###############################
Wed Nov  3 03:37:21 AM EDT 2021
###############################

One of the first job offers came in this past Friday. It
cames with a dollar value right in the center of their
disclosed range, and health benefits reflecting
ever-upward-trending deductibles for self and family. That
was disappointing to be sure, but I did manage to let loose
an ironic chuckle on seeing that the dollar figure was
precisely the same as my first job offers on leaving federal
service some 20 years ago.

I sat with it over the weekend, putting my mind elsewhere,
deliberately letting it all swim around in my subconscious
while I carried on with my own busy work. I figured that, if
there was an answer, it'd reveal itself in time.

The weekend disappeared into a blissful haze that few could
appreciate -- just me and and the laptop on the patio, or me
with the tower and larger monitor at my desk, moving around
invisible things from cloud to cloud, migrating some of my
personal websites, services, and so forth to a new server --
all with frequent breaks to spend time with family and to
help care for my son...

and that's pretty much the job description that they
offered -- technically more coding than infrastructure, but
all the same kinds of environments and puzzles. Work from
home (or wherever), flex your time, ... just be responsive
to clients and get the hours in? It wouldn't be a bad start
for a "third career"...

During the first interview, I told the fellow straight-out
that, without any real data yet about my current "market
value," I'd probably accept any reasonable offer without
much question, but with the caveat that I'd be quite pissed
to discover latter that I'd been taken advantage of.

TBD.