you have GOT to be kidding me!!!

So, K's furlough, they agreed to pay him through Oct 7.  He was officially laid off on Sept 23.  All good, right?

So, Bug had a fever today, so he picked her up at daycare around 9:30 this morning.  Well, he just got a call from the company that laid him off - he's junior assigned to work.

Um, WTF?!!!  He apparently said to them 'no I'm not, I don't work for you anymore, you laid me off, remember?'

Yeah, well, if he wants his pay until Oct 7 he has to go.  How F'd up is that?  The only good thing out of it is the president of the union talked to the company to make sure that he get's his day of overtime from earlier this month (they didn't want to pay it since he didn't actually 'work' his whole month, but it was a day outside of his scheduled time), and they promised that these days will be overtime too. 

I'm all for the extra money, don't get me wrong, but this is seriously messed up.  Needless to say he's bringing the baby to me and then I'm taking her back home.  Amazing.

Furloughed

So, K took off last Sunday for the last part of his duty this month.  He was sitting hotel reserve, with a bunch of other people and not a full crew.  Tuesday he got a random call from the travel scheduler that he could go home and do home reserve.  OK, we were happy because Wednesday was his birthday, but he thought this scheduler was being spiteful towards another FE that was also sitting reserve with him (she's that kind of person). 

Well, then Wednesday night, the October schedule went out to rebid.

Thursday night, all the crew that was in training for upgrades had training cancelled.

Friday morning K got the first call from a buddy that said buddy was furloughed.  He called me (I was on the road for work) and let me know.  We knew it had been coming, but we got complacent because it hadn't happened.  A couple more phone calls and texts later, he got his call.  Apparently they saved him for last because the guy that had to make the calls really liked K.

So, he's officially furloughed.  He already started the process to go to Dallas and get his CFI and CFII so that he can get a job to build up his hours.  It'll be a 30 day program, but the good news is no more 20 days away after that, at least for a while.  Until he gets a job flying the big birds again.

I consider us lucky.  We still have my income, and some money in savings.  We'll be OK, it's going to hurt, and we'll pull out of savings Every.  Month.  (from what we are hearing his unemployment won't be a whole lot, but that is still to be determined... depends on what state we can claim it in).  But we'll make it.  We've been here before (he got laid off as an A&P back in 2001, yep, right after 9/11), but that doesn't make it fun.  Especially since that money was earmarked for IVF. 

I know that not everyone will fair so well.  I feel so badly for those families.  But we do have some tough decisions to make (although nothing nearly as tough as others are dealing with, please know that I get that).

So now, we decide do we go ahead and do the donor sperm and IUI (as it's cheap enough that we can squeak it out once or twice and just make it until I get my bonus or we get our tax refund), or wait the God knows how long to get him a job and replace the money in savings.  That could be 5 years down the road!!

Oh yeah, another kink?  I've talked with my company about moving me to their headquarters.  Which is 5 1/2 hours away from where we are now.  I have friends there (not where I'm from though), and my parents live there.  Lots of good reasons to go, but I've got to overcome some negativity that I built in with some important people during my days in the dumps of drinking too much after infertility.

So, all in all I think we're handling it well.  It's so tough, knowing how much it's affecting.  There's so much on hold in my life right now, waiting to see what his unemployment will be, waiting to see if we'll move for my job, etc. 

And Buggie?  She's just happy that daddy is home.  :-)

Furloughed

So, it's about to happen.  K is going to be out of a job. 

He works for a cargo airline, and has his whole adult life, ever since he got out of school and got his A&P license.  The two companies that he has worked for in that time frame both flew for BAX global, or Burlington Air Express, or Deutsch Bond... however you may be familiar with them.  (you may remember Burlington from many years ago, getting in trouble for running tests on their train drivers before being hired to make sure that they were not predisposed to things like carpal tunnel... then refusing to hire them if they were).

So, back in 2001 the first carrier he worked for lost their contract with BAX global, and went into bankruptcy.  They left T town and eventually went under completely (I believe).  So, the contract that they lost went to the carrier that he works for now.  First he worked in their Stores room (parts man basically) because it was all right after September 11 and NO ONE was hiring mechanics.  He did that for about a year and became a mechanic again.  Then he became a pilot for them just in 2010. 

BAX got bought out by Deutsch Bond a couple of years ago because they weren't doing real well.

Over the weekend we found out that as of September 1, 2011, BAX is closing their doors.  All of the mechanics that work for the company are done on that day.

We were hoping that he would maybe have a job through the end of the year, as they have found some work for most of the fleet of airplanes.

BUT.  K is low man on the totem pole.  They do seniority based on age+years of service.  K has been with the company almost 10 years (10 years in December), but he is only 32.  So that makes him 42 for seniority.  All the other pilots are in their upper 40's and older.  So, low man.

Which means he's the first to go.

A good friend of his, which also happens to be president of the union, called him last night.  He felt horrible because two of his best friends (K being one of them) are about to be out of jobs.  He basically said that K will probably fly in August, but that will be it.  No severance, just no job. 

So, we are cancelling our vacation for next month.  We are looking at where we can pare things down to save some money.  We are going to figure out how long we can continue to pay for daycare before we have to pull her out.  We want to give enough time so that K can get his CFI (certified flight instructor) as he doesn't really have enough hours as a pilot yet to get a job with a big carrier.  Then give him a little time to try to find a job, before we pull her.

Oh yeah, and that money we have been saving up for IVF?  That's going to go to paying bills now.  (Katery - I know you asked about going straight to IVF in the past... yes, we have to.  K's last SA had only about 600,000 swimmers, with only about 30% motility and like 5% morphology.  So it's a waste of money to do IUI, unless we use donor sperm).

I'm really really bummed about this all.  I mean, I'm not real worried about him being out of a job, it will be nice to have him home more.  I know with him home we can be real good about removing some wasteful spending from both of us. 

But I don't really want to put off fertility treatments.  We can't decide if we cancel the appointments, reschedule, or keep them.  He is thinking that he wants to work any OT if they actually offer it to him in August, to try to help out with money. 

I just don't know what to do.  I'm honestly a little heartbroken over the whole thing.

The positive?  I don't have to worry about weaning Bug if we postpone treatments some.  That's the silver lining if ever there was one!

Well, back to work.  I'll have to stress about it more later :-)