A whole year just flew by

I was looking at some of my posts from last year and one of them was from June 29th. It was titled "Aloha on my mind". It is interesting to see where I was then and where I am now. Then I was still reeling from being laid off and a trip to Hawaii was a much needed escape from the stress of trying to wrap my head around not working and the reason for my not working. It sure turned my world upside down. I had been laid off from a company once before back in 1988 but I was hired by another company who came looking for me immediately after. I was working again within a few weeks. That company laid me off about two years later and I was again immediately hired by another company that came looking for me. I had a very short time off between jobs and only collected a few unemployment checks in either case. Both of those layoffs could have spelled huge financial disaster for me had I not gone back to work right away. This last time it was more mentally and emotionally devastating to me than it was financially because I'm in a totally different place in my life. This time with the economy in the tank and the industry that is the only one I've ever really known doing horribly, and the unemployment rate at around 9%, people are not knocking on my door. I'm competing with hundreds of others out there for jobs that frankly I don't even want but have to apply for anyhow. Well, after all of that and having been out of work for more than a year now, it does still affect me somewhat from a mental standpoint but not as much as it did at first. I have found that having all of this free time has allowed me much more opportunity for introspection and self examination. I will elaborate more on my actual findings after I return from Maui. So, here I am almost a year after that post and I again have "Aloha on my mind". And what a thing to have on your mind. Last year the weather at the time was a consistant 85 and this year it seems to be hovering around 87. Oh schucks, I don't know how I'm going to deal with that warm temperature and tropical air after spending the last 5 months entrenched in a rainy, cold, and damp environment. Tough job but someone has to do it.