Dad’s Weekly Report

Dear Family,

I haven’t sent out an update recently. Sorry. Not too much has happened around here. I got the kitchen put back together from the little fire that we had. The tiles on the wall behind the stove protected the wall from the fire. We had earlier painted them blue and the paint was all scorched. I scrapped the scorched paint off and re-painted them. That was the biggest job. We bought a new stove and microwave. So it looks all better now. The new microwave has a much stronger fan in it which is good but the connection to the vent tube is not a good as it should be so I need to figure out how to fix that.

No progress finding a job yet. I had phone interview with a company that makes unmanned airplanes but it didn’t go well. I have been spending most of my time the last few weeks studying for a test. This coming Saturday I will take the Certified Quality Engineer test. If I pass it will give me a certification that I can put on my resume. Hopefully it will help in the job search. The test is from 8AM until 1PM. It is 160 multiple choice questions. I took an online class to prepare. I also bought a handbook that I read and studied. When I signed up for the class, the people that I talked to loaned me another big book to study. These last few weeks I have been going over practice questions that came with all these materials. I read that only 50% of the people who take the test pass it on the first time. Hopefully I will be among the top half.

Sandy has worked in the yard a lot recently and the yard really looks good. We planted some vegetables in the garden and they seem to be doing well. This past week has been sunny and warm so good growing weather. This week should be the same. Yesterday we borrowed a pressure washer and cleaned up the concrete in the back. It was really looking bad.

At the fort I have two projects going. I am making another Suffolk latch to donate to a cabin that is being built at the fort. I am also building some hinges for Sandy’s great-grandpa’s cabin. I am just about finished with the latch. I have the two hard parts finished and just have the two easy pieces to make. I am making the pintles for the hinges. I am having some trouble with them. I need to have a welder. Then I could cheat and make them.

I have really enjoyed watching the NBA playoffs. Nearly all of the games have been close. And there has been a game almost every night. I think that Sandy is getting tired of me watching so much and will be glad when the season is over.

Well that is all the news that I can think of. I hope that all is well with you.

Love,

John

Dear Family,

Yesterday was not a fun day. The night before we hosted a party. We had 13 people over and had Mexican food. It was a great party. Everyone stayed late and talked. Sandy made soapillas in our cast iron frying pan. Saturday morning I decided to empty the freezer in the garage and let it sit for the ice to melt while I was at the fort. The night before Sandy had started to pour the grease from the soapillas through a filter into a bottle. Before I went out to the freezer I put the frying pan on the stove and turned it on to melt the grease so I could continue filtering the grease. Then I went out to the garage and forgot the grease. After cleaning out the freezer I came back into the house. The house was all full of smoke and there had been a fire on the stove. I had turned on the fan in the microwave so the fire went up into the microwave. The range and microwave were completely ruined and the wall behind was charred. We have ceramic tiles on the wall behind and they prevented the flames from starting the wall on fire. We were very lucky that the fire didn’t spread. It went out on its own after the grease burned up. So Sandy and I spent 12 hours yesterday cleaning soot off everything in the house. The kitchen and family room were worse but the soot was pretty much everywhere except for downstairs and the main bathroom. Here is a picture of the stove.

You can see how the tiles are charred. The tiles have been painted so I will need to scrape them clean and repaint them. There is also a couple of places where the wood cupboard is charred and I will need to sand and refinish. We pulled the stove and microwave out to the garage and purchased a new stove. I won’t replace the microwave until I get the wall refinished.

I continue to look for a job. I have one more week at HP then I will be officially employed but not able to go to work until the 12^th of June. I had a phone interview for a job in Salt Lake City by an HR person. I will hear this week if they want me to come for an interview. There is a job in Houston with HP that I have applied for unfortunately it is for a different group in the company and they have restricted the job for only people in that group. So I wrote a letter to the vice president in charge of my group and asked for help. That resulted in me getting a phone interview for the job. I think that it is still restricted and unless they open the job I won’t be able to get it. Hopefully I will be able to push something on that this week.

I have been put into a group that is eligible for government benefits call TAA. This has some nice benefits including support to go to school for a couple of years. Most interesting for me is that if I find a job away from here they will pay 90% of the cost to move our stuff up to 18,000 pounds. I really hope that I find a job outside of HP. HP has cut almost all of their benefits and if I get hired in Houston, I will have to move myself. The only advantage to working for HP is that my salary will be higher.

Actually my last day will be Thursday because Friday Sandy and I will drive to Pullman to celebrate Allen getting his master’s degree. Yeah for Allen. Take care everyone.

Love,

John