'Tis the season

Above is a shot of the girls in their Halloween costumes. Elspeth is the ninja; Alyssa is the witch. I'm glad they picked cheap and easy costumes.

I had coffee Saturday with my former boss. He offered out of the blue to meet, so we got together at Respite in the morning. I was interested in what he was doing now that he left newspapers (he's working in communications in a huge health care group) and I think he was interested in how the newspaper was going. If you had asked me a year ago if this meeting would have happened, I would have said it was an impossibility, but people change and since he no longer held the power of employment life or death over me, it was easier to just talk.

A long-time co-worker of mine was amazed I was meeting my former boss. This co-worker said people use him as a reference and never hear from them again. Me? I get e-mails and phone calls out of the blue from former co-workers. Another person jokingly called me the paper's "ambassador." (I need something to hold onto these days)

Back to the coffee Saturday: What I liked besides the fact me and my former boss could just talk was that I saw a parade of friends and acquaintances come through to get coffee. I could say hello, talk about some casual things and joke about school or the weather. So, it reaffirmed to me as I sat talking to someone from my past that, at least in the small sphere I was in, I had worth, value beyond work.

A last note on this long coffee talk: As I sat there with my former boss, someone walked up to me and spoke my name loudly, smiled, shook my hand and asked how I was doing, saying she hadn't seen me in years. So true! It has been probably five or six years since I last saw her. She had left the newspaper and started her own business. Wow! Small world and good timing.

The other side

As you could guess, I'm feeling more down, more depressed and more useless at work.

My schedule has been changed. I will start at 11 a.m. and end at about 8 p.m. (or so). I will be spending most of my time proofing stories and pages. I'm back to where I started 17 years ago. A "Circle of Life" kind of thing.

This also means Jayne and I cannot car pool anymore (so much for saving money), I cannot bike ride from work (so much for saving more money), I won't be able to have dinner with my family (so much for nutrition) or help the girls with their homework (so much for being a good dad).

I told Jayne that I expect to be out of a job soon. I gave a guess I will be removed by Nov. 1 or by Jan. 1. If I'm not laid off or fired, I expect a decrease in pay to go along with my decrease in responsibility. It seems that, like the world, I will not go out with a bang but with a whimper.

I did have a nice visit this week at work. Jayne stopped in (though I was in a meeting) and left me a nice card, flowers and chocolate to cheer me up. It did help and I greatly appreciated her concern and love.

Holiday spirit

Lastly, not to depress all of us all the time, but I've been working on some homemade holiday cards. Not Halloween but Diwali, a celebration of new beginnings, of light's triumph over darkness. Jayne is helping me and we'll pass the card on to one of her coworkers who is from India.

It is the season of change!