Big Changes at work

Hi from cool Delhi,

The weather here lately has been hanging around 50-55 degrees F in the daytime (10-15C) and a little cooler at night, not a lot. With no heat in the buildings it gets cool unless you wear lots of layers or head for the blankets and covers when you are home. I tend to just keep my jacket on and then have a blanket handy for watching TV or laying around the apartment. Everyone says it will warm right back up again by the time I get back from Los Angeles in three weeks. I cannot wait to see my new granddaughter and have been so buzzed by this great event. I went back to the Sadie pictures post and put up a couple of pics of my son Brad when he was a newborn so you can all see how much he looked like his daughter when he was born. There is definitely a huge family resemblance. One of Brad's friends from Academy days says that all of her guys are married and having baby girls that look just like them so she is freaking out. But, I just can't wait to meet the little lady and try to keep Brad from making her into a Tennessee Vols fan before she has a chance to make her own choices - ha!!

I have been alluding to our work scenario all along and this week our American CEO, who came after I did last summer, was just let go. He tried to make too many changes too quickly and ended up creating a lot of bad will. He also was trying to completely revamp the way we did business and ended up making the DGCA angry at him (and us) so we were effectively grounded for a couple of months with our two Citations and several of the helicopters. In the end, after poor cash flow in the charter department for a couple of months, that ended up costing him his job. There will be an adjustment period and we all move on. There were certain things he did get accomplished for me but overall I am going to be a more relaxed camper now.

I think I mentioned in my weekly letter that the company called me last week and asked me to renew my contract for a year so that really made me feel good and it confirms that we like each other enough to keep it going. The Indian people are really starting to grow on me and they treat me so well that it's hard not to like this place, plus you have someone to do almost everything for you. Karen thinks it will take years to get my head screwed back on straight after this stint.

Today I was walking back to the mall again and came across my cute puppy family. They are getting bigger and I know now that it would not be a good thing to have one of these dogs couped up in my apartment no matter how irresistible they are at the moment. They were huddled up with each other in the security guard's shack so I snapped the photo of the day. I walked to the mall to buy cat food so my cat doesn't disown me but much to my disappointment both malls that are withing walking distance were out of cat food. Cats don't get nearly as much attention here as dogs and there are piles of dog food in every store. My store usually has just a bag or two of cat food but didn't this time. So, I bought puppy chow and when the cat gets hungry enough, she will eat puppy chow until I can get to the store and get her food. I believe she has already gone to the kitchen and eaten so I haven't heard too much complaining. Maybe she likes the variety and will do okay. I got the chicken and milk flavored puppy chow so she should be good with that. If not, she can go hunt small rodents and birds like her ancestors.

Since some of you may have discarded the link to the baby Sadie photo album already I will send a separate email to you with that link just so you can see baby Brad and Baby Sadie come from the same gene pool. If I had a digital picture of myself at that age, it would be a threesome of familiar baby faces.

Thanks to all of you who write and send just a note now and then letting me know these are getting to you. I will take my camera out again and take it on my next trip so that I have a fresh set of pics for you guys. I haven't really done anything new lately so there hasn't been anything new to photograph. I do want to go outside my apartment complex when it warms up just a little and get some photos from these construction villages that just spring up in the middle of a field next to the highrise that is being built. I am sure there are some interesting stories to be found there. I was walking by a professional ironing place today and watching as they filled this HUGE iron with charcoal from the fire and then ironed many clothes with this thing. It must weigh a ton and I don't even know how they do it. I've got to get pics of that for you ladies who think your iron is heavy. And, you don't have to stop every hour and refresh the charcoal either. Non-stick surface? What's that??

As I was walking back from the mall tonight I was in the little village that is outside my gate and my housekeeper/cook named Meva saw me and came running over to say hi, although since she doesn't talk English it was more like this: Her - Dinner? Me - no, breakfast. Good-bye. That's about the extent of our verbal communication. Most of what I show her is by example. Yesterday at the mall in Delhi after Sunday church I finally found some Macaroni and Cheese Dinners from Kraft. Whopee! My kids and I could probably survive for a few months on these and just some bread or something. So, today I got one out and showed her how to cook it. She was arguing with me at critical points. She thought I put too much water in the pan when I was boiling the macaroni. She didn't realize I was going to dump it out later. She screamed when I put the milk into the cheese and macaroni mix in the pan. After I had a pretty good mix going, I put some on her plate (you feed your help here, it's one of their perks) and made her taste it. At first she wrinkled her nose and acted like she didn't like it but I kept after her to eat a few more bites and soon she was scarfing it down. By the end, she had eaten well and indicated that she liked it - so I feel good that I have a new convert to mac and cheese, one of the staples of life. I told her she could take the chili powder that I keep in the kitchen and pour some on hers to make it more like Indian mac and cheese but she shook her head no, much to my surprise. I like Indian food pretty well, if they will just leave the chili powder out or cut down on it, I could really get into it. But, at the guesthouse last summer they were cooling it off for me and the customers started complaining that the food wasn't spicy enough. Rats!! Oh yeah, I forgot to remind you all that my bachelor kitchen is filled with convenience foods like pancake mix and cold cereal and lots of bread for toast and french toast and sandwiches and now mac and cheese. Of course there is frozen pizza and you can call out for pizza if you wish. I have lots of fresh fruit in the form of oranges, grapes, apples, bananas, and now Karen's favorite - pomegranites. I had never opened one up but now I have and they are really good when they are fresh. The mangos and papayas are tremendous here, I just haven't brought one home yet, but I get them at the restaurants and at people's houses. Yum. Some of the curries are made with lentils and I love those. Dal can be good if it isn't too spicy and what they call salad here is really just sliced cucmber and carrots and onions. I spoil myself with several bags of fresh nuts to munch on as a snack. I have pistachios and almonds and peanuts at the moment. They aren't too expensive and I learned to use them as snacks from my marriage counselor, who snacked on nuts so he could counsel all day long without more than a few minutes break.

Feeling good, getting ready for my trip to America. Karen has now received her passport back from the Indian consulate and she has her visa. They are done by handlers and the outsourcing company keeps the change if your visa isn't approved as you requested. We wanted her to have a 5 year visa . They approved only a 6 month visa to match the expiration date on my employment visa and kept the couple of hundred dollars difference. Oh well, now all she has to do is get on the plane and she will be with me in LA and after also seeing the new granddaughter, she will be traveling with me back to Delhi on Feb 4 and 5. Fun!

Kitty is under the covers keeping warm on me and keeping me warm so we help each other. It's time to tuck myself in. Have a great week. My inspirational saying for this week is: Remember, happiness is a journey, not a destination. Enjoy the ride. It will be over before you know it.