And so begins the rest of my life.

[RonDent]

After 42 years in the disk drive industry, in one form or another, I am retiring. It's been a long journey from the days with IBM mainframe hard drive to our current offering of drives. I started screwing screws on the line. I'm now leaving as an engineer. I many cases still working with the same people as when I started. Good luck to them all. How I can devote my remaining years to becoming a racetrack junky. There is always a race that needs to be started somewhere!

[rfuerst911sc]

Congrats 👏 . My dad retired from IBM .

[908/930]

Congrats! So from drives to driving.

[Seahawk]

Originally Posted by RonDent

Now I can devote my remaining years to becoming a racetrack junky. There is always a race that needs to be started somewhere!

Very cool, plus you live a great place, my favorite part of the world.

But remember, starting a race is all fun and games until someone gets their eye poked out:



I wish you the best!

[Aurel]

Congrats! You must have left this job with lots of memories and a magnetic personality .

[Evans, Marv]

Congrats & may you have a long, healthy, & happy retirement. After 17 years, I hardly remember what I did before I retired. Don't know if that's good or bad so can't recommend it one way or the other.

[Sooner or later]

Enjoy!

[Rusty Heap]

RESET all bits to 0 format c:> *.*

[astrochex]

Congrats! Enjoy the everyday is Saturday experience.

[Bob Kontak]

Originally Posted by RonDent

It's been a long journey from the days with IBM mainframe hard drive

Those drives had to have been space shuttle quality.

Congratulations to you.

One story. Late 80's in Houston. Gessner and 610. Bob, the IT guy on our audit staff tells Millie, the boss man's secretary, to tell everybody to get their 5 1/4" floppy discs out of sight because there was a partial eclipse of the sun coming that afternoon.

She lays the knowledge on 35 people until someone tipped her off.

[Bob Kontak]

Originally Posted by Rusty Heap

RESET all bits to 0 format c:> *.*

Does that mean Format C drive? Saw a dude do that in Anchorage with his Compaq accidentally.

[Mike Andrew]

Originally Posted by RonDent

After 42 years in the disk drive industry, in one form or another, I am retiring. It's been a long journey from the days with IBM mainframe hard drive to our current offering of drives. I started screwing screws on the line. I'm now leaving as an engineer. I many cases still working with the same people as when I started. Good luck to them all. How I can devote my remaining years to becoming a racetrack junky. There is always a race that needs to be started somewhere!

No doubt that you saw a lot in your 42 years; lots of advancements and miniaturization. Leave with a sense of pride for your contributions and don't spend much time looking back.

A good friend corrects anybody who says they are retired by informing them that they are really redirected. Seems right to me.

Enjoy a life of Saturdays.

[Bugsinrugs]

Congratulations. If you are like the rest of us retirees you will be busier in retirement then when you worked!

[Scott R]

Originally Posted by RonDent

After 42 years in the disk drive industry, in one form or another, I am retiring. It's been a long journey from the days with IBM mainframe hard drive to our current offering of drives. I started screwing screws on the line. I'm now leaving as an engineer. I many cases still working with the same people as when I started. Good luck to them all. How I can devote my remaining years to becoming a racetrack junky. There is always a race that needs to be started somewhere!

Shark? FastT?

[rcooled]

Congrats Ron! The 'Every-day-is-Saturday' lifestyle is hard to beat

Originally Posted by RonDent

How I can devote my remaining years to becoming a racetrack junky.

Well, you can start with the Velocity Invitational at Laguna Seca coming up on Nov. 11-14th. And if you happen to be active or retired military, Friday the 12th, Veterans Day, is a freebee. Even if you're not a vet, you can still get Friday tix for free...no proof of vet status required.

https://velocityinvitational.com/

[cantdrv55]

Congrats!

[wildthing]

My first hard drive was 40MB.

[rwest]

Congrats, I hope to be like you in a couple years!

[pwd72s]

welcome aboard...

[Jims5543]

I could see the American dream was a lie when I was young enough to do something about it.

In my late 30's I did not stop working, I was self employed, I did however take a smaller salary, hire the right people and barely worked for 5 years and had a blast, I raced my car, I took lots of vacations, I bought a vacation home, spent 50% of my time per year there. I did whatever I wanted whenever I wanted. We partied in clubs in Miami and West Palm Beach until the sun came up. We had a total and complete blast.

When I was "working" I would come in late after going to the gym, spend 6-7 hours working M-Th and 4 hours on Friday, took long lunches, visited with friends when I was not in the mood to be in the office. etc..

I did not make as much as I could have, I did not save as much as I should have.. and I have no regrets. Zero.

I got this idea from my first employee's parents. They moved to FloRida from Connecticut, they were about 50 years old and both in fantastic shape. His mom was a smoke show. The sold their home for a nice profit and rented a cheap rental here. They both moved down with no jobs lined up and spent a year just playing. I admired them for that, taking a little retirement while they could really enjoy it. I remembered that and worked to try to emulate that.

I was able to do it in the late 30's and had a blast. Now in my mid 50's I am planning on doing it again in 1-2 years from now. Going to take a lot of time off and enjoy my free time with my wife while we are both reasonably young and able.

No real health issues and both in great shape, I am really looking forward to early retirement part 2, part 3 will be when I actually hit retirement age. Or will it?

I can see grinding for 10 years again then throttling back to working less but enjoying life. I cannot see ever closing down my business, I enjoy what I do and think it will be good to have purpose in my older years to keep me up and moving and sharp.