Not dead yet

Yeah, it's been a while since I wandered over here and put figurative pen to paper. A few things have happened since my last visit.

The most traumatic experience of my young life - I got fired from a company I helped found 12 years ago. Of course, I disagree with my partner about the whole thing - but I'm not going to whine about the why and wherefore here. What really cranks me up is the timing. 10 days before Christmas. Merry Christmas, dammit.

I wonder what the new employee turnover is like now that I'm not there to act as a buffer between my ex-partner and the staff. I know that in the month just before I left, turnover was at about 10% - and the stated reason was issues with my partner being a jerk. >sigh<

I still own my shares, though, so that's a plus.

Looking at a new career now. I'm pretty burned out on IT/Telecommunications. Dealing with other telephone companies is stressful like you would not believe. After looking around for a bit and discovering that - for all intents and purposes - I can't be a locomotive engineer, I decided to go low tech. Well, sorta. The equipment is pretty low tech at the base, but the peripherals are pretty high tech. Yeah - we're talking trucking here. CDL-A type stuff. Big Rigs. I've always loved driving - to the point my wife hates traveling with me. She likes to stop every 30 minutes or so (ok, that's not fair - more like every 3 hours or so) to look at the pretties, yadda yadda. I like to just GO. Non-stop from start to finish.

Did a bunch of research and headed off to a school near home. Was lots of fun, and learned a lot. After 4 weeks of schooling, I got my CDL - complete with endorsements for Air Brakes, Doubles/Triples, Tanker, and Hazmat. Basically, if it can be driven on the road, I can legally drive it. Not that I know what I'm doing - but that will come later.

Nowadays, I'm kinda loafing around the house, doing this and that.. well, not much, really. Reading up on trucking companies and submitting applications, haunting a few of the better trucking boards and learning as much as I can while NOT behind the wheel.

If/When I ever get a job driving, I'll probably post any stories (good and bad) here. Not that any of you care (not that anybody actually READS this crap) but probably good therapy for me.

Beign unemployed has had its benefit. Some time ago I stumbled across an online comic strip that I absolutely love. But, what with work and school and all, I just didn't have time to read much of it. I'm still trying to determine my favorite character.. there are 5 pirmaries: Torg, Riff, Zoe, Kiki and Bun Bun - with some tight-in secondaries (Gwynn, Aylee) and a few tertiaries (Sam, Oasis, Dr. Schlock, and some others). I pretty much empathize well with Torg, Zoe, Riff and Bun Bun - depends on the time of day or something.

I find the whole thing funny, with occasional hysterical bits )look for Global Peanutbutter Positioning System - oh, man that hurt!(

Read it from the beginning, though. You won't want to miss a darn thing. Not even Torg Potter.

Oh - yeah. "Tis at http://www.sluggyfreelance.com.

The other day, I took Megalon to a star party (actually, second time we've gone) with his 4cm Refractor. He felt a bit self conscious when comparing it to some of the Dobsonians and other 'scopes there. After all, his entire set up was about $100. Some of these guys were spending that much just on a eyepiece. I think the most expensive scope there was about $6 grand- but boy-oh-boy was it nice.

He needn't have worried, though. The club doesn't care what scope you have - or even if you have one at all. It's the interest in the sky that's important to them. They helped him set up and showed him a few tricks and even talked to me like maybe I had at least 3 or 4 brain cells in my head.

Monkeyboy had a good time showing off for a few classmates - nice scope to view the moon, for instance. And he was the first of the bunch to focus in (pardon the pun) on Saturn.

All in all, he had a great time - and I learned where I can get my 110mm reflector collumnated for cheap. A win-win night for both of us.

That's it for now - I'm buzzing off. Keep the big doors at the back