Always Look on the Bright Side of Life!

I remember the moment 2 years ago when the big shots at my old company flew into town and announced that they were discontinuing operations later in the year. It didn’t come as a surprise as an inside source had informed me weeks earlier of my future demise. There were other signs, hand writing on the wall per say, like the round about answers to our business questions. Additionally, rumors had been flying around for eons that we would be shutdown within 5 years of our acquisition by the mother company. All in all I was prepared for the doomsday event and thus had an interview and my first job offer before a month had gone by. Though I didn’t take that first offer I was on my way to the glorious and rewarding job I now hold.

It’s never easy dealing with the change brought on by a plant closing or any other hindrance to your everyday routine. Confronting this change with a positive mental attitude and being proactive in your future will insure as smooth a transition for you and your family as possible. This is where I stand before you now. I’m helpless, like a small child, as I ponder my future with anticipation and worry. Anticipation to a child is like crack to the strung out cokehead. It is one of the driving spirits behind a child’s desires. And as for the worry, it is a residual effect from the change of circumstance. As the great philosopher Curly said: "I am just a victim of circumstances".

I was informed of my termination yesterday and will work my last day on Friday. At least they are willing to give me a letter of recommendation. That and a dollar will buy me a cup of coffee.

The writing was on the wall. We were sold three months ago to avoid bankruptcy and foreclosure do to the inadequacies of upper management and their inability to deal with an ever changing market. The first signs of my future demise were apparent when they announced that we would officially merger our company with the buying company. In many cases new owners put their trusted employees into leadership position of the new company to avoid problems with entrenched management. They have people who are qualified and that don’t need to be trained into a new culture. There was also a staff meeting a couple of weeks ago that basically confirmed that at least one of the existing managers were going to get it. My feeling is that the lead engineer/IT guy will be getting terminated on Friday. They are just waiting so he can’t screw everything up.

So as of Friday afternoon I will be one of the unemployed. I will leave in search of a new dream. A dream that revolves around some as of yet unknown occupation, profession, career, or any other term you wish to use. Something that will excite me when I get up in the morning as I prepare for the challenge of a new day.

These people have it much worse then I do.

I donked off $20 last night while I was on job tilt. It was an exercise in futility as I fretted over my job situation. It was a good stress reliever but cost me money. The best part was when I finally hit a hand with the crap cards I was playing. I made back my buy-ins plus a little and was going to quit at the end of the orbit. On what was going to be my last hand I get pocket kings and raise to .40. I get re-raised to .70 so I re-re-raise it to $1.60 and get two callers. I see a flop of all unders with two spades and I bet the pot. The next to act pushes and we all end up with our money in the middle. The pusher had a flush draw while the other had AK. The king of spades hits the board and I lose to the flush with a set of kings. I was ahead when we got the money in and had the odds to make the call on what ended up being a 68 dollar pot in .5/.10 NL. It would have been nice.



If anyone has need of a soon to be out of work Quality Manager, shoot me a line.