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Jim Laurin

The Last Decade – Jim Laurin

I have lived in Sunnyvale, California, near San Jose, for the last 40 years. I have been working for high tech firms in Silicon Valley for 35 years. The last decade has gone by in a flash. In 2002 I was working at Lumed, a medical device start up in Silicon Valley. I was the Director of Quality Assurance. Medical Devices are controlled and regulated by the FDA. Lots of regulations.

I met the love of my life in 1989 and we got married. It is funny how I dated for 25 years and then when I met “the one” I was engaged in three months and married three months later. We tried to have children but I guess it was a little late. I have a stepdaughter, Erinn and three granddaughters. Sienna is 7 years old and Hannah and Brooke are 8 month old twin girls. I think it was probably good that I did not have children at 45 years of age because now, after I take care of Sienna, Hannah, and Brooke for a day, I am ready to check into a hospital.

I worked at LuMend from 1998 until 2007. As the company grew, I was promoted to Director. It was purchased by J&J and they moved manufacturing to Mexico. I took some time off and was planning to go back to work. I was 62. But I didn’t seem to be doing much to find another job. I realized it was because I was really burned out on the corporate environment and did not want to work any more. So I retired. And it has been wonderful. On a weekday I can shop five different stores in two hours. You cannot do that on the weekend. We just remodeled our house in 2012 and it came out great. Since I am retired, I did some of the contracting myself. BORING! When you come out of a corporate environment, where poor performance and attitude are not tolerated, it is frustrating to try to get some of the contractors to do a professional job.

This year we bought a house in Sacramento to be near our grandkids and to help Erinn with the babies. She works mostly from home and vIsits clients during the week. Her husband is a pilot and is gone three days a week. So she definitely needs help.

We just finished our fourth annual Grandparents camp. Three sets of grandparents take all of our grandkids (11 of them ranging from 2 to 13) for three days of planned activities. It is a lot of fun but very tiring.

I am really enjoying retirement. For the first time, I do what I want, when I want, for as long as I want. It is a new experience. If I don’t get a project done, oh well, I will finish it tomorrow. It is a nice feeling.

I hope all of you are well. Staying healthy can be difficult at this age. If any of you feel like it, I would love to hear from you. See you at the "Turning 70 reunion."

Update February 24, 2016:

We remodeled our Sacramento house a year ago. But we are still unpacking from our move to Sacramento 3 yrs ago. The reason is we moved from an1800 sq foot house into a 1200 sq foot house. I guess I could say the Sacramento house is a little larger if I include the 150 sq foot storage locker we had to rent to accommodate all the extra boxes. We are now the landlords of the Sunnyvale house. Not a job a relish. I hope you all are well. Update your profiles if you can. I would love to read about you. Jim


Jim
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