"IT" happens

After my tour in Doha, I came back to the states and lived in mom and dads house that they bought in Tucson.  They had been renting it out and the renters had left recently.  I agreed to stay and look after the place.  During this time, I got work at a plumbing supply company called Winnelson.  I was a truck driver / delivery guy.  It was good work but I was becoming tired of warehousing duties.

One day during a delivery run. I happened to come across ITT Technical Institute.  They offered electronic training in several areas, and Computer Aided Drafting (CAD) was one of the courses.  I had also seen their commercials on TV.

The next day, I went in to see the place.  Before to long, I had signed up for the course in CAD.  The school offered a 2 year Associates degree in one year at the cost of $10,000 dollars.  I got the school loan and started.  I stayed at Winnelson working the day shift and went to school at night.

It was pretty cool.  I started by learning the basics of drafting and doing hand drafting on the board.  We moved up to learning how to design printed circuit boards, theory, design, Etc.  By the time I had gotten to the 4^th quarter of school, I found a job at Southwest Circuits making P.C. boards.  Now I was getting somewhere.  It was 1986 and I was 26.

I worked my way through every phase of P.C. board manufacturing and soon I was approached about starting a design room in house for the company.  This meant more money so I jumped on the idea.  $8.00 an hour wasn’t to bad for Tucson.  I was glad I had free rent at mom and dads house.

It was during this time that my life changed for the better.

Tanya when I met her in school at ITT Tech.

There I was minding my own business in school.  During class breaks, I would get a soda and walk the halls or stand outside and talk with friends.  There was on group of girls that took these opportunities to walk around the school building for exercise.

One girl that would joke around with the guys was Donna.  She and I would talk a during breaks.  She had a friend that I personally thought had to be stuck up and looked to have money because of the way she dressed.  Always classy.  Somehow, this girl, Donna, and I started talking more and more during breaks.  This other girls name I found out was Tanya…Debbie…Tanya…Debbie…something.  I found out that she was recently divorced or separated and was going through the process of having her name changed from Debbie to Tanya.  She always hated the name Debbie.  Her mom named her that even though her Grandmother had wanted Tanya.  So…

One day, Tanya…Debbie…Tanya and I were talking when she asked if I would like to get a drink sometime.  That was good for me.  We met at the Circle K up on Orange Grove and ended up going out to the Black Angus for dinner, drinks, and a movie.  She showed up in a skirt, belt and a black satin top that was…OOOOHHHHHH BABY!.  I of course was dressed as always in my classy jeans and a plain shirt…I was out classed.  She was beautiful.  I don’t mean to brag, but during my time I’ve known some pretty girls, but this woman was Gorgeous.

Anyway, to say the least, I had a great time…I don’t know about her.  Was I suave? Debonair? Handsome? A stooge?  She talked to me the next week at school so I guess I did ok.  In fact, I did so good that we started dating.  I was 27 and actually dating.

I was just about to graduate school.  Tanya was one quarter behind me in a different class.  After I graduated, we would see each other after work and school every night.

She lived on the South East side of town in a house with her two boys J.P. and Grant.  J.P. is short for Justin Peter.

 We won’t get into specifics about their dad Ray except that Tanya and Him were divorced.  As a side note, throughout the years, Ray, Tanya, and I have gotten along very well and in fact Ray has gotten married again and has a daughter named Grace that Morgan likes to think of as her sister.  They visit quite a lot and we all have a good time.

Anyhow…Tanya’s graduation finally came and we celebrated.  Now what?  There wasn’t anything holding either of us in Tucson.  Tanya wanted to sell the house and see other places.  Mom was back in town and looking for another renter so that left me free to go.  We discussed and hem hawed around and decided that we would go to Reno Nevada.  Why? I don’t know…it was there.

By the way, this was a big step for both of us.  We hadn’t known each other for more than 6 month’s and we were going to move to Nevada together with her boys.  We didn’t have jobs or a place to stay either.  We just planned on getting an apartment when we got there and then look for a job.

It took nine weeks before a got a job.  It wasn’t a big job either.  I had sent out hundreds of resumes around the area.  Finally a company called and wanted me to help design an annunciator panel for a casino in town.  It was easy enough and it paid a lump sum at the end of the project.  While I was working on it, the owner happened to come by to see how I was doing.  He was impressed at the work and offered me a full time job for more money as a CAD Drafter.  Of course I took it.

I was at the company for a month or two when the word went out that they were looking for another drafter.  I immediately told them about Tanya and she was also hired on.  Things were looking up.  It was while we were in our apartment that we started up “Dumpster Diving”.

Dumpster diving is just that.  You go around to different apartment complexes or industrial complexes, find a dumpster that looks inviting, make sure there is no people around to see you (embarrass you), take a strategic stance, run over, climb up, and jump in…IF its not to full of regular garbage gross stuff.  You would be very surprised at what people in apartments throw out.  Think about it.  When you have to move for whatever reason, you have to move.  People in apartments seem to have disposable property like beds, couches, toys, clothes, Etc.  For whatever reason, the easy thing to do when you’re in a rush is to make use of the readily accessible big dumpsters that the apartment complex provides.  We furnished our first apartment with Dumpster dive goodies.  We would find chairs, kitchen tables, sofas, bed frames, dishes, and once we even found clothes with the price tags still on them.  What you couldn’t use, you could garage sale and make money.  We were living the high life for sure.

Grant and J.P. did the daycare at this time.  Grant was different from the day I met him.  The one big thing he did was when he got mad, he of course would scream like little kids do, but he would also grunt and growl, push you away when you tried to get him…In fact he still acts like that…he’s just taller now.  Tanya would have to grab him, sit down, and hold him down with her legs, arms and body while he wiggled around growling and grunting and tried getting away.  What a pain in the butt!  He always wanted his way.  Tanya would be all calm and talk real soft while he did his thing.  Soon he would give up and just lay there like a wet towel…all done.

J.P. liked to have dreams and sleep walk.  He did this until…maybe he still does that?  Anyway, he would come into our room and start talking (2:00am).  He would talk about the dinosaur by the bed or the little men running around and then would get scared and start shaking.  We would talk to him and ask him about what he saw and what he was doing, and basically laugh our butts off.  Then we would get a real cold washcloth and put it on his face.  Pretty soon he would stop talking.  When he figured out that he was awake and in our room, he’d go back to bed.

Well, the job we had didn’t last long.  One day the secretary came in at 15 minutes before closing time and told us that we were laid off.  Thanks for the notice.  We were out looking again in no time.  This time Tanya landed the interview with a company called Bruce Industries just outside Carson City, which was about 50 miles away.  When she went for her interview, I tagged along as the driver.  When they called her in, I walked upstairs with her and started doing the small talk along the way to the boss.  By the time we arrived at the conference room, they wanted to talk to both of us.  We were hired that day.  Tanya got more money an hour since she was the initial contact, which didn’t bother me at all.  This was our first real good paying job at $14.00 an hour.

We started as hand drafters on the board doing a very large military contract called JSIPS.

This stood for Joint Services Imaging Processing Systems and consisted of 6 pieces of equipment.  When we saw the scope and magnitude of the job, we instantly suggested using AutoCAD.  Only a couple of people used it at the time but we insisted on getting more stations to speed up work.  They agreed and Tanya and I were off and running.  Unfortunately, all but one of the original engineers on the project quit within the next month.  This left Ron Harvey, Tanya, and myself.   Not a problem.  We snagged some of the other draftsmen that weren’t busy, hired a few more, and got busy.  Tanya was the head bean in engineering, Ron was the engineer, and I ran back and forth between manufacturing, and us.  We did everything from designing each part, to painting the camo paint on the finished product.  The whole project took us 3 years to complete.

        During this time, we purchased our first house together.  It was a nice place (kinda small) on the north side of town in a place called Stead.

        Stead consisted of a few neighborhoods, a quick mart, a gas station, a school, and an industrial area.  Our house was located on a circle in one of these neighborhoods.  It had a large backyard with tiers on the back fence and was big enough for a garden area and dogs.  The front yard was small but perfect.  The house needed some fixing up but we got a good deal on the price and were eager to start doing some work on it.

I never really saw the neighbor to the left of us.  They had weird hours.  The people to the right looked like he was a mechanic of sorts and had vehicles everywhere.  She was a schoolteacher and in fact ended up teaching the guys at one point in time.  We slowly started to get to know each other and through the years, ended up being best friends.

One night while watching the news, A story came on about a rescue that had taken place.  Washoe County Search and Rescue was the team that was doing the rescue.  It looked interesting so the next day I called about information on it.  After a few calls, I was put in touch with the main guy.  He told me the requirements for joining.  I went to several meetings and in few months, I was voted into the team.

When you were on the team, you were issued a pager and a radio.  This meant being on call 24 hours a day.  Most of the calls came in the early morning hours or late at night.  It seems like I was running all the time.  The team averaged approximately 30 rescues or searches a month.

After a year or so on the team, I brought my vehicle in to the unit.  To have a vehicle, it had to be 4-wheel drive and pass the teams inspection.  You then had to pass a driving test and go on a few rescues as a driver to be evaluated.  Once you passed, you had to paint your vehicle white if it wasn’t already.  Then you received the emblems to put on the vehicle.  Every one wanted to have a vehicle and be a driver.  I had a Suzuki Samurai at the time and with my neighbor’s help (the mechanic) I had it lifted and ready to go.  Everyone on the team would give me a hard time about it being a “Rice Rocket” or being a tipping hazard.  They did until they saw what it could do.  Because of the small wheelbase and power, it went a lot of places the big trucks and jeeps wouldn’t fit.  While other people were breaking things on their jeeps, I went on my way.

 My vehicle on the Rubicon Run up in Tahoe

 My badge as a Search & Rescue member for the Washoe County Sheriff Dept.

Soon, My neighbor (his name is Gene by the way) joined the team.  We were attached at the hip.  Since we lived next door to each other, we always went on searches together.  He drove a CJ7 that blew everyone out of the water…it was huge and went everywhere.

        I would get into detail about some of the rescues and searches, but that’s boring stuff.  On to something else.  And the fact that we responded to 30+ calls each month, I could tell stories till my face turned blue.  The most memorable rescue was responding to the Stolpha family.  I probably misspelled this.  They made a movie out of this rescue called "Snowbound".  Look it up, rent it, watch it.  Our team got em.