365 #5 - Monday, Jan 9

Today I am thankful for a million things that God has thrown at me in the last 20 years.  He sent me to Japan to serve a mission, which sharpened my work ethic, communication skills, and taught me Japanese.  He gave me the chance to be a full-time interpreter, which was my dream job when I was 15.  He sent me a wonderful lady to marry, and then gave me a dang good job.  He gave me health and energy and drive to succeed, and a boss who was willing to take risks with me and my independent streak.  I kept that boss for 11 years.  Frankly, he's one of the best things about my former company.  The company gave me challenging assignments, and I saw a career direction I might enjoy.  Then God gave me the chance to charge ahead with education.

And now, after all that, I am not really very qualified to go work on a golf course and mow greens.  I'm much more qualified to manage a team of engineers.  As a kid, I never dreamed of such a job.

Today, I interviewed for a couple of these jobs.  One is in upstate NY.  I talked with my new boss there for an hour on the phone, and at the end we agreed that I would head out there next week to interview with the full team.  I was excited for that result, and sat down to relax.  The phone rang.  It was a headhunter.  I had been trying to get in to interview for a few other local positions since November, but the managers had been too busy to see me.  They had time in 90 minutes.  So I got ready and headed out the door.  We (the headhunter and I) expected the conversation to last 10-20 minutes.  I talked with them for 90 minutes.  At the end of it, the manager asked to make sure to talk to them again before I accepted an offer in NY.  He's considering me for several positions - the issue there is that the team isn't sure where to put me, but there are several opportunities.

There are certainly pluses and minuses to both companies, locations, and management teams.  But there is opportunity out there for the right candidate.

365 #4 - Sun, Jan 8

Today I am thankful for being useful.  I was able to finish off something for Cub Scouts today that should have been done months ago.  And I was able to help someone else use it.  So that was cool.

We had a good time at church today.  I lead music for the younger kids.  Today, my accompanist walked in and asked me, "What do you want me to do today?"

My response: "I don't know yet."

"Okay, tell me when you know."

I gave the kids a few more minute to file in and find their seats, did some warmups, and pretty soon we were moving along.  We had a good time.  The theme this year for the kids is "choose the right".

Then the guys came over, and we sang through our set list for a gig at a church thing this coming weekend.  Thankfully, we'll have some new material to sing.  Should be fun.  I love music.

365 #3 - Sat Jan 7

I am thankful for the separation of the weekend today.  This week has been very job-focused and busy.  Saturday gave me a chance to put that aside a little and do some other things.

I took most of the day off from job hunting to focus on our remodel.  My parents came over and helped with organizing the girls' room and my dad textured their wall.  I was able to spend time in the garage cleaning, even got to sweep it.  I can probably get the garage finished after garbage day this week, and then I can refocus on other projects.

We did price a trip to our new place, and I read some of the company's annual report.  And in the evening I had a nice, longer-than-usual chat with my best friend from adolescence.

365 #2, Friday Jan 6

Yesterday brought more news on the job front.  I have an interview coming up soon.  The difference?  This time, I have a person's name, a time, and place for the interview.  This particular opportunity is hurtling toward us like a massive near-earth asteroid.  It is requiring all of our time and attention to prepare for it.  It's a great company, but we would have to move, which makes the decision much harder than if we stayed local.   Lots and lots to write about with this one, but I'll save it for later days as things clarify here.

It was a foggy morning here.  I left the house at 8:30, hoping to get in a couple hours of hard riding including some hills.  Because of visibility, I kept to bike paths along Evergreen until Glencoe Rd.  At times the fog lifted, and I was encouraged, so I headed into North Plains.   The fog kept falling down off the hills, West Union had poor visibility.  Thankfully, the sun was out, and there was no cloud cover, so it was not terrible, but I stayed away from the hills.  Once I crossed 26 Southbound on Helvetia, it was bike paths all the way home again.  A nice ride.  A cold ride.  A wet ride.

The rest of the day was focused on the new company and interview preparation.  It's really quite an adventure.

365 #1

Thanks to inspiration from Katrina and a kick in the butt from Erin, here's the start of my 365.

I'm in a job hunt these days.  I've been making contacts where I could.  Yesterday we informed a company that we're willing to relocate, which was a first for us.  I also found a few more positions in my industry that I'm well-qualified for that are local.  Today my task is to write cover letters and submit formal resumes for these positions.  I also swung by a local interpreting company to get a medical glossary from them.  I tested earlier this week, and failed simply for vocabulary.  The tester said that I was perfect when I knew the words, but there were too many I did not know.  So I have a bunch of things to study.

We did not make progress on the remodel yesterday - the girls' room remains 80% painted, needs the repair work to be sanded and textured.  We sold Christian's bed a few days ago.  Yesterday was just consumed with researching our possible new location.

Since I'm not at the office these days, I am cooking dinner every other week.  My goal is to use up all the frozen stuff so we can clean our freezers.  They're kinda gross.  So I went to Winco and picked up some resh fruit and a bottle of root beer.  Last night was cheeseburger casserole with homemade french fries.  Takes a while to cook french fries.  But they were the best fries I've ever made.  And with the root beer, our fast food dinner was complete.

Then it was evening.  I went to Art Literacy training and learned about Bev Doolittle, watercolor pencils, and camouflage painting.  The evening was intended to include some resume submissions.  I did not get that far - I found a book on the Kindle lending library and started reading.  It's rather silly, but worth the read to study the writing style.

How We Maximize Vacation Value

My wife and I vacation very differently.  For me, a vacation is a chance to get away from the quotidian and try something new.  For her, it’s a chance to go somewhere and do nothing.  Except when she wants to do something.  Then we all should want to go do what she wants to do.

This vacation has been blessedly different and better.  I, for one, am starting to learn to relax.  To really not do anything.  It’s not how I was raised.  Even now, she is watching Wife Swap downstairs with the kids while I write this entry.  She has started to allow the family to split.  The older kids and I did not want to see Santa and the Reindeer a few days ago.   So she took the younger kids and her parents to do it.  We (the older kids and me) went to the rec center and played air hockey and ping pong.  It was a perfect afternoon for all of us.

Today was even better.  We had one of her favorite breakfasts (biscuits and gravy), loaded up the car, and went to the mountain to sled.  There is hardly any snow this year.  It’s pretty depressing.  But we found a hill and spent 2 or 3 hours there.  The sun was out, it was 40 degrees, no wind, and there was plenty of snow for what we wanted.   It even was drifted 6ft deep in places.  We ate our lunch of water, PBJ, and Doritos, and came home.  She went upstairs to take a nap.  I hung out with the kids downstairs to chill for a few hours.  When she woke up, I took all the kids to the pool for 2 hours.  She was able to get 4 hours to herself, the kids got lots of fun, and I got a little time to relax as well.

So for us, I suppose we maximize vacation value by finding pleasure in the compromise, and doing so often.  Whenever we can make those compromises break in a way that helps the kids, everyone is a winner.  11 years after we started vacationing with our kids, it is finally starting to be fun.

I Let My Son Win Once

And I don’t feel bad about it.  My philosophy with kids has been that if they win, they have earned it.  So I don’t let them win at ping pong, tennis, uno, basketball, rock paper scissors, nothing. For nearly 12 years I have been relentlessly competitive.  All for the kids’ own good, of course.

Yesterday afternoon, that changed.  Christian is quite a good ping pong player; every time we play, he gets 2 points head and often keeps the lead for a while.  He has been unable so far to seal the deal.  So we played once.  I won.  I wanted a rematch. 

“No, dad.   You’re just going to win!”

“I’ll play left-handed.  And you’ll win, I promise.”

“No, you’ll win anyway.  You always win.”

“I’m right handed, buddy.  You’ll beat me.”  The look on his regretful face told me he was relenting.  “You wanna serve first?”

I tossed him the ball, and he took it.  With a hint of sarcasm in his voice, he took the ball.  “I don’t know why I’m doing this.”  And he served.

And he got ahead, and then I got ahead, and then he got ahead.  And then I realized that I could control the ball well enough to win.  It was 12-12.  And I decided to throw the game.  Even then, it took a while for him to build a 5 point lead.  And then I settled in for the loss.  And I won 2 points by accident.  And then he took the game, 21-17. 

He was happy – I was happy.  He beat me.  I was proud of myself.  For losing.  And being ok with it.   Now, posting this is self-congratulatory.  I get that.  And egotistical.  I get that.  But I still feel good about it.  And I won’t tell anybody, now that the whole world could find out if they cared.