cc: file, Diane Cluff, Darrell and Nancy Krueger, Pauline Nelson via mail, Sara and Des Penny, Grandma Hafen via Tony Hafen, Claude and Katherine Warner, and Lloyd and Luana Warner.
"`Tomorrow' has become a joke with my assistant Rhonda Hartmann. As we have participated in the pursuit of and watched the reaction to requests for investment money in Walden Visualization Systems Corporation, there have been dozens of times we have heard `You will know something for sure tomorrow.'
As I thought of Ben and Sarah choosing to go to DisneyWorld for their honeymoon, I remembered my honeymoon at DisneyLand. I remembered driving from St. George to Las Vegas, stopping to check out the hotels, walking into the casino, looking at your Mom, and both of saying we don't want to stay here, walking out and driving straight through to Los Angeles so we could cheat waiting for tomorrow. I recalled Marti waking me up as we drove down the last mountain so I could see the pretty fog rolling up against the hills. I recall laughing as I explained the difference between fog and smog; nature's low lying clouds; and man's pollutions. I thought of how happy you were, Ben, as you and Sarah left the house last Saturday night after getting your bag of clothes and shoes (.../9823.html). I recalled you saying `Tomorrow we will be at DisneyWorld.' I recalled how much I have enjoyed the Disney `TomorrowLands' over the years, both as a place and as a concept. Do you guys remember when we drove the family to DisneyLand for a vacation one summer? Do you remember when we drove to DisneyWorld? Do you remember the StarWar's preshow to the spaceship ride? The Michael Jackson 3-D video? The fun (and the pain) of doing things together as a family? As I write my memories down, I guess it shows the parts of the Disney theme parks I remember most is TomorrowLand.
Tomorrow $300,000 of ernest money for the new company will be deposited. On Thursday we thought it would happen on Friday. It turned out the money probably got hung up (in a wire transfer) in New York over the weekend. On Tuesday we thought the transfer would happen on Wednesday. It turned out there were several things in the formal letter-of-intent (.../9820.html) that needed to be adjusted, and it took a couple of days to get the changes consistent in Oslo and Houston. Last Sunday we thought the money transfer would happen on Monday. However, there were more changes to the formal letter-of-intent than we expected. As you can see from this summary of last week, every time we thought the commitment was going to be acted on it turned out to be the next day. I wonder if the same process will happen when the remaining $7,700,000 investment in the new company is deposited. This is why Rhonda is always asking to me, `Tomorrow?'
Tomorrow John Amason plans to resign from his full time job. He will be joining Rhonda and me as a full-time employee of the new company. We have not been able to work it out for Ron Burgerner to join us, yet. We are merging Energy Innovations and WVS together and the new company is named:
This will be a Norwegian Company by the end of the week. If everything goes as is being discussed, Continuum will be on the Norwegian stock market later this year. I will be really suprised if it happens this fast. Maybe I have become jaded, listening to people talk about tomorrow.
For the first time since about 1990 I will have a regular salary. Not only that, I will have a company car. One of the employees of the company we are merging with has a Lexus. Do you kids think I should get one of those, or stick with my gray Saturn? Maybe I could give my Saturn to Ben as a wedding/graduation present? Maybe I could sell it and buy a used Saturn for Ben and another one for Melanie? And how would the two of you pay for gas and insurance? Maybe I should just keep two cars, and rent one to Larry to cover the car payment costs? I look forward to your input, since I don't have to decide tomorrow.
Remember the classic phrase from the movie `Gone With The Wind,' when Scaralet's whole world is falling apart, and she says:
I guess the opposite is happening with me. There seems to be some really good stuff happening in my life. And, for a change, instead of trying to reconcile myself to disolving chaos, I am going to need to make some decisions about how I use and allocate resources. For instance, do I sell the house, and build something that fits me better? Or do I just pay off the existing house payment again? Do I build up my savings? Or do I invest in things I believe will provide a larger `retirement fund?' I am meeting a friend in Round Top tomorrow at 9:00 and we are going to look at two 1840 log cabins, and another house which could be a conference center and an escape from the city as a possible investment. Although I might not need to, I intend to have all of the background thinking done, so I am ready to make informed decisions when tomorrow comes.
The High Priest Group Leadership (Cory Grua, Bill Hagen, and myself), visited one of our quorum members tonight. In thinking about what I had already written of this Thoughtlet, it was interesting that among other things, during a very nice conversation, he mentioned that he also starts a new job tomorrow.
I remember, when we were raising the investment money for Landmark Graphics, we went through the same kind of delays in progress this Thoughtlet has ended up focusing on. Kevin Kinsella and I had our first discussion on about the 28th of December of 1981, and we finalized funding and saw a transfer of funds of $1,000,000 on the 15th of December of 1982. At first we were turned down by everyone we asked to participate with us. Too much risk! Then, when we got Limbaugh, Hildebrand, and Mouton signed up, it was July and the Venture Capitalists all went on vacation. Once they got back, there was due-diligence, hundreds of pages of legal paperwork, and one delay after another. I had dinner Friday night with a friend in a major oil company we are attempting to recruit into Continuum. As we discussed the options he faces, the opportunities and the challenges we face, the experience I have had with ongoing delays, I could sense his desire to have everything tied together today, and a desire to not wait for tomorrow.
Too bad life is not about instant gratification. There needs to be some planning. For instance, I have agreed to support MuSE at SiGGRAPH in Orlando the week of the 20th of July. I am getting a significant salary increase with the merger of WVS into Continuum Resources asa. I would like to use some of this money to take Melanie, Sara, and Rob to Orlando with me, and to let you all spend the days at DisneyWorld while I am working at the Convention. Melanie might have to work at the convention with me, at least some of the time, and I should know the specifics by next weekend. Ben, when you and Sarah let me know you are back safely, could you tell me which part of DisneyWorld is best to see. Is it today, or is the best part still TommorowLand?
Yesterday we had a planning meeting and interview from noon until 5:00. Since Melanie, Sara, and Rob are in Colorado on vacation, I went to Tinsletown and treated myself to what turned out to be two separate movies: `Hope Floats;' and `Six Days and Seven Nights.' I like the big screens at TinsleTown, and I felt like I needed to escape my reality. I cried during the first movie, because I felt like I have been in the lady's shoes. I laughed in the second one, because I felt like I will be in the hero's shoes at some near future tomorrow."