5/17/03 SAT:
---Got back from Illinois with Neil. He was grilled by Amy about his school year for half of the six-hour drive back and slept the other half. He seems a little gaunt and sleep deprived but otherwise appears to be doing okay. He does plan to return to school in the fall, so it looks like he wants to keep at it. I tried to interest him in helping me out a bit this summer with my seriously understaffed book business. One lazy person (me by myself) can’t quite seem to cut it. But he does not think it would be very interesting. To me it is perpetually of utmost interest, but not every one is me. Not even Neil--or especially not Neil. Maybe I can give him projects here and there that he will be willing to take on. I told him he could even keep track of how much time he spends working for me and I would give him maybe $10 an hour (what he got at Big Creek Software, the last place he worked). It would seem he could be quite an asset, with his aptitudes. I should try to keep thinking of ways to involve him. But I would hope for a better future for him than to end up being the sole-proprietor of a mailorder book business.