December 24, 1991
Dear Mom and Dad,
We will probably have talked to you before this gets mailed, but I thought I'd start a letter anyway. We got Dad's long letter and sure enjoyed reading it. Your package with the magazines showed up this week. I don't think we will do that again, at least not for a while. Customs went through all the catalogs wanting to know what the value of each was. I had a hard time convincing them that they were free. After about 30 minutes or so, they finally charged me about $1 and let me go. Not really worth the effort, considering what was in it.
We went to a real nice Christmas party last Saturday at the restaurant. We had dinner and then the kids got a visit from Santa. All the parents had brought gifts up earlier, so Santa would have something to give to each of the children. It was a lot of fun, particularly for the kids. They can hardly wait for tomorrow. We will let them open one present tonight, but save the rest for in the morning. There have been quite a few new faces around here the last couple of weeks, as many people have relatives in for the holidays. If you are seriously thinking of coming over, this would probably be a good time to do it. Nothing like floating around the pool on Christmas Day!
Speaking of trips, it looks like I will attend an ASME conference in Cologne, Germany June 1 - 4, so that will put us back home sometime around the 6th. There's an outside chance I may have to spend the first 3 days in Dallas working on a committee, but this will just extend my home leave by that many days. We will work out the details later on. I'll be coming back to Indonesia around the first of July, but Becky and the kids will probably be staying through until mid-August, so there'll be plenty of opportunities to put the kids on the plane and send them down to you for several days. I may come on down to Odessa right at first, then have the family follow a few days later. Just don't know what the plans will be right now, but we'll get the kids to you as soon as possible. You might even think about coming up to Dallas when we get there, if you want.
Word coming out of Midland is not too good. I know it was hard on you for us to move away, but apparently it was announced that Mobil would reduce its workforce by 1/3. That's quite a few layoffs. They don't have anywhere near enough people nearing retirement that they can minimize the impact by using early retirement packages. Mobil is selling a lot of properties as well. It looks like next year will be a really bad year to be in the domestic groups, so it may have been a good move on my part, taking this job and getting out of the country for a while until things settle down. I just can't understand Bush ignoring the domestic economy. I read every day in the papers about other companies laying off people. I wish our politicians would quit fooling around and do something constructive for once. I would like to be able to come home some day!
Well, I guess you two are pretty happy now that Dallas has made it to the playoffs. This was a funny year. Houston and new Orleans finally won a Divisional Title, and Texas has a new coach. At least Makovich isn't an old UT player. I think it was high time to get someone in who has a different point of view. I'll close for now and will add some later, after Christmas.
Dec.26
Well, it was good talking to you yesterday. I hope your Christmas wasn't too quiet. Ours turned out pretty nice. I think the kids really enjoyed it. They seemed pretty happy with everything they got. We did miss all the family though. I hope you two really do think about coming over next year. I think you'd have a good time. There are a lot of activities going on during December. Anyway, we had a nice Christmas dinner. Danny and Peggy Reeh came over, along with Allen Mobbs, whose family is in the US now. We had a whole lot more food than we needed. We were both pretty tired by 10 that night, and had no problems going to sleep. Especially since Alexis had woken us up at 1:30 that morning. Sound familiar? Don't know what got into her and Austin, who came in at 5:30. Usually it's Becky waking them up on Christmas! Well, here we go, on into the next year.
My promotion and raise came as quite a surprise. I had not anticipated that for at least a couple of more years. I was led to believe they were going to be pretty tight about promoting people into the Tier II level. I guess it helps to have Jim Wingate in charge of all the engineers in Mobil. He was the one that approved my move over here. I'm really sorry I didn't get to see him before he left Indonesia and went back to Fairfax, Va. Anyway, the promotion is really nice, plus a sizable raise. With all the extra bonuses added in, it amounts to another $900 or so a month. Gee, I'm making so much money, I just don't know what to do with it all! Sometime after the first of the year, when things settle down a little, I'll have to evaluate what my finances are and make a few decisions on what to do with some of this money.
Well, guess I'll close for now. Take care, and we will be seeing you both before too much longer.
Love, John
(a postscript from Miss Becky -- you have already seen the photos she refers to in previous posts)
P.S. Here are some photos that John took around the house during the holidays. The furniture out on the porch belongs to P.T. Arun, but I had it recovered in fabric I brought with me. The furniture in the living room is our new stuff that we ordered in Medan. It got here just in the nick of time for the home tour! I'll write more later.
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