Effective Dec. 31, he will be unemployed. Because he's been laid off, rather than fired, his severance package will provide him with the equivalent of an additional six months' worth of salary, taking him into the middle of 2009, by which point he expects to have another job.

And because my mom is still employed, and she chose a house with an affordable mortgage, she's already been covering the house payments with her salary alone, and she expects that she can continue to do so even if she winds up supporting both herself and my dad, as long as they live frugally.

So, I've heard the reassurances. It doesn't change the fact that my dad is in his early 60s, and has spent almost his entire life working in electrical engineering, which is an especially unforgiving career field for old men, even when businesses aren't conducting mass layoffs.

It also doesn't change the fact that I am employed, and my dad isn't, and that's the first time this has happened in ... well, ever. Every single time my dad was previously unemployed, I was still just a student. The last time he got laid off, I was in college.

There's something deeply weird about still going to work when your dad isn't.