Farewell page, Retired so.....!  What's up?
   Wishing all you pilgrims a belated 2008 Thanks Giving
email: deals@richssite.com

  Hi everyone,

For all of you that were able to make my retirement ceremony, thank you for the great send off. For those of you that I did not get a chance to say goodbye to before I retired I wanted to take a few moments to say thanks for all the good years and memories working with you all. I know I departed with many memories myself that I will never forget. For you soon to be eligible retirees, I hope you get to retire soon so you can get to enjoy one of the greatest benefits afforded to us all. For those of you that can’t, please keep working and contributing to the retirement funds so I will see my paycheck coming in for as long as I live. This of course is a very long term plan for me.  At least it is in my proposed budget and schedule.

I would like to give special thanks for the support I had on the USS Emory S. Land with all the Code 246 and Ship Force crew.  Especially the last days in the shipyard, you were there for me.  People like you will never be forgotten. 

I have received some email from a few people already and found myself taking time to reflect on why I enjoyed my job/career as much as I did, so I would like to take a moment to share this with you. This is what I wrote to one of my previous employees and it really goes out to everyone that ever worked with me.

First and foremost I want to thank you for the compliments that I have received from so many people first hand as well as second hand with the sharing of some of your experiences working with me. Sometimes you really wonder, did I make a difference and some of the comments/statements helped solidify that for me. So here I go.

I would imagine 50 % of what you become starts with your upbringing.  That process starts with your parents, relative, etc.. Your next steps would come your schooling, sports, friends etc..  Other influential things would come later on in life while you are working with the people that you were mentored by when you first started in the work force.  This is your wonder bread and informative years so you can see now, that is only half of it.  So where does the other 50% come from that keeps your motivation going to achieve your accomplishments as an individual besides the continued mentoring?

Some people can be put in a cubicle or on an assembly line and can put out the energy and production with themselves and their little world of books, computers, test tubes, slide rulers (oops dating myself) calculators, etc..  Now there are the others (like myself) that have to have the most important thing in the world to keep them going.  So I will have to say the other 50% of that comes from people like you. I will make this short because I don’t want my message to become a book. Of course the two 50% items can range in subjects that go from A to Z, should I go on? Not enough time.

In one of my email responses I stated to one individual, and this goes for all of you as well that I worked with. You fit very well into that other 50% with your attitude and good work ethics. One other very important item you brought with you was the fact you had family and another life other than the shipyard. You have that balance in your life for which comes from me, respect and admiration. You are a very intelligent, companionate, and successful person and it has been my pleasure working with you, as well as knowing you.

I believe grass hopper you have removed the pebble from my hand. To sum that up, a lot of people that worked with me have gotten promotions and moved on and up. Two parts to that is giving someone the opportunity to grow, mentoring them, and showing them the path's to follow.  That along with your own accomplishments and abilities you can go a long way.

One more item to share and I am out of here. When I retired from the yard another employee came over to me and said he was very great full that I had given him the opportunity to work the shafting systems way back on the Foster project. He said that was one of the toughest jobs he ever worked on and that you had the confidence in me to do the job and gave me that opportunity and responsibility. Not word for word, but just hearing that from this employee made me feel that all that time and energy pays off when that other 50% kicks in without you really knowing you made a difference.

I have only one recommendation and that is not to wait until someone moves on to tell them that you appreciated something they did for you. I departed the shipyard this day with a heavy heart, but I was so elated being sent off by so many positive people that you all made a difference in my attitude as I walked through the turnstile for the last time that day. Thank you one and all for the wonderful journey.

What’s up, will be an ongoing article for those of you interested in what an ole retired man does with his time now. Notice I did not say old retired man.

I can't say I miss what I have left behind since we are so busy it has probably has not hit me yet. I do miss the people probably more than anything.

I actually wanted to just send you all a short note to let you know everything is going well. I was wearing shorts and tank tops up until recently. Weather has been warm and sunny but it now has entered winter mode. I have been getting in a lot of walking. Please tell everyone that I said hi and am open to any communications. Right now I can still be reached at deals@richssite.com If anyone would like to call, Frannie , Jason or Kim have my phone number. I did not want to publish it on the web site.

I want to again thank you all for the nice send off and the many years of memories. If you are ever in the area (Rancho Cordova, just 10 miles east of Sacramento) stop by and I will treat you to a healthy lunch.

Rich

MARRY CHRISTMAS AND HAPPY NEW YEAR  2008 TO ALL
 FROM RICH/HELEN AND FAMILY              

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