December 25, 1997

Greetings, friends!

This Annual Report is being sent to you in lieu of a religious or secular greeting card, since I do want to keep in touch with you, but don't want to participate in the annual madness.  Bah, humbug.

This year I

•  Turned 54
• Went to Croatia and Bosnia
• Got a job
• Still didn't get a job in radio

I left/sold Schreiber Instruments in January 1996, and at the beginning of 1997 still didn't have a direction.  I fooled around with the Internet, but decided that it was not my cup of tea (kid stuff).  I didn't come up with the next program that everybody needs, but no one else has thought of, so I started to look for engineering work again.

I hooked up with Dave Hoeft, whom I met 18 years ago, when he was just out of high school, and I was a senior designer on a CAD system and a fire sprinkler application. Now, he has developed a CAD system, and a fire sprinkler design program, but needs help with the number crunching.  I started on a consulting basis in March; in August Dave offered me a full time job, and I accepted

Big deal?  To me, yes.  I've been self-employed for 16 years, but never got the hang of the capitalist thing. What a relief!  And I love the work.  Check out our stuff at http://mepcad.com

Between February and August, I also toyed with the idea of working on a weapon system.  Imagine!  Me!  Firebrand pacifist back in the seventies, working on a weapon system?  I met these neat people, Ivan and Sheila, who are doing the leading edge of the leading edge of the leading edge of technology for the Army, and they've got the neatest toys that I'd get to play with. Bang, bang!  It would have been fun, but what would my friends say?
 
In August I went to Croatia, for two weeks, first time in five years. I begged Lea to join me, but she thought it would be too dangerous.

I spent a week in Zagreb, visiting friends, especially my childhood friend Zlatko Novak, former Senator in the Croatian parliament, and General Director of the Zagreb Hotel Intercontinental - rated as the best hotel in Europe, and Zlatko as the top General Director in the Intercontinental chain.  I have to brag about this guy.  I taught him everything he knows.  We spent most of our first five years of life together, and I'm two months older.  And always will be.

I rented a car in Zagreb, and headed for the coast. I drove almost the entire length, all the way to Dubrovnik - the most scenic drive in the world.  I took a detour to Sarajevo, also going through Mostar, and then a ferry from Split to Rijeka - overnight, great ride, felt like a cruise ship.  After a week of almost non-stop driving, I finally stopped for couple of days of rest at Koversada - world's largest nudist resort, on the west coast of Istria.  The closest thing to Eden, on this planet.

My impressions  from the travels (I knew you'd ask):

Croatia is doing much better economically than in recent years.  Tourism (main cash cow) is up 50% over last year, and prices are high.  Some people are doing extremely well, many are not.  The government is extreme right, and corruption is rampant.  Not much different than during the communist years, in many ways.  But a great place to visit.

In Bosnia, the tension is palpable everywhere.  In the Mostar area, where Muslims and Croats are supposed to be friends again, it feels like a tenuous cease-fire.  It wouldn't last a day without the heavy SFOR presence, mostly French.  Sarajevo is an overwhelming sight.  Half the city was destroyed in three and a half years of siege, and reconstruction must wait until peace comes.  For now, the priority is to prepare for war, in case the U. S. pulls out of the peacekeeping effort.  That's how it is.  Ask anyone there.

And now the really glum news:  The observations from the Hubbell telescope indicate that possibly there may not have been a Big Bang.  Drat!  I may have to change my religion again.

At home, a big October snowstorm collapsed the roof above the hot tub, and we were without it for two months.  I don't know how we survived.  It's fixed now, better than before.

Lea's true love is gardening, but now it's too cold for that, so she's taken up oil painting, and she's damned good.  I don't know why oil painting, but there it is.  After twenty two years of living with me, she has yet to take up computers.  I really think she has the background and the talent for it, but just can't get over the keyboardophobia.

Irit, Lea's daughter graduated from University of Colorado in Biology, and now is in grad school, has a teaching assistantship, singlehandedly runs Prima Skin Care (which she inherited from Lea, when Lea came to Schreiber Instruments to run marketing), raises an 11-year-old, and in her spare time, pursues romance.  She'll marry a doctor or become one, whichever comes first.

Adra, Irit's daughter is a few months away from a Karate Black Belt.  She came in second in a state-wide essay contest  Sixth grade.  And now come the teens.  Kee-yaa!

John, Lea's son married his soulmate, Jeannine, in 1996.  They are the most genuine hippies I know today, about twenty five years behind, and a thousand years ahead of their time.  I'm not sure what that means, but it fits.  John is a social worker, close to his degree.  Jeannine was office manager for John's old frend Jim's climbing equipment  company, and is working at starting her own computer-related business.

Our life is good.  May yours be too.

Ed and Lea Schreiber