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emancipated
Monday, September 20 2004
setting: rural Hurley township, Ulster County, New York
Since June I've been working remotely for a company based mostly in the United Kingdom and Ireland. Today the CEO called me and told me that I had to suspend work since he could no longer afford my modest monthly paycheck. He said I could perhaps continue working for stock options, but for me it was always about cash. Since the dotcom boom I've always considered stock options utterly worthless. More to the point, nobody wants stock in a company that can't afford to pay a developer the lousy pay I was getting.
This remote development gig had been a welcome source of monthly income, but it had also been a major drag. The drag-factor wasn't limited to just the time I spent working for the company. It also included all the uncomfortable feelings I had about procrastination and professional respect, feelings that spilled over into every single one of my waking hours regardless of whether I was working or not. I hadn't noticed at the time, but this gig had completely destroyed my summer. To have it suddenly removed came as an enormous relief, one much bigger than I could have imagined. I felt something close to elation for the rest of the day. I was emancipated!
In the late afternoon, from inside the house, I filled the most serious basement foundation crack with cement. Cement is the most flowable hardening substance I had available in sufficient quantities. I'd already used epoxy on the lesser cracks, but there'd been nowhere near enough epoxy for the major crack.
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