I was asked by my aunts and uncles to deliver the Eulogy at my Grandfather's Funeral.  4 days later, here is what I came up with.  

Eugene Valcourt, Father, Grandfather, Great-grandfather. 89 Years old. Born September 15th, 1919, Passed Away April 20th, 2009. Of the 6.7 Billion inhabitants on the planet, most would hear that statement and say "I'm sure he lived a good life". But for the people here today, both physically and spiritually, I say "He lived a extraordinary life".

For the short time I have been on this earth, I've had my share of role models,

Eugene Valcourt, 89, husband of Adrienne (Gervais) Valcourt, of Groton, formerly of Westford, died April 20th in Westford. He was born in St. Rose du Degele, Canada September 15, 1919, a son of Baptiste J. Valcourt and Marie L. (Beaulieu) Valcourt.

He served in the United States Army, in the 3606th Ordnance Heavy Automotive Maintenance Company, in ground combat in Iwo Jima and received the Good Conduct Medal, the American Defense Service Medal and the Asiatic Pacific Theater Campaign Ribbon.  He was honorably discharged October 31, 1945.

Prior to his retirement, he worked for the Abbot Worsted Company in Westford, the Custance Brothers Painting Company in Lexington and Florian Woitowicz Carpentry in Westford.  Mr. Valcourt was a member of the Franco American Club and the VFW Mattawanakee Post 6539, having served as a Past Commander.  He enjoyed woodworking, gardening and caning chairs.  

Besides his wife Adrienne, with whom he would have celebrated their 65th Wedding Anniversary, he is survived by five children; Dennis Valcourt and his wife Rebecca, Jane Lamy and her husband Leo, George Valcourt and his wife Paula, Suzanne Ricard and her husband Garry, Margaret Collins and her husband Alvin, ten grandchildren; Cynthia Phelps and Brian Lamy, Michael and Matthew Ricard, Jeffrey, Jamie and Ryan Valcourt, Lisa Aho and Heather Picariello, and Andrew Collins, eight grandchildren, Jacob Ricard, Nicholas and Olivia Valcourt, Abigail Phelps, Caleb and Brody Lamy, and Arianna and Anthony Picariello.  2 Step Grandchildren, Alvin Collins and his wife Jennifer, Karen Madden and her husband Thomas, 2 Step Great Grandchildren Kayla and Tyler Duarte.  He was pre-deceased by ten brothers and sisters.

VALCOURT visiting hours will be on Thursday, April 23rd from 4:00 to 8:00 p.m. at the HEALY FUNERAL HOME, 57 NORTH MAIN ST., WESTFORD. His funeral mass will be celebrated Friday, at 10:00 a.m. at St. Catherine's Church, 107 North Main St. Westford., followed by burial in St. Catherine's Cemetery.

In lieu of flowers, friends may make memorial contributions in his name to the Alzheimer's Association , 311 Arsenal St., Watertown, MA 02472. or the Groton Ambulance Fund 173 Main St. Groton MA 01450 FUNERAL DIRECTOR J.A. HEALY SON, WESTFORD. 978.692.6502.

An online guest book has been created to share memories. 

Yesterday as I departed from work, I sent out a simple message on Twitter to my followers:

This morning as I signed on line, a number of replies had come in with regards to my message. Most people suggested doing all three. This of course got me nowhere in my decision making process. I’m sure it’s possible, but I can’t begin to imaging buying a house, going to graduate school, and starting a business all at the same time.

One reply though came out of the blue from 

Alright, I admit it. I haven’t exactly updated this blog of mine in the past month. It has been a busy month though. Between the extra commuting for work, an out of town weekend to New Jersey, and good ol’ Turkey Day, there hasn’t exactly been a lot of spare time. Good news is I’m beginning to have a bit more time on my hands since December has begun.

The biggest thing has been my relocation of offices for work. The re-organization at work finally finished up, and I’m now officially working for Schneider Electric directly. I was able to move back to my old office building in Billerica the Monday after Thanksgiving, so my commute has officially been cut to 20 minutes (from 2 hours) one way. I’ve been able to see a bunch of old friends who I use to work with when I was in IT, so all and all it’s been a much less stressful time since I’m not driving 4+ hours a day.

That’s it for now. I’ve got a new hobby up my sleeves that I’ll fill everyone in on in the coming days. Let’s just say that I’ve just joined the ranks of a number of our founding fathers of this country. If you think you might have a guess of what the hobby might be, shoot me an e-mail.

I have the standard small group of shoes when it comes to being a guy….

• 1 pair of sneakers
• 1 retired pair of sneakers for dirty work (digging in dirt, painting, etc.)
• 1 pair of brown dress shoes
• 1 pair of black dress shoes
• 2 pairs of hiking boots (1 winter, 1 summer)
• 2 pair sandals (1 summer, 1 water)

So after this past weekend of forgetting my retired sneakers when I was painting up at Camp, and getting lots of white paint on my almost 2 year old Sambas, I decided it was time to retire those and get a new pair. Besides getting paint all over them, the insides were well worn, and they lost their “bounce” as far as support goes.

I had head about Zappos for awhile now, and had wondered multiple times “how do you buy shoes online, but not try them on”? I tend to need a shoe with a wide foot and narrow heal or else my foot slips out the back when walking, so I usually have to try on multiple pairs of shoes before I find one that fits.

I decided to give the service a try and said “What the heck? I can always either return them or sell them online for the same as I paid for them.” I was pleasantly surprised how easy the site was, how simple the order process was to navigate, and that Zappos had a 365 day original condition return/exchange policy (with free return shipping!) for either Zappos credit, or origional payment refund.

The bigger surprise came when it came to shipping my order out. Not only do they offer free standard shipping on their orders, but the day after the order, I received an e-mail that said the shipping on my order was upgraded to priority shipping. Next thing I knew, I had a UPS tracking number and the package was waiting for me upon my return home from work Thursday night. From order creation, to delivery, the whole process only took 1 day 18 hours. Shoes fit, I was a happy customer, and will now highly recommend the site to all my friends.

Moral of the story…provide good customer service, and you will keep a customer for their lifetime. Better yet, they will spread the good word about your product service for free to others, and you get to spend less money on marketing.  Even if something happens to an order, being in constant communication with your customer, and helping them through an issue will make them feel better about using you service in the future. 

At least one online retailer gets this new world of marketing.