Free time and boat cruising - Richard Spelling

Well, my 9-month sojourn into the ranks of the unemployed is finally over.

I'm working night shift, on an Air Force base, 100 miles from the house, but it beats the alternative.

You know, I always thought that if I ever became unemployed, I'd just fall back on my non-IS skills, or take some low paying IS job. I found out the hard way that the companies with the lower paying IT jobs are all bargain shopping, and think you are over qualified if you have more than one certification. If the first thing they ask you when you send them your resume is "what are your salary requirements?", this is a bad sign. Or they want you to have a BS in computer science, 10 years of experience, and then want to pay you $10 an hour…

As for working non-is type stuff, I tried that. Still have a going concern manufacturing variable output forge blowers and DC motor kits. Of all the things I tried in an attempt to rustle up money during my "vacation", building those was the most enjoyable, and made a decent profit. And I tried a bunch of things, from mowing lawns, to doing handyman work, to doing computer consulting, to putting in concrete slabs. All doable, but not enjoyable, partly do to the physical labor involved, but also do to the fact that they involved starting over, and wasting all the time and money I'd spent getting my degree and certifications.

The kicker was calling the "work force investment" people for retraining, and being told I couldn't go to any CDL or welding classes because I had a BS degree. (!)

Let's see. Still don't have a car/boat port to put the chebacco under,   I’m currently using a "super tarp" I picked up on ebay. Basically a gray tarp, but not the cheap crap you get at Wal-Mart. Speaking of Wal-Mart, anybody remember when shoes lasted more than a month before the sides came apart? Sandals lasted almost as long? Remember back in the day, before Sam died, when you could return stuff to Wal-Mart if it broke? Ah, those were the days.

Anyway. Invitation to my wedding: "Oh, by the way, I'm getting married. Jan 1st, 2005, First Christian Church, Pryor, Ok. I'm marrying the preacher. Elvis will be there. You are invited."

Yes. I got married. Again. To my ex-wife. Hey, there are no rules; I can do what I want. Besides, you really don't know how important things are to you till you almost loose them... which is another story. And yes, Elvis was there.

So, I'm living in OKC, and in Mannford, and in Pryor. I stay in my apartment in the city during the week (horror of horrors, I hate it), go to the cabin in the woods on the weekends to work on blowers and controllers, and go visit the wife and kids in Pryor once a week. Well, shit, life sure was less complicated when I was unemployed and single. As my wife/ex-wife/wife used to say: "This damned job sure interferes with my free time!"

Incidentally, one of the options I was considering, if I didn't find a job, and the money ran completely out, etc, was to go sailing and just not come back. Extended cruise. Got bored at work last night and got to wondering how far I could have gotten in my 20ft semi-open boat. Some reading on ocean cruises leads me to think I need to stay away from open water... <nervous laugh>

Then I got to trying to figure out how big a boat I would need... I think I like the idea of sailing into the sunset much more then I like the reality of it. I'm definitely a fair weather sailor, any waves over a foot or two just slow the boat down and annoy me. And big movements of the boat are only fun on occasion.

Maybe I do have the perfect boat. Keep this job long enough to pay everything off, then maybe instead of sailing into the sunset, I should hook the Chebacco up to the back of a nice tow vehicle, and head off to non-open water! hehe Wonder how big the waves get on Baja?

Anyway. I'll write a more boat-oriented article for the next issue. If you don't think I should be writing non-chebacco related articles for this webzine, feel free to write the editor... :-)

Or, even better, send in your own boat/chebacco related stories, and I'll publish them instead of boring you with the editor's life!

Laters, fair weather, and stay employed.