Under 10,000. Bad as things have been lately, I honestly didn't think the day would come when I'd see the Dow plummeting like this, when people like Mad Money's Jim Cramer would be urging Americans who need money within the next 5 years to pull funds from the market ASAP. (Click here to read that cheery story.) Certainly not one business day after the historic bailout bill was signed by President Bush. Certainly not a year (almost to the day) after people were celebrating the Dow's first-ever rise to 14,100.

Europe is chastising us. More banks are failing (including one I do business with, Wachovia). Unemployment figures are up. And now, only now, am I hearing some economist types saying, "Well, it appears we could be in a recession or entering one."

Ya think?

I was let go from my position (and sort of left it at the same time) just before Christmas last year. Struggling to get a start-up business off the ground has been tough. We'd just got a home (that we can still afford, thank heavens), and we'd invested a lot of savings into fixing the roof, etc. Since then, work has been slower than we expected. I picked up a moonlighting job which has helped some. But then, last month, I had an accident that broke my jaw. Thank heavens, my husband's insurance covered it. But we've been getting by - just barely. A communicator who can't communicate - well, that's lost income, almost any way you look at it.

Before this whole financial mess pushed its way onto the front pages several weeks ago, Dave (hubby) and I had already pared way, way back. It had been a long time since we'd gone out to eat in nice restaurants or done any significant shopping; lately, we haven't even been going to our favorite local tavern to say hi to friends. We stay at home instead.

We decided against the pre-buy options for fuel oil in September because they weren't just prohibitive - the costs were impossible to fit into the budget.  (The past two weekends, we cut about two cords of wood, and we still need at least another two to get us through the winter.)

We got rid of cable (suits me fine anyway, $70/month is too much to pay for nothing on TV, night after night). We decided against even attempting to buy a used car, working instead with the 9-year-old vehicles we have that are paid for and cost so little to insure.

And we're managing. But barely.

We keep saying, "Things will improve once... (fill in the blank: my jaw is unwired, business picks up, such-and-such bill is paid, etc.)

Maybe they will, maybe they won't.

It took us a long time to pare down to this bare-bones level. It was hard to give up a lifestyle we'd worked so hard to earn.

I admit, though, we feel like our heads are on straight about this financial fiasco the country is facing. Not because we're smarter - but because we've been feeling the pinch for nearly a year and coming to terms with it.

But when will it end?

With no way of knowing (because, as a commentator said earlier today on NPR, "No one really knows what's happening on Wall Street, because no one understands it"), Dave and I are about to take another look at our situation and buckle down. Harder.

Duck and cover doesn't really protect you from fallout. But it feels better than doing nothing, and feeling you're at the mercy of the Fates.