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September 06, 2005

aftermath and 'after-math'

So, labor day has passed. Goodbye white shoes, Hello frost on the windshield. Well, not frost yet, but man did it feel frosty this morning on the ferry. I wore a coat.
50 degree mornings are not my cup of tea. I cannot wait till Monterey.

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I decided I’m not going to write a long editorial about the hurricane. Yes, I was indirectly affected. No, my suffering is no where near as huge as what some are experiencing. Yes, I’ve spent hours thinking about what I would do if I still lived there. That’s about it. It is time to move on. The cities will rebuild.

Please note I’m not trying to belittle the situation. Katrina was a terrible thing to happen to the US. The fact is there are much better journalers out there who have written beautiful tributes and eye-opening contributions to this issue. Go read them. I’ll wait.

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Jason and I have spent the past month researching his mother’s retirement, fiddling with computers, puzzling, and working.

He is about to start a new schedule on his ship that includes frequent short deployments, so life should get hectic soon. We haven’t gotten orders yet. The newest word is that we will be moving in the april-may time frame. Which has its pros and cons. Pros are that we will finally get out of the moving-at-christmas-time schedule. Cons are that I have to continue commuting for another 8-9 months (Yikes!) I knew I could do it when it was going to be 8 months at the most, but doubling that is worrisome and slightly stressful to me. Pros – I’d get a full year of work on my resume. Cons – I’ve already used my vacation days, so now I’ll have to work over Christmas.

So, it really isn’t that bad waiting till April, but it screws with my “type A” schedule.

The puzzle…is coming slowly. Thanks a bunch Andrew! This is the same 4000 piece puzzle I started in January. I think I’m about 2/3-3/4 of the way done with it. I’m sure I’ve lost pieces since I started it (because the cat thinks she can play puzzle too) and I know for a fact that I have at least one duplicate piece.

The computers – well, that’s really Jason’s project. He’s been working on turning a linux based pc into a tivo for about a year now. I’m hesitant to say he has finished successfully, since the moment I do, the tv gods will inform our pc to stop working instantly. And since today is a duty day, I will have no pacifier tv to keep me company tonight.

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Lastly, the retirement. I think I might hate the retirement more than I hate the tv. Mostly because it is absolutely completely 100% out of my control. All I can do is give my opinion (and money) and sit back and watch. To summarize, mother-in-law found out she can buy back a certain number of years of work. Doing this will increase her retirement pay exponentially. It is a no-brainer situation. But to do this, you have to pay cash money NOW, and well, she doesn’t have it. Our family unit fortunately does have the cash to cover this expense without any major inconveniences. So, now, MIL is excited and kind of being pressured (I mean this in a completely nice way) to retire yesterday now instead of finishing out the year and adding even more to her retirement pay.

She desperately wants to call it quits. I really feel for her. I understand the pressures of family to do one thing while your brain tells you to do another. I also understand how it feels to hate your job, and wake up miserable every day because there’s nothing else.

But I also believe that retirement is not just something you wake up one day and decide to do. (not that this is how MIL got to this point) There is a certain amount of preparation that needs to be done, and I don’t think she has taken the time to sit down and actually go over her budget.

Also, the thought of retirement without a backup plan scares the hell out of me. I don’t ever want to be in that situation, so why would I help anyone I know and care about get there?

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Before (yellow circle encloses our house.)

After

Posted by Sharon at September 6, 2005 08:07 AM

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