From Wit’s End

A couple months ago, I got a first interview with an aviation hydraulics company, but didn’t get a second interview because of a hiring freeze.

Today, I found out that I won’t even get a first interview at a military contractor because of a hiring freeze.

Despite this bad news, I’m in a fairly good mood. Because now I know for sure that the fact that I haven’t gotten out of this weird career situation I’m in is not anything that I can control. That’s something that I intellectually knew, but I hadn’t really felt until now.

It’s quite a relief.

Oh, and can we blame the members of a certain political party for bad-mouthing the private jet industry and planning to slash the military budget of the United States?

Can we blame this certain political party’s union thug supporters for the fact that for the foreseeable future I will be working for a company that supplies parts to two automotive companies that are going bankrupt and will probably be outright nationalized?

Why, yes. YES, WE CAN.

Job search heartbreak of the day: A recruiter called me today…

“I’ve got good news and horrible news… The good news is that the company that interviewed you by phone earlier this week liked you and wants to set up a second interview with you on site. The horrible news is that just as they were making arrangements to do so, their corporate executives handed down a company-wide hiring freeze.”

Would it be too petty of me to blame the socialist-democrats directly for demonizing certain industries in the news recently???

Well, like I said, I had a pretty bad day last week. Strangely enough, the bad day was providentially reversed today:

Last week, we found out that our company was cutting our pay NAFTA-wide by 5% as a defensive austerity measure in this bad year in the automotive business. Today, I had my annual performance review, which went better than I thought it would. Consequently, my pay will be going up about 4.5% for the year. So I’ll only be getting a net half-percent cut in pay.

Also, last Friday I lost my wallet somewhere in the medical park when we were taking Nora to her first doctor’s appointment. I was pretty frantic and canceled all my credit and debit cards. Today was the day all the replacement cards came in the mail.

The ironic thing about all this is that today is Friday the 13th.

Well, we had another all-company meeting today at 11am, and the result is in: My factory is closing.

Rachel and I have been mentally preparing ourselves for this possibility in the past month, so we were ready for this. Though it’s jarring, it’s definitely a relief, too.

We have a number of things to do and decisions to make, so I would ask your prayers about the following:

• Pray for that God would put us where he wants us as a family, and puts me where he wants to employ me.
• Pray about whether we should sell or rent our house. We want to make a data-based decision and be good stewards of what the Lord has provided for us.
• Pray that we would have peace through the holidays while contemplating an uncertain immediate future.
• Pray that we would be stable as a family until and immediately after Nora is born.
• Pray for all the other employees and families affected by this. [On my way home for lunch, I passed by a manufacturing coach comforting a crying female associate.]

I think its going to be hard for everyone to care very much now that everyone knows that its going to end in about a year. There will be the opportunity to go up to Newport News and take up the work there, but I know there are many like me who are not willing or able to do that.

That’s about it for now. Thanks for listening and being here for us.

We just had an “all-hands” meeting here at my factory, at which the Plant CEO confirmed the rumors that our parent corporation is working on a decision to shut down one of two plants: this one in Blythewood, SC or the one in Newport News, VA. All operations from the closed plant would go to the other plant. Of course this is to reduce overhead, increase efficiency, etc. in these troubled economic times, yada yada yada…

Our Plant CEO told us (my paraphrase) that the pluses and minuses of which plant to close are close enough to make the decision not immediately obvious and it would take a few weeks to add all considerations up very carefully to see which way the balance tips. He told us that the data would be collected and processed in early December, and that the decision would be announced sometime during the week of December 15th.

He also said that whichever plant would be closed, it would continue operations “into 2010″, so there was no reason to panic about not having a job to come back to after Christmas or anything like that. I also know that I personally will have things to do at least until next summer if not beyond.

Even if the Blythewood plant were to be the one to stay open, there would still be many challenges and changes to be dealt with, as all the products and I presume a lot of the personnel from Virginia would be coming down here to be incorporated into our everyday operations. So things will be changing one way or the other, and we will know which way right before Christmas.

I have been wondering if/when something like this would happen, and it is a relief to know when the turning point is coming. It has been growing in my mind that my family might encounter a “life reboot” some time in the near future, and this might be the event that triggers it.

Should the worst happen, there will be many options to consider:

• It could be possible to move up to Virginia with the company in a new position. In general, this moves us farther away from both sides of the family (and many good friends), which I’d rather not do if I didn’t have to.
• When I looked a couple months ago, the Westinghouse plant south of town was looking for a few engineers, and I have a friend who works there who could put in a good word for me.
• Also, my best friend from high school works as a recruiter a French nuclear power company that has a Research & Development office in Charlotte. When I talked to him on the phone a few weeks ago, he told me that business was good and that I could send him my resume anytime.
• I’m sure there are a few other options that I can’t even conceive of at this moment…

Being of a perverse and contrary nature, I am feeling relatively calm and optimistic in the face of these circumstances. I normally have an approach-avoidance conflict with any kind of change, but the Lord has been working in my heart over the last year and I believe he has been preparing me for whatever changes will come.

From what our Plant CEO said, he sounded genuinely unsure about which way it could go, and I got the impression from what he said it truly could go either way. When a situation is balanced on a knife edge, I know that the best thing to do is pray that the Lord’s will be done, and that he is pleased to use those prayers to move things for his glory and our good. So I would ask that you pray that God’s will would be done here, and I give thanks that He has given me a considerable amount of peace regarding whatever the future holds.

That’s it for now. I will definitely keep you posted.

Jack was restless and fussy this evening after dinner, and both Rachel and I were on our way to being cranky because of this. We hadn’t yet turned on the heat for the year, so I did that just in case Jack was cold. Then I had a brain wave: we should go to Target. In general Jack likes being out of the house better than being in the house, so Rachel agreed.

We got Jack some footie pajamas, one of those beads-on-a-wire-maze thingies, and some toy trucks. Jack held on to his wire-bead-maze all the way home.

Rachel unpacked Jacks trucks, much to his delight. He parked his new trucks next to the wire maze, and said “Wow.” I put on some Palestrina, and she accused me of trtying to put her in a Christmas mood. Everybody feels better now.

Running Errands: Meeting a contractor at the house, A dentist or doctor appointment, or dropping something off for repair somewhere in town. About once every one or two months.

Out to lunch: Either Stevie B’s Pizza, China Buffet or a local Mexican Restaurant (under duress from manager) with my associates, or No Name Deli downtown with one or two guys from church. About once every two or three weeks.

Allergy Shot: Leave at 11:45am, go downtown, read a few pages of Entertainment Weekly, get stuck once in each arm, stop at Andy & Ellie’s to pick up Jack, drop Jack off at home with Rachel, get back to work around 12:45pm. About once every ten days.

Rachel at the Pool: Rachel leaves to go swimming at the gym around 12:00pm. I leave work at 12:30pm, pick up Jack from Andy & Ellie’s, come home with Jack and have some lunch. Rachel comes home with wet hair and smelling of chlorine, and I go back to work, arriving at about 1:30pm. About once a week.

Staying in: Sandwich, cookies, chips and applesauce, with a healthy sprinkling of internet browsing and blogging. Two or three times a week.

Well, I had the most exciting grocery shopping trip of my life this evening. I was standing in line at the checkout at about 8:00pm Monday night when I heard a huge crash coming from the wine section, quickly followed by a scream and a woman yelling “Stop him! He’s got my wallet!” There was something about the way she said it that no one in the store doubted her. He dashed all the way across behind the row of registers and headed for the entrance next to the pharmacy with quite a few people in pursuit. Another crash and the pharmacist came running out the door to intercept him, the manager came over the customer service desk, and three men tackled the thief. He was on the ground right at the doors. He yelled a lot and the men holding him down yelled back. They stayed on top of him until the police arrived.
After what happened at VT today, I couldn’t help but be afraid this guy had a gun. If he did, he never had a chance to get it out. I think I’ll be watching my purse a little more closely now.

I got some kind of chest cold last weekend, and it’s been with me all week long. Heartburn, a sore throat, and a wicked cough were on tap for me this week. And it set off my asthma pretty badly, too. So I was “addicted” to Albuterol and Advair all week. And the propellant in the Albuterol gives me headaches when I take it all the time. And I’ve only been getting 6-7 hours of sleep every night.

I went to the Young Men’s Bible Study held at the church by Dr. Ferguson and Duff James on Tuesday morning, and since it was for young men, I brought Jack. They’re going to be skimming through Proverbs, and the first one this past Tuesday was pretty good. It was supposed to end at 7:45, but it went a little long.

So i was running a little late to “Aunt Ellie’s” house to drop off Jack, and I got pulled over and given a ticket for going 38mph in a 25mph zone. She gave me a break and made it out for just a little more than half the maximum (Probably because I had Jack and was trying to get him to Ellie’s) But I was pretty late for work.

Speaking of work, someone from our team is moving on to another job in about a week, and I’m taking over most of his duties after he leaves. So in my aforementioned condition I had to try to absorb a lot of information this week with only limited success.

All this, and Mercy has been relieving herself on the livingroom rug all week, probably out of jealousy of Jack.

So yeah, it has been a hard week. But today is being particularly nice to me to make up for it. I’m feeling a little bit like I’ve turned the corner on my cold — I think the Zinc lozenges I bought on Thursday evening helped in that respect. And it’s raining softly outside, so I don’t have to mow the lawn until later. And Rachel made muffins with blackberry filling and fried eggs for breakfast. And my music is playing, and it looks like I might have time today to buy a new pair of slacks, and/or try the video capture box I bought a few weeks ago, and/or continue to catalog my coin collection.

It may be going crazy out there, and the world may or may not be about to irrevokably change, but there’s a cool breeze blowing outside in the middle of August in South Carolina, and that’s a miracle. And if one miracle can happen, why not another? And if miracles can happen, then Love exists. And if Love exists, then everything is going to be all right eventually.

My boss told me at 5:00pm on Friday that I would be going on a business trip this week. So here I am, writing from a hotel room not even a day’s march from Gettysburg. I’ll be attending meetings at one of our suppliers for about a day and a half, and I’ll be home Wednesday in time for dinner. Every once in a while it’s nice to cross the Mason-Dixon line, if only just to visit.

Zonkered. Dead Tired. Running on Fumes. Plumb tuckered out.

It’s been a fairly bad week. For some reason, even though Jack is sleeping about six hours a night, something about our sleeping pattern this week has drained me of all my gumption. It’s been all I could do to keep from slipping into a coma at work this week. My boss noticed, and I told him that I would try to do better. I guess we’ll see.

We got our “new” car! It’s a dark green 2000 Toyota Corolla with only 48000 miles on it. It’s just like the white Corolla (a.k.a. “Hope”), except where “Hope” has Power Nothing, the green Corolla has Power Everything. It even has cruise control! So now it is officially our road trip car. And from this day forward, it shall be called “Peace”. My first car was a dark green Saturn, and I called it Grace, my second car (which eventually became “ours”) is a white Corolla, and I called it “Hope”. This third car is a Dark Green Corolla, and I am dubbing it “Peace”. Get it? Green “Peace”??

…anyway, on Saturday morning, I’m going to take it to the dealer for an oil change, and in the afternoon I’m going to get a brand new stereo installed. Oh yeah, and pictures forthcoming, too, I suppose. Wait for it.

Well, Rachel’s 1997 Mitsubishi Mirage is gone. We sold it on Saturday for $800, and the guy picked it up during the day today. So we’re a one-car family for this week, at least, while we wait for our new-to-us car to become available (More about this later). With this and Nik being around, it should be a delightfully different week.

…with many thanks to Dave Huffman of Update Your Space, LLC. A round of applause for Dave! Watch him closely, he moves fast.

Take a bow, Dave!								Furniture…
…built by…								…yours truly.

Well, the range vent hole under the oven got put in the wrong place, right over a support beam of the house. Ironically, this is the same thing, in reverse, that we found to be the case with the old range vent that went up to the ceiling. And the dishwasher isn’t wired right, but we have a working sink! So like the thing on my other site that I worked on all week, the kitchen is essentially right, with some details still to be worked out. Merry Kitch-mas to us! Rachel says, and I quote, “YAAAYYYY!”

The counters got put in today!

								It’s the Rachel Wisdom Show!

Rachel is sitting on the chairs that will be at the island counter.

The cabinet guy came out and put all the knob and handles on the cabinets. He also put the quarter-rounds at the bottom of the cabinets, and replaced the broken cabinet.

	The cabinet that was busted out of the box has been replaced.

Well, after a week of nothing doing, the kitchen is finally getting off of the dime. This is the stuff that goes down before the ceramic tile. Which they start on tomorrow.

I found this web-quiz by way of TulipGirl. It worked out about right. I am a Mechanical Engineer by trade, I got a minor in Mathematics in college, and my current main avocation is this blog and my other one, which is definitely philosophical in nature. Check it out:

What is your Perfect Major? (PLEASE RATE ME!!<3)
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