I've been here for 4 hours and so far he's called me 14 15 times.

To be fair, eight of those calls were in one six-minute interval when I was away from my desk for a few minutes.

Sheesh. What kind of neurotic nitwit calls someone eight times in six minutes? What kind of mental block prevents you from thinking that, just maybe, waiting sixty seconds between dialing times might be less insane?

I swear, if I hadn't already told him yesterday that I wasn't planning to stay here, I'd quit.

Yes! We had The Talk.

I hadn't intended to do it yesterday, but he started talking about plans for next year, and about what "we" could do, so I felt it was only right.

I began with great subtlety.

"What would you do," I asked. "If I weren't here?"

"I'd close the business," he said seriously.

I do not respond well to emotional blackmail.

"I'm not staying," I said. (I do find the swift, surgical strike to be, in the long run, less painful.) "I don't find this job challenging, it does not make use of any of the skills I've spent decades honing, and you really don't need to pay someone what you pay me to be a shipping clerk and type data into a software program."

The subsequent discussion went on for an hour or so. While he did not precisely dance about and sing, there were moments when he looked quite relieved. He did even admit that it was progress, of a sort, to have an absolute deadline. (He's threatened to either leave himself or close the company down at least three times since I've been here, and then he keeps letting the deadlines slide.)

In order to avoid giving him a heart attack and being responsible for the death of another human being, I've agreed to stay until Oct 9, which gets us past this month's insanity.

I have also pointed out, with a very pointy stick, that life might be easier over the next four weeks if we made a concerted effort not to get on each other's nerves.

I am many, many things but none of them rhyme with "tactful."

In his mind we will "reassess" things on the 9th. In my mind, that's the date I'm available to start a new job, should one be on offer.

He does know I'll be job-hunting. Presumably he's hoping I won't find anything before the end of the year (the date which, for some reason, his brain grabbed onto as a good date to close the place). I have no particular objection to continuing to receive regular paychecks between now and the time I find alternative employment, but I will be searching.

To that end, I have procured, from DiamondGirl, the name of a really good staffing person who has helped her and others find positions. And I've bookmarked the three (reportedly), most promising sites for jobs in the Denver area.

It's not a bad feeling, realizing that I can continue to be paid while actively job-hunting. Without guilt!

On the down side, I have to keep coming in here every day.