I didn't have as drastic a change as Timcos, but it was sort of the same deal. When the start-up I was working for burst with the rest of them I spent 6 months on the couch. I looked and applied everywhere and the market at the time was flooded with Software Engineers.
I picked up the paper and took a job at Anderson Towing. He figured out I was a bit brighter than most folks that worked for him, so I became the "special project". He taught me how to do accident recovery using a wench and the tricks to recovering rollovers and extraction from ditches and stuff. It was $10 + overtime, but I had a brand new $100k truck and I learned a lot.
6 months later I was back in the software world, but I learned a lot and it got me through one of the hardest times my family had to deal with.
Good luck and keep us posted.
Also try
www.careerbuilder.com