Member occupations, or lack of....

[old boy]

As a toddler, my parents thought my first word was "Cow". They thought this was VERY cute, until they finally realised I was saying "Car." I was obsessed with cars, and by age 15 I had no drivers license, but I had two VW bugs. First picture is at age 16, pulling an engine for the first time, and rebuilding it. I wanted nothing but to be a mechanic, and I started buying m-bikes (and more bugs, Ghias, Buses). In the early 80's I was still souping up those aircooled engines (second pic, note the Triumph Bonneville at the right; currently, it sits in my living room) and doing body work on cars. And involved with a pit crew of a circle track dirt modified race car tea m. Intense interest in the sciences at University in the 70's almost lead to a career in mechanical engineering, but I sucked at math, and was eventually trained as a clinical psychologist. I worked in psychiatric hospitals and the like for 40 years doing psych evaluations, psychotherapy, and professional witness work in court trials. Until a couple years ago when retirement brought me back to what I really wanted to do back in the beginning, to be a motorcycle mechanic.

View attachment 101781 View attachment 101782

Remember when oil came in round cans?

I'm seeing nothing but impressive resumes great thread. I still got a couple of cans of GTX 2 cycle oil left by previous owner if you still need some. Like them all hope to reply later.

Did 20 in USAF. Fighter aircraft maintenance. Flightline, Hanger and backshop stuff. Wheel and tire. Phased maint. and crewcheif launch recover inspections. F-100, F-111(A and F models...what a pig they were), F-4D(dirtyest plane I ever worked on) F-16 A thru D models. Great jet. Last were the A-10A. Good old bird. A flying 30mm gun. 2 tours Europe. England and Germany. After that did some temp work in factories. Lot of injection plastic molding. Moving stuff like funiture, driving used cars to sale sites. Worked in a office furniture factory. Warehouse moving product around and taking inventory. Did some lawn mowing for seniors. Now I'm a househusband/bum.

Did some time in the USAF early 70's. Am househusband/Father. Am planning a trip now out west for the end of the month. I'll keep a lookout for you and mailman(cant remember other AZ guys right now) if your going to be riding around the Grand Canyon area. I really should be planning now.

 

[old boy]

Yea but my retirement check is a bit less than what those people get! But at least I'm not living under a bridge holding a sign asking of money, at least not yet!

Retirement check? I think my company forgot mine. Unless you mean Uncle Sam.

MaxPete;
quote" The CSUs were controlled by duplicated PDP-11 mini computers that weighed about 40 lb each and were rack-mounted - so you had to take the term "mini" with a grain of salt."

The PDP computers reference, takes be back to my work in a nuclear power plant. From 1986 to 2001 I worked as an operator on a robotic system that fueled and defueled four 880 megawatt Candu reactors. Unlike american nuclear reactors, the Candu reactor needs to be fueled every day, 365 days of the year. Fueling is done with the reactor at full power, which is 10.5 MPa pressure and
305 C temperature. It was a very interesting job, and I enjoyed it a lot. Our first computers were the DEC PDP 11-34, which were used during the commissioning period, but they soon proved to be too slow to do the job. Within a couple of years, they were replaced with
DEC PDP 11-70 computers, which proved to be powerful and quite capable. Our robotic systems required ten PDP 11-70s.
Yes, in those days computers were not small. The PDP 11-70 was about the size of 2 refrigerators, and the dual hard drive discs were about the diameter of a pizza. Weight.......................maybe 150 to 200 lbs.

I was trained as a radio technician while in the RCAF, when I was 17 to 19. The training I received there has helped me tremendously
over my entire working life. I then spent the next 6.5 years installing and testing telephone central office equipment, and microwave radio transmitters, as well as multiplex communication equipment. This involved a lot of travel all over Canada. I never unpacked my suitcase for those 6.5 years. Air miles................................too large to even count up.

By age 25, with a growing family, it was time to settle down. I became an operator with the provincial large utility (Ontario Hydro). Worked in coal fired and oil fired stations, and then transferred to the nuclear division. I spent a total of 29 years in the
"making electricity" business. I ended a very rewarding career, as a junior manager.

I finally found what I do best.......................retirement

Amen to the last line.

 

[old boy]

Thanks, I'm really looking forward to it.
The bikes are made by Americas oldest bicycle maker, Worksman, out of New York.
They still make heavy duty , mostly working bicycles.
View attachment 101783

Congrats. You were one of first likes I got when I joined the forum. You sent me a LMAO. I didn't know what that meant and thought you might be speaking in a foreign language so I didn't reply. Also thought I was a lot older than you. So I guess you know that you don't have quite as much ass to laugh off as you used to.

 

[jetmechmarty]

I was trained as a CH53D electrician in the USMC. As it turned out, I liked it. I ended up working as a line mechanic at Delta Air Lines for almost 24 years. I retired and went to work as a maintenance rep for a charter operator. I mostly rode the airplanes wherever they went.

That came to an end in 2013. I tried a few things since then, including trying to run my wife's office. For the last two years, I've been teaching Airframe & Powerplant at an aviation tech school. I'm looking for another traveling gig, or maybe something new and different, if I can figure out what that is. I can always go teach when I get old.

 

[jetmechmarty]

Some work photos:

Kingston, Jamaica

San Pedro, Honduras

Chania, Crete

Kangerlussuag, Greenland

Phitsanulok, Thailand

fish market Kuwait City

Guayaquil, Ecuador

I'd like to go back to going! Oh, I fix big jets!

 

[wrenchjohns]

Auto mechanic specializing in automatic transmissions for 34 years after high school. MCSE and MCT at around 2000, far too cut throat for me. Health issues, now PTD. Can't hardly walk but can ride OK. john

 

[MaxPete]

Good for you John - keep on keepin' on!

Marty - the travellin' life does tend to hook you doesn't it!

 

[azman857]

Wow Azman - that is quite a span of technology from the 'Hun to the electric jet!

Q: what made the 101 a pig and why was the F4D the dirtiest?

The F-111 was designed for people with rubber arms. Acess panels were small and missplaced. One stress panel was held in place with nuts and bolts and not nutplates. Near by panels had to be removed to get to the nuts of that panel. The avionics were advanced for its time but, if the system went south it took a while to fix it. It had a water radiator in the cooling system. It was just a maint. nightmare. As for my working the F-100. I was in the Oklahoma Air National Guard at Tulsa OK. We had the Huns at the time. All I did was refuel them and launch and recover them. F-4D Phantom II.15 years old when my wing got them. 3 somewhat leaky hydrolic systems and a LOT of Areoshell grease. Need I say more? I did Phased inspections on them in the hanger. We got them whenever one flew 1k hrs. Took em apart. Checked them out. Fixed what needed fixin. Put em back togeather and checked em out to make sure we did it right. You could tell they were originally a Navy project. We joked they were built at Bath Iron Works.

 

[YamadudeXS650C]

Auto mechanic specializing in automatic transmissions for 34 years after high school. MCSE and MCT at around 2000, far too cut throat for me. Health issues, now PTD. Can't hardly walk but can ride OK. john

Here's to you, John, for your resilient spirit.
Stay on the horse, as they say !

 

[Bob Kelly III]

Well, My story of what I do for a living is a strange one.... Just about anything and everything for a short answer...
However I started off as a free lance artist.... only made a bit of money doing that so while waiting for my Girl to grow up I enlisted in the army.... ( mainly because I received this letter saying Greetings..... while in the army the physical givers said I had a hernia and i had to either get an operation or go home ...well I had been there about a week and I've seen the hospital and said go home !
it took 3 weeks to get out ...the longest 3 weeks of my life ! every day picking up cigarette butts ! aurgh !
anyway finally got home back at the ranch and my motorcycles and life felt a bit better ! they've always been a part of me sense about 10 yrs old maybe younger i dunno ! I would rather ride the bike than the horse !!!!!!
I decided to get married sense my girl was finally leagle age and her sherriff father couldn't stop us . so we didand moved to the Dalles Or.
where I got a job at the local wrecking yard.... pulling parts, about 3 months of that let me know that I was not doing what I liked so I kept hitting the local Kawasaki shop and asking them for work till he finally hired me ! I was elated ! my big break !
after about 3 months the owner decided to put me through the Kawasaki school in Portland on the KZ 900 which I loved every second of it....
about a year or so later we found ourselves in Hamilton , MO. and pealing logs with a draw knife was the only work I could find and at -7deg for the high it was brutal work add to that I had to ride my 90cc Suzuki there 20+ miles I almost froze to death ! literally !
wanting more from life than blisters behind a draw knife we moved to Port Townsend Wa. and I opened a motorcycle shop in my sisters garage .... and did surprisingly well plenty of work.... and I enjoyed the heck out of it .... that went on about a year.... and was planning on
getting a place of our own there when the baby came along.... work slowed down and I could see the hand writing on the wall and it was time to go back home..... our year or 2 year stay at the Ranch was a tough one I went to college and got my computer repair certificate and sent Resume's to everyplace I could find ...to no avail .... My sister and Brother in law moved back to the ranch as well and with all of us there Mom was being driven nuts ! so My brother in-law and I decided to head to reno,NV. to look for work !
found work and went back for our wives and kids ! ..... and we camped till we could find housing ! (what fun that was !)
I wound up working at MotoSports in Reno/sparks for quite a while till a customer complained and got me fired ..even though I told him he had to re torque the bolts on the h2-500cc triple or it would leak oil .... he didn't and it cooked it as he was heading to las vegas
and the Damm service manager would not stand by me ! so I got canned.... and I said never again.....
went to work at J C Penneys doing tires and R&R for their auto shop , and in the following 4 years had about 25 different jobs....
every time a bos would start riding me I'ed look him in the eye and say Hay I'm not your fucking wife ! don't talk to me like that !
which usually got my ass fired ! but I decided not to Live life under the thumb of a person that had no idea WTF they were doing.... and be treated like dirt because of money ! ..... needless to say after a while I couldn't find a job and my wife was supporting the kid and I
at that stage I had had enough of trying to work for people anyway they always think they own you because you agree to work for them
and treat you like dirt when they could just say, Thank you they say, what took you so long ! ..... I was ready to kill the next boss that told me that so I thought it was good to become a houseHusband and raise the kid... which I did for a good 5 years , while working part time for a near by ranch cutting and bailing hay ..... fantastic people the Remellies ! LOL the wife put in 12 years at J.C.Penneys warehouse in Stead Nv. and I did part time jobs for the next 20 years or so.
we moved back to Redding and the Ranch and I started a Motorcycle shop in the back of my Dads auto body shop.
work was slow but steady and in my slack times I helped Dad in his shop..... it worked out very well....
I bought a chunk of land in Shingletown and a 2nd hand trailer house and moved in setting it all up myself and doing everything
myself because I could not afford to pay someone to do it.... I got into building maintenance and did that for about 5 years
and then went to work at the same place my wife was working Wal mart ! that was a mistake ! I finally had it out with the supervisor and told her if she didn't get off my back I was going to throw her into the dumpster out back and close the lid ! ..... she fired me !
....that's the only place I ever worked like a frigging mule and sweated like a draft horse and had the manager complain that I stank of sweat! ....... I worked in the Pet's department and there was allot of heavy work to be done there ! After unloading the simi trucks !
..... another job at building maintenance .....and I had had enough, and told the doctor that I was contemplating suicide going to work now for a month or so ! and he said don't, quit instead .... ! so I did... and I applied for disability and was denied but I went in and talked to them and they over turned the desigen and 4 years later I took an early retirement !
......when the wife retired we moved back to the Ranch as I was planning to move back to take care of Mom but unfortunately I wasn't fast enough and she ran off the road and slammed into the embankment and had serious head injuries , caught pneumonia in the hospital and died....
we were doing well, had my bike collection going good but only about 5 good ones and 6 parts machines , and I went to town and came back to the house fire ..... everything was gone in the blink of an eye..... all I had was the clothes on my back and my toyota truck and my Kid and dogs ! ..... 4 years after the fire trying to rebuild proved to us that rebuilding was not going to happen so we moved here to Weed, ca. and are trying to live here and still eat too !!!!!!!! and it's not easy at all !
.....to answer the question in one sentence I guess I am a Mechanic primarily, although I can fix just about anything and everything
..... College was a Huge waste if time and Money and I never got ONE dollar for the piece of paper I worked so hard to get.....
I learned that You are in control of your life... don't listen to what others think you should do, make up your own mind ! because it's not likely to go as you plan anyway !
......
Bob...........

 

[Word Man]

Writer here... it pays as well as being jobless, but it sounds cool.

 

[Wingedwheel]

Word Man, Nice handle that reflects your occupation.

 

[Word Man]

Word Man, Nice handle that reflects your occupation.

Thank you, sir.

I lost a very dear friend last year, and have had trouble writing since (not to mention we're in the process of selling/buying/moving). Once we're in our new home, I hope I can get back to it.

As for the name, I admit, I stole it from the movie "Eddie and the Cruisers."

 

[nj1639]

^
Eddie and the Cruisers........
I was working in Ocean City, N.J. when that was filmed. One of my work buds was a stand-by and was also in a shot of the 9th St. Bridge while holding an umbrella. I was anxious to see the finished picture but was terribly disappointed when in a Tony Marts bar scene they referred to a south jersey town as "Vine-land". Anybody from Philly to Cape May knows its pronounced "Vinelun, Vinelen or Vinelin.........there ain't no "Land" in Vineland.lol.
It probably played well in Pocatello......

 

[old boy]

I was trained as a CH53D electrician in the USMC. As it turned out, I liked it. I ended up working as a line mechanic at Delta Air Lines for almost 24 years. I retired and went to work as a maintenance rep for a charter operator. I mostly rode the airplanes wherever they went.

That came to an end in 2013. I tried a few things since then, including trying to run my wife's office. For the last two years, I've been teaching Airframe & Powerplant at an aviation tech school. I'm looking for another traveling gig, or maybe something new and different, if I can figure out what that is. I can always go teach when I get old.

Hope you find what you're looking for. When I enlisted in the USAF they told me my scores were good enough to get into the electronics field. After basic training found out I'm colored blind. That ruled out electronics or any job having to do with flying.

 

[old boy]

Well, My story of what I do for a living is a strange one.... Just about anything and everything for a short answer...
However I started off as a free lance artist.... only made a bit of money doing that so while waiting for my Girl to grow up I enlisted in the army.... ( mainly because I received this letter saying Greetings..... while in the army the physical givers said I had a hernia and i had to either get an operation or go home ...well I had been there about a week and I've seen the hospital and said go home !
it took 3 weeks to get out ...the longest 3 weeks of my life ! every day picking up cigarette butts ! aurgh !
anyway finally got home back at the ranch and my motorcycles and life felt a bit better ! they've always been a part of me sense about 10 yrs old maybe younger i dunno ! I would rather ride the bike than the horse !!!!!!
I decided to get married sense my girl was finally leagle age and her sherriff father couldn't stop us . so we didand moved to the Dalles Or.
where I got a job at the local wrecking yard.... pulling parts, about 3 months of that let me know that I was not doing what I liked so I kept hitting the local Kawasaki shop and asking them for work till he finally hired me ! I was elated ! my big break !
after about 3 months the owner decided to put me through the Kawasaki school in Portland on the KZ 900 which I loved every second of it....
about a year or so later we found ourselves in Hamilton , MO. and pealing logs with a draw knife was the only work I could find and at -7deg for the high it was brutal work add to that I had to ride my 90cc Suzuki there 20+ miles I almost froze to death ! literally !
wanting more from life than blisters behind a draw knife we moved to Port Townsend Wa. and I opened a motorcycle shop in my sisters garage .... and did surprisingly well plenty of work.... and I enjoyed the heck out of it .... that went on about a year.... and was planning on
getting a place of our own there when the baby came along.... work slowed down and I could see the hand writing on the wall and it was time to go back home..... our year or 2 year stay at the Ranch was a tough one I went to college and got my computer repair certificate and sent Resume's to everyplace I could find ...to no avail .... My sister and Brother in law moved back to the ranch as well and with all of us there Mom was being driven nuts ! so My brother in-law and I decided to head to reno,NV. to look for work !
found work and went back for our wives and kids ! ..... and we camped till we could find housing ! (what fun that was !)
I wound up working at MotoSports in Reno/sparks for quite a while till a customer complained and got me fired ..even though I told him he had to re torque the bolts on the h2-500cc triple or it would leak oil .... he didn't and it cooked it as he was heading to las vegas
and the Damm service manager would not stand by me ! so I got canned.... and I said never again.....
went to work at J C Penneys doing tires and R&R for their auto shop , and in the following 4 years had about 25 different jobs....
every time a bos would start riding me I'ed look him in the eye and say Hay I'm not your fucking wife ! don't talk to me like that !
which usually got my ass fired ! but I decided not to Live life under the thumb of a person that had no idea WTF they were doing.... and be treated like dirt because of money ! ..... needless to say after a while I couldn't find a job and my wife was supporting the kid and I
at that stage I had had enough of trying to work for people anyway they always think they own you because you agree to work for them
and treat you like dirt when they could just say, Thank you they say, what took you so long ! ..... I was ready to kill the next boss that told me that so I thought it was good to become a houseHusband and raise the kid... which I did for a good 5 years , while working part time for a near by ranch cutting and bailing hay ..... fantastic people the Remellies ! LOL the wife put in 12 years at J.C.Penneys warehouse in Stead Nv. and I did part time jobs for the next 20 years or so.
we moved back to Redding and the Ranch and I started a Motorcycle shop in the back of my Dads auto body shop.
work was slow but steady and in my slack times I helped Dad in his shop..... it worked out very well....
I bought a chunk of land in Shingletown and a 2nd hand trailer house and moved in setting it all up myself and doing everything
myself because I could not afford to pay someone to do it.... I got into building maintenance and did that for about 5 years
and then went to work at the same place my wife was working Wal mart ! that was a mistake ! I finally had it out with the supervisor and told her if she didn't get off my back I was going to throw her into the dumpster out back and close the lid ! ..... she fired me !
....that's the only place I ever worked like a frigging mule and sweated like a draft horse and had the manager complain that I stank of sweat! ....... I worked in the Pet's department and there was allot of heavy work to be done there ! After unloading the simi trucks !
..... another job at building maintenance .....and I had had enough, and told the doctor that I was contemplating suicide going to work now for a month or so ! and he said don't, quit instead .... ! so I did... and I applied for disability and was denied but I went in and talked to them and they over turned the desigen and 4 years later I took an early retirement !
......when the wife retired we moved back to the Ranch as I was planning to move back to take care of Mom but unfortunately I wasn't fast enough and she ran off the road and slammed into the embankment and had serious head injuries , caught pneumonia in the hospital and died....
we were doing well, had my bike collection going good but only about 5 good ones and 6 parts machines , and I went to town and came back to the house fire ..... everything was gone in the blink of an eye..... all I had was the clothes on my back and my toyota truck and my Kid and dogs ! ..... 4 years after the fire trying to rebuild proved to us that rebuilding was not going to happen so we moved here to Weed, ca. and are trying to live here and still eat too !!!!!!!! and it's not easy at all !
.....to answer the question in one sentence I guess I am a Mechanic primarily, although I can fix just about anything and everything
..... College was a Huge waste if time and Money and I never got ONE dollar for the piece of paper I worked so hard to get.....
I learned that You are in control of your life... don't listen to what others think you should do, make up your own mind ! because it's not likely to go as you plan anyway !
......
Bob...........

Fascinating life! All the bad experiences make you appreciate the good ones all the more. Good mechanics are hard to find.

 

[fredintoon]

I built the Concorde! Well, me and a few thousand other guys.
Did a 5-year Aeronautical Engineering Apprenticeship at Bristol Aeroplane Company (then Bristol-Siddely Engines ltd then we bought De Havillands engine division and then Rolls-Royce bought us, 5 different employers and never changed my desk!) worked for 10 years as a Designer in the (then Roll-Royce Bristol Engine Division) Test Facilities Design Office. I told them I was quitting before they hung the Mitsubishi Heavy Industries sign on the building but it was really because my wife wanted us to emigrate.
Then me, my wife and two daughters came to Canada where I worked at AECL's Whiteshell Nuclear Research Establishment designing weird and wonderful gadgets for mad scientists. My first design was a small tool decontamination facility. When it costs $50 in labor to hand clean a $10 wrench and that pile of Gamma contaminated wrenches just gets growing, you gotta build a machine to clean 'em, eh?
I proudly showed the design to my boss who said "Congratulations Fred, you have invented the dishwasher." but they built it anyway.
In that time my daughters graduated, my wife went to Winnipeg to live with lesbians and we got divorced. Then in a triumph of hope over experience I married again, package deal, 2 small boys included. That's working well. 28th anniversary this July.
The WNRE stint lasted until 1993 when the head office jackasses decided to decimate WNRE for company political reasons.
I was at an awkward age then, too young to retire & too old to get a job, So I brown-nosed my way onto the Small Reactor Design Group
(For CANDUs, "small reactor" means only 250MW) that was being set up in Saskatoon. That lasted for 3 years until the Provincial Government
finally decided that burning soft coal was more politically acceptable than burning Uranium.
Then AECL made me an offer:-
1) Move to Missisauga Ontario doing the same job at the same wage and be low man on the union totem pole (and incidentally swallowing the $100K extra housing cost)
2) Take early retirement and a years wages on top and stay in Saskatoon.
Then I worked part-time as a machinist at a hydraulics company.
Boss asked, got your machinist's papers? Yeah, from Rolls-Royce, but that was a long time ago.
Hmm, OK. See if you can make this handle (shows me one) on this lathe.
Lathe had a 4-jaw independent chuck on it.
Where's the 3-jaw?
It's busted.
It'd been a while so it took me a minute to center the barstock and a few moments more to finish the job.
You OK to start Monday?
I held that job for long enough to get enough EI points to get a new pogey claim established. I've been a full time house-husband since then.

 

[rsor]

12 years in the pipe trades, 3 trade tickets. things got bad in the 80's, you couldn't find a job around here if you wanted to work for free! A stubbornness to not work out of town and the desire to watch my children grow up led to 28 years at Canada Post. Next thing you know I'm golfing in the afternoons and working on a pension.

All that led to an allergy to work. Golf every day while the grass is green and the sun shines, playing hockey twice a week while it is not green, possession of 3 bikes (two 650's), a lot of tinkering, and a heck of a lot of babysitting! Lifetime hockey coach, and still going, all without ever leaving Edmonton for more than a vacation.

 

[MaxPete]

Fred: Canada and other nations have benefited so much from the stupidity of U.K. "industrial policy" which seemed to largely consist of building superior products at outrageous cost (VC10 & Conway, Concorde & Olympus 593 + TSR2) and/or inferior products, also at outrageous cost, (Triumph/BSA/Nortons/MG-B, TR6 etc.). Those latter products were really good - in the 1950s-60s but had been passed by the 1970s - but their makers didn't have the wit to look around, see what was going on and invest in modernizing them. He!!, even though they were outmoded, they weren't even built well, due to union woes. As a result, so many talented Brits left the UK in those days - it left the country hollowed out in terms of industrial knowhow. It must be discouraging for the good folks left behind.

Basically, with the Yamaha XS650, we are enjoying a hugely superior version of the Brit-bikes built at the same time by a company that understood quality and has stayed vibrant (XS11, FJR etc.) and moved on to stay even with their competition.

As for WSNL, my entire research program was funded by AECL-COG in the 1990s until they decided to stop developing CANDUs and canned the research into Zr-Nb pressure tube cracking and growth - which was my area. Stupid. Now everyone is f@cking around with solar power - and taking good farmland out of production.

On your family stuff - good for you. You salvaged happiness, success and a positive contribution to the world - where many would not have.

RSOR - well done. Riding out the 1980s recession and the subsequent ones must - and staying in Edmonton, have been tough.

 

[old boy]

I built the Concorde! Well, me and a few thousand other guys.
Did a 5-year Aeronautical Engineering Apprenticeship at Bristol Aeroplane Company (then Bristol-Siddely Engines ltd then we bought De Havillands engine division and then Rolls-Royce bought us, 5 different employers and never changed my desk!) worked for 10 years as a Designer in the (then Roll-Royce Bristol Engine Division) Test Facilities Design Office. I told them I was quitting before they hung the Mitsubishi Heavy Industries sign on the building but it was really because my wife wanted us to emigrate.
Then me, my wife and two daughters came to Canada where I worked at AECL's Whiteshell Nuclear Research Establishment designing weird and wonderful gadgets for mad scientists. My first design was a small tool decontamination facility. When it costs $50 in labor to hand clean a $10 wrench and that pile of Gamma contaminated wrenches just gets growing, you gotta build a machine to clean 'em, eh?
I proudly showed the design to my boss who said "Congratulations Fred, you have invented the dishwasher." but they built it anyway.
In that time my daughters graduated, my wife went to Winnipeg to live with lesbians and we got divorced. Then in a triumph of hope over experience I married again, package deal, 2 small boys included. That's working well. 28th anniversary this July.
The WNRE stint lasted until 1993 when the head office jackasses decided to decimate WNRE for company political reasons.
I was at an awkward age then, too young to retire & too old to get a job, So I brown-nosed my way onto the Small Reactor Design Group
(For CANDUs, "small reactor" means only 250MW) that was being set up in Saskatoon. That lasted for 3 years until the Provincial Government
finally decided that burning soft coal was more politically acceptable than burning Uranium.
Then AECL made me an offer:-
1) Move to Missisauga Ontario doing the same job at the same wage and be low man on the union totem pole (and incidentally swallowing the $100K extra housing cost)
2) Take early retirement and a years wages on top and stay in Saskatoon.
Then I worked part-time as a machinist at a hydraulics company.
Boss asked, got your machinist's papers? Yeah, from Rolls-Royce, but that was a long time ago.
Hmm, OK. See if you can make this handle (shows me one) on this lathe.
Lathe had a 4-jaw independent chuck on it.
Where's the 3-jaw?
It's busted.
It'd been a while so it took me a minute to center the barstock and a few moments more to finish the job.
You OK to start Monday?
I held that job for long enough to get enough EI points to get a new pogey claim established. I've been a full time house-husband since then.

I believe you could build the Concorde given the time. Are you still riding?