I Met Helaine 31 Years Ago Today

As I rounded a blind corner a young woman who had just started at the station approached from the other direction. Boom! I knocked her on her butt.

July 28, 1980 was sunny summer day. I remember that.

It didn’t begin as a special Monday when I made my pre-dawn drive from Center City Philadelphia to my job in Bala Cynwyd. It turned out to be one of the most significant days of my life!

Indulge me if you’ve heard this story before.

I was the morning drive disk jockey at WIFI in Philadelphia. I was desperately trying to get my first job on TV. I had tapes out everywhere.

Sometime around 9:30 AM I got a call from Farrell Meisel. He offered me the opportunity to co-host PM Magazine/Buffalo at WGR-TV.

I said yes!

There were no PCs or cellphones in 1980. I had to wait until 10:00 AM to leave the studio and find my friends.

I bolted as soon as I could and began to rush toward the radio station’s front door. As I rounded a blind corner a young woman who had just started at the station approached from the other direction. Boom! I knocked her on her butt.

That was Helaine! That was how we met.

A friend of mine (my secretive friend from the San Fernando Valley) was working for a major music act at the time. They were coming to Philadelphia that weekend. I asked Helaine if she’d like to go to his concert with me?

It was only after figuring out the date Barry Manilow played the Mann Music Center in Philly that we were able to finally figure out this date, July 28th. For the last 31 years we only had an approximation.

Thank you Internet for holding all data known to man including Manilow’s concert schedule from 1980.

Two weeks later I was gone. Helaine and I had no contact for a year and a half&#185!

We did finally get together again. We have lived happily ever after. I’ll save that story for another time.

As fateful days go how many are more significant than 7/28/80 is to Helaine and me? The entire path of our lives changed in the course of 30 minutes. I think that’s worth celebrating!

&#185 – I was an idiot. I’m sure all’s well that end’s well, but I was an idiot. Did I mention I was an idiot?

Tech Support 24/7… Possibly 8

There are two speeds in Stef’s life. The first is operative when she wants something. The second kicks in when I want something. Guess which is faster?

Stef called while I was driving home. It was a tech support call.

There are two speeds in Stef’s life. The first is operative when she wants something. The second kicks in when I want something. Guess which is faster?

I called her back when I got in.

She needed to know her WiFi password. I set up the wireless for her, but totally forgot the password. It seemed (and turned out to be) apropos when it was originally conjured. Problem is there are thousands of apropos passwords!

I tunneled into her computer with LogMeIn.com. It’s very reliable and resides permanently on her laptop.

Nowadays and on new installs I mainly use TeamViewer.com which seems a little more robust. More importantly it’s easy when my patient needs to be talked through its installation.

From Connecticut, but on her laptop in California, I quickly located, unzipped and executed a program to crack WiFi passwords. The virus protector zapped it on contact!

Oops.

Any program which plays with the system files necessary to recover encrypted data is looked at suspiciously. Understandable.

I tried turning off the virus protection. It wouldn’t fully shut down. Anti virus software looks suspiciously at that too! Frustration was setting in.

Finally I opened a browser and probed her router. It’s got a little website built-in to allow for configuration. Hidden away in obscurity was the password. It was fully in-the-clear. There was no encryption.

She’s happy. I am the man.