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.  

One Down, One to Go

 Yesterday was round one of my surgery.  I can already tell that a discomfort that's been plaguing me for over three years will soon be a memory.  There is one more round coming up and that is next week.  Originally these were going to be separated by a few weeks but the sooner I get this second one done the better off I will be.  I won't go into details other than to say that what technology can do these days is simply amazing.  One thought I had this morning when I was getting my post-procedure followup is that this would not have been as likely if we had been on a single-payer system.  The current system encourages those skilled specialists to be the best that they can be.  I drew one of the top people in the state, and not for the first time.  If the government ever takes this segment over, American exceptionalism in the health field is over.

At work, it's been super busy.  I was drafted onto a proposal team to develop a lucrative contract that is again related to going back to the moon.  I had only limited experience in proposals and I got rapid training in how to write good cost estimates.  That meant writing a lot of prose to justify how many engineering hours of labor it would take to develop several different kinds of tests.  I had a tough deadline and I very nearly worked myself into exhaustion.  I met my deadline, but not by much.  I checked in this afternoon and learned that the program management didn't change very much of what I wrote.  They did adjust my numbers, which I'm good with, because some of that territory I was in was not charted.  I had never been there before.

Getting back to surgery, round 2 is next week.  I was told that I might be more tired after this one than I was today.  Last night was a bit rough.  It took many hours for the wooze to wear off.  I wasn't put completely under, but I was in a "don't care" conscious state.  I needed assistance in walking for the first few hours.  The next few?  Well I was able to walk but had to do it slow as that the floor would tilt up five degrees, then level, then tilt down five degrees.........coming up the driveway the tilt was 15 degrees.  Or so it seemed.  I woke up this morning with a barely mentionable discomfort from where they cut and my mind had returned to me.  I shouldn't have gone back to work this afternoon.  I should have taken my boss's advice and rested some more.

Anyway I lived to tell about it, not that I had any doubts about that part of it.  But some things could have gone very wrong and I'm grateful to the Good Lord that they didn't.  

Time now to sign off.

The Passing of Rush Limbaugh

 Like several tens of millions of Americans today, I am saddened by the passing of Rush Limbaugh this morning.  We knew a little over a year ago that this was coming and the fact that he had lasted this far is amazing in and of itself.  That is, in my view, reflective of his passion that he had for being the best at what he wanted to be.  

I had heard of Rush Limbaugh in 1990 but I didn't know who he really was.  I wasn't into listening to the radio on the drive in to work or the drive home.  I had a cassette player in the Celica that I owned at the time and I was listening to BTO or Creedence or the Smithereens.  I didn't really listen to the radio all that much.  That was soon to change.

In May of 1992, I flew out for a wedding that in a small town in Wisconsin called Kewaunee.  I was driving somewhere near Green Bay one morning, I think it was a Saturday, and I had the radio station tuned into a talk show host.  I was liking a lot of what he was saying.  He went on to use the term "feminazi", and I thought wow, this guy had the guts to actually say something like that!  I wanted to hear more.

Yes, it was my first experiencing hearing Rush Limbaugh.  As I was to hear him say several times later on in life, he would say that you would always remember the very first moment that you heard him.  He was right.  He criticized feminazis, environmentalist wackos, the Clintons, and a whole host of other things.  I sensed that he enjoyed teasing his opponents and I liked hearing him do that.  He had this way of making whatever he was talking about interesting.  He did it in his own entertaining way.  And I am one of those who is convinced that he had a lot to do with the Republicans winning both houses of Congress in 1994.  

His influence was such that I believe that he singlehandedly saved the medium of AM radio from dying.  Others have said that.  With over 600 radio stations carrying his show, he undoubtedly had an impact.  There is no denying that he cleared the path for Sean Hannity, Mark Levin, Glenn Beck, and others.  It was demonstrated that a nationally-syndicated talk radio show could make it in the daytime.  He changed radio history forever.

Since that day I first tuned in to him, whenever I'm out driving around I listen to talk radio....whether it's local or national.  (At night, when I'm trying to tune in those distant radio stations, it's whatever is out there.)  

The history of AM broadcasting has had a lot of famous people.  William K. Henderson.  John Brinkley.  Wolfman Jack.  Donald D. Rose.

Rush Limbaugh, in his own unique way, added to that, and reached a bigger audience.

Goodbye Rush!  You will be sorely missed!

Five Years Ago Yesterday

Five years ago yesterday I returned home to Tucson after a 14 month exile in Las Vegas.  I have not been back to Las Vegas since and if I never see that place again I'm fine with it.  I really hated living there, and if you've been a longtime reader of this blog you'll know that my pet name for that place is "Trashcan".

Anyway, some good came from that, although some of that good wasn't realized until much later.   I might not now have my present job if it weren't for my being up there and working where I worked.  That company went out of business almost a year ago, and I could spill some beans, but I won't.  I've got co-workers where I'm at now who were my co-workers up there, and those who were let go last March got letters threatening them with lawsuits if they said too much.  I never got that letter but I'm not saying very much as it is.  I don't need to.  The reputation of that place is forever trashed.

Meanwhile, I am enjoying my job and I can't remember ever enjoying a job this much.  The people that we have are what makes this.  The culture is that everyone goes out of their way to help everyone else, and what this does is create a feedback loop to where success is the rule and not the exception.  I can't understand why more companies don't see this.  My first employer here in Tucson runs anyone 55 and over out of the company (they do keep a few older dudes for tokens).  A major aerospace firm that you've heard of but I won't name runs people out when they hit 35.  Big tech?  Almost all of the companies in Silicon Valley has that kind of practice.  Well, enough of that.

Weather here in sunny southern Arizona has been very good lately.  I sometimes take the company laptop out on the back patio and work there during the afternoons.  In a few weeks the evenings will get warmer and I will likely be out there longer.

On another front, I think I might be going thru a second childhood.  I spent the past few weeks learning some of the advanced features on my 2 meter (ham radio) handheld.  I knew it could function as a scanner, and I started playing around with that some.  Before I knew it I was programming aircraft and business channels into it and learning the memory bank features.  I even started, just for grins, spotting aircraft, looking up their tail numbers online, and spreadsheeting them.  I then did some online research, found that Uniden/Bearcat had discontinued an analog model last year, but you could still get some new from some dealers that had them still in stock.

I placed an order, it arrived this week, and now I'm learning how to use this radio.  It too is a handheld, but does not transmit.  The Yaesu FT60R (handheld) will scan some frequencies that the Bearcat won't, and vice versa.  They each have different sets of bells and whistles too.  

Now I find myself wanting a digital scanner, as well as a handheld digital ham radio.  I use 2 meters to chat with some local friends, but in the digital realm there are three different systems.  DMR, or Digital Mode Radio, System Fusion by Yaesu, and D-STAR by Icom (and now Kenwood).  D-STAR, from my research, is the most difficult to program.  System Fusion is easier, but I'm not sure of what the repeater infrastructure for that system is.  With DMR I might have to set up a hotspot.....the radio would link with the hotspot, the hotspot to other hotspots, and then talkgroups with other ham radio operators.

I don't know enough about the talkgroups to know if I really want to venture that.  Yet, radio is a neat thing, and I like the idea of owning lots of radios.  Yes, they're toys, and I like my toys.  Oh, and there's a portable shortwave I'm looking at too.  It's all good and it's all fun.

Anyway, I haven't forgotten about my surgery.  I have a few more days before I get the COVID test and I find myself getting out of the house at least once per day before I test.  Quarantine isn't exactly my idea of fun, but the toys should make it more bearable.

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.

Remaining Positive When Some Don't Want You To

 There has been quite a bit to digest over these past few weeks.  I feel like I'm in some sort of alternate universe, watching theater that Tom Clancy himself couldn't have imagined putting into one of his novels, and wondering what's next.  I can guess at what's next but again, I am not in the prediction business, even if I might have a better batting average than Sylvia Browne did.

Casting all of that aside, I have been concentrating on my blessings.  Many are the times when Sheila and I are upstairs laying on the bed, and mentioning how blessed we are.  We've had an expensive plumbing repair here.  I will be needing some surgery soon for one issue, and I'll know more about that in a few days.  And we are extensively blessed!

My job is going well.  I'm more entrenched into the quasi-management position of Lead Test Engineer.  My direct report is to program management and the program chief engineer.  I know that they're glad that I am on board, but I can't take that for granted.  Every day I have to do something to make them glad they hired me.  Every day I have to go to bed a little bit less ignorant.  Right now I have a hot project, but I also have help with it. 

What has changed is that we're no longer putting in overtime, and I have spare time again.  I've been spending it on ham radio, listening to distant AM stations at night, listening to air traffic on my 2 meter handheld (it can also function as a scanner) and I've been doing some reading as well.  

I also have been doing some cooking.  I have a weakness for curry dishes and there is more than one type of dish that I do.  Sometimes it's a golden curry from scratch and other times it's based on a red Thai curry paste, or butter chicken, or korma curry.  I also do chili from scratch, which always manages to taste better on the next day.  

As for COVID, we're getting a spike here in Arizona.  To my knowledge the curfew has been extended but I haven't seen anything on the local news that says it has.  I am remaining home to the extent that cabin fever will allow and even if I do go out I don't go out far.  I personally know people who have been exposed to it and I already know a fatality.  Uncle Joe's going to need all the luck he can get on this one.  

That's pretty much it.  I have no complaints.  Yes, I could invent a few, but today won't be the day for that.