This page contains all the latest news and updates to The Ramblings of Theoran.

It has been a long time since I've updated so let me give you all a quick brief run down of everything that has happened to me in the last few months.

May

    May was a very stressful month indeed.  Rumors flood COMPAQ, my former employers, about a large company wide layoff and a possible HP buy out of COMPAQ if the COMPAQ stock goes below $12.00 a share.  This was certainly unnerving since I had just moved my entire family from Memphis to Houston only 3 months earlier.  I had already made it through one COMPAQ layoff in February.  I felt pretty confident that I would have a job after the second layoff came. 

    Around the middle of May, my development team's project is canceled.  A week later it is back on line.  A week after that, it is canceled again.  With a company looking for anyone to layoff, my chances now were very good that I would be one of the many that might get laid off.  I worried and worried for weeks about what I was going to do if I was laid off.  We didn't have any family in Houston, and we didn't have any close friends, and I really didn't know the city that well and would be hard pressed to find a job making near the same amount of money I was at COMPAQ.

June

    June was certainly a month to remember.  Around the beginning of June, Houston was hit by a tropical storm that left much of the city under water. My wife and I lost both of our vehicles to the flood.  One was insured, the other was not.  Insurance paid for the damage to our car which ended up being totaled out.  Now it is time for us to get a new car!  We went to many different dealerships in the Houston area.  None of which were willing to help anybody out.  Why should they?  Over 40,000 vehicles were lost in the Houston flood.  They weren't really worried about making a sale.  If we didn't buy the car, there were three more people right behind us who would.  We ended up finding a car we liked, and at a price we liked.  The car dealer let us take the car home for the weekend while they finalized the paperwork over the weekend. 

    That weekend we returned the rental car assuming that all was well with our new car.  On Monday, I went to the dealership to sign the papers for the car and the monthly price on the car had risen nearly 70 dollars a month.  I was outraged to say the least.  The finance man and I went back and forth for nearly two hours before I was finally told that I wasn't getting the car for any lower.  So a nice car saleswoman dropped me off at home.  Now, I'm at home with no car, no friends to help me get to work or school and I have no way to buy groceries for my two children. 

    I called my wife's mother, Michelle,  and explained the whole story to her.  She called her friend who was a car dealer in Memphis and he said he could get us in a car for the price we wanted.  We were ecstatic.  We told him that we wanted the car and that Michelle would sign for the car.  A couple of days later, we get a call from the dealer in Memphis that he is going to need us to get some papers notarized in order for Michelle to sign the car for us. 

    This didn't seem like that big a deal until we realized that the nearest notary was a couple of miles away.  We had to get those papers notarized ASAP.  At about 11:00 that day, we packed the kids up in their strollers and proceeded to walk to the notary in temperatures reaching about 105 degrees.  An hour later we make it to the notary drenched in sweat, but we got the papers signed.  Now it's time for us to walk back home.  An hour later we arrive home, and go to the leasing office to fax the papers to the dealer.  We also need copies of our social security cards and drivers licenses, but the printer in the office is broke.  My wife asks the lady in the leasing office if we can use the one in the manager's office.  She said, "No.  I'm sorry," and then left.  My wife was furious! 

    I marched into the other room and DEMANDED to use the printer in the managers office!  She said, "OK, let me get the keys."  That's what I'm talking about now.  We get the copies made and fax them off.  A couple days later, Michelle arrives with our brand new car.  All in all.  This was one of the most difficult times in my life.  It took us 3 weeks to finally get a car, but it was worth it.  I guess.

July

    July started on a negative note.  COMPAQ had enforced a mandatory weeks vacation for all of its employees.  This was the first sign that things were going to get ugly, and that the lay off rumor were probably true.  My team's project was technically canceled, but we were suppose to pretend that we were still working on it so Intel wouldn't get suspicious about us actually making and AMD box. 

    This act went on for most of the month, until I got a call Thursday night around 11:00 that evening.  My manager had called to tell me that I needed to come in on Friday no later than 9:00.  Nothing out of the ordinary there, except that Friday was my day off. Now I knew for sure that I was about to be laid off.  I went in early that day and started packing my office.  About 9:15 that day my manager came in and said that we needed to go to the conference room.  I asked him why, and he said that he couldn't tell me.  About an hour later, I was being escorted out of the building with all of my stuff.  I put my things in my car and drove off of the COMPAQ campus for the last time.  Even though I was only there a short time, I had a lot of fond memories that I will never forget.

August

    A couple of days after I was laid off by COMPAQ, my wife and I decide to move back home to Memphis.  We packed up our entire house in two days, rented a U HAUL, and was on the road to Memphis in only one week.  We figured why waste time in Houston when I'll be looking for a job in Memphis.  Two days later we arrive in Memphis and unload all of our things into a storage facility.  Her mother let us live with her until we got back on our feet.  Now begins the the hunt for a new job.

September

    Things are looking pretty good right now.  I got a job as a Field Service Engineer, and we are moving into an apartment at the end of the month.  We have forged a strong relationship with God, and are looking forward to living our lives for him.

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Last modified: 09/28/01