The year I dropped out

"Security Staph" at 2003 Oregon Country Fair

Universe decreed, in summer of 2003 that I was to take a hiatus from the world of software development for an indeterminate period.  Victim of both down-sizing and out-sourcing.  War in Iraq was just underway even though Junior, jackass that he is, had already declared "Mission Accomplished" at his dress-up party on the USS Abraham Lincoln.

It was an angry time.  And, in the spirit of the age, I was beside myself with hot, red fury.  I held in contempt the uninformed citizenry that had (for the most part) stood by and allowed Junior and Cheney to carry out their short-sighted (and ill-fated) plans for hegemony in the Middle East.  I was disgusted at the antics and scheming in my former workplace.  I was enraged with and disappointed by myself for a whole lot of reasons.  But mostly I hated the Bush administration and its principal constituency, Big Oil.

Conferring with perpetual candidate for Multnomah County Sheriff Andre Danielson on the way to the Dead show in George, WA

I was financially secure (at the time) and so, used the opportunity of my lack of employment to take a meander on the side roads of life for a while.  I dropped out; I quit contributing. Rather than paying income taxes, I collected unemployment insurance.  Rather than pay fuel taxes, I walked or rode public transportation. 

Three-and-a-half years of living in the inner city had very much fitted me to urban lifestyle.  I enrolled in some classes at Portland State University, studying Spanish and writing, did a little traveling and spent a lot of time playing guitar.   

2003:  Ken Kesey's "Further" bus outside the Bagdad

Gas prices were soaring in those days, and although there is no evading completely the blood-tithe extracted by corporate pirates, I triumphed with every green penny I denied them.  It is different now.  Times are tough and everyone is afraid.  But 2003 was a good year.  It was a good year, indeed.