Merry Christmas!

It's been a long time. Years...
Circumstances have changed some. Over the summer we got serious about downsizing. After almost 30 years in the same home we packed up, tossed out, donated to Goodwill, threw out some more, gave more to Goodwill and finished packing up the rest. Most of it went into a large storage space on one of the hottest weekends of the summer. The house went on the market the next weekend. Several couples looked at the house while we were finishing cleaning and hauling away the remaining stuff. Apparently we timed it right because the house was on the market for only three days and we got our asking price. An old friend offered us use of a bedroom in her mobile home while we worked on selling our home and buying another. The inspections and repairs and paperwork involved took a month and a half. My work commute went from 10 minutes over half an hour. We went from the two of us plus the dog in 2200+ sq ft into a master bedroom and sharing a 1100+ double wide with S. and her four cats. Quite an adjustment.

The requirements for our next home were: 1) smaller, 2) single story, 3) high speed internet and 4) not in the same area we've lived for the past 30 + years. Some place different. Also, I'm starting to get on in years, eligible for Social Security in early 2017 so we didn't want where I work to be an overriding factor in location. Once we knew how much we had to work with we started looking in earnest. We had to expand our search area to further and further away from the old neighborhood to find suitable possibilities while waiting for our old house to close. Cornelius, Forest Grove, Gaston, Yamhill, Colton, Salem, Gales Creek, Dallas and finally Sheridan. Shortly after closing on our old house we looked at a brand new house in a small subdivision that looked promising except there was an HOA. Our realtor contacted the builder and learned he had another home in the area about to go on the market. On a cul-de-sac, backed up onto the South Yamhill River, single story, in our price range and the property line extends to the middle of the river. And it wasn't finished yet so we could choose the appliances, fixtures and the like. It didn't take too long before we decided this was the one we were looking for.

The river looking down from the edge of our backyard

We picked out hardware, light fixtures, and appliances and checked on got the contents of both storage units into it for one trip to the new house. Stepson Scott is a whiz at loading a truck! I took the week before Thanksgiving off to work on unpacking and settling in. We downsized when we moved out of the old house but we're finding that that wasn't nearly enough. There has been and will be many more trips to the Goodwill in our future. Naturally the week after we moved in we started experiencing some of the heaviest rain the area has had in years.

The river close to the peak from the safety of  our living room 

Later that night it got up to the edge of the back yard before going down. We have been watching it go up and down ever since.

The river level yesterday from the edge of the backyard

My commute to work has gone from 10 minutes to half an hour to now over an hour in the morning and at least 1.5 hours coming home. Some days it seems like all I do is drive, work and sleep. We hired a new Quality Manager last month to take some of the load off and prepare for anticipated new business. We are preparing for an important customer audit in mid January. Doing well will mean more opportunities and require higher levels of support. It will all be worth it in the long run.
I was thinking seriously about early retirement until the boss surprised me with a promotion and a hefty raise. Not so much now. We'll see how long the extra money makes the commute worth it. We have plans for the back yard that the extra $'s will help pay for - a fence to keep the dog from falling into the river, a lawn, a path to the river bank, a spot for a covered swing and maybe a spot to wet a fishing line from. I have to double check, I think the state stocks the river with trout in the spring. Imagine, catching dinner from your backyard. Not so far fetched for us now...

In other news, the oldest stepson, Troy fell two weeks ago and broke (fractured) his left shoulder (he's left handed).  Instead of surgery they want to immobilize it for up to six weeks. No cast but his wrist and upper arm are velcro'ed to his torso to keep the shoulder from moving. He went through two weeks of physical and occupational therapy in the hospital and will be getting daily visits from the therapists now that they've let him go home. He worked from home 4 days a week and his boss has let him know that he can up that to everyday until he gets the all clear from the doctor.

Compared to that everyone else is doing just hunky-dory.

Springtime for ...

A very nice weekend. Temps in the 70's, lots of sunshine. We took a drive in the country to see the new spring growth. A lot of green out there. Very refreshing after the drab gray of winter. The big maple tree out back has all it's leafs now too. Lots of shade for warmer weather - temps in the 80's possible next weekend if the weathermen are to be believed.
There were a number of milestones this week: a birthday for P, granddaughter Tyf graduating and becoming a Registered Dental Hygienist (RDH) and our dog Ty becoming the end of his line, genetically speaking. Yesterday we attended the ceremony where Tyf took the oath and received her RDH pin, the symbol of her accomplishment. She has a couple more state boards before shes fully certified and can practice on the public. No problem!

Ty, a rare moment when he was standing still. Obviously he thinks someone has a treat...

Highly Volatile

Wait 5 minutes and it will change. How true for the weather this spring. It was very nice for once at lunch time, the sun so warm that it made me drowsy, almost put me to sleep. And then, not long after the sky darkened, the wind picked up. It started to rain sideways and then it hailed. Small compared to the stuff the Midwest gets but lots of hail for us.

Ten minutes later it had all stopped. I ran to the store and at places along the way the ground was white, there was so much hail it looked like it had snowed. A couple hours later it was all gone and the sun was trying to peak through the clouds again. Bailey slept through it all. He's getting pretty old, nothing seems to phase him much any more.

We're going to see if we can get in to see Titanic in 3D this afternoon. With limited showings nothing is guaranteed. We have a Groupon for the local Cinetopia. We'll watch in style! We've seen the 3D demos in the stores. I hope we can stand 3 1/2 hours with 3D glasses on.

Still Here

School has started again. And with Ma Natures usual sense of humor we are finally experiencing the summer we missed in June, July and August. On the weekends we take our walks early, in the cool of the day. Having this heat wave in September isn't so bad, at least it cools down at night, gives the house a chance to cool off. Much easier to sleep at night. We close the house up mid morning to keep the cool in. It works for the most part. Very busy at work. Lots of projects going on and lots of demands from customers. As the quality guy I get to be right in the middle of most of them, especially the problems. Some of the sights on our walks

This guy was very industrious Labor Day morning.

Sunny days

We visited with T and her boyfriend last Sunday. They were finishing up brewing 5 gallons of beer when we arrived. I helped cap the last of the bottles. We sat out side for a while. I sat in the sun too long, over 20 minutes before P had me move into the shade. I paid for it later. My nose is starting to peel. And I discovered another problem with being a red-head besides fair skin: thinning hair. I'm working on a nice male pattern bald spot, just like the new Duke of Cambridge, but the hair on top is thinning to the point that I burned the scalp on the top of my head too. Very tender! I discovered that Monday morning in the shower. Now, that will be fun when it starts to peel...

We're suppose to get our 2nd 70+ degree day today. Smack dab in the middle of the work week. Figures.

Happy Easter

Boy, what a difference a day makes. It was dry with lots of sunshine yesterday, temp just over 70 (for the first time this year). The sound of lawnmowers was everywhere during the day and the smell of bbqs wafted over the neighborhood in the early evening. I char'ed burgers for dinner. It was a nice day. This morning? We woke up to cool gray skies with sprinkles off and on throughout the day. They were 'on' during our walk this morning. It still smell like wet dog around here.

Ma Nature has been trying her darndest to spruce things up around here

The trees are just about to break out the leafs and of course there are plenty of dandelions to go around

My back is still sore from pulling weeds yesterday.

I've been plenty busy at work. I was a little concerned what I would be doing to fill my days once we finished the SSQA audit but it certainly hasn't been a problem. Lot's of changes to follow through on, details to take care of and problems to resolve. We had some excitement several weeks ago: a small roof fire caused by the afterburner on the new kiln. It turns out we have a wooden roof on the building! The heat insulators have been sufficient for all the others up until now. Unfortunately the fire started right at the roof, above the sprinkler system. It happened around 5 am. The fire was out and the fire trucks all gone by the time I got to work by 8. All the kilns got shut down when it happened, as you might expect. Luckily all but one were at a firing process stage where it didn't hurt to turn them off. Even still, it caused a glitch in the manufacturing pipeline that we've just about smoothed out. Lets put it this way: we were still able to meet revenue goals for the month and quarter. The wheels of commerce keep rolling on regardless of the difficulties.

T was over yesterday. She had some jeans to be altered. It was a good visit. Tyfini is ending up her time at U of Idaho this semester. She is still waiting to hear if she has been accepted into any of the programs she's applied to. Surprisingly (to us at least) there are a number of schools the offer dental hygienist programs around here. T is starting to get used to the idea that her daughter will be back home for more than a visit or school break. A reverse "empty nest"? The grandson has been busy with sports and church activities recently. No driving lessons from me lately. Ah, to be young and have that kind of energy... Heck! Just to have that kind of energy!

Welcome to Spring

We hit 60 for the time this year today AND it didn't rain! The neighbors celebrated by bbq'ing this evening. It smelled wonderful. I had a colonoscopy Wednesday. My last solid food meal was Sunday evening. I was empty from stem to stern. The doc found 4 small polyps, nothing serious. Now I'm working on refilling my system. So many choices. That bbq made me hungry all over again even though I'd eaten an hour earlier. This weekend I'll crank up ours: burgers, maybe a pork tenderloin. Yum!

The SSQA audit it over. We hit our goal of 5.0 according to the auditors. They've turned their report into Applied Materials who have to review it, approve it and flip the switch in their database changing us from "Conditional" to "Approved". Only then do I get to stop filling out first article reports on a sampling of every shipment we send them. I've had to do it so often that it's almost routine. A routine Chinese fire drill every couple of weeks, more often towards the end of the month. Lots of extra paperwork.

And the fun never stops: we have another customer audit the beginning of May. This is the one that hit us shortly after the last SSQA audit in August. He ended up writing us up saying in effect "what ever they have to do for SSQA, that goes for us too". He was happy with the copy of the roadmap we were using to track all the things we were doing for SSQA. He should be happy with the state of our Quality Systems too. All we have to do is keep all the things we started going strong. It gets me up in the mornings and makes the days go quick.

On the weekends I've been giving driving lessons to the grandson. He's moved from practicing in my truck (an automatic) to learning to drive a stick shift in the Rav4. It's surprisingly forgiving. He's got the basics down. Now it's a matter of practice, practice and more practice. He's a freshman in high school and made the baseball team as a "swing" player between the varsity and the Freshman or "B" teams. That means he get's to travel and suit up for the varsity games and even play some if and when they get 20 runs ahead. Don't laugh, it happened this week. He got to play a little first base. I'll hear all about it when we're out on the road Saturday morning. Troy visits with P while we're out driving around. It's a good time to hash out the problems of the world.

It smells like "wet dog" around here

It was drizzling for both dog walks this weekend. Now that I'm working again the boys really look forward to the weekend, probably more so than I do. The official start of spring is just around the corner and the temperature has finally climbed back to normal: low 50's. A very humid low 50's. The cold weather (and extra rain) has been great up on the mountain. There will be skiing until May, perhaps even June this year. Too bad I'm not one who enjoys that sort of thing. Much too cold for my blood.

We had our ISO audit last week. It went well. The auditor has been auditing the company for the last 1o years or so. He knew more about some aspects of the company that I or my boss did. Between the two of us we have less than a years experience at this company. The auditor found a couple minor things in the procedures for us to fix. Not bad at all. The real challenge starts tomorrow: two auditor will spend the next three days looking over everything we've been doing since they were here six months ago. They left a list of 41 "Opportunities for Improvement" we've been working on since then. The audit is based on about 120 questions in a 15 categories. They score us on a 10 point scale in 4 aspects of each category. Last time we scored just over a 3 in the key areas and 3.6 overall. We have to get that up to a 5 overall. Right now we are a "Conditionally Approved" supplier that has to submit first article samples tested by a third party every time we ship them parts. A lot of extra time, effort and paperwork. We move to "Approved" when we achieve a 5 over all. We have come a long way in the last four months. The question is: have we come far enough? Even if we have, they will be back in a year to do it again. By then we'll have to get our overall score up to at least 5.5. All this for less than 20% of our business. Don't get me wrong, all this is a good thing for our operation, it is something we should do/ would have done sooner or later. It helps with other customer audits too. The SSQA (Standardized Supplier Quality Assessment) audit usually cover 90% or more of what other customer look for in a supplier quality system. It's just that having to do it in a crash effort in six months is pretty stressful.

Once we get past the audit, I'm scheduled for a routine colonoscopy at the end of the month. The fun just never stops around here...

Inclement Weather

While not unheard of, it is unusual to get snow this late in February. It will make for an interesting day. I believe it's suppose to stick around until tomorrow and then it's going to get cold for a few days. The weatherman is calling for temperatures in the teen's over the weekend. Brrrrrrrr!

Frosty Morning

Just above freezing this morning for the walk with the boys. It was raining when we went to bed last night. A cold front moved in overnight and made pretty ice patterns on the cars.

You can't see it very well but the pattern on the truck canopy has little hairs of ice crystals standing up, making the patterns. Mini stalagmites!

It's going to be a beautiful sunny day. First is a driving lesson for grandson E. Time to try a short drive on the freeway in my truck and then some more practice with the stick shift in P's car. P get's to visit with Troy while we're out terrorizing the other drivers.

At work it's two weeks to the two day ISO audit and a week after we get hit with a three day SSQA (Standardized Supplier Quality Assurance) audit. It's the second one that has us worried.

Signs of Spring?

Saw these on our walk this morning along with a flight of geese heading in a northernly direction.

Spring can't be far behind.

Superbowl

Go Packers!

Spring, 2009

It's been a beautiful day, not a cloud in the sky, temperature got up to the low 80's for the first time this year. Twilight is almost done, only the faintest light left. I just came in from sitting out back with the dogs, helping them make sure the backyard is safe from those pesky squirrels. The sound of the kids playing in the cul de sac behind our house and the birds singing back and forth adding to the atmosphere. Reminds me of earlier times.

Best of all, tomorrow will be a repeat of today.

Spring!

What a gorgeous day! It hit 70+ this afternoon. Tomorrow is suppose to be even better. It should hit the midwest and eastern seaboard later in the week. Enjoy it while you can.  I got a bit of yard work done today - mowed the lawns again. The sun did it's magic on the trees. The maple tree out back has been close for several days but it wasn't until this afternoon that the buds finally started to  blossom.

We've seen the buds on the "tulip" tree in the front yard. (I don't know exactly what it really called, we call it the tulip tree because of these flowers it produces every spring)




We bbq'd for the first time this year for dinner tonight. That first time always smells and tastes sooooo good! I hope it made the neighbors change their plans for dinner.

I've sent my resume off a couple of times in the past several weeks. I haven't gotten any responses, but at least there are some positions out there. It's just a matter of time, right? I'm signed up for unemployment benefits now. Every little bit helps. If not now, it surely will in the long run.

Tomorrow, after the dog walk and the days chores we just might take a ride to the coast. There's a little place that serves a great cup of chowder. It will be a beautiful day for a ride. It will be just what the doctor ordered for attitude improvement.

Plan B

Got the call this afternoon, I was not the candidate choosen for the position. I guess I didn't do quite as well as I thought. 

Time to pull out Plan B. 

Waiting

Tuesday morning I had the face to face interview with the hiring manager (Quality), the head of Purchasing and the head of Logistics as well as the Sr Recruiter. I learned a bit more about them and the company's operation, they learned more about me. I'd already had an hour and a half phone conversation with the head of Quality. This time was so he could put a face with the voice and I could be introduced to others I would be working with if I'm hired. They had a preprinted list of interview questions to start from and then asked about things that concerned them. I thought it went well, except for the "ambiguous" question. "Describe a time in your work history when you were faced with an ambiguous situation and how you handled it." I wasn't quite expecting that and kind of fumbled through it. I had a hard time coming up with an "clear cut" ambiguous situation. I managed, I guess. They didn't ask for further clarification. There were more concrete questions after that and I got a chance to ask some questions of my own about their processes. One of them had another meeting after an hour and the others wrapped it up fairly quickly after that. I got a folder of company propaganda from the recruiter on the way out. He said they had more people to meet and then meetings to discuss us all. He thought I should hear of their decision by Friday.

Tomorrow.

We have been patiently and not so patiently waiting ever since. P is three days into a head cold now and still trying to find the right combination of drugs to make her feel half-human. There aren't a lot of activities to take our minds off the decision and what hangs in the balance. I've done some work on the taxes. Not the most ideal task to take on when you're kind of anxious in the first place. I go over the interview in my head every night while I'm on the treadmill. Sometimes I think I've nailed it, it's in the bag. And not three minutes later I'm sure I've blown it, they're going to hire someone else. All we can do is wait. Hopefully by this time tomorrow we will know, one way or the other.

Thanks for all those good thoughts!!

Unemployed

I signed the Participation Agreement for the Voluntary Separation Package on the 2nd. That was my last work day. According to the terms of the agreement, because I'm over 40, I get an extra 7 days to think about it and can revoke my agreement if I so choose. There must be some legal reason for that part of the plan, I certainly have never heard of such a thing in the past. At any rate "The 7 day revocation period will be a non-working but paid period." Now, THAT is nice work, if you can get it! So, I'm not officially unemployed until tomorrow.

As for the job search, I had a phone interview last week with the hiring manager.He called from the plant in California. About half way through he said he had an emergency that had just come up, he would call me back shortly. About 10 minutes later he called back and explained that they'd had a fire drill! Luckily it turned out to be only a drill. We laughed about it and continued on with the interview. After about an hour and a half he concluded the call saying that the next step would be a face to face interview. He did say he had several other candidates to talk to and that he would leave it to the recruiter to arrange the details for the face to face. I hope to hear more about that in the next couple of days.

The dogs sure love my being unemployed. It means a walk first thing every morning. Yesterday and this morning it was foggy and frosty. Very slippery in places where the moisture from the fog condenses on the roads and sidewalks and then freezes. You have to be very careful because the thin layer of ice is transparent. You can't always tell where it's slippery and where it isn't. And with a couple of dogs pulling their leashes it doesn't take too much to put on quite an acrobatic show trying to remain in an upright position.

Remember those picture of the fountain with all the snow on it. Well, this it the result of Ma Nature's worst:

It had some cracks in it already so I checked it out after the cold and snow spell . The bucket portion of the statue fell apart in my hands when I touched it. There is just enough of the bottom of the bucket to hold about a cup of water. As you can see from the picture we've had some more sub-freezing temperatures. The forecast for this afternoon is for snow mixed with rain and more of the same tomorrow. Yeah, I've had enough of this for one year.

Happy Groundhogs Day!

It's cold and foggy out tonight. I went out back a bit ago to take the air and keep the dogs company while they made sure the backyard was safe. We heard some geese flying in the dark, north I think. I sure hope so. We're ready for spring to start. The plum tree in the front is starting to get buds already. Monday IS Groundhogs day...

Today was my last full day at this job. Monday I go in to sign my paper, get my exit interview and turn in my badge. Nine years and four months. I'm getting a pretty good Voluntary Separation Package, 14 weeks pay plus two weeks for every year of service. It isn't something I really wanted to do but with the changes to our little part of the company it became apparent that taking the package was a win-win situation. It will provide a cushion while I look for another job. I was working on being depressed for a while when P's friend, Sally suggested I look for work at a local company that many of the people at her job were applying at. I checked the company's web site and third on the list of "career opportunities" was Sr Document Control Specialist. Well you could have knocked me over with a feather! Document Control positions are not that easy to find and with the current state of the economy I expect there are fewer than usual. I had to whip together a resume as after nine years I no longer had a copy of the last one I used. Luckily I was able to get a copy of the last application I filled out. It had all the dates for my past jobs. That was a great help. The rest I was able to word smith. It's hard to summarize all those years in just a few sentences. I submitted my resume on-line that night. I got an email the next day and yesterday I had a phone interview with the recruiter. I think it went well. Now I wait. I should hear something next week as to whats next. Wish me luck!

In the mean time, the dog will be expecting a walk every day now. Any day I don't go to work they watch me like a hawk until it's light out then they pester me until I get the leashes out. At least they wait until the sun comes up.

Welcome to Winter 2008!

I know this isn't that unusual for people east of here, but this is a really big deal here. We usually get some snow every year, occasionally it sticks around for more than a day but we haven't seen weather like this in 10 to 15 years. It started with a storm on Sunday two weeks ago that dumped 1 to 2 inches of snow and pretty much brought things to a standstill. It warmed up some every day, it snowed some every day and dropped below freezing every night. The snow didn't completely melt. The well traveled roads were clear maybe 60% of the time but a lot of the side streets were very slick. I got to work every day, just put a couple of sand tubes (150 lbs) in the back of the truck and switched to 4 wheel drive. Of course, being older and wiser now, I didn't try anything crazy so I didn't have any problems. It was one of those strange weeks at work, a lot of people out because of the weather conditions, but it also was the last week before the three week shut down. I don't have to be back to work until 12 Jan. Thats a good thing, considering this weather! 

Last Wednesday, employees were notified if they were eligable for the Voluntary Separation Plan . This is the first act of an 1800 person reduction in force. I am one of the eligable employees. I would receive 34 weeks of pay (14 wks + 2 wks for every year I've been with the company) plus what it would cost for 4 months of Cobra coverage for insurance. A tidy sum. I have to weigh that against how hard it will be to find another job by the time the money runs out and the chances of being laid off later anyways if 1800 people don't take the VSP. Merry Christmas, eh? I have to decide by 2 Jan. And, there is a chance that if I do opt to take the package that they could not accept me for the program! Between 2 Jan and 14 Jan they will decide who they need to keep to do business and who they're willing to let go. That would make for an awkward situation, asking to leave, not being allowed and have to come back to work. 

But, I am fighting a cold I got last weekend from taking the boys for a walk without proper head gear on.  My first head cold in several years. 

Heres the bird bath after the first snow fall.

Here it is after the freezing rain and another couple of inches of snow

We thought that would be it, but we've been wrong before....

This is the view out our kitchen window. Notice the branch the snow has bent all the way down to the driveway.

We lost a limb from the tree in our front yard. It didn't damage anything but it probably suprised the squirrels when it came down. It only took one day of warmer temperatures for the trees to loose all that snow.

R, on the other side of town, got a bit more snow and a lot more wind that caused drifting. He had to shovel  a path from the dog door, across the deck and down to the back yard so Gabby could get out to do her "business".

Shakespeare enjoys romping in the snow. It rev's him up every time we head out for our walk in the morning. We've had to walk in the streets for the past week because the sidewalks don't get cleared here. Luckily there hasn't been a lot of traffic. The snow depth is no problem for Shakespeare, but Baileys legs are shorter. He doesn't like to drag his stomach and such in the snow. 

Normally we have the family over on Christmas Eve for a party. Not so this year. The icy, snowy roads and pathways with the possiblilty of an accident or nasty fall just aren't worth it. With luck the weather will cooperate and we will get together some time next week to swap presents, lies and have some good food.

Merry Christmas and a Happy Safe New Year!

Fall

It's grey, cooling off and starting to rain. The dogs took me for a walk as soon as it got light enough, around 8 this morning. That will change with the time change tonight. They'll like that but I'm sure it will take some time before they get used to eating an hour later. The trees are changing colors and loosing their leaves. One last show before they go dormant for the winter. Here's a sample of the show Ma Nature is putting on around here.



With the foliage finale comes the raking of the leaves. The price to be paid for all that nice shade during the hot parts of the summer.

R has been having some success fishing on the Columbia this past month. The run of Chinook salmon was very low this year but the Coho salmon have been returning in solid numbers.



That's a 20+ lb Coho salmon R caught a couple of weekends ago. Pretty nice!
R and Gabby were over yesterday to participate in and add to the general hullabaloo for Halloween. We didn't have a lot of tricker treaters but that may have been because of all the barking the dogs did each and every time the doorbell rang. We have a lot of candy left over. I'll take whatever is left on Monday morning into work. Let it fatten up everyone there. R brought his deep fryer too, last night, and his secret beer batter receipe. We had an excellent halibut fish & chips dinner. He says the leftovers are just as good. We'll be checking that out later today.

Granddaughter Tyfini started at EWU (Eastern Washington) this semester. Her mom is enjoying the peace and quiet and thinking that all that quiet and peacefulness may not be all it's cracked up to be. It's a bit of an adjustment going from a high school senior with all her friends to an empty house (nest?) with just the dogs to keep her company. Tyfini did come home for a Halloween party last weekend, but it is a 6 hour drive, a long drive for a short weekend.

Grandson Eric became a teenager last month. Need I say more?