It is done

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Dave
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It is done

Post by Dave »

This morning I drove down to Sunnyvale, to the Google office I haven't been in but once since the COVID lockdown started in 2020 (I've been working remotely-from-home the whole time).

I attended one last project-team meeting, had a farewell lunch with about two dozen of my co-workers, returned my company laptop and tagged my workstation "OK to collect", threw my security keys into the e-waste bin, handed my photo ID and commute card to my manager, shook hands, and left the building.

As of midnight tonight I will officially be retired.

Pleasantly and somewhat coincidentally, Google's bureaucracy finally got around to approving a particular blog entry I'd been waiting for, so I can finally talk about what I've been working on for the past 7 years or so.

https://cloud.google.com/blog/products/ ... pen-source

I did a lot of the security-key management firmware for this, on a couple of different networking-card projects. Feels nice to know that it's out there and working... it's a good note on which to end a career which I've really enjoyed,

I can only trust that I was told the truth, and that the livid blue and red icing isn't actually at all radioactive.


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Atomic
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Re: It is done

Post by Atomic »

Congratulations and may your future be a delight!
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Typeminer
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Re: It is done

Post by Typeminer »

Woohoo! Sláinte! Enjoy! :D

I've been working remotely since 2015. Planning to stick with the job another 19 months, unless it goes south sooner, times being how they are.
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Warrl
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Re: It is done

Post by Warrl »

What are you going to do next? Or have you not decided yet? (There's no rush.)
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jwhouk
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Re: It is done

Post by jwhouk »

Woohoo! Congrats!

I'd offer to send you some info on some trailers in our park, but costs for 55+ retirement houses here in the Valley are going through the roof. Mostly because of all these yobs from California who think out housing prices are so low... ;)

Anyways - congrats on being an ex-Apple employee!
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Dave
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Re: It is done

Post by Dave »

Warrl wrote: Wed Jun 01, 2022 7:43 pm What are you going to do next? Or have you not decided yet? (There's no rush.)
Oh, a whole mix of stuff.

We hope to travel more than we've been able to do for the past couple of years - for now, just driving vacations around the west coast. We've got an overseas trip or two we'd like to do, but it doesn't yet feel quite safe enough.

There are numerous house-and-home-related projects which have been "on hold" awaiting my free time and availability. In my first full week of "retirement" I've ripped out a whole bunch of overgrown ivy in the back yard, arranged the purchase of a whole-house exhaust fan that I'll install in about ten days, and helped Gwen do a substantial rearrangement of the master bedroom and the living room. There's a "paint over the old wallpaper in the master bathroom" effort queued up. I need to tear off and rebuild the roof-cover of the niche-in-the-fence where we store our recycling containers during the week, as termites have gotten into the wood. The pool needs some work (the chlorinator isn't working right and it looks as if I'm going to have to replace the electrolytic cell).

In order to free up wall space in the living room Gwen suggested we remove the big CD rack (all my music) and move the CDs into the den (along with her CDs). I volunteered instead to pack up all of my CDs for storage rather than take up den space - I'd already ripped about 80% of them to FLAC files on hard drives, and that's where I actually play them from these days. I've sorted through them and pulled the ones I hadn't gotten around to ripping, and have started on that today... the CD rack has been removed and the other CDs are temporarily boxed up.

I have more work to do to finish up the building of a four-channel audio amplifier for the main stereo system - the boards are done and mounted on the heatsinks, so it's just power-supply, chassis, and wiring to be done.

I've got a bunch of other miscellaneous electronics projects in various stages of completion and would like to continue working on those.

I'm trying to shepherd our local ARES/RACES emergency-services amateur radio repeater through a move from one building at the local hospital (soon to be demolished) to the newly-built adjacent building. Getting the wiring done by the contractor is turning out to be rather a nightmare.

I've got three varieties of obscure tomato growing in the garden this year, and hope I can manage to get at least a modest crop from them.

And, I'm feeding and petting the neighbors' cat for a week while they're away at music camp.
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Dave
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Re: It is done

Post by Dave »

jwhouk wrote: Fri Jun 03, 2022 7:20 pm Woohoo! Congrats!

I'd offer to send you some info on some trailers in our park, but costs for 55+ retirement houses here in the Valley are going through the roof. Mostly because of all these yobs from California who think out housing prices are so low... ;)
Thanks, Joe! Actually, Gwen and I have discussed the possibility of moving to a different location quite a few times. Problem is, we have difficulty figuring out where we'd want to move to, where we'd be happier overall than where we are now. Gwen hates cold-and-rainy and doesn't do well in heat (especially if humid) and the Bay-area climate has been the best compromise we've found so far. Neither of us looks forward to the effort involved in a move - Gwen's arthritis would make it difficult for her to take an active part, and there's so much stuff which would have to be sorted and triaged beforehand.

So, we'll probably keep our current "home base", and make do with short trips to other areas.
Warrl
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Re: It is done

Post by Warrl »

Gwen hates cold-and-rainy and doesn't do well in heat (especially if humid) and the Bay-area climate has been the best compromise we've found so far.
According to the research I've done, the two best areas in the US for year-round climate are the San Francisco Bay area and the extreme northeast corner of Florida.

Unfortunately the Bay Area is prone to earthquakes, wildfires, the California State Legislature, and the San Francisco City Council, along with a few less-common natural disasters, and lately the California State Courts have been trying to join in the fun and games (bumblebees are officially a variety of fish!).

Whereas Florida is as far as you can get, within the US's contiguous states, from everything and everyone that I want to be close to.
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Re: It is done

Post by FreeFlier »

I'd class the legislature, the city clowncil, and the courts as unnatural disasters.

Rather like the equivalents in the Democratic People's Republic of Seattle.

--FreeFlier
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Re: It is done

Post by Bookworm »

You could look in parts of New Mexico and West Texas. There are a number of smaller towns that aren't bad for a retirement community, as long as you don't mind dry heat. (and being dry in general. You won't want to try to plant an enormous garden outside of a greenhouse)

South Texas could be good as well, depending on your fluency in Spanish (the further south you go, the less English gets spoken)

Oh - BTW. Congratulations on the retirement. Hopefully you find another job soon, so you don't go moribund in two years.

:)
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lake_wrangler
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Re: It is done

Post by lake_wrangler »

Congrats on the retirement! Hope you take care of yourself. And find ways to keep occupied! (A lot of bus drivers end up bored to death, after retirement... not to mention a good number of them end up dead to death...)

Me? I got a while to go... I bought my first house at age 50 (4 years ago), so I'm definitely not ready to retire any time soon...
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Re: It is done

Post by Sgt. Howard »

Prices are still reasonable here in Eastern Washington- but the WINTER here is real... not like the bogus ones you are used to.
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Re: It is done

Post by FreeFlier »

Sgt. Howard wrote: Tue Jun 14, 2022 10:04 pmPrices are still reasonable here in Eastern Washington- but the WINTER here is real... not like the bogus ones you are used to.
Where the only thing between you and the Pole is a fence . . . that blew down last winter . . .

That's not actually true, but sometimes it sure seems like it!

--FreeFlier
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Sgt. Howard
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Re: It is done

Post by Sgt. Howard »

FreeFlier wrote: Fri Jun 17, 2022 11:52 pm
Sgt. Howard wrote: Tue Jun 14, 2022 10:04 pmPrices are still reasonable here in Eastern Washington- but the WINTER here is real... not like the bogus ones you are used to.
Where the only thing between you and the Pole is a fence . . . that blew down last winter . . .

That's not actually true, but sometimes it sure seems like it!

--FreeFlier
You are thinking of the 'Canadian Express'
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Re: It is done

Post by FreeFlier »

Sgt. Howard wrote: Sat Jun 18, 2022 12:06 am
FreeFlier wrote: Fri Jun 17, 2022 11:52 pm
Sgt. Howard wrote: Tue Jun 14, 2022 10:04 pmPrices are still reasonable here in Eastern Washington- but the WINTER here is real... not like the bogus ones you are used to.
Where the only thing between you and the Pole is a fence . . . that blew down last winter . . .

That's not actually true, but sometimes it sure seems like it!
You are thinking of the 'Canadian Express'
We called it a great many things . . . mostly unprintable!

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lake_wrangler
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Re: It is done

Post by lake_wrangler »

Sgt. Howard wrote: Tue Jun 14, 2022 10:04 pm Prices are still reasonable here in Eastern Washington- but the WINTER here is real... not like the bogus ones you are used to.
As a proud Canadian, living in a city with real winters (unlike folks in Toronto...), I take exception to that remark... :x
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Re: It is done

Post by Alkarii »

We get several winters a year here in Arkansas. They only last about a week at a time, though, so no big deal.
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Sgt. Howard
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Re: It is done

Post by Sgt. Howard »

lake_wrangler wrote: Mon Jul 25, 2022 5:37 pm
Sgt. Howard wrote: Tue Jun 14, 2022 10:04 pm Prices are still reasonable here in Eastern Washington- but the WINTER here is real... not like the bogus ones you are used to.
As a proud Canadian, living in a city with real winters (unlike folks in Toronto...), I take exception to that remark... :x
My apologies! I have had to explain such things to many of my fellow countrymen who only see snow when they go to the mountains- that was a lazy retort on my part, mentally.


Then there was the old widow who lived near the border back in the late 19th century when they re-established the line in areas where the surveying was less than precise- the new team informed her that in fact, her cabin is in Eastern Montana, not Saskatchewan as she had believed for all her life.
"Thank GOD!" she exclaimed, "I didn't think I could survive another Saskatchewan Winter!"
Rule 17 of the Bombay Golf Course- "You shall play the ball where the monkey drops it,"
I speak fluent Limrick-
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lake_wrangler
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Re: It is done

Post by lake_wrangler »

Sgt. Howard wrote: Mon Jul 25, 2022 11:25 pmThen there was the old widow who lived near the border back in the late 19th century when they re-established the line in areas where the surveying was less than precise- the new team informed her that in fact, her cabin is in Eastern Montana, not Saskatchewan as she had believed for all her life.
"Thank GOD!" she exclaimed, "I didn't think I could survive another Saskatchewan Winter!"
:lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol:


"It's all in the head" seems somewhat relevant, here, I think... ;)
Warrl
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Re: It is done

Post by Warrl »

I've heard several similar stories, and I think the large majority of them were deliberate jokes on the part of the people who originated them... who, in real life, may or may not have been the people who did so in the story.
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