Spending time with a friend

I was driving home from Thousand Oaks on Saturday. I had my radio on and found KRTH-101 to listen to. I recognized the voice of the DJ, Charlie Tuna. I had listened to him on KHJ-AM when I first came to Los Angeles. He was the drive to work guy then. Here he was on an “oldies” station. Then I listened to a song which was from the ‘80's! Now that is considered oldies music. Wow. I remember when KRTH played music from the 50's that seemed old to me. In fact I didn’t listen to KRTH much back then....it’s one of the oldest FM stations left. The 80's don’t seem that old, but this is 2011.

I had spent a few days with my friend, Jan, who I met in 1980 or 1981. I was working at Pepperdine University in Malibu when she came to work there. At first I didn’t much like her because she was such a morning person. She got on my nerves. She was usually at her desk when I arrived for work. We both shared an office. She was perky and wanted to talk. I didn’t really want to talk until I had been at work an hour or two. I guess I grunted at her or just didn’t say much when she talked to me with that lilt in her voice.

She likes to tell the story of the morning that I finally said to her, “Jan, I think you and I could be friends if you didn’t talk to me until 10:00 am”. She took the “hint”. After that, when I arrived for work, she pretended to be busy at work until I got settled. I’m sure it was hard for her, but she didn’t say anything to me until I looked at her and she could tell that it was okay. We became friends after that.

Our office was located in the center of the building and we thought that since two of the three doors were always closed, the A/C was making our office very cold. The thermostats were not locked and if someone got too hot, they turned the air up and then when someone else got cold, they turned it down. Usually when no one was looking. So we were always complaining about being too hot or too cold. I guess I was one of the biggest complainers.

I went on vacation for a week. When I came back, I noticed that a thermostat was installed next to the door by my desk. Jan told me that while I was gone, the A/C guys had come in and since there were so many complaints from our office, they decided to give us our own thermostat. I thought that was great.

By that time, we had another person, Patricia, in our office. One day Jan asked if anyone was too warm. Patricia piped up that she was warm. I said that it was a little warm. Since I was closest to the thermostat, they asked if I could turn it down some. I turned it down.

We sat there awhile and then Jan asked if it seemed cooler. I looked up from my work and said “I think it is cooler”.

A couple of days went by and everyone was warm or cool and I was adjusting the thermostat daily. Finally one day, I said “It’s cold in here”. Patricia and Jan said “Well, turn the thermostat up”. I turned it up.

A few minutes later Jan said, “Do you feel warmer?” I said “Yes, I feel better”. Then Jan and Patricia started laughing. I said “What?”
They couldn’t keep the secret any longer. While I was gone on vacation, the A/C guy had changed out the thermostat in the other office, which controlled our area. They asked him to mount the thermostat case on my wall. It was not attached to anything. When I had turned it up and down, it didn’t do anything. Patricia and Jan got the biggest kick out of me thinking I was controlling it! Jan loves to tell that story.

More later..........