A week into it...

It has been just 9 working days into the new job. I'm enjoying it, even completed my first business trip. All my colleagues are very focused, intense on the project. I was initially frustrated by the lack of a computer, i.e., unable to communicate via email, understand my calendar, look up phone numbers, contact the customer. But all that's behind me now. Things are going well.

Its going to be a bit of a wait for payday though. My previous job paid once a week. A nice steady flow of cash. This one pays twice a month, on the 10th and the 25th. I started on the beginning of the pay period on the 17th of August, but my first paycheck will be the 10th of September. Good thing we had a bit of cash set aside.

Its also a bit of a drag living in a hotel. The Extended Stay Hotel chain is actually a pretty good deal. Its about half or even less of the big guys, and while its not so fancy, it is clean, and the folks running this one in Huntsville are really nice. This weekend, I'm going to drive up to TN and pick up my cousin Jackie, and go visit the folks renting our house outside of Knoxville. Afterwards, we're going to have a catfish dinner at Allison's Catfish Restaurant in Friendsville, TN. Some reviews have it as expensive & greasy, but we've always had a great meal.

Leaving Sugar Land and SE Texas

For a variety of reasons which I will try to explain, I decided to quit my job in Texas, and accepted a new job in Huntsville, Alabama. I have worked for the jet engine testing equipment company for almost two years. It has had its frustrating moments, and one of those recurred just a few weeks ago. So I sent a text message to a friend who was starting a new job/project in Huntsville. I was venting more than anything else, but his response was overwhelming. He needed someone with my talents and was willing to pay for it. So within just a couple weeks, I was offered a position at a significant increase in pay. I accepted, and started in the new position just one day shy of three weeks of the first text message.

Reason #1: 60% increase in pay
Reason #2: Allows us to move back into our house in the Knoxville TN area.
Reason #3: Job requires contact with USAF to work on a flight test/qualification program
Reason #4: Leaving a politically charged situation behind, probably exchanging for a new one

We have put our house in Texas up for sale, and it will sell quickly, we hope. Once that happens, we will move our stuff back into the house in TN, and I will commute on the weekends. Since my new job requires some travel, my bride would have had to suffer my lack of presence anyway, at least now, she can have a bit more money to start the projects of which we both dreamed.

Is this what is coming?

For the last couple years, and even for some time before, our economy has been struggling. The biggest news lately is that we are recovering. But unemployment is still very widespread, as high as 20% in places like Michigan, but I think it is even worse if you consider under-employment.

Our elected officials are merrily creating more legislation to cope with all our issues, and what isn't so obvious is that they are creating more and more jobs. Each time a government agency is created, criticized, strengthened, it adds more jobs. That's why they can say the economy is improving. And its in their best interests to do so. Why would government workers vote for a candidate who was going to eliminate their jobs?

Our war efforts actually fit into this scenario as well. Not so much from the soldier's point of view, but from the money the government is creating to support the soldiers and the war efforts. Want to make a lot of money? Go to work in Afghanistan or Iraq as a contractor. Want to make an obscene amount of money? Start a company that sends people to Afghanistan or Iraq. There is so much of this going on that the government auditors can't even keep up with the fraud waste and abuse of the handful of contractors who are just trying to cheat the government. But I do think the vast majority of the contractors who are in that side of the business are trying faithfully to do their jobs in a fair and equitable manner, and take care to do the right thing for their employees, the soldiers, and the native civilian populations.

But I digress. Where is this going? If everyone becomes dependent on the government for a job, isn't that socialism or communism? If private industry sees manufacturing and heavy industry disappear, we are left with the service industries remaining. Does the whole country need to be run like AMTRAK? I could see a future where the only non-government job was standing behind a counter flippin' burgers.