So Much For My Day Job

It finally happened. I got downsized. The entire department at my day job was axed at 9:00 Tuesday morning.
I saw it coming years ago when the high tech economy imploded. I’m surprised I lasted as long as I did. It was, I think, the seventh round of layoffs that finally got me. That’s not so bad. There’s no reason for me to take it personally.
There’s also no reason for me to get bent out of shape about it.
A few years ago I finally grew up enough that I could start saving money. So when the recession began I opened another bank account and started rat-holing the stuff. I didn’t get rich in high tech (I never made a penny from stock options, even though I had thousands of them), but the job was a cash cow all the same. The bank account that began as my own private unemployment insurance has transformed itself into a career-change paycheck-generator. The money was nice, but that job was in my way. Now it isn’t. I won’t have much money to buy anything, but I will be able to live a long time without another day job.
It’s a little bit freaky, though. I feel like a fish that spent his whole life in an acquarium who’s been suddenly released into the sea.
I’ve been making money writing on the side, and I have a few other tricks up my sleeve. When I called my wife at work to tell her what happened I thought she might freak out. Instead she said “Woo hoo!” She is an angel. And she knows what this means. This is great news for me. Really, it is.
I am happy.