Tree and Leave

As we have done for thirteen years, we went up to Pollock Pines today to cut our tree at a family-owned, minimally maintained tree farm. My son took a hatchet because he felt like chopping things. My other son grabbed a measuring pole, even though we never need one because we always get trees that are longer than the pole. I carried the saw. I watched both the hatchet and the pole – really a length of PVC pipe – swing through the air as we went down the path between the trees. Boys never change.

“You have a battle axe,” I said. “And you a pike.”

“What’s that? Your battle saw?”

“My war saw. It’s a Polish weapon.”

Thirteen or fourteen feet of noble fir for thirty-three bucks. We’re going to need deals like that for awhile now. Last week my division went through its warned-against downsizing and I was among those hit. I am now looking for a job within a shrinking company at a time of year when budgets are short and staffing is static. If I don’t find one in the next two weeks or so, my twelve years four months as an engineer for Infamous Megamultinational Corporation will come to an end.

Seniority? Accomplishment? Capability? If you are familiar with high-tech you know they mean nothing. It is always about cutting headcount to make a number, and selecting whichever head happens to be in this bucket or that box for the bad news.*

Are there other high-tech sorts of jobs in California’s third-largest metropolitan area? Maybe a few. Not more than a few. And there is no shortage of engineer types vying for them. It will be a very interesting year, this one coming up. But meantime we will have a merry holiday season. Got a bunch of walnut and almond for the fireplace, plenty of leftover DiSaronno from the Italy trip, and my wife’s a fabulous cook. The severance package will get us partway though the Spring. Chin up and all that, what.

* - There is always much more to it than that, of course, but I never learned how to be popular on the junior high school playground.