Getting Worse Before it Gets Better

Earlier this morning I dialed into an all hands meeting with my present employer, which will be my former employer around noon tomorrow.  The program manager has been very good about keeping the troops informed, but there is only so much that he can say.  He doesn't lie; he will tell you what he knows, and he will tell you what he doesn't know.  And this morning what he didn't say told me a whole lot more than what he did say.

Down there in Sorry Vista, the lockdown will very easily go thru the entire month of May, and it's possible that it may go all the way until the end of June.  That's a long time for people to be teleworking and once house arrest is lifted by the governor there's going to be a lot more teleworking than there was before all of is.

He admitted that he couldn't tell us what is being discussed between him and the customer, but he did say that the tests aren't coming in any more, which was also admitted by an officer at the O-6 level in an email I saw a few weeks back.  No tests, no need for testers, and certainly no need for test engineers.  He said he was trying to avoid the situation he had when they took over the contract, and in that one some key people were furloughed for six, maybe eight months.

What that told me is that down there, it's going to get worse before it gets better.  I don't think that is applicable to most situations outside of that one, although Organized Media can't wait to tell you otherwise.  Our useless governor waited until yesterday afternoon before announcing two more weeks of house arrest, which suggests there was a big argument up in Phoenix over who was going to get to flip that coin.  (I am proud to say that I haven't donated as much as a plugged nickel to either major party.) 

As for that operation down there in Sorry Vista, that is, that specific test center I was supporting down there.....stick a fork in it, it's done.  Testing of satellite radios will have to continue in one way or another as per a Pentagon directive, but it doesn't have to done in Sorry Vista.....there are at least two other facilities that I am aware of that can pick it up.  I know of one other workaround that can also be used, and why it hasn't yet been used might be a good question. 

Anyway, I separate tomorrow morning.  I am personally glad about it, especially considering the next chapter in my career starts Monday.   From reading their employee handbook, I'm joining a good company.  Yes, I'm leaving a good company as well, but that came with a situation that I will be glad to be leaving behind. 

We need to do to a lot of politicians what they are now doing to us.

And Now, Something Else I Can Make Public

This morning I accepted an offer of employment from a local aerospace company, specializing in subsystems intended for manned spaceflight.  No, I'm not going to tell you which of the three or four companies that do that tendered the offer.  What I can tell you is that these wheels started turning a few weeks ago, well before I was aware of my impending layoff.  My experience up in Las Vegas was a big plus as well as more recent experience here in Tucson involving the development of environmental test procedures.

I was initially hesitant about going forward with this when they first contacted me.  I really wanted it, but concerns over the virus situation gave me some reservations.  But when circumstances threaten your income stream, you go where the money is, and that's what I did.

The interview was done online, and it was a panel.  It took place yesterday morning and it was one of the more challenging interviews.  They gave me a reasonable expectation of continued work and expanding business.  They have been in business for several years, and their presence here has helped other Tucson aerospace firms get started. 

I wasn't even sure that I had passed muster.  I was told I would get my answer on Friday.  Instead I got it yesterday afternoon, and they wanted to make an offer.  There was some exchange of emails regarding salary, and they came in higher than what I had asked.  There are also performance bonuses available depending upon both company performance and my performance.  That would put me very close to what I was getting down in Sorry Vista, except that this time I won't be spending a lot of money on gas and lodging, and it will help getting some debt paid down.

I may have said here previously that private spaceflight is a very risky venture.  It is.  My Nevada employer ceased operations last month and one local firm here didn't make it.  I think this company will, as that it was founded years ago and is still run by engineers who know the business a great deal better than others who have attempted the market.  I texted one of my former co-workers from my Las Vegas days who is now up at Blue Origin in Seattle, and he said that he knows people who had worked there and liked it.

I was also able to determine that some engineers have been there for several years.  That's a good sign.  High turnover is indicative of some underlying deep issues, and that company up in Las Vegas had the highest turnover I had ever seen in my life, and this is coming from someone who worked in fast food and retail many years ago.

My projected start date is Monday, the 4th of May.  From what I can tell it is an "essential" business and the mayor of Tucson did not succeed in shutting them down.  Yes, they are teleworking too, and I might be doing some of that, and it wouldn't surprise me if teleworking becomes more widely practiced. 

I have already informed the management of my soon to be ex-employer of this development.  They were one of the greatest firms that I had ever worked for and they had much more of an employee-focused culture than I've gotten used to from previous employers from years ago.  I am sorely tempted to identify them here to add to their reputation, but I would be breaking precedent if I did that, and I don't feel like breaking precedent.

I'm hoping that I can drag a few people I know in there with me.  I have one friend in mind and he's thinking about it.  He's going to wait to see how it goes for me before he comes out of a retirement that started for him last year.  If I end up having to put together a test team I would want him on it.

I am truly a blessed individual.

And Yet Another Transition

Last Friday I was notified via email that I was being laid off.  Apparently the government customer has decided not to pay for the services of lead test engineers for third party certification of specialized radios.  No, I did not see this coming.  From what I can tell that decision was made a few weeks ago and my department manager tried to find work elsewhere for me, but to no avail as that one of the other test centers took a bad hit three months ago.

As it was, the government action officer and my employer have had an adversarial relationship from day one.  I can speculate as to why it was that way, but this blog really shouldn't be the place for that.  If I were to ask King Solomon why, he would say "I've seen this before.  There is nothing new under the sun". 

I am taking this well, but I will admit that sleeping at night has been a bit difficult to come by.  I kept myself very busy this weekend with ham radio activity, and when it's time to wind down for the night it's hard to wind down.  My mind goes into fifth gear.  I start strategizing my job search, I start thinking about what I'm going to do to the yard while I'm on down time, I start thinking about some other things that need doing around the house, and I'm frustrated that the state is still on a lockdown order. 

And now that the virus situation has come up, I'm wondering when this mess will be over.  Protests are erupting in some states and I learned that one is being planned for this state.  I'm very skeptical as that these measures are unprecedented........we've done far less for worse pandemics.  It's easy to suffer from the idea that the politicians and bureaucrats are trying to see how far they can go with us, and now pushback is happening.  My concern is that the next time something like this happens, there will be this eagerness on the part of some to shut this country down, not because they need to, but because they can.

Meanwhile, there are now reports of how China let this genie out of the bottle that seem plausible.  As I said last time, I don't think they bioengineered this.  They may very well have let this loose so that others could share in the misery.

I'm sure that more information will emerge in the time to come.

Teleworking Ain't So Bad

Last week saw my first complete week of telework.  I'm updating several test data sheets, all of which are in Excel.  It's an older version of Excel and even if it were the latest I'd still have to be fighting it here and there.  I've had to go online to get help in figuring things out.  The data sheets would be usable if we left them alone, but the customer wants these to look like what the data sheets we use for another series of test standards.

With the nice weather (save for yesterday) we've been having, I've been taking the company laptop out on the back patio, and working outside, enjoying the fresh air and watching cardinals perch in the trees in the wash behind my back yard.  I watch lizards run along the block wall, stopping every now and then to do "pushups".  When I look over the block wall, I might see quail or desert cottontails.

As much I enjoy not having to do the drive, it's strange.  It's like I don't have a job....except I do.  I just don't go to the office and work from there.  I'm not on the test floor since testing is suspended pending the fatass politicians lifting the house arrest orders that they all want us under.  I send in a daily activity report to my lead, and then I power down the laptop.  If I feel like it, I power up my transceiver, and I start spinning the dial to find some other hams to talk to.

I leave the house once or twice per day.  I don't enjoy going to the grocery store unless getting items to barbecue is what I'm there for (I need to start doing that).  I go to the store for the purpose of getting out of the house, to grab some items that I don't need but will eventually use, and then I come home.  I haven't seen the interstate for well over a week.  I sometimes feel the urge to drive down to Tubac or Patagonia, but there's no point, since most everyone there is under house arrest too.  Spending time outside is psychologically comforting to me, and that plus the store visits plus amateur radio plus recreational reading are helping to keep me sane.  Well, my cats help keep me sane too, in giving me a sense of purpose, which in their case is making them comfortable and keeping them spoiled.

Others are not taking this well.  Last Friday during a telework break, I stepped out the front door, and witnessed a confrontation between a couple who live about four houses away from us on the left side of the street that breaks off in front of our house to go north.  There were some somewhat loud words being exchanged.  The young lady, late 20ish it seems, was walking south, towards my street which runs east-west.

She was being followed by husband, or boyfriend, or domestic partner, or some such something.  He would try grabbing her arm and asking her to come back.  She reached my street, and then started walking west.  I positioned myself to be out of the line of sight of both of them.

When she got to the community mailboxes, she sat down.  He reached down and pulled her up.  More words were exchanged, and then they started slapping each other.  And I'm thinking, great, why do I have to see this?  They started walking east, and then turned on their street, with the lady about six feet behind the young man.

Then she bent down to pick up a rock.  And I'm thinking lady, if you're going to do a head shot, I'm going to have to call 911.  She threw it at him, aiming for his legs.  It hit him, he turned around, more words were exchanged, and they walked back to their house.

Last night the cops were at their house.  This was around midnight.  I didn't see it, but one of my stepdaughters did, and she told Sheila.  I heard about it this morning.  Whatever is going on there, it isn't good.  I don't know if someone got hauled off to the slammer or if the cops left after getting whatever it was under control.  I went online to see what police dispatches took place in my neighborhood, but it wasn't posted.  The cops don't come here all that often anyway.  We have two, maybe three of them, living nearby.

The situation with the Chinese virus does have almost everyone old enough to understand under stress.  Some are taking it better than others.  I know I'm under it.  I believe that China let the genie out of the bottle deliberately, guessing correctly that this would wreak havoc on a nation with a President who will stand up to them in trade negotiations.  No, this wasn't biologically engineered in a lab somewhere.  It was instead an opportunity to wreak this havoc, and for the Chinese to remove a part of their population since they themselves think they have too many people living there.

To steal a line from an overrated news anchor, that's the way it is, on Sunday, the 12th of March, 2020.

Don't forget to pet a dog or a cat.

Two More Weeks?

President Trump yesterday warned us that the next two weeks are going to be rough.  He is right in the sense that Organized Media will be very rough on us with the stories.  I've heard the projected death toll of 250,000, and I'm going to greet that with skepticism because the models that they use are not infallible and we've already seen a revision of what the predicted death toll will be in the United Kingdom.

How many times over the past few years have you seen where hurricanes are predicted to make landfall?  The best they can do is come up with a cone and then revise it several times each day.  The hurricane is pretty much going to go where it wants to go, and if there's an initial impact point that has been proven right then I'm not aware of it.

One thing that Organized Media absolutely positively refused to tell you.

How many people have recovered from this?

We're told how many cases have been recorded.  We're told how many fatalities have resulted.  There's still some debate over what the death rate actually is, and I've read where some of the eck-spurts are conceding that it just might be in the one per cent range.  But with the numbers that we now have, you'd think there would be a known recovery rate based on what we know so far, but why is that not being reported?

We know that there are risk factors.  I'm at a higher risk because of my age.  I'm aware of the need for social distancing and handwashing and all of that, but do I really need to go hide in a cave somewhere because of this?

Yes, I am avoiding public events.  I started doing that ten days before the first government mandate went out.  I'm washing my hands more frequently than I used to and I've now been recently known to open the door of convenience stores using a paper towel.  I'm going to call that prudent caution.

My problem here is that I suffer from a steep distrust of fatass politicians and Organized Media who enable them.  What will happen when this is over?  What are the consequences?

One consequence is that the public has now been conditioned to fear more than question.  Fear is very difficult to overcome, and I'm going to tell you that I am not immune to it.  I don't fear the virus, but I fear the loss of civil liberties and the willingness on the part of society to surrender them for a sense of security.

Is fear rational?  No, but concern is.  There is a Biblical proverb that says something like "a prudent man sees danger and takes refuge".  No sane person should attempt to argue against that.

But what if the danger is overstated?  I don't know if it is in this case or not.  If it turns out that this is not as bad as some want us to believe, that's good, but what will we learn from it?  Will we prepare for the next pandemic?

These are my thoughts at this time.