Boeing, my former employer, has been in the news a lot this year, for all of the wrong reasons. Strikes, aircraft crashes, and money woes have plagued the company and seem to have finally caught up with it. Here in Saint Louis and elsewhere around the country Boeing is doing what it always has done when it gets into trouble, layoff its employees. These layoffs always seem to hit at this time of year. Just when thoughts have turned to the holidays and family, life gets disrupted. I really hated those times. I always felt that I was on the bubble, the next one to be cut. Fortunately, at least for me, those days are gone. I am retired. I have a pension and a 401K, but Boeing has divested itself of both of them. Still, this news hurts, knowing what my former colleagues are going through, but most will survive, carry on and live to fight another day.