that would attach as close as possible to his lips so his whisper could be heard. His voice [on the tape] is squeeky and scratchy and sometimes hard to hear.

On the Sunday of January 17th, 1993, this Sunday school teacher, Duane Miller, was giving a lesson on the book of Acts and miracles and being delivered from the pit. The typed label on my audio tape that I made the MP3 from is titled,

"PRAISE THE LORD WHO FORGIVES ALL
YOUR SINS, HEALS ALL YOUR DISEASES
AND REDEEMS YOUR LIFE.

- Duane Miller. 01-17-93"

I suppose there are a lot of different people out there. Most people won't ever come across this web site to even know that this file exists. A very select few will wander to this web site and casually start reading this blog entry and decide that it's about God-stuff and navigate away. Some will read the page, but never listen to the file. Some will read the blog entry, download the file and play it, but dismiss it as hoax. And why not? It's totally without provenance. Still - I hope - someone will read this story, listen to the file, and believe that this is a recording of a miracle that took place once upon a time after the book of Acts.

It's only 5:35 long. I hope you can find time to listen to it. If you want the whole tape in MP3 format, please email me. If you know more about the story behind this tape, please email me.