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Well, due to a MISSING PUP, the ground work was not in last weekend for the DEAR ABBY/DOLLY thread originally scheduled for this week-end.

IF there is sufficient interest(that means I need your questions in the next few days) I will have that thread next weekend. If you do NOT wish the question to go the route of the FReepmail, let me know via FReepmail & I will send you my mail addy, if you don’t already have it. YOUR NAME WILL NOT BE USED in the thread.

Here is the link for the last Dear Abby Thread so you can get an idea...The ***OFFICIAL*** Weekend Singles' Thread -- Dear Abby/Dolly (June 2-4, 2006)>. Had received a LOT of positive feedback on that thread.

Also we are going to be setting up permanent hosts/hostesses. Let me know if you are interested & you have NOT received a note from me in next few days. I am looking at rotating 5-6 permanent folks who will be the OFFICIAL ones, plus a couple subs. They can work alone; have a “host helper” or on occasion grab a partner for a special type of thread.

The official ones will be the decision makers on the thread & will decide on direction, changes, handle problems (lotsa fun) etc.

The names will be listed in the next Thread & PING INDEX along with mine.

This will take a commitment of handling the thread about once every 4 to 6 weeks depending on how many we have. Being single IS NOT A requirement. Dependability & good social skills & some HTML are requirements.

My career

I mowed some yards and did a little babysitting as a teenager but didn't really do the usual job routine. I've always been very frugal, and mowing yards provided enough money to meet my needs. Besides, these jobs didn't require my folks to add another car to the family. I was also diligent in high school to earn some scholarship money for college.

I earned my first degree in Materials Engineering from Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University. That's Virginia Tech today, but I still think of it as VPI officially. While I was at Virgina Tech, I was in the co-op education program. I worked summers and winters at Tennessee Eastman.

My second degree was a master's in Metals Science and Engineering from Penn State, (a university that has resisted the temptation to change from The Pennsylvania State University as far as I know.) My thesis was on corrosion, and most of my classwork dealt with corrosion.

My first graduate engineering job was with Kerr-McGee in Oklahoma City. I was in the Materials Engineering department doing failure analysis and other support for the chemical, exploration and production, coal, and refining branches of Kerr-McGee. Kerr-McGee had left the nuclear business before I arrived, but when I started, I was using the same microscope that Karen Silkwood has used.

I was laid off from Kerr-McGee when they dumped their entire Technology and Engineering division. My next job was with a little consulting company in Louisville, Kentucky. The guy who owned the company was a horrible boss in every way. I stayed there only 17 months.

I had been out of work a while before getting the consulting job. I'd been looking for another corrosion job for the entire time that I'd been at the consulting company. I eventually decided to give up on corrosion and materials engineering. I returned to school at Tennessee Tech University and earned a master's degree in Chemical Engineering.

As I was looking for work, a major oil company was interested in talking to me again. I had talked to them when I had been laid off the first time, but they couldn't find anything for me. This time, they had an open position. I worked in their technology center in Houston for a little over two years and then transferred to a petrochemical plant in Louisiana. I tend not to mention their name for several reasons.

I'd love to retire at this plant in 15 years, but I don't know whether fate will allow me to do so. This area has also undergone changes for the worst since Hurricane Katrina. To make matters even worse, the idiots in the local Republican Party are pushing to put another airport nearby. I'm starting to think that maybe I wouldn't mind leaving this area after all. A good possibility would be a refinery in Texas, but I don't know when or if they'd want me.

Bill