As I told you a while back, I am unemployed. I posted a rant that got plenty of recs and an FA because I spoke impiously about The Mighty Obama and laid the lousy business conditions on his doorstep.

Anyway, it was fun for a while, being unemployed and all that. I got to sleep in, help Mom and Dad around their house, and help my kid with her business for free. But, like all good things, it is time for that to come to an end - not helping Mom/Dad and my kid, but the extended vacation.

Friday, I am going to see my kid (75 miles south of me) and take a lot of the admin stuff off her hands, so she and her fiance can concentrate on running the business and growing the pie. They are going to teach me what needs to be done and how.

One thing I got from Uncle Sam was a few admin skills. If you need a department run smoothly from an admin aspect, I'm your man.

In the course of my working life I have always been a contentious and hard worker, not the fastest, but if you needed something done perfectly by a certain time, I was your man.

I have always had structure, though. Uncle Sam provided that in abundance. There was always 20 lbs of crap to fit into a 10 lbs bag in a certain way. The military provided that structure, as did the oil patch and trucking. Those tasks tend to be mission-oriented and if you needed to work 16-18 hours a day to get them done, so be it.

So here I am at age 55 with few marketable skills. I have made a few forays into the job market and I don't want to compete with folks for $10-12/hour, with the stress of a boss looking over my shoulder and gossipy co-workers. I have come to like the independence that came from trucking.

I am researching what I can do from home. I have a few ideas and am looking into them.

Like MichaelRead, I just can't see myself sitting around growing old. For the past few months I have been somewhat busy helping my kid, taking Dad to his numerous doctor's appointments, volunteering at the local VA hospital, chauffering Mom around (she hates to drive and my Dad shouldn't drive due to health reasons), and what-not, but it is time to provide my ownstructure for the first time in my life and go solo.

It is a somewhat scary and uncomfortable feeling, but life is what it is, right? We all gotta have our horizons expanded from time to time.