Conquering Inertia

Two miraculous things happened this week:

1.) A job call finally, finally came in for Dan
2.) I finished clearing the Bermuda grass out of the Little Back Side yard.

Dan's been out of work since February. February of last year. At first, the layoff was perfect-- with our wedding & honeymoon coming up at the end of March, he needed time off anyway. Plus, one of us was staying home with the kids over the summer, and we'd already agreed it would be him. I had a new project firing up that was scheduled to last through Christmas; I would support us through summer, and Dan would go back to work in the fall.

Great plan. Except right about then, the recession caught up to Vegas. The construction industry went from great guns to bare trickle in the span of a few months. Upcoming projects went abruptly stagnant or declared bankruptcy. Or both. By Christmas, I was fully laid off as well-- and not "laid off for a couple months while waiting for the next project to start" but "laid off with no future prospects... EVER."

So, we are now--  six nail-chewing months later-- exhaling in giddy relief. It took almost a year for Dan to move up to the number one slot on the out-of-work books, just from number 8; the list is in the hundreds now. At my Union, the list is in the thousands.

I can't think of a worse time to realize we need new careers. But at least now we can keep putting food on the table while we're restructuring our lives.

As for the Bermuda grass, well... I guess its call came in too. It's about as likely for me to finish something as it is to get a job when there are no jobs. For the former, though, I can't blame the economy. It's just me holding myself back, and that is something I can change.

I reached my inactivity saturation point this week. The last few mornings, I found myself getting up with Dan and packing him off to work in the pre-morning dark. I wrote until it was light enough to work outside, then hit the Little Back Side Yard, fully armed with gardening gloves, shovel, and good audio book. It felt really, really good to put in a full day before 10 am.

Nothing moves forward unless something moves it-- unless we move it. This isn't new; Newton called it out some 400 years ago. I don't know where this newfound 'exerted force' came from, but I'm going to ride it as long as it lasts, and do what I can to keep it rolling.