12/14/2014: What Have I Been Doing?

For the past week or so, I have worked a temporary, seasonal job as a UPS Driver Helper. Perhaps you have seen them; the second person in those brown trucks during the Christmas delivery season. My job is to help my driver, Scott, deliver packages. While I am out of the truck, he rearranges those waiting to be delivered. By doing so, we save considerable time. In fact, our day ends at about 6:00 P.M., about an hour before his normal day ends.

I start at 2:00 P.M. We meet at a nearby church on his route after he has delivered a certain part, then together we finish delivering and picking up. It's a physical job, entailing handling lots of packages of all sizes and weights up to 75 pounds. And there are thousands of steps! Steps to the houses and back to the truck and two steps up into the truck. Right now as I sit here on Sunday, my right knee is a bit tight, which I expected -- it is, by far, the least 'healthy' of the two knees.

But tomorrow, I do it all over. It's not a bad gig, paying $15.00 an hour. The weather has cooperated, too; unlike last year, so far there has been no snow while I've been working. I won't mind if it stays like this through December 31, when this gig ends.

Then it can snow and I hope it does. I have another seasonal job as a shoveler for a commercial plow company.mthat one will pay $18.00 an hour, money I really need!

12/13/14 - What Silliness

Somehow, humans get all excited when numbers for things like dates line up sequentially. It is no different for this one, the last time it will happen in the 21st Century. Is it significant? Is it an omen? Does it portend some vision of the future?

No. It is just a silly, yet enjoyable, occurrence.

So, enjoy it. It's the last of its kind in your lifetime...unless, of course you stay alive until you are really old!

11/22/2014: Another Post

This is the second post today.

In the past month, I was hired by a commercial snow removal as a shoveler. I was excited at the opportunity to make $18 an hour over the winter and finally get some of my finances in order. I was hopeful in the past couple of weeks because we had a total snowfall of about 24". It was a bit early and I waited by the phone, available and excited.

Only, I got no phone calls and the snow stopped and the weather has warmed up. And my finances have not improved, so today I made another momentous decision: I reapplied for my old job at Meijer. As I write this, I wonder if you, dear reader, even know about that. Did I even tell you? Well, I shall check and if not, that will be a post for another day.

Now, I await contact from Meijer.

Nov. 22, 1963. A Day Of Significance

For people of a certain age, this is a significant day, a day you remember where you were when you heard the news of the assassination of President John F. Kennedy. It is also the last birthday my mother celebrated. She would have been 86 today.

For me, it was sitting beside the piano in our house in Amman, Jordan, listening to her play Chopin. Or maybe Brahms. I don't actually remember the song, only what happens when the VOA, the Voice Of America radio interrupted the program with the news.

I never heard such silence and I had never seen what used to be a group of happy American expats enjoying their time together a moment ago leave in that silence. Or my mother cry like that.

Little did I know what left that living room that night.

10/1/2014: Big Day

Today is October 1, 2014. It is the first day of my 65th birth month, and to the Social Security Administration, it's an important day because it's the day Medicare becomes my primary insurance provider. I'm not sure how I feel about it just yet, but at least I got to this day; neither my mother nor my father saw their 65th birthday (even though my actual birthday isn't until the 11th.)

My visit to the SSA office in Grand Rapids last month went without much surprise. I learned that starting January 1, 2015, I can earn $44,000 a year until October 1, 2015, when there is no income limit. For me, that's a very good thing because my financial health, unlike my physical health, has crumbled and is on life-support. Right now, I am restricted to earning $15,000 a year, which isn't hard to exceed. When I do, my monthly benefit is reduced. I don't "lose" it, though; it is tacked onto the end, so when October 2015 rolls around, my benefit will increase, which will be nice. Until then, however, I have to go back to work as soon as I can and hopefully ease some of this bad juju that's afflicting me.

I have applied to several places, but I guess most businesses are pulling back their staffing in anticipation of reduced sales this Winter. I had an interview with a local snow plowing company as a shoveler; I have not heard back from them and hope they call. They pay $18 an hour for mostly-third shift work shoveling sidewalks at their client businesses after big snowfalls. It's strange but if I get the job, I hope for a very strong winter...getting paid $18 an hour to shovel is pretty sweet.

Thanks for reading. So far, nobody has, but that's not why I'm doing it. For me, it's therapy.

9/10/14: Important visit tomorrow

Tomorrow, 9/11/2014, I have a visit to the local Social Security office. Why, you ask? Dealing face-to-face with them isn't something I would volunteer to do; SSA is not my favorite 3-letter federal agency. So why? Simple. I have to.

I turn 65 in October.

That means I will be put on Medicare as of October 1, which in and of itself isn't a bad thing. What is not good is how much they intend to charge me for the privilege of government-regulated nationwide healthcare coverage. So a refresher is in order.

I retired from federal service 12/31/2011. I had already made up my mind to enroll in Social security early, even though I knew I would take a big hit - and I did. I also planned to withdrew my retirement savings (the third part of federal retirement plan...Social Security, annuity, and retirement savings) to pay off important debts and such, which I did.

Unfortunately for me, SSA uses income from two years prior to compute the initial monthly Medicare payment. Because my retirement savings were substantial - 6 big numbers - my initial payment will be very large. Larger than I can afford, considering my current debt load (I lost a court fight big time) and my current family health insurance plan premium. I provide high-quality health insurance to my under-26 children per the Affordable Care Act, and those premiums continue to rise every January.

So I have to go talk to the SSA and show them my income from last year, 2013, wasn't high enough to kick me into the higher premium brackets. 

I hope to be successful. If not, I will have to cancel my family coverage next Ooen Season and my children will no longer be covered. That will not be a good thing. So wish me luck.

9/9/14: What's Next, Part 1?

I have a cloud-like plan.

The first thing to do is try to write a bit each day. Or at least every couple of days, so that's what I will do. I will share details with you, the readers, that some might find uncomfortable - heck, sharing the details might be uncomfortable - but I assume almost nobody will read, so the only reader will be me.

And the cloud-like plan is coming into clarity. It isn't set in stone, neither the direction nor the path has been picked, and many details have to be made. I have seven months to formulate it (for reasons that will be made clear, too.) I have a pretty big debt to take care of and, honestly, it means having to go back to work.

This blog is all about the journey from here to there. It will be difficult for me - it already is - and I will experience frustration and anger - I already do - and my credit raring is apt to take a bigger hit than it already has, but forward I must move.

So, until next post, thanks for reading.

9/8/14: Reopened

Even though I am no longer driving a truck, I am reopening this blog, mostly because I want to write. I'm not sure there is a "purpose" in it - I'm not a genealogist, aspiring musician, or quilter trying to sell my wares - but putting thoughts down "on paper" is therapeutic.

And who knows? Maybe a purpose will develop.