Month: June 2005

To celebrate the return of Jeremy, we drove to Danbury and stopped off at Trader Joe’s and then at the Danbury train museum. The best part was riding the turntable (circa 1920).

On the train turntable.

Edda, a little bit nervous, on the train turntable.

Jeremy is home! Hooray! Bob came over yesterday to care for the kids and I drove to Newark to pick him up. Sheez, Newark is really far away. It’s nice that he’s home.

We had gone to the library yesterday before Bob came over, so there were a bunch of new books to read.

Today, I think we are going to Danbury to the mall with the merry-go-round inside the mall and also to the railroad museum.

Ching Mao:I hope Pei-Jean & you are kidding. So your boss is asking you to have a job :), just like all the bosses do. The only real boss in our class of ME 65 is Rena. She always tells or suggests, depending how you look at it, me what to do. The rest of us are just gofers of their spouses 🙂

Well, here are my 2 cents. Rena & I have been working at different places or different continents, for the past 8 years. As a matter of fact, the trip that we had with SL and Anna was just about three weeks. But, it was the longest time that Rena & I were together continuously for the past 4 – 5 years. Of course, you can see that we treasured that precious moment a lot.

In our situations, the bad part is apparent. I really missed her a lot, especially at the time when wind was blowing, rain pouring, birds singing, etc., any circumstance that you could think of. I am not a real music fan but I do have a car satellite radio (XM) which accompanies me all the time while driving. Sometimes, I heard those moving songs on the radio and, suddenly, the thought about Rena was intensified. And I called. Unfortunately, sometime, I was in places where there was no cell tower 🙁 to make any connection.

Well, to us, the good part (?) is that we have traveled a lot on the ground, visiting different places scattered all over the USA, including scenic highways, scenic spots, big towns, small municipalities, famous or not. We have seen a lot and drove many, many miles together. Since Rena was always the anchor point because our kitchen was with her all the time, I flew a lot, basically, every two weeks. Sometime, I even couldn’t tell which airport and time zone I was in. During the winter time, it was much better for my tummy. I brought my big “beggar’s bowl” and Rena filled it with her left over in the refrigerator. I wrapped it in our wriggled moving paper (paper is an excellent insulator, and we still have a lot after countless moves) and brought it back in shipped luggage. That probably lasted about two weeks until the next scheduled re-fill. Summer time, it is less likely to carry food this way.

After all these years like that, Rena & I are ready to quit at any moment. Otherwise, forced retirement of one or both is a distinct possibility. Being not together is not good; especially you have no one to argue with 🙂

So, I think, working on your own investment is much better, followed by jobs within commuting distance. The last thing is “any location”. But, if you really would like to do that, I suggest short-term temp jobs (3 – 4 months) in big cities, west or east, where air travel is cheaper & more frequent. A couple of hours later, he will be home. I believe GE Nuclear in your SF Bay area needs some temp workers. Ask Tsai Sen-Sung, he may still have some connection there. If not, ask Rena. noel

Mom and I are looking into the possibility that we both work as constractors at the same place. Since 1 1/2 year COBRA medical program should cover our health insurance until enrolling into Medicare at 65. We should have no problem on our health coverages. This way, we can get together and do some local sightseeing plus we can also invest on real estates (lands and/or houses), if the price & opportunity are right. Pittsburgh is just not the right place to do so, though Washougal and Washington DC are. Maybe, we can branch out to somewhere that have potential depending where we end up as contractors. Even without this opportunity, this is not as important as comparing with getting together and being happy ever after 🙂

Edda and I went to Bowdoin Park on a hike. We tried out the backpack. Edda didn’t seem to like it at first, but then she got into it and I could hear her babbling to herself in the back. Lovely short trail system in the park.

Me and Edda hiking in Bowdoin park.

I guess the company is in the period of “slow time”. Not much going on. But, I am spending my days right now with several finite element analysis computer programs, which are available in the company’s computer system, by following the tutorials that later may be proven to be useful. Maybe not. Who knows? But, instead of just sitting here, this way it is good for me and the company. Later, they may need those skills. I certainly do. IT is interesting if they work closely with company’s main business. To be just a working bee, engineering is much easier for me right now because I don’t think I can get on the keyboard too often. It is bad for my hands, shoulders, neck and eyes. Besides, drawing too much brain power. Sometimes, to be just a working bee, at the bottom of the totem pole, is really bad. One cannot use talents as broad as possible. Just looking at small things but not the big pictures. Especially, there are a lot of things on which you are sure that you can excel. Well, of course the merit of it, is just working on what is assignment and there is no “why & what”.

I guess the best, at my stage of life, is to have outside business of my own – any kind 🙂

Mom went fishing yesterday after work. Caught a half. The fish was on the hook but managed to get away. So, we can postpone the idea to buy a freezer just for the fish 🙂 But she enjoyed herself. She got home around 9:30 PM at her time and called. Very glad to hear from her after her fishing trip. Just would like to know that she was okay 🙂