Free At Last, Free at Last

I am unemployed!! On Friday March 3rd I was officially "terminated" due to a clerical error. As I was driving home from work on Friday, H. called and said I had received a FedEx from work and that I no longer had to worry about when I would be let go. A letter in the package stated that Friday would be my last day. I was shocked and elated as I had just been asking my boss if he could lay me off sooner rather than later. Work as you know had become a terminal bore.

I called my boss and informed him of the good news. He had no idea that I was being let go and immediately called HR. He found out that an error had been made and that they had terminated me instead of another person who had already been placed on Admin Leave. HR said for him to tell me that I still had a job but he told HR that I would just assume be terminated. They both agreed that they would allow me to be terminated. A fitting end for what had always been a bit of an odd place to work.

Well that was on Friday and come Monday HR was not so pleased with my decision. As I examined my termination paper work I found several errors in both my vacation pay and my final pay check as they had paid me as if I had been on Admin Leave and not worked up to my termination date. Long story short, I had two checks, neither one of them correct and HR was going to have to reissue the entire termination package. I thought for a moment they were going to make me come back to work but that did not happen.

So what does one do when they get "terminated"? Well they book a weekend getaway to some place warm. H. and I will depart Thursday morning for a long weekend in Florida. Not our ideal location but it is warm and the cheapest place to go on short notice. Though we will not be visiting the mouse we will be in the area. A notice of warning to all in the Orlando area, I am coming and my belly has not seen the sun in 6 months. It is snow white and it is going to be exposed!!

Today was my first day of unemployment and I have to say I enjoyed the easy pace of the day. I got up and saw my wife and kids off to work and school. I made my list of things I wanted to get done and I checked them off one by one. Even found time to have lunch with my beautiful wife. Hopefully, since my next job is in the same town as her job, we will have lunch together more often in the future. I took the dogs for a walk while it was actually still light outside. Must be what it feels like to be retired.

Well, time to figure out what I am going to do tomorrow.......