Worked frantically all morning on the 1:00 ISO / Process meeting, which Alan ended up not connecting to, and Rich was on Vacation. It was a good meeting, however.
At 2, I ran by the Credit Union, and zipped by Sam’s to pic up the anniversary pictures. They’re pretty good! The (entire) group picture is disappointing, but it’s not horrible. On the way back to work, I chatted with Vivian, and we agreed to get together on Saturday, November 8th, for a football game, and to go through the pictures. This will give us time to get things together for Christmas gifts.
I worked right up until about 5:40, and then left for the Durham Library. I got lost in that damn downtown Durham, and the MapQuest directions didn’t help a bit. After a couple of twists and turns, I found the Durham Public Library.
We went to the wrong conference room at first, but then moved down to the bigger one. It was a pretty decent crowd. People were, of course, very pro-Durham for the location of the Community Center.
The big meeting, when we all get together, is going to be interesting. We (TCW) need to do some work to diffuse the situation. I think we 1) ought to ask folks to come prepared with both pros AND cons for each location (not just pros for their own location), and 2) ought to try and get some demographics about the different cities to introduce some reality into the existing assumptions.
I took minutes of the meeting, and got a good portion of the charts into Word documents. It shouldn’t take much time to finish them up later in the week. Jan is going to do the ones from the Chapel Hill forum tomorrow night during her Helpline stint.
Robert came to the meeting, which really pleased me. He appeared to enjoy himself there, and was helpful (no surprise) packing up to leave.
He and I went to Francesca’s and enjoyed a milkshake. I had a “coffee cream” one, and he had a “mocha chocolate” one. Yum.
I found this lovely thank you letter in my mailbox tonight:
Oct 1, 2003
Dear John,
Thanks again for making our trip one that we will never forget. We had a wonderfule time.
Thoughtfulness like the kind you’ve shown, makes the world a better place. Keep up the good work toward your parents. If all sons were like you, the world would certainly be a much better place.
Much love,
Uncle Roland and Aunt Margie
P.S. You gave us good directions to the airport on the day of our departure. For once, we didn’t get lost. Many thanks to Vivian also. I don’t have her address at this time.
I did a load of whites. Steve came online on AIM, and asked me to call him. What a day he’s had. A friend of his got killed in a car accident, a lady who works closely with Sylvia had her arms partially amputated by a butcher knife her husband attacked her with, and just after being home heard a noise in his kitchen, went in there from the living room, and found a lady, who he didn’t know, there.
He sent me three paragraphs to edit. I really enjoy doing that work, and he is extremely grateful for it.