After reading your post Saylor, I shake my head and wonder how long it will be before we wake up, and get this Country going in the right direction again.

When good, hardworking people can no longer operate a business because of lawsuit overload, govt. regulation overload, tax overload, forced high cost of insurance overload, while their elected officials dilute our dollar and cant say no to any social program, we have a BIG problem.

Im not overstating it when I say this is the kind of situation that fuels civil revolutions. At times, I wish I was more ignorant of history, so I could be "happier" today.

Good luck in your new career, Im doing just about the same thing, and not expecting much, just enough to eat and live, before I tip over.

 

That is all so true. I am in food manufacturing and it is beyond imagination the constraints we have now between making USDA and both internal and external customers happy. It is a wonder that a pizza doesn't cost $100.00 each. The cost of manufacturing is so high that most companys have no place to look other than requiring more and more from their employees for the same pay. It is indeed a down hill spiral. While we struggle to support some of the most sophisticated equipment available with expectations of unrealistic production rates, our compensation is reduced as our responsibly increases. Sounds like fun eh? Well I am done with it. Keep in mind the company I work for is the best company I have ever been employed by and still it is all but unbearable.

 

You know it is a dang shame what this country has turned into. All these rules and regs are downright sickening. Trucking is not exempt
by far.

 

I'm not advertising for schneider but.....

www.pumpkindriver.com

on the home page you will see a link for Vacation Vocation. You can be with a trucker for a price. I guess that would classify as a shadow program?

I don't know how much money you made in manufacturing, but last year was my first year in trucking, and I barely worked. I did low miles and in the last 2 months I was home often. I still made 40k gross. (not much to some but more than I've ever made) And I lost at least 3 day a month to breakdowns.

check that link

 

In 2007 I made 40K. That is lees than I have made in 20 years but it isn't all about the money. Engineering is a mentally stressful job and I resent working for half of what I use to make. I refuse to give away my experience and expertise. I am ready for a change. I don't want to continue doing what I do even if the money was still there. I would probable stay with it because it would be hard to justify the cut in pay but now that is not an issue. Trucking is the only thing that I have found that I can switch to and make about what I am making now from the start. I am looking forward to being on the road and seeing the country. I am looking at CFI.

 

In 07 I pulled down around 70K. I know that is a big chunk of change but as you said, some times you get to the point where the money just doesn't matter. I am fortunate that my financial obligation are few. This time next year I will be totally debt free. I live in an apartment and other than child support have few expenses other than those I choose to have. I currently contribute a little over 30% to non profits so my disposable income is getting pretty good. If I had no children at home this would be a no brainer. It will be 5 years until they are all on their on.

 

You sound like you have it together. I hate debt (that is a whole new thread) and have usually not had any. I now have a house payment but it is low and I plan on getting it off in five years. My children are all grown and on their own. They are doing better that I am financially. My biggest issues are medical for my wife. If I can stay healthy and work then I will delay Social Security till I am 70. In retrospect I wish that I had changed careers several years ago

 

For years, I worked as an engineer at an electric motor repair and rebuild facility. When a motor blows to ground and damages a lot of the iron in the row of teeth, it means re-stacking the laminations so that the missing iron is distributed throughout the stator. That process can cost the owner of the motor up to $30,000. I came up with a very simple epoxy compound that, once cured, would be attracted to a magnet. It could be used to fill in the missing iron and reduce the cost to a fraction. I left there a short while after that, and never thought about that compound again... Until about 6 months ago.

I stopped at Fort Chiswell, VA for fuel and as I was putting the nozzles in my tanks, this HUGE diplomat motorhome pulled in alongside in the next fuel island. As the guy got out to fuel it up, I recognized him. He was a guy that worked with me a lot when rebuilding motors, eighteen years ago. He was good at following my instructions, but was no engineer.

Nearly dumbfounded at seeing him step out, I managed to ask him how he managed to have something like that.

"Oh, I've got a patent and get to live off the royalties. Not a lot, only about $500,000 a year for the last ten years."

Obviously, he didn't recognize me, and I asked him what the patent was.

"Oh, nothing much. Just a magneto-reactive epoxy compound......."

Gary, You patented MY IDEA?

That's when he recognized me, and it was like he was looking at a ghost. He jumped back into the motothome and left.

You talk about how you feel about making less than as an engineer... I'm looking to try to find out who he has licensed to produce and distribute that epoxy. It's MY intellectual property, and by law, my name belongs on that patent as well. And, he knows it. But I have no way to get back in touch with him. I have to find out who is making it and backtrack.

 

My disclaimer here is that I am not giving you legal advice. For that you should see an attorney.

Go online to the US Patent office and do a parent search. http://www.uspto.gov/ Once you find the patent it will have the information you need for ownership.

Only the inventor has the right to a patent. But there are circumstances as to who is the inventor. For example if I hired you to develop an idea of mine and paid you for that service I would hold the right to that patent. Also companies will have you sign a release to any ideas you have while employed by them. These haven’t always held up in court. The next problem is proving that you had the original idea. Do you have any documentation or people that can verify that you it was you? Also there is a factor of it become public knowledge. That is once it has been common to the public for one year then you can not patent it if you haven’t already applied. It gets very complicated and patents are overturned everyday. He probable doesn’t want to get it overturned. Even if you don’t get it he could lose his patent. It is very common for someone to patent an idea that wasn’t theirs.

I would find the patent. Put together any facts that I could to prove ownership. Hire a good lawyer. It is probable worth pursuing.