Am I Tired of Engineering?

When my job was finally terminated at my hitech Electrical Engineering employer (March 2007) I was well and truly ready to be rid of it. For at least the last three years I had been hating the job and bitched about it far too frequently to my friends. The problem was that I had a mortgage to pay and did not have the courage to step away from a job I didn´t like. I´m sure this happens to many people and even surer that the burdens are far worse for people with dependent spouses and families - I really don´t know how they do it and I feel for them.
Since I finished that job I have been giving my self a big break and a change of scenery and exposure to new places, people and ideas. The intent is to give myself the space to assess my past and plan something of my future. I initially thought that I really hated my job and was probably done with engineering and would likely benefit from a complete change of lifestyle as well. I´m now over eight months into my break and have made some progress on the review of the past at least.

It turns out that it wasn´t my life that I hated back in Vancouver. It wasn´t even my job. After due consideration and a descent sized break, I think I can safely say that the problem was almost wholly my management!
From my current perspective I can safely say that engineering is still a good job for me if I can find a manager and management that I like and a role that motivates me. I knew the role that I wanted before I took my last job - I was just foolish enough to settle for a far less rewarding role as a start point (that never progressed due to the bursting of the dotCom bubble). As for the management problem, that may be tricky to solve but at least I am now aware of the personal importance of the issue and how it effects the whole of my life. I will not be so quick to compromise again.
So, I can still be an engineer and it is in general a creative job which is very important for me, but I have to admit that I would rather start some sort of business that builds value for me rather than for executives and share-holders. That said, I have not yet figured out what that business would be - I have so many interests but no clear path of how to make any of them into viable businesses.
More thinking still to do on this one...