Working on it

When a man doesn't have enough to do, he does what he can.

Not the thing he always dreamed of. Or the things that would save a little money, like sealing windows. Not the things that the world needs, like helping at an after school program or working for Hil-bama.

He spends as much time as he can learning the things that working left too little time for. He reads about things he's interested in, wondering if there's a career change to be made. Excitement follows. He talks about, let's say, a job in information architecture. He learns more about it and concludes it's nothing like what he imagined.

And the career he had - has - looks pretty good again. Everything considered. Did you know that Monster.com will deliver job listing directly to your - his - email box? He applies. He's doing what he can.

He cooks and cleans and does laundry, because if he's not working hard he can hold up his end of home life. And he's not complaining. He likes to cook.

He also writes comments on blogs, reads a few dozen feeds, checks out source material for ideas mentioned in passing on other's websites. Some seem worth knowing about. He buys a book to check them out. Some of those idea seem like something to talk about rather than something to know about deeply. The kind of topic that someone, who has already become the expert, has also already exhausted.

He cannot stay cheery every day, but he tries not to mope.