Mark's Weblog

And the survey says..... NO

Wed, 16 May 2007 12:34:19 GMT

This entry is a follow up to my previous entry. The meeting that day over two weeks ago said that our facility is closing somewhere around the end of this calendar year. So time to start looking for somewhere else to work. Let's see how does that song go "I've laid around and played around this old town to long, and I feel like I've gotta travel on"

We're already starting to feel it. We have 2 engineers and our HR rep have given notice. Our Ground system engineer is likely to leave soon as well as one of my peers. That's in just two weeks since the announcement. This will be an interesting ride. I think we have just cleared the chain at the top of the roller coaster and are starting down that first hill.......

Do I continue to have a job?

Tue, 01 May 2007 09:40:02 GMT

Those that know me already know this, but my employer is in the process of merging with another company. That is always bad news for some, since there is always redundant roles that need to be pruned when they do this. After 2 weeks of delays we are supposed to have "The Meeting" today that tells us what is going to happen. The feeling of most of our employees is that our facility will close and all employed there will loose their job. That inlcudes ME.

Do I enter full job search mode this afternoon? or do I hold on for the ride? That should be known by this afternoon, and I'll post something here then.

All that is known this far is:

The company will cut back deep, just where is not known
Our few union represented employees have not heard anything about contract negotiations even starting. The contract runs out in May 2007
Our president is coming up from NJ to visit us personally after the meeting. We are a good 2 hours away from his office.
Our contracted catering service for our cafeteria has been told that her contract will not be renewed at the end of the year.

That looks pretty negative to me. I'll see how today goes.

Weather

Sat, 24 Mar 2007 15:41:57 GMT

This posting is for my friend that posted to my weather revisited post earlier. No I don't have that far to go to work, only about 9 miles. Amazingly PENDOT actually did a good job of plowing this time, and even though we ended up with about 14 inches of snow the roads were clear that Saturday morning.

Now, a week later, it has been above freezing for several days, and the snow is almost completely gone. I think that is probably the end of this winters season.

Waymarking

Mon, 19 Mar 2007 01:01:28 GMT

Since Geocahing.com did not like my idea for a cache, I found Waymarking.com that is run by the same people, but you are not trying to find a hidden cache but just an object, and photographing it or what ever else the creator instructs you to do. I am going to add my phonebooth to the list and see if it is accepted and if it draws any log entries. If they do accept it I will start adding other payphones as well.

Weather Revisited

Sat, 17 Mar 2007 08:31:41 GMT

I was just a couple days ago when I posted that the temperature was 70F and almost all of our snow had melted. Well, the thermometer now reads 18F, and we have received 12 inches of new snow in the last 18 hours or so. Now I get to see if they bothered plowing roads on a Saturday morning so I can get to work. Thank god for 4WD.

Weather change

Thu, 15 Mar 2007 13:35:08 GMT

We just had a jump from the mid 20s to 70 degrees yesterday, the snow is melting. It is weird to see snow on the ground and running ac in the car because it is to warm. It looks like it may finally be spring.

No-Code

Thu, 15 Mar 2007 13:32:32 GMT

Well the rule is lifted and Morse code is no longer a requirement for a US amateur radio license. Our club has it's first VE session without code on 28 February. Our turn around time is usually about 3-4 days from the session until the license is granted. This time it took 2 weeks, but finally was granted on 13 March. A call to the VEC says they jumped from a normal 450 upgrades a month to 450 per day after the rule change. Good job to the folks at the ARRL VEC for handling the increase in traffic, and congradulations for all the newly upgraded hams.