Hey, been a while. It's been wild around here. Don't have a lot to add on the bike thread. June was pretty sucky, started off with a busted water pipe (not leaky, or cracked, busted) that flooded the basement with probably near 10,000 gallons of water in the 90 minutes that it took the water co to shut off the water st the street. Yes, it broke in front of the shutoff. See, about 10 years ago when the water heater went out, I discovered that the 50-year old shutoff wouldn't move anymore. When the plumber installed the new water heater (again, having to shut off the water at the street) he installed a new shutoff in the line, but where it was convenient for him to reach, I guess. I didn't really think much about it at the time, I was just happy to have a working shutoff again if needed. Fast forward to the first of June, when the 10 feet of pipe between the service entrance and the "new" shutoff became important, when the tee leading to the hose bib out front apparently cracked with age, or was hanging by a thread or whatever, and when I removed the hose, it finally let go. With the whooshing sound I heard from the other side of the wall I knew what happened.... After several frantic calls to the water co to PLEASE get someone out here to shut off the water, and that whatever emergency they were currently working on, mine was worse , and calling plumbers who said "we can't touch the shutoff, liability you know" they finally showed up and shut off the water. Got the shorted-out electricity back on a couple days later when most of the water was sucked out, and the next week and some were spent with the salvage company as they hauled out sodden boxes of books and papers, and all the other stuff stored in the basement. Including all my scouting memorabilia, boxes of B&W negatives and prints that I had made in the 80's, slides and prints from when I was living in Europe (I had been to Berlin about 6 months before the fall of the wall and had a whole series of pictures from there). HS yearbooks (well, a little less upset about those, I'm not terribly fond or nostalgic about HS), and (ouch) my servers, switches, battery backups and such. I'm still fighting with the insurance company about some of it.
Oh, and I got a form-letter for a job I had applied for in December that they "had decided on another candidate." So, June pretty much sucked.
Last week a former co-worker, who was one of the guys on my team, texted me that his dept had a job opening and he had talked to his boss, and his boss wanted to see my resume. So I sent it off and got an email the next day wanting to schedule a "conversation." Not an "interview" because I hadn't applied for anything yet , just a "conversation." Had a 90 minute phone call, and was told I should send in an application. Got another email the next day to schedule another interview (since I had applied now ) with the boss and his boss. Had another 90 minute call, and at the end he said he "had had the job open for ages, and hadn't had any qualified applicants until now, and he wanted to make a decision quickly." Had a third call Friday where we talked specifics, and it kinda sounded to me like he was kind of treating this as a done deal.....
Friday evening my friend called to say that a bird had whispered in his ear that I should expect a phone call from HR in the next couple days.... We'll see what kind of offer comes around, but we already discussed what I was looking for, and what his range was, so I'm really hoping to not get low-balled.
So, from really sucky, to being hopeful. Course, I would still have to finish my 30-day notice at this job (assuming they want it), but it would be a lot easier knowing I was getting out
[This message edited by tbkjcn at 12:12 AM, Monday, August 9th]