Forty Years Ago Today

Forty years ago today I graduated from San Jose State University with a Bachelor of Science in Electrical Engineering.  An offer of employment had already been accepted, and I was taking a few weeks off to visit the Los Angeles area as well as San Diego/Tijuana before starting my career on the 20th of June.  It was an exciting time and one of my neatest memories.

I could not have imagined at that time that I would be closing out my career in Tucson.  My game plan then had been to get my start in Silicon Valley and then move to Florida.  Of course, that move never did happen, but I did get out of Silicon Valley when two very serious adverse events happened, and I have now lived longer in Tucson than anywhere else, and that's even factoring in my year-plus exile in Las Vegas.

There have been a lot of twists and turns along the way.  I have seen the industry undergo two major contractions, and I'm figuring that the next one will be within ten years.  And at that time the plan is to be comfortably retired.  I could be wrong on that, and it will not be any kind of blow on my ego if I turn out to be wrong.

While I'm here writing this, I may create some side pages for this blog.  I have a ham radio blog where I got that figured out, and I'm thinking about doing that here too.  I may put up a page with scans of world banknotes that are in my collection, and I may put up some pages regarding family history.  The Parker and Pilkington lines are drawing a lot of my interest, as well as some others.  

I know, no one reads this blog, and I'm good with that, but the intent is to create a historical record that may be of interest to someone somewhere off in the future.  

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.

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.