Lynn continues her secretarial duties at James’ exhibit booth:

All this was becoming very interesting. I was beginning to understand there was some ‘cause and effect’ going on here. Shortly after I typed in a certain string of information and pressed the key which completed my inquiry, some activity could be seen and about a minute later the big printer would spill out a sheet or two of information. I looked at what I was presently typing, finished it, and then pressed the extra keys James told me about before walking over to wait for the printer to do something. A minute later it printed a page of material.

It has been almost two months since I last posted one of Teddi’s chapters. This has been due to two business trips which have occupied nearly six weeks of that time. I did not take my notebook computer with me during the out of country trip (5 weeks) since I felt with all the difficulties I was having with connections to BCTS, I would likely be unable to post a chapter while out of the country. After returning and then going to D.C. this past week, my notebook was used only for my business work during that time. I arrived at Denise’s home Saturday at around four in the afternoon; promptly checked for pm’s, answered one and then crashed for a short nap.

We went out to supper where we caught up on business and personal info then I linked through the business I-net connection at Denise’s home to grab the next chapter of Duty Calls off my main PC at home. Denise checked it and pronounced it as good as it was going to get so here it is.

I was slowly beginning to understand the relationship between my typing and the answers which were coming out on the printer. I suppose most of what I typed into the computer wasn’t really questions, per se, but was more of a directive for the computer to do something and then print the results of that something. I was slowly learning.

Apparently somewhere in the computer there was some business information hidden, probably on those four big reels of tape. What I was doing was basically asking for an analysis of various things concerning the information stored on them. It was interesting as I watched the progression. I would type all my material, press those keys James told me about, then the reels of tape would start moving around maniacally, before the computer would print some information on that printer. Going back to look through the things I’d typed allowed me to slowly make up my own question for the computer. I typed it in during a ten minute lull in activity then pressed those extra keys before hurrying back to see what happened. I arrived just as the typewriter pushed out four pages of material. It worked. I had a list of employees ranked first by salary and then by duration of employ. I tore off my pages and took them back to my question. This was getting to be fun now that I had some vague idea of what I was doing. I did some more sleuthing and eventually typed in a new question set, pushed the keys and rushed over to the typewriter just in time to see it finish printing one line; “invalid parameters.”

As I typed in other requests from James’ lists, I also spent the time trying to figure how to properly make my own request, receiving two more “invalid parameters” answers for my troubles before the typewriter spit out nearly twenty pages. I looked at the pages and couldn’t understand how they related to my request at all. I went back to typing in the material James gave to me. The typewriter went back to printing stuff that made sense when examined from the point of view of James’ requests. Okay, so I’m not a computer operator. Why does the stuff need to be in code or gibberish or whatever it is? I’m kind of partial to the IF, THEN types of things. I’m beginning to think that running my business might just be one of the things where computers couldn’t help.

The next two days were pretty much a repeat of the first two just with new faces, and a few older ones, coming through to look at the applications. A few people become quite excited and others would look at it and basically yawn. By noon of the fifth day, we had gone through three boxes of paper and four ribbons, although they were still usable just not new which was important for appearances sake here at the convention. The fourth box of paper was about half used and the floor was clearing for lunch. In a sudden flash of belated insight I knew what I did wrong in setting my parameters two days ago so during lunch I wrote down how I wanted to ask for the information. James saw me working away as I ate but shrugged it off. After lunch we returned to the floor and the employees broke for lunch. I sat down and begin typing in my request now certain I would obtain a response. After I typed in everything I double checked it then pressed those keys to get the computer to act on it.

The reels of tape began to move back and forth but nothing else seemed to be happening, not even an “invalid parameters” response. Perhaps I didn’t push the keys in the right order. I tried again a bit more carefully and again nothing happened. Okay, so I probably did push the keys in the right order. I was so certain I had finally figured it out.

I gave up and began to type James’ stuff in again. I was just double checking my entry before pressing those keys when the printer began to print. Five of the little EP-101s also started printing. I was confused, I hadn’t pressed those special keys yet and the 101s shouldn’t be printing unless James gave them some other problem.

James looked up at the slight noise when it continued longer than usual. The printer was still printing and it was on its tenth or eleventh sheet of paper. Two of the EP-101s had run out of paper but they did that all the time. I was reloading them as James went over to the printer to see what it was doing. He backtracked to the first page then began to review that which was being printed; by the time he reached page twelve there was another four hanging out of it. He switched it off, reviewed those four pages then went back to my typewriter to review the material I’d been inputting. He didn’t see anything wrong with it and paused to think for a minute. That’s when he saw my note pad and the query I had prepared sitting on it in big bold “look at me, I’m the reason” printed ballpoint pen characters.

He reviewed the query doing a couple of double takes then picked up my pad going back to the printout. A couple of minutes later he turned the printer back on and it resumed its clatter. I could see him thinking then he checked the remaining paper in the box. A smile was on his face and I wasn’t certain if I was in big trouble or if I did a good thing. By now I was pretty certain that all this was in response to my query.

All the activity of our printers was attracting attention and there were quite a few people walking in to look around then leaning down to read the notepad, which James laid on the bench next to the printer. There was some finger pointing and a few lifted the printout so they could read the first few pages. There was a lot of talking and a number of people were seeking out James and talking with him. I was just trying to hide somewhere quiet and out of the way. The two employees were just returning from lunch noting all the activity at our booth so they joined the fray. A moment later they were looking at the notepad, then at the printout then at the notepad. They smiled too and walked off to try to answer questions from the people who were inundating James. I quietly found the deepest darkest corner in which I could hide wondering if I could find one of the guys to drive me home before I was noticed.

The two VPs and second set of employees were just arriving since it was just getting to be one o’clock and they asked one of the other employees about the activity. He said something then pointed to the printer and the notepad. They too went over and repeated that which I had seen several times before, and then they were out talking with people who were still entering the booth area. It was now several people deep with some spilling out into the aisle ways. The printer was still printing; I looked up at the clock to see it was 1:10. All this started about twenty five minutes ago. I decided, since discretion is always the better part of valor, to go back to the cafeteria and have a cup of coffee in the hopes this would all die down before I returned. I didn’t make it. James had one of the employees corral me and bring me to the discussion he was having with two gentlemen. There he had me explain the reasoning which I used in order to write the query. As I was doing that he ran off again to check the printer which was happily still printing paper although the EP-101s had ceased their activity. He returned with a contract shortly before I finished my explanation and he and the two gentlemen were off to find one of the desks located in another partially empty corner of our area where they began filling out the contract. I looked around discovering the two VPs were doing the same thing as was one of the four employees. Another employee brought someone over so I could relate to him the thinking process used to create the query that resulted in this enormously inappropriate use of ink and paper.

You would think logic was never a part of the mental processes for these people. At least the way I wrote my query seemed quite logical to me. A bit like the way one would work through a set of tunnels populated by Cong; carefully and thoroughly, leaving no unchecked areas behind you so you won’t be surprised. During a short break I went over and re-read my hand written query. It seemed straight forward to me. I even added those parts which James had in each of his queries, figuring since they were in every request they must have something to do with where the answers were to be delivered and in what form. Obviously I was mistaken about something.

By 1:35 the printer had gone quiet. I don’t know if it broke down from sheer exhaustion of sliding its poor little print head back and forth as it clattered away, or if my answer had been completed. Nearly all of the paper which had been in the box when this started was now in a nice neat pile on the receiving table behind the printer. The ink on the last printed sheets was a bit lighter than that on the first ones. I hurried off to find that first used ribbon then exchanged them, putting the obviously well worn ribbon into the box and marking it as used. At least I was taught how to replace ribbons and paper so I could make myself useful in a pinch. Going around to the EP-101s I gave two more of them new paper and then went back to my typewriter, debating about pushing those keys to start James’ query which I had typed in but not initiated. I thought back remembering this one would only produce five sheets of paper so I went ahead and a minute or so later the typeprinter spit out the requested material then went silent again.

Our booth was beginning to empty once again as I looked around. Everyone was busy so once again I grabbed my purse then managed to slip out of the booth and off to the cafeteria for a cup of coffee and a chance to try to allow my nerves a little time to calm down. My simple little request to which I thought I might receive four or five sheets of paper turned into some sort of monster with nearly five hundred pages of material in response. I couldn’t see how a query for the expenses made over a one week period ranked by order of job importance would require five hundred sheets of paper, unless...
James found me in the cafeteria about fifteen minutes later, my mind still wrapped around the problem of deciding where I went wrong.

“Mind if I sit here?”

I looked up and motioned to James to go ahead while I continued to sip the remnants of my coffee.

“Have things settled down at the booth or did I stir up a hornet’s nest that won’t go away?”

“No. No, everything is pretty quiet again. They figure they will input your inquiry again about six so it will be active during this evening’s peak time.”

“Oh, okay. It doesn’t respond for two or three minutes after those keys are pressed.”

“Really? That long? I suppose I can understand why ... It takes a lot of computing power to work up the response and prepare it for printing. By the way, there is an error in the query formulation and that’s why the EP-101s were printing as well. I re-wrote your query and the re-write is what they will input tonight. Whatever made you think of that inquiry?”

“I wanted to know about job expenses versus job importance. I thought that might be a good indicator for excessive costs for a job. You know; an indicator that if the job was routine but was taking most of the costs versus a more urgent job using less money than the routine job would be an indicator the job was not cost effective. I was trying to see if computers would be valuable to me to evaluate quickly the jobs we take on.”

“The query you typed did not specify a lower cost limit for any of the expenses so it provided every expense for each job down to the last nut, bolt, and screw. Nor did you ask for a summary, but rather an itemization. Thus every nut, bolt, or screw was listed on a separate line pertinent to the time of use on each project and there are five projects contained in the test data, therefore ...”

“Therefore, it printed about five hundred pages of costs. Did it ever summarize?”

“The end of each project had a totals page or pages, which is probably what you actually were looking for.”

“Well, if nothing else; at least it attracted a lot of attention.”

“That it did. And a lot of contracts. I’ve sent one of my assistants out to pick up another box of paper and another ribbon for this evening’s run.”

“Really? A lot of contracts?”

“That short one hour period probably yielded as many contracts as the past four days of the show. That’s why we’re going to run it again this evening. I wish we had run it the last four days.”

“I tried. Two days ago was when I first attempted it all it would tell me is the question was irrelevant or some such thing.”

“Irrelevant question?” a strange expression crossed his face.

“I don’t remember the particular words but it basically told me I didn’t know what I was asking.”

“Not too surprising. The question you inserted would have been difficult to formulate even for a good programmer. Job importance or urgency is a difficult thing to assess much less label into a project. The two also have a way of changing as time progresses. It’s an interesting idea though. I’ll give it some thought. Ready to go?”

"That depends upon where, James.”

“Back to the house. Maybe out to dinner.”

“How about just back to the house? If you and Cathy stay through tomorrow then we could spend part of the week end as a family and maybe go somewhere and eat out together for lunch and supper tomorrow. Then you could leave Sunday. I’m certain Cathy would enjoy a little more time together ... and I think I might not be all that adverse to it either.”

“I’d like that.” James offered his arm to me, “Madam, your carriage awaits.”

“I hope it has a gasoline engine and heat.”

“Nothing but the best, milady.”

The team called ahead and by the time we walked out of the hall and to the front of the building our limo had made its way around to the pickup area. In minutes we had departing through the gates of the parking lot and were on our way to my home. I began to wonder how Cathy was doing and what she might have been into today. Yesterday when we arrived home, she had two more pictures for me to put on the refrigerator. If this kept up I was going to need a larger refrigerator. One thing, she was getting better at her drawings. She wanted more gold stars. I think I’ll put up a cork board in the family room to help hold the overflow.
We ate in this evening, telling Cathy of our plans to go watch ice skating tomorrow morning and then to watch skiing a little later. We would eat lunch at the lodge there by the slopes so she could watch some more while we ate. We discovered a children’s movie had finally arrived at the theater probably on Thursday, so we could take her to see that during the afternoon which would give us the opportunity to have something preplanned which she could likely enjoy. After the movie then we could go home again, maybe play in the snow in the back yard and, if I was up to it, I could play the piano a little again.

Cathy had been enjoying that each evening and had ‘helped’ play it with many giggles and lots of enthusiasm. She was now able to play most of ‘chopsticks.’ Well, two fingered but still ... She still needed to be shown where to begin but she had a good feeling for the beat. I needed to think about possibly obtaining lessons for her. Let’s see ... I think I was about five when I started. This might be a little too early for her to begin. Two finger playing was a little on the difficult side, too. I decided to check into child sized keyboards. Maybe I could purchase one for her as a Christmas gift from Santa. I needed to speak with James about getting her a puppy, too... though summer might be quite a bit better for that though.

Her interest in piano was equaled only by her interest in ice skating, especially since she watched with avid interest as two older girls were practicing on the ice. Once we went home she made herself dizzy doing spins while trying to imitate the girls. Of course she fell down a lot, not knowing how to land, but she didn’t cry and was right back up and at it moments later. I hated to think how many bruises she would have. I moved everything I could think of that could be broken up and out of the way, and the agents helped clear some space so she wouldn’t impact anything hard if she fell, other than the carpet on the floor. My downstairs looked radically different with all of the vases and lamps on higher perches, my small glass figurines and my entire collection of five inch pixies which had immediately garnered her attention when she arrived, were now sitting on the highest shelves of my built in bookcase. When she left with her father for the next few weeks, I would need to take the opportunity to begin ‘child-proofing’ my home. I also needed to talk with Nicci and maybe some of the wives of our agents who were mothers of young girls. I needed some guidance before Cathy returned. I also decided I had best find time somehow to obtain some ice-skating lessons for myself before she returned, I’d speak with Nicci about that as well.

Sunday seemed to come quickly. This had been an interesting couple of weeks but I had very much enjoyed having Cathy around and I think she enjoyed it too. We were saying our good-byes and she latched onto me so tight I was having difficulty getting air. It’s obvious that if she could drag me onto the plane she was going to do so.

I finally managed a bit of a diversion, “Now Cathy, I’ll expect you to have several good drawings for me to put on the refrigerator when you come back for Christmas. OH,” as though it was an afterthought, “Don’t forget to leave a note for Santa to deliver your presents here for Christmas otherwise they might be left at the wrong house and you won’t receive them until you return there again.”

“Mommy,” an exasperated young voice declared, “Santa’s smart. He knows everything. He’ll know I’m staying at your house for Christmas. I told him, if he brings me a horsey he should bring it here because you have a great big back yard with fences where it can stay. The yard at Daddy’s is big but the back yard goes down to the water and the horsey could swim away.”
That took me a little aback. I’d need to think about that one. Suddenly I wasn’t so certain about this Santa thing.

“Cathy, all the snow on the ground would make it difficult for the horse to find food and neither your father’s nor my yards have some place for a horse to stay warm and safe. Perhaps we should wait for the horse until another year when we are better prepared to protect and feed a horse. The horse would also need a much bigger place to stay than just my back yard. They need to be able to run.”

I could see the wheels turning; finally she nodded her head and agreed, “maybe a doggy then.”

One catastrophe partially avoided. Cathy gave me a kiss then stepped back.

“Watch Mommy,” then she executed a turn-and-a-half pirouette halting facing halfway away from the plane before turning back toward it with a little wobble as she recovered from the dizzies before she walked to the plane her hand firmly in that of the Nanny to aid her in maintaining her balance as she recovered from the spin. If she had fallen to the tarmac she could have scraped herself or worse. The week I’m going to be alone with her may prove to be more traumatic for me than for her, especially since the Nanny gets those two weeks off. I hope I don’t crash during my crash course in motherhood. I was beginning to understand why they were called ‘crash courses’. Walking back to the main terminal I turned to watch as James’ gulfstream finally taxied out to the holding point near the runway before it eventually entered the runway and took off. We had completed our job. James, Cathy and the Nanny were all on board and homeward bound. His two VP’s had returned Saturday morning.

“Husband has custody, huh?” a nearby voice asked.

I turned to see a woman about my age who was obviously waiting for a child to arrive, holding a teddy bear to give the child.

“Actually, her mother has died and she seems to want me to fill that vacancy.”

“Be careful. The father’s can always be a problem. I know. My husband has money and money talks. He took both of my children. Now my little boy won’t come see me and my daughter is only able to visit twice a year. It hurts. It hurts a lot.”

She noticed a large plane just touching down on the runway with the Alaska Airlines logo on the tail and her attention riveted to it. I began to walk away, “Remember,” she called to me without taking her eyes of that plane, “everything I just said.”

The Gulfstream was out of sight so, I drove myself to work. Parking in front, I entered the lobby then took the elevator up to our floor, unlocked the door and disengaged the alarm. Thirty seconds later the phone rang on line four and I answered, knowing it was the monitoring company. I gave them the password and everyone settled down then I hung up and went to my office to see if anything had accumulated in my absence.

There was a small stack of papers centered on the blotter located before the chair that was behind my desk. Walking over, I dropped my purse on the end of the desk as I slipped into the chair just before picking up the small stack of fifteen or twenty sheets. A quick look told me they were all from Nicci and appeared to be summaries of what had been happening during my absence. Forty minutes later I had a good feel for all that happened, appreciating that Ralph and Nicci had taken good care of most everything.

We had landed six of the eight potential jobs for January and more than half of the ones for both February and March. This was in addition to those which we already had secured. That Senator was still pushing inquiries. If he really wanted to know something why didn’t he just come right out and ask? We didn’t hide information. The European opportunity still existed and was still treading water just as it was two weeks ago. I needed to call Jerry in for a little talk to see what he thought we could do to hurry it along a bit.

Judging from the information I’d just seen, we were only weeks from staffing both the East and West Coast locations. Just before Christmas wasn’t such a good idea. I decided I’d hold it off until after New Year’s so everyone could have a nice Christmas and make it to the office party.

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