Final Update?!
So I realized I never updated this a little since I took that Holiday job at UPS. Boy that needs its own blog perhaps...
I could blog forever on whats taken place related to my job search from then, and how I worked 13 hour days 6 days a week trying to deliver 400 packages a day out of a rental box truck and could never finish, working for a guy who ran the place using bullying, harassment and intimidation to ALL the drivers, logging an average of 35,000 steps a day (yes really) and losing 7 lbs in 5.5 weeks - which i have since gained back +more because stress eating. I ended up quitting on Xmas eve because mentally and physically I could not take it any more, because they told me I could not leave until EVERYONE else was done.
Here's some pics of the highlights (or low lights depending on how you look at it)
Remember the one real snow storm we had in November. - this was me stuck against the curb 4" from some mailboxes. Lucky for me a private snow plow operator saw me and pulled me out with his Bro-dozer for free.
After they had too many trucks go out of service they stuck me in a box rental truck for most of the time and then this is how the truck looked every morning. no shelves and just chaos of packages. There's supposed to be a numbering system to stack them in order that follows the package scanner device but in one of these trucks it only looks good until you go around the first turn then its a clusterF.
I've been doing odd jobs for cash the last few weeks, including some home construction helper stuff and even painting (i was told I am pretty good at it).
So now the good news. After many weeks/months of job applications and rejections, yesterday I accepted an offer for a new job and my tentative start date is March 16th. Ironically, its back at the very same big Pharma company that laid me off back in April, but it's in a new area that is internalizing IT jobs that should never have been outsourced in the first place.
Its not the overall ideal situation with regards to compensation etc... and I won't have the luxury of working from home any more (maybe occasionally) but this is the right choice for me and my family so we don't end up in a worse financial situation than what could be coming up (2 kids headed to college in September!). And with a family of 5 i need medical benefits because healthcare in this country is so f**ked up (yet another topic covered elsewhere on this forum).
I really came on here to share the update but to say
THANK YOU VERY MUCH to everyone that has proactively reached out to me on here to try and help me. I don't know most of you personally but I was glad I could share the situation to a welcoming community like this to get support during this difficult time.
I hope I can still ride as much or at least not get fat and unfit like I used to be, and still drop in here to see the shenanigans and maybe even ride with you on my MTB one day.
Thanks peeps!