Well, Practical Considerations must come first…

I was planning a couple of trips. 

These trips were contingent on my getting the unemployment / and issues surrounding the furlough sorted out so that I could be gone for extended periods of time.
Between my company demanding that I appear there at the drop of a hat. Not knowing if I’ll be called back or how much time I might have before I have to report. That the company is still having me fill out their damn time card and to do that I have to have internet access. The uncertainty of the unemployment payments and that I must be here at least once every 2 weeks to fill out and sign their paper forms. 
It looks like my dream of traveling is shot full of holes.
Part of the delay in traveling is because I was hanging around during Js vacation month. Every day I asked “What would you like to do?” Now we’re at the end of that vacation month, we’ve gone and had some fun but nothing like the longer trips that I’d envisioned.
Since funds are dwindling in the accounts, I’ve started the job search program. In all my plans I’d never once considered the furlough prospect. 
It’s something that I’ll not voluntarily participate in again. It bleeds your resources and leaves you in an indeterminate state, neither employed or unemployed…  It messes with your head because you’ve never quite got enough information to make decisions with and no matter how many questions you ask no-one ever has any answers.
In my case, the company had appeared to be operating in a chaotic mode. Even HR didn’t seem to have a clue about what information they were supposed to give employees. My faith in the company has been horribly shaken.
I’ve remarked privately to friends that I’ve thought the company was cruel. Over the years they’ve always created a panic situation just before the Summer vacation season. My management has always said it wasn’t intentional, I’ve always maintained that the timing spoke to either very poor planning & budgeting or intentional fear-mongering to insure that the employees were always grateful that they had a job.
Either way, the circumstances have had profound effects on all of us. There are many of my co-workers that have maxed out their vacation accrual because they didn’t want to leave for vacation during a “Crisis”.
Now as we wait and wonder, it’s a mixed bag. On the one hand if we’re laid off we’ll have some pay. If we’re not laid off we’ll go to a new project and in all likelihood face the prospect of the annual panic and never spend our vacation time.
I’ve decided that I really don’t want to have to deal with that level of uncertainty all the time. To that end, I’m initiating a job search now. I’ve been answering inquiries from headhunters that have reached out to me. But now I think it’s time to ramp up the search and get proactive.
This of course means a few things.
Yet again, my dreams die, or at best are shoved to the background.
I’ll probably end up going back to technology. While technology has been very good to me financially it’s not what it once was.
I risk becoming bitter and angry that I once again have to step up and commute through the HELL that is Southern California traffic, while my other half essentially gets to work from home. A home by the way that I will rarely get to enjoy because I’ll be pissing my life away on the freeways.
Due to the fierce competition for limited jobs in Southern California, it’s very likely that I’ll have to make some serious compromises on salary, or health care & other benefits.
Maybe I’ll get away… but it’s looking less and less likely.
As to my dreams… well it’s looking like to follow those, I’m going to be making some hard choices. 
I’ve been putting off making those choices for a long time now… 
I guess I’m about out of runway…