Things have gone nuts since last update. To summarize, some family skeletons in the closet are the center of a new rift in the extended family. Granddad's still around, but I'm not seeing as much of him. He's been in and out of the hospital, but he should probably be in a skilled nursing facility until he recovers some strength, but the other side of the rift hasn't asked my opinion on that.

I've spent much of my time in escapist stress-relieving activities (TV and computer, mostly) and listening to other family members vent their issues. I really should have done more job hunting, but I didn't.

Still, this is much easier living close to it than being 900 miles away and have all this happening. My savings is dwindling, though.

On the bright side of things my niece and nephew and that part of the family are are doing peachy and cute and we're having a grand old time.

Also I just this week started dating a friend of my sister's, so I'm suddenly very eager to find a job and get my own place again.

I haven't checked into the AFW gig in about a month, and we're now in the "4 - 6 week" window they mentioned for hiring somebody, so I guess I need to bug those guys again. I just started redoing my resume to layout better in different formats and emphasize my Windows admin experience. I've been contacted about NetWare stuff, and I don't really want to focus my career in that direction. And I don't want prospective AD-based employers saying "oh, he's a Novell guy" while tossing the resume aside.

I spent most every night of the past three weeks at the hospital with granddad, but reality is calling and I'll need a job soon. Also I'm feeling ready to have a normal life again.

Granddad is still in the hospital. We thought we were going to lose him over Labor Day weekend, but he got over that hurdle. At the moment he's doing well mentally and recovering some physically and starting multiple myeloma treatment, but I don't know how long he'll be in the hospital, if he'll be able to go home upon getting out or needing to go to a skilled nursing facility, and I don't know how long he has overall or what quality of life he'll have. I'm hoping for another year or two of more-or-less normal ability and quality, but the doctors aren't saying at the moment.

I'm really glad I quit when I did instead of waiting longer. It's a joy to watch my nephew grow so quickly at this early age, and I'm really glad I've been able to help the family in the granddad crisis. I would feel lost if I were in Indy the past month. Taking three months off work doesn't sound too smart, but in retrospect I couldn't have seen it work out better any other way. Additionally, flying back home periodically would have become an even bigger pain in the butt with the new restrictions; I'm really glad I don't need to fly to visit family these days.

After looking around on Monster.com and Computerjobs.com I'm feeling pretty good about my options and see several jobs that sound intriguing, within my experience and paying near what I want to be paid. AFW lost a guy last month as expected, and they want to hire before peak, so they should contact me formally in the next 4-6 weeks. I like a lot about the AFW job, but if I get a good job before then I'll stick with it. The AFW gig isn't guaranteed for me, but it still feels good to know it's there if the job search doesn't produce results in the next month.

I'm surprised to see it's almost three months.

I didn't get the bank job. I haven't heard anything about the AFW job, but I haven't checked in lately. I really should have checked into that and started serious job hunting, but my granddad had severe pain all last week and some before and was hospitalized Friday.

Long story short is it's multiple myeloma. It's in his left shoulder blade and in his bone marrow. The oncologist says it's very treatable, though, and with pills and without losing hair and such.

Anyway, I've spent much of the last week or two helping him out and pretty much all my waking time since Friday at the hospital as he doesn't do well alone at the hospital so we're trying to stay with him around the clock.

I'm glad I moved back when I did so I could be available to help. I just didn't expect to be needed quite this soon. Hopefully he'll be back to normal in a week or two, but I'm still anxious.

Man, time is flying. Still not much developing on the AFW gig, and I'm not actively looking for work although I should be. However, a company called me from my Monster.com resume, and I had an interview Wednesday. I was woefully underprepared as I've had my mind off of work for two months and had too much family coming and going to review effectively, but I think things went well anyway, and I got the feeling they want to hire me. I should find out next week.

It's a commercial bank with 10 or so branches, a couple of which are on each coast so I'd have some travel opportunities. It sounds right up my alley except for my lack of experience with banking, but they didn't seem to be worried about that as long as I'm willing to learn. This position could be higher profile than the AFW gig and may be more marketable, and it's a small business so my projects could affect the whole company instead of just my local coworkers and users. I also wonder if the size of the bank and the customer base could lead to network opportunities and small consulting jobs on the side. Anyway, it sounds interesting and I'm hopeful.

I can't belive a month has gone by. On the other hand, Indianapolis seems like a long time ago now.

I haven't heard much on the AFW job...still mostly waiting. I should've probably gone to lunch with my buddy this week, but my day/night schedule is off-kilter from the rest of the world right now.

I'm way too busy for a job it seems. I haven't even done all the things I expected to get done in the first week, like some of the car paperwork and visiting all of the extended family and contacting my old work buddies here. I need to find time for that stuff, but my niece and nephew are occupying a lot of my time...no complaints there. I've also put a bunch of time and muscle into dejunking and cleaning Mom's house. The garage (enclosed, carpeted and finished) is a new room now with my stacks of entertainment electronics in it. We now have two big high-definition TVs going.

I'm going through money a bit faster than I'd like, but I still have a few thousand readily available, and hopefully the AIC bonus will be at least as big as last year.

I thought I had a date a couple of weeks ago. A manager at Fuddruckers was being overly nice specifically to me, caught me for a conversation before I left and gave all sorts of other signals like touching and so forth. She stopped just short of physically tackling me, but when I asked her out she said she was dating somebody. Weird stuff. She even threw in "if it doesn't work out...". I'm not holding my breath, though.

Tomorrow I'm leaving to visit my Dad for the week in New Mexico. My sister and nephew are coming along. (My niece is with her mother for a couple of weeks.) Dad and we have a rather distant relationship, and he has shown less interest than I'd expect in his first an only grandson, less than I'd expect about his daughter's husband and grandson's father, and he's shown absolutely no interest in his daughter's stepdaughter which is a very important part of her life. Anyway, we haven't seen him in a while, and I had more or less planned on driving out there between jobs, but my sister actually brought it up. I'm not sure what spurred her, but here we go.

After I get back I should probably start job hunting. I don't really want a job right now, but I will need an income in the next few months. I'm hoping for the AFW job, but I shouldn't let myself count on it.

I just made it here. It took a bit longer than I originally planned, but then everything does. I'm really glad I had all the help I did! Don't know how I would've managed without it.

Everyone's been asking me why I'm quitting, usually adding something like "are you just fed up?" It's not like that at all. I love to gripe about work, but if it was all good then they wouldn't have to pay me to do it. But as much as I gripe, really I've had a good situation the past 5 years in Indy.

It really is family reasons. I have some new family back home, and other family that was out of state for school now back at home, and the older folks aren't getting any younger. The past year or two I've been flying back as often as every other week, but it's been getting more and more difficult to fly with my discounts. The summer travelers make it extra difficult, and I haven't been able to fly discount without getting bumped in 3-4 months now.

It's good economic news for the airlines that they're at or near capacity with revenue passengers, but it's not good news for us standby travelers.

Now, why am I moving without having a job lined up? Well, I don't have a good answer for that. I kept hoping something with the company would open up, and I even thought they might make a move when I turned in my resignation, but that hasn't happened. But it really boils down to that I hate job hunting, and I won't do it unless I have to, and now I have to.

The following is a redacted copy of the farewell email I sent to a whole bunch of people on May 24. Those who got the email are free to share the contact information with anyone at the company who wants it.

Today is my last day at work, and next week I'll move back to North Richland Hills, TX.

I reopened this site to help maintain contact with my soon-to-be former coworkers. I sent out my email address in my farewell email, and you can also post comments here or even register a username and create blog entries.

I woke up at 5:30am this morning and couldn't get back to sleep. I may actually arrive on-time for my last day of work.

I have several thousand dollars saved up, but suddenly it doesn't seem like very much. I'll be looking for work very soon.

Oddly enough, after all this waiting for a DFW job with the company to open up and finally giving up, one of my ealry job leads is a position with STS/LHSD in Alliance. Go figure. If that comes through and works out I may be back with the company shortly. In about 3 years I may be the only 20-year employee with only two weeks' vacation.