WELL....my lovely wife and I sat down and went over our finances, how much I'll get from S.S., and the pensions I'll get from three previous employers, and we decided I can retire next year.
I'll still do some consulting work, and since clients I had before my current employer called me back a year ago April are still
calling me asking if I can do some work for them, I think we'll be just fine.The "Three More To Go" title relates to the fact that I'll only have three more launch campaigns to go on before my "R-Day".
I'm leaving Sunday morning for the current mission, then there's one around the end of November, and one more in late January/early February.
After that, they have NOTHING on the manifest, and the grapevine indicates nothing in sight, either.
Who knows, I might get laid-off again before I **officially** make my plans known, in which case I'll take unemployment for as long as I can get it.
I have several opinions about why they don't have customers lined up, but I'll save those for next August.
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Yawn....just more Kabuki Theater, but interesting reading, nonetheless. Read All About It Here.....
Yep, having a countdown IS a good thing! :-)
ReplyDeleteCongrats, drjim.
ReplyDeleteA guy I work with has put "use by" date on his white board. It's his planned escape, but about 7 years out (IIRC). It has made me think of doing the same. But seven years is too depressing. Best just keep my head down and keep cranking.
Yeah, I'm just getting too "long in tooth" to keep doing all this heavy physical activity that leads up to departing on a launch. Climbing around adjusting antennas is OK, but lugging spectrum analyzers and BIG Agilent signal generators up 104 steps from the main deck of the launch platform to the top of the Comm Shack is a bit much.
ReplyDeleteMy knees feel like they're about ready to explode about half way up all those stairs!
My right knee had the cartilage removed back in 1968 when they had to lay open the knee to get it out, and the left one has been acting up and occasionally locking up since about Y2K.
The interesting thing is that if they would have called me back a month or so later, I doubt if I would have accepted the job offer. I was *this close* to having my little side business generating $50~60k a year, but the wife 'convinced' me to go back to something "more stable"!
That and the fact that they lied to us about certain aspects of how much we'd be paid for going to sea and overtime has really soured me on the new organization.
As of right now, I'm down to 56 weeks more, and then I'm out. Since they have NOTHING scheduled after the 1st quarter of next year, I'd be really surprised if some of the other guys stayed there, assuming the economy picks up after the November elections.
If they want me to come back as a contractor for pre-departure preps, I'd consider it, as long as it didn't impact other work I might be doing.