Dear Elizabeth,

         It was good to hear from you for I had been thinking of you lately.  It was February since I last heard from you and I was beginning to feel guilty not to have written you.

        I had been well up to a week before Christmas when I came down with pneumonia.  After several visits to the doctor, chest xrays, penicillin, antibiotics and lots of rest and feeling miserable I got over it.  I guess I had been working to hard with a full time contract with Harris, a part time contract with NCR and taking calculus two nights a week.  I am still going to UCF trying to finish my degree.  With three or four more courses to go I should finish around summer '86.  

      The project at Harris has been quite interesting, it's called the Satellite Data Handling System (SDHS) which is being developed for the US Air Force.  The required piles of extra and useless paperwork required for government projects has annoyed me some but the project has been fun.  SDHS is a weather forecasting system in which a forecaster sits in front of four color graphic computer CRTs.  Each CRT can display satellite weather pictures as well as maps and aircraft flight paths.  I have been working on the part that displays the maps, cold and warm fronts, air pressure and temp. lines.  It quite neat to display maps of different parts of the world in different colors then rotate and zoom in on a particular area.

      Julie quit work last year and has been going to the junior college full time.  She expects to get her AA degree this summer which she then plans to go back to work until I finish my degree at which time we hope to move.  Julie doesn't like it here, being from DC she misses the big city and all it has to offer.  This summer we visited some friends in Boston and checked out living there.  Next summer we hope to check out Austin and Dallas.  I'm not to thrilled about moving, you know me I like Florida and the warm weather but I figure why not give it a try, it might be kind of fun.

      Julie has been a little home sick so she flew to DC to visit friends and relatives for the week.  Anne (my step daughter) didn't go so she's here with me.  Anne and I get along quite well together but as with any teenager (she just turned 13) there are those difficult times.

      As you can see I've done this letter on my computer.  I bought a new one this year, an IBM XT.  It has been quite useful in my work (and play).  During the design and coding phase of the SDHS project I worked at home for about 3 months.  I would connect my computer to the computer at Harris via the phone and write documentation and programs from home.  I still spend about 20% of my time working at home.  I have a super word processor program called Word Star, it not only has a full screen editor that word wraps but does hyphenation and spelling checking with a 60,000 word dictionary.  Both Julie and Anne use it for most all their papers for school so at times we have fights over who gets to use it.

      You said you were interested in getting a computer, well I (of course) would highly recommend it.  As to which one, well there are quite a few good possibilities for 1500.00 to 2000.00. If you decide to get one let me know and I can make some recommendations.

      I find it exciting that you are so close to getting a PHD. Its something I hope to do some day.  So how does it feel to be on the other end, teaching classes instead of being taught?  I sure in many ways it is a pain.