Fabulous News

Every door that closes opens up a window. Perhaps not the window that is expected, but good ones nonetheless.

First, a huge thanks to, well, everyone.

I got a verbal offer today from a company I’d been interested in since my Navy days. Good stuff; I will be in Rhode Island working on periscope imaging initially, but there is a whole lot else to explore. I know several of the folks I’ll be working with, and had contact with the company in some Navy tech development working groups. It’s not just a Navy contractor, though; they do sound for movies, records, and video games; and provide other geek-type services for industry and government.

Had the offer I got today come eight days ago, I probably still would be seriously considering moving, but it would have been a much harder sell to get Missy to pick up and go. Sometimes life (God) can still speak in an extremely loud voice, which I think is what happened when I was laid off. It’s a tempting enough position that I was pursuing it quietly but aggressively before getting the boot at my old job. Again, sometimes it’s funny how life works out. And the old rambling about predestination runs to the surface again.

It’s going to be tough leaving Texas (though I’ve been hard-pressed to find much to endear Houston to me - mostly due to the Katy Freeway. Can the state cede Houston to Louisiana?), but we’re headed back to somewhat familiar stomping grounds. Missy’s office in Hartford is thrilled that it’ll be possible to get her in the office once a month or so, instead of the current less-than-annual basis (BTW- I can’t say enough nice things about my wife’s boss. She buys lots of beer for her staff, and insisted Missy work from home (as a well-paid hourly employee) after we had Jake instead of letting her quit. And she picks up the tab for my DSL connection). My kayak can’t wait to hit Narangansett Bay, and the fly rods are eager to bend to trout again in the spring. There’s also slightly more vacation with this job, and Southwest flies out of Providence. If Ma and Pa Jank end up near Austin, we’ll be spending much vacation time down this way.

I’ll probably spend the next week getting the house here in shape to sell, and head up to Newport (or thereabouts, Rhode Island can fit inside the Sam Houston tollway) next weekend. Fly back for Thanksgiving, etc, and drive the other car up when the house sells. That’s going to be the major driver determining when Melissa and Jake move. Ideally we can get this all sorted out before mid-January, and be moved in somewhere before Boy 2.0 arrives at the end of February. Crazy.

So again - thanks for all the support, kind words, lies to colleagues on my behalf, and forwarded resumes over the last week. If I’d known that this offer was more than vapor, I’d have held off on posting earlier in the week. Beers’ on me the next time I see everyone.

Posted by jank at November 7, 2003 10:55 PM