A week and a half ago Sheila and I flew to San Jose to visit my parents. It was a long overdue visit and while there we had some time to play tourist. We visited San Juan Batista, which I hadn't been to since March 1991, and then it was over to Monterey and their Fisherman's Wharf, which I hadn't been to since the day I bought my truck which was in November 1995.
We also got to visit with family and friends. Sheila has now finally met Franz and his wife. Circumstances did not allow for a visit with Chip and Gabriela but we plan on being up there again in a few months so hopefully we can get that done.
Upon returning home and returning to work, some news came my way. Our client's customer has delayed a design review by a few weeks. This affects me in the sense that my services are restricted to that specific program, so I'm on hiatus. I think what will happen is that I will be on furlough until things pick up in about a month. Maybe sooner, or maybe later. So I've got another "vacation" on my hands.
I don't really feel like I need any more time off, but I may as well enjoy it. I plan on getting my Morse Code proficiency up greater than or equal to 15 words per minute. I may build an antenna or two and experiment with them. I've recently gotten involved with one of the public service aspects of amateur radio.
As for work, it's likely I'll return to what I was doing within one month. That's plan A. It's always prudent to have a plan B, which I do, and no one will hold it against me if I execute that plan in the even that the first doesn't materialize.
I really enjoyed that gig; it was my first exposure to commercial aircraft systems. It's a different set of challenges to satellites, circuit cards, and missile payloads.
The only downside here is that with the lull in sunspot activity, radio conditions on the higher frequency bands aren't what they could be, but I'll still manage to have fun.
