My daughter Reagan works for a defense contractor is currently in that twilight zone of expired-contract-waiting-for-new-one. She still has a job as they “put her on overhead” until the new contract is signed but of course she is very worried about the whole matter. I told her to get used to this as it goes with the territory of working for a contractor. It will probably get worse too.
Reminded me of an exchange I had with a friend of mine Joe Kurley years back. I ran into him at the bar in the BOQ on Base and I asked him how he was doing. He said “The option year on our contract wasn’t picked up so as of today I’m currently unemployed.” I followed up with “I bet you’re worried about that” to which he said, “Naw, I was looking for a job when I found this one.” I remember being impressed by how nonchalant Joe was about this whole matter when I would have been worried sick. One great thing about Civil Service, you don’t have to worry about not having a job. (Or used to be the case anyway.)
Side note: Joe’s daughter Karen, whom I talked to at the Martina McBride concert, and my daughter Ryan were good friends and his son Joey, who is a manager of the Tiki Bar, was friends with my son Brady. (Now if I could just figure out how to weave son Shea into this story, I will have mentioned all 4 of my guys in one post and therefore give me this excuse to publish this picture of them!)
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| Clockwise from top Ryan, Brady, Shea and Reagan |