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.

The Passing of Queen Elizabeth

While driving to get lunch today the news came over the radio that Queen Elizaeth II passed away.  The news headline this morning didn't sound good, and I was hoping she'd have a few more weeks.  But that was not to be, and now the United Kingdom is experiencing something that hasn't happened for 70 years.  I am in no way a fan or a follower of the royal family.  I've known since childhood that Elizabeth was their queen and her portrait was on lots of coins all over the world, and she was without controversy.

As I grew up, I would see her in the news from time to time.  I became aware that a small part of our population kept track of what the royal family was doing, and the way that her offspring acted had this way of contributing.  The Queen managed to stay above all of that.  Her reign projected a steadfastness that I can't quite describe and from what I know she endured quite well the antics of two sons who brought disrepute onto her family.

I find myself saddened by the news of her passing.  The impact she had on the monarchy compares to the last person who was Queen.  

I hope that the now King Charles III will abdicate, and let Prince William take over some time within the next six months.

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.

Another Transition. And This Time, of my Own Choosing.

This past Friday I resigned my position of Senior Aerospace Engineer after not yet two years with my present employer, which I don't feel like naming right now.  The work that I had done there was among the neatest work I've ever done.  Not everyone out there gets to work on projects for manned spaceflight, and it was the second such occasion that I've gotten to do that in my career.  My original intent was to stay there until retirement, but I began rethinking that last summer.

I didn't specify in my resignation letter the reason why I was going, aside from the generic statement that another firm had made me an offer I couldn't refuse.  To be honest, I have been feeling that my compensation wasn't meeting what the marketplace elsewhere was offering, and I learned a few weeks ago that I was right on that count.  I can't say no to a 15% increase, especially with what inflation has been doing for the past six months.  There were also some other issues coming into play which I won't get into.  There are no issues with my current assignment and I really enjoy working with the other team members.  

There were two other resignations this past week that I know about, and we've been losing engineers at almost the rate we are bringing new ones in.  I can't claim to know what their issues are.  One leaving joined a few months after I did while the other has been with us for........three weeks?  Four?  

I didn't really think that my life would be taking this kind of direction at this time, but in my particular instance I feel that this change is necessary, and I'm at peace about it.

  

Larry: 3/3/2007 - 11/29/2021

 Early this afternoon Larry, also called Big Larry, Mister Larry, Larry the Gentle Soul, Larry-Berry, Larry Faithful, and Loyal Larry, passed away peacefully at the pet clinic with his adoptive parents present.

Larry was adopted from the Humane Society along with his childhood playmate Moe on Memorial Day weekend 2007. I honestly thought they were littermates but before I left I was told Larry was three weeks older. Anyway, they got along so well together and they came home together the following Tuesday, where they proceeded to prove that they were not only loving kittens, they were also wild animals.

Larry really enjoyed his pets and was fiercely loyal to his daddy. His favorite stunt was to wait outside the downstairs bathroom door and then ambush me for a pet on the way out. He also enjoyed chewing cardboard, shredding toilet paper rolls, destroying shoelaces, and taught me a very important lesson: it's all about the simple pleasures. Whereas Moe had a serious outlook on life, Larry just wanted to enjoy the most out of it and get lots of lap time with his daddy, as did Moe. He had a loud purr, was well behaved though very playful, and had running fits for the first 13 years of his 14+ year life.

In May of 2020, he had a noticeable weight loss, and he was taken in for an exam. They couldn't find anything but a snoring type of breathing was noticed. It got to where I had to clean his nose frequently, gave him steroids to keep his appetite going, antibiotics which didn't seem to work, and by October a noticeable lump in his face was emerging. A specialist determined it was a non cancerous cyst, which as time progressed became a tumor, and kept growing. His running fits had stopped, but not his desire for getting attention from me. With the WFH situation I was able to have him on my lap a lot more often and enjoy his purring and his company.

His last month wasn't pleasant, yet he kept soldiering on. As recently as this morning he was still wanting attention from me, which he got. But he was noticeably weaker this morning, with him having lost his ability to jump up on the couch as recently as Saturday morning. He ate up a storm on Saturday afternoon, but that was his last full meal. He wouldn't touch his food yesterday morning, and I had my mind made up that I was going to call the vet first thing this morning.

We weren't sure he was going to make it to this morning. He was more withdrawn, aside from the 15 minutes of cuddle time that he wanted. He was weak and was having trouble walking, and I wasn't sure he was going to make it to the vet in time.

His final appointment was at 1215. I had seen the procedure before. First the anesthetic. Then the euthanasia. It's as peaceful as it can be made out to be. I have never seen a cat die (I left the room when Moe had his done) because I was afraid of that being what I would remember the most. With Larry, I had resolved to be there with him at the end. Sheila was there too, and the last words he heard were "your daddy loves you".

This was hard on me. He had been a loyal friend for over 14 years. He was there for me when I was having some rough times. I was going to be there for him. After ten minutes the sobbing and weeping stopped, and it was time to go. I ended up taking the rest of the afternoon off.

A strange thing happened after I got home. I fell asleep in one of the living room chairs. I then felt the shoelaces on my right foot being attacked by a full grown kitten. I shuffled the foot to run him off, and it was Larry down there. The shuffling of my foot woke me up and startled Sheila. I told her it was Larry attacking my shoelaces.

So was Larry sending me a message from Heaven telling me that he had made it all right, and was having fun? I have no sure way of knowing one way or the other, but as loyal and as dedicated to me as he was he would have done such a thing if the Good Lord had allowed him to.

This has been a hard day for me. I am continuing on, though with a heavy heart as I deal with this. Grief is not only natural, it is also necessary, and it must be allowed to run its course.

We will eventually adopt again. I don't know if it will be a puppy or a kitten or one of each. I believe that our animals are a gift from up above and we must cherish these gifts and give them all the love that we can. We will get that back many times over. I am not wise enough to tell you who will get the better end of that deal. But I can tell you that the deal will result in better animals, and better people. 

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.