A Change of Pace - A New Chapter

Today was my last day with Raytheon. Ten years to the day. As one who really hates to say goodbye(s) I bucked any formal celebration but finally relented for a few close friends. We had a small dinner last Thursday evening and then today, there were five who took me to lunch. What struck me the most? There was a book passed among the employees to jot their personal thoughts in; the book was very revealing and I will keep it close by. We have just over 100 at our location and 68 took the time to jot a note... makes one a little misty eyed. Regardless, my thank you to my fellow employees follows along with my instruction to the secretary to not release it until 1300 Local (after I went to lunch), and didn't go back. : ) It 'has' been a good ten years; they took good care of me - but, I was ready. Tomorrow??? May do some yard raking. : )


Debra - please pass to site folks at 1 PM, 28 Feb 06.

Fellow Employees,

I leave today after ten years with Hughes / Raytheon. When I got
the call in February of 1996 I was hoping for just three years. Before
I knew it ten had passed. I decided on my 9th anniversary to depart on
the ten year anniversary, and notified Barbara Smith the morning of the
nine year point...I also told her I'd only say it once. :)

I need to say 'thank you' to you all, for understanding a sometimes
cranky, obstinate and seemingly unbending individual such as myself. I
oft times had little talks with myself 'after the fact', such as,
loosen up, take time to verbalize, chat, shoot the breeze, whatever you
want to call it.... I just never took the time to do so. For most of
my ten years I was just too busy. And now it is over.

Many of you know of my penchant for NOT liking public accolades. Do
I like to be thanked for a specific action or task? Yup, like most, I
surely do... I just don't like it in front of a group. Accordingly,
when I was presented with the book you wrote 'your thoughts', I was, to
say the least, taken aback. It reminded me of my mother and father -
Mom used to say "someone is always watching", and while I used that
saying on my own children, reading your 'thoughts' brought the saying
home. And my father? My father's work brought him in contact with
many different people, people who relied on him for his service. I was
privy to many conversations where they would tell him he was one of a
kind. I'd like to think some of that rubbed off on me, and again, your
'thoughts', so eloquently expressed in 'my book' brought back a flood
of memories - all good. :) Thank you also for the engraved fountain
pen. If you ever tried walking away from my cubicle with one of my
pens you know of my love of pens... Lea Fidler knows (a fellow pen
lover), and she would be jealous of this one. :)

So I leave today, and I thank you - I dislike good-bye, so I will
just say - so long. I'm thinking of a fishing license, something I
have not bought in several years. My wife and I are remaining in the
area although we are looking to down size. (She told me very
recently). We have been lots of places in our day, and we like the Mid
West ethic.

Thank you all once again, and remember - "Listen to Your Mother".

Cordially,

John Wilson

The Ports

No matter what side you come down on regarding this issue it definitely has been mis-handled. Dunno any other way to describe the situation.

Trying to remain consistent, I was against it when President Carter gave away the Panama Canal - The Chinese now control entry and exit of that situation. I was against it when President Clinton allowed the Chinese to take over the Long Beach port. I am against the UAE taking over the current six ports in question. But... a few other things to consider.
1) The issue is NOT security and for the politicians to talk only about that is absurd
2) NO american company bid on taking over the ports from the british.
3) Ummm, we just had several arrested in Ohio for umm, collaborating with terrorists
4) Britain has had many terrorists originate from their country.

I can understand 'people' being upset with an Arabic country taking over anything in this country, but I suspect the little people like us would be stunned if they only knew just who owned what all across the land. And the fact that Joe Q Public is being led to believe we are turning over the security to the Emerates is criminal. The media once again is not doing their job, "nor" I might add is the administration.

Mr. Cheney

I went to the gym today - they have TV up along the wall w/close captioning and while the pictures were too far for me to read, I didn't really need to. They were discussing 'The Shooting'. What a farce.

Here is the plain and simple fact. If the press would ask their questions without the holier than thou tone in their voice, the majority of the politicians would 'have' to answer or THEY would look like the dolt. Now I suppose there are those that would argue that Brit Hume asked powder puff questions of Mr. Cheney when he got his exclusive... no matter. The vice president answered each and every question asked. I maintain this... I 'want' the press to ask probing indepth questions but just one time I'd like some leader to look down and say... you ninny... you insolent snot - go ply your trade somewhere else. Or something similar... just something to let them know they are an insignificant bunch of whackos.

In my opinion, most journalists today want to, by their actions, change the course of history. Not their job. Theirs is to 'report', dig into, find facts, not try and slant the news. Methinks the journalist schools have failed big time in the last 20 years or so. Take Woodward and Bernstein to make my point. No matter what side you came down on in the case of Richard M. Nixon... 'those' reporters dug, and kept digging until the 'story' came out.

Pre-Clinical Phase

I had my yearly physical in January... during the umm finger wave portion of the encounter, she said she felt something and wanted me to see a Urologist. I said, well, no problemo... I'm retiring the end of February so pick a date in March and I'll make it work.
Upon getting home I reconsidered the 'wait until March' thingy and moved the initial appointment up to January 16th. I promptly got 'another wave of the finger' confirming what 'my' doctor had discovered. My response was... she had a much gentler touch. Regardless, he scheduled me for a biopsy and that was done on 31 January. Dunno if you have ever had one of these, but it was NOT pleasant and I do NOT want to endure another.
Yesterday I got the result. It was non-malignant - thank you Lord. I have what is known as PIN, or, Prostatic Intraepithelial Neoplasia otherwise known as A Premalignant Lesion. It was a sobering experience as my appointment yesterday was nearly the last of the day. Doctor said his news to me was the first good news of his day. He said I should put a smile on my face and thank my God. Then at the conclusion of the session, he put his hand on my shoulder and said, "God Bless You". When I got to my car, I sat for a few moments and thought... he had a really 'hard' day. I also took another moment and did indeed thank my God above. As I said, it was a sobering day and puts things in a different perspective.
For anyone interested in reading about this, here is a link where you can get some pretty good poop.

http://www.prostate-cancer.org/education/preclin/pin.html

Super Bowl

Steelers / Seahawks... me? I've missed one call during the playoffs... I did not think the Seahawks would beat Carolina, and they whupped up on them. Today? I am going with the 'hot' team, the Steelers. They have had one good run during these playoffs.

On another note - my weight has reached a milestone (for me). I have dropped below 295, and there will be those who will say... WHAT!!!???!¡ Ha ha... this does not tell you how much has been lost in toto, but it is still coming off. The gym has become my friend and when I give up this office job I intend to make the exercise even more regular. Several have noticed but they have zero clue as to my real weight... has to do with my body size I guess. I've had them say, what are you, down to 225 or so? Ha ha... "I WISH". But, the good news, and it is all good I guess, is the blood sugars. They are down now to 95 average over the past 15 days and those averages continue to fall. THAT is the result of the exercise also, and that is good news indeed.

So, for all of you wondering just what in the world he 'did' weigh... you will need to just keep wondering. : )