Chapter 23

STEVE -- Wednesday, September 27, 1961

We woke up fairly early, and I said, "It looks like it's going to be a hot day; let's get up and go for a walk now while it's still relatively cool."

Sandy agreed, and soon we were taking a long walk. We must have done more than two miles by the time we got back to the house, and we were both starving! Sandy told me, "You made me breakfast Monday, today it's my turn. Sit here and pour the coffee when it's done."

She quickly cut a melon and gave each of us a quarter of it, and mixed up some pancake batter. She then made three large pancakes apiece, which we ate with maple syrup and butter.

I asked her, "How are you holding up? We walked a lot longer than yesterday, but you didn't seem to be getting tired."

"I'm doing great! I just wish you didn't have to leave today, dear."

"I still think you need more rest. We had a late breakfast, and maybe we should have a late lunch."

"If you're thinking what I hope you're thinking, I like that idea! Why do I think I'm not going to get much rest?"

My only answer was to put my arms around her, give her a steamy kiss, and lead the way upstairs.

Much later, after we had showered and I had packed my bag, we did have lunch. Dear Sandy; she remembered what I'd said about the horrible sandwiches I had bought at the rest stops, and made an extra sandwich for me to take along for my trip back to Washington. I heard her call Paul and arrange to meet with him at three.

SANDY -- Wednesday, September 27, 1961

We had a tender farewell before he drove off. I hugged him for dear life, not wanting to let go, and it was clear that the idea of leaving didn't appeal to him, either. I said, "Steve, please call me tonight. I promise I'll be home by six!"

"Of course, Kitten. I'll still be driving back at six, but I wouldn't dream of not calling you. Why don't I come back for a visit in two and a half weeks; I'll take Friday and part of Monday off. Can you get time off? If the weather is decent, let's go for at least one hike!"

"I'll take the time off, damn it! Oh Steve, that's a wonderful idea!"

He gave me one last hug and kiss, and then left. My sadness at his leaving had almost been erased when he said he'd be back next month. I was actually smiling when I walked into Paul's office at three.

He looked at me and said, "Sandy, I'd been worried about you, and wasn't surprised when you called in sick last week. You look much better and happier than I've seen you in at least a month!"

"That's because I am. I've rethought my priorities in the past few days, and we need to talk about the way I've been running the test. First of all, the Wicked Witch is gone, hopefully never to appear again. I was frustrated by the quality of the EC's that we were getting from engineering, and for some reason decided that I needed to review all the temp fixes personally. Paul, we had set up a good system. Where I went wrong was in not letting that system work for us."

"So now you're going to let go and give the system another chance?"

"Yes, but there's more. I'm going to spend more of my time actually shooting the problems; that's what I enjoy most. I also need your help. I want more people from the engineering groups to join the test teams until we pass the acceptance test. With their involvement, the temp fixes will be much more apt to work, and engineering should be able to get the ECs back to us much faster. Can you arrange this"?

"That's an excellent idea! Give me a day, but I should have it in place by Monday morning. You've done an outstanding job so far with this test. I knew you would do well, and you did!"

I was surprised when he said that, and asked him, "How can you say that? Look at how the list of open problems has been growing!"

He smiled, and answered, "You need to look past the total problem count and think about the nature of the problems themselves. I was over there yesterday, and took a few minutes studying Jody's charts. A month ago, most of the open problems were serious, even if they didn't bring the test to a standstill. Now, there are only a few in that category, and most of the open problems are trivial, or things that you can easily work around."

"I hadn't realized that! I'll get Jody to add a severity code to all new and open problems. I don't want to spend the time to go back over the closed problems to assign them a severity code, but I think this will help us get a better picture of where we are from here on out. It will help us prioritize the fixes so that we work on the most serious stuff first. Also, I want to flag the problems for which we don't get a fix on a timely basis, so that we can start kicking some butts to expedite the fixes."

"Another excellent idea! I'm sure you wouldn't have come up with that approach a week or two ago. I'm glad to see that you are back in good form! From now on, if anything starts to get out of control again, come see me, and we can do something about it before you run yourself into the ground again."

I agreed to do that, and said, "One more thing. Even though the test is still in full swing, I'm damn well going to be taking some vacation from time to time; mostly as long weekends." He gave me a look for a moment, and then said, "That's fine. You've certainly earned it, and I think it will do you a lot of good. As you said, the system should work for us even if you aren't there every day."

I went back to my office and called down to the test cell and said that I wanted to meet with the first and second shift teams later that day. I then stopped by Sarah's office and told her how my meeting with Paul had gone.

"You're looking even better than you did last night. Did Steve leave today?"

"Yes, but he'll be back in another two weeks for a long weekend. I told Paul that I was damn well going to take some long weekends, even if the test is still going on. He said that it would do me good!"

She smiled, and said, "Good for him, good for you, and good for Steve!"

I thanked her again, and then went over to the test cell.

At 4:30, I called everyone from the first and second shifts together, telling them that the test could wait for a few minutes. I said, "I have what I hope is good news for you guys. First of all, there is no Wicked Witch any more. I know I've been difficult at times, but while I was out sick for the past few days, I came to my senses. Please accept my apologies for the way I've been acting the past few months."

Aaron interrupted me, saying, "Well, you have been a bit on edge, and abrasive at times, but you've also done an outstanding job running this test. I couldn't have done better myself!"

"Thanks, but I know one area where many of you could have done better than I have is with the review of the temp fixes. I had it in my head that I had to do it all myself. That was dead wrong, and in the long run cost us more time than it should have. At any rate, I'm going to let go, and back off. I'll still be reviewing our progress, but I'm going to spend more time working with the day shift, actually helping to shoot some of the problems myself."

Pierre said, "Sandy, it takes a big person to say what you've just told us. I'm proud to be working with you!"

A number of the others cheered or hollered, "Hear hear!"

I blushed, and said, "Thank you, thank you all. I am the one who is so very proud to be working with all of you. The rest of the good news is that I met with Paul this afternoon, and even though we have more open problems than ever, he pointed out that we are actually making excellent progress. Think about the problems we were writing up a month or two ago, and compare them to the ones that are currently open. Most of the current problems are relatively minor compared to the ones we were working on in July or early August. The numbers are deceiving, and we are going to start flagging problems by severity so that we can track the most serious problems, and make sure that we get quick resolutions from engineering for them. I hope to have more good news tomorrow, but don't want to say anything if I can't deliver what I've asked for. Now, let's get on with the test. I'll be back full time starting tomorrow."

I told Pierre to tell Miguel that I would meet with him and his group in the morning, and give them the same message. Then, knowing that the test was in good hands, I left and drove home.

I was tired, but happy, and felt good about my work for the first time in months as I walked into the house. Mom looked great! She was nicely dressed up, and I asked, "Mom, what's the occasion? I haven't seen you wear that dress for a long time!"

"Sandy, I told you a while back that I was starting to date again. Now there's someone special, and I think it's getting serious. In any case, he's taking me out to dinner tonight. I'm not sure when, or even if, I'll be back tonight. I'm sure you can manage with the leftovers for dinner."

I suppressed a giggle, and hugged her, saying, "Mom, that's great, and I hope it goes well for you! Of course I'll manage! Did I tell you that Steve said he'd be back in just over two weeks for a long weekend?"

She didn't let go of me, and said, "Why does that not surprise me? But, tell me, how did things go at work for you today?"

I told her about my talk with Paul and the test teams, and that I was feeling good about everything. She said, "Sandy, dear, I'm so glad. I have to run now, but I'll see you tomorrow night. 'Bye, now."

STEVE -- Wednesday, September 27, 1961

As I drove back to Washington, I thought about how much Sandy had come to mean to me since we had first met a year back at the Stretch course. I remembered how smart she was, but most of all that she was a very dear, vivacious, fun person to be with. My thoughts led me to the conclusion that I wanted desperately for her to become a permanent part of my life. I just hoped that she would want the same.

I got back to my apartment shortly after eight, and was soon on the phone calling Sandy. When she answered and realized that I was on the line, she started giggling! I asked, "Sandy my love, what's funny?"

"It's Mom! She told me that she was going out on a date tonight, and didn't know when, or even if she would be home tonight!"

"Yes, that is interesting. Good for her! How did everything go with Paul today?"

"Very well! I told him that I was going to back off, and I also told him that I was damn well going to take some long weekends off from work. When he told me that I had been doing a good job on the test, I didn't believe him until he explained that the number of open problems was a deceptive measure of our progress. Then he pointed out that there were far fewer serious problems now than there had been even a month ago, and I realized that it had really been going much better than I had thought!"