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<p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 100%">Keep in mind:</p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 100%">1) Nobody ever
accused me of having a sense of humor.</p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 100%">2) You can stop
reading anytime.<br>
<b><br>
GOING OFF THE PAYROLL SOON</b><br>
Social Security finally caught up with me. <br>
No more "Mister Nice Guy" from them. Last month received a letter
saying:<br>
<br>
"...you should apply now for monthly Social Security retirement
payments."<br>
And this "... it is time to file an application for Social
Security payments."<br>
And this "You should contact us right away to apply for your
retirement payments."<br>
And this "You need to complete an application..."<br>
And this "You should apply now..."<br>
<br>
SSA seemed serious about me applying and wanting to pay me not to
work, so I applied.<br>
<br>
Don't plan to leave Chauncey completely up the creek, then again
he may be happy I'm going.<br>
He has options, one being, me still doing some things (gratis).</p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 100%">Anyway he's stuck
with me as a patron, at least for genealogy work and reading
books.<br>
Our library is the best place for an internet connection. (Thanks
OPLIN).<br>
Mine at home is pitiful at 896/448. Years of complaining to
CenturyLink only got: “we will likely never be able to offer
anything better”. <br>
<br>
Also plan to do more personal history writing for our 3 kids and 7
grandkids. This email was written in LibreOffice Writer to add to
my other stories for them.</p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 100%">Might work more on
the Travis McGee story I started a while ago.<br>
Based on events during the, almost 10 week, 1982 Ukraine start up
trip.<br>
We had our own personal KGB agent, Alex, keeping tabs.<br>
<br>
And if not kicked off the OPLIN lists, might still contribute on
occasion.</p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 100%"><br>
</p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 100%">Don't think I've
really asked too many questions on the lists. Mostly gave answers
or suggestions.</p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 100%">Hopefully helping
some people along the way.</p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 100%">Learned a few
things too, You always can learn.</p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 100%">It's been fun.<br>
<br>
</p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 100%">Most of you
probably know nothing about me, or care.</p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 100%">Some may know my
name, and still don't care, or think I'm just some computer guy.</p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 100%">I'm not by the way.
Well, maybe now, but not before.</p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 100%"><br>
</p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 100%">Others may know a
bit more about me. If you want, read on for, the rest of the
story.</p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 100%">You might be
surprised maybe slightly interested or amused. Or not. I have
pictures.</p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 100%"><br>
</p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 100%">It's a long email,
I've worked 53 years. Please excuse errors in spelling, typing and
so forth.</p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 100%"><br>
</p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 100%">By the way, I don't
think I've ever intentionally tried to offend anyone. But if it
happened, I'd like you to imagine me being very contrite and
giving my deepest apologies.</p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 100%">You can always
imagine it......</p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 100%"><br>
</p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 100%"><b>WHO WAS THAT
MASKED MAN ?</b><br>
Born the day President Franklin Delano Roosevelt was buried, you
"celebrate" my birthday every year.</p>
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always"> <img shrinktofit="true"
src="cid:part1.09040807.09040600@oplin.org" name="Image4"
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name="Image2" align="left" border="0" height="93" width="130"> </p>
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<p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 100%">Worked a tad over
53 years but may have a bit left. Longevity runs in the family
genes.</p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 100%">1996 Semi-retired
and 2010 formally from Toledo Scale (Mettler-Toledo). (AKA TS or
M-T) 2009 retired from Community Library.</p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 100%">January 1962 Toledo
Blade Newspaper Station Helper at $12.75 per week. Big money !
Best job I ever had. Spent $20 a week on old coins the paperboys
turned in.</p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 100%">June 1964 hired by
TS as summer help running a blueprint machine in Standard
Engineering. Only incentive was make more prints today than
yesterday. Did too good as fall came and was asked to remain, with
any schedule needed to continue classes at University of Toledo (U
of T) business school. <br>
Best job I ever had. Could daydream and work at the same time.</p>
<br>
Spring 1965 applied and won a 4 year electrical/electronic drafting
apprenticeship in the Systems Division. Switched to the U of T
Community & Technical College. Completed and received a
journeyman's card. Later promoted to designer & senior designer.
Received an Associate Degree in Electronics from U of T. Best job I
ever had.<br>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 100%"><br>
1973 Drafting boring after 7 years so asked about engineering. TS
did OJT and promoted from within.<br>
Told “Go back to school we will make you a technician and a few
years later an engineer”.<br>
Technician bid was posted (union shop) and what do you know? I got
it. Unusual for a union job.<br>
Back to University College in U of T to take every computer course
available.</p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 100%">First program I ran
was punched on a IBM 029 Card Punch and submitted to run. Didn't
work.<br>
More OJT, learned a lot more electrical and mechanical and had
fun. <br>
Plant scheduling deficiencies usually meant little work the first
half of a month and OT the last.</p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 100%">My very first
troubleshooting trip. Flew to Joplin Missouri to work at Shrieber
Cheese.<br>
Very small airport. The jet taxied to a fence where a man wearing
a suit was waving the paddles.<br>
He also opened the gate in the fence, answered the phone, took
tickets for the return flight, etc.<br>
Best job I ever had.</p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 100%"><br>
1975 Friday afternoon in July called into the Systems Division
manager's office, with my boss.<br>
Feared the worst, as TS was relocating to the Columbus area..<br>
But offered the Publication Supervisor job, with relocation to the
Westerville plant.<br>
Asked about my options. Told "Don't have any, the plant is
closing".<br>
Asked when they needed to know”. Told "Monday". No-brainer so we
moved to Westerville.<br>
Lots of deadline stress and responsibility without authority.<br>
Luckily (?) only 6 feet to the cafeteria with the candy, snacks,
pop and coffee machines.</p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 100%">Not quite the best
job I ever had. <br>
<br>
1977 promoted to Associate Engineer, then Engineer and Senior
Engineer. Designed H/W, wrote S/W (DEC Assembly Language), usually
installed the equipment, customer training, misc. troubleshooting
and so forth. Many RR track scale systems or glass batching. Best
job I ever had.</p>
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</p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 100%"><img
shrinktofit="true" src="cid:part3.09000002.02030000@oplin.org"
name="Image1" align="left" border="0" height="300" width="331"><br>
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</p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 100%">1978 we moved to
Sunbury.</p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 100%">1979 In August
transferred to Installation Engineering doing the same thing and
more travel. <br>
Neat trips, including foreign travel, different companies to work
in, OT, frequent flier miles, etc. Best job I ever had.</p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 100%">1982 October the
Engineers were moved to various states, 2 of us now Technical
Support Engineers.<br>
Doing same as before, also supporting the Engineers and the plant.
Less travel now.<br>
Did more troubleshooting via telephone/fax/email etc. for TS (and
distributor) techs and customers. Best job I ever had. <br>
<br>
Later they expanded our group of 2<br>
<br>
</p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 100%">Summer 1989 Our
back yard wearing my HanKuk (Korea) Glass jacket. </p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 100%"><img
shrinktofit="true" src="cid:part4.06080208.05080405@oplin.org"
name="Image5" align="left" border="0" height="288" width="259"><br>
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<p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 100%">1992 Worked for
Toledo about 28 years so far, always with good to excellent
reviews. Then our group combined with the standard product
support.</p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 100%"><br>
Disaster! The group was now transferred to another division. </p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 100%">Still doing the
same job, the same way, but my reviews started tanking year after
year.<br>
Systems Division still had me travel, but the new supervisor and
manager weren't happy with it.</p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 100%"><br>
1996 April On a UPS Barcelona trip I left Saturday morning, worked
over 55 hours returning Sunday and because of the time change got
back Monday morning.<br>
Over 80 hours travel and work but, no OT, and reprimanded for
taking Saturday afternoon off instead of flying immediately back,
making me late to work Monday.</p>
<br>
In that years review was asked "Why didn't you retire when you had
the chance?" My answer: "Not old enough". I was only 51 and never
even had an opportunity to retire.<br>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 100%"><br>
1996 October Seeing how my career was headed under this group, I
quit, starting an S-Corp to do process control.<br>
<br>
Youngest son Chad (AKA Level9 Networks) was leaving our library
and I offered to volunteer.</p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 100%">Polly (director
then) wouldn't hear of it, insisted on hiring me for 5 hrs/wk.<br>
Well, before the first work day, it went from 5 to 10 to 25 and
then as many as possible.<br>
Like a fish, she reeled me in.<br>
<br>
The S-Corp ink was barely dry when the Systems Division had me
contract back in.<br>
Next 10 years until 2006 was double duty. Either working for
Mettler or the library and usually both.<br>
10 years of fun, less stress, saw more countries and companies,
met more people and made a bit more money. No reviews, except
Polly gave me a few.<br>
Even asked to work in my last M-T job quite a few times, by the
supervisor, not the manager.</p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 100%">Saw the manager
occasionally. Looked at him and smiled, but he never acknowledged
me.</p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 100%"><br>
</p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 100%">2001 </p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 100%">$65k + SpaceWeigh
2000 unit installed at UPS Shanghai. Usually a week to install,
commission, and train the customer.<br>
From the left, packages are separated, go through a dimensioning
frame and across the scale.<br>
Blue overhead box is a bar code scanner. <br>
Wood on the scale is a meter long stick for calibrating the frame.
QNX (Linux type OS) controls.</p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 100%"><img
shrinktofit="true" src="cid:part5.03070204.09010403@oplin.org"
name="Image11" align="left" border="0" height="288" width="384"><br>
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<p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 100%">The Bund (Zhongshan
Dongyi Road) Shanghaii </p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 100%"><img
shrinktofit="true" src="cid:part6.06080509.05010105@oplin.org"
name="Image9" align="left" border="0" height="192" width="253"><br>
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<p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 100%">2006 From here on,
just at Community Library.</p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 100%">2009 Retired and
rehired at the library</p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 100%">2010 Retired from
Mettler Toledo</p>
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</p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 100%">2015 Always been
outstanding in my field(s) !</p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 100%"><img
shrinktofit="true" src="cid:part7.07080500.01030803@oplin.org"
name="Image6" align="left" border="0" height="288" width="269"><br>
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Anyone still reading? Any questions? I'll try to anticipate.<br>
<br>
<b>What countries </b><b>and how long</b><b>?</b><br>
Spain, England, Korea, Taiwan, USSR ( Moscow, Urkaine, East
Germany), Canada, Mexico, Australia, Hong Kong, Singapore, Norway,
China, Canada, Malaysia<br>
Touched down in Japan (a lot), Amsterdam, New Zealand. A day in
Denmark, couple in Switzerland.<br>
Many multiple trips to 7 of the countries.</p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 100%">Months in Hong
Kong, China, England, Taiwan, USSR, Canada. Weeks in the others.</p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 100%">Total time out of
the US, pushing 2 years, or more.<br>
<br>
</p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 100%">Copenhagen </p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 100%"><img
shrinktofit="true" src="cid:part8.08020104.01060002@oplin.org"
name="Image10" align="left" border="0" height="192" width="397">
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</p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 100%"><b>Worked at what
type companies and/or industries?</b><br>
Multiple trips to common carriers (RPS, UPS, FedEx, DHL, TNT,
Loomis, HACTL).<br>
Glass, chemical, feedmill, steel, cheese, canning, beer, food,
truck scales, RR Track scales, Air terminal baggage handling,
mushroom farm, GE nuclear batching, rubber (tires, etc.), NASA
wind tunnel, oil refineries, garbage transfer stations, power
plants, Casino's, etc.<br>
<br>
<b>Places concerned about safety?</b></p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 100%">A trip to Turkey
was in the works, right after Midnight Express was released.
Really didn't want to go and luckily the customer came here
instead.</p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 100%">Steel Mills, Kodak
film plant in Rochester, Cleveland (Motor) Casting Plant</p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 100%">Hooker Chemical
(Love Canal area) Very nervous guard told me if he starts running,
follow him.</p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 100%">Flat River,
Missouri Glass Plant– Arsenic an ingredient. Attendant poisoned
from sweeping.</p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 100%">Taiwan to Singapore
trip since “In the area”. When you give the airlines your bag, you
lose all control and anyone could add anything inside. Worked with
a guy in China who was there a few times and asked the customs
inspector what really happens to drug smugglers. Emory was told,
“First day, we catch you, second day we try you, third day we hang
you”. Emery said he was dead serious. So I was nervous going
through. You press a big button and a light turns on. Green go,
Red “Step over here sir”.</p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 100%">Got the Red, but
just a cursory search and all was good. Actually had a great time
there.</p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 100%"><br>
</p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 100%"><b>Best, worst,
strangest, memorable food, dining situation?</b></p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 100%">I'm game for about
anything. One M-T marketing guy, that sent me out a lot, would
joke “We'll send Neeper and pay him in food”. </p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 100%"><b>Best</b></p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 100%">Oslo - Shrimp
cocktail starter, reindeer main, special dessert, drink was
Aquavit: water of life.</p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 100%">England - Full
Monty, one heck of a breakfast. Can't beat the fish and chips or
hotel dessert trolley.</p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 100%">Moscow - Full blown
multicourse banquet with many different liquors by Ministry of
Glass for successful installation completion. Many speeches and
toasts for a job well done.</p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 100%">Omaha – Brother
Sebastion's, Excellent Steak stuffed with crab meat</p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 100%">Barcelona – Diced
squid or octopus for dipping in a brown sauce. Also fish or steak
dinners.</p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 100%">Petaling Jaya and
Kuala Kumpur Malaysia – Stingray, shark, great fresh fruit.</p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 100%">Rovno, Ukraine -
Beluga black Caviar with Champagne, home made borscht</p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 100%"><br>
</p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 100%"><b>Strangest or
memorable</b></p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 100%">Changzhou China -
Guangdong province, a specially best described as deep fried June
Bug. Initially resisted, then gave in to save face. Rather bitter
and noticed no one had seconds.</p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 100%">China – White rice
with every meal</p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 100%">PanYu, China –
McDonalds Wanted an egg McMuffin, Nah, they had better things to
do with eggs.</p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 100%">Berlin – McDonalds
Cheeseburger, fries and a beer. Makes sense.</p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 100%">Kowloon , Hong Kong
- Eating in the street in Temple Street, some sort of sea
creature. Think of a hot dog with a thousand legs and half inch
wide bands of shell. You worked it like a slinky to break and peel
the shells to get the meat. Not worth the effort. But fun to see
tourists expressions.</p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 100%">Hong Kong – Ducks
feet. Always 3 dinners ordered by Boon Ping Lim. His, mine and one
to share. By the way real Chinese food is usually different in the
US.</p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 100%">Korea - Maybe dog.
A lot of Kimchi, very spicy. US Korean food is about the same.</p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 100%">In Seoul, waitress
went out the front door to get some brown water from somewhere
which she poured over the food that we could cooked at the table.</p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 100%">ChuNan, Taiwan -
Walked at lunchtime with Glenn from Circleville past a place about
30 foot square made from cardboard and plastic cloth. Didn't think
much until we heard “Grenn, Grenn”. Had lunch inside with 3
interpreters. About $6 total including big OB's (Oriental Beer).
Washed our hands in the 'kitchen' using a community towel,
possibly not dry since previous week. Dirt floor, other amenities.</p>
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Rovno (Rivne) Ukraine, Mir Hotel - Usually first 2 tries pointing
on the dinner menu got a head shake NO from the waitress.<br>
Third choice was always beef Stroganoff. Don't remember getting
anything else.</p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 100%">Weisswasser, East
Germany. - You pointed on the menu, they went and cooked it.</p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 100%"><font
style="font-size: 12pt" size="3"><span style="font-weight:
normal">Kostopil,</span></font> Ulraine – Evening picnic with
plant men in the woods.<br>
They rolled out plastic, set down food and bottles of water and
vodka for all.<br>
Vodka bottles have two states, unopened or empty.<br>
A few hours later, after a lot of toasts, Yuri, interpreter,
started speaking Ukranian to me and English to the plant manager.</p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 100%"><br>
</p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 100%"><b>What's been
learned along the way?</b></p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in; font-weight: normal; line-height:
100%"> 3 guys and a girl (Al's older sister) in about a 60's
hardtop Karmann Ghia causes claustrophobia.<br>
His oldest sister owned a Hillman, but it was quirky. Actually,
Effie was too.</p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in; font-weight: normal; line-height:
100%"> 3 people can ride in a 62 Vette, if 2 are small, good
friends and the ride is short. Driving it from Toledo to St. Louis
is a long harsh, noisy ride.</p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in; font-weight: normal; line-height:
100%"> Sometime you need to follow instructions. The 62 Vette
Service Manual states “Remove gear shift before pulling engine and
transmission” for a reason.</p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in; font-weight: normal; line-height:
100%"> Building houses can be fun. Mixing mortar by shovel and hoe
is not.<br>
Roofing is easier with a nail gun. Always hit the metal nail, not
the other one.<br>
Don't step back to admire your work. Never happened.</p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in; font-weight: normal; line-height:
100%"> When shipping a package it's may not be wise to mark
Fragile, Handle With Care, This Side Up, etc.<br>
It doesn't matter and may really be a red flag.<br>
If it needs all that, deliver it yourself. The goal at a hub is,
get it in, get it out.<br>
All packages, except oversize and irregulars go on conveyors that
go up, down and around.<br>
May have rams to transfer items. May be jams, items falling off
and so forth.</p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in; font-weight: normal; line-height:
100%"> Getting to a job site can be really long, really tiring and
really boring.</p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in; font-weight: normal; line-height:
100%"> Depending on the country it can be disconcerting to
surrender your passport.</p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in; font-weight: normal; line-height:
100%"> USA is probably the worst customs to clear.</p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in; font-weight: normal; line-height:
100%"> Americans should be really nice when in another country. Be
careful speaking, you probably will be understood.</p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in; font-weight: normal; line-height:
100%"> Best to eat the countries food, They cook it better than
they do ours and you make points. Sometimes, don't ask what you
are eating.</p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in; font-weight: normal; line-height:
100%"> You can learn to drive in England, cricket can't be learned
by watching the telly.</p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in; font-weight: normal; line-height:
100%"> Do logical troubleshooting and try simple solutions first.</p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in; font-weight: normal; line-height:
100%"> It''s alright to talk to yourself while troubleshooting
code, just tell the customer to ignore you.</p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in; font-weight: normal; line-height:
100%"> <br>
</p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 100%"><b>Memorable events</b></p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 100%">Wearing a 3 piece
suit on a NW Air flight to Seoul to attend meetings.</p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 100%">Riding the back of
a motor scooter in Kowloon, Hong Kong traffic. Getting the helmet
back off. He was a small man.</p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 100%">Attending a funeral
in Taipei.</p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 100%">Sitting in the
bathtub in Hsinchu, Taiwan when the maid comes in and starts
cleaning<br>
</p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 100%">
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<p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 100%">Showering in the
Berlin hotel gym shower with Paul when a drop dead gorgeous
blond
Fräulein joins us two spots down.</p>
</p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 100%">Participating in a
religious ceremony blessing the batch house in Kunsan, South
Korea. We actually talked to a pig's head that was on the table.</p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 100%">Thinking I could
get from Kunsan to Erie, catch the train to Seoul and find the
hotel, all by myself.</p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 100%">Watching a Korean
change an IC with a tinning iron and soda straw.</p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 100%">Exiting the plane
in Barcelona, by the tail ramp, seeing 2 soldiers with guns, 4
more on the bus and more going into the terminal. Also having no
idea who would meet me or any contact information.</p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 100%">Travel to the
Ukraine. A day in Copenhagen, another in Moscow then 22 hours on a
train to Rovno.</p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 100%">Riding to a banquet
in a chauffeured Zil with a Soviet Generals daughter (wife on an
OI contractor) in Moscow.</p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 100%">Co-chairing a
meeting with the Chinese customer for HACTL (Hong Kong Air Cargo
Terminal) and assigning work to an Area Regional Manager and a
Vice President of MT.</p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 100%">Ticking off 3
levels of RPS management by saying “Why doesn't everyone not
contributing to solve the problem get off the line?” They did, or
at least kept quite, and we solved it in 20 minutes.</p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 100%">A 15% raise and a
few months later 10%. Losing an engineer a month for 8 months
worried them.</p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 100%">Sweating for 5
weeks in Taiwan.</p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 100%">In the NASA wind
tunnel control room at Moffett Field when deflector vanes let
loose destroying the fans worth millions of dollars.<br>
Amiel and I discussed making T-shirts saying “ I was there the day
the stuff hit the fans.”<br>
Or something like that.</p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 100%">Landing at the old
Hong Kong airport.<br>
They flew low over the city, turned right at the big checkerboard
on the mountain, quickly dived, landed and really quickly stopped,
to keep out of the water.<br>
This was 747's and the runway was short.<br>
Pilots liked the challenge.</p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 100%">As a contractor
being sent to China I was in the hot seat at the end of table
across from the corporate attorney.<br>
He was trying to pin me down to guarantee I'd solve all the
problems.<br>
I was using weasel words to skate the issue.<br>
John, MT President, was there and as he got up to leave said words
to the effect: “Since Neeps is going I'm not going to worry about
the job”. </p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 100%">Being regularly
responsible for installations costing as much as $250,000. Some
much more.</p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 100%"><br>
</p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 100%">Gotta stop as I
keep remembering things.</p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 100%">Hope you enjoyed
this. If not, Just Imagine...</p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 100%"><br>
</p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 100%">Bob</p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0.2in; line-height: 100%"><br>
<br>
</p>
<p style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 100%"> <br>
</p>
<div class="moz-signature">-- <br>
<pre class="moz-signature" cols="80">R. W. (Bob) Neeper
<a href="http://sunbury.cool-cat.org" target="_blank">Community Library</a>
44 Burrer Dr. <a href="http://maps.google.com/maps?q=40.243961,+-82.863007">Map</a>
Sunbury, Oh 43074
Tel: (740)-965-3901
<a href="http://info.cool-cat.org"><img shrinktofit="true" style="border: 0px solid ; width: 100px; height: 107px;" alt="cool-cat.org" src="cid:part13.08040903.04020602@oplin.org"></a></pre>
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