Mini-vacation in New Castle

After spending the week networking to find job opportunities, and pondering whether to be an employee, contractor, or do something completely different, I left with my wife Amy, 3-year old son Andrew, and our ancient dog Tango to New Castle Colorado (just west of Glenwood Springs), where my parents own a condo and my retired dad spends his time as a part-time fly fishing guide, full-time hunter/fisherman and gardener, and all-around small-town character (he seems to know everybody here). Other than your standard holidays, this is the first time I’ve taken a vacation since Amy and I spent 10 days in Panama last July. That’s way too long to go without a break, and this 4-day trip will be nice. My dad hooked us up with a great dinner: grilled elk and deer steak. But not just any old steak, this is the backstrap, which is a rare treat. My dad shot the deer himself last fall, and he traded a bunch of fresh vegetables from his garden for the choice piece of elk. Yummy.

Outsourced!

My job got outsourced to India. The rumors had been floating around StorePerform for a few days that something was up, and I figured there would be a few layoffs, but I got cold cocked. I didn’t expect that they’d offshore the entire product development, QA and support teams to India.

“I hope you got a good severance,” several people told me. Not a chance. Not at SP. Taking care of employees was never high on the executives’ list of priorities.

Fortunately, I’ve got a good network of friends and colleagues and it shouldn’t be too difficult jump back out of the unemployment line.