A new phone, a new bag, a new era

In all of the time I have known John he's had a Motorola communication device strapped to his body. That device was the corporate umbilical cord and carrying it was part of the job. He got paged, chirped or called at all hours our entire married life. You could mark the phases of our marriage by if he was carrying a beeper, Nextel or slider phone. Today was John's last day worked and he surrendered the slider prototype he has been carrying for the last several months. He could have kept it- but it would have come with a rather large, pricey package that is not within the budget of a family without a steady income- so we let that phone go.

Yesterday we took an outing and went to the Sprint store. I have a Sprint package and it seemed more economical to add on to our existing package. We came away with a free lower tier Samsung phone. I sort of stifled a chuckle when the salesman asked if he could explain the phone or show us its features. Thanks buddy, I think he can handle it.

After a quick stop to get phone holder at the dollar store we headed to Office Max to pick up a laptop bag/brief case for John. Yes- Moto wanted the lap top and the case back also. For the job search he at least needs a decent bag to tote his resume' and whatsits. We haven't replaced the laptop yet. He wants to see if we can put off the purchase. A software engineering manager with an empty lap top bag seems like a dog with neuticles. It only looks like nothing has changed.

John starts his classes with the outplacement firm on Tuesday. I think it will be good in the same way that you ache after a really strenuous day sort of way. To put things in perspective I try to remember that at one time Motorola employed 160,000 people. That means that John survived 100,000 layoffs. He is a survivor. A survivor with a nice new leather bag.