Jan 20, 2023, 10:32:33 AM Eastern Time: : How is William doing in 2023?

Jan 20, 2023, 10:33:41 AM Eastern Time: Me: Haha, I'm doing okay. How are you?

Jan 20, 2023, 10:35:18 AM Eastern Time: : Doing good, thanks! Good to hear you are doing okay. I don't know how long it's been. I do know it's been a couple of long years that all mesh together.

Jan 20, 2023, 10:35:49 AM Eastern Time: Me: I think it was right at the start of COVID

Jan 20, 2023, 10:37:03 AM Eastern Time: : Not sure if you heard but in 2021 we lost Pat to COVID. It was back in August of 2021. Then Mel at SRO died in a scuba diving accident on 24 Dec of 21. 22, I just don't remember much. Like it was there but not.

Jan 20, 2023, 10:37:14 AM Eastern Time: : Are you still working for the same company?

Jan 20, 2023, 10:38:13 AM Eastern Time: Me: Oh, crap. I did not hear about Pat. Sorry to hear. I did not expect that. I see it's been a tough few years. Jeez.
Yeah, solers got bought by Peraton but I'm still here. Big company now.

Jan 20, 2023, 10:40:00 AM Eastern Time: : Good to hear, they are big. There is an old co-worker from the militay days in Germany that works there now. He was a frequency manager in the Army, not sure what he is doing at your company. His name is Samual Fairbanks.

Jan 20, 2023, 10:40:38 AM Eastern Time: Me: The company is like 9k personnel now. They keep buying other companies. The big one was Perspecta

Jan 20, 2023, 10:40:47 AM Eastern Time: : Yea, it was a total shock loosing Pat. He is missed! You were with him on serveral trips, he was one of a kind.

Jan 20, 2023, 10:41:03 AM Eastern Time: Me: Yeah, definitely!

Jan 20, 2023, 10:41:18 AM Eastern Time: : Wow! that's a lot of personnel!

Jan 20, 2023, 10:41:36 AM Eastern Time: Me: Yeah, it's insane.

Jan 20, 2023, 10:44:01 AM Eastern Time: : I think we are finally getting to the point of hiring a part time employee or 1099 for IT stuff. Do you know anyone out there that might be interested? We are looking at around 10 hours a week of work for now. I told Joe we need to hire a full time and he said he would consider it. So the individual could walk into a full time job down the road or just stay as a 1099. That's what Pat did, 1099 work, he liked it that way.

Jan 20, 2023, 10:45:32 AM Eastern Time: Me: Do you guys still have the same foot print? A couple windows servers, a couple switches/firewalls, and a few Linux servers?

Jan 20, 2023, 10:47:40 AM Eastern Time: Me: Also, what type of presence are you looking for?

Jan 20, 2023, 10:49:03 AM Eastern Time: : We do. Not much has changed. Well we are getting into the point to point laser but they are not on our network. We still have Qatar. SRO needs to be rebuilt, hardware wise as the stuff there was damaged by heavy smoke from the last fire. Most of the work will be dealing with the servers remotely, certificates (i hate certificates), maybe some Office 365 stuff. Can be all done remote. I just got back from Italy from 30 days and worked some remote from there.

Jan 20, 2023, 10:51:02 AM Eastern Time: Me: Okay I don't know anyone right off the top of my head but I will put my feelers out

Jan 20, 2023, 10:51:21 AM Eastern Time: : I trust you as you know what we have and if you do know someone, then you know they are able to do the work. It's a good way to make a little extra for now if someone is interested.

Jan 20, 2023, 10:52:09 AM Eastern Time: : I appreciate it William!

Jan 20, 2023, 10:52:10 AM Eastern Time: Me: Yeah, I was thinking about putting it in a page of people who used to be in the Marines with the same job as me.

Jan 20, 2023, 10:52:17 AM Eastern Time: Me: You're welcome!

Jan 20, 2023, 10:53:33 AM Eastern Time: : Cool! I trust ex-military! They do what is needed to fix any issues.

Jan 20, 2023, 10:54:50 AM Eastern Time: Me: Yep!

Jan 20, 2023, 10:56:19 AM Eastern Time: : Would be great to have you work part time but that might be a conflict of interest and don't want to create a problem with you and your company. Would take one of William or someone like you anyday!

Jan 20, 2023, 10:57:31 AM Eastern Time: Me: Yeah, I'd have to get it approved by the company and all that political BS

Jan 20, 2023, 10:57:44 AM Eastern Time: Me: Sam and Chaz have left the company. They both work at AWS now

Jan 20, 2023, 11:02:40 AM Eastern Time: : Wow! Never expected that. It must have been a good offer! Yea, getting approval and all could be a big issue. Also not wise to step on their toes. It's more important to keep the job and totally understand. If you do decide to get approval, then we would be interested. If you find someone on your network that might be interested, will be interested too. Funny on the AWS, I moved the network to AWS for a test and was able to get the system, planner and connectivity working to Qatar through AWS. Shut it down after getting it all working as it cost a fortune with them.

Jan 20, 2023, 11:07:39 AM Eastern Time: Me: Sweet! Yeah, I can imagine. I left a db running for a month and it wasn't even doing anything and it cost me like 200

Jan 20, 2023, 11:13:10 AM Eastern Time: : Year, I think between two servers and VPN services, it was around $1,400 a month. Crazy expensive, but if you count how much maintaining and replacing equipment on a lifecycle would cost, then about the same. Good catching up with you! Will try not to get lost for 2 years. Like I said, it's been a tough two years and just busy, but still no excuse to check up on you!

Jan 20, 2023, 11:14:19 AM Eastern Time: Me: Sounds good! We all have lives, I'm guilty of not keeping up as well! Take care and I'll let you know if I hear anything!

Jan 20, 2023, 11:16:33 AM Eastern Time: : So true on lives and thank you!