The Adventures of FriarJohn on Two (and Sometimes Four) Wheels

Well it happened, sorta.

Got called into the Site Director’s office this morning and told I was on 30-day furlough (with 9 others, I gather from the invite for the meeting that happened before I arrived). Furlough is a LOT like being laid off, except you get to keep your benefits if you pay the portion that is normally taken out of your check and you get to put off cleaning out your desk. This is a direct result of losing that big proposal last week. It’s strictly business.

I’ve got about 37.9 hours of vacation accrued so I’m getting paid through next Monday (I worked over the weekend which counts for today). But I’ll be at zero balance if/when I return.

One of our big systems is starting Phase 2 in a month and ostensibly that’s what they will bring me back for, as a business analyst, gathering requirements. It’s mostly guaranteed to happen but that client has been a bit unreliable lately (maybe they’ll ship that off to India, too). After that part of that project is done, who knows? Maybe I’ll be cut loose for good or maybe they’ll have other work for me to do.

This is like a slow death. I don’t know what to do. I’d rather not leave this company if I can avoid it. Great benefits and retirement. I have a great boss and lots of friends there. But if they’re going to string me along like this maybe I need to look elsewhere. But looking elsewhere basically means pulling up stakes, selling my house and moving (unless I can find suitable telecommuting work), because there’s nothing else for me in this town that will pay anything like what I’m making now. Graphic and Web Designers tend to make shit here. The State is the closest, and they’re in a hiring freeze last I heard.

This weekend could very well be the last weekend of the year that we see temperatures above freezing. We’ve already had a couple weeks below freezing and the current prediction for tomorrow (Saturday the 17th) is 71 degrees. I’m sitting at about 44-45 miles below 45,000 on the odometer and I’m just OCD enough to find 46 miles or road to run to make that milestone before packing her in for the winter.

However, there are still many things to get done on the bike. I could probably get the Speedmaster bars installed and/or the Thunderbird Sport dual disc wheel mounted up. Aw crap, I can do that shit when it’s around freezing, even in my unheated garage. It’s time to ride.

UPDATE: I did go for a ride, albeit a short one. Ran down to Boulder, MT, for a burger. Passed 45k on the odometer on the way back. It was a beautiful, perfect Fall day.