Email: On or off the bus [LG]

A technology writer writes about technology: in my case, product catalogs, websites, white papers, stuff like that. A technical writer writes product specifications and documentation, but I do more: I put technology into a business context. It's important not to tell customers all the technology that a techie wants to know, but only as much as a customer wants to know. Besides that, I work at a high level and translate the broader business mission and technology vision into language that customers can understand, whether they are a chief, upper- or mid-level executive. (I also teach technology to non-executives and non-customers -- even retirees.)

I usually work from home but I go on site as needed. I can get my socializing outside of the office; that's where I can truly let my hair down anyway. [Your] work in a church is all about conversation and relationships. To get paid, I have to produce what we call deliverables; to get paid, you just have to interact with and help people. That's why I like teaching; that, and my students laugh at my jokes.

I explain this puzzling desire among some to "retire" from kids by a "been there, done that" mentality -- which to me seems uncomfortably like cynicism or withdrawal. I don't plan to be done holding babies or changing diapers until I can physically no longer do so (in my 90s?). I do think there are two kinds of people: those who choose to always grow and those who choose to recede or fold in on themselves. That's a slippery slope I just prefer to avoid by charging furiously in the opposite direction.

Welcome to Texas (if one transplanted Texan may say so to another)!