Wendy Milner

When Wendy left our writing department, it was to get a writing job in another writing group; this time, in the Colorado Networks Division (CND), to specialize in training. She had already been at HP for 17 years in various divisions in California and Colorado, including graphics programming on a high-powered BASIC machine (that is not necessarily an oxymoron), and then programming in Lisp for a while on an Artificial Intelligence project.

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Farewell to Wendy
Copyright 1993 David Arns

There are not many folks who have been here as long
As our Wendy; indeed, they're quite few.
Her years with HP are now seventeen strong,
And now even yet, she's not through.

She's gotten a job with the CND folks
(Or whatever we're now s'posed to call 'em),
And so our farewell, as we bid her adieu
Should be dignified, stately, and solemn.

But quickly, before we assume such a state,
And before we all sadden our faces,
I'll tell you about (if I get it all straight)
Other things she has done other places.

Her first HP job she had got way out west
(California, if you gather my meaning),
It took her but moments to fill out the forms
And fly through her applicant screening.

But it didn't take long for the quakes and the smog
To dampen her spirits a little;
She had had quite enough of the nation's west coast,
It was now time to move to the middle.

So she came to Fort Collins; "Now, where," she then thought,
"will I go, since by brain is still smoggy?"
Well, she found her a house with a barn right out back
For her horses, her cats, and her doggy.

And back at the salt mine-- (beg pardon) HP,
She worked on the Series 500,
But who would use BASIC for graphical needs?
(That's something that many have wondered.)

And then, for a while, she was working on Lisp
In the dog-eat-dog world of AI,
But this didn't last; for the present, at least,
'Twas proverbial "pie in the sky."

She has done many things as she's travelled along,
In her varying jobs through the years:
She's been an LP, a Support Engineer,
And now Training crowns her career.

So now, O Wendy, we bid you farewell,
And wish you the best of tomorrows,
With jobs well done and fullness of life
And only the smallest of sorrows.

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