I think it's time :-{.

(Yeah, I know, I work for them, shouldn't have been hard--put it down to a combination of stubbornness and slightly misdirected principles.)

If anyone feels like adding me, please feel free, or if my name causes problems, ping me and I'll add you. I'm probably going to be shifting over in that direction away from LJ (partially company loyalty, partially I do find it shiny). And Facebook may get drop-kicked--I've never liked it, and if I can do without it I probably will.

I've just figured out how to make a good hot chocolate at work. This pleases me more than it should :-}; I'm slightly worried it'll reverse the weight loss I've managed since starting this job (presumably from biking to Alewife on a regular basis).

(The shop has "bagels" in the name. I'm not going to name them, because I like them. Phone conversation, reconstructed from memory.)

Me: "I'd like a turkey and cheese, on an onion bagel."
Them: "I'm sorry, we don't have any onion bagels."
Me: "What'd'ya got? Garlic?"
Them: "No. French toast?"
Me: "How about plain?"
Them: "No plain. I've got bread."
Me: "You don't have any bagels?"
Them: "Nope; I've been cleaned out."
Me: "Ok. Thanks anyway."
Them: "No problems."

So my current mattress is ten years old, and the platform bed on which I sleep is older yet. I have an upgrade in process, but the transportation requirements are a *little* bit more than I can easily handle. Can anyone help me with the loan of either of the following?
* A vehicle that can comfortably fit something that's 83 inches long (39"x4" are the other dimensions, but it's not the only thing I'd be carrying, just the most awkward). The back area of my station wagon goes to 60"; I could probably stick it in and leave the hatch open with sufficient cleverness with ropes, but "the right tool for the job" (i.e. a bigger vehicle) would probably be better.
* A roof rack (the folks I'm buying the bed from advertise that they can tie things solidly to the top of the car, and I'm happy to go with that, but my car's old enough that I'd rather have a *little* more structure :-}).

Assistance with the transportation itself would also be welcome, but I'm less worried about that (because I can probably draft psongster).

Bribes of backrubs, ice cream, or helping you with your own transportation difficulties can all be arranged :-}.

Does anyone have a drill press they'd be willing to let me use to make a hole in a metal object? (Or, if you feel protective of your tools, willing to make such a hole for me?) I think I need more precision on this hole than I can get from a hand-held drill, and while my immediate instinct is to go out and buy a drill press, recent events are suggesting that care with spending may be in order :-}.

Thanks in advance for any assistance you can offer (I'm not sure what to offer in return, but if you need something that I'm in a position to provide, don't hesitate to ask).

(Background, for the curious: I'm sorta semi becoming the go-to person for problems with the locks at psongster's church (at least, she's going to me :-}). The bar that goes through a mortise lock broke. The nice folks at Commonwealth lock in Porter found a replacement for me, but it needs to be cut shorter and have the pin hole re-drilled at a different location. I think I can substitute a dremel for a bandsaw for cutting it shorter, but the hole has to be right across the middle of the bar or the holding pin won't go through.)

(Context for this post is long enough ago that I'll include links: here and here.)

After several months of angsting about it (and wearing some ruts in conversation with poor psongster) I have given notice at my job. I tried to do it at the beginning of last month, but my grand-boss requested I wait until I come down there to make it official; that happened the week of May 18th (I report, and work with, a team that's down in Research Triangle Park, NC, not at my site). My last day is July 9th; I'm trying to do as much information (and perspective, and passion) transfer to the rest of the team between now and then as I can. At that point I'm going to take some time off, and start looking for a job again in the fall.

I'm feeling pretty at peace about it at this point; I'm not even feeling all that upset about the layoffs (well, baseline; I can still get upset when specific aspects of them are brought up :-J). In the end, it came down to two things for me: I'm getting to the point of really wanting a change in the work I'm doing, and my local environment is no longer a particular nurturing environment for me. My project team and management is still pretty darn good, as I was reminded on the trip down to RTP. But the comment I made to my grand-boss was that taking the remote assignment had been a stretch for me, somewhat going out on a limb. And it worked well, and I grew a lot doing it. But they sawed the tree away while I was out on the limb :-{.

This is still a somewhat wrenching change for me--I've been at the company nine years now in one way or another, which is more than four times as long as I've been anywhere else. That's partially because I got to change projects within the company several times in that nine years (I'd count seven quite separate, non-overlapping projects to which I made a substantial contribution in that time). And it's partially because (I still believe) it's a substantially better run company than many that are out there, so I got frustrated by bulls**t less, and when I did there was a better than average chance that complaining about the idiocy would actually change something. But nine years is still a very long time, and I'm not having very much internal second guessing about moving on.

I haven't tried to line up a new job yet; I've been unhappy for a while, and I want some time off to rest, and to think about what it is I really want to do next, and look around at the possibilities. There's part of me that's worried that I'm shooting myself in the foot (or higher :-}), by doing this, but that part's gotten quieter over time. I believe the economy in three months will not be so much worse than the current one that I'll not be able to find a job. I may be wrong; I (we) accept that risk. And I'd have to be really wrong for it to become a survival issue.

But my life ... I was going to say it was about to change dramatically, but the truth is that it already has changed. It'll change again on July 9th, but I'm already in a somewhat different place. I don't know what comes next. But I'm looking forward to finding out.

In case folks haven't already heard, there's going to be a cool folk concert by Peter Mayer this coming Saturday, April 12th, at 7:30pm. He does amazing things with a guitar (one song, "Awake", I could have sworn the recording had several different instruments doing funky things in the background. Nope, sounds identical in concert). His main songs are spiritual in one way or another, in a way some might consider earth-center, but I tend to think of as "water centered" :-}. He does have christian roots, and they show up in his songs, but not in a way I (as a non-christian) have ever found incompatible with my own spirituality. If you're curious about his music, you should check out his web site; clips from some songs are available here if you'd like to give them a listen. I'd strongly recommend him.

psongster is producing the concert, but all proceeds will go to the artist. More details can be found at her LJ; see this post. Hope to see you there!