Sunset?

Rumors of my death are greatly exaggerated. I have just been sick for about a month. Pretty sure it was a flu, which was awfully resistant to antibiotics, followed by acute allergy symptoms the last couple of days. Going through Kleenex so fast I should buy stock in KMB.

It's been an interesting week, to say the least. My wife will officially be out of a job this June. Well, unless she gets hired back. We're trying to be optimistic, partly because no one really seems in a rush to work at her at-risk school, and partly because the federal stimulus package has a significant chunk of change earmarked for education.

Of course, the big news today is the report that IBM is in talks to buy my beloved employer, Sun Microsystems. Having survived a layoff less than two months ago, you can imagine how thrilled I am about this news. Yes, folks, that is sarcasm. At least JAVA stock is up, eh?

I spent about half my day wallowing in self-pity, before I decided I can't do anything about it, so there's no point in concerning myself with it. If I've learned anything since the tech bubble burst at the beginning of this decade, it's that business is business. And while I look at being acquired by Big Blue as the equivalent of getting traded to the Yankees, it's neither a done deal nor a certainty that I'll be on the chopping block if it is.

So I guess I decided it would be cathartic to put those thoughts into words. I'm not so sure that it was, in retrospect. Rhonda is more disappointed by this than I am, because she knows prospects for our planned trip to Japan this summer are bleaker than bleak. Of course, being this is the last subject I want to talk about at this point, it will of course be the only thing my family will want to talk about this weekend when we are in Vegas for my sister's birthday. Hopefully, a few of them read this between now and then, and politely remind the others that our family's crumbling financial stability is not a jovial dinner topic.

Survivor Guilt

Survived layoffs today, for the umpteenth time. I've lost count, but unlike the others, this round came during the worst economic disaster since the Great Depression. So I have to feel pretty good about having a paycheck tonight.

As an added bonus, I have a new boss (my second this week) in a new division. Finally, my group is where it should have been the day I joined it.

People seem to think I should be pretty happy about these developments. Relieved, yes. Grateful, yes. But not happy. Several people that I work with closely had to leave today. So today has been incredibly difficult. Not only do we need to fill the gaping void left by their departure, but I am, of course, worried about them and how they will adjust. And I'm also left wondering why they are unemployed, and I get to continue working from home with four weeks of vacation a year.

If I've learned anything about this process, it's that I can't predict what is going to happen. What inevitably happened was so far from what I would've thought it is difficult to wrap my head around. And I don't have too much time to dwell on it, since we now have to figure out how two people are going to do the work of four. As usual, the future is wrought with uncertainty and I don't know where my path will take me. But at least I've bought some time.