This morning I'm wrestling with the problem of stuffing my clothes, camera gear, scuba gear, and underwater camera gear (some of which is Robert's) into three airline-regulation bags in time for a noon flight.

I'm also cleaning out one of the spare bedrooms of my house; the first step of a sad and sudden move from my rented home of the last three years into an apartment. But most of you are just as experienced as me in this activity, so I won't belabor the point.

A glance backwards to the last issue reminds me that at the time I was in the process of moving to Phoenix to consult at Dial Corp. To my surprise, I came to *love* the job, the people, and the area. So it's too bad that three weeks into the contract all the customers I worked with were fired by Dial and replaced by contractors from another consulting firm (really, again). The first week of June became move-back-to-Salt-Lake week.

Now Digital has me in a temporary consulting position documenting distributed computer system operating procedures at Thiokol, the company that makes the shuttle boosters. This would not be so bad except that Thiokol is over 90 miles to the north of Salt Lake, so the commute is at least 3-1/2 hours each day, and the working day starts at 7 AM. And last week, the customer requested that I work twelve hour days, beginning at 6:30 AM. Yow! This would entail getting up shortly after 4:00, and getting home around 8:30 in the evening - just in time for bed. Don't ask me when I'd take time to eat, or pay the bills.

But none of this matters a bit this morning, or next week. In another hour I'll be out the door on the way to Seattle, Vancouver Island, and glorious Kyuquot, B.C. Maybe life is not so bad after all.