Chapter 22: Compression

My first months on the job disappeared almost before I had a chance to notice. I spent much of my time with Emil and Walt, but Emil also made sure I got see all our key distributors and agents, along with three of our principal suppliers. There wasn’t a day that my time wasn’t filled with meeting people, reviewing procedures, discussing strategies, and generally understanding just what it took to run a company like East Cascades. I won’t pretend I was ready to take over ... not at all. But what I appreciated most was the fact that I was busy all day every day. I never really had a chance to dwell on the loss of my father. Emil and Walt kept me free of homework, thinking my ten hour days were more than enough. It gave me time to spend with Naomi and Mom.

Naomi had some positive feedback from her contacts in her job search and had three interviews set up. I really didn’t discuss what kind of career she was looking for, but I got the impression that she had made her interests clear on her résumé. What she had learned at Cal Poly was far beyond my understanding, so I didn’t waste her time trying to educate me. I knew she’d tell me whatever I needed to know when the time came. In the meantime, we had plenty of personal time and I valued every moment of it.

As Thanksgiving approached, Naomi found a career opportunity that she was anxious to explore. First, it was local ... in Bend actually. Second, it required someone with her skills and knowledge. Third, it was a start-up business that could lead to a partnership. Her inheritance had been wisely invested and this might be a chance for her to use it to land a piece of ownership in a fledgling company.

She was cautious, of course. Many startups fail and she held back deciding on investing in anything until she had three months experience with the company to determine if it had a reasonable chance for success and that the principals were steady enough to make it happen. The target company was Central Oregon Technologies, located in Bend and ultimately intending to serve most of Oregon.

The nature of the business was networking installations for both state and local governments. Two of the principals had contacts in both Salem and several of the county supervisor’s offices. They had previous surveyed both levels of government to see if there was interest in setting up high speed data transmission systems between the counties and the state. At first, they were rebuffed, apparently because they didn’t appear to have the wherewithal to pull off such a program.

However, through persistence, and their willingness to demonstrate their concept in three counties at no cost to the parties, they were granted the opportunity. Of course there was the understanding that other than access to the locations, there would be no involvement of the county staff people. Naomi told me that they had agreed to this with their tongue in cheek, knowing full well that some involvement would be necessary no matter what. It was a risk, but their strategy was to show success as quickly as possible to get the counties on side.

Naomi’s value was that she was already known in Crook County with her work on the scheduling system at the college. The college administration recognized her name when it was mentioned. On top of that, she now had a master’s degree to wave in front of the county to establish her credentials. But all that would be for nothing if they couldn’t deliver on their promises. Naomi was nothing if not confident. She told me if I hadn’t been scooped up by East Cascades, she could have easily sold this company on adding me to their staff. I was just as grateful I was ensconced at East Cascades.

The consequence was that I would be seeing little of her over the next three or four months as the group worked feverishly to get their demonstration model operational. In fact, it was late February before they were ready to demonstrate their trial network.

“Are you nervous?” I asked as she set out to monitor the Crook County segment.

“Yes ... very. But I’m also confident we’ve got the system that will do the job for them. Right now, the counties are connected by a hodgepodge of systems and it really makes it difficult for Salem to communicate effectively ... and vice versa. Keep your fingers crossed, Joel. If this works, we’re in, and I’m going to invest in the company.”

“I have nothing but confidence in you, love. I fully expect you will hit this one out of the park, as the baseball saying goes.”

“We’ll know soon enough,” she said solemnly.

Well, they didn’t hit it out of the park, but listening to Naomi, I would call it a solid triple by comparison. They had some work to do to clear up a couple of nagging software problems, but she and her partners seemed to know just how to fix them. I kept my fingers crossed for them. Yes, Naomi had committed a good portion of her assets to this partnership after the trial.

The now quartet of techs were preparing their presentation to one of the state departments who were looking for proposals to unify their computer systems statewide. Apparently, the previous attempts at modernization of their communication systems had been marred with problems, under estimation of budget, and lengthy delays, not to mention delivery of less than optimal results. It was a political minefield by the sound of it.

However, one of Naomi’s partners had an in at the Department of Motor Vehicles, one of the long suffering areas of non-coordination. It was there that they would focus their efforts. The fact that they had a working model to demonstrate in three different counties should make their credibility a little easier to establish. At least, that was their hope. I was right there with them with my fingers crossed. There was nothing I could do to help my lady except encourage and support her. If their effort failed and nothing came of their attempt, it wouldn’t kill us. She knew the risk when she went all in with her three partners and her eyes were open when she committed her funds.

I really wanted us to set a date for our wedding, as of course, did my mother. I was worried it might be a distraction as Naomi was totally involved in trying to get a commitment from at least one level of state government to proceed with the project. So far, the bureaucracy had managed to slow the process down to a snail’s pace. It was frustrating for the group, as they had their money tied up in this and were virtually living hand-to-mouth with the exception of Naomi. It was difficult for them to be patient, but it was too late to back and out and they could only wait for the final verdict. They had, in their minds, proven their system would work, but they had to convince officialdom of that.

Finally, the group got a conditional, less than optimal, approval. They were to develop and install the system in several more counties, all in the eastern part of the state. You could almost hear the sigh of relief all the way from Bend to Clarksville. It wasn’t the whole pie but a good, healthy slice to begin with and the state had agreed to add the three trial counties in to the contract. They were in business!

I won’t tell you how Naomi and I celebrated that night. She was on a high and I wasn’t about to put a damper on her celebrations, as private as they were. I phoned in to Emil the next morning and apologized that I would be late getting in, with sketchy details to follow. He was very understanding. He knew all about Naomi’s venture and that was all he needed to know.

Mother, being the ever efficient one, had already arranged a date for us in early June at local church. That gave her ... and us ... almost two months to prepare. There would be no traditional wedding gown as per Naomi’s request, but that was of little concern to Mom. My paternal grandfather would stand in place of my father. I contacted Marcus Conradi and he agreed to be my best man. We’d been in irregular contact during my term at Eastern Oregon University and was aware of my management program at East Cascades. He was also a big supporter of Naomi and her group of partners.

Naomi would be given by my mother, which we thought was only appropriate. Her maid of honor choice was Vonda Voight, although she took a bit of convincing. Naomi had no one else that she knew well enough to ask. The wedding party might have been small, but the reception guest list was considerably larger. Most of those who attended Dad’s funeral would be present, along with Emil and Carl.

The insurance settlements from both my father’s and East Cascades’ policies had been paid and our family lawyer was in the final stages of working out a settlement with BNSF Rail over their liability. Based on the expected amount they would pay, Mom will never have money worries for the rest of her life. I hoped, although I never had to nerve to say so, that Mom would find someone to take Dad’s place ... if not in her heart, at least as a companion. I didn’t want to see her alone and lonely.

Naomi continued to be buoyant over her business’s early success and was commuting to Bend daily. Their first installment covering the three county trial had finally arrived from the state government. They were on a proper financial footing now and could begin to think about where to use their success in future.

My progress at East Cascades was continuing smoothly and Emil was gradually easing me in as the de facto G.M. No one at the plant had any doubts that I was destined for that role and I had heard of no one who disputed my claim to the role. I may be young (just 23) but I had more experience than age and now it was a matter of establishing my credibility with the customers and our suppliers.

It was there than Emil was sending me out on my own to handle both regular management calls and any minor problems that cropped up. I would report back to him on every occasion, of course, but he was giving me more and more latitude to handle these situations. The proof? I was getting phone calls from both customers and suppliers directly, rather than through Emil. It was a sign I was being accepted by both suppliers and customers.

As our wedding day approached, I was working with Naomi to find a place to live. I dared not tell Mom what we were up to because I knew she would think we were abandoning her. I was sure that’s how she would feel. And ... who would she have then? Naomi and I knew this was probably a wasted effort. She could no more leave my mother alone than I could. But ... could we co-exist? In the end, I knew we had to discuss the future with her and get her views, even if we pretty much knew how that conversation would go.

I’ll give my mother credit for being prescient. She must have guessed what we were up to and brought matters to a head one Saturday morning.

“I’ve been thinking that we need to discuss the living arrangements when you marry,” she began.

I took a quick look at Naomi and I could see the look of concern on her face.

“Uhhmm ... okay,” I said cautiously.

“We got this great big house and lovely property all paid for. It makes no sense for you to go looking for a home unless you were planning to move away. With Joel working at East Cascades, and you in Bend, Naomi, this is almost the perfect location for you two. I can live on my own, and I don’t want to intrude on your privacy. It would make more sense if I moved out and found someplace smaller,” she said with a straight face.

“No, Mom,” Naomi and I said almost in unison. “We don’t want to put you out of your home,” Naomi continued. “We don’t want you to live alone either. We want you here with us for as along as you can stand us,” she smiled.

“Oh ... well ... what about this, then. I can move into one of the spare bedrooms and you and Joel can have the master bedroom. Do you think that would work?”

And thus began the negotiations. It took a while for the three of us to agree on how the new division of the home would work. Mother was already calculating where the baby’s room would be and how easily she could get there to feed or change it. Mom had a plan and we weren’t going to easily shake her off it.

When all was said and done, we both got what we hoped for. Mom would have her privacy and still have proximity to our future child ... or children. Left unsaid was what would happen if she met someone and wanted to include him in her life. That was a future issue that we could deal with if and when it came up.

Since the house was still in Mom’s name, she would be the boss and we would be the tenants. Mind you, we would be working tenants. Someone had to cut the grass and take out the trash (me). Someone would have to cook and clean the home (Mom and Naomi). And someone would have to do the laundry and household repairs (me and Mom). Naturally, we would contribute to the financial upkeep of this future household.