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. . . .Steph and I decided to host the family Christmas
celebration at our new house for 2002. We spread the lights, garland and
tinsel early and by the first week of December our house screamed holiday
spirit. Our Christmas tree even sported an early stack of presents awaiting
our grandkids; we couldn’t wait for the holiday. A week before Christmas,
Steph and I returned home from work to find our front door open. We wandered about our desecrated dwelling taking stock of
items now lost forever. We received a wet spring in 2003 and on May 8, 2003 (my father’s birthday) my daughter gave birth to her third child, a baby girl named Savannah Lois Powell. I attended my twenty-fifth high school reunion in October of 2003. Time had flown by since my years at Trevor Browne and I couldn’t grasp speaking about "twenty-five years ago." Held at the Monastery Restaurant in northwest Phoenix, our reunion bash was casual and open to all who went to Browne in 1978. As Steph and I walked in and ordered a couple of drinks, I realized I didn’t know a soul. Making our way toward a table, I recognized some nametags but not any faces - these people were old. Just as I had second thoughts about coming, I felt a tap on the shoulder. It was my buddy Marc, now a full bird colonel in the U.S. Air Force. As we shook hands, our eyes gleamed with a friendship that lasts forever. Within ten minutes all our buddies joined us and the stories began to fly. We shed our professional masks and reverted to our days of youth in the 1970’s - for a few precious hours we were free again. By December of 2004, the long commutes into town began taking their toll and we reached wits end spending money repairing our cars. So we refinanced our house, sent a wish list to Santa and he delivered two new cars for Christmas: a Nissan Frontier truck for Steph and a Kia Sorento SUV for me. Americans are addicted to their cars and no matter how high the price of gas, you’ll never be able to separate the two. In January of 2005, AT&T once again threw my life into turmoil by announcing the closing of Mesa CSSC. As all the employees shuffled into the designated meeting area, the conveniently placed boxes of tissue confirmed my feelings of déjà vu. "We’re gathered here today…" began our regional director. They thought nothing of laying me off after having served the company for over twenty-six years. I wondered what the hell I had to do to simply reach retirement. As a greedy AT&T outsourced more and more of its work overseas, Americans paid the price by losing their jobs. Just as Steph and I started to pack our bags for another cross-country transfer, fate stepped in. Five hundred Mesa employees lost their jobs, but AT&T needed three to stay and fill positions within their Mesa Slam Resolution Center. Through a series of fortunate events I kept my job. As the grandkids grew, we became increasingly involved in their lives. As they got older, we got older - strange how life works. My sisters led lives of their own, married and had children. As our parents grew older, our generation cycled in as center of the family. I noticed the tempo of time quicken as I walked the well-worn path of life, my mind still sharp, but my feet a step slower. Read more in the book. . .
PART TWO – TRAVEL "The world is a book, and those who do not travel read only one page." St. Augustine of Hippo Man has traveled this planet since the beginning of time. We wandered across land masses thousands of years ago just to survive. We braved the seas hundreds of years ago longing for knowledge. Today we hurtle through space in search of our destiny. Some things we knew long ago, others we’ll never know. I love to travel. I view my adventures around this planet as my life’s most prized accomplishments. We call this planet "Earth" and today 6,500,000,000 humans live here divided into two hundred countries differing in size, population and culture. Reading and dreaming of distant lands expands my imagination; visiting those places expands my soul. Travel isn’t about finding likeness; it’s about understanding differences. The hardships of travel remain many, but the rewards are endless. Although I find it hard to believe myself, many don’t have the knack for traveling. Throughout history most people never leave the borders of their home country. Why? What’s wrong with them? Nothing. Those of us who choose to travel are just "hungrier." It’s impossible to quench the true traveler’s thirst for the unknown. Whether it’s a windswept summit, raging white-water or a snake-infested jungle, travel provides my life with purpose. I embrace the world and in return it embraces me. I’ve selected the following from my many years of travel around the globe. Traveling is in my blood and I’ll travel until the day I die. Traveling is the best education you can get – do it! While others talk, I simply state, "I was there." Read more in the book. . .
PART THREE - TRAILS I’m an outdoor person. My adventures throughout the wilds of this planet are too many to recount here, but a subject so close to my heart deserves mention. Only when surrounded by nature can I forget the harshness of the modern concrete world. No matter to snowcapped peaks, dry rocky deserts or dark forbidding jungles – I am home. I never fear getting lost, for nature is home. I never fear any beast, for they are family. Travel on foot to best experience nature. If you can drive a car there, you’re still too close to civilization for me. Our regions of wilderness are shrinking at an alarming rate because of the ever-expanding human population. Like a blight of termites we march blindly on, ignoring the warning signs, jeopardizing the future of this planet and our own survival. It’s impossible to "conquer" nature; we must coexist with her - or perish. I believe exposure to nature expands one’s soul. People experience a primeval spirituality when outdoors, something impossible to achieve inside a brick building. Because of the realities of modern civilization it’s now impossible to retreat entirely into nature. However, it’s possible to achieve a balance, where one exists within both nature and civilization. My boots have plenty of miles left in them. So if someday you can’t find me, look up toward that high peak. Search for the small dot moving steadily toward the summit – that’s me. Read more in the book. . .
21 – The Marathon "Attendance managers don’t necessarily manage attendance." AT&T Mesa CSSC regional director On October 30, 1978 I followed popular Selig family tradition and began working for Western Electric. Both of my parents worked for Western Electric and my grandfather recently retired from the same company. Western Electric belonged to the Bell System, AT&T’s manufacturing division. Alexander Graham Bell founded American Telephone & Telegraph one hundred years earlier and over the years the company became recognized as a world leader in telecommunications. Like most everyone else I began my career with a positive attitude, showed up for work on time and always did my share of the work. My grandfather and parents were union members and as a blue-collar worker I followed their lead. I managed to survive over the years by employing a combination of hard work, good attendance, common sense and mental endurance. As the years passed, the company shaped the enthusiastic rookie into a hardened veteran. In 1984 AT&T split up for the first time. The United States government accused AT&T of monopolizing the telephone industry and forced the company to divest into several smaller companies. Our cable plant lost its Western Electric nametag and became AT&T Network Systems. During the summers of 1986 and 1989 I went out on strike when our CWA union and AT&T failed to reach a new labor contract. Times were changing in America, corporations outsourced more and more jobs overseas to take advantage of cheap labor. America’s manufacturing sector took the hardest hit and never recovered. We were losing the one value that had always set us apart from the rest of the world – our extensive middle class. In June of 1994, I experience a facility closing firsthand when the company shut down the Phoenix cable plant. AT&T management denied the closure rumors up to the last day, but in the end we shuffled into a rented circus tent and learned we no longer had jobs. Our plant took over a year to close and in April of 1995, I continued my service with the company by transferring out of state to AT&T Global Wireless facility in Columbus, Ohio. AT&T split up again in early 1996, this time paring off its manufacturing facilities into a new corporation known as Lucent Technologies. Wanting to continue my service with AT&T, I once again transferred within the company. This time I headed back to Arizona and a new job with AT&T Consumer Services in Mesa, Arizona. A string of greedy CEO’s continued to whittle down the company raking in millions of dollars by brokering massive telecommunication deals. As AT&T laid off thousands of employees across America, the company began to flounder in a sea of competition. During the summer of 2004, AT&T announced it was reversing one hundred years of tradition by exiting the consumer marketplace. Reduced to only a shell of its former self, AT&T continued to cut jobs in a desperate try to stay afloat. The handwriting was on the wall and our Mesa facility closed in January 2005. The final blow came when AT&T suffered the indignity of having SBC Communications (Southwestern Bell Corporation), one of its earlier spin-offs, purchase its fumbling parent company. I had over twenty-six years of service with the company and had never worked anywhere else. What the hell was I going to do now? . . . Read more in the book. . .
PART FIVE – HOBBIES 22 - Fun Hobbies are fun and I’ve never had any problem setting time aside for fun. Hobbies refresh your soul and allow you to face the grind of everyday life. Many people have trouble deciding on a hobby - I do not. My hobbies have changed over the years to reflect my age, income and friends. Having grown up during the 1960 – 70’s, I’ve always loved to play board games. I’ve played them all from Monopoly to Clue, Risk to Chess and Stalingrad to Titan. My favorites are board war games, I’ve played hundreds of titles and love the challenge of commanding forces during historical battles. I’ve played pinball, foosball, cards, billiards, darts and, as they became available, computer games. I always play by the rules. I enjoy reading books and have plowed through countless volumes of nonfiction. Reading to me is more of a way of life, an opportunity to gain knowledge and a way to expand one’s imagination. I usually read in spurts, where for several months I’ll consume endless stacks of books and then the next few months read little. Everyone listens to music and although I’ll listen to about anything on a limited basis, to me there’s only one music – rock and roll. Since my childhood I’ve been a "collector," and over the years have searched high and low for coins, stamps, sports cards, comic books, action figures, books, magazines and sports memorabilia. I believe my packrat tendencies trickled down from my Conklin grandparents who, for a time, owned and operated several antique shops. Through my Selig genes I received the ability to carve wood, mostly figures of whales. As I grew older and welcomed grandchildren, genealogy fascinated me. All my life I’ve loved to hear family stories and asked for relatives to get down their family photo albums. Someday I hope to have the time to publish a volume on my genealogy so important family history is available to those of the future. I’m a gambler. I’m always the first person to plant the seed that it’s time to visit Las Vegas. I’ve gambled all over the world. You can’t win if you don’t play (of course you can’t lose if you don’t play either). My favorite haunts are the sports books and weekend blackjack tournaments. Poker is a family favorite and over the years I learned it’s possible to add excitement to anything by wagering money on it. Last but not least, like most American males I’m a "sports nut." NFL football and NHL hockey are my favorites, but I’ll watch about anything that’s competitive (except golf and bowling). My teams are the Oakland Raiders, Arizona Cardinals and the Montreal Canadiens, although I try to support all of my hometown teams. I’m a charter member (since 1988) Arizona Cardinals season ticket holder and known to be a vocal supporter in the stands. Other owners fear my fantasy football teams and I seldom fail to reach the playoffs. I watch sports on television and over the years have traveled to many cities to attend games. If you don’t have a hobby - get one now. Don’t put it off while hiding behind a long list of excuses, get out there and express your personality. Read more in the book. . .
16 - Turkey and Romania – August 2001 "Don’t tell me how educated you are, tell me how much you traveled." Mohammed . . . . And so began my adventures in archaeology. My best friends for the next two weeks were a handpick, a bucket and a dustpan. Everyone quieted down and the sounds of a dig site took over. Handpicks hit the dirt with a thud, dirt raked onto dustpans and soil swooshed from buckets into awaiting wheelbarrows. Everyone concentrated on being the first one to find something important, but the gods of archaeology are stubborn and only yield artifacts to those who are hardworking and patient (or to those who are just plain lucky). Halmyris has been a rich site over the years, with pottery shards, nails and broken glass found aplenty. Of these items Mihail now only keeps the best examples. A rivalry developed between the pits, however this didn’t last long as it became painfully obvious our Q4 pit would be the leader in both quantity and quality of artifacts. We headed to the pits after breakfast the next morning, enjoying the cool morning air. As we dug deeper throughout the day, I took breaks to visit the other pits, walk the site or take photos. Everyone seemed friendly and a legitimate team formed. We inched downward, averaging about ten inches deeper each day. A buzz filled the air as the student team found a human skeleton in the altar pit. Mihail spent a lot of time there and the rest of us visited throughout the day. That day we didn’t have any afternoon free time as the Earthwatch team drove into Tulcea to visit the archaeological museum. The small museum boasted a plentiful collection of artifacts and featured several items found at Halmyris. Read more in the book. . .
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