John’s Blog

Well as anyone who reads this blog and/or follows me on Twitter knows, my wife recently gave birth to our son. It has been an amazing and life changing experiance so far. He was born almost three weeks ago. We spent the first week in the hospital (he had to be monitored), and have been home for just over two weeks now.

So far things have been going great, he is doing well, eating, gaining weight, growing, and is pretty advanced for his age as we are told be his pediatrician.

I have however been struggling with balancing out his need for us to be there for him 24/7, with my need or more accuratly obligation to spending at least some time online. So far since he was born, most of my online time has been limited to posting pictures of him for family and friends out of state to see, and answering only very important emails. I really haven’t been twittering much, or doing much else for that matter.

Now don’t get me wrong, I love my son, love spending time with him, and taking care of him. But at the same time realize lately that I need to get back into a routine of getting the things I need done online. Too many emails are sitting in my inbox unanswered, and too many projects that do need my attention, not to mention I am still looking for work.

So what I am trying to do now is create some sort of balance. One that allows me to have the time to take care of things online that need my attention. As well as time to spend with and take care of my son. It’s coming along slowly and hopefully over the next few weeks I will be able to get a routine down that works for all of us.

I plan to post more here on the blog, as well as get back to twittering as often as I had been. It’s all a matter of finding the time.

I will be packing up and heading off with my wife to the hospital late this afternoon.

Even though I know I don’t update the blog much lately, it is mostly Twitter posts, those may become very sparatic depending on how much time and how many chances I get to update once we are there.

So far this morning it has all been about cleaning up from the storm. We got about 16 inches of snow yesterday and last night. And since we won’t be here for up to a week, I need to get it all cleaned up before we go. With no snow blower it is an adventure. I have the driveway (including the 5 foot snow bank the plow left) cleared, mailbox shoveled out. Porches are cleaned off, and the roof in the back. I still have to clear the roof in the front, and make pathes to our oil barrel as well as propane tank in case they need to deliver while we are at the hospital.

Once I get all that done, then I can get everything packed up and ready to go.

Like I said, updates will be sparse, but I will be updating Twitter when I can, and posting lots of pictures once the big event takes place.

Happy New Year everyone.

Here is to hoping that 2009 is better for everyone than 2008. We saw a lot of bad things happen with the economy and such in 2008. Many lost their jobs (me included), their homes, savings, investments, and so on.

But on the bright side you never know what a new year will hold. I personally am staying optomistic that in this new year I will again find a job that allows me to support my family, and start to rebuild our savings. I am already looking forward to one event this year that should be taking place soon (more on that later).

So again, good luck this year folks, I hope everyone has a great 2009.

Haven’t written in the blog in a long time. But then again lots has been happening and it is hard to keep up with everything these days.

So far in the last week we have:

• Moved to a different state
• I started a new and complicated job
• Been trying to get settled into new house

The result has been a very large lack of sleep, and almost no free time. So yeah, can you say tired and stressed out?

I will write more about our move, my new job, and other interesting developments as I get more free time (hopefully soon, like this weekend).

So today is the my first day taking Chantix, and so far so good. I’m not feeling any effects yet, but then again at this point I’m not supposed to. I’m following the directions closely, registered on the “Get Quit” website this morning, and am trying to cut down on the amount I smoke before my “quit day” arrives. My only concern is to whether I will suffer from any of the side effects I have been warned/told about. Guess I’ll just have to wait and see how it goes.

The surprising part is how much I am actually looking forward to kicking the habit. It’s something I have been doing for over 26 years, and getting this monkey off my back will be more than welcome.

I want to thank all of you who left a comment or sent me an email of encouragement. I really do appreciate it and it does help. And after talking to a friend, they suggested video blogging my experience. I admit that I like this idea, but I’m not sure if I could really do it. It’s not a matter of having the knowledge or equipment (both of those I have in great supply). My issue is that I doubt I would be able to make daily updates. So I may end up doing it with updates whenever I can. I’ll let everyone know when I decide.

I had lined up some contract work that was to start this week and run for a couple of months. Now it wasn’t exactly anything amazing, but it was something to keep the cash flowing in while I kept on the job hunt. Unfortunately, the work I had lined up fell through. So instead of returning to New Hampshire and starting a new project today, I am still up here in Maine. Yes, the last month of coming up to visit family and relax was nice, but I am itching to get back to work. The only issue is that the job market around here is horrible to say the least. I am really thinking it is time for us to get out of this area all together.

Well for now I am off to do another job search, then go grab a coffee and some breakfast. Oh, and by the way, if you had considered visiting Maine recently but didn’t. Don’t worry, you haven’t missed much. For the last month pretty much all it has done is rain.

Well it has been a while since I have really written anything on my blog here. It’s not so much a lack of having anything to say. It’s more a lack of desire.

Over the last few months my life has undergone some big changes, and I had another happen last night. As anyone who reads this blog knows, about a month ago I lost my job. Which is to say i was first laid off, then forced out of the company I worked for due to family politics. Of course I didn’t get the final boot until after being two weeks into what I thought was laid off for five weeks. So needless to say that ate into the time I could have been spending job hunting.

Well the job hunt still continues. It is what I have been focusing 99.99999% of my energies on lately. Unfortunately where I live, coupled with the economy of late has made this search very hard and dare I say next to impossible. But I am still working at it. And I am confident I will find something. I just hope it is sooner than later.

Other than that not much else has been going on lately. Obviously the job hunt, taking lots of walks with the dogs despite all the rain we have been having. Really the only other thing happening right now is something that took place last night. Honestly something that I am still struggling with and I am sure I will be for some time to come. Right now I don’t feel comfortable talking about it here. Even though I use this as not only a blog but also a personal venting ground (hey, it’s cheaper than therapy right?). The problem I have is this is something deeply personal, and something that I can barely come to grips with. So for right now I won’t be talking about it here. In the time to come I may, when and if I am ready.

Well that’s pretty much all for now, just a quick update. Tomorrow is Monday, so that means back on the job hunt like white on rice. I hope everyone had a good weekend (or at least a better one that I).

I don’t think that I could ask for more beautiful spring weather, especially for New England. We have been having almost two weeks of temps hitting or above 70 here. Which I must say is very refreshing after the winter we had (record setting snowfall). I have been trying to get out and enjoy the weather as much as I can. Which brings me to something that has been bugging me. We have three dogs, and for the last year we have been taking them to the local dog park. For them it’s great, they have a very large fenced in area where they can run and play off leash. The park even stayed open over the winter months, and with all the snow. However, on April 1st they closed due to muddy conditions. Now I completely understood that. I went by about a week later to check, the park was still closed, but it was dry as a bone. So I sent an email to the board about it. The response I finally received was that they were doing “maintenance” on the park and it would not reopen until the first weekend in May. The funny part about that, is that it is also when membership fees are due. Coincidence? I think not. I have spoken to many other members of the park that are just as upset that I am that with this great weather finally here, they are choosing to lock us out until May. But in truth, there really isn’t much we can do. They are the only game in town. So for now, we just have to wait for them to reopen and continue taking the dogs for long walks in the evenings after dinner. And it’s not like I mind walking them, it’s great exercise for both us and the dogs. But it is not as good for them as getting to run and play without the restraint of a leash.

On the subject of dogs, I have to give credit to out local SPCA. Over the weekend we took our dogs to their annual rabies clinic. Not for their shots, our vet had already taken care of that. They were offering something new this year. Micro chipping through Home Again. Many people don’t see the point in this service, however we do. Two of our three dogs came from rescue organizations. They were pulled from animal shelters where they would have been killed. The Home Again micro chip is implanted just under the dogs skin, and these days almost all vets and shelters have the scanner. When an animal is brought in it is scanned. If a chip is found they can attain the owner information from the service. This helps to not only identify lost dogs and return them to their owners, but also combat dog theft. The clinic they were offering was doing the implant for a greatly reduced price, only $35 per dog, about half what most vets charge. We got the clinic just before it opened and were almost the first ones in line. The whole process was done very quickly, from registration, payment, to actually seeing the vet doing the work. We were in and out in less than 20 minutes. Overall a very well run and efficient function, kudos to the SPCA.

Other than that, the hunt for a job drags on for me. I am approaching one month of being unemployed. Now granted the first two weeks I wasn’t really actively seeking another job, since I thought I was only temporarily laid off. I found out otherwise later (see earlier posts). So, since then I have been deep in the hunt for another job, and honestly, it’s not going well. This is the first time I have been out of work in as long as I can remember. Now I know that I am not going to land my dream job in a day. But the reality is that I am facing a horrid job market, especially in this area. I have lowered my standards on what type of work I do, for the sake of getting the income flow going again. However, the one thing I cannot lower too far is the salary I can accept. I know what I need to pay the bills I have, and unfortunately most of the employers in this area are paying well below that. I have had many phone interviews, and even one in person last week. All that interview netted me was a response along the lines of “We feel that you are too over qualified for this position and wouldn’t be happy here. We are looking for someone who will be a long term employee and with your experiance and background we feel you wouldn’t be a good fit in this position. But we will keep your resume on file should a management position come available”. All i could say in response was that while I did agree with them, you have to start somewhere and I would be more than happy to start out in that position until such time as a management position became available. They however did not feel the same way. Honestly at this point I starting to get discouraged, and more than a little stir crazy from not working. I mean since I have been working since I was 12, almost all of that time at least full time or better. So sitting here twiddling my thumbs is not exactly a good thing.

Well, hopefully things will turn around soon. If not, I may have to look at relocating, and that is something that I know will not be agreeable to the wife.

This has been a rough week for me so far. Tuesday I had a job interview, that went pretty well, although it was a very long grueling interview. Had lunch with a friend afterward and headed home. About 20 minutes after I got home I started feeling not right. It started there and got worse. By the time I went to bed Tuesday night (after sending in our taxes…we owed yet again) I was feeling like death. I woke up yesterday morning and made it about as far as the couch. I spent pretty much the whole day there. Which for me says a lot since I am not a “couch potato”. Woke up this morning feeling a little better, but have been taking it easy all day. I am still coughing like crazy, my sinuses are still killing me, and my ear ache is still hanging around. But on the plus side at least I am not still dizzy, runny a fever, and half out of it.

I was hoping today might be a productive day. But seeing how it is almost 4:30, I don’t see myself getting much done. The ironic part is that I got sick for the 2 nicest days of the year here so far. It got to almost 70 degrees here today. Which for this area is pretty nice, New England is not known for it’s early spring warm days.

Looking forward to getting outside tomorrow if I am feeling a little better and enjoying this warmth and sun before it goes back into hiding again as it always does.

So, as anyone who reads this blog may know, I was laid off from my job on March 30th. (I blogged about it here).

When I was laid off I was told I would be able to return to work when things picked up (in a month or so I was told). But I left with a very weird feeling about the whole thing. I couldn’t shake the feeling something wasn’t right. But I tried to keep as positive of an attitude as possible about the whole situation. I immediately filed for unemployment, and just in case things didn’t turn around looking for work and sending out a few resumes (again just as a precaution).

So far I am still waiting for a determination from unemployment, they are working slow as ever on this, looks like they will take up the entire 21 days the federal government allows them to process the claim. In the meantime I am left waiting and wondering. Unemployment in this state is not great. I will be looking at getting about half of what I was making at work. Which in and of itself is not a rewarding prospect since we were just getting by on that and my wife’s salary. So yes, it is belt tightening time and we are doing so. And it was my sincere hope that before my first check even arrived that I would be called back to work.

Well today I learned that I would surely be getting a check first. Since I got a lovely email from the President of the company. It had no words in the email, just a Microsoft Word attachment. Upon opening and subsequently reading the letter. It informed me that I would not be returning to work for the company. Going on to state some bullshit about how there was not enough business to warrant it. Now in a lot of positions I could understand that train of logic. However, when I was laid off I held the position of General Manager for the company. I drew the second highest salary to the President (and honestly it wasn’t that much). So the reasoning to them is cost savings apparently. But in reading the letter, I also discovered that his son, a person who was brought into the company as a technician, and that I trained, has been promoted.

How can I see this as anything but a cowardly and feeble way of forcing me out of the company so his son can take over? There is no other way to view it. I am sure that from the outside looking in there are ways to spin it. However after being there as long as I did and knowing what I know. It is undeniably what happened.

So here I am, not just laid off, but unemployed. This is the thanks I get for the years I spent turning that company around. When I started the customer base had dwindled due to the types of people that had been employed there in the past. They had driven away customers and clients with poor attitude and customer service. Not to mention shoddy technical work at best. There was no reporting, no tracking, nothing. I came in and changed that. Made sure we hired knowledgeable people who worked hard, services those customers and clients. Ensured that all work we did was done with quality and accuracy in as timely a manner as possible. And you know what? It took about 6 months to see the difference. We had old clients coming back in, and new ones developing all the time. I got out there, advertised, networked, did whatever it took to bring in business. I worked all the time, whether it was from the office or at home, weekends, holidays, you name it. I gave up a lot over those years to make a difference. In the end I did, granted at the time I was “laid off”, things were slow. But that was normal for this time of year at that business. And to be honest compared to years past things were up, even with the shitty economy. Could business have been better? Of course it could. Could it have been worse? Hell yes it could have been. I’d seen the books, and had I not turned things around from day one, I am sure they would have been.

In the end, all my hard work didn’t matter much for me. I had spent my time setting up the boss’s son with the perfect opportunity to make a go of it. And once they had drained all they could out of me, they tossed me out.

Well hopefully on to bigger and better things. I do predict a rough patch ahead for us. Since with the economy being the way it is the job market around here just isn’t what it once was. And decent positions are that much harder to come by.

Well I guess that’s enough of a rant for now. Back to my job search.