Day 20 – Transition - update

It has been three weeks since I became a dislocated worker.    It often seems like nothing is happening and at the same time it seems that every day is a never ending day.

I started this with these areas of focus:

1. Finding new livelihood
2. Becoming a stay home Dad
3. Becoming healthier
4. Remodeling the house
5. Maturing an idea for a non-profit (Community Bridge)

My focus to start out with has been the job search, taking care of the house and getting fit.  These three are coming along nicely. 

Finding new livelihood
I feel that I’m getting the searching down to where I’m applying for the jobs that would really matter to me, without having to jump through huge hoops to find them.  It is getting easier and I expect this to continue to get easier.  No calls for interviews yet, and of course this is disconcerting,though to be expected.  My chances of a interview should go up the more I can target my search to those jobs that I am very qualified for and can tailor my cover letter and resume to match the position.  This is another area that I think I’m getting better at; getting better at evaluating the job req. and at writing a cover letter that leverages my strengths that apply.

Additional activity in this area has been in getting unemployment and COBRA insurance set up.  I had my initial meeting with WorkSource which created another slew of paperwork.  Had to track down lost paperwork, which after a few calls,  mysteriously arrived at the IRS, so now my HCTC (this is the place that pays 80 of medical insurance) enrollment package is on its way.  I always thought Boeing was the worse place in the world for acronyms, but the state and federal governments put Boeing to shame on this account. 

Becoming a stay at home Dad
My main focus has been keeping the house clean and making the meals.  I’m glad to report that I have lost none of my family to my cooking.  I have been doing well in both these areas.  I starting in the cleaning do too much, and I am now adjusting so that I expend the least amount of energy possible while still maintaining my wife’s high standards for having a clean house.  In the cooking, I have been focusing on on the processes of planning the meals, shopping and cooking.  This has been going well.  My wife took a full time accounting class through a previous summer, so this was dusting off processes that I had used then.

In the cooking, I would like to start paying closer attention to my cost of groceries compared to our average and I would like to start making changes to the make up of our food.  We are already pretty healthy in our eating habits, but I would like to reduce our intake of Sugars and simply carbohydrates as found in white flour products and starches.  And at the same time increase my ability to support my daughter’s vegetarian lifestyle better.

Becoming healthier
While knowing this is a long term commitment, I am proud at how I have been doing well; maintaining my new higher level of exercising, working hard without attacking it like a testosterone cowboy, giving it all I had for 8 seconds and then paying the price by recovering for a few weeks.  Last night my trusty Reilly and I  walked 3 miles.  Reilly was pulling on his lease the whole way, which means that he has picked up about  mile of extra energy more than we we began.  When I did my 1 1/2 baseline jog (shuffle might be a better statement) I did it in 23 minutes.  Last night we did 3.4 miles at a 15 minute/mile pace, meaning we fast walked the 3 miles at about the same pace as my baseline.  I tell you, I felt much better and recovered much quicker last night.

I have increased most of my beginning weights.  I could have increased these at least twice by now, but I have been intentional going a bit slower on increasing the amount.  This is in order to give my joints and tendons time build.  These don’t change near as fast as the muscles build. 

For stretching, after each lifting session I head into the Hot Tub at the “Y” using the warm water to keep the muscles loose.  At some point I want to get into a Yoga class, but I want to get my schedule a bit more controlled.

Remodeling the house
This is held up in finding the right shower to replace an existing one.  We have a friend who has connections that we are waiting to return from vacation.  Actually the timing is working out nicely, as busy as I have been I doubt that I could have done much.

Community Bridge
I will have my first conversation with an interested participant next week.  This is earlier than I had planned, but by putting my intention out there the universe is responding by aligning the right resources.  We shall see where it goes.  The core idea exists, now it is about finding a core group of passionate and talented change masters that will help mature and shepherd the idea into a working organization.

So over all, it seems to be going well.  After 3 weeks, progress is being made in most areas.  Although I’m sure it will happen in the future, nothing has gone ridiculously out of whack.  In some ways, I’m getting stir crazy, so next week I have increased the number of meetings out of the house to get a little more people contact.  Hopefully, I can find a good balance better getting everything done, which needs to be done mostly at my house and the need for personal interactions out side the house.

Tomorrow is going to be hot here in the Seattle area.  I will be looking to get some exercise and enjoy some time with nature—both of which are reinvigorating.

I have a collection of quotes that have built up over the years that I want to share at the end of these posts.  I find them inspiring and poignant, hope you do too.

"Be patient with yourself. Self growth is tender; it's holy ground.
There is no greater investment." -Stephen R. Covey