Irony Sucks Sometimes

So, I've been looking around at work recently and things are starting to look a little wonky. What I mean is, I'm putting little things together like - no long term contracts, reduction in office space, massive cost-cutting, etc. Now, all of that looks like fiscal responsibility in the face of difficult times. It also looks like a company positioning itself to be purchased. I'm generally an optimist. I'm not, however, completely stupid. I look at the possibilities and mix them with the empty checking account and microscopic savings account and I have to do some serious figuring.

So, I decided to set aside my trap shooting and a number of other good (albeit optional) things in order to sock away as much money as possible in the coming months. The way I figure it, layoffs always seem to happen in December so I save like mad until then. I also figure that if a merger is going to happen, I'm going to be one of the first technical people to go - companies generally don't need more than one telecom manager. I got out the budget and re-worked the numbers and made a plan.

That was two days ago. This morning, when I left for work I discovered the car was dead.

That budget I worked on? Blown to smithereens. I figured something was going to come along to disrupt my plans. I just didn't expect it to happen before I'd even received the first paycheck towards it.