Friday, Jan. 30, was my last day at Toyota, my last day as editor of the corporate blog, “Open Road.” I’d known this was coming since November. Now that it’s finally here, it’s still a bit of a shock. I’m not alone, however, not even close – Toyota is cutting/has cut its entire contingent of "business partners," or non-FTE workers, among whom I numbered. I’ve been told that that is up to half of the total population of the main campus in Torrance – a couple thousand folks, I gather.
To say that this is a bad time for me to be looking for work is an understatement. I’ve spent the last 37 years, since I first went to work as a cub reporter for the South Bay Daily Breeze in Torrance, working in print media, an industry that has completely tanked. I’ve spent much of that time writing about automobiles, another industry that has completely tanked. So, you're seeing a pattern here, right?
While I’m looking for my next adventure, I’m going to expend some time and energy helping to market Laura’s company, Your Great Event, and its various activities. I’ve done that all along, mind you, but it’s probably time for a rethink and a refresh.
But I’ll have time for other stuff, too, I think – riding my bicycle, pickin’ my banjo and mandolin, shooting a little trap and improving my photography, which Lord knows could use some improving.
And, there’s this: Laura informed me last week that should I find any spare time between doing all the jobs she wants me to do for her company, I'm going to learn to fly fish. I didn't know I wanted to do that, but OK, I guess.
With that in mind, I dug out the fly-fishing gear I bought in 1986 in an unrequited fit of fishing enthusiasm. Took a bit of searching, but I finally found it. It’s still almost new, having seen use only at the local casting pond. I find that I'm rather looking forward to figuring it all out, to reacquainting myself with the Eastern Sierra and the Owens Valley, which we abandoned as campers years ago when our travel goals changed, and to annoying trout.
Maybe I'll take a banjo fishing with me just to complete the job of annoying – I can annoy both the trout and the fishermen. I mean, anything worth doing is worth doing well, right? Plus, this: I can use the banjo as a makeshift fish net! Tell me this isn’t creative thinking – and maybe a higher and better use for a banjo.
- JFT
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