Nothing But The Ugly Side

I sit silently biting my tongue because I am no longer willing to fight with people. It's hard when you subject yourself to so much of the harm people do by reading the half truths and in many cases lies that spread like wildfire on the internet.

It gets harder when you see the unfortunate being verbally trashed. Even harder still when you witness the plight of our veterans used as a rallying cry against refugees, but no one bothers to address that plight in any substantial way. No one bothers to inform themselves beyond Facebook or Twitter memes supporting our troops and I'm left with a sense that my entire world is filled with shallow people spewing their ignorance in my path.

Nearly half a million veterans find themselves homeless on any given day. There are 1.4 million more living on the edge of poverty and in need of help in the form of food stamps, rent and heat assistance and medical care. Why do they not have that? Why do people who scream that welfare is too costly not understand that among those welfare bums, that they claim are fraudulent, are the very troops they claim to support?

Why isn't it fraud that the Walton family can be worth 50 billion dollars plus by employing people at wages which require their employees to apply for welfare in order to feed their families? If those are entry level jobs and they can get better ones elsewhere, according to those who complain loudest, where do they think the money to educate themselves sufficiently to qualify for a better job is supposed to come from? They're employed in jobs that are now considered temporary and they must sign a contract agreeing to that in order to be hired.

I'm watching small businesses locally struggle to survive and they won't make it without a miracle because people shop at Walmart for cheaper prices. They're even telling crafters at the fairs the same thing.

When stores close because people shop more online, why is it that the newly unemployed get the blame when they can't get another job and need to use public assistance to eat?

How is it supporting our troops when we kiss the asses of the very corporations that are creating veteran unemployment and then condemning those veterans for applying for public assistance?

How many single mothers has your war created? How many veterans commit suicide each day leaving their families behind? How many able bodied veterans are among those you denounce as cheats? How is this supporting anything but ignorance?

How many self absorbed idiots are there on the internet anyway? How do I keep them out of my real life these days? They've gone forth and multiplied and it's ugly.

Instead Of Complaining, I Just Did It

When you're retired you truly don't pay much attention to time. For instance, if it wasn't for the uploading of pictures taken with my camera I wouldn't know I had acquired it towards the beginning of August. The uploading creates folders that have dates on them and the first two pictures taken were these.

The date on the folder they were stored in is 8-9-15 which was the first day I took pictures with my then new camera. The full woodshed and the amount of wood we still had to stack. 

The weather was hot and humid and we're in our later 60s so we just didn't have the energy to do that much work. We decided to wait for cooler Fall temperatures which usually start happening about the middle of September, but this year they were a lot later arriving. Towards the end of September we were reaching the high 80s every day. 

Once the weather cooled off my not retired husband's business picked up due to people wanting to get their septic tanks pumped out before winter so they wouldn't have to deal with a back up when it's below freezing outside. When he comes home, he's tired since dragging hoses, shoveling dirt to get to the cleanout covers is hard physical labor and he is not as young as he once was. Needless to say, he wasn't getting to the wood pile the way he normally does. 

I decided this week that I'd do some of it for him. I am sadly, seriously out of shape. However, I plugged away at it until the pain in my joints and muscles would call a halt to my activity. I didn't do too badly, it took me most of 4 days but this is how it looks out there now. 

It's going to rain for the next few days and possibly snow this weekend. However I am out of pallets and plywood to stack the wood on. A neighbor said he'd stack the rest on my deck for me once we get the table and chairs put away for the season. I will take care of that in a day or two and this snowfall, if we get one, won't last so he'll have plenty of time to do it in. I know I can't. My joints are so swollen today I can barely move. I feel a very satisfying sense of accomplishment though. 

A little Tylenol and an application of Arnica gel to the complaining joints and I'll be puttering around the house in no time at all. And tomorrow when I see the doctor, I'm going to find out what kind of regular exercise will keep the muscles I built doing the wood stacking in shape. I'm going to need them to get all that stacked wood into the woodstove for warmth. 

Happy Fall Y'all

Current pictures of Mother Nature's artistry as she paints in my little corner of these not always so United States.

These pictures are all from the hayfield across the road from me. We're about 30% color and the next bunch I'll take next week should begin to be awesome. I'm also planning on seeing if I can find the time for a drive to the back side of the lake to see what I can find of interest there. 

And yes, that is an ice cream truck in the bush in the first picture. No, it's not an accident. The rear tire needs changing and with the weight of all the refrigeration equipment the driver is uncertain that the front wheel chocks will hold, So, he pulled it up into the bush to keep it from rolling forward and off the jack. It was jacked up right after I took the picture. I should have waited a few more seconds before pushing the button. 

Life In The Country

According to our local weather people we are at 25% Autumn color. So, I took my camera and went out with it to capture the 25%. I think I should have waited for 50% so I could see it. The first picture I pulled over to the side of the road and captured the cornstalks. I was sitting inside the car since there were cars coming up behind me and it's a 55 MPH speed zone. I wanted to take pictures not get hit by a car. The last 3 pictures were taken standing in a hay field about 3 miles away from the first picture. I got out of the car for those.

The second picture I used the zoom to see the colors. It wasn't until I backed it off that the aircraft appeared. I didn't use the zoom for the last picture. I was standing in the flight path for the Griffiss International Airport and that is a military plane.

It was a gorgeous day, I enjoyed it.

Haunted Kitties, Wild Sunflowers And Puppies In The Snow

Just a couple of things I've been working on. The store is going to have an event on October 17 to try and get people in to shop. I fear this is going to be one of those situations where nobody will support the business when it exists but will whine about the lack of places to shop when it closes. 

I don't know why or how people became so negative about everything. I'd like to remain positive which means I spend a lot less time online and more time doing things I enjoy. The Wild Sunflowers are blooming. They won't last much longer, I'm going to enjoy them while they're here. 

Busy, Busy, Busy

And this is what I've been busy doing.

And this.

And this.

All are finished, inventoried, priced and boxed for tomorrow delivery to the store along with the others in my last blog post.

Now all I have to do is wait and see if people will buy them.

Oh, and I have to keep painting just in case they do.

New Camera And Reawakened Interest In Painting

There is a store locally that is selling strictly hand crafted items by local artists. I've been asked to sell my wares there. It works much like a show, we pay $35 a month plus 10% of sales and the store owner does all the work. I really don't have much to sell yet so I've started working on painting things to sell.

Now that I have a camera I can take pictures of my work and share them on the blog. Which makes my artwork more fun.

On the last post I shared a piece that I had done some time ago and after looking at it, I decided it needed something so, I got out the paints and this is what I came up with.

I definitely like it better. I added 2 roses and did a transparent green effect around the entire arrangement which made the white edges of the flowers pop out and become more visible against the background color.

Yesterday I did this one.

 I'm looking forward to creating many more and with my new camera, now I can share them.

Random Thoughts From The Retired Me

Some day I may figure out how it is I get close to 2000 pageviews a month on a blog that isn't updated regularly. Since I haven't a clue I'll just consider myself special or something.

It took awhile but I have organised my home and life to the point where I am the happiest I've ever been. My problem now is I don't wish to go out of my home into the maelstrom that I am safe from behind my closed door. It's bad enough I have access to it online I really don't need to experience it on a face to face basis.

Maybe I feel this way because I'm closer to my expiration date and my peace has become more important to me? I don't know, I just know that I can make a faster getaway from the information superhighway than I can while driving in my car. No speed limit online. Well, unless ones provider decides to limit it, but I can still find that little red x faster than some people can blink. Most of the time I use it before I get into trouble, lately it's become more important to me to speak my mind than to stay silent.

Online I can "slip out the back Jack," In person I'm apt to get my nose punched. I suppose I could pretend that I wear glasses all the time instead of just for reading, but these days people don't care if they put out your eyes. They want their right not to be butthurt unless they can do something about it, like knock your teeth down your throat. I wonder if it's all that online arguing that builds that kind of frustration? I wonder who I should contact to suggest a study about that? We waste money on everything else, why not to answer my questions?

Anyways, back to the organisation. I have closets and drawers in which I can find everything. The cans and stored foods in my pantry are now not past their expiration date.  I've rearranged the kitchen so that things I use regularly are easier to acquire. I've even changed the location of my chatchkies.

I have a small collection of hand painted Fenton Art Glass Cats that were buried on a corner shelf in the dining room. I've moved them to the top of my computer hutch where I get to admire them in the moments when I need to sit back and stare upward while requesting guidance. Some of them need to be elevated more for clearer visibility but I haven't decided what to use for that yet.

My husband's book work and tools (sigh) still take up space in my livingroom, but with everything else organised to my liking I don't seem to mind so much. I assume that is due to less stress and being more relaxed. I do have one more area that needs organising. Actually it's not so much organising as replacing that's needed. My paints have all gone past their usefulness.

I will need to find some way to dispose of them, clean the bottles and recycle those. Then I get to go shopping for more paints. They're all water based acrylics so it's not such a bad thing as it would be if they were oils, but there's close to 100 bottles partly filled with separated or dried out paint. Disposing of them will take days of fighting to get the contents out of the bottles. If I were less eco friendly, I'd bundle the lot of them up and just throw them in the dump, but I won't do that. It's not the right thing to do. Easier, but not right.

I'm going to go and replace them in September so I'll something to do to occupy my time now that I have my house organised. It cleans easily this way and doesn't take as much time. Which leaves me too much time to spend online unless I find something else to do.

I'm going to actually buy a camera this month. That will get me out of the house to take pictures that I can share on the blog, and it will give me something to look at when I try to duplicate the scene with paints. Fall is gorgeous here and this is farm country. Just the kind of bucolic scenery that begs to be celebrated with paint. I might get lucky and capture a deer or two in the process.

In the meantime I found the latigo I needed to hang my latest painting on my front door. I scanned it in instead of taking a picture so part of it is cut off at the bottom. I had finished it quite awhile ago but couldn't find the leather to hang it with until I got busy and organised my life. One of my neighbors wants me to paint something like it for her door. Fortunately the paints I need for her decor are still good enough to use.

People Amuse Me

One of my neighbors has been screaming about his income tax bill. It seems he underestimated the amount of money he would make in 2014 when he applied for the tax credit for his healthcare insurance. He admits his underestimate was intentional and now wants to screech that the government took the correct amount back from him via his income tax return. I fail to see what part of the subsidy being based on EXACTLY what he earned didn't alert him to the fact that if he earned more than he claimed his subsidy would be different? OMG OMG OBAMACARE DIDN'T LET ME LIE AND THEY TOOK MY MONEY. This means, of course that Obamacare is a failure. I can't convey to you the epic facepalm moments I have when I hear crap like that. Are the people complaining about having to pay the correct amount for their insurance really that stupid?

I'm very short tempered about things these days. Probably because I am lacking transportation. My Youngest stepson's car needs a new oil pump. It went to hell last Friday. He drove the car here, grabbed my Bravada and has done nothing to fix his problem since. Car still sits here while he runs all over Hells Half Acre driving what I usually drive. With my beloved HUSBAND'S blessing.

My vehicle needs some work done on it. Intake manifold gaskets need replacing. I've been running with it on one of those Miracle In A Bottle quick fixes. Works fine since I don't go that far. The Youngest Idiotic Offspring of My Soon to be Dead Beloved Husband travels hundreds of miles in a day.

Since I have accepted the inevitable I started hunting for another vehicle. I found an Olds Bravada in much better shape and newer than the one I have. Husband is whining that the guy wants too much. Well DUH! Hasn't he heard about dickering? Sooooo, this means WAR!

Yesterday I stuck him with the having to answer the business calls while actually conducting business trick. Of course, do you think people would call so I could share the inconvenience? Noooo, of course not. So, next attempt will be tomorrow since we went for groceries at Aldis and he won't drink their coffee plus they don't have the brand of cat food my cat eats. Since I couldn't get to where I needed to go because my friend wasn't going there and I have no transportation, he's going to have to take me.

As I explained to him, he can go without coffee on Sunday and without canned cat food to keep the cat from pestering him at 5 in the morning or he can cart my butt to the grocery store. I can't drive his pick up since it's manual and I never learned to drive on a manual. He doesn't want to take me out to teach me, nor does he want to kick his son in the butt to make him give me back the vehicle I need.

So, this means he needs to drive me to my doctor's appointment on Wednesday, the hairdresser appointment on Friday. He'll have to make the bank deposits, pick up the vehicle parts, the plumbing supplies, the oil for his pumper from Baums and call a tow truck if he breaks down somewhere since I have no way to help him. In the meantime, his son is using my vehicle to cart his daughter to work and back, let his wife get the groceries and whatever she needs and they get to go to the movies in it while his Passat sits in my driveway for a week now instead of being taken care of.

Funny how I married a man who isn't bright enough to understand why I'm angry. Yep, people do amuse me.

Seasons, Reasons And Lifetimes

This morning saw the property owner at my door to pick up her check for our leasing agreement. She's a mess these days with her Mom in a nursing home. Actually, she's a mess for other reasons going back 8 years now to the death of her husband, but she's dealing with a family issue that is adding more to that mess.

It seems her younger brother took advantage of the impending death of his step-father to grab power of attorney for step-dad and his own Mom. Their mother is an alcoholic with liver disease and with that power of attorney he also acquired her healthcare proxy. His first action was to lock her out of her own bank account so that she didn't have access to money for booze. Secondly he went through her house with a fine tooth comb and cleaned it out of her stash. 

There are long term alcoholics that shouldn't be dried out without medical supervision. She is one of them and she wound up in a locked down mental ward at a local hospital. Her kidneys shut down. As a result of his actions she is no longer considered to be capable of managing her own affairs and he has now transferred her to a nursing home. She needs to be there. I know this sounds harsh, but other than his lack of understanding of just how drying out would affect her, he is doing this for her own good.

His sister is upset. Not because of her impending death. She is upset that her Mom wants to go home to die and her brother won't let her. The doctor has declared this woman can't live alone any more. She falls all the time since all she's done for years is sit on her butt and drink until she passed out. She won't cooperate with the therapy to make her stronger, and there is no room in her apartment for someone else to live in.

There is a solution, but it isn't one my landowner likes. She has a 3 bedroom ranch in which she lives all by herself. It hasn't been cleaned in 8 years and she spends no time in it except to sleep at night because her husband died there, 8 years ago.

He didn't die suddenly, he died from cancer. Prostate cancer because he was a Jehovah's Witness and wouldn't accept the treatments that might place him in need of blood transfusions that were against his religion. She had time to prepare herself and she didn't. I don't know if she was in denial, I don't see how she could have been had she paid any attention to his condition. Then again, her lack of ability to stay home started when he was suffering. Church members spent more time with him than she did.

My Dad died May 4 and her husband died May 20 in 2007. My step-Mom has gone on with her life and she misses him 8 years later, but she lives her life head on. She doesn't run from the pain of loss. She owns it and finds things to do when it's this time of year. At the time, she let go, she didn't try to hang on to him because he was suffering. That's not what my landowner did.

Death hurts. Being left behind to fend for oneself hurts. The only way someone is in our lives for our lifetime is if we die first. That's a fact that can't be gotten around no matter how hard we try. People are in our life for seasons or reasons. For lifetime we have memories. It's up to us what mood those memories give us. We can waste our time wallowing in the hurt or we can use that hurt to do something constructive for someone else. It isn't the hurt or the loss that defines us, it's what we do afterward that will. That's our choice and nobody else's. 

If You're In Too Deep, Put Down The Shovel

I can't count the number of times people have asked us, as business owners who have just provided a service for them, if we can't hold the check until after Friday when they get paid. I'm tempted to say no, we need this money to pay our bills on time. I'd love to see the expression on their faces if we did that, not that they care, we don't count in their struggle to make ends meet.

When something like that is requested from someone who is obviously struggling, we don't have a problem with it. My problem is when you look at the homes they live in, the 3 nearly new cars in the driveway, the RV parked next to the garage, the boat, the snowmobiles, the ATV, the big zero turn lawn mower and all the fancy toys that are clearly visible on the property, I don't have much sympathy.

You have all that but you don't have $250 or thereabouts to pay our bill on time?  Really? Whose fault is that? Accept some responsibility for your problem and do something about it, stop whining.

I don't have all those toys. I'm not asking anyone to send me money so I can have those toys. I'm asking people that we provided a service for to pay for that service so we can pay the bills generated by that service. No more, no less. How hard is that? Pretty hard according to most of the people who are owing us money.

Excuse me for not being grateful for your business when you bounce checks, have paid with a maxed out credit card and then ignore my calls to try to straighten things out. I'm not impressed with your exclusive country club membership then. Trust me on that. You aren't any better when you do that than the people you call low life scum. You call them that because in your mind, they don't pay their bills. So, tell me what part of paying your bill just didn't happen?

And don't think that life will change much when the Republicans get serious and take our country back. You will still be buying toys on credit that is creating payments that are higher than your income. Funny how that's everyone else's fault except your own.

Yada Yada Yada

I've come to the conclusion that political discourse as we know it now is stupid. I'm not just talking about those commonly called Right Wing Nut Jobs, I'm also talking about the habits of the Progressives as well.

They don't like Gov. Cuomo. He's a DINO, he's for the rich, He hates education, etcetera, etcetera! However, they fail to accept that Cuomo is attempting to rebuild a state that lost $93 BILLION in taxable revenue as a direct result of the Wall St. crash of 08 and the number of people and employers who left the state for other places that had less taxes.

So, to combat that exodus he established tax free zones so outside businesses and start ups could get their feet in the water and learn to swim before the tax situation in this state creates an anchor that holds them underwater. Businesses here are still failing. And it's great to say TAX THE RICH" but that isn't really the solution.

TAX THE RICH isn't going to bring new businesses in.

TAX THE RICH isn't going to employ the nearly 600,000 people actively looking for work.

The answer isn't just TAX THE RICH and then spend the money on stupidity. For instance. Onondaga County has asked the State of New York for $900 million to tear down the Grandstand at the State Fair grounds and build an Amphitheater. Meanwhile the city of Syracuse in Onondaga County has some serious issues with their infrastructure. The newly revitalized business district called Armory Square is having water main breaks at the rate of 2 a week. The county won't help them because of the request for the money to build the amphitheater. And they don't have the money to rebuild the water mains themselves.

The prevailing reasoning behind this move is that the State Fair brings in millions of revenue for the county. Somehow they seem to not remember that the State Fair is a once a year deal and that businesses open daily bring in revenue that if allowed to continue will keep the money coming in when the fairgrounds doesn't. That requires the ability on the part of the city to see to in that the businesses actually have what they need as far as sewer and water.

And while this may sound like an excellent idea to many who want to use the fairgrounds more than once a year, they aren't making the decision based on what the outside the fair use actually is. Every October, Super DIRT week is held at the fairground on the Grandstand's race track which they plan to do away with. What the County Exec wants to replace that with is horse shows. And there is already an arena where those are held. Which don't bring in the money DIRT week does, but the reasoning is they could have more of them?

Mind you, this isn't just $900 million of Onondaga's money. It's the state's money that she has no qualms about asking for. A move which will cost the DIRT revenue and eventually the businesses in Syracuse when they move to other places where water and sewer is available. Some of those business owners are already looking for alternate sites, reluctantly, because they want to stay there. DIRT week adds to their revenue too because of the shuttle buses between the fairgrounds and their businesses.

And when the lovely Liberals scream TAX THE RICH how are they defining the word rich? I took a peek at Gov. Cuomo's tax returns. And he pays half his income in taxes.

On the Governors total income of $553,000 he owed the federal government $155,193 he paid $6916 over the income deductions he filed quarterly. For state tax his bill was $41,000. He'll get a refund of $3212. In addition to that he also pays 6.2 Social Security plus the Medicare tax which makes his tax indebtedness equal to half his income.

He's not starving by any means with half of his income left, but how much more can be taken to offset the expenditures our government, both state and federal are making? The reality is WE are in the habit of spending too much money. If We the People keep spending ourselves into debt on a personal level, why is it we expect any different behavior from our politicians? It's not just them, it's US.

Something Too Funny Not To Share

Counting My Internet Blessings

First blessing I can think of is being able to talk to people without choking on the strong scents they apply to their bodies. I opened a gift set I received from someone this past Christmas and used just the shower gel. It came from Bath and Body Works which means someone spent a great deal of money on something that made me choke and shower again using something different. I am doubly grateful I didn't use the lotion and body spray along with the shower gel. I can still taste it. 

The second blessing needs absolutely no explanation. CATS, CATS, CATS. I love looking at them.

The third blessing probably should be that it gives idiots like me a platform to spew my stinky opinions on. How else would people who never will know me in real life manage to decide I'm crazy?

I should qualify that by saying IF they decide I'm crazy. I do tend to think that's fairly obvious but then again, I am just another internet user who might be pretending to be someone I'm not.

Which brings me to the fourth blessing. Succinctly put? On the internet no one knows you're a dog. Or a loser living in his mother's basement. 

The fifth blessing probably should be something like on the internet I can actually be whoever I choose to be. Except that I'd forget who I chose to be yesterday and someone would immediately try to troll me. So, I guess it's best to find the blessing in the fact that I am who I say I am and leave it at that. 

Mindless Brain Dump

I had decided prior to retirement that the first task I'd undertake would be removing a large amount of clutter from my home. Four weeks later it's closer to the door. Is that success? I doubt it.

Everything from the kitchen and living room now resides in the dining room. Two large totes of it have been stacked in a corner to be placed in storage. The resident furball producer has determined it's a fine sleeping place. How does one take the favorite sleeping place away from one's beloved pet? I haven't the heart yet.

One of my numerous excuses for not having all that much accomplished in 4 weeks is that there's so much snow it's not safe for me to carry anything out to the storage shed. I may run out of that excuse soon. I'm hoping. Even have my fingers crossed. I won't mind losing this excuse since it means the snow will go away and warmer weather will arrive. I do still have a few excuses I can replace that one with.

There's always the *my daughter-in-law decluttered her deceased father's apartment by sending me some clutter* excuse. I wouldn't be lying either. Well, not too much, anyway. Her father was a person who believed in stocking up for the winter or something. He had two replacement coffee pots for his maker and close to 400 coffee filters left. Neither of the pots come close to fitting my machine. They're glass, mine is a thermos style pot. The filters work so those I'm keeping but have no idea what to do with the pots. Apparently neither did she which is why I now possess them. Hey! Maybe I can find some poor schnook to gift them to? It's a thought.

It's been warm enough these past couple of days that running the woodstove makes it too warm in here. I'm just using the propane right now. I decided to take the opportunity to clean the darn thing up so it isn't such an eyesore. When it's not hot you see stuff you don't care to see. Like soot all over the glass and something that looks like ashes all over it. So, I blackened my hands washing it. Tonight's fire, because it's going to get colder again, will occur in a sparkling clean stove. All that effort just to get it dirty again. I think I'll go take a nap.

Then I'll go see how much more clutter I can move into the dining room. Maybe I'll do that after lunch, and then I'll take a nap. I don't even need an excuse for that. All this thinking about decluttering is making me sleepy.

The Internet Isn't A Lifestyle

Over the weekend I ran afoul of a Libertarian over my post on the Google ranking change. He appears to be someone who feels that he knows everything and if we don't agree we're drinking the koolaid. He also seems to feel the need to insult when he calls out a person rather than provide facts. Somehow or other we've lost sight of the idea that opinions aren't always facts.

I felt I was holding my own during the exchange and being ever watchful for the dogpiling that usually happens, I was totally flabbergasted when one person chose to defend me. I do hope you're sitting down. The person who stepped up to my defense is the Commander of the Right Wing Hit Squad that has it's stranglehold on that site. I honestly was so shocked I stopped speaking to the Libertarian and let him continue his vituperative attack upon my person.

OMG the Libertarian called me a  "Liberal" like that's a bad thing. He also called me a liar, scum, miserable old hag, etc. Somehow in the minds of the under 40 year old internet residents this is winning an argument. This is calling you out and proving you wrong? How?

I will admit that the Commander wasn't giving a balls to the wall defense of me. After all I am a socialist or maybe that's a communist? I have a hard time keeping up with my labels, so you'll have to excuse me. He did point out that the Libertarian's behavior was uncalled for. Even said that we don't agree on anything but at least we do it nice.

I don't make it my business to school anybody. If I know the facts of a matter I may step up and provide them. I've found that for some people facts bounce off their opinions the same way water runs off a duck's back. No amount of my frustrating myself to try and change their minds is going to work. If someone has chosen ignorance, who am I to bother them?

These days my life revolves around me and what I want to do. We have a warming trend going on this week here in CNY. Snow is beginning to melt. It isn't dark at 5 PM anymore and I can look forward to the sunny days ahead when the robins return and my morning coffee will be accompanied by the songs they and all the other birds will sing.

I'm spending less time on the internet now and that may drop further as Spring advances. The internet can be a good thing when used right. And a not so good thing when used the way I'm seeing it used these day.

I'm Officially Retarded! Errrr, I Mean Retired.

I wasn't supposed to retire until the end of this month or the beginning of March. Unfortunately I overheated my SUV and blew the head gasket. Without transportation to work, and no idea when I will have said transportation, my employer decided to find new people for my cases.

My first Social Security check will arrive in April I think. The letter isn't quite clear on that. It might be March, but I'm pretty sure it will be April since they pay for the month in the month after the month.

Now, since I haven't seen much to impress me online, I think I'll go do some impressive house work since that's about all I have to do at the moment. I'd rather someone find something to impress me, but I suppose into each life some rain must fall. Or, in this case, I should say snow.

It's falling, and piling up and I don't have to drive anywhere in it. I could get real used to this retarded, I mean retired thing.

My Boring Life

I'm going to retire at the end of February at the ripe not so old age of 65 and a half. I was going to wait until full retirement age but discovered I'll only get $41 more than I will if I retire now. The problems I'm having with my soon to be ex-employers make me yearn for this month to pass as quickly as it can.

We've lost 19 employees in the past 7 months. Another agency went out of business and the owner offered her cases and the aides that wanted to go with them to the agency I work for. They were quite happy to be employed even if they did have to take a cut in pay to do so. Then they found out they would also lose their health insurance because our agency decided to limit the hours we work so they don't have to provide insurance.

I wonder how the idiot in the front office decided that 19 people given less money, fewer hours and no health insurance was going to be loyal? They gave me back my $10 per hour. However, instead of the 28 to 30 hours I used to work, I am only being given 18. According to my Social Security Estimate, I can make more money staying home.

My doctor says my job is too physically stressful for the condition of my joints. I'm suffering from frequent repetitive motion injuries because of the difficulty. I actually sprained my wrist just turning a door knob and we will not talk about my aching back.

With all the joint deterioration I'm experiencing, I may not be able to hang onto a client should they slip in the tub or some other place. I can't do transfers without hurting myself. It's time to face the music and do the things I am capable of doing and quit doing too much.

It's like she said, clean my own house, take a walk, maybe join the Y and go swimming or take the pool exercise program. Do Tai Chi at the senior center, maybe some gardening weather permitting. It's not that I can't do anything I want to do, it's that I can't keep doing the heavier things more than once a day. My joints require that I learn to pace myself to minimize the stress and there just isn't any way to do that and work the job I do unless I just don't do the job I'm paid to do. My clients would complain if I tried to do that. No sense of humor there at all.