I watch the ripples change their size
But never leave the stream
Of warm impermanence
And so the days float through my eyes
But still the days seem the same
And these children that you spit on
As they try to change their worlds
Are immune to your consultations
They're quite aware of what they're goin' through

Monday, March 23, 2020

Turn and face the strange

I wrote a little while ago about potential changes and hoping to take a vacation from the blog after the election this Fall. Well, the time schedule has changed a little. In fact it'll only be a few weeks.

For those long-time readers you may remember my posts about the reboot, retraining to be a radiological technologist. It went better than expected, and I entered another career which fortunately I happen to like a lot. For the past five and-a-half years I've been working PRN, which means "as needed." As needed has turned out to be 2 to 3 weekday evenings and most weekends. In the past almost six years I've added CT (formerly known as CAT) scan to my general x-ray registry and worked hard to develop as good a reputation as I have in graphic design.

My reputation has garnered me several offers of part-time and full-time positions. I've left the management of the hospital radiology department disappointed many times. But this time I couldn't say no.

Okay, here we go. I certainly hope there's enough material to build wings out of on the way down. As many of you may know, I've been down this economic rabbit hole 4 times before in my life. All 4 times it ended up with me losing my job and being unemployed for 8, 1, and 6 months. All because I chose to ride it out. So, I have the opportunity to change that. So I am.

If I choose correctly I will have saved us (spouse and I) from economic devastation and our life will be different. If I choose poorly I will dive right into that economic devastation. But I've chosen. I'm going to do what I normally do on a small scale, but the opposite of what I do on the macro scale. I'm running into the flames and will be starting full time at the hospital just as we predict the height of the COVID-19 pandemic hits Ohio. Hopefully I can work PT at what is the current day thing.

If this works out the way I hope, this is going to be hard. I'm going to push myself to the edge. But hopefully this time I won't lose a job and income. I'll keep health insurance. And I'll have a guaranteed minimum income. There are hundreds of smaller trade offs.

I will not be as income secure (if nothing would change with the day job) as I have been. But I don't see the economy "roaring back", and business will be very different. But the hospital is (mostly) steady work. The hours aren't great, but fit well with PTing the day thing.

But with all that, I doubt there will be much time to continue to blog regularly. I've been somewhat proud that I've been able to get out a linke-poo fairly regularly these past five plus years. But I doubt we're going to be able to keep it up. In fact I doubt there will be time for much of anything extra.

The timing can't be helped. And believe me it bothers me that I won't be able to help much in the coming months.

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