Ok, so here is one of those rare postings from me where I express my opinion on a controversial topic. I know not everyone will agree with me and that's fine. This is the USA and that's your right, but it's also my right to express my view. Don't like it? Then don't read it!
So what's the fuss lately about Chick-Fil-A? After reading this article, I now know what everyone is talking about since it is apparently the article that is creating such a firestorm. As you may or may not know, Chick-Fil-A is owned by a Christian family and they incorporate their Christian values in their operation of the company. That's what people are upset about; a marriage being defined as being between a man and a woman and the fact that the owners of the company believe and endorse that.
If people are upset about it, so be it. If they want to boycott Chick-Fil-A because of that, so be it. That's their right. If us Christians want to have a night to support Chick-Fil-A because we agree with their values, so be it. The two sides may not agree, but they both have a right to express it.
One of the big companies coming out, so to speak, in opposition to Chick-Fil-A's stance, is the Jim Henson Company, better known as the company the Muppets come from. A lot of people seem to be supporting them and posting Muppets pictures and statements against Chick-Fil-A. Let me tell you something. I like the Muppets and I like Chick-Fil-A, and there is absolutely nothing wrong with that. My values just happen to be more in line with CFA than JHC.
Below is a paragraph copied from the article linked above, that I very strongly believe:
Cathy believes strongly that Christians are missionaries in the
workplace. "Jesus had a lot of things to say about people who work and
live in the business community," he said. His goal in the workplace is
"to take biblical truth and put skin on it. ... We're talking about how
our performance in the workplace should be the focus of how we build
respect, rapport and relationships with others that opens the gateway to
interest people in knowing God.
What Cathy says is one of my core beliefs and why I try to live a life that makes God proud and lead by example. Even though I have been through some tough times in my life, God has blessed me in more ways than I deserve and I want people to know that. I believe it can open a door to leading others to Christ, just like Cathy says.
That's who I am and just part what I believe. If you hate me for who I am and what I believe, then so be it, but just realize that makes you as much of a bigot as you claim I am.
Wednesday, July 25, 2012
Wednesday, July 18, 2012
Hello, Goodbye
Wow, 3 months since the last post. I guess that's a sign that nothing much has gone on lately. So a quick rundown, in bullet format since I feel like it.
- Took the girls to the Epicenter in Rancho Cucamonga to see a Quakes game and fireworks...oh and Matt Kemp was playing on a rehab assignment. The girls are now big Matt Kemp fans.
- Hard to believe that I have been at my job for 9 months as of next week. I'm still enjoying it, embracing it, and looking for ways to challenge myself and step up in preparation for advancing my career elsewhere eventually.
- Living the bachelor life until Friday when I drive down and meet the family, which is camping with the in-laws.
- Disappointed in the Dodgers' play lately. I had high hopes when Ethier and Kemp returned after the All Star Break, but it hasn't been pretty...except for Matt Kemp's walk off HR today! Those are always sweet!
- Super excited that after racking up way too much credit card debt over the last number of years, they will be paid off this month! We should actually have a little breathing room now.
- The Summer has been pretty mild up here in the desert. Mostly in the 90's except for a couple of days a week or two ago when we hit 110 and 109 on back to back days. Just got the A/C bill today...ouch, but better than melting!
- Must go help defeat those pesky pigs. Those poor birds never get a break...no wonder they are so angry.
Friday, April 20, 2012
Life Goes On
As we near the end of our fourth month living in Victorville, it seems like we continue to feel more at home. Don't get me wrong, Whittier still feels like home, but as we get more involved up here, it feels more like home. The girls have adjusted to their school pretty well. My work continues to go well and be extremely busy. Traci has been attending MOPS and going to the gym regularly. I've been to the hospital for my first stay since I was 3, and this week we visited a vet for the first time when Princess was obviously not acting like herself. Turns out she may have Pancreatitis. So here's a little more detail of what's been going on.
We signed the girls up for soccer since they were both very excited when we asked them if they wanted to play. They have played a few games already and have about a month left in the season. They seem to be having fun and getting good exercise. It's amazing to see the difference in skills and competition from the indoor soccer league at our church that they both played in last year. But that's good for them. Tomorrow should be fun since I will be coaching Skyler's team for the game since the coach and his family are out of town.
The soccer field has been brutal so far, though. Everytime we are there, it is very windy and cold. Last week was the worst. According to my phone, during the first game, we were watching soccer with a wind chill of 35! By the time the second game was over a couple of hours later, the wind chill made it up to 40. Very cold to say the least. Tomorrow will be much different however. We have been in the 90's the last couple of days so it should be pretty warm. At least the first game is at 8:45 so it shouldn't be too warm.
This week, we took Princess (our dog) to the vet for the first time. Actually, that was just yesterday. She was very lethargic and didn't want to move, eat or drink. Today she got lots of tests and x-rays done to see if they could figure out what was wrong. From the sounds of it, she might have Pancreatitis. She has one medication and a bland diet for the next few days. Tonight, she was already acting a lot better than last night. She's still not herself, but definitely on the road back.
Traci has been attending the one MOPS group there is up here in the High Desert and seems to be enjoying it. She has also been hitting the gym regularly and getting results. She makes me so proud. She has an amazing work ethic and motivation.
My work has been really busy, but I have been cranking out contracts lately which feels good. However, since one of our purchasing colleagues is refusing to move out here for the project, they are removing her from the project. All of her work is coming to me, which my boss confirmed with me today. That's fine since my load has been getting a little lighter lately after completing so many contracts.
I was able to make my first trip to the site where the solar field is being built (in Hinkley). It was pretty cool to see that there is really nothing but land there now, knowing that it will be completely different 2 years from now. The car ride out and back had to be the most fun car ride I have ever been on. There were 7 of us packed into a car (SUV), blaring rap music and laughing the whole time with everyone acting crazy. I can't describe how fun it was, but trust me, it was a blast!
Another thing about work that has been fun to see is how the company has grown since I was hired about 6 months ago. When I hired on, there were maybe 15 people in the office. Most of us were in one small suite. now we have filled that small suite, a huge suite across the hall and have knocked down the wall for a new suite that now connects to what was the small suite. All of the engineers for the project are moving out here next month, so that's another 30-40 people from what I hear. That means we should be about 100 strong in the Victorville office. And that doesn't count the people that are working out at the site itself. There aren't too many right now, but even that groups is growing as they prepare for activity to ramp up quickly pretty soon.
How can I forget to talk about my Dodgers?! They are off to an 11-3 start, which is crazy, but if they can keep this up, it will be a very fin season. Matt Kemp is off to an amazing start, leading the National League in average, home runs and RBIs. He may even lead all of the Majors in those three categories. I'm excited that that the team's ownership will be changing hands in just over a week too. The only bummer is that Frank McCourt is not completely gone as he has formed a joint ownership for the Dodger Stadium parking lot. If they can figure out a way to get him out of that deal, the Dodgers will be better off. Regardless, despite my distance from the stadium now, I am still as big a fan as ever and am enjoying this hot start while I can. Who knows what the rest of the season will hold. That's what makes the long season so fascinating and fun to watch!
It's getting late so I should head off to bed with the busy day we have tomorrow. Besides, knowing what is coming up this next week, I want it to get here quicker!
We signed the girls up for soccer since they were both very excited when we asked them if they wanted to play. They have played a few games already and have about a month left in the season. They seem to be having fun and getting good exercise. It's amazing to see the difference in skills and competition from the indoor soccer league at our church that they both played in last year. But that's good for them. Tomorrow should be fun since I will be coaching Skyler's team for the game since the coach and his family are out of town.
The soccer field has been brutal so far, though. Everytime we are there, it is very windy and cold. Last week was the worst. According to my phone, during the first game, we were watching soccer with a wind chill of 35! By the time the second game was over a couple of hours later, the wind chill made it up to 40. Very cold to say the least. Tomorrow will be much different however. We have been in the 90's the last couple of days so it should be pretty warm. At least the first game is at 8:45 so it shouldn't be too warm.
This week, we took Princess (our dog) to the vet for the first time. Actually, that was just yesterday. She was very lethargic and didn't want to move, eat or drink. Today she got lots of tests and x-rays done to see if they could figure out what was wrong. From the sounds of it, she might have Pancreatitis. She has one medication and a bland diet for the next few days. Tonight, she was already acting a lot better than last night. She's still not herself, but definitely on the road back.
Traci has been attending the one MOPS group there is up here in the High Desert and seems to be enjoying it. She has also been hitting the gym regularly and getting results. She makes me so proud. She has an amazing work ethic and motivation.
My work has been really busy, but I have been cranking out contracts lately which feels good. However, since one of our purchasing colleagues is refusing to move out here for the project, they are removing her from the project. All of her work is coming to me, which my boss confirmed with me today. That's fine since my load has been getting a little lighter lately after completing so many contracts.
I was able to make my first trip to the site where the solar field is being built (in Hinkley). It was pretty cool to see that there is really nothing but land there now, knowing that it will be completely different 2 years from now. The car ride out and back had to be the most fun car ride I have ever been on. There were 7 of us packed into a car (SUV), blaring rap music and laughing the whole time with everyone acting crazy. I can't describe how fun it was, but trust me, it was a blast!
Another thing about work that has been fun to see is how the company has grown since I was hired about 6 months ago. When I hired on, there were maybe 15 people in the office. Most of us were in one small suite. now we have filled that small suite, a huge suite across the hall and have knocked down the wall for a new suite that now connects to what was the small suite. All of the engineers for the project are moving out here next month, so that's another 30-40 people from what I hear. That means we should be about 100 strong in the Victorville office. And that doesn't count the people that are working out at the site itself. There aren't too many right now, but even that groups is growing as they prepare for activity to ramp up quickly pretty soon.
How can I forget to talk about my Dodgers?! They are off to an 11-3 start, which is crazy, but if they can keep this up, it will be a very fin season. Matt Kemp is off to an amazing start, leading the National League in average, home runs and RBIs. He may even lead all of the Majors in those three categories. I'm excited that that the team's ownership will be changing hands in just over a week too. The only bummer is that Frank McCourt is not completely gone as he has formed a joint ownership for the Dodger Stadium parking lot. If they can figure out a way to get him out of that deal, the Dodgers will be better off. Regardless, despite my distance from the stadium now, I am still as big a fan as ever and am enjoying this hot start while I can. Who knows what the rest of the season will hold. That's what makes the long season so fascinating and fun to watch!
It's getting late so I should head off to bed with the busy day we have tomorrow. Besides, knowing what is coming up this next week, I want it to get here quicker!
Friday, March 16, 2012
Settling In
We have now been in Victorville for two and a half months and it feels as though we are settling in as well as we can. The girls are doing well at their school. It feels like we have found a home church. We have a dog. We've gotten to know the area a bit better and the girls are signed up for soccer. It's definitely not Whittier, but it will do for a while.
There are a couple of things we are still getting used to, mainly weather-related, besides the area in general. We have had snow twice now. We actually have a decent chance of snow this weekend, which will be a nice change since the last two times it snowed, I was at work for one and it was at the girls' bedtime for another. It barely stuck the first time and accumulated maybe a half-inch the second time, although it did last overnight that time. We'll see what happens this weekend. Also, the winds are crazy. It seems like we are always under a high wind watch or warning. There have been at least 1 a week since we've lived here
My job is keeping me plenty busy to say the least. I haven't worked this much with any job in the past, except maybe for teaching. While I typically have tried to leave around 5:00 each day, it is becoming increasingly hard to do so. The main reason for that is that I have been in so many meetings with suppliers lately that I haven't had much time to do much work. I'm working on 7 difference contracts right now, with the largest one being worth about $20,000,000. The bright side is that I'm learning a lot about what can and can't be negotiated withing the contract. From that standpoint, this job is a great experience. It is a little frustrating because everything is "urgent". I don't know if it's a Spain thing, but I know Chevron wasn't like this. We knew what was coming up and it was our responsibility to make sure it happened on time. At my current job, it's different. We know what we are responsible for, but the expectations for the timeline to complete it as well as the actual scheduling of the project seem to be out of line with what I've experienced so far. Maybe it's just part of the learning process, but I am adjusting as well as I can. Don't get me wrong, it's a great job and I enjoy working there. Some aspects of it are just frustrating, which I think is the case with any job.
Although today (and this week) ended in a very frustrating way, it was a good week and today was nice overall. Since our two assistants were helping me with stuff I needed to get done while I was in a meeting, I treated them to lunch, which they seemed to appreciate. It was also fun since Traci and the girls met us at Red Robin, where we ate. My co-workers are definitely one of the reasons I really enjoy my job. They are very fun to work with; probably the best group I've ever worked with. We are always helping each other and having a lot of fun in the process.
On a good note, since my little stint in the hospital a month ago, my heart has been fine and I haven't had any issues. I am very thankful that we have had insurance since January. Without that, we would be screwed financially. I've seen the charges from the hospital. All of the doctors have been between $300 and $700 each, and I dealt with about 3 or 4 doctors while I was there. Then there is the actual hospital charges which are just over $11,600. Fortunately, our plan has a $2,500 deductible, $1,500 of which I can get reimbursed for. So really, we have to come up with a $1,000, which, all things considered, isn't bad. There are still plenty of follow up appointments to go to, including some blood tests and a nuclear stress test.
One thing that is frustrating is how many pills I have to take every day. Each night, I take out and open 7 bottles for a total of about a dozen pills. The breakdown: 3 antidepressants (5.5), a multi-vitamin (1), and for my heart...low-dose aspirin (1), vitamin/supplement (Magnesium, 2), and one other medication to prevent the A-Fib (2). That's a total of eleven and half pills a day! Anyway, life goes on. Hopefully eventually those will all be gone, with the exception of the multi-vitamin.
It's almost midnight and I've got a couple days of weather watching coming up, so I suppose it's time to head to bed. Plus we have some fun stuff planned for St. Patrick's Day tomorrow.
There are a couple of things we are still getting used to, mainly weather-related, besides the area in general. We have had snow twice now. We actually have a decent chance of snow this weekend, which will be a nice change since the last two times it snowed, I was at work for one and it was at the girls' bedtime for another. It barely stuck the first time and accumulated maybe a half-inch the second time, although it did last overnight that time. We'll see what happens this weekend. Also, the winds are crazy. It seems like we are always under a high wind watch or warning. There have been at least 1 a week since we've lived here
My job is keeping me plenty busy to say the least. I haven't worked this much with any job in the past, except maybe for teaching. While I typically have tried to leave around 5:00 each day, it is becoming increasingly hard to do so. The main reason for that is that I have been in so many meetings with suppliers lately that I haven't had much time to do much work. I'm working on 7 difference contracts right now, with the largest one being worth about $20,000,000. The bright side is that I'm learning a lot about what can and can't be negotiated withing the contract. From that standpoint, this job is a great experience. It is a little frustrating because everything is "urgent". I don't know if it's a Spain thing, but I know Chevron wasn't like this. We knew what was coming up and it was our responsibility to make sure it happened on time. At my current job, it's different. We know what we are responsible for, but the expectations for the timeline to complete it as well as the actual scheduling of the project seem to be out of line with what I've experienced so far. Maybe it's just part of the learning process, but I am adjusting as well as I can. Don't get me wrong, it's a great job and I enjoy working there. Some aspects of it are just frustrating, which I think is the case with any job.
Although today (and this week) ended in a very frustrating way, it was a good week and today was nice overall. Since our two assistants were helping me with stuff I needed to get done while I was in a meeting, I treated them to lunch, which they seemed to appreciate. It was also fun since Traci and the girls met us at Red Robin, where we ate. My co-workers are definitely one of the reasons I really enjoy my job. They are very fun to work with; probably the best group I've ever worked with. We are always helping each other and having a lot of fun in the process.
On a good note, since my little stint in the hospital a month ago, my heart has been fine and I haven't had any issues. I am very thankful that we have had insurance since January. Without that, we would be screwed financially. I've seen the charges from the hospital. All of the doctors have been between $300 and $700 each, and I dealt with about 3 or 4 doctors while I was there. Then there is the actual hospital charges which are just over $11,600. Fortunately, our plan has a $2,500 deductible, $1,500 of which I can get reimbursed for. So really, we have to come up with a $1,000, which, all things considered, isn't bad. There are still plenty of follow up appointments to go to, including some blood tests and a nuclear stress test.
One thing that is frustrating is how many pills I have to take every day. Each night, I take out and open 7 bottles for a total of about a dozen pills. The breakdown: 3 antidepressants (5.5), a multi-vitamin (1), and for my heart...low-dose aspirin (1), vitamin/supplement (Magnesium, 2), and one other medication to prevent the A-Fib (2). That's a total of eleven and half pills a day! Anyway, life goes on. Hopefully eventually those will all be gone, with the exception of the multi-vitamin.
It's almost midnight and I've got a couple days of weather watching coming up, so I suppose it's time to head to bed. Plus we have some fun stuff planned for St. Patrick's Day tomorrow.
Sunday, February 19, 2012
What a Week!
This last week was quite the eventful week.
Sunday, we had our first party at our new house for Traci's birthday. We actually had pretty good turnout. I wasn't expecting so many people to make the drive up here, but they did and we were glad, especially Traci. Little did I know that the next day would be much different.
Yesterday (Saturday), we went down the hill for another party. This one was for Courtney's birthday. She had some of her friends from her old school there and the girls' teachers even showed up, which the girls were very excited about. It was another fun party and she loves all the gifts she received. She has been using or playing with as many as she can today.
While the parties were plenty of fun, Monday and Tuesday were a bit on the scary side, personally, as I was admitted to the hospital for the first time since just before my 4th birthday, 32 years ago. I have had this same thing happen before, but it was not as bad as this one and has never lasted this long (7 hours).
I was diagnosed with Atrial Fibrillation, or A-Fib. I would explain it, but it's much easier to include a link. It felt exactly the same as it did back near the end of high school and early college. All of a sudden without warning, my heart starts beating very hard and very fast. I can feel it within my chest with some discomfort, feeling like someone is pushing lightly on my chest. Also, I got very light-headed feeling like I was going to fall while in the shower. Fortunately, Traci was nearby, so I went and laid down on the bed to rest and see if that would help my heart come down. It didn't. The feelings were all the same except that I was laying down and didn't feel light-headed. I told Traci I thought we may need to call 911.
About 15-20 minutes later, the chest discomfort went away, but the fast-beating of the heart continued. At that point, I didn't think 911 was needed, but since I still didn't feel right and knew my heart was still beating like crazy, we decided I needed to be checked out. We went to Urgent Care to see if they thought this was something they could handle, but they told us to go to the ER, and so we did.
Upon arrival, Traci checked me in while they told me to go straight back once she told them what my problem was. So back I went. Once I had my hospital robe (pus jeans) on, they did an EKG, which immediately showed them something was wrong. My heart was beating very fast and was irregular. The heartbeat would generally range from about 120 to 170 beat per minute! The highest it got was 181. (That's 3 beats per second.)
They tried three times with medication to slow my heart, but none of them worked. Four hours after the last medication, and after about 7 hours of the rapid heartbeat and on and off light-headedness, my heart went back to its normal rhythm on its own. This is the joy of Atrial Fibrillation. Since mine only occasionally happens (the last big episode being about 17 years ago), they did not give me any medication for it, but did put me on low-dose aspirin as a blood thinner. The reason for this is because blood can pool in the atrials of the heart as a result of this condition, it can clot, and if it clots, then leaves the heart and winds up in the brain, a stroke is very possible. That is pretty scary. Fortunately the only change I need to make in my diet is to avoid caffeine. So far, I haven't had caffeine since last Sunday at Traci's party (not counting some chocolate).
After I had an IV inserted into my arm, had three blood draws (two not from the IV) and three shots (two in the stomach which were the most painful out of everything), and I had been diagnosed with A-fib, they released me on Tuesday, which was Valentine's Day. Fortunately I was only in the hospital for one night although it felt longer. So now I continue on in life knowing I have a heart condition and wondering if that means I can no longer do roller coasters, which I love. So after being released Tuesday afternoon, it was very nice to get back home and to be able to salvage Valentine's Day. We did celebrate that night by going to John's Incredible Pizza.
Wednesday it was back to work, which was good. There were a number of contracts I was supposed to get approval on early in the week which did not happen because I wasn't there. I was glad to get back to work on those as being at work was more relaxing then being it the hospital. I was able to get most of those contract approvals released in those three days I was at work.
However, Wednesday turned out to be a very interesting day, in a much better way, for the Steinman family. We experienced our first snow at our new home. It was also the first time the girls have ever seen it snow. The snow was sticking just enough for them to make small snowballs and throw them at each other. Needless to say, they were very excited. It started snowing bad enough to where they closed our office and let us go home. I still did a little bit of work at home, but it was nice to be able to do that from home.
So while it was a very eventful week, I'm hoping this week is much less eventful. I know it should start off fun as Courtney's birthday is tomorrow and we'll all be home. Here's to a hopefully normal week!
Sunday, we had our first party at our new house for Traci's birthday. We actually had pretty good turnout. I wasn't expecting so many people to make the drive up here, but they did and we were glad, especially Traci. Little did I know that the next day would be much different.
Yesterday (Saturday), we went down the hill for another party. This one was for Courtney's birthday. She had some of her friends from her old school there and the girls' teachers even showed up, which the girls were very excited about. It was another fun party and she loves all the gifts she received. She has been using or playing with as many as she can today.
While the parties were plenty of fun, Monday and Tuesday were a bit on the scary side, personally, as I was admitted to the hospital for the first time since just before my 4th birthday, 32 years ago. I have had this same thing happen before, but it was not as bad as this one and has never lasted this long (7 hours).
I was diagnosed with Atrial Fibrillation, or A-Fib. I would explain it, but it's much easier to include a link. It felt exactly the same as it did back near the end of high school and early college. All of a sudden without warning, my heart starts beating very hard and very fast. I can feel it within my chest with some discomfort, feeling like someone is pushing lightly on my chest. Also, I got very light-headed feeling like I was going to fall while in the shower. Fortunately, Traci was nearby, so I went and laid down on the bed to rest and see if that would help my heart come down. It didn't. The feelings were all the same except that I was laying down and didn't feel light-headed. I told Traci I thought we may need to call 911.
About 15-20 minutes later, the chest discomfort went away, but the fast-beating of the heart continued. At that point, I didn't think 911 was needed, but since I still didn't feel right and knew my heart was still beating like crazy, we decided I needed to be checked out. We went to Urgent Care to see if they thought this was something they could handle, but they told us to go to the ER, and so we did.
Upon arrival, Traci checked me in while they told me to go straight back once she told them what my problem was. So back I went. Once I had my hospital robe (pus jeans) on, they did an EKG, which immediately showed them something was wrong. My heart was beating very fast and was irregular. The heartbeat would generally range from about 120 to 170 beat per minute! The highest it got was 181. (That's 3 beats per second.)
They tried three times with medication to slow my heart, but none of them worked. Four hours after the last medication, and after about 7 hours of the rapid heartbeat and on and off light-headedness, my heart went back to its normal rhythm on its own. This is the joy of Atrial Fibrillation. Since mine only occasionally happens (the last big episode being about 17 years ago), they did not give me any medication for it, but did put me on low-dose aspirin as a blood thinner. The reason for this is because blood can pool in the atrials of the heart as a result of this condition, it can clot, and if it clots, then leaves the heart and winds up in the brain, a stroke is very possible. That is pretty scary. Fortunately the only change I need to make in my diet is to avoid caffeine. So far, I haven't had caffeine since last Sunday at Traci's party (not counting some chocolate).
After I had an IV inserted into my arm, had three blood draws (two not from the IV) and three shots (two in the stomach which were the most painful out of everything), and I had been diagnosed with A-fib, they released me on Tuesday, which was Valentine's Day. Fortunately I was only in the hospital for one night although it felt longer. So now I continue on in life knowing I have a heart condition and wondering if that means I can no longer do roller coasters, which I love. So after being released Tuesday afternoon, it was very nice to get back home and to be able to salvage Valentine's Day. We did celebrate that night by going to John's Incredible Pizza.
Wednesday it was back to work, which was good. There were a number of contracts I was supposed to get approval on early in the week which did not happen because I wasn't there. I was glad to get back to work on those as being at work was more relaxing then being it the hospital. I was able to get most of those contract approvals released in those three days I was at work.
However, Wednesday turned out to be a very interesting day, in a much better way, for the Steinman family. We experienced our first snow at our new home. It was also the first time the girls have ever seen it snow. The snow was sticking just enough for them to make small snowballs and throw them at each other. Needless to say, they were very excited. It started snowing bad enough to where they closed our office and let us go home. I still did a little bit of work at home, but it was nice to be able to do that from home.
So while it was a very eventful week, I'm hoping this week is much less eventful. I know it should start off fun as Courtney's birthday is tomorrow and we'll all be home. Here's to a hopefully normal week!
Thursday, January 12, 2012
Chnages, Changes, Changes
I haven't blogged since back in October, and man has life changed since then. I'll try to cover it all, but it may be tough. I'll also be as brief as I can while covering what I want to say. How about bulleting so you can pick out the main points if you don't feel like reading the whole thing.
Despite all the worries I have and the guilt I feel for putting my family through this, I am grateful that they have been so supportive and willing to go on this adventure together. God is changing our lives in a way that is out of our comfort zone, and sometimes, that is when God does His best work. So we continue on this adventure as a family, learning and growing along the way, waiting to see what God has in store for us.
- I returned to work on Monday, October 24 for Teyma USA, which is a firm that is partnering up with another firm or two to design and build a $1.2 billion solar plant in the Mojave Desert. I am a buyer which means that I am constantly doing RFQ's, performing analysis and negotiating contracts, many of which are multi-million dollar contracts. Since the office is located in Victorville, this meant a 73-mile, one-way commute to work each day, five days a week. On the bright side, it meant a regular paycheck and benefits that just kicked in January 1; the first time we have had health benefits since November 2010.
- Getting a job that far from home meant selling our house and beginning a house hunt of our own for a new home to rent in the high desert are of Victorville-Hesperia-Apple Valley. We made multiple trips up there to look at houses and meet with our realtor, who I went to high school with, Bryan Bagwell. He was great to work with and did a great job of helping us look at places. He just moved up here last summer so he has gotten fairly familiar with the area and real estate market up here. Now, house hunting, as we had forgotten, is not all fun. It was frustrating as a few houses we wanted to rent were rented before we were able to apply. However, the one we are in now is great and we are thankful for this find.
- As for the new house, it is much different from our house in Whittier. It is just over double the size and significantly less expensive, which is good because of the pay cut I took to accept the job I have now. Also, the back yard is huge, although all dirt (which is very common) and the front yard is nice with some landscaping. We have a three-car garage with a pull through into the back yard (for one car) We went from 3 bedrooms and 1 bathroom to 4 bedrooms and 3 bathrooms plus a bonus room. Needless to say, we like the house very much although we do miss Whittier. At least we are only a little over an hour away.
- After having lived in our house for 10 and a half years, it was interesting to move. It was a little tough on the emotional side because we loved our house and are only moving because my job is too far away to do that commute every day. We are very fortunate to have friends and family that are so supportive and helped us move. We probably had around 10-15 people each day of moving activities. On New Year's Eve, we packed up the moving trucks, which went surprisingly quickly, about 4-5 hours I think. On New Year's Day, we made the physical move to Victorville with a caravan of 5 or 6 cars. Moving in took longer and was a little more complicated since a number of items had to go upstairs. Fortunately things we pretty smoothly and there were no injuries (that I know of).
- During moving, I was sick, which is always how you want to feel when you're moving. I was extremely miserable the night of New Year's Eve and was contemplating going to Urgent Care even though benefits kicked in the next day. However, I fought through and felt better the next morning for moving. However, by the next day, January 2, I was just as miserable and decided that since we now had benefits, there was no sense in feeling that bad. So off to Urgent Care I went. Two hours and four medications later, I was one the road to recovery. I was fighting a throat infection it turns out, so, as I mentioned, I was prescribed 4 medications. They were (for): antibiotic, pain, cough and congestion.
- One fun note about the move: Skyler lost her first tooth on the day we moved in. She was very excited and so were we: the first big event in our new house! Good thing we have good connections with the Tooth Fairy as (s)he made the visit to pick up Sky's tooth and leave her a little cash.
- One of the worst parts of the move, in my opinion, is having the girls change school mid-year. That is one thing I absolutely did not want to do. However, they started their new school this week, and let's just say that we miss Orchard Dale. I'm not saying they are at a bad school. I'm just saying it is not Orchard Dale. Skyler has had a substitute all week since her actual teacher is pretty sick apparently. Courtney seems to be doing fine. Some differences from Orchard that I am not impressed with: Courtney had one sheet for homework for the week, which is like what she had each day before, Skyler has had no homework (although this may be because of the substitute) and Courtney's teacher did not leave a good impression when we met her Tuesday morning for the girls' first day.
- One great thing about this move is that I appreciate my family a lot more than I did before. It was almost like I tool them for granted before, but now I truly appreciate what God has blessed me with. Since we don't have family nearby, we have each other and therefore spend more time with each other, which I have enjoyed for the most part.
- Another huge benefit is that I get an extra 2+ hours more each day with my family thanks to my 5-minute (2.5-mile) commute to work. You cannot put a price on how precious that time is. Actually, the girls have to be at school before I have to be at work. I'm supposed to be there around 8:00 and their school starts at 7:40.
- Searching for a new home church is another challenge we are facing currently. I have a feeling we will not find a church we enjoy as much as WACC, but I know we can find a church that will meet our needs. We've been to one so far and it has left a great impression on us so far. We do plan to visit a few more to see how some others are, but I don't think we would have any problem returning to that church. Plus the girls loved it and Skyler wanted to make that our new church as soon as we picker her up from her Sunday School class. (That's a very good sign!)
Despite all the worries I have and the guilt I feel for putting my family through this, I am grateful that they have been so supportive and willing to go on this adventure together. God is changing our lives in a way that is out of our comfort zone, and sometimes, that is when God does His best work. So we continue on this adventure as a family, learning and growing along the way, waiting to see what God has in store for us.
Friday, October 21, 2011
Looking Back and Looking Forward: Big Changes
The drought is over! Last week I was offered and accepted a job. Who knows how many jobs I applied to, easily in the hundreds, and the several interviews, probably 20+, that I had, but it has all paid off. This Monday, I help decrease the unemployed population by one! It is a significant pay cut, but it is a job that will be a great experience and uses and builds off of what I have already been doing. Plus I will get to learn more about solar power and how it all works. I will be a Buyer for a company called Teyma USA. Their offices are in Victorville. They are helping build a $1.2 billion solar field in Mojave. When I interviewed for the job, the purchasing department had 3 or 4 people in it. I was told that when it was filled, there would be 10 to 12 people, so I'm getting in kind of early. I also know that there are two others that started this past week.
It will be an interesting start too. I received an e-mail today saying that I have a hotel reservation for Sunday night at a hotel where I will have training all day Monday. Where is the hotel? Costa Mesa: about 1/3 of the distance to Victorville. The sad thing is it will probably take me as long to get home Monday from Costa Mesa as it will from Victorville.
Looking back at this unemployment journey, it has been a very long road. Only by God's blessings have we been able to make it as long as we have. I never pictured myself being unemployed for a year when I was let go last October from Chevron. As I mentioned, I applied to a ton of jobs. I was fortunate to get a number of interviews too. There were three companies I actually had multiple interviews with: Kaiser Permanente, Southern California Gas Company and Hawaiian Airlines. The rejects of the first two of those were disappointing, but the rejection from Hawaiian really hurt. When I was told why I was not chosen to move on, there were three reasons given, two of which were based on assumptions made by the interviewer, which were false assumptions. (The third one was legit.) That really upset me and changed my attitude somewhat for a while back around June. There were also many other companies I interviewed with a single time and was ultimately rejected from, including my dream employer Disney. Although I got rejected by Disney, I am glad that I was at least given a chance to interview. Now I can eliminate the "What if they just gave me a chance to interview?" question. So with all the experiences from my year plus of unemployment, I have a new chapter of my life complete. It just adds to my personal testimony of faith in God. Looking forward, there will be some big changes, which I'm sure will add more to that.
Since the job is located in Victorville, some 73 miles from home, it is not ideal, long-term, to commute daily. For the short-term it will be fine. So starting Tuesday, my first day in V-ville, I will do the nearly 150-mile round trip drive daily. One thing in my favor is that I will be going against traffic (headed to L.A.) The two times I have been to Victorville, for the interview and house hunting, it has taken about one hour and 15 minutes each direction each time. I can live with that. It's really not to different from the time spent driving between home in Whittier and my previous jobs in Irvine and El Segundo.
However, the biggest change that will occur as a result of this job, is the family and I will be moving to Victorville. The last time Traci and I moved was 10 years ago when we moved into this house, had been married for just 2 years and had no kids. In the last 10 years, we have accumulated a number of things, including our two kids. Well, maybe we didn't exactly "accumulate" them, but you know what I mean. As I mentioned above, we (Traci and I) have gone house hunting once so far. We saw four houses and liked two of them. On the 30th, we, this time all four of us, will head back out there for some more house hunting.
With me being a nerd, I have done my share of analysis over the last week or two. Lately this has focused on the school districts out there. This has also helped us to nail down the city we would like to live in. There really are three cities that would be fine to live in logistically: Victorville, Apple Valley and Hesperia. After looking at the three school districts, here is what my analysis has shown us, and why we have chosen Victorville as our city of choice. Apple Valley has generally good schools, and not so great homes (for rent). Victorville has a mix of schools and some great homes. Hesperia has some great homes, but the schools are generally not that good. So with Victorville's mix of schools and good housing options, we are planning to move there. Also a plus for Victor Elementary School District, is you can enroll in any school in the district, about half of which are charter school and generally perform very well, regardless of where in V-ville you live. So, like many people, you can tell us the schools in Victorville are not good, but based on my research, it depends on what school you are looking at.
Back to the houses in Victorville that we have seen. The first one we liked was 4br, 3ba, 2334 sq ft with a very open floor plan one-story house. The second one we really liked, we would have tried to lock up instantly if we were at that point. It was 4br, 3ba, 2788 sq ft two-story house with an upstairs bonus room that was at least the size of our kitchen and living room combined. (I tried to claim it as a man-cave, but Traci wasn't too keen on that idea...I can't figure out why.) We have another appointment to meet with my friend from high school, who is a realtor out there, a week from Sunday. It actually works out really well because not only will we be taking the girls with us this time, but our realtors (at home) are holding an open house at our home that day. Just in case any of are looking, or know someone who is looking, to buy a house, here is the link to our listing and here is a virtual tour of our house.
On the flip side, it has been some experience putting our house up for sale. It was something we never wanted to do, but here we are with the sign in the front yard, the lockbox on our front door and the fliers ready for prospective buyers on our coffee table. I happened to be mowing the lawn when they guy came by and put up the stake-thing for the sign. It felt like a little piece of me had been taken away. Then later that day when I returned home, the realtors' sign was up and that took a little more of me away. It is sad to be going through this, but I am trying to set my mind as right as possible. I know that home ownership is the "American Dream", but ultimately, it seems as though we are living out God's dream for us, and that is what comforts me somewhat. Although we won't own a home anymore (believe me, we've looked at our options and this is the best one), we will still have a home to live in out in Victorville and for that we should be grateful since there are millions (if not billions) of people worldwide who would kill themselves to live in something the size of our bedroom, or smaller. Our home has been a bog part of our lives for 10 years now, and it's the only home Courtney and Skyler have known, but in the end, it really is just a temporary home anyway. God has prepared a permanent residence for all 4 of us in Heaven. So anything we have on Earth is nothing compared to what we have with Him.
I have to admit the one thing I was really hoping not to do was have the girls change schools mid-year, but that is the path we are headed down. On the bright side, they are both very friendly and make new friends pretty easily. I have a feeling that will come in handy with the move, at least I sure hope so. Which school they will go to...well, that's something we're still working on. Plus whatever school we choose, we need to make sure they actually have openings for the girls.
So back to work I go on Monday. I haven't been this excited to work in a long time, if ever! Traci will have to adjust to me being gone every day again. I will have to readjust to not seeing my family as much as I'm used to. We will all have to adjust to the changes associated with moving (around the holidays, no less). Fortunately, we are a strong family with strong faith in Christ. He will ultimately get us through this transition, and who knows what he has planned for us out there. And besides, I'm sure it will be the adventure of a lifetime for our family. Here we go!
Looking back at this unemployment journey, it has been a very long road. Only by God's blessings have we been able to make it as long as we have. I never pictured myself being unemployed for a year when I was let go last October from Chevron. As I mentioned, I applied to a ton of jobs. I was fortunate to get a number of interviews too. There were three companies I actually had multiple interviews with: Kaiser Permanente, Southern California Gas Company and Hawaiian Airlines. The rejects of the first two of those were disappointing, but the rejection from Hawaiian really hurt. When I was told why I was not chosen to move on, there were three reasons given, two of which were based on assumptions made by the interviewer, which were false assumptions. (The third one was legit.) That really upset me and changed my attitude somewhat for a while back around June. There were also many other companies I interviewed with a single time and was ultimately rejected from, including my dream employer Disney. Although I got rejected by Disney, I am glad that I was at least given a chance to interview. Now I can eliminate the "What if they just gave me a chance to interview?" question. So with all the experiences from my year plus of unemployment, I have a new chapter of my life complete. It just adds to my personal testimony of faith in God. Looking forward, there will be some big changes, which I'm sure will add more to that.
Since the job is located in Victorville, some 73 miles from home, it is not ideal, long-term, to commute daily. For the short-term it will be fine. So starting Tuesday, my first day in V-ville, I will do the nearly 150-mile round trip drive daily. One thing in my favor is that I will be going against traffic (headed to L.A.) The two times I have been to Victorville, for the interview and house hunting, it has taken about one hour and 15 minutes each direction each time. I can live with that. It's really not to different from the time spent driving between home in Whittier and my previous jobs in Irvine and El Segundo.
However, the biggest change that will occur as a result of this job, is the family and I will be moving to Victorville. The last time Traci and I moved was 10 years ago when we moved into this house, had been married for just 2 years and had no kids. In the last 10 years, we have accumulated a number of things, including our two kids. Well, maybe we didn't exactly "accumulate" them, but you know what I mean. As I mentioned above, we (Traci and I) have gone house hunting once so far. We saw four houses and liked two of them. On the 30th, we, this time all four of us, will head back out there for some more house hunting.
With me being a nerd, I have done my share of analysis over the last week or two. Lately this has focused on the school districts out there. This has also helped us to nail down the city we would like to live in. There really are three cities that would be fine to live in logistically: Victorville, Apple Valley and Hesperia. After looking at the three school districts, here is what my analysis has shown us, and why we have chosen Victorville as our city of choice. Apple Valley has generally good schools, and not so great homes (for rent). Victorville has a mix of schools and some great homes. Hesperia has some great homes, but the schools are generally not that good. So with Victorville's mix of schools and good housing options, we are planning to move there. Also a plus for Victor Elementary School District, is you can enroll in any school in the district, about half of which are charter school and generally perform very well, regardless of where in V-ville you live. So, like many people, you can tell us the schools in Victorville are not good, but based on my research, it depends on what school you are looking at.
Back to the houses in Victorville that we have seen. The first one we liked was 4br, 3ba, 2334 sq ft with a very open floor plan one-story house. The second one we really liked, we would have tried to lock up instantly if we were at that point. It was 4br, 3ba, 2788 sq ft two-story house with an upstairs bonus room that was at least the size of our kitchen and living room combined. (I tried to claim it as a man-cave, but Traci wasn't too keen on that idea...I can't figure out why.) We have another appointment to meet with my friend from high school, who is a realtor out there, a week from Sunday. It actually works out really well because not only will we be taking the girls with us this time, but our realtors (at home) are holding an open house at our home that day. Just in case any of are looking, or know someone who is looking, to buy a house, here is the link to our listing and here is a virtual tour of our house.
On the flip side, it has been some experience putting our house up for sale. It was something we never wanted to do, but here we are with the sign in the front yard, the lockbox on our front door and the fliers ready for prospective buyers on our coffee table. I happened to be mowing the lawn when they guy came by and put up the stake-thing for the sign. It felt like a little piece of me had been taken away. Then later that day when I returned home, the realtors' sign was up and that took a little more of me away. It is sad to be going through this, but I am trying to set my mind as right as possible. I know that home ownership is the "American Dream", but ultimately, it seems as though we are living out God's dream for us, and that is what comforts me somewhat. Although we won't own a home anymore (believe me, we've looked at our options and this is the best one), we will still have a home to live in out in Victorville and for that we should be grateful since there are millions (if not billions) of people worldwide who would kill themselves to live in something the size of our bedroom, or smaller. Our home has been a bog part of our lives for 10 years now, and it's the only home Courtney and Skyler have known, but in the end, it really is just a temporary home anyway. God has prepared a permanent residence for all 4 of us in Heaven. So anything we have on Earth is nothing compared to what we have with Him.
I have to admit the one thing I was really hoping not to do was have the girls change schools mid-year, but that is the path we are headed down. On the bright side, they are both very friendly and make new friends pretty easily. I have a feeling that will come in handy with the move, at least I sure hope so. Which school they will go to...well, that's something we're still working on. Plus whatever school we choose, we need to make sure they actually have openings for the girls.
So back to work I go on Monday. I haven't been this excited to work in a long time, if ever! Traci will have to adjust to me being gone every day again. I will have to readjust to not seeing my family as much as I'm used to. We will all have to adjust to the changes associated with moving (around the holidays, no less). Fortunately, we are a strong family with strong faith in Christ. He will ultimately get us through this transition, and who knows what he has planned for us out there. And besides, I'm sure it will be the adventure of a lifetime for our family. Here we go!
Friday, September 30, 2011
1 Year
It's hard to believe that as of tomorrow I will have been unemployed for 1 year. And if you told me that we would still be in our house and not have touched our 401k's, I would have thought you were crazy. However, here we stand one year later and it's all true still.
I'm still searching for jobs just as hard, if not harder, than I have so far. And lately it's paid off somewhat. I had one interview this past Monday, one yesterday, and have one more coming up on Monday. All the while, I'm still in the running and waiting to hear back from Paramount Petroleum (in Paramount) about the purchasing position at their refinery. Of the four jobs I'm currently in the running for, Paramount is easily the top choice, with Southern California Edison (Long Beach...past Monday) being second and Abener Teyma (Victorville, yesterday) being third. As for where Monday's interview's company lies (SF Bay area), we'll have to wait and see my impression of the job after the interview. My guess is that it will wind up as my second preference behind the refinery job.
As for other things in life that are keeping my spirits up and my mind off being employed, coaching soccer is at the top. Even though my older team is challenging in the sense that it is hard to keep their attention, I still enjoy coaching them. Skyler team is low maintenance and always fun.
Today I did something else that I really enjoyed. I went to the girls' school for Read Across OD Day (for the first time) and got to read a from a couple of books to Courtney's class. They were so quiet and paid attention the whole time. It was great! Also, since I had expressed interest to the teacher about helping with math in the classroom at Back to School Night, she asked if I would like to come in for 45 minutes of Fridays starting next week to do just that. I agreed and therefore will be helping in her class on Fridays. That should be a lot of fun.
As for this coming weekend, church should be more fun than normal. We'll be celebrating our church's 40th anniversary and there will be a huge picnic type thing starting after the 9:30 service. While I was at church taking pictures of Courtney's choir for their Christmas performance, I heard the band practicing for Sunday's service and they were practicing my favorite worship song..."Everything". It is an amazing song and I don't think I could ever get tired of that song. It's on my song blog so you can check it out here if you'd like to.
Hopefully I'll have some good news on the job front in the next week or so as I expect to find out about the Paramount job next week. Stay tuned...
I'm still searching for jobs just as hard, if not harder, than I have so far. And lately it's paid off somewhat. I had one interview this past Monday, one yesterday, and have one more coming up on Monday. All the while, I'm still in the running and waiting to hear back from Paramount Petroleum (in Paramount) about the purchasing position at their refinery. Of the four jobs I'm currently in the running for, Paramount is easily the top choice, with Southern California Edison (Long Beach...past Monday) being second and Abener Teyma (Victorville, yesterday) being third. As for where Monday's interview's company lies (SF Bay area), we'll have to wait and see my impression of the job after the interview. My guess is that it will wind up as my second preference behind the refinery job.
As for other things in life that are keeping my spirits up and my mind off being employed, coaching soccer is at the top. Even though my older team is challenging in the sense that it is hard to keep their attention, I still enjoy coaching them. Skyler team is low maintenance and always fun.
Today I did something else that I really enjoyed. I went to the girls' school for Read Across OD Day (for the first time) and got to read a from a couple of books to Courtney's class. They were so quiet and paid attention the whole time. It was great! Also, since I had expressed interest to the teacher about helping with math in the classroom at Back to School Night, she asked if I would like to come in for 45 minutes of Fridays starting next week to do just that. I agreed and therefore will be helping in her class on Fridays. That should be a lot of fun.
As for this coming weekend, church should be more fun than normal. We'll be celebrating our church's 40th anniversary and there will be a huge picnic type thing starting after the 9:30 service. While I was at church taking pictures of Courtney's choir for their Christmas performance, I heard the band practicing for Sunday's service and they were practicing my favorite worship song..."Everything". It is an amazing song and I don't think I could ever get tired of that song. It's on my song blog so you can check it out here if you'd like to.
Hopefully I'll have some good news on the job front in the next week or so as I expect to find out about the Paramount job next week. Stay tuned...
Tuesday, September 20, 2011
The Horror of the Summer, 8/5/11
It's been a little crazy since my adventures to St. Louis. I can't believe I haven't blogged about the accident we witnessed and suffered some minor car damage from back in early August. So here it goes. Warning: some of my descriptions will be pretty graphic.
The first weekend of August is traditionally when we take off on our annual camping trip with Traci's family. Normally it's off to Shaver Lake in the Sierras east of Fresno. However, this year, we headed to Lake of the Springs, which was about and hour and 20 minutes north of Sacramento (460 miles from home roughly). So we hit the road pretty early, just after 4:00 AM.
Over the Grapevine we go and down into the Central Valley. Maybe a half hour after the Grapevine, we witnessed the most horrific accident any of us have ever seen, and hopefully never see again. Let me give you a play by play as best I can. This happened around 6:1 5AM on August 5.
Cruising along at about 60 MPH, following Traci's parents who are towing a 5th wheel (trailer), I happen to notice a white SUV (Suburban) passing us in the left lane (on a 2-lane each direction highway). While I'm watching it after it passed us, the rear right wheel--tire on rim--rolls right off the car. Instantly the back rotor hits the road and starts kicking up gravel and sparks right onto our car which is maybe 100 feet behind them in the neighboring lane. That pulls the car right, slightly into our lane, freaking me out. Then it swerves left across the lane they were just in, continues into the center median which is all dirt and dry brush and about 40-50 feet wide (we were west of Bakersfield on I-5) and then begins to come back up onto the road into the left lane where they began. As soon it was back up on the road, headed almost straight across our side of the highway, it flips. Not just once, but several times, with at least the first complete rotation occurring completely in the air. Once it lands back on the pavement, it continues to rolls at least a few more times. I estimate it probably rolled a total of 4 or 5 times in all. Meanwhile, everything is flying out of the car. This was part of a family from Baldwin Park headed to Napa Valley for vacation we found out later, so the back of this Suburban was packed. Suitcases flew out, which opened sending all contents flying, at least one ice chest opened as it flew out sending everything in it flying. This doesn't count all the pieces of gravel, which were like little fireballs from the friction of the accident as well as parts of the car flying all around that car and into our car which I was in the process of stopping to avoid running into this flying, rolling car. During this scene, something very large and metal hits our car, which is where our damage came from on the passenger's side of the front of our car. Eventually the SUV stops, right side up somehow amazingly, and we are in shock as we are the closest car to them. Once we make sure the girls were ok, and they were thankfully, we told them to stay right where they were so that we could help the people in the car.
There is nothing that can prepare you for this scene if you are not an EMT, cop, etc. When all is said and done, our car is within 150 feet probably of where the other car came to a rest. I-5 is now completely shut down going north since they are in the middle of the two lanes on our side of the 5. Debris is covering from the freeway from several feet behind our car to probably over 100 feet ahead of where the car stopped rolling, from gutter to center median: clothes, ice, drinks, car parts, shattered glass...you name it, it was on the freeway. Fortunately, the one thing that did not fly out of the car and onto the freeway was bodies. All 7 people in the car had seat belts on. As we (Traci and I) approach the car, it was like something straight out of the movies or tv (like ER). Everybody in the car is in shock and has blood running down some part of them except for a 5 year old in the middle of the back (3rd) row. The driver's head, an older gentleman, is cut and has blood running down his head and face. The passenger next to him, his sister we found out, was dead and had a major gash in her forehead. This went from the middle of her forehead just above the point between her eyes, to past her right eye by a good inch, and was wide open, at least an inch and a half, so that when I saw it, I was looking at her scull. In hindsight it was obvious that she was dead. This huge wide open gash on her forehead did not have blood flowing from it, meaning the heart was not beating.In the middle row of seats the people were able to get out on their own, but had blood all over them. The back row had the other most disturbing injuries to a person. The little boy in the middle looked just fine, no blood, no cuts or scratches that we could see. He was strapped in his booster seat. The driver's side passenger was injured and had blood going like everybody else. The passenger on the passenger's side was in and out of consciousness. Her shirt was saturated (so much so it was kind of shiny, you know like when you're fresh out of the pool in your bathing suit) in blood. When she was conscious, she would just moan/cry/scream. Her face had blood running down it as well.
The car that was behind them in their lane when this went down also got out to help and was the first to call 911. He approached the car just as we did. Meanwhile Traci's parents were freaking out. As I said we were following them, but they were ahead of the accident. When it happened, all they saw was a cloud of debris and dust behind them. They lost sight of us and thought the worst. Fortunately, when the dust settled, they saw that we were ok and backed up to come back to help. They stayed with the girls in the car for the most part, although Traci's mom helped the family as well since she used to be a nurse. There was another car that backed up to help out with the accident as well. It was the other part of the family that was in the car that just flipped. They were amazingly calm after seeing what had happened to their family. They helped out where needed with their family. They comforted the two injured girls that were crying, initially from their own injuries and then more when they realized that they were looking at their dead mother. They also helped the other that were injured. They seemed very appreciative when we said goodbye.
We wound up using 6 of the 8 towels we had packed on the people of the accident to help stop all the bleeding. Traci applied pressure on a girl with a severs cut to her foot (that literally gushed when she showed it to one of the EMTs that arrived). Traci mom helped with compressions on the dead woman once I and two other men helped lift her body out of the car and onto the ground. Not what I had planned for vacation, that's for sure.
They wound up closing both sides of I-5 as a result of the accident. They needed to land a helicopter to airlift the one girl in the back seat I talked about. Let's just say it was controlled chaos. Ultimately there were 3 or 4 cops/highway patrolmen, two fire trucks and crews, and at least two ambulances with their crews. Once they arrived, it was amazing to see them go to work. I learned that code black = dead, code red = severe/life-threatening injuries, code yellow = injuries, but not severe and code green = fine.
After it was all said and done and I had calmed down as much as is possible after witnessing something like that, and we had given the cops our statements and got their clearance to leave, we headed back on our way. This was about an hour and a half after the accident occurred, so we still needed breakfast. So we headed to IHOP and continued as best we could to our vacation.
The girls were fortunate enough to have been each given a teddy bear from one of the firemen on the scene. It was very cute and they were very happy about that. It was also fortunate that all they saw was the bloody driver and a the girl being carted to the helicopter. They didn't see much if any of the accident as it happened.
I may have left out some details, but I really don't feel like trying to figure that out. We were also very fortunate that all we had happen was some minor damage to our car. Repairs totaled just under $3,000, but we wound up not having to pay a penny once our deductible was refunded to us. The one thing I can really take away from this is to cherish each moment you can because you truly do not know when God will call you home. You never plan on something like this happening, but you also never know when it will.
The first weekend of August is traditionally when we take off on our annual camping trip with Traci's family. Normally it's off to Shaver Lake in the Sierras east of Fresno. However, this year, we headed to Lake of the Springs, which was about and hour and 20 minutes north of Sacramento (460 miles from home roughly). So we hit the road pretty early, just after 4:00 AM.
Over the Grapevine we go and down into the Central Valley. Maybe a half hour after the Grapevine, we witnessed the most horrific accident any of us have ever seen, and hopefully never see again. Let me give you a play by play as best I can. This happened around 6:1 5AM on August 5.
Cruising along at about 60 MPH, following Traci's parents who are towing a 5th wheel (trailer), I happen to notice a white SUV (Suburban) passing us in the left lane (on a 2-lane each direction highway). While I'm watching it after it passed us, the rear right wheel--tire on rim--rolls right off the car. Instantly the back rotor hits the road and starts kicking up gravel and sparks right onto our car which is maybe 100 feet behind them in the neighboring lane. That pulls the car right, slightly into our lane, freaking me out. Then it swerves left across the lane they were just in, continues into the center median which is all dirt and dry brush and about 40-50 feet wide (we were west of Bakersfield on I-5) and then begins to come back up onto the road into the left lane where they began. As soon it was back up on the road, headed almost straight across our side of the highway, it flips. Not just once, but several times, with at least the first complete rotation occurring completely in the air. Once it lands back on the pavement, it continues to rolls at least a few more times. I estimate it probably rolled a total of 4 or 5 times in all. Meanwhile, everything is flying out of the car. This was part of a family from Baldwin Park headed to Napa Valley for vacation we found out later, so the back of this Suburban was packed. Suitcases flew out, which opened sending all contents flying, at least one ice chest opened as it flew out sending everything in it flying. This doesn't count all the pieces of gravel, which were like little fireballs from the friction of the accident as well as parts of the car flying all around that car and into our car which I was in the process of stopping to avoid running into this flying, rolling car. During this scene, something very large and metal hits our car, which is where our damage came from on the passenger's side of the front of our car. Eventually the SUV stops, right side up somehow amazingly, and we are in shock as we are the closest car to them. Once we make sure the girls were ok, and they were thankfully, we told them to stay right where they were so that we could help the people in the car.
There is nothing that can prepare you for this scene if you are not an EMT, cop, etc. When all is said and done, our car is within 150 feet probably of where the other car came to a rest. I-5 is now completely shut down going north since they are in the middle of the two lanes on our side of the 5. Debris is covering from the freeway from several feet behind our car to probably over 100 feet ahead of where the car stopped rolling, from gutter to center median: clothes, ice, drinks, car parts, shattered glass...you name it, it was on the freeway. Fortunately, the one thing that did not fly out of the car and onto the freeway was bodies. All 7 people in the car had seat belts on. As we (Traci and I) approach the car, it was like something straight out of the movies or tv (like ER). Everybody in the car is in shock and has blood running down some part of them except for a 5 year old in the middle of the back (3rd) row. The driver's head, an older gentleman, is cut and has blood running down his head and face. The passenger next to him, his sister we found out, was dead and had a major gash in her forehead. This went from the middle of her forehead just above the point between her eyes, to past her right eye by a good inch, and was wide open, at least an inch and a half, so that when I saw it, I was looking at her scull. In hindsight it was obvious that she was dead. This huge wide open gash on her forehead did not have blood flowing from it, meaning the heart was not beating.In the middle row of seats the people were able to get out on their own, but had blood all over them. The back row had the other most disturbing injuries to a person. The little boy in the middle looked just fine, no blood, no cuts or scratches that we could see. He was strapped in his booster seat. The driver's side passenger was injured and had blood going like everybody else. The passenger on the passenger's side was in and out of consciousness. Her shirt was saturated (so much so it was kind of shiny, you know like when you're fresh out of the pool in your bathing suit) in blood. When she was conscious, she would just moan/cry/scream. Her face had blood running down it as well.
The car that was behind them in their lane when this went down also got out to help and was the first to call 911. He approached the car just as we did. Meanwhile Traci's parents were freaking out. As I said we were following them, but they were ahead of the accident. When it happened, all they saw was a cloud of debris and dust behind them. They lost sight of us and thought the worst. Fortunately, when the dust settled, they saw that we were ok and backed up to come back to help. They stayed with the girls in the car for the most part, although Traci's mom helped the family as well since she used to be a nurse. There was another car that backed up to help out with the accident as well. It was the other part of the family that was in the car that just flipped. They were amazingly calm after seeing what had happened to their family. They helped out where needed with their family. They comforted the two injured girls that were crying, initially from their own injuries and then more when they realized that they were looking at their dead mother. They also helped the other that were injured. They seemed very appreciative when we said goodbye.
We wound up using 6 of the 8 towels we had packed on the people of the accident to help stop all the bleeding. Traci applied pressure on a girl with a severs cut to her foot (that literally gushed when she showed it to one of the EMTs that arrived). Traci mom helped with compressions on the dead woman once I and two other men helped lift her body out of the car and onto the ground. Not what I had planned for vacation, that's for sure.
They wound up closing both sides of I-5 as a result of the accident. They needed to land a helicopter to airlift the one girl in the back seat I talked about. Let's just say it was controlled chaos. Ultimately there were 3 or 4 cops/highway patrolmen, two fire trucks and crews, and at least two ambulances with their crews. Once they arrived, it was amazing to see them go to work. I learned that code black = dead, code red = severe/life-threatening injuries, code yellow = injuries, but not severe and code green = fine.
After it was all said and done and I had calmed down as much as is possible after witnessing something like that, and we had given the cops our statements and got their clearance to leave, we headed back on our way. This was about an hour and a half after the accident occurred, so we still needed breakfast. So we headed to IHOP and continued as best we could to our vacation.
The girls were fortunate enough to have been each given a teddy bear from one of the firemen on the scene. It was very cute and they were very happy about that. It was also fortunate that all they saw was the bloody driver and a the girl being carted to the helicopter. They didn't see much if any of the accident as it happened.
I may have left out some details, but I really don't feel like trying to figure that out. We were also very fortunate that all we had happen was some minor damage to our car. Repairs totaled just under $3,000, but we wound up not having to pay a penny once our deductible was refunded to us. The one thing I can really take away from this is to cherish each moment you can because you truly do not know when God will call you home. You never plan on something like this happening, but you also never know when it will.
Tuesday, August 16, 2011
St. Louis
If you follow me on Facebook, you know that I was in the St. Louis area a couple of weeks ago. This was because one of my good friends (Eric) was getting married and I was lucky enough to be asked to be a part of the wedding. So it was off to St. Louis on July 28.
I had never been to St. Louis prior to this trip so I had some high expectations about how fun it would be, although I realized most of the trip would be centered around the wedding, which was to be expected.
Once I landed it was off to get my rental car, which wound up being a Chevy HHR. (Not a bad car for a rental, but it's not a car I would want to buy.) From there it was off to my hotel in Downtown St. Louis, across the street from The Arch. I was excited when I arrived at the hotel without getting lost. It was about half the distance from LAX to Whittier.
Eric, who I shared a room with that first night, was not yet there since he was still out helping with wedding preparations. Once he got there, it was up to the room to drop my stuff. Not too long after that, it was off to Busch Stadium to take in a Cardinals game. This is another stadium that has been crossed off my list of stadiums visited. I've now seen MLB baseball games at Dodger Stadium, Angel Stadium, Qualcomm Stadium (pre-Petco San Diego Padres), Fenway Park (Boston Red Sox), Minute Maid Park (Houston Astros) and Busch Stadium. It was so fun being in another stadium. The weather really sucked as it was 97 degrees at game time, versus 105 when I first arrived in St. Louis, and the humidity was very high, which made it that much worse. After the game and some freshening up, it was down to the hotel lobby for Eric and I to hang out and chat.
Friday was a whirlwind as I ran around with Eric and his fiance (Stacey) doing some final preps for the wedding and a family brunch. I just remember that once we left the brunch in the early afternoon, the intensity really picked up since the rehearsal was only a couple of hours away. Once we got back to the hotel, I met up with another friend, Micah, who came in from Texas for the wedding, who I roomed with for the final two nights.
The rehearsal went well and was fun. The dinner was even better as went to a local Benihana-style restaurant called the Japanese Garden. I had never been to a place like this so it was very fun and fascinating seeing the chef cook on our table and all of his tricks while cooking. The food was really good too!
Once back at the hotel, it became social hour for those who were in town for the wedding. Lots of drinking and hanging out, making new friends and meeting up with some who hadn't been seen in a while. Being the introvert, I didn't do as much talking as most other people, but I did more than normal. I was just enjoying how happy everybody was and that everybody was there to support Eric and Stacey.
Saturday was the wedding, which meant lots of busyness. Eric, Micah and I headed down for breakfast in the hotel lobby's restaurant. It's hard to go wrong with a breakfast buffet, and this was no exception. After that, it was wedding prep time and, well, after that was the wedding. It was a beautiful wedding and everything went as planned except for the wrong verse being read, but fortunately, the verse still fit. It was off to the Paebaek (Korean traditional wedding ritual) and reception at a country club in Belleville, IL after that. It was very fascinating watching the Paebaek, as it was very colorful and symbolic of the two families coming together to support the new couple. Everything ended around 11:00, with the wedding ceremony having started at 2:30, but it was a lot of fun. I was very happy to be a part of it. I could tell Eric and Stacey were loving it all and taking as much of it in as they could, which is the way it should be.
Sunday was very much a wind-down kind of day. It started with a family brunch back at the country club. After about an hour there, I took Micah to the airport since he had an earlier flight than I did. After dropping him off, it was back to the city for some sightseeing. I headed to the Arch with plans of going up in it, but when I found out my ticket would have been for two hours later, I opted for a one-hour Mississippi River cruise that started in about a half-hour. It was cool and worth it. After that, it was off to the airport for my evening flight back home.
Surprise! My flight out of STL was delayed by 3 hours (due to weather in Florida), which meant I could not make my connecting flight out of Las Vegas. Fortunately, Southwest was good enough to rearrange my flights so that I would go to Houston and then LAX while getting home about the same time. It was good to be home and see Traci and the kids again. I missed them, but had a great trip. Congratulations to the new couple, Eric and Stacey!!!
I had never been to St. Louis prior to this trip so I had some high expectations about how fun it would be, although I realized most of the trip would be centered around the wedding, which was to be expected.
Once I landed it was off to get my rental car, which wound up being a Chevy HHR. (Not a bad car for a rental, but it's not a car I would want to buy.) From there it was off to my hotel in Downtown St. Louis, across the street from The Arch. I was excited when I arrived at the hotel without getting lost. It was about half the distance from LAX to Whittier.
Eric, who I shared a room with that first night, was not yet there since he was still out helping with wedding preparations. Once he got there, it was up to the room to drop my stuff. Not too long after that, it was off to Busch Stadium to take in a Cardinals game. This is another stadium that has been crossed off my list of stadiums visited. I've now seen MLB baseball games at Dodger Stadium, Angel Stadium, Qualcomm Stadium (pre-Petco San Diego Padres), Fenway Park (Boston Red Sox), Minute Maid Park (Houston Astros) and Busch Stadium. It was so fun being in another stadium. The weather really sucked as it was 97 degrees at game time, versus 105 when I first arrived in St. Louis, and the humidity was very high, which made it that much worse. After the game and some freshening up, it was down to the hotel lobby for Eric and I to hang out and chat.
Friday was a whirlwind as I ran around with Eric and his fiance (Stacey) doing some final preps for the wedding and a family brunch. I just remember that once we left the brunch in the early afternoon, the intensity really picked up since the rehearsal was only a couple of hours away. Once we got back to the hotel, I met up with another friend, Micah, who came in from Texas for the wedding, who I roomed with for the final two nights.
The rehearsal went well and was fun. The dinner was even better as went to a local Benihana-style restaurant called the Japanese Garden. I had never been to a place like this so it was very fun and fascinating seeing the chef cook on our table and all of his tricks while cooking. The food was really good too!
Once back at the hotel, it became social hour for those who were in town for the wedding. Lots of drinking and hanging out, making new friends and meeting up with some who hadn't been seen in a while. Being the introvert, I didn't do as much talking as most other people, but I did more than normal. I was just enjoying how happy everybody was and that everybody was there to support Eric and Stacey.
Saturday was the wedding, which meant lots of busyness. Eric, Micah and I headed down for breakfast in the hotel lobby's restaurant. It's hard to go wrong with a breakfast buffet, and this was no exception. After that, it was wedding prep time and, well, after that was the wedding. It was a beautiful wedding and everything went as planned except for the wrong verse being read, but fortunately, the verse still fit. It was off to the Paebaek (Korean traditional wedding ritual) and reception at a country club in Belleville, IL after that. It was very fascinating watching the Paebaek, as it was very colorful and symbolic of the two families coming together to support the new couple. Everything ended around 11:00, with the wedding ceremony having started at 2:30, but it was a lot of fun. I was very happy to be a part of it. I could tell Eric and Stacey were loving it all and taking as much of it in as they could, which is the way it should be.
Sunday was very much a wind-down kind of day. It started with a family brunch back at the country club. After about an hour there, I took Micah to the airport since he had an earlier flight than I did. After dropping him off, it was back to the city for some sightseeing. I headed to the Arch with plans of going up in it, but when I found out my ticket would have been for two hours later, I opted for a one-hour Mississippi River cruise that started in about a half-hour. It was cool and worth it. After that, it was off to the airport for my evening flight back home.
Surprise! My flight out of STL was delayed by 3 hours (due to weather in Florida), which meant I could not make my connecting flight out of Las Vegas. Fortunately, Southwest was good enough to rearrange my flights so that I would go to Houston and then LAX while getting home about the same time. It was good to be home and see Traci and the kids again. I missed them, but had a great trip. Congratulations to the new couple, Eric and Stacey!!!
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