We had a great trip back to OC. It was wonderful to see everyone and a relief to finally move the rest of our stuff. We stopped and stayed with family and friends along the way during our trip home. We missed the kitties, and they missed us even more. Our neighbors, Don & Kelly live on a houseboat (pictured here) in the slip next to us and were kind enough to cat sit for us. They went to Shell Island the weekend after we got back and invited us over so we took the dinghy over (about 3.5 to 4 miles). I thought I'd died and gone to heaven it was SO BEAUTIFUL!
When we arrived in PC on St. Patty's Day, Tom asked Don what he does for work: he's an electrician at Eastern Shipbuilding - one of the largest employers in the area. Tom jokingly asked: Are they hiring? Don asked Tom what he does and he told Don he's an engineer. On Friday, Don told Dave, his boss about Tom and Dave asked Don to find out if Tom is an electrical engineer - which he is. So the night before we left Dave came over and interviewed Tom over a beer on the dock. Dave said to get in touch when we returned from CA.
On April 5th he went in for interviews. It took a couple of weeks to figure out where Tom would fit best as they had engineering and project management needs. This week he started working there in the perfect position - a liaison between engineering and production. They are installing cameras on the ships they are building and asked Tom is he knew anything about the FLIR camera - of course he was very involved in the development of them!
They are very fortunate to have Captain Tom on their team, and will realize it more and more as the days go by. The last couple of years have been challenging in his industry, it's good to see him using his vast skills at a place that needs him. Meanwhile, I've been meeting people through Rotary and the Chamber of Commerce and have made some great contacts who are very interested in what I'm doing.
We are blessed. You never know what's waiting for you around the next corner - or in our case, across the country. Some times you just have to take that leap of faith. We're so glad we did.