After 12 straight years of flying I finally got furloughed in April 09. I thought about the overseas thing and know many guys over there right now who can help me out with that. But with a family I decided the time away from them wouldn't be worth the money. I always wanted to own a business and figured I might as well BUY me a job since there are none. So I decided to be my own boss and buy a small pet grooming salon. Pretty risky with this economy plus not knowing anything about the biz itself. But the location, price, everything pointed to the good. Its hard work and doesn't pay as good as flying airplanes but I can't complain, it gets most of the bills paid. I'm actually in the process of opening up a second shop now. Going from flying 50 million dollar aircraft all the way down to washing dog asses is definitely a humbling experience but I still feel very lucky even though I got furloughed. If there's anything I've learned during the past several months it's this. You can plan your life all you want... you just can't plan the journey.