Touching Bases

Jared is settling in to his new job, Captain of the Tiburon Ferry. He is trying to move closer to Tiburon to avoid the commute from San Rafael; it?s only 20 miles, but rush-hour traffic makes it an hour and a half drive and he has a new gas-guzzling truck.

Stephanie is back to work. During the time she was off to give birth to Sydney her employer promoted her to manage the branch where she was working before taking maternity leave. She is pleased to be back to work and excited about her new position. Sydney is a short distance away and Steph is able to breast feed her by taking short breaks to be with the baby.

Matt is doing well. He continues to lead a self-reliant no-hassle life. His ability to enjoy himself without ?normal? resources is kind of amazing. He proves the contention that money is not the source of happiness.

We have not heard much from Jon. When he first arrived in Russia he had some trouble with his bank debit card. Visa put a ?warm hold? on all transactions thinking the card might have been stolen, so I called and they quickly remedied the situation. A few days later Jon left Moscow for St. Petersburg and the summer camp where he is teaching English. I guess they do not have Internet access there because we have had no communication with him for three weeks.

I think I will be able to make the final distribution of mother?s estate in a few days. It will be good to release this project, but I will miss the excuse to interact with my brothers and sisters. Now we will have to make time for one another just because we like to be together and I hope this will mean we connect at least once or twice a year.

Janet?s sister, Linda, and her new husband, Paul LaMont, visited us at the end of May. It was so good to spend some time with Linda and Paul is terrific. They came with one of Janet?s other sisters, Joan, and her husband, Russ Allen, so the six of us had a great time exploring San Diego and playing together. There is a Frahm family reunion in the planning stage for the summer of 2004.

Janet is now counting the days to being able to return to being a law professor. This dean thing is hard to enjoy. No wonder they pay people a lot of money to be a dean--the job is mostly about handling problems, firing employees and dealing with difficult people. She was able to do some legal research recently to prepare for an interview with Newsweek Magazine concerning an article they are writing about marital rape and it reminded her how much she enjoys doing things like this. And she longs to interact with good students instead of spending her time explaining lost scholarships, honor code infractions and expulsions. Her last day as Dean of Academic Affairs will be May 31, 2004.

Her health continues to be a concern, but she does all of the things that keep her frailties from interfering much with her life. She exercises regularly, eats well, takes her medication and vitamins, sees her healthcare providers often, gets plenty of sleep and we play together as much as we can.

Building my business as a Technology Advocate is a challenge, but I am having more fun than is fair. When a person loves what they are doing, it just doesn?t seem like work.

Scopeware is not enough. The only way I can continue to offer it alone is to focus on establishing a few huge accounts, and that seems too unlikely for me to count on it. So, to reach my objectives I am in the process of adding products and services to my quiver. With a larger arsenal I will be able to provide solutions in more situations. I think a solid assortment of RFID products and services would complement my Scopeware activities quite well, so this is my current focus for expansion.

I also made a substantial commitment to do volunteer work recently. I will be leading a committee at my church to revise the church?s constitution. I am looking forward to the effort. A good group of church leaders have agreed to serve on the committee with me and we will be using a number of new technologies to do our work at virtual meetings. The technological savvy of the committee is diverse, so this project will test the user-friendly claims of the developers whose products I have chosen to assist us in doing our project.

Janet and I are getting away for a five-day romp up the coast on Highway One around the Fourth of July weekend. We will be spending a few days with the Newmans in Paso Robles at the other end of the trek. We are both looking forward to the escape, and it always does us good to spend time with Peggy and Clay.

I do not hear enough from those of you who read my ramblings here. Please stay in touch.

Love,