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- Location
- ABQ NM
Looks like I'll be cutting WAY back on my shop time. I just accepted a job offer that will put me about 800 miles east of my shop 5 days a week for the next few years. The job is in Albuquerque, so I'll be close to my dad and sister who live there. On the other hand, my wife has been at her job in LA for 20 years, and has no desire to leave it. She also has no desire to leave our house or her friends here. (I also don't want to get rid of our house.) So I'll be staying in a small borrowed condo in Albuquerque during the week, and flying back to LA as often as possible, likely a couple of times per month at first. (I'll be building up a lot of Frequent Flyer miles on Southwest Airlines.) As time goes on, and the project matures, it's likely that I'll be able to do some portion of my work remotely from LA (hopefully a lot of it), but particularly at first, I'll be needed in the Albuquerque office full-time. My shop's gonna become a pretty lonely place, with the exception of the occasional weekend visit.
I've been unemployed or underemployed for nearly three years. Technical writing/editing jobs in LA have been scarce and low-paying. Woodturning ain't paying the mortgage. And as much as I enjoy it, I can't afford to hang pictures as a career. This new job looks like a perfect fit for my skill set, and it'll put me back into the middle class again. I'm not really looking forward to being away from my wife, my house, my shop, and SoCal, but on the other hand, I've gotta pay the bills. In this economy, you do what you have to do.
I start the first week in December, so I've got just a few short weeks to get my ducks in a row and tie up any loose ends I've got here in LA. I have a couple of orders I need to finish up in the shop, but after that, I'll do a good cleaning and waxing and shut the door on my way out. It'll still be waiting for me whenever I come back. In the meantime, I suspect I'll be doing a lot more guitar playing in the months to come. (I can fit a guitar in the back of my SUV a lot easier than a woodshop, and I'm going to need some type of artistic outlet for my spare time.)
My life has always seemed to go through major changes on a seven-year cycle. We moved into this house in the fall of 2004. This change is right on schedule.
I've been unemployed or underemployed for nearly three years. Technical writing/editing jobs in LA have been scarce and low-paying. Woodturning ain't paying the mortgage. And as much as I enjoy it, I can't afford to hang pictures as a career. This new job looks like a perfect fit for my skill set, and it'll put me back into the middle class again. I'm not really looking forward to being away from my wife, my house, my shop, and SoCal, but on the other hand, I've gotta pay the bills. In this economy, you do what you have to do.
I start the first week in December, so I've got just a few short weeks to get my ducks in a row and tie up any loose ends I've got here in LA. I have a couple of orders I need to finish up in the shop, but after that, I'll do a good cleaning and waxing and shut the door on my way out. It'll still be waiting for me whenever I come back. In the meantime, I suspect I'll be doing a lot more guitar playing in the months to come. (I can fit a guitar in the back of my SUV a lot easier than a woodshop, and I'm going to need some type of artistic outlet for my spare time.)
My life has always seemed to go through major changes on a seven-year cycle. We moved into this house in the fall of 2004. This change is right on schedule.