Some of you may have noticed I have been posting with a little less frequency this week. It has not been because you all bested my arguments and I was hiding.

Monday, I got an email from my employer of over 11 years that the Contract work I was doing had been terminated by the client--not for cause, but to give their employees work, and that Friday ( yesterday) would be my last day.
So I researched unemployment in MD--they pay max $400 a week. The COBRA insurance would be $1000 a month! That won't work.
I called the office manager for an Engineer that I worked with some 20-25 years ago, and who has expressed interest in hiring me in the past. He has 2 well-earned reputations-1) He is a genuinely GOOD guy. 2) He is CHEAP. But, right now insurance coverage drives employment. The office manager remembered me instantly and heard the purpose of my call, and the Engineer called me back that day, and the next day. We had a 2 hour meeting yesterday, and he will make a formal offer the day after Christmas. It will be for less money than I am currently making, but the work is exactly what I hoped--Getting his lab certified, and filling in on all manner of Civil Engineering field work. I know the range of pay he pays. I know I will be at the top end. I know I will accept that offer, but he doesn't know that. ( I have to make him sweat just a little.) I will supplement income with 401 payouts, or SS payments--even though SS really hammers you if you earn over $14460 a year.
My current (former) employer has no idea. He thinks it will be a 4-6 month layoff, and I will come back. If he really valued my services ( as he has said), he would have made some provision--He could have kept me on at reduced hours, he could have found some accommodation, but since completing his MBA a few years ago, he has become less of the nice guy he used to be.

All the research to SS and 401 stuff has taken away a lot of my "free" time, but its all behind me know.

Merry Christmas.

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1982 300SD " Wotan" ..On the road as of Jan 8, 2007 with Historic Tags