No emails from Orion, strange. Then at some point around eleven my regular phone rings (and then later I noticed the IP phone was also offline) and I get a call from the CEO, the guy who has the model Enterprise on his desk. I'm fired again. I'll get paid for 11 more days of accumulated vacation, and that's it.
In short, they still owed about a quarter million to the bank, and the bank wasn't satisfied with the speed with which it was repaid. So the bank forced them to reduce costs, which under current economic doctrine means firing a percentage of workers. Four of us got laid off - the latest and most expensive additions. I was explicitly told I didn't do anything wrong, just that they had to.
Sent four emails - to girls in Richmond, to some job prospect, to Jerbie, and to the rasejani mailing list. A special one to Gary, to collect on the 32 unbilled hours (that's 1280$ which will come really handy) and announce my availability.
Then we took the bicycles and went to the beach for a walk. Perfect weather - sunny, slight breeze, people on the boardwalk, life.
Phew... just when we printed the 70 page instructions, from some gov't website, on how to shop for health insurance (Orion would pay 640$ a month if we find somewhere to buy it; they tried and just couldn't find any insurer who would cover all the states where they got workers), how to read the offer, the dictionary of terms, the gotchas and small print.
Next week I packed the laptop, router, cell phone and IP phone, what with cables, and sent them to clear the custody of equipment. Only then they sent the check with backpay.