Mid-May

Battery Mendel

I don't know where the time has gone!

POE meeting was in Los Angeles. Met Kevin, Carl and our staff colleagues for dinner at Patina in the Walt Disney Center. Fabulous dinner, and wonderful evening.

The meeting itself went very well. But we were able to accomplish far more during the breaks and social sessions than were were during the formal part of the meeting. I know that the staff feels that the stuff they plan for the formal sessions is important, but we Editors have immediate concerns that we need to address. Frankly, I'm not all that concerned about the changes that will come into effect after I am no longer EiC.

The trip out was fine, but the return was awful. US Air repeatedly delayed their flight from Boston, and then eventually cancelled it. Fortunately, they were able to understand that it was cheaper for them to hire a van to drive us to the Albany Airport that it was to rent hotel rooms and buy meals for the passengers, and then divert seats to fly us the next day.

Linda and I had a wonderful time in Williamsburg. It was a lot of fun to be with Laney - I wish we could see her more often, but she has a family and they clearly have to come first. The drive was long, but having the GPS to navigate for us, and having EZPass really makes it less stressful. I was very impressed with the fact that the GPS so painlessly brought us back through downtown DC.

I&CPS was fun. Sadly, the attendance was far below normal. I'm finally out from under the Meetings Chair role - I think Bylaws will be less stressful. I did a couple of introductory sessions on Manuscript Central that went over very well. I volunteered for one of the dot standards. Actually, that will be easy to do - the simple answer is to just recycle the existing chapter, but I think I want to reformat it a bit to flow better, and can use the papers that Dave West and I wrote back in 1977 as raw material. Still struggling with whether I try to introduce IEC standards. That would be the ideal thing to do, but it would be harder since I don't really have access to those standards.

The next trip will be to New York on May 31. We are looking at activities on the Upper East Side this time - haven't been to the Metropolitan Museuo or the Guggenheim, so that should be fun.

In the immediate future we have the challenge of taking delivery on a load of mulch, and then spreading that over the cultivated areas in the front and back. Fortunately, the weather continues to be cool (still haven't turned off the heating system), so that will help make the chore less uncomfortable.

I booked appointments this morning with vampire and with Dr. Hubicki for my annual 'poke and prod' session. Sorry to see Dr. Hubicki leave - I've felt comfortable with him, and that has made going back each year easy.

Battery Mendel is a WWI-era coastal fortification in Marin Headlands. Made the negative when we were there last year, and finally got around to printing it last week. I need to spend more time photographing and printing, and less time writing.