This is one of my favorite times of the year. One of the reasons relates to my current job: Fall is "corporate visit" time. On a corporate visit, we take an important customer back to our headquarters in Massachussetts and treat them to a day or two of The Good Life.

This happens on two levels: first, we wine-and-dine them, and treat them to limousine and helicopter rides - and this is generally a lot of fun. Second, we connect them with some of the brightest minds in our company. We set up high-level presentations on computers, software, and on how they relate to the customer's specific business problems.

To a computer-industry lifer like me, corporate visits can be dangerously close to nirvana. And my first of the year happens next week! Already I'm excited...