Things seldom go according to plan ...

The Israeli Army apparently had a proverb: "Things do not always go according to plan, but without a plan, nothing happens". Things had not gone according to Cone Man's plan to do eight hours work a day on job hunting, writing, house maintenance, gardening, cycling and cone-gathering. Nevertheless his plan had lead to some progress rather than complete paralysis. He had finished putting the under coat of sealant in the spare room, mowed the lawns, weeded half the vegetable patch, and filed another two job applications.

Today had been reasonably productive, he reflected. He had cleaned the toilet, bath room wash basin and bath, and then spent three hours assembling a double-bed that his neighbour had given him.

Cone Man did not have a cone maiden to service, but he was hoping to gain revenue through applying the magic of Airbnb, and realised that he would have to cater to the flaming passions of lusty young newlyweds. He was not ready to use Airbnb yet, but the idea had been suggested to him during the day and he did not have the luxury of ignoring good advice.

Cone Man had also re-arranged the psychological furniture in his mind. Reflecting of the ancient proverb that "as a man thinks, so is he" he had changed his status on his webpage from Librarian at the Great Hall of Wisdom to Self-Employed, styling himself as "Managing Director of The Between a Rock and a Hard Place Hotel". He was taking in paying lodgers, in other words, but it sounded better than saying he was "unemployed".

Cone Man was not the only actor that day. An old friend contacted him with the suggestion that he could try his hand at working for a technical support company in the far north of the Land of the Huttites, and Cone Man gladly accepted his offer to set up a meeting with the partners of the company.

Cone Man knew that this was a risky course of action. If he served as an intern for two weeks and then was not taken on, he would have sacrificed two weeks for nothing but some job experience. A "course of action" was however, better than no course of action, and if he did not find another job in the said two weeks then there would be no opportunity cost anyway.

The truth, of course, was that Cone Man could easily be taking a much bigger risk by staying with his old profession. Being a "librarian" was all very well and good if someone was prepared to pay you to function in this role, but meant little if no one was prepared to pay you to do this. You might as well call yourself a Samurai - who found themselves either having to work as teachers or muggers or starve - after the Satsuma Rebellion in Japan in 1877. Twenty-six years earlier he had planned to be a qualified librarian on the permanent staff of an institution, and this had happened. But things had not gone according to plan, he had had enough of the tertiary sector, and was not interested in a career in  crime. The bridge to his old life was burning, and he must press on to see what new life awaited him in the distant far north of the Land of the Huttites ...