Nothing but net

My mom tells a story of when she was a young woman low on cash and subsisted on a bushel of apples for a month, always sternly concluding that I should always let her know when I needed any help.

For the first time in twenty years, I finally made the call last night.

The missing deposit still hasn't turned up, and the deposit that Robyn made last week was gone almost immediately. I have about $275 in the bank, and it's getting to the end of the month when rent and prescriptions come due. I'm also anticipating another $200 deductible on my prescriptions since we're in a new calendar year on top of the $100 co-pay.

So I asked my mom for $800. $500 for the rent and $300 for the prescriptions. She firmly countered that by telling me that she would be mailing me a check for $1,000 — just in case.

So now I can write some checks to reconnect my cable and my phone accounts. I also have enough cash in my wallet to supplement my food stores to make sure I'll be fed.

And in a month, things will be completely different. I'm not starting my new job today because Don says there's some sort of glitch in the project, but I'm intending to get that cleared up and start tomorrow.

Sigh.

Don can't reproduce the glitch. I'm going upstairs to see if I can start my new job and check in with Don later today.

It's a go!

I'll be checking in with Don this afternoon to see if he's been able to reproduce the bug, but my official start date will definitely be tomorrow.

I brought my new hire packet with me, and I'm sitting here reviewing policies and filling out forms. I'll have lunch with my new boss today, then check in with Don and go home.

Tomorrow I'm reporting directly to HR to get oriented.

Bullet. Dodged.

Originally — this morning — my new boss said that it would be too complicated for me to finish up the consulting project with Don and work a half day as the new guy today. It would work better for me to just start tomorrow.

Until he found out that the new HR policies that got switched on with 2006 dictate that if a new hire doesn't start on the date specified in the offer letter, that employee is automatically "separated" from the company. If you still want that person, you have to start the hiring process all over again.

So after lunch I started my new job. Today I wrestled with the web-based HR program. Tomorrow I'll march into the HR office to get my three-hour orientation. I do have a temporary cubicle, and my computer is probably someplace in the building. I might have a phone tomorrow afternoon.

I do already have a company email address, underscored by the 45 emails that were waiting in my inbox.

It would have been a very, very bitter pill if my job had evaporated. I give thanks to whatever powers are looking out for me.