Senior Olympian Sprinter

The song writer John Prine died recently of Covid complications.   He had written hundreds of songs about life, fun, folly and pain and was a true blessing to the music world.  He will be missed, but his music lives on in our heads and in our hearts.   Linda was big fan and one of his records was her very first purchase after her college age brother exposed her to John's music while she was in junior high school.   What a great way to start your music collection?   Linda has been to a lot of his shows over the last 25 years and I have enjoyed several as well.  His shows were well produced, everyone in the band wore a  suit on and you really got to hear the music and enjoy the crowd singing along to his lyrics.   They were really good shows.   There will be a big hole in Americana music for a while, no one is going to take his place, he was too big of a talent.    Rest in Peace John Prine.  I have...

The last really bad pandemic was around the time of the First World War.   Since then we have had some minor events as well as polio stalking everyone until the 1960's.   That being said, there are not many left that can relate personally to what we are going through currently.   We are really dependent on doctors and learned health care people for our future well being, with the real overall control in the hands of elected officials.   It appears that many elected officials are taking their roles seriously-- Kentucky and NY Governors are really leading the way.  There are other leaders that believe Trump and support his strategy ( fend for yourself) that is getting a lot more people exposed and dead than is necessary.   This makes for a really crazy world--who can manage this mess the best???  An interesting story that came out last night.  The Federal government is basically stealing the PPE that the states have found ...

That question is going to answered  in the year 2020.   Can you overcome the uncertainty and chaos associated with a global pandemic, Presidential election, mass unemployment and a melt down in the stock market?   I hope we can.  Oil is cheap if that is any consolation. Timing is incredibly important in life, and so is luck.   Now luck can be good or bad and examples are plentiful for each direction.    For example, in April,  2019 I was laid off from my job at Kadant as a Tissue Process Specialist.   Linda and I survived as I worked on getting another job.   Unemployment would be $275 a week in Tennessee and I did not apply for compensation because I would have been forced to take work I was not interested and I would need to get a vehicle.   Neither scenario was very interesting and I needed a lot of time to work on getting back into the paper making field.  To make ends meet, I used 401K money...

Subject:    What sanitary products are safe to flush in your toilet? In the last few weeks,   chaos has been the norm in the world of toilet paper and the supply of the product that everyone in the USA takes for granted.    But in some cases, family and friends may be out of stock and you have had to get them some of your personal reserve.     And in some extreme situations, people use   other sanitary products in the bath room and this can in many cases lead to problems.    Toilet paper is designed to easily break up when flushed.     The bath tissue we produce at Mercury Paper breaks up very easily in a normal flush cycle.    If you use our bath tissue, your septic system stays happy.    When you run out and use paper towel, napkins, facial tissue or wet wipes—things get more risky in terms of plumbing and septic function.      A simple test for the ability of tissue to ...

Things are just a little crazy with the chaos associated with the coronavirus and the global reaction.   Talking with my wife and brother, as well as the rest of the world that will still chat with you, nobody can remember anything quite like this situation.   The crash into the Twin Towers on 9-11 had some elements of the situation, but the total shutdown of sporting events, meetings, global travel and the run on water, sanitizer and toilet paper is just totally new to us.  The Master Indoors meet was cancelled this week, I was not planning on going this year.   I am in the middle of relocation from Nashville to Harper Ferry , West Virginia.  On March 31 we will close on the Brentwood house and close on the new place on April 2.   Getting this into place has been a real battle, but it is going to happen.    We are on our third contract for the Brentwood house and after trying to sell it for 9 or 10 months it will close this ...

I have not been blogging lately and it was due to the fact that I had been struggling with darkness in my life and my blogs when I have some depressed feelings are too dark to read.  Very simple, I did not share the pain, you did nothing to deserve any of that stuff.  But, this week I am in Northern Virginia starting a new job in a converting plant that takes giant rolls of tissue and towel and cuts them to size and packages them for distribution in your local stores.   I will be a Base Paper Engineer and be involved with product development, manufacturing trouble shooting and most importantly, interfacing with the roll producers to get the best product into the plant.  So my career path now veers back into manufacturing after a 26 year stroll through the supplier forest.  All the technical information that I have gathered over the decades will come to play in the new role and also people skills will definitely be challenged.  Converting is stressful...

Motivation to sit down and create has been limited in the last few months.  We are trying to sell our house and I am trying to get my career restarted and neither activity is bearing much fruit.   We show the house and we are just not getting the response we need to get it sold and that is frustrating. You need to stage it for each viewing and that does require some work and planning.    It reminds me of the movie Ground Hog Day, nothing really gets better, but you are a day older. The career search is constantly ongoing.  I have had several phone interviews and along the way, I think there were several jobs that I could handle and do well.   Nothing has clicked to date, and I currently have 3 or 4 prospects that are talking to me, but no face to face interviews yet.  If I can get in front of them, I like my chances to close the deal....    Getting your career restarted in your sixties is not easy. I had some conflicts this su...