December 8, 1996
Hello to All,
I am sort of beginning to settle down these days. Not too much has happened since my last letter, but I will try to have something to say. So, here goes....
I bought a three story townhouse. It is much larger than my last place, so I`ll have to buy more furniture to fill it. I will also need to buy all of those knick-knack type things to fill up the empty corners and walls. It is located in Centreville, Virginia which is about thirty miles south-west of Washington, D.C. In my last letter I stated a wrong zip code for my new address. My correct address is:
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
Centreville, VA
My townhouse is brand new, so I got to watch it being built. In fact, I got to run a few wires (for extra phone, computer, and speakers) in the walls before they put the dry wall up. I took all kinds of photos of the house as it was being built so I would have a record of where everything was in the walls. After they put the dry wall up I discovered that I had no film in the camera. Oh, well. I am now arranging furniture and putting up window coverings. I also set up an antenna for television reception, but I am having problems with it. I think the radar and radios at Dulles Airport, which is about ten miles away, is screwing up my reception. The cable TV here is very expensive, so I think I will be stuck with poor reception.
I have taken two business trips out to our main office in El Segundo, CA so far. On the first trip in July I spent a week working in El Segundo, and I spent the weekends on either side out there. My parents happened to be in the San Diego area so I got to visit with them and a few other people during the weekends. On my second trip I tried to change the flight back so it would stop over in Denver so I could visit some people there. I was unable to do it though, as it would have cost about $1000 to change the ticket with less than a week notice.
Here are some unusual facts about my new location while I have been here. This last summer was the coldest in fifty years. This July was the wettest July since 1988. In October we went eight days without rain, which was the longest stretch without rain in ten months. A small tornado touched down in Centreville in September. Two hurricanes traveled right over here, Bertha and Fran. There was lots of flooding, especially on the Potomac river. Last winter the Potomac flooded and the Baltimore & Ohio Canal National Park was damaged quite a bit. They had just finished the final repairs when the river flooded again, causing more damage. The damage was not nearly as bad this time, though. Hurricane Hortense came from the Pacific, went right over my parents house in Mexico and finally dissipated over me.
I have gotten a chance to play tourist a little bit here. On my own I visited Arlington National Cemetery, Great Falls Park, and Harper's Ferry. On a whim I drove out to see Harper's Ferry. On the map there is a National Park, but when I got there, there was nothing. It was a nice drive and beautiful scenery, though. Over Labor Day weekend a friend of mine from the Navy and his wife came for a visit and we were tourists in D.C. for three busy days. They drove up from Raleigh, North Carolina where they live. On the first day (Saturday) we visited the Lincoln Memorial, Viet Nam War Memorial, Viet Nam Women's Memorial, Korean War Memorial, and Jefferson Memorial. Those are all of the outdoor ones on or near the Mall. On Sunday we saw the Washington Monument, Navy Monument, Smithsonian Air & Space Museum, and American History Museum, and the U.S. Capital. This summer they had the 150th anniversary of the Smithsonian. On Monday we saw the Holocaust Memorial. We had to wait for over an hour to get in, as they let in only a certain number of people each hour. We spent over five hours going through the memorial. It was very exhausting, but well worth it. We took a very nice drive in Northern Virginia to get into D.C. It is on the Georgetown Pike and George Washington Memorial Parkway. It winds along through the trees and along the Potomac river. During Autumn it is an especially nice drive. I really enjoyed the leaves turning color here, which is best in late October.
In November I voted in a voting booth for the first time ever. I have always voted with an absentee ballot. It was an interesting experience. I have had fun going to the home football games over in Annapolis. We won all four of them. The team has done quite well this year, our first winning season since my sophomore year there. Actually, all three service academies have done well this year, with Army being ranked 23rd in the nation. I went to the Army-Navy football game in Philadelphia. It was a hard fought close battle, as always. Army wound up on top with a 28-24 score. They will be going to the Independence Bowl. It was cold and rainy throughout the game, and I got soaked. I drove up to the game, 160 miles and four states to get there. I am still not used to the states being so small out here. On the way back the traffic out of the stadium was awful, so through no choice of my own I wound up in New Jersey. That made it five states on the way home. I have been running a little bit lately. I am trying to get in better shape and loose a few pounds. I bought an exercise machine which I don't use often enough. I am making slow progress so far.
Two friends of mine from my last job (Lynn & Bruce, they are married to each other) moved out to Northern Virginia shortly after I did. One now works for America On Line (AOL) in Reston, VA and the other works in downtown D.C. for a computer consulting company. So, now I have friends that live close by. I had Thanksgiving dinner with them. When I first moved out here I rented an apartment. Well, so did my friends, and wouldn't you know it we wound up in the same apartment complex. I ran into Bruce in the parking lot as I was going to work. Two other friends from Denver have visited the three of us out here last month. One of these friends interviewed with AOL while he was out here and has accepted a offer with them. He will move out here right before Christmas. Another friend from Denver is thinking about interviewing with AOL also. It seems that we are gathering the old gang out here. Right now Northern Virginia has lots and lots of computer jobs available.
Work has been interesting. I have been here almost seven months now. I passed my security clearance just recently, so work has gotten much more busy. For a while my company was under the possibility of being merged with another company, SAIC. That just fell through, which is kind of bad for us. My company is a Federally Funded Research and Development Company (FFRDC) which means that all of our money comes from the U.S. Government. They are cutting back on our funding, but not on our work load. This merger was an attempt to get out from under that problem. We would have become a private company, but the Government didn't like it and they put a stop to it. We shall see what happens next.
I have been helping out my old roommate from the Academy, Robert Quinton (Quince) on the work he is doing these days. He is doing Internet web development and hosting. He specializes in web sites pertaining to the Caribbean, since he is from Jamaica. It looks like he will be moving from Toronto, Canada back home to Jamaica to make it easier to do the work. Also, it is much warmer there, which he definitely likes.
I will be going home (Southern California - yes, it is still home to me) for Christmas for a week. I will also be stopping through Denver for a few days on the way back here. It should be a good, but very busy, time.
