For any who are interested:

On 27 July, as part of a Reduction in Force, I was given 60 days'
notification that my job was being eliminated. I was still being paid,
but "not required to report". In fact, I couldn't, since all of my
access and accounts were deactivated on the spot.

Saturday, 25 September, was to be my last day working for Sun, at which
point I could receive a severance package and go off to work as a
bartender. Or that was the plan, anyway.

On Tuesday (day 56), Sun made several public announcements, including
this one
<http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/nf/20040922/bs_nf/27108>
. On Wednesday (day 57), chaos and panic were rampant as it was realized
that this announcement was based on work that I had been doing. So, I
got the call during practice last night telling me that all was
forgiven, and that I should be back in the office on Friday (day 59).

So, in the long run, I got paid to do nothing for two months. I also got
a lot of stuff done around the house, went to bartending school, and
practiced a lot of the close-up magic stuff that I haven't actively
performed in 20 years. Had I known it would turn out like this, I think
I would have gone sailing and diving more.

It remains to be seen if I will be doing as much travelling as before.
I'll be at practice and performances as often as I am able.

......curt