Washington job hunt

This is a continuation of my Washington adventure. The story starts here.  I thought that I’d be able to write this on the way to Washington.  Nope.  Too busy.  Anyway, the story continues…

So I started looking for jobs in the Seattle area. I have worked for 26 years on computers that were originally (and still) called AS/400s, so one of the best sites I found was GetAS400Jobs.net. It became apparent pretty quickly that aside from some short-term contracting positions, the big players were Costco Wholesale and REI. I saw positions for both and applied for both. I knew that if God wanted me to get to Washington, He had the ability and desire to get me a good job in Washington. I didn’t hear from Costco.  The first “bite” that I got was from REI, a company that Fortune magazine says is one of the “top 10 companies to work for in the US.”. I’d have to learn some new software, but it was just RPG programming language. I’ve been doing that for decades. I could do this job! Continue reading

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The Adventure Begins

A new adventure in faith has turned my life upside down. It all started back in November of 2011. I have been working out early in the mornings and, after working out, I find a quiet place in the gym and spend some time reading my bible and praying. I remembered a phrase that my friend Terry had used: “God, please tell me what is “the next right thing to do”. So that was my prayer that morning. Lily Tomlin has this great line:

“Why is it that when we talk to God, we are ‘praying’, but when HE talks to us, we’re schizophrenic?

Well, at the risk of sounding schizophrenic, I think God talked to me.  I think He said, Continue reading

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Seven year anniversary

Today, I’m celebrating an anniversary of sorts.  Seven years ago today, I started a blog because had just been diagnosed with the “incurable” disease of Follicular B-Cell Non-Hodgkin Lymphoma.  I wanted to let my friends and family know what was going on and my feelings.  That blog was on Blogger.  I moved it to my site and you can still read it, but because the entries are in date descending order, it is a little difficult to read.  So I spent some time and rearranged the text and put it in story-form.  I have saved it in a pdf that you can read:  Dick Donohue – My Lymphoma Story.pdf  I try to re-read my own story every year because it helps me to realize what an incredible move of God I was experiencing.

Today, I am still cancer-free, due to the grace of God and the prayers of friends and family.  So once again, I say thank you to God because I know that only God can cure incurable forms of cancer.  And I say thank you to all the friends and family that prayed for me – you know who you are.  I owe the last seven years of my life, in part, to you.

God bless us, every one.

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The 5 “Why”s

One of the great things that I learned from working with a Japanese company is an apparently ancient technique for finding the root cause of a problem. They call it “The 5 Whys”.

The basic premise is

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Be a leaf

Who doesn’t love seeing the beauty of the leaves changing color in Autumn?
It always makes me reflect on why God would go to the trouble of making leaves so pretty before they die. I mean, it seems like it would have been easier to just drop the leaves without changing color; or maybe just take all the color out if them: let the leaves turn gray or black as death and let them drop to the ground.

But I think God chose to make Autumn beautiful on purpose. Continue reading

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