The Passing of O.J. Simpson

Two days ago news broke that former football player, actor, and Hertz spokesman O.J. Simpson passed away from a battle with cancer.  For those of us who were around and of adult or somewhat adult age, he was known for being arrested for the murder of his wife Nicole Brown Simpson and her friend Ron Goldman.  This was a really bizarre case and millions were following it.

When the murder first made the news, I didn't know or didn't care at that time who had done it.  As the events unfolded, O.J. found himself on the very short list of suspects, and he was expected to turn himself in.  On that particular Friday, I had the day off from work as that I had been working long hours testing a communications satellite, and I went to the beach.  As I was listening to the radio on the way to the beach, the presumption was that he was going to turn himself in.

After I got home from my outing, I turned on the tube, and a most bizarre spectacle was unfolding.  It was on almost all of the channels.  A slow moving white Bronco was being "chased" by about thirty police cars on the 405 freeway, with police and news helicopters in attendance.  I immediately grabbed a blank videotape, loaded it, and began taping.  This was history and I wanted my own record of it.

It was known that O.J. was in the Bronco.  There was talk that he had been on the cellphone and was going to kill himself.  My guess is that half of the nation was watching this, garnering an audience of a size that hadn't been seen since the first Moon landing.  And yes, I had that morbid curiosity about whether or not he was going to kill himself.  The Bronco eventually found its way to O.J.'s house on 360 North Rockingham, and then it was another 45 minutes, or so it seemed, before O.J. was arrested.

The trial itself went on to be known as the "Trial of the Century".  I didn't watch very much of it, even though I thought Marcia Clark was well north of attractive.  What I do remember is being glad that I was going to Italy for a long vacation and I wouldn't have to hear about the trial for four weeks.  When I was overnighting near Heathrow on the return leg I figured I'd turn on the telly and see what British television was all about, and there it was, the O.J. Simpson trial.  I think I lasted all of thirty seconds before going downstairs to the bar and trying some of the beer.  

I also remember listening to the final argument that Christopher Darden had made.  I didn't listen to what Johnnie Cochran had to say; I had no use for him then and I never did after that.  The next day at work, we were gathered around the radio to listen to the verdict, and were stunned at the "not guilty".  

Now you can make the argument that the prosecution botched the case.  There were some things that they could have done better.  You can also make the argument that Judge Ito lost control of the trial, which in my opinion, he did.  But upon reading Chris Darden's book, there was the statement that the defense savaged the first witness on national television, and no witness after that wanted the center of attention.

It also didn't help matters any that detective Mark Fuhrman denied ever using the word "nigger" in all his life, which he was later proven to have done so.  And with that, there were some people who believe that he planted the DNA and the glove.  I don't personally believe that he did that but I can't prove to you that he didn't.  What I do know is that O.J. became a suspect when he was told that his ex-wife was murdered.  He didn't ask which one as that he had two of them, and he didn't ask about the details.  

All of that said, O.J. vowed to spend the rest of his life searching for the "real killer", and he was diligent in checking out lots of golf courses in his search.  He had more legal troubles after that, lost a civil trial, and was resident at a correctional facility in Lovelock, Nevada.  I was hoping that he would have remained there for a lot longer than he did, but that's not how it turned out.

Regardless, O.J. is now dead.  

One rule that I imposed upon myself about ten years ago was to not celebrate misfortune happening to anyone else.  I am trying very hard right now to live by that rule, but it was all I could do to not jump up and down for joy over this and celebrating it.  Even though it's now two days since I learned about this, there's that part of me that wants to live this one up.  And it's difficult to live by that rule.

That said...........I think I can say that we haven't had that good of a day since Charles Manson died.

My Old Job is Available.......if I want it

 For a number of years, I have been subscribed to job alerts.  No, I am not looking right now, but I remain subscribed as that I think it's to my advantage to know what the market is like for my field.  Without that, I still have sense that it is on the hot side of things, as that I get lots of email from recruiters.  I think things in the industry have slowed down some from where they were six months ago, which I'm going to attribute to the upcoming election.  

What's now happening is that the old job that I've had twice down in Sorry Vista, excuse me, Sierra Vista, is back open.  I worked at Fort Huachuca testing communication systems for a mix of customers who wanted that lab down there to certify their systems.  My first gig down there was from May 2017 to January 2018, for Engility when they had that contract.  Engility lost the contract to Jacobs, and with the changeover being held up for reasons I don't understand Jacobs wasn't able to start on that until May 2019.  Between those gigs, I worked for a local firm that had me working on aircraft security systems and later on, hardware to monitor aircraft engines.  That work came to an end as Jacobs was ramping up, and so I went back down there.

Relations between Jacobs and the government officer who oversaw that contractor weren't the greatest.  He too lost his job when Jacobs came in, and after a furlough he went over to the government side and had to take a pay cut.  I think he had it in for Jacobs and was doing everything he could to make it hard on them.  He succeeded in one way; he forced Jacobs into a position to where they had to lay off personnel, and I was affected.  At that time I was negotiating with a local company that worked in manned spaceflight, and the transition happened in such a way that there was no disruption in my income stream.

Now those jobs down there are again open.  There's no doubt that if I applied for my old job, I would be quickly interviewed and get an offer.  (I'm unclear as to if Jacobs has this contract or not).  I really enjoyed working for Jacobs, but I can't say that I was enjoying the dysfunctional situation that they inherited from Engility.  Jacobs treated me very well, especially the manager who hired me, and yes, I would work for him again in a minute...........except............that I'm in a great situation where I'm at right now, and I just don't have the inclination to update my resume.  If I have my way, my next job is retirement, and then coming back to where I'm at now as a part time contractor (and my employer has told me they would love to have me back).  

As for retirement, as I've said before........not this year.  That crystal ball that I can't see thru isn't telling me anything (as if an inanimate object could do so in the first place).  I have a rough date picked out, which I'm keeping to myself, mainly because if I were to announce it now when that would be then something would emerge to make me change the date.  

Interestingly enough, my most recent former employer is looking for people too.  I am in regular touch with them, as that I'm close to a few people who are still there.  The number of them that I knew though is dwindling as that they've had a 60% turnover since I left.  I was telling someone a few weeks back, I worked at Jack-in-the-Box a long time ago and we had turnover, but it wasn't as bad as in the office I used to work in.

With that, I'm going to call it a post.  

Some Catching Up, and Some Thoughts

 The past few weeks have been something of a whirlwind here.  There were some things on the family side to take care of, which I will not get into here, and with that has come a lot of mental processing.  I'm not going to go into details.  It went a whole lot smoother than it could have otherwise.  

As for what I have been doing, well it's been ham radio, work, and research on my family history.  I have it in mind to create some pages here about that and to update them from time to time.  I also want to add some other pages.  But getting back to the family history, I want to create pages to document what I know of my Parker, Pilkington, and Bonsall roots.  There is a lot of documentation out there on these lines.  I have some charts to work on and more research to do.  

As for work, I am enjoying my new assignment much more than I've enjoyed some others.  Yes, I think about retirement, but with my current gig I don't see that happening this year.  Next year all bets are off as far as that goes.  I told myself a long time ago I'll retire when it's no longer fun, and folks, engineering is still fun.  

And with that I will bring the first entry of this year to a close.