I guess we have been having too much fun since our trip to San Diego. I seem to be making an effort to get in as much trouble as I can and Carol is playing right along. She is now Assistant Secretary of Hilltoppers, our social organization. Also she is chairing a 4911 committee which is to provide helping hands like guiding an ambulance or just sitting with the person until help comes, when someone needs 911 help. It seems she is having meetings someplace every day now.

I decided to get my hands dirty in a different way. I have started going to J-Cat meetings three mornings a week at 8 AM to get assignments to fix people’s phone’s, internet connections and even TV reception issues. We actually have wires to every site carrying all three services – well the phone lines also carry internet. This has also gotten me into the discussions regarding our upgrade to television in the park, both in the service provider and in the actual cables in the ground. My first solo call was a report of “no dial tone” I resolved that by moving the phone line from the non functional pair to the appropriate functional pair (I unplugged it from the wrong jack . . .). I have also volunteered for other committees involved in the connected future of the park and one mysterious committee called “S” Drive. I hope it has something to do with computers.

Just for laughs and giggles we have had a bout of “Perils of Paul” this week. I drove into town to complete my last interview with a prospect for Brown University (they are getting younger every year). After a delightful hour of conversation we parted and I returned to the Jeep which would not start, it was clear the battery was kaput. Being ever resourceful I had a set of jumper cables in the back and was able to recruit a friendly soul to let me use his battery to get me going. I wanted to call Carol to let her know why I was running a bit late. I discovered my phone had rebooted with out asking my permission. When I went to enter the password, the “Done” button at the bottom of the screen would not work! It turns out nothing on the bottom row of the screen would work, not even the space bar. I got back to Jojoba Hills with no further incident. I parked the Jeep by the shed so I could hook up the charger I somehow didn’t trash when we sold the townhouse. The following morning it was still dead and a neighbor came over with a jumper starter thing no bigger than a box of cigars. It worked! I now own one! I also own a brand new battery and new terminal clamp to go with it and everything is working. Oh I also have a new phone with twice the memory (still not enough I fear).

We are looking forward to driving the Jeep over the mountain to Palm Desert on Sunday to see my classmates from Brown, Toby and David.