What do I have in common with Mark Richt, James Comey, a bunch of ESPN folks recently, among others?

            Those people were, in simple terms, fired.

            Other variations for other situations: laid off, involuntary separation, downsizing, restructuring.

            And another one.

            "... As a result, I need to tell you your position is being eliminated."

            It started here on Aug. 10, 1998, and the announced end came at 3:04 p.m. on Thursday, June 22, 2017.

            Yessir. Indeedy. Alllllllrightythen. Wish I'd have worn a cup to that meeting.

            Thus ending a stint that included some Super Bowls, some NCAA Final Fours, scores of state high school championship games and events, my first trip to Starkville, Mercer beating Duke in the NCAA Tournament, and probably around 4,500 game stories, features, notebooks and columns.

            The first seven years of columns and travel and big features and aiding in the administration of the department were pretty dang good, close to anything I could have hoped for: plenty to write about and some level of impact in trying to make the section as good as it could be. Two hours from Athens, 80 minutes from Atlanta, two-plus hours to Georgia Southern, Georgia-Florida games, and lots of stuff and impact.

            Alas ...

            The highlight since then has been dealing with some good college folks and some really good people in the world of high school sports. But then, well, never mind.

            I'll share the astounding timeline of the past two months regarding other cuts another time. But seven weeks after a round of layoffs and quality-cutting measures, suddenly, Thursday happened with no warning: myself, Ron Seibel (sports, 11 years) and Renee Corwine (not currently full-time, but a decade with the paper on the news desk and then to features, latest in charge of Out and About and Wednesday food content).

            I don't know what happened to the vocation I started in at age 16, but it's not going to last much longer, baffling decision-making - some places more than others - doing in a half-decade what I didn't think would be done for 30 years.

  

            There's more, but that's enough for today. I've already long surpassed the average attention span, not to mention smashed 140 characters a good while back.

            Am still in the processing mode, and am studying all that encompasses the elimination of a position, how severance packages and health benefits for a period of time work, as well as having a few lottery tickets sprinkled with holy water.

            And then, on to organizing coupons. Thank God for these two dogs.