Buc-ee's Has Come to Arizona

If you don't already know it, Buc-ee's is a famous chain known for huge amounts of gas pumps, a huge store, a huge selection of items, and is fast developing a following.  I have known about them for some time but have never been to one.  I've had a few people tell me I should go at least once, but I don't plan on going out of my way to get to one anytime soon.

Anyway, they opened up their first Arizona location in Goodyear, right off I-10.  I honestly would have thought they would have opened in Eloy first.  The opening was a big event here in the state, with hotels being booked to capacity and law enforcement having to re-route traffic.  I don't know if the hubbub has died down yet, and I don't have occasion to pass thru Goodyear.  If I need to use I-10 west of Phoenix metro, I take the bypass thru Gila Bend to avoid Phoenix.

I could criticize those who camped out for a few days before the grand opening, which if I do, then I'd have to hope that no one ever finds out I stood in a long line here in Tucson when In-N-Out Burger opened their first location here.  The honest truth of the matter is, those people who are fans of Buc-ee's aren't out robbing liquor stores, and I consider them more desirable to society than lottery addicts.  

As for why I don't see myself going to Buc-ee's, it's for these reasons.  One, I'm something of a Quik Trip loyalist.  They opened up in Tucson some years back and it's my convenience store of choice.  Two, if you buy something to eat from a Buc-ee's kitchen, they don't provide a place for you to sit down (some, but not all, of the Quik Trips do).  Three, I don't like crowds very much.

Now if I happen to be on the road somewhere and need some gas, I might stop there to check it out.  I'm sure I would go in and wander around some, to see what they have.  I might even grab a brisket sandwich to see what that's all about.

All of that said, it has to be noted that what we have here in Buc-ee's is an American success story.  They are doing something right to have the kind of following that they have.  Bucky Beaver is on his way to becoming as recognizable as Ronald McDonald.  

And I just might be missing out on something if I don't check it out.

I'm Retiring!

A few weeks ago I made the decision to go ahead with retirement.  I've been in this kind of financial position for some time, but held off for a number of reasons.  One was that I was really enjoying my job, and two was that I was really enjoying the people I work with.  Yet there has been this desire to take a sabbatical, and I could use one of about six months.  It is possible that I may come back as a part time contractor (I already have one previous employer wanting me back).  It's just as possible that I'll be out somewhere with a fishing pole.  I can tell you that Sheila and I would like to do some traveling, both here in the Southwest, as well as the East Coast.  

I notified my new boss of this decision early Thursday afternoon.  I knew a week ago that this would be the week.  The hardest part about this was keeping it bottled up inside of me.  Sheila knew, Mark knew, and so did a few others.  I didn't say anything about it at work.  I really wanted to vent.......I went blog silent as this was being mulled over.  I didn't want to spill the beans just yet.

Interestingly enough, I slept really well last week........until Friday night, the day after I informed my boss.  I haven't brought it up at work.  I told two co-workers that I am close to, and asked them not to say anything about it.  Word will eventually get out, and I'm going to let that take its course.  And there's a reason for that.

Morale in my department has been plummeting.  I can go into why I think it is plummeting, but it's best not to.  I didn't want to be seen spiking the football while many of my co-workers are unhappy.  In other words.........savor, but don't gloat.  I've seen situations before where once morale goes south, it never really comes back.  It's only overcome when there has been a huge turnover in personnel.  The low morale is undoubtedly a factor in the timing of my decision, but even if it weren't I still need a huge chunk of time off.  There are guns to shoot, fish to catch, coins to collect, books to read, and ham radio to keep me busy.  If there's a concern, it's that I might be busier than I am now, and I might have to dedicate time for relaxation.  

I am very much at peace about this decision.  It is time for me to step down, and let someone else ride this horse.

As for my last day, that's still being worked out.  Maybe the end of August.  Maybe the end of July.  Professional courtesy obligated me to give 90 days' notice, and I told my boss I would not go out before those 90 days.  He's going to have to work with HR to open a req for my replacement, and even if he gets someone I wouldn't want to be the person that replaces me.  The nature of my present assignment is that it will take six months to break that person in, and another six months of seasoning.  It's been a challenging assignment and a fun one to boot, but I don't a lot of people would have said that if they were in my shoes.

So.........a career that started out in microwave tubes, and went on to missiles, experimental missile payloads, satellites, satellite ground stations, circuit cards, manned spacecraft, cancer detection equipment, life support systems, aircraft engines and test stations for flight hardware is drawing to a close.

Most of it was fun, and I've learned not to have regrets over "what might have been".  

If there is anyone who is more blessed than I have been, I'm not aware of it.

Some Genealogical Musings

Most of the updates here have been on the Parker family, which has its own page.  I am thinking of creating a "Genealogy Main" page as the first stop for anyone who stumbles here looking for information on my research.  There is the intention of creating pages for Pierson, Pilkington, and Bonsall family histories.  There are some families on my mother's side I want to research as well.  I sometimes wonder if I'm opening a can of worms here on my Parker research, as that I am learning that it just wasn't my third great grandfather's family who migrated to Indiana and then Kansas.  One of his brothers' families migrated as well, along with his younger sister's.  And earlier I learned today that some of his cousins came too.

A year or so ago I started tracing downwards as many known descendants of William Riley Parker, mainly to learn where they went after settling in Kansas.  I may have to reach back even farther and go back to his grandfather.  That will shed a lot more light on the migrations of this family, along with the Hodges who migrated with them.  

If the information gets big enough it will justify its own website, as if I really want to be taking on other projects in addition to what I have going now.  This blog started out mainly as a chronicle of my random thoughts and life experiences, and now side pages are popping up.  I'd like to do a side page of my foreign banknote collection, alongside the "Ugly Money" page, which also needs updating.  

I probably shouldn't be doing this until I retire, and the problem with retirement right now is that I'm having so much fun in my job to where I don't want to give it up.  I am nearing the end of my career, I am in my groove as a Senior Product Test Engineer, and it's giving me plenty of satisfaction.  Yes, I sometimes miss being a satellite engineer, where I learned a great deal about orbiting satellites, and got to go to Japan three times and Italy once in that capacity.  

As for retirement, I have picked out a date, but am not making it public.  I may delay it a few months.  I can see pulling it ahead if the company re-organizes into a structure that I don't like.  Management changes at the very top of the corporate structure have taken place, and some have taken place at lower levels.  I am concerned with business units becoming too big to manage unless they are broken down into more manageable segments, which defeats the purpose of consolidating them into larger units which they say we need in order to meet our corporate goals.

OK, I just looked at the clock, and I've decided that I should shut up and call it a night.  This transmission is now officially coming to an end.  

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.  

Where Things Are Now..........and Some Interesting Family History

 I have been intending to post these past couple of weeks.  With this evening being one of those rare ones that are short of distractions I have an opportunity to catch up, so lets get going.  

The first part is Where Things Are Now.  That is, where they are in my life.  I am in week number four of the new job and my first thought to pass along that it's nice to be doing real work again.  When I was in the Navy TechRep office, opportunities to make technical decisions were rare.  I can only recall making one, and I can't remember what it was now.  In that role we were facilitator between a defense contractor and a Navy Program office for a variety of projects.  It was paperwork, attending meetings, and sitting around doing a lot of nothing.  I hated that, and I kept asking for more things to do.  That got me noticed for performance review time, as that I got an "Outstanding" rating and the maximum raise package.

Now the pendulum has swung the other way as far as workload goes.  I'm pretty swamped.  My first two weeks were training, and I'm still in training in the OJT sense.  I've never been a Production Test Engineer before.  I have some understanding of factory flow, but I haven't worked in a manufacturing capacity since 1985.  I've been development, I've helped transition projects to get ready for production, and I've done some field testing of equipment.  So what this is, is a new animal for me, and it is definitely stretching my envelope.  I regard that as a good thing.  As busy as it is on the factory floor, I am not working overtime, and none is expected.  There are test techs working around the clock, and if something goes wrong then the team that I'm on takes care of it when we come in the following morning.  And I've already written up two evaluations on the electronic subsystems we are testing, which gives me that sense of accomplishment that I want to take home with me.  It's so far a lot of fun, and I see myself riding this train for some time.

With that, we now get into the other subject I want to talk about.

During my 2 1/2 week hiatus, I decided to do some digging on my ancestry.  Now it's been known since I was in high school that I am descended from some colonials.  Most of my ancestors came over in the 1840s from their home country of Germany, some came over from Ireland around the same time, but my paternal grandmother had some Scotch-Irish ancestry and one of my uncles did some digging into this.  He found that we were descended from a William Riley Parker, who was born in Surry County North Carolina, and moved to Indiana and later on Doniphan County, Kansas.  Later in life he became interested in politics, and was elected to the lower house of the Kansas Legislature where he served one term, failing to win reelection.  

We know that his father was John Parker, who had a good chunk of land in Surry County, and in my digging I found that his brothers farmed across the state line in Virginia.  William Riley Parker's father-in-law was Edmond (Edmund?) Hodges.  There appears to be evidence that John Parker and Edmund Hodges served in the Revolutionary War, but I can't prove it.  There was also a John Parker in Surry County who was a moonshiner, but we don't know if there was a second John Parker there at the samet time and the same county.  Census records so far indicate only one.  So I'm going to claim descent from a moonshiner and proudly so.  OK?

Well my recent research went in another direction.  My grandmother also descended from a Levi Pilkington, and she was a granddaughter of Letitia Pilkington Penny.  Family legend has it that Levi Pilkington was run out of the Quakers for swearing and engaging in military activities, and yes I'm going to take some pride in that one.  I decided to see what I could learn about Levi Pilkington.  And here is where it gets interesting.

Levi's grandfather was also named Levi Pilkington, and one website has him as a Revolutionary War veteran.  He was born in southeastern Pennsylvania.  I took the Pilkington line back to 1687, and then took his mother's line back some.  This continued on to John Dudley, the 1st Duke of Northumberland, who was a trusted advisor of no less than Henry VIII!  John Dudley, who was also the 1st Earl of Warwick, has a Wikipedia article, as that he was executed for high treason at the Tower of London for trying to get his daughter-in-law, Lady Jane Grey, on to the throne.

The line goes back even farther, as that I have learned that I share a common ancestor with George Washington.  And that's the good news.  The bad news is that King Charles III is also descended from this same ancestor.

Another trace that I need to work on (verify) is one that goes all the way back to Charlemagne.  There is also evidence of Spanish and French royalty, and who knows where it will go from there when I pick this up again.

Meantime, this has inspired me to learn about British history.  How do Dukes become Dukes?  How does an Earl become an Earl?  I've learned that the reigning monarch made those decisions back then, as a means of recognizing and rewarding talent that they valued in those times.

I am now reading a book on Henry VIII, and already John Dudley is being mentioned on page 7.  I may have to search Amazon to see if anyone has written a book about him.  I get the sense that my ancestor is not well liked as a historical figure, in spite of some significant military accomplishments that he led.  

All of that said.........I've got a lot of work to do, not only at work, but also in family history.

Coming Full Circle

 I will be changing jobs very soon.  The next one has been lined up, the offer letter signed, the background checks are complete and my final step in getting the pre onboarding done was taken care of this afternoon.  I start on May 1st, and I am off until then, enjoying a two week hiatus.

So what brought this about?

My previous employer was a great company to work for.  There was definitely a family atmosphere there and I'm going to miss a lot of the people I worked with.  But the Navy was our customer, and the Navy made the decision that another company was going to take over the contract.

I had a gut feeling that this was going to happen.  The upstairs office (both literally and figuratively) started getting adversarial, for lack of a better term.  Meanwhile we're based at the building of a defense contractor who was one of my former employers, and I figured that it might be in my interest to consider working for them again.

I wouldn't have had those kinds of thoughts as recently as two years ago, but back then they were bought out and new management took over.  From my observations 85% of the people I knew had moved on to other companies.  Their attrition rate, from what I heard, was 24% last year.  Part of that has to be engineers retiring earlier than they had originally planned, and the other part was younger engineers being lured away to other companies.

Anyway, word was passed down to us on Monday, March 6, that we didn't get picked up for the contract renewal.  In my case there was special paperwork filed on my behalf to approve me to work on another Navy contract that's shorthanded.  That paperwork, to my knowledge, fell into the cracks, and it had to be resubmitted again.  I was told last month that I was two to four weeks away from approval.  I wasn't sure that was going to happen so I proceeded with plan B, to return to my former employer.

I was helped by a manager I've known for three years, back from when both of us were working together to try to get man back on the Moon.  As you know I left over a year ago, but this manager was forced out earlier this year, and he landed in the same building.  

He found an opening, asked for my resume, and recommended me for it.  Within two days I got a text, please go online and formally apply for this job.  So I did, and two days later they wanted to interview me.  It was set up for Monday, the 27th of March.  I took that day off since I wanted to mentally prepare for it, and plus, I wanted a day off.  The interview took place that afternoon and it was one of the better interviews.  Two days later I got the call from HR; you did really well in that interview and they want to make you an offer.   The next day it came via email, and after careful review I signed.

I waited a few days for the background check to clear.  I gave notice to my boss, but asked him to keep it quiet for a while.  I had my reasons for wanting to play this card close to my vest.  The company that won the contract kept begging me to talk to them, which I wouldn't for a reason that I will not make public.  The Navy also "encouraged" me to talk to that new company and sign with them,   And guess what, my paperwork for that project was approved!  Yes, a day late and a dollar short.  

I finally went public with my decision, and my last day was this past Wednesday.  I am taking a half month off to recharge, catch up on things, enjoy my hobbies, and who knows, I might get some yardwork done too.  

BecTech was a great employer, and my boss said they will try to get me back in six months.  I figure I have to stay where I'm going to for longer than that, and eventually retire from them.  If I were to guess what would happen after that, I would guess that when I retire I take a six week sabbatical, and then work as a contractor part time.  Or I might decide on something else.

Meanwhile here's a thought that interesting.  I have now had seven consecutive job interviews, each resulting in a job offer, and with each offer being accepted.  Maybe it's time I stop pushing my luck.  Or maybe what I have to bring to the table is something of value.

Regardless, I am a very blessed individual, and I think the Man Upstairs had a lot to do with my seven consecutive offers.

Why People Change Jobs

 OK, I haven't posted in quite a while.  I have either felt that I had nothing of importance to say or I felt like doing something else.  On most days it's been both.  It's an off Friday for me, so today I have the time to post.  Whether or not it's important is up to the reader.

I have now been six weeks into the new job.  My new co-workers are really great people.  As for the work itself, I can't say that it's the most interesting I've gotten to do.  The project itself is fascinating, but as a representative of the customer there isn't very much in the way of engineering that I get to do.  I will likely have a visit out to the field at the end of July, getting to see and do some things few engineers get to do.  

I'm also making some damn good money in this job.  Whether or not I get to keep it remains to be seen.  I've had to put $1500 into my truck this week, and we're having to put $2000 or so into Sheila's car.  In the long run it's much more cost-effective to keep and maintain the vehicles that you have, since Brandon's done to the supply chain what a former President that I didn't like warned us about.  

But getting back to my inactivity on this blog, I have felt on many occasions to vent about what led me to leave my position behind to get to where I'm at now.  I can report that they've lost some more key people, people that I didn't think would ever leave, so I'm not the only one that had some issues.  I have thought about reasons why an engineer would leave a neat job such as working on hardware for manned spaceflight to go off and do something else.  Here is what I have come up with.

1.  Compensation.  Salary adjustments for the past five years have not kept up with the cost of living.  With the inflation that Brandon and his policies have given us, the choice is between a 15% increase for switching jobs or an annual 2% merit raise.  

2.  People don't like the way they're being treated.  There are two major companies in Arizona that you could accuse of going out of their way to make their employees leave.  That worked when there was a downturn ten years ago but it ain't working now.  The economy got hot in 2018, and those two companies have struggled to get people.  When they get them, they can't keep them, because of how they're still being treated.

3. Bad management, though I can make the argument this is what causes #2 above.  My former employer would on occasion spring what I called the "Friday Surprise".  Big deadline on Monday, we need you to work both days of the weekend, and by the way I'll be available to support you once I'm done skydiving and once my kid's soccer game is over.  I kid you not, I have heard both of those from a senior manager.  And bad managers never go away, especially in a large company..........they are always given another major program to run into the ground.  

4. Company culture.  We have one of the minor aerospace companies in the state that was dysfunctional from the top all the way to the basement.  I knew someone who worked there.  All sorts of affairs going on between managers and subordinates, favoritism, backstabbing, and it is still going on there, even though there has now been a homicide due to upper management toleration of that culture.  Oh, and one of my former employers tolerated an affair between a supervisor and a subordinate, both of them married but not to each other, and a homicide damn near resulted from that one.  In this case, the supervisor wasn't murdered, but he was allowed to keep his job.  The angry husband, who worked there, was let go.  And that employer is now one fifth the size of what they used to be.

5. Benefits.  This can be a reason why people change jobs but in my opinion any of the four mentioned above will be more of an aggravating factor.  

6.  Job satisfaction.  If you don't like what you're doing, you either change jobs or you retire.  I liked what I was doing.  I liked it very much.  It was really neat stuff, but one or more of the issues above came into play.

7.  The "ethics" of your job.  If you're working on something you don't really believe in, it can get difficult.  It can be compounded if there's bad management involved who are cutting corners and cheating the customer.  Folks, in nearly forty years of being an engineer, I've seen that more than once.  I can't help but wonder if in one of those instances where I was eased off was so that I wouldn't be subpoenaed by a grand jury looking into business irregularities.  I can't really be sure.  Did someone think I saw or knew something I shouldn't have seen or known?

So, there you have seven reasons what people change jobs.  I have admitted that compensation was one reason why I left and moved on to something else.  I suppose you can bet money that some of the other factors mentioned above also came into play, and maybe you would win that bet, but I ain't talking.

Few would understand.

Checking in, 8/24/21

I'm not as prolific of a poster here as I used to be.  Way back when, I actually had people reading this blog, and although I still do, let's just say that I'm not exactly making it in the Nielsen ratings.  To be honest, that doesn't really bother me.  Occasionally there will be a post that returns views.  Like deer hunting near Willcox AZ.  Or about that guy who counterfeited nickels.  Maybe I need to lead a more interesting life?  Folks, I've had enough unusual things happen to me. 

That said, it's time to catch up.  

I was contacted by one of my former employers yesterday about a job in Houston.  I'm going to break with tradition, and identify that employer:  Jacobs.  Jacobs is a damn good company to work for, and is one of two that can hold a candle to where I'm working right now.  

I turned them down.  The job would have meant a relocation to Houston, and I'm not in a position to relocate right now.  Even if I were, I can't say that Houston is on the short list of cities I would want to live in.  I could easily find work in Houston if I wanted to......if not Jacobs, then NASA, or Axiom Space, or Lockheed.  

I told the recruiter that I felt that Jacobs is an excellent company to work for, but that I couldn't do it.

I guess this means that I should touch upon where I'm at now.  Maybe one day I will identify this company, but not today.

Work is going mainly well.  I will admit that this job comes with frustrations.  Those frustrations are what comes with the territory, and it is its own unique set of frustrations and can be seen as an improvement over previous collections of frustrations.  I won't get into them in detail.  I will tell you that I won't trade these for another set if I don't have to.

Life.  Well I have that to take care of too.  We've had a heavier than usual rainfall this monsoon season, and the weeds are taking off like crazy.  Each day I go into the front yard and pull out the worst offenders.  Each day I go into the back  yard and do the same.  With the heat it's advisable not to be out there that long.  As we slide into September and get into the equinox, I'll be able to do more.

Also, because it's a fun diversion, I am working a little with wood......something that I haven't done since high school.  I had some shelves outside that needed replacing.  These reside inside of a metal frame.  My recollection is that I put these together in the 2004 timeframe.  Last week I noticed that the pressboard that those shelves were made of needed retiring, after all those years of being exposed to the elements.

I had two choices.  I either buy new shelving, and throw away perfectly good metal frames.  Well, almost perfectly good.  I should paint them.  But for the shelving, it occurred to me that I ought to go to ACE Hardware and have them cut some shelves for me.  You know about ACE, right?  That's the one that Pat Sumrall goes too.  Or does he?  Is he still with us?

I went to the one at Tanque Verde & Bear Canyon.  Paul McCartney is said to have been there several times, back when he and Linda were maintaining a home here on my side of town (I've been by it).  Now I didn't go there because Paul McCartney goes there, but I go there since I like them.  The fine folks there had the shelves cut for me.  I can't say that it was cheap, and I did not select a cheap grade of wood either, but in the long run it's better than buying new shelf assemblies and it was an opportunity to be handy so I took it.

Then I had to learn about weather sealing it.  I asked some knowledgeable people about it, and did some online research.  I have started sealing these with boiled linseed oil.  I have some more to do.  I am thinking of adding another finish on top of that and I may experiment with the scrap of wood that ACE gave me.  I'll admit.....this is fun!  

Now on to radio.  I've been having a lot of fun with that too.  Sunspots and solar flux slid down, but I've been able to get Europe on some evenings and Japan on most mornings.  I'm gloating over getting Bulgaria on the 30 meter band, along with Western Australia, also on 30 meters.  I can get the eastern states of Australia when conditions are right but Western Australia is something of a challenge.  Yes, I'm patting myself on the back for those.  

OK, it's time to sign off and catch up on some other things.  Like supper.

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

So Some Billionaire Goes on a Rocket Ride

 This month saw not one, but two private space launches that happened because two billionaires wanted to go into space.  Richard Branson of Virgin Galactic made one flight, while Jeff Bezos of Amazon fame made another, and used a rocket that his other company Blue Origin designed and developed.

There's no doubt that both of these events are historically significant and each in their own way contributed to the exploration of space.  Richard Branson came back OK with his passengers and Jeff Bezos came back OK too with his.  But guess which one got a lot of criticism?

That would be Jeff Bezos, who as far as can be determined, is the world's richest man.  I perused a lot of online comments and there are a lot of people out there who are angry at him.  He was criticized for spending a whole heap of money on a "carnival ride" instead of helping the poor, and yes, he was accused of not doing his "fair share".  

I can't exactly be described as being a fan of any billionaire who is out there (I've met one of them but won't say who).  It doesn't bother me that they're billionaires and I'm not........I have a great wife and although I suffer from the occasional recurring malcontentedness, I really wouldn't want to trade places with anyone.  King Solomon, in his time, was the world's richest man, and he called it "meaningless".  (Yeah, I know that old joke, money can't buy happiness but it can rent it).  He didn't get to take so much as a clipping off some old shekel when it was his time to go, so what good, in that sense, did it do him?  But let's get back to Bezos and his flight.

It's my opinion that some of this criticism is borne out of envy.  And it wouldn't surprise me if a large percentage of his critics thinks he should sit down and write out checks for $100,000 and mail it to them on the grounds that he doesn't "need" the money and wouldn't miss it.  It's also my opinion that his critics aren't really sincere in their upsetness (is that a word?  If not I just invented it).  I mean, the big rage for a lot of people these days is to go on Facebook or Twitter to gripe about these kinds of things so that their friends will think they "care" about social justice.  In other words, they want to be seen bitching about Bezos.  In their own minds, they think this makes them "important".

But let's look at some cold hard facts here.

When Bezos was raising the money needed for this rocket ride, he didn't send any of his critics a bill.  In other words, he did not confiscate money from anyone out there so that he could do this.  He made money by recognizing early on a business opportunity, transforming an online book delivery business into the giant it is today.  Amazon grew because people used their services.  No one held a gun to anyone's head to make them use Amazon.  OK?  Are we clear on that?

Second, those scientists, engineers, and aerospace workers who made that rocket were paid.  Do any of his critics know that?  Hello?  From the way his critics talk, you'd almost think they were his slaves!  Jeff Bezos did not lock all of his money into some vault somewhere so that he could visit that vault and count what's in it whenever he's bored.  He put that money to work and formed a company, and his company is making it.

Now is Blue Origin a great place to work?  Well I know some people who work there now and a few who no longer work there.  I know what they think about it.  And yes, I've heard stories about Amazon warehouses.  But let's get one thing straight:  neither one of those entities is the Department of Corrections and no one at either place has to be in an orange jumpsuit 24/7.  Would I work at Blue Origin?  I've been contacted by their third party recruiters, but have turned them down for the reason that I don't think I would like living in Seattle.

The fact is, is that Blue Origin, Virgin Galactic, SpaceX and Sierra Nevada are doing some neat things that most other companies can't.  (In case you were wondering, some of the aforementioned our customers of my employer).  Spaceflight ain't easy, never has been, and human spaceflight is even less easy.  Don't believe me?  Get a job as an engineer qualifying flight hardware, and then get back to me.  

Anyway, whatever you think of Jeff Bezos or Elon Musk or any other of these billionaires.........I'd rather have them spend their money on developing space technology instead of paying people to rob liquor stores.

Things as They Are on 3/28/21

Last Wednesday or so Governor Useless, excuse me, Governor Ducey, lifted Arizona's mask mandate.  He also further stipulated that a city or county can not contradict his lifting of it.  He is allowing individual businesses to require masks if they want to, but from what I have observed since then I'm not seeing any businesses enforcing it.  Quik Trip still has signs up saying it's a county thing, and Safeway is asking that people wear masks.  But I'm seeing some customers not bothering with them and I think the percentage of those not wearing will go up.

Meanwhile, Mayor Regina Romero of Tucson is upset about this, and is insisting that Tucson's mask mandate is still in place.  The thing of it is, that her enforcement of it is limited.  The Tucson Police Department is short at least 150 officers and they are losing ten officers per month.  Morale within TPD isn't the greatest.  We are thinking more and more that we're going to leave Tucson in a few years and either end up outside city limits or in Marana.  I love this city and have loved living here, but I'm thinking that a major change will be made.

I can tell you that my job is continuing to go well, in spite of our program headcount being one third of what it should be.  The customer has been slow in approving funding and I've heard some chatter that their customer is not happy about it.  We haven't laid off anybody aside from four or five being terminated for performance issues and others leaving for reasons I'm not aware of.  We have open reqs and I see my department expanding.  I'll eventually have anywhere from six to nine engineers supporting me, but until then I'm a one man army when it comes to my program's test organization.  

I don't have too much else except some sinus issues and so I'm going to make this entry short.

End of February 2021

 Here we are at the end of another month.  It didn't seem that long ago that January was ending.  When was that?  I want to say that was about fifteen days ago.  I know, it's been longer than that.  But it doesn't seem like it was longer than that.

This week, I had the weekend off.  I spent a good chunk of it in pursuit of the ham radio hobby.  I was on the air yesterday and having a lot of fun with RTTY.....that is, radioteletype.  I was hoping that some DX would be rolling in but it didn't.  This afternoon I heard Cuba on 17 meters, and it would have been great to have gotten him.  That said, I've worked Cuba plenty of times.  I haven't started tracking Cuban provinces and that's something I should consider doing.  I track Mexican states, Japanese prefectures, Chilean regions and provinces, Spanish regions and provinces and Argentinian provinces.  Ham radio will teach you plenty about geography.  

On the work front, I am glad that last week is behind me.  I took the weekend off but was on call in case program management needed me for something.  I put in a full day tomorrow and I'm taking Tuesday and Wednesday for round number 2 of the surgery.  They are not charging me PTO either.  They are allowing me to flex hours from the last pay period into this one as that I was not paid for those hours.  That's nice of them.

I was going to say more, but I've been itching to try my hand at tikka masala curry, and I think it's time to sign off and get that going.  

Don't forget to pet a dog or a cat.  

Jingle Bells, Santa Smells, Surgery's on its Way........

 .......Oh what fun it is to ride in a beat up Chevrolet!

All right.  This afternoon I was over at the specialist for a couple of hours.  I came home a bit woozy and it wore off an hour or so ago.  The surgery will occur in 2 to 3 weeks, pending approval from Evil Private Insurance Company.  Once Evil Private Insurance Company approves it, we set it up, and I go in.

I will be out of commission for the day of the surgery and the day after.  But it won't be over.  I have to go in again for another surgery, which I'm sure Evil Private Insurance Company will approve.  My co-pay on this one will be a few bills, maybe $500, and Evil Private Insurance Company will pick up most of it.  I don't know why this company is evil, but the prevailing narrative is private insurance is evil.

OK, I have my issues with them from time to time, but I want to stick with Evil Private Insurance Company.  I know, I'm evil.  I have private insurance from Evil Private Insurance Company and I have been known to shop at Evil Walmart from time to time.  I'm sure I was born that way.  

In other news, most of all else is well.  I am somewhat concerned over a few people leaving my employer.  I don't think it's the business outlook.  Funding from the customer on my project has slowed down, but I see this as temporary.  They are now popping some money for some special testing that we want to do, and the official position six months ago was that this testing wasn't going to happen.  I figured back then it would be, because part of this design doesn't have flight heritage.  Developing flight hardware isn't exactly the easiest thing in the world to do.  Materials have to survive all sorts of cosmic radiation, varying pressures and temperatures, in addition to being shot up there on a rocket.  We have to know that it will work before we fly.

That is going to be it this evening.  Life is busy these days.

It's what I get for being evil.

And Some of the Other News

It's been a rough couple of days, but there are other items that I feel the need to talk about. 

These past two weeks have seen some overtime (paid) at work.  My project is understaffed, our customer has lots of things they want from us, and that's because their customer wants those things.  There's no doubt that the program manager both at our end and at the customer end know that we are going beyond where we normally go and they're just as swamped as we are.  The effort is very important in my mind, and the teamwork has been awesome.

I've had a couple of discussions with the deputy program manager.  He appreciated the patience that we've all had, and I told him that he told us it was coming and we braced for impact.  I put in a couple of long days getting what's called the Master Verification Matrix done, and I learned Friday that I was nominated for an award, which means a lot. 

This weekend we have a breather.  I tried going on the air yesterday and I made some contacts, but my heart wasn't in it.  The news about Moe hit me really hard.  I spent time with him yesterday and again today, and there will be more this evening.  Every evening I am upstairs with Sheila and we are joined by Larry and Moe.  Both want attention and it was that way last night.

In one way I am at peace.  When I brought the boys home around Memorial Day weekend of 2007, I resolved that I was going to be a better owner for them than I was for Sylvia.  These guys would see the vet once or twice a year.  They were fed better food (Sylvia was on Science Diet but I learned that wasn't the best you could get) and these guys had premium food that had no rice or other grains mixed in it.  And of course, I spoiled them like I did Sylvia. 

When they go, if they get to talk to God, they will tell God that they had a great home and were well taken care of.  Maybe they might complain that there were a few more times that they could have gotten pets.  But on most days, they got to interrupt me from doing something so that they could get their loving.

What can I say?  I like cats.  I like dogs.  I never adopted a dog because I was between marriages for several years, and it wouldn't have been fair to whatever dog I would have taken in.  So it was cats, two of them to keep each other company while I was away at work, which they did, but I didn't think both of them would be as demanding as they turned out to be.  I thought Larry would be the wallflower and Moe would be the Lap Boss.  Wrong.  And being wrong like that is a good thing.

Yes, I'm having my moments.  The grieving has started.  It has to happen.  It has to run its course.  Grief is normal and it is necessary.  I've been down this road before.

That's all for now.  I need to get outside for a bit.

The Dog Days of Summer

I'm not really sure why these days of summer are called the "dog days".  I'll take a guess and say that it has something to do with the dog star Sirius.  Maybe the sun is right next to it or something like that, or maybe this is the best time of year to look for Sirius.  When I was in the sixth grade or so, I was really into astronomy and I could have told you when the best time to look for Sirius was.  I can't do that right now without looking it up. I can still recognize the Big Dipper and Orion the Hunter, and I might be able to tell you which planet is Mars.  As it is, an interest in the stars was overcome by one thing and then another, and I probably ought to get a telescope out as that I live in one of the best areas in the country for stargazing.

Anyway, with summer being in full swing, we have some really hot weather and we've almost set some records these past few days.  We've also had some afternoon thunderstorms roll in, though yesterday we got sprinkles as that that one grazed us and centered on somewhere else.  There are clouds to the south of us as I write this, but if we were in for storms there would be a dark thunderhead out there right now instead of sunshine.

The job continues to go well, though it is really intense.  I mean that in a good way.  I learned yesterday that I am considered as being part of program management but the word "manager" is not in my job title nor in my job description.  I am the one man Test Engineering Department for the program if you will, and although I may get some help and have some engineers support me, I'm not in the business of assigning charge numbers and tracking them.  I'm an engineer, I like being an engineer, and for this employer I actually get to be an engineer.  Three decades of my career was spent working for large corporations, and with two of them being an engineer meant you got to make charts and collect metrics.  Forget about making technical decisions.  They didn't want you doing that so that you wouldn't end up messing up the schedule.

Fortunately I have had small companies in the mix, and I'm in one right now, where the very nature of the job forces you to work smart.  I like that kind of challenge.  Small companies are great in the sense that the company owners know who you are, and in those situations they are very approachable.  A small company also carries with it risk, as that if they lose a customer, they end up losing employees, and that's no fault of their own.

In the case of being with a large company and funding to your project is cut off, they may get an assignment picked out for you.  Key word:  "may".  Forget it if you're approaching 50 years of age, as that their beancounters think that someone fresh out of college can do your job for half the pay and be twice the performer that you are.  You're shown the door, and if this happens to you in a downturn you'd better have one year's worth of house payments in the bank.

Thing of it is, is that your replacement, odds are, will want to be made a manager six years before they are eligible for their five year pin.  Not everyone gets to be "manager", and I can tell you that's a good thing as that many is the time when I've seen a situation where there are too many chiefs and not enough Indians.  It ain't pleasant, and if you're one of those Indians then you waste large amounts of time on the phone because every wannabe chief is calling you up so that they can "go over things".

And eventually, some of those wannabe chiefs get fed up and leave for another company.  Company A trains them for a year or so, and then Company B offers them a job with a 20% raise and Company A then wonders why they can't get people, with it never occurring to them that their reputation is in the trashcan since they ran the greybeards off some years back and replaced them with these Young Turks.  

Yes, you need some Young Turks on hand, but you also need the Moustache Petes, so that the business can leverage the strengths of both groups, and the company that does that then gives Companies A and B some competition and takes business away from both.  And folks, that is the way it is, and it cannot, nor ever should be, fixed by legislation.  The dog eat dog world has some very vicious little dogs, and it ain't the size of the dog in the fight.....it's the size of the fight in the dog.

OK.  I didn't know that when I started writing this I would go off in this tangent.  

I just wanted to say it's hot out there, the monsoon season is under way, ham radio is still fun, and I wouldn't trade places with anybody.

Don't forget to pet a dog or a cat!  And remember:  it's all about the simple pleasures!

It's Still Going Good

It's hard to believe that it's already been over one month in the new job.  I have been very busy, I've gotten two people I know hired (and two referral bonuses are pending), a third might get an offer this week (and that would be a third referral bonus pending) and I'm already helping out the President/CEO with a task.

No, I can't talk very much about it.  We are in that sector of aerospace that is very healthy right now.  One other local company is not doing well, but they've brought that on themselves. 

That's as far as I'm going to get with this post.

I'm putting in some long hours, but I'm having a great deal of fun in this job.

Much Better Than Expected!

I am now done with day 2 of the new job and all I can say is, wow!  It's already turned out to be much more interesting than I thought it would be, and much better at that!  I have already been assigned to a challenging program and it's likely that I'll be pulled off of it from time to time to assist with another challenging program.  Some significant contract wins have rolled in recently and we are in the hire mode something fierce.

It's also possible that my responsibilities will be expanded beyond what I interviewed for.  It would be a real resume enhancer if I pull that one off and succeed at it, and.....well I hope I won't have to be updating my resume if I don't have to.  I want this company to be my last stop before retirement, and retirement, if I have my way, is still some years away. 

I can't talk very much about what I do, even if I haven't been this excited about a job in years.  I've been assigned to a proprietary project, and leading the test efforts for getting the components flight qualified.  The company is going to grow and it's exciting to be riding this wave.

So far, I am not teleworking, but I see that happening on a 50% basis.  There will be some weeks in which I will need to be physically present there, and other weeks where I can take care of things remotely. 

Oddly enough, the person on the panel who asked me the toughest questions seems to be the most glad that I am on the team.  I now better understand the thinking behind the questions he threw at me.  It wasn't so much as to gauge my knowledge as it was to gauge my thought process.

The situation reminds me of one I had four years ago, when I returned to Tucson and took a job with involving testing the reliability of medical diagnostic equipment.  I knew I had wandered well off into uncharted waters, but it was get going on the job and worry about the unhcarted waters later.  It turned out to be one of the neatest experiences in my career.

Odds are I'm going to feel the same way about this one.

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.

Transition to a New Job

I am now in my second week of the transition.  My start date was on the 20th.  It almost didn't happen.  My new employer hired a third party to conduct a background check on me.  I gave that third party all the information that they wanted.

The next day, they wanted some W2 forms to verify previous employment in Nevada and down here in Sorry Vista.  I had those FAXed in, and asked for a callback to make sure that they got them by leaving a voicemail to the point of contact.  I didn't hear anything until the next day.  "Well now we want W2 forms for this other employer".  And I'm thinking, why didn't they ask for those the previous day?  I called my point of contact again, and left a message.  Just like the previous day, he refused to return my phone call.

I then had to escalate it.  I called my employer, and was referred to their corporate HR.  I made them aware of the situation.  Then within one hour, my phone call got returned.  He admitted that he got some of the W2s, but he wanted another one sent again, and then some others.  OK.  I got them sent.

The next day, they claimed I gave them the wrong birthdate.  Yeah, like I would do that.  They refused to fix the date.  I had to do it all over again.  I called corporate, and corporate pretty much asked me to humor them.  So I did.

The second time, it went thru, giving credence to a saying I came up with two years ago:  you need to do things twice in order to get them done once.

The pain of onboarding may or may not be over yet.  I got an assignment from someone else over in corporate.  Yes, I filled out the W4 forms, but now I need to call this toll free number and get a confirmation number from Ernst & Young, who are somehow involved in determining something called WOTC eligibility, which I know that I am not eligible for.  But I had to go over that with them all over again, was issued a confirmation number, and that was emailed to that corporate lady who came in out of left field to want that little tidbit of information.

Meanwhile, I'm not getting any real work done.  I haven't been issued a laptop yet.  That has to come from their customer, through whose network I must interact.  My task lead (who is a great guy) told me it might take three weeks.  Then, I can request that my badge be accessed to the labs that I will need to get into (not to mention the building where my office is).  He pointed out that the customer is low on computers, and that there's no guarantee that I will get one that will actually work.    He told me it would be his job to worry about that and not mine.  While I am waiting, I am reviewing test procedures and documentation for some rather specialized methods of radio communication.  One standard I am very familiar with and the others are new.  Being a ham radio operator, I'm being paid a good salary to read this.  That said, they'll be getting their money's worth out of me once we are up and rolling with funded task orders.

As I (think I) explained previously, this is essentially my old job again.  The employer back then lost the contract to the employer I have now, and it has taken both the new employer and the customer 18 months or so to transition this.  Neither side expected that length of time.

I'll have to be honest about something.  I wasn't sure I was doing the right thing going back to this job.  The Good Lord opened that door, and as painful as it has been for me to get settled, I ought to stay in this one.   The task lead is a great guy.  The engineering manager who hired me likely is also but I have yet to meet him in person (I'll try to get that taken care of this week).  The deputy program manager is as down to earth as anyone can come.  And the company has an excellent reputation.

On the other fronts in life, I have been very busy in ham radio (still).  I put up a new antenna for the 40 meter band and results have been great.  I've already worked Spain, France, Curacao, Bonaire, the Cayman Islands, Japan, Korea and Australia.  Lots of hams are complaining about conditions lately (and I remember when they were better), but when there's a solar minimum then great things happen on 40 and 80 meters.

You just have to go where the fish are biting.