Sometimes i forget how easy it is to find a job in So cal compared to other places in the country. I have to slap myself back to reality that in some places, there just aren't jobs.
Here, if you can't find work it is just because you aren't trying very hard. Obviously the same can't be said of other places. Kinda makes me sound like an a$$ judging others who are in a different situation.

Come Monday I'll be working as a mechanical engineer for one of the big bad oil companies. My main task will be improving the reliability of the rotating equipment to reduce the chance of lost production.
Basically the same thing I did for an oil company two years ago when I went onto a different kind of job. The grass wasn't greener. Now I'm going back home to what I know.

I spent the better part of today working on my car. I hit the pick-a-part looking for treasures but didn't find much, then came home and tried a few things trying to solve a very strange CIS symptom.
Oops, I almost got on topic, that isn't allowed here ;)
I better take it to the technical forum to talk about 911 stuff.

Feeling weird about not having a job to go to?.....you guys are nuts! Especially if another job is waiting right around the corner. For many years I worked only contract jobs and would usually take the entire summer off. The current economy dictates that I now have to work as a direct employee and I sorely miss those extended periods of time off. If properly budgeted for, a few months away from work is pure heaven and incredibly relaxing. Although I enjoy what I do, I don't define myself by it and never lament not being at work. In fact, I would get so involved in projects, travel and just enjoying life that I wondered how I ever got anything done when working 40 hours a week.

Remember....you'll never see the words, "I Wish I'd Spent More Time at the Office" on anybodys tombstone.

Can I work out of Portland?!?!? :p

www.lumpocole.com/doug/portfolio :D

u guys still work for a living?

life's too short to be a slave to the grind. do something more meaningful with your life.

:D

I pity people who never take more than a whole week off every year. If I had to wait to change jobs to do that, I`d be changing jobs all the time. Actually, I really wonder how I got used to so little vacations. I used to have a whole month off in the summer like my fellow from sweden.

Aurel

Sam,

Congratulations about the new job, now see if you can free up your weekends to go driving with your fellow Pelicans or at least a breakfast every now and then with the PCA.

I left my last job mid-Feb 2006, took a month to travel w/ the family in France/Spain, started this one mid-Mar 2006. No money worries, accumulated vacation pay more than replaced the missing month of income.

Before that I quit my prev job Dec 96, took most of 1997 off, traveled around the world w/ the family, before returning to school late 97. Had accumulated a lot of savings, carried us through the traveling plus two years of grad school 1998-1999. Was the best three years of my life, though we were pretty tapped out, financially speaking, by the time I started the next job May 99.

Being between jobs has always been a great experience. It helps that the "between" times were always planned and I had enough saved to enjoy myself. My rule is to have 1 year of living expenses in the bank, when my industry was blowing up in 2001-2003 and people were being laid off right and left, I was really grateful for that cash reserve.

If we buy a house here in Portland I will be skating on thinner ice, maybe 6 months of expenses + mortgage in the bank, so I will be scrimping hard to get back to a 1 year cushion.

It does suck to have to change jobs in order to get time off. When I'm working, I never get more than 10 days vacation - basically a week plus the flanking weekends. It burns you out.

When I left Solar in 2004, I purposely setup a month off, so that I could get all of the moving things completed: Car inspections, registrations, closet organizers, killing fireants, getting the house setup. Previously, when I left GE and joined Solar, I took no time off. I left on a Friday and started work on a Monday. And Tuesday was 9/11/2001. Weird time.

After I got back in 1991 from 14 months in the Middle East, I took two months of leave between assignments...loaded up the Toyota truck with toys (kayak, bike, board) and did the same basic loop.

No better way to let the air out.

One of the main reasons I took this job (besides lots more monies) is it is 10 hrs per day 4 days a week. That's lots better than 5 or 6 11 hours days per week.
Plus I get 4 weeks vacation per year to start.
All that adds up to spending lots more time with the kids and more time with the car and friends.

Here's One...............
I quit my job after six-years, sold our house, had a big garage sale and bought a 35 foot Coronado Sloop sailboat in St. Augustine, Florida and took off with a 3 year old kid and went sailing for three years.

Definitely refreshes the soul!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Bob
73.5T