An Incredible 20-Year Gift!

For the entire first week of February 2010, Joyce and I were treated to a cruise of several Caribbean islands aboard the Wind Surf sailing ship, starting and ending from Barbados. This trip was given to us by Dean Schreiner, and George and Glenn Slay in honor of my 20th anniversary at Coastal Computer Corporation, now dESCO, LLC. The four of us, and also Tim Brooks who was hired at the same time, worked together for many years. Dean is now the president/owner, so I continue to work with him every day. This cruise was a complete surprise that was given to us at the company Christmas party!

We drove to Miami, and took a flight from Miami Internation to Barbados. Barbados is a Caribbean island southeast of Puerto Rico in a string of islands that reach almost all the way down to South America. We set sail each day before dinner for the next island, and we would sail all night to arrive there before we awakened the next morning.

There were evenings when the winds were stiff enough to sail to the next island with sails only. When we were on the Altantic side of the string of islands, we would get that stronger Atlantic wind, but when we were on the west side of the islands, the winds were calmer. On those parts of the trip, the captain would use the engines to move us. It was always a dramatic time around 5:30 pm each night when the sails would be hoisted, and that would start to move the ship our of our current port, starting with the bow of the boat being moved first.

Our stateroom was on the lowest deck, which was great because we would feel the least movement of the ship. When I looked out of the portal in our room, the water line would be between my ankles and knees. There were times when the water was more turbulent when the waves would reach over the level of the windows and sometimes splash the windows themselves. There was a gentle movement of the ship from side-to-side when we were under way, and sleeping was no problem considering the motion. But, there were times during higher winds when it was difficult to eat dinner on the top decks because of the motion, and lying down in bed in the room on Level 1 was the best thing to get rid of the problem.

We'd wake up the next morning with a different view out our window. We would be anchored at a different port on a different island. Small orange tender boats would shuttle back and forth from the Wind Surf to the pier on the island, and we were free to walk around, go shopping, or do activities. The ship itself had internet access, but they recommended taking the laptop on the island to find access there at a Wi-Fi hotspot. It was funny to sit in an open-air, thatched-roof restaurant, fire up the laptop, and watch the emails fill my Outlook Inbox. Gilligan's Island Online!

There were several restaurants on board. We ate our breakfasts and lunches at the Veranda, which was half-inside, half-outside. The buffet was located inside, and the grill to order custom omelets was outside. The weather was great - mid-80's, dry and sunny, so we ate outside at a table on the deck most of the time.

For dinner, there were inside restaurants and on-deck restaurants. We all ate as a group each and every night. One particular night was seafood night on the rear deck, but the wind was so strong that it was causing extra movement of the ship. It was difficult to eat, so Joyce and I excused ourselves from the group. A few nights later, we ate at the same place. The winds were calm, and the skies were clear with a canopy of stars overhead. It was a delight to eat dinner that night under the open sky.

(More text and pix will be added. Check back soon!)

Happy New Year To All!

Hard to believe that another year has gone by, and it's just as hard to believe that it's been ten years since the big Y2K deal! God has been good to us this year as always, and we look forward to His continued blessings in this next year.

Notre Dame Football

Charlie Weis has left after another 6-6 year, and Brian Kelly from Cincinnati has been hired. A work trip took me to Cincinnati when all the speculation was going on the week before the big hiring announcement was made. I was wearing an ND jacket both on the plane and in restaurants and stores in Cincinnati, and it always was able to start conversations about football. One lady even asked me if I was a coach :o)

For us diehard ND football fans, it's always painful to watch the team lose as much as they do these days. What a deflated feeling to stand in the stadium for a game or two each year and to see the clock wind down to zero with the home team having the lower number on the scoreboard. From what I can tell, everyone is excited about Brian Kelly coming to coach.

It's also amusing to watch the sportcasters, particularly on ESPN, reporting on Notre Dame football as a top story. Even when we are down, we are the big story in the country. Some sports guys will wonder why we are still talking about Notre Dame these days when they are losing (they themselves are talking about ND by wondering why we're still talking about ND). ND will always be ND for some reason that I can't explain....it's a feeling, a place and an attitude that I grew up with.

I heard someone say that the three hardest jobs in the country are the president of the United States, the mayor of New York, and the head football coach at Notre Dame. As can be seen by the head coach turnover since Lou Holtz left in '96, it's not for everybody. We're both excited about the new coach, and we're excited to see what will happen in the fall of 2010!

2010

It reminds me of the movie, the sequel to "2001: A Space Odyssey". I wish that our space program would have had us out to some planet by 2001, much less a second trip in 2010. Space travel is still as fascinating to me today as it was back in the Mercury, Gemini and Apollo days.

Joyce, Liesl and I wish you the best this New Years and in the new year to come!

20 Years In One Place

Now this is hard to believe: I have now been at my current position for twenty whole years! I moved to Fort Myers, FL in 1983, and I started with Coastal Computer Corporation (now dESCO, LLC) in January of 1990. Dean will remind you that I was hired in December of '89 but didn't start until January of 1990 because of some previously-scheduled Christmas trip to Indiana.

What have I done, and what do I do? I am a software trainer, programmer, web developer and technical writer. I travel and train new and existing customers in our software an average of once each month. (That's 12 per year times 20 years with a few extras in there, so that's just about 250 trips in the US and Canada over that period of time. Assuming four legs on each trip, that's 1000 plane rides).

Here's an article that appeared on our company website. Scroll down to the bottom of the page:
http://www.desco-soft.com/newsletters/2009december.html

Music Of The Season

Here are a few little Christmas tunes for ya':

http://www.haroldleyes.com/mp3/2009%20-%20HL%20-%20What%20Child%20Is%20This.mp3

http://www.haroldleyes.com/mp3/2009%20-%20HL%20-%20Joy%20To%20The%20World.mp3

The Most Wonderful Time Of The Year

It's not just a cliche, it's the truth. There's an FM radio station down here in Fort Myers that starts their Christmas music programming early. That day was November 16th, last Monday. But earlier than that, we started our rehearsing of Christmas music at Riverside. We will be doing those songs throughout December including an extra service on Sunday, December 20th, and also two Christmas Eve services. What a blessing it is to play my guitar on all of that music right next to Joyce on piano. She also is responsible for choir and music selection, soloist selection, and choir rehearsal. It all brings home the true "reason for the season": "For unto us is born this day a Savior, which is Christ the Lord". Without the Savior, there would be no hope of heaven for anyone...He's the only ticket.

Fall Vacation Back Home In Indiana

It's almost over, but it was a great time up here in South Bend! It was a time for football, family, friends, fall, and a bunch of other stuff.

Joyce and I attended the USC game on the 17th. As with many ND games this year, it came down to the final minute. Our seats are at the goal line to the right of the pressbox, and the final drive took place at our end of the field. We couldn't quite punch it in for the tying score that would have sent the game into overtime, but it was exciting nevertheless. ND had a second chance after a review showed that :01 was left on the clock. The intended receiver slipped, and the pass dropped incomplete. It brought back memories of the 2005 USC game here in the stadium where USC drove from inside their own 10-yard line to the exact same spot in our end zone. The difference was that they were able to score to win the game. It was great to attend another game in the stadium!

The game on October 24th was against Boston College, a university similar to Notre Dame. One speaker called them ND's "Little Brother". They had a winning streak of winning against ND. Joyce and I saw the 1993 game in person here in the stadium where BC kicked a last-minute field goal to win the game and knock ND out of the #1 spot in the rankings. The game this year was not a high-scoring game, but the final drive for BC recalled to me the 1993 game where they won at the end.

The ND defense stepped up, though, and caused a fumble and two interceptions in the last quarter. BC's final drive was killed by an ND interception, and that ended the game! Whew, but it was great to see ND win that game.

Love those stadium hot dogs in both games! We'll make a stop in Sevierville/Pigeon Forge, TN on the way home, then it'll be back in town on Wednesday. A restful vacation was had by all.

ND Squeaks Out Another One

It ended up being 37-30 after one overtime period, Notre Dame beating Washington. It was another nail-biter, not knowing if the Irish were going to lose it at the very end of the game. ND stopped Washington in three goal line stands - that's a miracle in itself that the Huskies couldn't score. Now Jimmy Clausen's name is being mentioned for the Heisman award later in the year. Tim Tebow has been out for a few weeks recovering from a concussion, and Colt McCoy from Texas is #2 on the list. That's a longshot for Jimmy, especially considering that ND isn't in the Top 25. I say "let it fly" to Jimmy to rack up all the yardage and victories that he can to give him the best shot. Both ND and USC are off this Saturday, October 10th, and then they both meet in South Bend the next Saturday, the 17th. Hot dog - we'll be there for that one, and the ND-BC game the following week. We were lucky enough to be at the ND-USC game in 2005 (the "Bush-Push" game where USC won at the very end)...talk about having heart attacks at the finish of a game! Below is the 2007 game where ND wore the throwback colors from 30 years ago. See if you can find the ball and the receiver.