"Don't you blog anymore?"
"We haven't seen a blog from you in a long time."
These are just a few of the things that have come from people that are used to seeing the awkward glimpses into my life and times. Yes, plainly, they miss me. They miss being able to compare my amazing life to their mundane meanderings.
The 27th of August I said goodbye to my previous job of over 10 years. They hated to see me go, as did I. After all--I was there over 10 years and had earned a fairly good reputation for jobs well done. (When you get raises without asking for them there ought to be something to that, right?) Anyway, it was a good run and they are a good reference in my work history.
What kind of idiot would jeopardize his family and his finances by leaving a job in this economic climate? Me apparently. It wasn't a great move, and guilt overwhelmed me. I jumped into working here at home with gusto. Guilt is a strong motivator. I worked hard. We got a lot of things done around here. The 'honey-do' list got whacked down to nothing.
I also applied for lots of jobs and attended workshops at the Auburn Worksource place. I learned a lot about interviews and resumes. What to do and what not to do. All sorts of things.
In the end, the bottom line is that I have accepted at offer at Boeing as a Manufacturing/Engineering Planner at their Auburn location. It's the same job I did when they laid me off back in December of 2001. The difference is that it's a lot more money. More than I made at Boeing and more than I made at LaCroy (not the real spelling--I modified it for search engine reasons). I start next week.
This whole thing has had way more positive than negative. The negatives? Leaving my job and having a negative cash flow. The positives? Several:
- Left the old job. After wondering for a few years whether or not the company would actually last until I could retire, I can put that behind me now. I hope for the sake of everyone else that works there still (which are lots of great people) that it continues to last a long time.
- The weather. This has been an unbelievable streak of fantastic weather here in western Washington. Record-setting weather. What nice conditions to not have to get up to go to work.
- Chores completed. This was a lot of stuff. The weather played a major part in it as well. We split wood, finalized the stump removal/tree planting that had stared at us since the winter storm that inundated us with ice. We moved beauty bark, trimmed things, cleaned things, and built things. Lots and lots of things got completed. It was good.
- New, better job. Obviously, this is a big one. Will I like it? I'm optimistic. I'm really looking forward to it. In the last 10 years, I've come to miss the team environment at Boeing. Nothing at LaCroy went that way. It was very fragmented. It was a whole company with stand-alone people that were excellent at their jobs, but that not many other people knew how to do. When you take a vacation from a job like that, the company is crippled while you're gone, then you're crippled when you get back and try to play catch-up. This job and its benefits mean more opportunities for us to take the trips that we love to take.
- Count my blessings. The whole process of losing my job caused me to do a lot of soul-searching. When you go from provider to embarrassment it causes you take stock of your life. I wanted to turn back time and undo the whole thing, but of course that is not possible.
When I left LaCroy, I clamped down on my interaction with people. I killed almost all of my Facebook friends that weren't part of my immediate family. As a matter-of-fact, I'm this close to killing my Facebook account completely. It's just too public. Anyway, I just had a real introspective look at myself. Sue and I are both looking at this whole thing as a new beginning.
Keep an eye on me everybody--this is my last run until retirement. Don't let me screw anything up.
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