Work, Life, and Living...

Well, today I was really tired and I did not want to get up out of bed at 5am. It is a very cold morning and we are going to get some ice and sleet today and tonight.

It has been a very long journey to get me where I am today. I, we, started off in Texas. My wife and I went to school together. We did not date or associate with each other, but we knew of one another. Fast forward. I graduated in 1989 and she in 1988. I ran into her in the year 2000 back in out hometown of Jasper at a bar in the woods called Solley's Discotheque. Really, it was in a filed with a cattle-guard to cross over. We kind of new each other, but we got to talking and reacquainted. We started to date. She lived in Houston and I was living at the lake. I was offered a job in Indiana and I moved there during the fall. We broke up, but decided to get back together and date. I was let go by the company and I had to move back to Texas. She flew up to Indiana and helped me pack my stuff and move back.

So she and I continue to date and fell in love as they say, she in Houston and I at the lake once again. This time, her company closed her office and she was offered a job in Austin Texas. She accepted and we decided to move in together. This was about summer of 2001. We lived in Austin for about 2 years and we got married on December 21, 2002. We were married in Jasper at a church that her cousin was the preacher and her grandfather had built. I went back to college and knocked out a year of AutoCAD and electronic design. By late spring 2003, she found a job in Denver Colorado. It would be a great promotion for her and I encouraged her to accept, So off we went to Highlands Ranch Colorado.

We were in corporate housing for 3 months and then we got in our house. It was nice and we loved it. We had good neighbors and a very good church. Sondra got wind of a promotion in Massachusetts; it would be a good career move for her. We hated to leave Colorado, it was soo beautiful, but we did...

Massachusetts was a whole different beast. Very hot summers, cold winters, no creature comforts like we had in Colorado, I.E. Rec Center, swimming pools, that sort of stuff. We lived in Gardner Mass, in the "alpine" region, about 40 miles North West of Worcester. We had a ski mountain about 20 minuets from our house. That was a good thing. I felt like we were wondering in the desert for 40 years like Moses while we lived there. What made it livable was our little haven, our cul-de-sac with 7 other families. We all lived in new houses with big yards. It was kind of isolated from the rest of the degradation of the city. The bad side about it was Sondra was 62 miles from Boston, where her office was located. She had a 2.5 hour commute and parking was very expensive.

We were living and learning, I had a good job with a company I liked and she loved her job even with the long hours away from home. Her company had other plans and decided to close her region and that would put her out of a job or displace her. She looked around at different jobs at different places, but if she started over, she would loose her tenure and all vacation time that she had amassed. She took the job here in Richmond, her company’s corporate office and that is how we ended up here...

More to come later

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Today at work...

WELL, what a day! Our FAB had an evacuation at ~5am this morning and we were not allowed to go back into the unit till 3pm. That was only for technicians and we had to be in pairs. The fumes were very strong at 3pm and we got our errors cleared and we left!

The spill started in Litho and wet from there to Wets. There was a blocked drain line and backed up and spilled all over the sub-FAB. The fums were so strong that a person got taken to the hospital.

We just sat around and did what we could using our computers and keeping all of our group informed. Finally at around 6pm, they told us that they were going to bring up the bays and that we needed to be in the FAB to oversea the automation process. All went well, the system was a little lagged with the dumping of the bays, but we had no errors while we were in the fab...

What an interesting day.

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Air Safety...

Well, it seems that kids these days are a lot smarter than we were. That kid in Washington State stole a car and drove to the airport, he was 9 years old! The police brought him back to his home. The next day he went back to the airport and hopped on a Southwest plane to Arizona. He heard a page for a passenger to come and he gave them the info!! He did not even have a ticket and most amazingly, they did not ask for one. While in Phoenix, he hopped another plane to San Antonio Texas. There he was detained.

How is it in this day and time of heightened airport security, that a kid, much less a 9 year old, can get into a major airport with no ticket, lie and get on a plane?? Were the TSA guards all on break? We can’t get more than 3 ounces of liquid on, but a 9 year old kid can just waltz on it with no ticket. How asinine!! They check all of your bags and x-ray them. They ask for identification and tickets. They did not think enough to ask for a 9 year olds papers?? My daughter fly’s sometimes and we have her escorted by the airline, we pay extra for this.

On a second note, How do big name athletes expect top break the rules of flying and not get caught?? The Vic brothers from Virginia think they can. Mike Vick got detained at the airport for his "water bottle" that had weed in the bottom...What a dumbass!!! The X-RAY EVERYTHING!! HELLO...he has to fly everywhere to games. What makes him think that they would not do it that time?

Well, enough of my soapbox…
Until later.

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Last Weekend...FUN FUN!!

I have been very tired this week. I rode over 5 miles on my mountain bike. My friend and I went to our favorite park on Saturday and we rode about 2 miles. That night, he had a party, and we hooked up with another person. So, we went back on Sunday morning and rode another 3.5 miles. He brought a GPS, so he tracked our trails and elevation changes. IT was WICKID FUN!!! We did nearly 500 feet in elevation changes. I placed all the pics on my FLICKER badge, but I will post a few random ones here.

THe top pic is of is our new friend, Jeff. The next pics is Mark, the next pic is of a sign that marks the boudary of the park, very random we there is no fence in that porion of the park; and the last pic is of me. Most of the pics were taken on a bridge that goes over a creek and their is a jump at the end of it.

The weather here is finally COLD...We also have a chance of snow on Sunday night!!! YEAH!!! WE are not getting the kind of ICe Storm that Texas is getting, but we are just as cold here.



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Blue Monday...

Well, I am tired today. I had a very busy, but good weekend!! I got a new tool bench on Saturday. IT is a Craftsman; black, to match my rolling tool chest. Also, Mark and I did some hardcore biking!! We ended up riding close to 5 miles in the Powhite Park on Saturday and Sunday. Another friend came with us and brought a GPS, so, he traced our trails and also the elevation change on the routes. All in all, about 400+ feet in change that we rode. I am at work, so I will post some more later.
Ciao!


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Wedding Aniversary...December 21, 2006

This is a pic Sondra and I took on our Wedding Aniversary night before we went out that evening.

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Nature Pics...Black Squirrels

Well this is a series of Black Squirrel photos that I took at my grandparents house. The Squirrel was about 3 feet from me and my Grandfather was hand feeding it pecans.








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