. . with no follow-up, so I'm reporting in.

Yes, I'm still in contact with the lady. So far, so good, but it takes effort for both since we are each on the very edge of the other's consulting territory.

She once did heavy duty accounting systems running on Wang and Basic Four, but was bushwacked by the PC and now does "clutter consulting" and accounting consulting - mostly in Orange County. I am IS department for 47 networks in LA county (for you on the other coast, translate "county" to "state" for scale).

Anyways, a couple weeks ago we attended a potluck party together - held by a group she belongs to, "The Outer Edge" ("The Edge" for short). The group is involved in current philosophical thought (pop & not), religions and pseudo religions, relationship analysis, metaphysics, "human potential", gurus, "facilitators", liberalism, general non-Republican thought, and all that crap and nonsense (sorry, wine, but no dope).

Not a problem - been there, done that (and I'd do it again). Great folks, great party, great food, well worth the drive - and a further painful reminder of what I've been missing out on messing around with this computer crap for so long. We even know some of the same folks, just she knows them now and I knew the when.

Last weekend she was off to a "human potential" workshop based on quantum physics.

Huh???

Well, I don't have a clue what their take on quantum physics is, and I haven't a clue whether she'll understand a word of my response, but it'll be fun explaining to each other later.

This weekend I am doing a Holodynamic workshop. The processes we are learning uses principals of quantum physics to help turn negative life habits into positive ways of living life.

So, I presume you have now been physically quantified and have been put on the Heisenberg / Fermi diet (hadrons, baryons and mu-mesons, mostly).

The next step is to serve your internship. This involves dressing "quarky" and standing around in the airport carrying a sign that says, "God does indeed play at dice".

From there you can get started with some real strangeness, and after transcending chaos, will have charm.

Wow! sauerkraut soup ! Would love the recipe. We always made sauerkraut with pork chops and served with mash potatoes.

No similarity, but yes, you can have the recipe.

Next Friday Dec 7 may be a good candidate.

Major Topic Shift

Well, I was off in Burbank today, for several stops. One was a major client that occupies most of the buildings along a block in an older part of town. Half the phone system was out.

They were moving some stuff, and found some really, really ancient wiring (paper insulation, even) in the back of a factory building way down the block from the offices - and cut it away - completely unaware it was most of their phone lines.

"Um, no, this is phone company property you've cut out, and this junk on the floor is your demarc backboard, and those cans contain their grounding and lightning protection and such. Now when they replace this stuff, I can hook up to it OK, because this cable here (the one with the paper insulation) is your property, but this stuff here is their property and they'd be pissed if I messed with it."

"Are they going to be mad at me?"

"Yup, because now they're going to have to replace these antiques, and you cut their cable so short it's going to be a real bitch terminating it to anything."

Then on to an accounting / tax outfit I had written off as a "former client" and hadn't heard from for almost two years, but they just ordered a new server and a couple workstations.

Still early, and I'm in Burbank, so I'll just pop over to Tinhorn Flats and have a beer and and a basket of fries.

Home, and fed the pigeons, but, lets be fair and hit Don's Den too. Haven't been there for a month at least.

So Don's was empty (as it always is until about 9:00) with the history chanel on the TV (instead of sports). Sabrina was the bartendress this evening.

On my way home as the place started to fill up (and it was karaoke night, so it started to get noisy).

Stopped a couple blocks down at Trader Joe's for a big can of coffee beans (Samatra / Columbia blend), since I was nearly out and tomorrow is a "Rose (not her real name) Day". The Caffine Queen would be distressed if I ran out. The check-out girl was also named Sabrina.

Got home and it looked like a bomb had hit the place. Then I remembered. Just before going on the road, I had become so frustrated with the stack on my desk I'd picked it up and heaved it to make it easier to sort. Papers don't go far, but CDs and 3" floppys do well - some were jammed under the kitchen counter more than 20 feet from the desk.

Well, I'll handle that tomorrow. Meanwhile, I found this bottle of Port down at the end of the kitchen counter. Opened it a couple years ago (I think), and probably bought it in the 70's. Cork is a bit rotten, but hey, the stuff's still alive! I'm not much for sweet stuff, but once in a while it's good.

Tonight's Quiz

The history channel was doing the American Revolution, and there was action on the pool tables. This suggested this evening's quiz.

Who was the greatest billiards player of the American Revolution era?

It's not that hard - you know him by name.

PS

Oh, yeah, next door to Trader Joe's is the "Myrtle Tree" - closed, but they left their freebie stacks out. Snagged a copy of "The Whole Person Calendar" and "Whole Life Times". Got to brush up on this stuff.

I think I'm going to go into the nouveau religion business. It's a whole lot more fun than computers, and probably a whole lot more profitable too. Hmmmm. Where do I start . . .

He's from the era, but not an American or Brit. Very famous for something else (though references to his billiards playing show up in obscure jokes now and then).

"When introduced to the infant Mozart, PDQ Bach immediately recognized talent in the lad and announced to his parents that he would, without doubt, become the greatest billiards player of his age."

Millions have heard that gag line without realizing that Mozart actually was the greatest billiards player of his era (I learned it many years ago from the introduction chapter of Moscone's book on billiards).