Well, toss me in the lions' den & call me Daniel!

Well, toss me in the lions' den & call me Daniel!
They say change is good - I say folding money is better! 2006 is shaping up as "The Year Of Changing Everything". Not only have we sold the Ol' Homestead, but I am about to take on a new job assignment after 5+ years. Same employer, different division. As I enter a 2-week transitional period, I am faced with a classic "Here Come Da Poo!" moment, when I ask myself whether I've made the right decision. I said to myself I said "Self," I said, "What have you gotten yourself into??"
There is no doubt that my current position will no longer support me in the fashion to which I have become accustomed. Anyone who knows The Ol' Abbot knows I'm not very fashionable, but there are limits to what I can afford not to make. I have stretched this job way beyond what it was intended to be, & now the rubber band is contracting to the New Normal. I have to move on before it stings me. The last time I was earning at the New Normal rate, I did not have a mortgage.
Also, there is the concern that I will not be successful in the new role. It is humbling to contemplate the deterioration of mental acuity attributable to age & stress. In High School many of my teachers told me not to show up for classes because nobody else would raise their hands, just waited for me to answer. "Show up next Tuesday", they'd say, "there's a test." So off I'd go to the La Coste Cafe to eat pecan pie, & my senior year I set all time records for yearbook advertising sales. I had regular Calulator Races w/my boss at HEB: he would fly across that 10-key like Jethro Bodine pickin' cotton, while I added the same columns of numbers in my head. Undefeated, that was me. Also undefeated Wonderland Mall Trivial Pursuit champion 2 years running, thank you! Those days are long gone. Still, I will give it the old never-been-to-college try, & trust the Father to provide as he always has done.
Couple that anxiety with the unhappy fact that my new digs put me squarely amidst some folks whose ethics I have oft challenged, & I start looking for fuzzy manes & sparkly fangs. I hear my Pop's old drinking buddy Hank Williams drawling "Jonah got along in the belly of a whale, Daniel in the lions' den". Maybe I should be more like Alf, chanting "Here, kitty, kitty, kitty..." while smacking my lips. I suspect that reality will lie somewhere in between. There are some wonderful follks over there by the windows: hopefully they will welcome a battle-scarred ol' abbot. Pray me luck. Anybody priced Lion Chow recently?