Saturday, February 8, 2014

She's calling in gone.

Debra has retired! Hard to believe my working girl could ever retire, but she has. It is also hard for me to remember when Debra did not have an engineering project on her mind, or was not stressing over a deadline. This should be interesting. Yesterday she was laughing at herself in the aft cabin about something she did, and last night we went out to a bar for a "few", but when I suggested we leave Debra taunted me. "Wimp" she said, "light weight!", so we stayed. Now my big head is buzzing and I want to lay down. Who is this person I'm living with?

Debra started her working life at Carroll's burgers in nineteen never mind. Personally I only stopped at a Carrolls once in my life. I was a Henry's Hamburger kind of guy. Who remembers ten cent burgers? I just wish I had seen her in a cute little Carrols hat. Bet that was funny. I'm sure Deb excelled at burger assembly, or whatever she did there.
Debra's first employer. Is that my Pinto parked in front?

Deb decided drinking college was for her, so she took off for Alfred State. Not Alfred U, as they were just stupid pot smoking art students. Personally, I think U might have been pretty cool. When Deb killed her final keg in the southern tier, she came back to Rochester to work for a law firm. What the hell? After a while she finally came to her senses and decided she wanted to be an Engineer like her Dad. She ended up at a local utility company, and enrolled at RIT in Electrical Engineering. While at this utility company she was annoyed by a little guy with a really awesome porn star mustache, who sat across from her. After a while we both lost interest in Gas and Electric. Deb was enrolled in RIT's co-op program, while I bounced around the city in various engineering positions.

After finally succumbing to the charms of the stache, Debra got busy with kids, studies and finally steady employment in the engineering consulting field. This wasn't enough for Deb, who went on to get her Professional Engineering license. We are talking big time now. She gets to have letters after her name. I can not explain to you how impressive that is. Getting your PE is the high point in engineering achievement. OK, landing something on another planet might top that but still it's pretty cool.

Debra was also known as a workaholic to us in the family. This really isn't fair, but I find it hard to believe that she was ever late on a project, or that one was submitted incomplete. She spent many nights with a red flair in her hand and drawings spread across the kitchen table. Most of the time the work was being done after the kids went to bed. Our daughters mean everything to us, and we tried to not let work get in the way. I look back now and wonder where all the energy came from. How Deb managed to be a great Mom, get her engineering degree, put up with my bullshit and accomplish all she did is amazing.



Debra's years at Bergmann, though stressful at times were good years. I never heard her complain like I did. I never saw her so stressed she had to pace the floor and let it all out so she could function after she got home. I know she liked the people she worked with and that makes all the difference in the world. Engineering can be stressful.  Debra's reputation was on the line every time she stamped a drawing. I respect her for all the years of hard work and dedication, and professionalism. She's a damn good engineer. Now that all of that nonsense is behind her, she can just concentrate on being a damn good sailor.

No more red flair for Deb

Time for Deb to have some fun in the Sun and a little adventure. We have new places to explore and some sunny days sailing on an ocean breeze. It feels good to have her around. Maybe I'll stop talking to myself.

Cheers!
P


Blogging. It comes and goes. I'll have more to write about after we get the hell out of here.

9 comments:

  1. How exciting! Tell Deb congrats .. and how sweet of you to write a post about her hard work.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Great news for the both of you. And I also have to say that is a great write up on the event. We have gone backwards, sort of, I was offered a job in my field and have gone back to work. But this is a good thing as we also bought our boat and may need to keep the kitty filled for awhile.
    Pat and Joan

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Sorry about work. Don't wait to fill the kitty completely. If you can get a few years cruising with what you have then do it! If we could do it over, we would have left earlier, worked, then gone out again. So, what did you buy?
      P

      Delete
    2. After looking for a couple of years and visiting all the boats of this type east of the Rockies we got a great deal on a 1981 44' Gulfstar Center Cockpit. The Captain loves her aft berth. Not perfect but one of the best we saw and the deal was good. And better yet she surveyed very well! We won't be far behind.

      Delete
    3. Jealous. There is a Gulfstar 44 here at our marina. She is for sale and I keep looking at her nice lines. Pretty boat, and good under sail as well. Maybe I'll swap. We can match race. Very nice. Congratulations!
      P

      http://www.sailboatlistings.com/view/40878

      Delete
    4. You can see my rusty old van in the background.

      Delete
  3. You have a great boat. It was on our short list. Joan has already moved to the boat, mentally, so we won't be long. Having a job will help with the transition when that comes. The GS44 near you is a tricked out boat. Nice but not in the same price scale as we paid. So that let's us trick ours out. I can send you the Yachtworld link if you like. If in the unlikely event you get to board the one there please take a picture of the standpipe muffler configuration for me. See you soon.

    ReplyDelete