Tom's Diary

[Gene],

Since I’ve given you my email address, I’ve received several emails from various federal news letters, which I do not wish to receive. Not sure if it was you that did this, but if it was, please do not give out my email address to ANYONE else unless you check with me first. This includes visibly sending it in the To: line of email messages that you send to a group. I’m trying to keep the junk email I get on this address to a minimum.

Thanks much,
Tom Hesley

Dear   [Lex],

Thanks for writing. I’ll take what you said under advisement. Hope all is well with you and yours. Yes,   [Rick]   is difficult to deal with at times. But I guess we all have our imperfections.

Later,
Tom Hesley

Hey [Ann].

Glad you guys got the computer running again. *Phew*

Yes, the dentist went well. The new crown is installed and feels nice. He had to numb me real good, ’cause the first time he tried, it didn’t work. The second time numbed half my face. But that’s returning to normal now, and there’s no soreness around the crown.

I had a big salad with some cheese and Italian dressing on it. It had lettuce, tomatoes, onions, and peppers. Oh, and for dessert, I had raisins. Raisins are a big staple food of mine.

Ceiling fans. Yes, I used to have them in my house in Ohio. Four of them. If you think cleaning them is difficult, try installing one sometime. That’s a REAL pain.

Mom and I went shopping today and picked up those weights I think I mentioned to you. And the porch is dry now and looks nice and clean.

Talk to you later tonight, and am so glad you’re back online again.

Tom

Dear [Ann]

Hey, you fixed your font colors. No more blue type on red background. How did you do that?

Yes, my offer [to pay for your ticket to the alumni convention] is still available. Let me know in the next day or so if you can make the whole weekend, and I’ll send the money to Joanne.

I’m having some 15-bean soup with ham in it for supper. Did you decide what you’re having?

I am excited about seeing you, yes. Very much so. It would be so nice for the search to be over. I’m with you on that.

I am curious what you could do with a Magic Stick. Perhaps one day, we’ll know.

Well, going off to watch the news. Take care and perhaps will talk to you later tonight.

Tom

Hi [Ann].

[I] just got back from the barber. He’s going on vacation for the rest of the week and won’t be back before I head to camp. So I wanted to get my mop trimmed.

[I] started packing for camp, and hope to get to the store on Thursday or Friday to get those last-minute essentials.

[I'm] glad to hear that the parenting session went well.  [I'm] not sure how to handle manipulators [though].   [...] When I learn that someone has manipulated, I bid them farewell. But when it’s a child, wow, that’s a hard one. Especially since you can’t so easily bid them farewell.

I’ll get hold of you after the chat, whether you are [at the chat meeting] or not.

What would you do with a Magic Stick? Hmmmmm?

Tom

[Ann],

I’ve enjoyed the last two nights of talk. Care to make it three?

Today, I wrote another poem (about 400 words), lifted weights (arms really sore tonight so I’ll have to rest tomorrow), and that lady who needed the edited music stopped by today to pick up the CD and pay me. She seemed happy with the work. Her daughters are going to use the song in a talent show this Friday.

I’m glad you seem to like me. This is a real blessing. I never imagined 30 years ago that you’d ever take a second look at me. If I had graduated in ’74, I’d have done my best to be the one who you moved in with. I think we’ll have lots of fun together over the alumni weekend and I’m looking forward to it as well.

It rained here too. In fact, I got stuck with my tape recorder down at the pavilion for an hour ‘cause it rained so hard that I didn’t want to risk damaging the machine by getting it wet on the run back up to the house. I compose my writings on tape down there, then come back up here and type them into the computer. They’re calling for flash floods here until midnight.

Your dinner sounds great. We had slow-cooked pork. No bread, no gravy. Just the tender pork and a little garlic salt. Yum!

Never learned to use a cane although I probably should. My vision has been pretty stable over the years so using it never was a high priority. You know, if we get together, you’ll never need that cane, for I will guide you.

I’ll give you a call later.

Tom

Dear Carl,

I don’t know anything about the pig farm. I guess we’ll find out what happened with that, when we get to camp.

Looking forward to seeing you then.

Tom

[JR],

How are things out there? How are the kids? Anyone leave the company lately that we know? I heard that [the other Joe] left, but that’s all so far.

All is well here. The writing is going well. I have about 20 pieces so far. I plan to write until the end of this year, then take what I have to an agent and see how much of it I can get published.

The DJ business isn’t as lucrative as I’d hoped, and after doing about 15 gigs, I’ve learned that I’m not crazy about carrying and hoisting the equipment around. So this line of work is definitely temporary, until the writing takes off.

The music collection is up to 31,000 songs, and I wrote software in January to add ID3 V2 tags to all the MP3 files. That took about 32 hours to run and the hard drive seemed like it was going to dance right off the table. But now that the tags are present, I can index the music in various, useful ways.

Funny, I’m not crazy about Djing, but do enjoy playing with how to best store and retrieve the music on the computer.

Even if I leave the DJ business, I’ll still collect music. Some of the older CDs I have are worth over $200 apiece now, and I have about 3500 in the collection. If only half of them appreciate like that, I’ll have a very nice retirement.

Anyway, don’t want to keep you too long. Hope all is well at your end and that work is treating you well. Write back when you can.

Say hi to Cheryl for me.

Later,
Tom

Carl,

All is well here. Just getting ready for camp.

Just power washed a wooden fence out front. I had borrowed a washer from a friend, and as luck would have it, it broke while in my possession. I bought him a new one, but then decided to attempt to repair the old one.

Ordered the parts (a couple o-rings, springs, and plastic gadgets), installed them, and low and behold, it worked!! I really wasn’t expecting it to work. But since it did, I get to keep the one I bought and give his back to him.

Anyway, after all that, the fence is done and I power-washed all our side walks and the sides of the house. Power washers are really quite handy to have around.

Wish your Dad a happy birthday for me.

I’ve talked with Randy and several others from Pittsburgh that you probably don’t know. Randy is at camp now and reports say that he’s having a grand time. Jim [...] and Mike [...] are there too.

I keep in touch with [Rick] and [Jack] as well. Nothing new to report on those fronts, although I did see Bob [...] at the Overbrook alumni weekend in June. He’s doing great and is at camp now also.

Looking forward to seeing you at camp. Hang on. Less than two weeks away. Don’t get too stressed.

Talk to you later,
Tom Hesley

Dear Stacy,

Wow, I couldn’t get away with that small amount of sleep. Unless I get 8 hours, my creativity is nowhere to be found.

Better be careful about the sleep. The roots of many illnesses grow in the grounds of sleep deprivation.

Tom Hesley