I’ve started the new job … kind of. As with all good companies, the first day is devoted to "orientation". Mostly that means sitting around and waiting. Much of the orientation here is done through the company’s computer based training system, but since there are several of us being oriented today, everyone needs to be done with all the training before we can go to the next topic.

The campground is very nice — small but clean and quiet. We’ve begun nesting. Much of the stuff has now been put away and we’re beginning to figure out how to live in the motorhome. It’s nice to be in one spot for a while! The campground is about 5 minutes from work which is also nice. Nina is out with the real estate guy taking the grand tour of Pocatello and surrounding areas. Tonight we’ll do some shopping. Since there isn’t much storage space in the motorhome, we’ll have to do some shopping just about every day.

The trip here was quite uneventful. We left Colorado Springs Friday about 11 a.m. and drove to Green River, Utah, where we spent the night in an RV park. Saturday we drove to Orem and parked at Heather’s house. Since Stephanie was in a play being put on by the Junior High School she attends, we attended that production on Saturday evening. Sunday we were up and on our way by 7:30 and arrived in Pocatello at the campground right at 11. The office didn’t open until noon, so we spent an hour driving around and looking at what stores are in town. There are more than enough places to spend money!

After checking in and parking the motorhome, we drove to Soda Springs to spend the afternoon with my folks for Mother’s Day. It takes a little under an hour to drive to Soda Springs and this time of the year everything is very green and pretty. It’ll be nice to be close enough to Soda Springs to be able to pop over from time to time. Since Pocatello is the closest shopping, they’ll come this way fairly often as well. We got back to the campground about 6 p.m., finished hooking everything up, and had a very quiet evening.

So, today a new chapter is starting. As the orientation began, the person from HR asked if I was the new Information Systems person. I told her that I was. She then told me how happy she was that I was here. I wonder what that means? I’m ready to get out of the starting gate and to go do something — besides orienting!

I’m finishing up my last day at LSI Logic. I started working at this company on June 6th, 1995, after being hired as the Information Services Director for Nihon Semiconductor, a wholly owned subsidiary of LSI Logic. A few weeks later I was off to Japan for a three-year assignment. I’ve completed almost nine years of service with the company. In looking back over my career, I haven’t worked for very many places:

• United States Air Force, May 1963 through August, 1968
• Purdue National Bank, September 1968 through March, 1969
• TRW, March 1969 through September, 1981
• Systemation, September 1981 through January 1989
• Thiokol Corporation, January 1989 through February 1993
• State of Utah, May 1993 through June 1995
• LSI Logic, June 1995 through May 2004
• And next will be AMI Semiconductor, May 2004 until ????

While this closes the chapter at LSI Logic, there is another, parallel chapter of being in Colorado Springs that will close in the next few weeks. We received the first offer on our house last night. It wasn’t much of an offer and not really worth taking my time, but the realtor is obligated to present all offers to us. We’ve rejected the offer and are sure that we’ll be seeing other offers much more in line with what we’re expecting. Meanwhile, I’m wrapping up at LSI Logic today and tomorrow I’ll officially be "Between Jobs"!