Hi Willow, sorry about not responding sooner.

Ummm, I'm doing my daily checking of all the job sites, and there are many. Actually, most of them allow me to set up a search based on my skills, and then they email me with openings based on those and a few keywords that I put in. You may be familiar with that. I was cautiously optomistic (and still am to a degree) the first few months of this year. There were more openings coming out in my fields than I had seen in quite awhile. But the last few weeks, there's been absolutely nothing. The whole market has slowed up though. I'm thinking that maybe the market is stopping to take a breather after running so hot and heavy so the employers can take a look at where they're at. Hopefully it will pick back up soon. 2004 is supposed to be a rebound year.

I am concerned about a trend I see though. This job mixing practice. I had a call about 10 days ago from a recruiter for a position that she described as a combination of Doc Control/Mechanical Drafter/Technical Writer, and said it looked like I was perfect for it. I've done all those things, but never at the same time. Then she says that the employer wants the candidate to have a Master's in either Science or Business. My resume (which she was looking at) says I have an Associate's in Design Drafting. I could get my BA by going back to college for two more years, but I have no desire at almost 49 to persue a Masters.

I have been toying with the idea of looking outside California for another job. But even if I found one, my wife just got a long overdue promotion, my daughter just started her first job, and my son starts his first job next month. I couldn't expect them to give up their jobs so I could have one. Besides, I'm still working dilligently to put myself in the position of opening my own business toward the end of this year. I do have the job as a contractor for now. At least it pays the bills. It's just besides not having any benefits, the person I work for is rude, insulting, and bemeaning. When he isn't insulting me or my work ethic, he's talking about the other employees in the same way. He's a very talented engineer, but he has absolutely no management skills, and has no business being a Lead.

Oh well, that's about it Willow. I guess you weren't expecting a mini-novel. I'll be sure to keep you up to date as things progress. I appreciate you thinking about me. Let me know how you're doing too, OK?

Much love to you,
Greg