Mon Sep 23 08:34 EDT 1996
Back east

I have returned from my trip to California.  More important to me than
the group exercise for which I went out was a demonstration on screen
caputring techniques for some of my west coast colleagues.  (You have
to sneak up on the screens.)  However, the group exercise was also a
good experience from both the company and personal standpoint.  But
that's the boring stuff.

On two nights running, I was the designated driver, being the one in
my east coast group who drinks soda (pop, tonic, soft drink).  One
in my group is a vegetarian and athiest with staunch Baptist relatives.
She is chagrined to admit that her vegetarianism does not come from
any noble or philisophical motivation.  Anyway, the topic invariably
comes up among my colleagues because I'm a meat and potatoes kind of
guy and finding a restaurant for the two of us is often comical.  One
comment in the car with two other colleagues was "if you don't force
Christianity on me, I won't force vegetarianism on you" (said in light-
heartedness).  I responded, "you'll notice that I haven't." She said,
"I have noticed." I said, "I'm glad that you've noticed."  Point 1: I
have a most definite Christian witness with these people without
"witnessing" which is usually seen as an affront and offense by people.
Point 2: My "space" to be who I am (Christian) is as valid as anyone's
space to be who they are... *which need not lead to confrontation*.
The opportunity to "share the message of hope and salvation" is not
lost.  Anyway, I found out that good tequilla comes with a worm at
the bottom of the bottle and it is good luck to get and ingest that
worm (which supposedly enhances the effect of the alcohol, too).
All I had were Cokes, though, but it is an education for me to be
around my colleagues outside of work.

As for my meat and potatoes style, I have often wondered why anyone
would "acquire a taste" for anything.  If you don't like it from the
start, why go back to it until you've become either numb to it, or
convince yourself that you like it?  Beer and grapefruit juice have
about the same appeal to me.

On Saturday, I was no longer with colleagues, but tagged along with
the Morales family (Nancy is a friend from my Digital days who lives
in Santa Clara) to go to the beach and fish off a pier at Seacliff
State Beach.  I caught the first four fish (split tail perch) in the
first half hour or so and when they slowed, took a long walk with
Matthew (Nancy and Rafael's elder son) along the beach.  Nancy proceeded
to haul in close to 20 fish, snapping the pole on one larger fish because
she holds her pole loops up to put the reel crank on the right side.
I thanked my hosts for a wonderful day in the sun and surf and went back
to my hotel to change before dinner.  I drove up into the foothills that
rim the San Jose area, all covered with short brown grass, rather different
than say, the rolling hills of Pennsylvania, which are the closest thing
I could compare them to because there are so few trees on them.  I took
some more photos up there before heading off to find a restaurant and
then to the Mall.  The Mall closed at 8pm, which I thought odd.

I got to the church Sunday night at just about 7pm and had a very huggy
reunion with my family.  While I was gone, Joy and the kids moved the
kids' rooms, repainting and redecorating them.  Miranda and Jessica
now share the downstairs bedroom and Emily and Andrew have been
separated into their own rooms upstairs.  On the one hand, I feel
sorry to have the older ones lose their space.  But on the other hand,
these two only have a couple of years left together before it all
changes forever.  In that regard, this change may not be so bad after
all.  And who knows when we'll sell the house?

Now I have 243 email messages to sort through.

Mark
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 /',      |      Mark Metcalfe          \     |  \        I_  O  _I_,==.:
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