I had found out that a frequent poster to a board on I'm on also lives in the Chicago area, and checked out his info, which showed that he's a long-term I.T. professional ... so, I send him a note with links to my pro resume and my tech resume, hoping that he might have some leads for my job search. It turns out that he's been looking for full-time work (and this guy is a seasoned pro) for over two years as well ... which makes me think that I'm never going to find anything.
I just wish I had a decent "Plan B" ... but there doesn't seem to be any functional options for keeping our world here together ... it's either I find a job or we lose everything ... all other scenarios we've mapped out degrade into really ugly situations. It's like the next level is "uh, we go someplace else and do something else?", with no clue of where/what/how. Too bad I've spent so long doing preventative healthcare stuff ... my family could really use my having a massive coronary right about now since I'm less than no use to them alive.