Karen asked me a couple of hours ago if I missed having a boss.

Interesting question — obvious answer.

At least to me.

One of the things I so much enjoyed about the job that I had was the amount of freedom from oversight that I had most of the time. Even with that though, I was directly answerable to someone else.

Now, though, I don’t have that, which translates into significantly more freedom than I had before.

Not having a boss is more than just not having a supervisor.

It’s not having Performance Planning and Review — I didn’t even know what PP&R meant until just before I retired.

It’s not having:

• 3 hours a month at the plant, whether I spent 100 hours there last quarter or not
• condition reports for students late to class or absent
• extreme focus on safety to the point of being ludicrous
• management observation of training by people whose only qualification for evaluating my presentation is that they’ve attended some kind of training in the past
• assessment after assessment after assessment
• a safety minute every day
• a safety meeting every month
• etc., etc., etc.

It’s not being answerable to someone else for all of the things that added little value to our core business.

Like I said, the answer is obvious.

I do wear my gloves almost every day, though.

It has nothing to do with safety.

I just don’t like splinters.

_________

Update 3/5/2011:  Located lost comments for this post on the Internet Archive WayBack Machine site:

Comments on “Do I miss it?”

I accidentally deleted the blog, database, and sub-folders!

Just as I clicked “yes” and released the mouse button, I realized I had selected the wrong line. Automated blog creation is great — automated blog deletion can be hell.

I wasn’t able to recover everything, but I was able to get most of it back — thanks to Google cache. Some posts I didn’t bother to try to recover, such as much of my own photography. I have different plans for that

I wasn’t able to retrieve any of the visitors comments.

(Deep sigh!)

I still have some work on the template to restore it to…

A lost Exit78 post, recovered from Internet Archive WayBackMachine; March 2011

Update November 11, 2017 –  Joey’s was changed to Mickie’s Bluefish Grill after our last visit there and, then, in late November 2009, the restaurant closed “mainly because of the downturn in the economy.”  Jay returned to work in the commercial nuclear and is now Manager – System Operations at NAC International, which provides energy consulting, information services and spent fuel management technologies to utilities, government agencies, producers, fuel vendors and financial institutions worldwide. The building is now home to a Cactus Jack Mexican restaurant. Jay and I had worked together before he took his detour into the restaurant business.

A couple of month’s ago, we stopped at Jay Wellwood’s seafood restaurant in Conway, Arkansas. We had a good meal, a good visit, and, now, I’m finally getting around to posting about it. It’s called Joey’s Seafood & Grill and it’s not easy to find if your only familiarity with Conway is I40, US64 and US65. We didn’t find it the first time we tried to find it, so I’ve included a map of it’s location below. The address is 755 Club Lane.

From the corporation website:

• Joey’s Seafood and Grill is the only one (seafood chain) catering to the quick casual pace in a full service experience for the seafood diner. It’s a niche with very limited competition and limitless potential.
• Founded in 1985 by legendary seafood lover Joe Klassen, Joey’s Seafood and Grill is a fresh take on the cozy, neighborhood seafood restaurant.

Comments on “Joey’s Seafood and Grill, Conway, Arkansas”

May 1, 2007

Mark @ 10:04 pm

Thanks Mike,
I am enjoying exploring your blog.
Mark

A lost Exit78 post, recovered from Internet Archive WayBackMachine and updated; March 2011 and , again, November 2017.

I usually don’t procrastinate on taxes until the very last day – just close to the very last day – and this year was no exception. I was actually almost done with my 2006 tax return a couple of days ago, except for one trifling little detail that could result in $2000 more in taxes than I really think that I owe.

Last year, I took 2 separate distributions from the company savings plan. Neither of them should have been subject to the 10% penalty for early withdrawal. However, on the 1099R form from T. Rowe Price, the code that identified the type of disbursement was a “1” – early disbursement (non-Roth IRA) with no known exceptions.

The first disbursement was withdrawal of all employee stock ownership plan (ESOP) funds that could legally be withdrawn. The other was withdrawal of all post 1986 after tax money.

Before I can submit our tax return, I need to get a corrected 1099R from T. Rowe Price. Since there isn’t any time left, I’m sending in the form for an automatic extension for my tax return, along with a check for the amount that I believe that I owe. This will give us until October 15 to get the tax return filed and, hopefully, I’ll be able to get a corrected form much earlier than that and will be able to avoid any IRS penalties.

I am certainly glad that we decided not to stay with T. Rowe Price. With the errors and delays associated with the second distribution last year, there was no question about staying with them. The biggest frustration – besides not being able to get the money in a timely manner – was having to deal with a totally different person each time I contacted them.

Next year, I will have to deal with the taxes much earlier – and will probably have get an accountant involved as there is a lot more tax related issues to deal with because of the way I moved my savings out of T. Rowe Price. After that, taxes should be relatively simple again.

I’ve been spending quite a bit of time lately working on Karen’s new website and its companion blog. Since she is new to blogging, I’ve been searching for information on the internet about how to blog.
Here’s some of the better sites that I found:

Frequently Asked Questions about Weblogs and Blogs – About.com

Blog basics: Learn how to keep an online journal provides some good advice for new women bloggers.

How To Start A Blog – Step by Step Tutorial  provides some good basic information.

Learning About Blogging and How to Blog – Lorelle on WordPress

Learn to Blog – pitas.com

How to Blog – Global Voices

How to Blog – etc@bmc

How to blog – The Guardian, December 6, 2006

How To Blog Like Om Malik – Performancing

How to Write a Famous Blog – wikiHow

How to: Start Blogging

How to Blog Like a Pro

10 Tips on Writing the Living Web – A List Apart

How to Blog Safely (About Work or Anything Else) provides advice on blogging about things like work without getting in trouble. (I’ve got that one figured out – don’t blog about work until you’re bullet-proof; in other words retired or otherwise no longer working for the company you want to blog about.)

How To Blog Your Way To Fame and Fortune – A VC

How to blog anonymously

How To Blog And Not Lose Your Job

How to get Traffic for Your Blog

Blogging Tips – Hundreds of Resources for Finding Content for Your Blog – Lorelle on WordPress

How To Start Your Very Own Blog In Fifty-One Easy Steps! (humor)

I’ve included links ranging from the very basic on how to blog to others with more detailed information or ideas.

There isn’t just one way to blog and there are no hard and fast rules. I’ve seen a lot of blogs that hold very little interest for me and some that are just out right rude and offensive. I’ve visited other blogs that are very fascinating on topics that I have never had any interest at all in.

A lost Exit78 post, recovered from Internet Archive WayBackMachine; March 2011

Karen and I took a drive up to Branson yesterday. Ostensibly, the trip was to a quilt shop there so that she could pick up some “tans” for a log cabin quilt she is working on and to get some photos along the way.

After the March heat wave, we’ve dipped into an April big chill. There was snow on the trees and grass in the Ozarks along Arkansas 7 from about 20 miles north of Russellville nearly all the way up to where the highway drops off the mountain into Jasper.

Some outfit is still in the old Dogpatch USA theme park site, cleaning up and shoring up some of the old buildings. It doesn’t look quite so abandoned as it used to, but they don’t seem to be making a whole lot of headway. They do have Trespassers will be prosecuted signs.

When we stopped at the quilt shop, the clouds had started spitting out a little bit of snow flurries. It continued to do that off and on the rest of the day, until we were just about home.

After the quilt store, we drove the rest of the way west on 76, the main drag in Branson – didn’t stop anywhere there. We did stop and walk around Branson Landing, the new outdoor mall near downtown along Lake Tannycomo. We enjoyed getting out and walking even though there was a very bitter cold wind. I found a fishing vest at Bass Pro Shop that will work very well for a photo vest when we go on hikes.

I often wake up in the middle of the night and take the opportunity to do some work on the computer and then go back to bed. It’s easier to do that now that I don’t have any particular time most days that I have to get out of bed. Most days, though, I’m out of bed well before 8 in the morning, but after I would have had to be at work, if I were still working.

Today, my middle of the night wakeup was a little later than normal. It’s time to go back in and see if I can get a couple hours more sleep.

Don’t work too hard, y’all! (I hear 2008 is going to be a tough one)

The last few days I’ve been posting entries from the Diary of the Union Secretary of the Navy, Gideon Welles. The writings of one of the major players certainly adds a different angle to the Chronicles.

I’ve published all of the entries from the beginning of 1863 through the end of May, with those for the rest of April and May predated so that they are published on the corresponding day of this year.

A lost Exit78 post, recovered from Internet Archive WayBackMachine; March 2011

Many forms of the same basic question keeps coming up when people find out that I’m retired.

“What are you going to be doing now?”

I do have plans and at first would briefly explain them when people asked the question.

Now I sometimes just say, “What ever I want.”

That generally suffices for those who are just making small talk. If they seem to be interested beyond that, then I’ll go into more detail.

The important thing is to have enough to do to keep it interesting. I don’t want to have to find a job or go contracting just because I don’t have enough to do.

I want to keep the freedom to do “whatever I want.”

A lost Exit78 post, recovered from Internet Archive WayBackMachine; March 2011

I’m currently working on moving Karen’s quilt pages to her own new domain and redesigning her site in the process.

A lost Exit78 post, recovered from Internet Archive WayBackMachine; March 2011