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ksmith...like a real post.
Hot day. Cool front supposed to move through, which should bring cooler temps tomorrow and possible rain tonight. I don't think we need any rain for a while yet, not that I have any say in the matter.
Did a great deal of yardwork Saturday. Didn't do much on Sunday except footle around the office, rake out King's kennel, admire the yardwork done the day before.
Hours later, I'm sitting in my living room, watching Buffy. The haunted house episode, with the eyeballs and the groans and screams and Anya in a rabbit suit and such. Just as Oz starts morphing and the green buzzy lights attack Willow and Xander vanishes, I hear a thump overhead, like something is on the roof. Nothing for a few minutes, then another thump. A little while later, another. By this time, Mickey Dog and I are both staring overhead, like in that scene in ALIENS when everyone figures out at once which way the aliens are approaching their hideout.
I go outside a couple of times and look around. Can't see anything. I know it's an animal of some sort. Images of zombies trying to drag Buffy down through the basement floor of the frat house are having no effect whatsoever on my mood.
After a few more minutes, the thumps stop. King barks and grumbles a bit. Then all is quiet. Buffy squishes the demon underfoot and saves the day.
Next morning as I gave King fresh water, I did an end-around through some trees in the front yard. In the course of cleaning His Royal Highness's kennel the previous day, I had raked out some spilled food and dumped it under one of the trees. Well, it was gone--the food, not the tree. Most likely thanks to the visitor from the night before. A raccoon, or a possum. Zombies don't eat dogfood.
Next week the company credit union is offering a seminar on retirement. I signed up. I would love to retire in four years, but 50 is at the lower limit of their official retirement scale and heaven only knows what sort of hit I would take on benefits and such...assuming they will still be offering pension and partial health coverage a few years from now. I fully expect to have to work somewhere. I would just like it to be somewhere else, even for a reduced salary, with the retirement fund covering the difference.
Bought the workbook that goes along with Don Maass's WRITING THE BREAKOUT NOVEL. Some interesting exercises in deepening character and exposition. Building an antagonist. Don't know when I'll have time to work them, but I hope to get to them eventually. If anyone out there has gone through the workbook, I'd be interested in hearing your take.
Hot day. Cool front supposed to move through, which should bring cooler temps tomorrow and possible rain tonight. I don't think we need any rain for a while yet, not that I have any say in the matter.
Did a great deal of yardwork Saturday. Didn't do much on Sunday except footle around the office, rake out King's kennel, admire the yardwork done the day before.
Hours later, I'm sitting in my living room, watching Buffy. The haunted house episode, with the eyeballs and the groans and screams and Anya in a rabbit suit and such. Just as Oz starts morphing and the green buzzy lights attack Willow and Xander vanishes, I hear a thump overhead, like something is on the roof. Nothing for a few minutes, then another thump. A little while later, another. By this time, Mickey Dog and I are both staring overhead, like in that scene in ALIENS when everyone figures out at once which way the aliens are approaching their hideout.
I go outside a couple of times and look around. Can't see anything. I know it's an animal of some sort. Images of zombies trying to drag Buffy down through the basement floor of the frat house are having no effect whatsoever on my mood.
After a few more minutes, the thumps stop. King barks and grumbles a bit. Then all is quiet. Buffy squishes the demon underfoot and saves the day.
Next morning as I gave King fresh water, I did an end-around through some trees in the front yard. In the course of cleaning His Royal Highness's kennel the previous day, I had raked out some spilled food and dumped it under one of the trees. Well, it was gone--the food, not the tree. Most likely thanks to the visitor from the night before. A raccoon, or a possum. Zombies don't eat dogfood.
Next week the company credit union is offering a seminar on retirement. I signed up. I would love to retire in four years, but 50 is at the lower limit of their official retirement scale and heaven only knows what sort of hit I would take on benefits and such...assuming they will still be offering pension and partial health coverage a few years from now. I fully expect to have to work somewhere. I would just like it to be somewhere else, even for a reduced salary, with the retirement fund covering the difference.
Bought the workbook that goes along with Don Maass's WRITING THE BREAKOUT NOVEL. Some interesting exercises in deepening character and exposition. Building an antagonist. Don't know when I'll have time to work them, but I hope to get to them eventually. If anyone out there has gone through the workbook, I'd be interested in hearing your take.
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no subject
Date: 2004-07-14 08:19 am (UTC)The good news is that I've found a job that will do this easily. The bad news is its a vocation - not an avocation. Maybe in about 10 years I can retire a second time, go back to school and follow my bliss.
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Date: 2004-07-14 09:35 am (UTC)And here I am at this day job place. I tell people that it's like having settled for a marriage of convenience, then meeting the love of your life.
I phoned a retirement specialist referred to me by a co-worker. I'll be attending the next get-together they've scheduled for folks at my company. Prior to that, I'll be meeting with one of the retirement specialists--we'll go over a proposal based on the info I gave them over the phone. I'm kicking myself that I didn't think to do this 10 years ago, but at the time the 401(k) was pretty much taking care of itself and doing a dandy job.
I want to start some sort of supplemental savings/investment account. Put myself on a budget and stick to it. I know that they're most likely going to tell me that Out At 50 will be a hard row to hoe. I fully intend to keep working, but I wanted the flexibility to be able to take a lower paying job. *sigh* We'll see how it goes.
This grown-up stuff stinks. It's only my future, doncha know. Health insurance, roof over my head, stuff like that. Blech.
Rah for you--
Date: 2004-07-20 07:10 am (UTC)Most of my earnings will go into savings, after I take care of a few things I've put off, like doctor bills, etc. Getting a new job app ready myself.
I will add a caveat, though--I've got those breakout novel books, too. And I realized something important--if I can't figure out how to write what *I* want to write, using the formula, it would be a worse prison than my 8-5 job. Everything I came up with seemed too simplistic to me. If I have no drive to write the book after whipping off the synopsis, that doesn't bode well for a career writing the stuff--even if I did do the book and it sold well. I know someone who write a romance as a lark. It was so popular, the publisher pushed her into 3 or 4 more.
She hasn't written for a couple of years...burned out, didn't like the others.