So, Dan said no to the low-ball offer. Now, he has three companies that say they are working on offers for him. Amazing! I never really understood how a man who saved his company $4.5 million last year, buying the same amount of goods and services, could not be worth hiring. Certainly, he did not receive anywhere near that in salary in return. I'm here to tell you. This leads me to believe that some stigma might be falling away from being laid off. Interviewers certainly ask him about his two-year job stints. But they do not seem put off by it. I have to infer it's becoming more common. On the other hand, it's still hugely disruptive to family life. Congress has just extended unemployment benefits, for a total of 9 months, so you know they're expecting a long and brutal job-hunting season. And the family down the street from me has set out its sticks of furniture on the curb, having broken up and moved. The little-girl plastic doll house on top breaks my heart.

The husband had a Wall Street job and lost it. Then they tried going into business for themselves, landscaping. Stories differ about what happened next -- they couldn't get steady clients, they didn't pay the business taxes properly. Anyway, within two years, they had to shut down. Now they are divorced, with three kids. They were a great, big-hearted couple who probably would have made it, marriage-wise, if the job calamity had not hit them.

Dan and I have been through enough of this now that it's probably made our marriage stronger. Clearly, blogging here is my effort to push it out of the personal realm and look for wider causes other than, my husband is a complete failure in life.

And long term, I'm wondering if Uncle Sam will really approve of our life. Aren't we supposed to be saving for retirement and college? Isn't this our personal responsibility, as the Republicans would have us believe? I worry that we'll be left without much savings, because of this job churn. Social Security doesn't offer much comfort. And our home value has probably eroded because of the subprime crisis.

Health insurance? We've been through three plans since January, and we're stuck now with one that requires more than $300 from my paycheck every month, plus $30 co-pays at the doctor's office. Vacation? I'm officially back to two weeks, plus some personal days. If I do a good job, my employer will allow me a little wiggle room on that. If.