Dear [Dale],

I’m so glad to hear that you’re still happy at work.  I’ve talked to several recently who were laid off as a result of that outsourcing of which you speak.  So how do they utilize all that vacated development space these days?  Do they still even have local developers?  Do you still see people like [George], [Kyle], [Theo], or [Tracy]?  Haven’t found them on Facebook yet. 

About me: I’ve become a full-time writer and blogger; so far I’ve earned $10 total.    But bandwidth is picking up (about 6 GB / month), and in addition to the writing, I get to dabble in PHP and PERL code quite a bit.

I also play music for parties, wedding receptions, reunions, and such; though that business turned out far less lucrative than I’d hoped.  But I have 67000 recordings computerized, and the searches take less than a half a second to complete.  Songs can be retrieved by year, artist, title, lyrics in some cases, and genre.

I also take on the occasional PC from local customers to upgrade, which brings in a few dollars now and then.  But though I make significantly less money than when you and I worked the web products and document delivery components, I’m much happier – nothing against YOU of course.  :-)   I guess that ultimately, I just wasn’t cut out for the sort of work I was doing when I ended my employment with you all.  Indeed, writing seems to be a much better fit.  I just hope that I can, in some degree, duplicate the success with the blogs that I enjoyed as a software engineer working along side you.  We’ll see.

It’s hard to believe that your kids are practically adults now.  But if they made it this far, then you did good!  :-)  I never had children.  In fact, I’ve never married, though I did meet someone special, within a few months of the day I left the company.  We’ve hung out ever since.  Sometimes, we date.  Other times, we’re best friends.  But we always enjoy getting together every month or two, and we’ve accumulated lots of great memories through the years.  She’s been a wonderful friend, and my only regret is that I didn’t meet her while still living in Ohio.  If I had, I might have stayed.

Only a handful of days have passed since I began talking to some ex Ohio coworkers.  In fact, until I signed up with Facebook, I’d spoken with practically no one from Dayton in seven years.  But it’s wonderful to be back in touch with some of you again, and so I hope my keen appreciation of your letter is obvious.  Thanks very much for writing, I wish you well, and hope you’ll write again when you have a minute (Do they still keep people overly busy at the company?).  Anyway, take care and we’ll chat again sometime.  Say hi to the cafeteria, the bridge tunnels, and the fountain in front of the main building for me.  :-)  See you.

Tom  Hesley

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