You know the economy is down. You're lucky to have a job at all these days. Houses aren't selling. The dollar is weakening. Costs are skyrocketing. The United States is on the verge of being overtaken by China. This is the time to hang onto what you have, certainly not to throw it away and try to grab something new.

Well I know a guy who has said "fuck that" and is reaching way, way out for something new!

Brian, known here and elsewhere on the Internets as BClark71, has spontaneously moved to Jacksonville, Florida.

Brian has been a manager for a couple of pretty big corporations lately, and his wife had a job in sales with a golf equipment company that had helped keep a roof over their heads and those of their two children for about eight or nine years. But they both found themselves without jobs and rather than saying, "Oh, Lordy Jesus! We better apply at Target and hope for the best!," they just put their house up for sale in a down market, took a weekend trip to Jacksonville and decided they liked it, and the rest is to be history. The house is sold, an apartment in Jacksonville is rented, and nightly walks on the beach are a fact.

I wrote to Brian to ask for details on how he did this, and he had a great line, as befits a fellow Lewis Grizzard fan: "In Atlanta, I feel pressure to get another corporate management job. In Jacksonville I don't care what I wind up doing, as long as I can get poolside after I do it."

I've often described Atlanta as trying to strike a book of wet matches for years and years, and I think I'm about down to the last match (no implication of General Sherman intended). When my current job goes belly-up, which I expect any ol' day, what's next? Apply at any one of the many Publix/Target/Best Buy/Longhorn Steaks installments throughout the metro area? Maybe I should've been in Los Angeles long ago. Or maybe I would just be working at the Santa Monica Target...if they would have me.

How will it pan out in a year's time? Who knows. They say time loves a hero.

"Spends his days in the sun
and his nights in the casino
He left the States many years ago
Took a fishin' boat to Puerto Rico
Now my aunt, she is sad and lonely
She'll never know that she drove him away
As a coward I admire his courageous ways

They say time loves a hero
But only time will tell
If he's real, he's a legend from heaven
If he ain't, he was sent here from Hell"

-- "Time Loves a Hero," Little Feat