An aging community we are

[Bill Campbell]

On Fri, May 22, 2009, Mike Schwartz wrote:
>(top posted for John)
>
>     I agree with you, John.  I've told several people who were interested
>in becoming custom programmers that they should be prepared to give up their
>evenings and weekends without complaint (although possible for a little bit
>of extra overtime money...)
>
>     I learned early on how scary it is having several big, strong
>millwrights threaten you with severe bodily harm if they didn't get their
>paychecks on time.  (And they weren't kidding.  Some of them ended up
>literally murdering one guy in the mill that they didn't like!)

When I was at Radio Shack one of my customers called me to say
their Model II was down, and did I have one he could borrow until
it was fixed.  Of course it was a firing offense at Radio Shack
to do something like that (the store operating manual said pretty
much anything was a firing offense), but when the customer asked
if I would come to his place and explain to 150 plumbers why they
couldn't get paid, I was there pretty quickly with a loaner.

I frequently get calls in the wee hours of the morning from
customers on the east coast who forget that we are three hours
behind them.  I don't know how many times I've fixed things
sitting in my PJs, half asleep when this happens.

On the other hand, there have been times when I solved payroll
problems for customers on Sunday afternoon, and was rewarded with
orchestra ticket to the National Theatre, large boxes of frozen
seafood from Alaska, and similar expressions of gratitude.

Bill
-- 
INTERNET:   bill at celestial.com  Bill Campbell; Celestial Software LLC
URL: http://www.celestial.com/  PO Box 820; 6641 E. Mercer Way
Voice:          (206) 236-1676  Mercer Island, WA 98040-0820
Fax:            (206) 232-9186  Skype: jwccsllc (206) 855-5792

Memoirs -- Bill Clinton is getting $12 million for his memoirs, and his
wife Hillary got $8 million for hers.  That's $20 million for memories from
two people who for eight years repeatedly testified  they couldn't remember
anything.