[The following was Glenn's 1997 Contribution to the Annual Christmas Newsletter of the Physics Department of Carleton College. Some obsolete references have been removed but it is otherwise unchanged.]
Our lives continued to be dominated by the concerns of our two children. Thomas, age 7, is autistic. He makes progress, but it is slow. He still has very little functional speech. He is also on a restricted diet: No gluten (wheat, etc.) and no dairy products. His older brother James (age 10), is very bright and talkative, but is handicapped by ADD (Attention Deficit Disorder). We are constantly juggling appointments and therapy schedules. It is a hard life....
I am a Systems Consultant (read: somewhat glorified programmer) at the Harris Bank in downtown Chicago. I am also an "Assistant Vice President" (Bank titles are absurdly inflated). Most of my work is on client-server systems using Sybase and Unix. I spent a lot of time this year on tests to convince management that my systems would survive the year 2000. In recent years I have survived "rightsizing", "redeployment", and acquisition by a foreign competitor. Mia is at another big Chicago bank, also doing systems work, and with similar stories.
I cannot say that I am using any physics professionally, but I still try to read Physics Today and Science News, and look at various physics things on the internet. I also still read science fiction when I can. Weather permitting, I often go running in the morning, and sometimes do some bicycling.
I was at Carleton twice this summer, after not being able to visit since '92. In June I came up for Reunion weekend, while in August I stopped by briefly on a family trip. It was great!
Glenn McDavid
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©1997, 2000 by Glenn T. McDavid.