Uncertainty.
With many sniffles and a nasty cough, I spent Friday afternoon watching the stock ticker. This is not a normal activity for myself. I normally can think of hundreds of things that I would rather do than monitor the Dow Jones. I suppose these are very unusual times.
I plugged in my husband’s company into Google Finance and watched the little line march downward most of the afternoon until the line pointed slightly upward at around 4:00. The stock that had been worth $67 a year ago was now worth $7. Our nest egg was decimated, but at least the company was still afloat and my husband would get a paycheck next Friday.
We’ve spent some time talking about how long we could last without his salary. At what point, would we have to sell the house?
On Thursday night, I took my son, Jonah, to a birthday party at a rock climbing center. As I watched the boys repelling joyfully off the wall, I chatted with another mom. I asked her how many days was she working. She said one, but that might change. Her husband is a roofer and business has been dead for months. People are just patching their holes rather than doing the whole roof, and he doesn’t break even on patch work.
Steve gets calls from head hunters from time to time. Despite having spent years getting a PhD in history, he is surprisingly good at finance stuff, and head hunters often try to lure him to other companies. Steve said that for the first time last week, hunters didn’t try to tempt him with outside offers. Instead, they gave him a list of people and asked if he had work for them.
I’m worried, but I’m also not worried. We really have no control over events and the emotions running through Wall Street. It’s surreal. And if we had to sell the house, it wouldn’t be the end of the world. It’s just stuff, after all.
Meanwhile, we’re slowly returning to health in body, if not monetary health. Ian is on antibiotics. And I’m still sniffly and coughy, but I think I’m on the mend, too.
I’ll get the blog up and running again soon. Thanks to all for the kind wishes.
Apt. 11d 