After returning from a long weekend out of town, I find that I am no longer needed at my gig.

I got a call from my boss while we were driving to the airport, but I was on vacation, so I didn't answer it in the car. I forgot about it until I got home, and checked in the morning. I had no reason to get up so early, as I was told it would not be necessary for me to report to work as my services were no longer required. No wonder they had me do so much stuff before I left for the weekend.

I did show up. You can't can a guy who doesn't know it's coming, and keep the stuff he brings to the office to make his little "home away from home." I had a photo of the wife on the wedding day, a USB cable (I've got 100 of them, but the principle says to get it back), some spare change (I hate to jingle), a notebook (leather bound), and some other junk. I nipped in without running into anyone. I dumped out the half soda, tossing the Arby's cup. I grabbed a cardboard box (recycling container) and packed my stuff. I took a few minutes and cleaned my home folder. I also rebooted to the SuSE install I'd put on the box and removed my user and home directory. I didn't want to take the time to repartition, so I added a bogus user. making it auto-login, and set the grub loader to wait 1 second before booting to Windows anyway. Someone can look and play, but there's nothing to see. I turned off the computer, made one more last pass through the drawers and set out for home.

Of course, on the way out I run into the tech lead (at the end of the hall, just a wave and he disappeared around a corner), and I got in the elevator with another developer. Just a quick "hey" passed, and then the 10-story drop to the skyway level. He went one way, I another, without a second word.

I surrendered my parking pass to the lady in the box. That was a little funny. I'd stopped by on foot to the booth first saying I wasn't sure what the procedure was for ending my contract. She said just pull around and she'd help me from the window. I got in the truck and pulled around. She saw the parking badge (RFID that automatically opens the gate) and told me I could just pull forward and the gate would open. I chuckled and apologized for not being clear, explaining that my contract was over and I needed to return their equipment. She laughed at her gaffe, and took the badge, telling me to e-mail the boss to see about a refund for the half-month I didn't use (which reminds me I should do that now...done).

I drove off. Good riddance.