It is that time of year once again to look back and remember. Unlike a lot of TV shows this season, this story will be told in order
December was getting accustomed to having a young adult in the house again. Valerie stayed with us until just before Christmas.
Also the week before Christmas, on Friday night, Versadial treated the employees and their guests to a great dinner and prize give-away at a little Italian restaurant in Laguna Beach. Then surprise, the next week 40% of us were laid off! Definitely dampened the holiday spirit. Then surprise, this time a pleasant one, Jason paid us a rare visit.
In January, I half-heartedly began perusing the job boards again. Exactly one month after the lay-off, I got an email from the Versadial President. There was a small software problem with a project that I had worked on last. After exchanging a few more emails, we agreed on a contract to fix this one problem. When I reported to work a few days later, I found my work station exactly as I had left it. By the end of the month, I was offered a position as technical support specialist. It was considerably less money, but there was nothing else going on and it certainly beat unemployment.
February, March, and April I struggled with learning my new job. Every day presented a new feature of Versadial’s products that I knew next to nothing about. It was humbling to have to ask for help so often, especially when customers were waiting on the phone.
April brought a mini-reunion for some of the former Orange County Ericsson employees, arranged by my long-time car pool partner, Evelyn Jenkins. During a good portion of my time at Ericsson I spent more time everyday with EJ than my own wife. She is universally loved by everyone she meets. It was a memorable evening spent reminiscing the good ole’ days and what a great place it had been to work. Too bad it was not profitable. I was reminded of that fact later on in the year when Versadial’s president reviewed everyone and made some changes. During my sit-down with him, I mentioned that it was a great place to work, to which he replied, “Yes for everyone but me!” As a result of those series of meetings, most everyone at the company now punches a time clock and I am now the Technical Support Manager.
If you have followed our blogs during this past year, you no doubt know Yuki. Matthew adopted her from a shelter in L.A. the day before she was to be executed. She had been chained to a fence and left to die before being rescued. The adoption was the second time she avoided death. She was very shy and fearful at first, but gradually has become sweet and playful, at least with Matt and Pat. She still pretty much does not like me. She was just an infrequent visitor to our house until she ran away and was hit by a truck after 4 days on her own. A good Samaritan saw her get hit and took her to a vet hospital in Newport Beach. The impact exploded a disc in her back, shattered her left front shoulder and bruised her heart. It took intensive care for nearly a week before we were hopeful she would survive. Then my most excellent spouse, Patricia, volunteered to nurse her back to health so Matt could work without worrying unduly about how to care for her. At first she was almost completely helpless. But in a little over two weeks she stood on her own and began walking again. Unfortunately, the nerve damage to her left front leg was too extensive and she never regained feeling or control over it. The vets all agreed that she would be better off without it. The day of the amputation, she cried for hours after coming home. It was heartbreaking after how far she had come since the accident. But the next day she was over it. Aside from the huge incision sown up like a purse, you wouldn’t know she had just had surgery!
In early July, Versadial moved to a brand new building in a new industrial park on the southwest corner of Irvine Center Drive and Lake Forest. Everyone, regardless of title, became movers for a few days. Besides the upgraded facilities, I now had new territory to explore on my lunch time walks.
August was the month for Bill and Tammy to take a vacation in SoCal. They attended a wedding, Disneyland, and our house for a few days.
The last weekend in September, Pat and I finally used the gift certificate given to us by Pauline for boarding Valerie: a night at Hotel Del Coronado. As it happened that Saturday was also a Museum Day, sponsored by the Smithsonian. We went to the Reuben H. Fleet Science Center, saw a great Imax movie and wandered around Balboa Park most of the day before heading to the hotel. The next day, we had the absolutely fabulous breakfast buffet at the hotel’s Shearwater restaurant, then headed out to see Midway, the retired aircraft carrier turned museum. That is one big ship. If you plan on going, wear comfortable shoes and allow a whole day. There is a lot to see if you are interested in that sort of thing.
Not much happened in October and November. I went to work everyday and Pat went to Disneyland and the doctor once a week. The Bennetts graciously invited us to dinner on both Halloween and Thanksgiving.
On Thanksgiving Day, the Walmart newspaper circular advertised a 46″ Sony HDTV for $793, far lower than any other price I had seen. We got to talking about it with Jill who said she was going there on Black Friday. Now, never in my life have I participated in that madness, but for that price I thought I should just this once. The store was to open at 5 AM. We negotiated and Jill agreed to pick us up at 5:30 the next morning. So, Jerry, Jill, and Pat arrived at Walmart in Jill’s Mazda Tribute about 5:40. There was a line of people waiting to get in the store that must have been a quarter mile long. We heard that some people had gotten in line at 7 PM the previous night! After last year’s disaster in New York where a temporary Walmart worker was trampled to death, they were taking no chances, only letting a few people in as others came out. And of course, by the time we got in, about an hour and a half later, those TVs were long gone.
After a leisurely breakfast at Mimi’s we headed over to Costco, hoping for a deal almost as good and smaller crowds. We got both. In fact, they had such a good deal on a 52″ Sony Bravia with a Blue-Ray Surround Sound system that we finished shopping, packed it in, and were headed home in less than 30 minutes. Made for a very cozy ride since the back seats had to be folded down to accommodate the TV, leaving only the two front seats for three people.
Pretty much the rest of the long weekend was devoted to setting up and rearranging the house for that enormous TV. Yes, it was a lot more than we originally intended to spend, but if it lasts as long as the equipment it replaced, it will be pretty economical. Our old 27″ Sony Trinitron was purchased on September 21, 1997. The Fisher audio system came home with us in August 1984! Still to be figured out: what to do with all those vinyl LPs and VHS tapes.
In the immortal words of Porky Pig, “That’s all, folks!”