From The Rules of Meeks #204

 

A conversation I had last night with a former colleague - who desperately needs to find a new job...

 

Me: How long ago were you let go?

Him: 2 months 

 

Me: What happened?

Him: I was let go "for cause" because they claimed I wasn't doing my job (he had a new role, but insisted on doing his old role).

 

Me: Help me understand what companies you have applied to

Him: I haven't really been looking - I guess I better get serious about finding a job - because the Unemployment Office has asked me to come in for 2nd interview to justify continuing to get unemployment benefits.

 

Me: Are you willing to relocate?

Him: No - I own a house

 

Me: Are you willing to travel?

Him: No - I own a cat

 

Me: Have you applied to Amazon?

Him: No

 

Me: Are you willing to volunteer to give technical talks? (which can help broaden his exposure, demonstrate his knowledge/expertise, increase his number of network connections...)

Him: <not really...I'm an introvert>

From The Rules of Meeks

#204 - "Some people are passengers, some are crew - and some are just excess ballast"

[image credit: tama66 on pixabay.com]

Highly Recommended (book & film): The Finest Hours

 

[image source: Amazon.com]

Some years ago, I saw the film, "The Finest Hours" (2016) - a dramatic rendering of the true-life events surrounding the courageous rescue by the United States Coast Guard (USCG) of men from two tanker ships that broke-in-two during a brutal nor'easter winter storm off the New England coast in 1952.

This past week, I finished reading the book about those events, written by Michael J. Tougias.

 

The book is well written - and I would say the film is one of the most accurate portrayals of any book - that I have ever seen.

 

[image credit:  Jerry Johnson - Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0]

 

• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coast_Guard_Motor_Lifeboat_CG_36500
• "Coast Guard Motor Lifeboat CG-36500 is a historic, 36-foot lifeboat that is berthed at Rock Harbor in Orleans, Massachusetts.[3] Built in 1946, it is notable for its involvement in the 1952 SS Pendleton rescue, one of the most daring such events recorded in the history of the United States Coast Guard. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2005,[2] and now serves as a museum boat."
• "CG-36500 is a standard 36-foot lifeboat, a vessel specifically designed to remain operational under extremely difficult conditions. It has a heavy 2,000 pounds (910 kg) bronze keel and skeg, watertight compartments, and self-bailing features. Most of its wooden elements are white oak frames, with cypress planking and it has a total weight of nearly 20,000 pounds (9,100 kg).[4] It is sheathed with Monel plating, which allowed for winter time ice breaking." 

  "The boat was built in 1946 at the Curtis Bay Maryland Coast Guard Yard, where all 36-footers were built.[4] On 18 February 1952, the crew of CG-36500, which consisted of Boatswain's Mate First Class Bernard C. Webber (coxswain), Engineman Third Class Andrew Fitzgerald, Seaman Ervin Maske, and Seaman Richard P. Livesey,[5] rescued 32 of 33 crewmen trapped on the stern section of the tanker SS Pendleton, which had broken in half in a storm off Chatham, Massachusetts. (The ship's eight other crew members, including Captain John Fitzgerald, were on the bow section when it broke off and sank.)[6] The rescue of the survivors of the shipwrecked Pendleton is considered one of the most daring rescues of the United States Coast Guard."
  
   

• https://www.imdb.com/title/tt2025690/  
• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Finest_Hours_(2016_film)

• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SS_Pendleton
• "SS Pendleton was a Type T2-SE-A1 tanker built in 1944 in Portland, Oregon, United States, for the War Shipping Administration. She was sold in 1948 to National Bulk Carriers, serving until February 1952 when she broke in two in a storm. The T2 tanker ships were prone to splitting in two in cold weather."  

• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SS_Fort_Mercer 
• "SS Fort Mercer was a Type T2-SE-A1 tanker built by Sun Shipbuilding & Drydock Co., at Chester, Pennsylvania in October 1945. SS Fort Mercer (hull number 534), was built under a Maritime Commission contract and launched on October 2, 1945. With World War II ending on August 15, 1945, Fort Mercer did not serve in the war. Fort Mercer was owned and operated by the Trinidad Corporation of New York."
• "On February 18, 1952, Fort Mercer, full of kerosene and fuel oil, first cracked and then broke in two in a gale, 30 miles (48 km) east of Chatham, Massachusetts. Captain Frederick Paetzel radioed out for help, reporting 68-foot (21 m) waves were hitting the ship. When she broke in two, nine officers and crew were on the bow section and 34 crewmen were on the stern section, with the radio and engine still working. The United States Coast Guard vessels Eastwind and Unimak that were near Nantucket, Massachusetts about 120 miles (190 km) away headed to the two Fort Mercer sections. A Coast Guard PBY aircraft out of Coast Guard Air Station Salem was sent to look for the ship, but did not find it. The Coast Guard vessels Yakutat and Acushnet, using liferafts and surfboats rescued four men from the bow. Only five members of Fort Mercer's 43 man crew were lost, all trapped in the sinking bow.[3][4]" 

  "The stern of Fort Mercer, which remained afloat, was towed to Newport, Rhode Island, outfitted with a new bow and rechristened San Jacinto. The new ship was 41 feet (12 m) longer and expanded from 26 tanks to 29 tanks. The ship again split in half in 1964 and again was rebuilt, renamed this time The Pasadena. The Pasadena was partially salvaged and mostly scrapped in 1983."
  
  

The Call of the Open Road

[image credit: bertvthul on pixabay.com]

 

My lifelong longing for the open road has been suppressed, for a time, as I have enjoyed this period of time in the bucolic lands of the western plains.

But, it is like Rests - the intervals of silence in pieces of music.

This passage from Tolkien's The Lord of The Rings book trilogy, in The Return of The King, came to mind as I wrote the above...

"Frodo began to feel restless, and the old paths seemed too well-trodden. He looked at maps, and wondered what lay beyond their edges: maps made in the Shire showed mostly white spaces beyond its borders. He took to wandering further afield and more often by himself..."

I am bound by contract, by my word, by my honor - to complete the thing I have taken up. When that has been fulfilled, to its uttermost end - I will be free to wander again.

Tonight, I begin to feel the first whispers of tendrils - of a longing for a return to the ocean, to the green forests, to the mountains...to new places, and new roads...

Another quote from Tolkien's work, 

"Not all those who wander are lost"

Recent library additions

 

[image credit: izoca on pixabay.com]

 I stopped by a local Goodwill thrift store this weekend, and picked-up the following additions for my personal library:

1. Naked Statistics, by Charles Wheelan
   
2. The Walmart Way,  by Donald Soderquist
   
3. The New New Thing: A Silicon Valley Story, by Michael Lewis
   
4. The Warren Buffett Way, by Robert G. Hagstrom
   
5. All The President's Men, by Carl Bernstein and Bob Woodward
   
6. William Faulkner, The Man and The Artist: A Biography, by Stephen B. Oates
   
7. Caribbean: A Novel, by James A. Michener 
8. Four Past Midnight, by Stephen King
9. French Kiss,  by Eric Van Lustbader
   
10. The Louis L'Amour Companion, by Robert Weinberg
    
11. Three Completed Novels: Lonesome Dove, Leaving Cheyenne, The Last Picture Show, by Larry McMurty
12. Essential English Grammar, by Philip Gucker
    
13. Say It Right in Spanish, 2nd Edition

 

 

My Theme Song...Wandering Star

 

 

 

 

Today's Meditation

[image credit: waldryano on pixabay.com]

 

 

 "Practice like you've never won. Compete like you've never lost"