Breakfast with Steve, an eating ATM I hope, STC widgets turned, and kind words from Susan…

I met Steve Nelson for breakfast this morning up in his new ‘hood in North Raleigh. He’s found an independent coffee shop, Percolator, which is in the Quail Ridge Shopping Center, not far from his new place.

Since the IBM credit union is right across the street from Quail Ridge, I brought Joe’s check to deposit, and had the damnedest experience at the ATM there.

I almost always deposit checks using the “envelope option” rather than just inserting the check. Today, I just inserted the check, since I hadn’t taken a pen with me from the car up to the ATM in order to fill out the envelope. It showed me the scan of the check, I entered in the amount, and hit enter. It spit the check back out with the message, “Check cannot be read. You may deposit it in an envelope.”

I grabbed an envelope, walked back to my car, filled it out, and then walked back to the ATM, where I reached in my pocket to get my card back out. Not there. Checked other pockets. Not there.

Walked back to the car, moved my computer bag on the front seat, search all around it, on the floor, slid the seat forward and backward to see if it had fallen. Not there.

Backed out of my parking spot looking at the ground under my card to make sure it wasn’t there.

I never found it. I’m hoping the machine ate it. I’ve got to remember to call them on Monday morning.


Steve and I each had coffee and a bagel with egg and cheese for breakfast at Percolater, and then Steve took me to show me his new place. He’s still unpacking, but it’s a very nice place that seems to suit him well, and my wish for him is that he enjoys a long, happy stay there.

He pointed out the houses of “Barbara,” “Locksey,” and “Travis,” all central characters in a story about a recent “block party” that he told me about at breakfast.


I had an über-productive afternoon completing a bunch of STC stuff:

  • Made final revisions to the crossword puzzle I created for the August 2007 newsletter
  • Wrote my article about attending the STC national conference, also for the newsletter
  • Revised our Calendar of Events for the 2007-2008 academic year, which will also be published in the newsletter
  • Completed our August Community Status Report
  • Requested an update of our resources web site page to Jen, our webmaster, to include an entry for the STC-Carolina community
  • Requested a short blurb from Michelle Tackabery, our Membership Manager, about renewing STC membership to include in the newsletter, as well as to post to the STC listserv.

I spent a couple of hours at Helios catching up my blog, and surfing my usual haunts on the Web.


An affirmation via e-mail from Irene’s sister, Susan, who was also in Austin during my visit:

As always, John, it was a delight to see you and I am sure that you know how much [censored nickname for Irene] appreciated the effort that you made on her behalf. I must tell you that you are indeed one of the easiest people to be around and I so enjoy your happiness, intelligence and sense of humor. I’m just happy to know you.

Love, Susan


It’s an early night tonight, as I have to be up at 5 AM, and ready to leave at 5:45 when Clyde arrives. Conference presentation day has finally arrived.

Our first session is at 8:30 AM in Greenville, about 85 miles from Raleigh.

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