Thursday, March 29, 2012

Life as a civilian in Portland, Oregon

I had stopped writing about my life experiences when I returned because I felt that they were not very exciting. Frankly, they are harder to write about than observations from a foreign land where we have a mission and comrades are issued rather than chosen.

Coming home while not hard certainly causes you to face different challenges. When I arrived home, I attempted to go back to my civilian job. They were willing to take me back, however I have spent years developing my job skills as a safety and loss control consultant, and that job description was no longer being employed by my employer, my options were to work in either payroll production or possibly sales. Given that the location was 44 miles from my house, and my ability to do payroll is questionable at best, and might result in my joining the institution that provides pink rubber walls for safety, I chose to say thank you to my employer, and with their kind assistance, and contacts started out on my self-employed venture.

I currently own and run Strategic Business Services Inc. in Portland, Oregon. I am coming up on 5 years in business. I assist companies with their safety programs. You know a company needs assistance like mine when they think their workers compensation costs have gone through the roof, or they may not be able to stay competitive in their business unless they fix their safety record.

I have decided to resume writing and share some of the trials and successes that I have had or observed in fellow soldiers, as well as have a discourse on some ideas that have intrigued me over time. I hope people find this entertaining; it is certainly therapeutic and useful for me. I will spend the next couple of weeks catching this blog up on some of the high lights of the last couple of years. Again, I hope you enjoy.

Keith