For over a year now, FedEx Express, my former employer has adopted a policy of intentional short staffing in order to cut costs.   This is typical of the economic times and healthy business practice.   However, this has lead to a number of overworked, and injured employees, mostly due to the age of the workforce.   All these injuries put the company in a perpetual emergency staffing situation, leaving no room to give anyone a day off to go to a wedding of one of their closest friends, nor get out of work at a reasonable hour.   After over a year of tolerating such working conditions, I politley let my supervisors know where I stood, and entered a letter of resignation.   My employers chose to ignore that letter, or take action on that letter, I am not sure of which, and fired me on the next business day.   Either way, I got out of a bad situation.   The ONLY downside is the lack of income that I currently am trying to rectify.   My resume should be posted in HTML form on this website shorty.   When it is, you can view it here.

     Now that work was no longer a factor, I was able to go on other adventures with my first taste of time off in the summer since I started working for FedEx in the spring of 1998.   I went out west with my sister and my dad to visit my Grandma Jo, in Seattle, WA.   On the right is a picture looking out over Lake Washington from her house.   She is still in the same house and neighborhood where my Dad grew up, and it is fun to wander around and see the places that he played with the other neighborhood kids.   My Dad also likes to tell people that he played with Jimi Hendrix.   It is true, but kickball, not music.

     Further adventuring, from Seattle, I Amtraked to Portland, OR, where I met up with a friend I played frisbee with last summer.   We drove down the Oregon coast, went to the Oregon Country Fair, and Hiked through lava fields in the Cascades, and swam in Crater Lake.   Then played Ultimate in Eugene, all in 72 hours!   A nutty adventure I hope to have some pictures on the site soon!   When they get here, I will elaborate more than the short short version I just told you!

     The next adventure, just 2 days after returning from the west coast, was my ten year high school reunion!   I can't believe I'm already this old!   I feel like I just finished college!   Then again, I did just finish college!   There are a bunch more pictures here.   Check them out!   Until next time, probably in the fall, but hopefully sooner. . .