There hasn't been much change in my situation to report other than that today I am under the weather and have some flu-like symptoms. Sinus issues have come largely into play due to unusual weather this week. Two straight days of gusty winds (and a session this afternoon of them) have kicked up lots of pollen and I think that's what's really got me slammed.
I remain on furlough. It's been passed along to me that they're trying to bring me back. Meantime, they are paying my medical/dental/vision benefits and I'm accruing vacation. Two of our biggest customers have had recent management shakeups and the new sheriff in town always takes it out on the subcontractors. I've seen this before and I will see it again as long as I remain in the industry.
I have intelligence that one of our customers is trying to bring in some help via independent contractors, but lowballing them by offering rates 30% less than what they were paying before. That's their right to do that of course, but they're not getting any takers. They certainly are not going to lure away people from our other major customer that needs that kind of talent, and it should go without saying that engineers who are smart enough to qualify flight hardware are also smart enough to qualify medical devices, and the medical device industry appears poised to expand in the near future.....along with mining.
On a brighter note, aside from the past three days, the weather here has been great and I've taken to barbecuing again. It is amazing what you can do with a grill. Did you know that scrambled eggs from the grill taste a whole lot better than those cooked in the kitchen? Yes, I've done that before....spraying cooking spray into a foil pan and then cooking eggs in that pan.
Yesterday I slow-cooked some pork tenderloins, potatoes and green beans.....wind be damned. I don't have the energy to do that again this evening, but later on this weekend I've got some ideas I want to try out. One of them is marinating some chopped steak in tequila, and then cooking that out on the grill with the intent of it being burrito filler or fajitas. Salmon and ribs are on the short list as well.
On the political front, I'm not going to say very much of anything this post. The political theater these past few weeks has been unusually good. We haven't had a President like this since Andrew Jackson. As far as Congress goes the whole lot of them get better at being more useless as time goes one.
And on the ham radio front, it's been a slow week but a good one. My last time on I was able to get Spain and Chile. A few weeks ago I bagged Uganda and I now have the WAC, or Worked All Continents award pending. The equinoctial propagation conditions will give way to the sporadic E season, which for me means more time on VHF. We're about one month away from that.
With that I'm going to sign, and slam down some liquids.
Don't forget to pet a dog or a cat.
