The trip back to CT started at the end of January, 1995. Bobbie stayed behind in El Paso, holding down the fort. The plan was for me to return later, after the lease there had expired and I had found a home for us to live in.
The morning was bright, sunny and warm. It looked like a great day to travel. I planned on driving straight through to Dallas by dinner time, a trip of about 650 miles, and stay overnight with Michele. I stopped in Van Horn for coffee and it was then I heard from truckers that the roads east were getting treacherous. That's right, my bright, sunny day was going to turn into a driver's nightmare; snow and sleet.
The weather did turn out bad and for the rest of the day I steadily made my way east. The roads themselves were not too bad, but crossing bridges was tricky. I was doubting that I would make it to Dallas that day but when I stopped for gas about 50 miles out of Dallas, the air was warmer and only rain was falling. so I got back in the car and made it to Dallas; had dinner with Michele and stayed overnight at Michele's place in Arlington. I left Arlington the following morning, opted for the southern route and got as far as Tuscaloosa Alabama that night.
The rain and snow continued through the next day and I got as far as Hazelton, PA. The Pennsylvania mountains were treacherous with rain mixed with sleet and fog, and I was glad to stop in Hazelton. The fourth day was spent mostly crossing the Pennsylvania mountains, but driving was not too bad. I made it to CT in the afternoon and met my brother Ferdie at his Bid-Mor office in Milford.
Bid-Mor was an operation where-in Ferdie ( or has he'd rather; FRED ) partnered with John Angustiniotis, a computer whiz from Toronto, Canada. Together, they developed a computerized subscription service for electrical contractors. The service involved constructing a time and material estimate of electrical jobs to be bid within the state of Connecticut. He also did private estimates for jobs in and out of the state. These jobs were for individual contractors and were not put into the database. The estimates were put together by my brother, an electrical estimator. The estimates were entered into the database, and electrical contractor subscribers had access to some or all of this database based on their subscription level. The contractors put the dollar figures to the estimates by adding their overhead, their labor costs, their cost of material, profit margin, etc. and placed their bids, hopefully lower than other bids. This allowed contractors to bid on many jobs at a low cost per job and thereby increase their chances at winning a job.
I soon learned the intricacies of preparing estimates and soon we were able to post more estimates to the database. In June, I flew back to El Paso. Bobbie and I packed up our belongings, called Mayflower movers and had them put our stuff in storage. My car was in CT, so we got in Bobbie's car and headed East again. Of course, we stopped in Dallas again and spent a couple of days with Michele. Meanwhile, Kurt had flown down to Dallas and was going to join us for the rest of our trip home.
Once back in CT, we stayed with Fred and his wife Charron in Milford until we could get our furniture back from El Paso. Prior to this, I had found a rental condo in Northford out in the country and near the shore. We stayed there for two years. Bobbie also joined us at Bid-Mor as receptionist, secretary and treasurer. We worked this way for 5 years. It was one of the best jobs we ever had. Meantime, we moved to Hamden in a house that Kurt had bought as a fixer-upper and was trying to sell. We rented the house for two years and eventually bought it from Kurt.
In 1999, certain things happened at Bid-Mor that made things a bit shaky. We began to lose customers and the money was no longer coming in as before. Part of the incentive used to sign up subscribers was an insurance policy that covered errors and omissions. Some contractors took this to mean a guaranteed profit. Of course, contractors were responsible for the bid amount based on their part of the estimate that included overhead, material costs, salaries, etc. Bid-Mor only provided time and material quantities estimates.
The folly of including the insurance package came to a head when one contractor sued for not making a profit on a job. The insurance company chose not to litigate the claim, ( too expensive ) chose to pay it and raised our premium to an unbelievable figure. My brother was forced to drop the insurance. When the contractors were informed that the insurance was no longer in effect, one by one they dropped out. They were only interested in a sure thing.
Additionally, John was showing up later and later for work. He was tied up in a disk jockey venture that he had started and yet was still on the Bid-Mor payroll. His part of the business was in getting new customers. That wasn't happening. We could see the handwriting on the wall and I was concerned about not having a job again.
The year was 1999 and the Census bureau was gearing up for the 2000 Census. Alan Coffey, the bass of our Barbershop Quartet, had applied for and received a job with the Census Bureau. He mentioned to me that they were looking for computer type people for the local offices. In July I went to the Waterbury office and took their test. Soon, I was notified that I had been accepted. In August I started my new job as the computer maintenance person for the Waterbury office.
The job was scheduled to last for 1 year, and my responsibilities were to keep the 15 computers and laser printers at our office humming; make daily back-up tapes and run the thousands of printed maps needed by the census takers. Additionally, I was able to get a job there for both Bobbie and Kurt. I spent a week in Boston for a training class and every so often, went to meetings in Boston and Worcester.
Bobbie didn't last there for very long. Later in the year she was diagnosed as needing by-pass surgery, She underwent triple by-pass and recouped at home for the next six weeks. After she got back to work, she couldn't get along with the office manager and quit. Kurt was in charge of a group of census takers and did very well. He was well liked by his co-workers and still sees some of them to this day.
It was now time to look for a job again. I was allowed, at the end, to use the computer facilities to job search. I ran across a job opening in Hamden for a company looking for someone for their software quality control department. I applied for that job and after a two week rest period, I was back at work again for APS, American Payment Systems.
