There are 100 more business days until I retire. Whoo hoo!
I am retiring at the end of July, the best time of the year in Saskatchewan. The flowers will be blooming, the sun will be shining, the birds will be singing and I will be free to enjoy it all😊
As much as I have enjoyed the challenges of my career, I am looking forward to being free of the stress of deadlines and profit margins and tracking endless details. 🤑
I am looking forward to having free time to read and write, cook and clean, walk the dog and putter in my garden. I am looking forward to having time to visit my sisters and meet new friends. I can’t wait to have FREE time. 🕰️
I am so looking forward to freedom! Only 100 more business days and I will be free to start a new chapter in my life. The closer I get, the better it looks. 🥳
Completed Net Filing our taxes and applications for a government senior drug plan. Whoo Hoo! Just a few thoughts on the subject:
1) I, like millions of others, hate filling out government forms. I also hate, and again I am not alone here, the challenges of using technology to do virtually anything. Having filled out the government forms of the day and receiving confirmation that they went where they need to be, I am feeling quite accomplished. Celebrating with a glass of wine accomplished, but since it is only noon, I settled for a mini cupcake.
2) As bad as it is to complete government forms, some of today’s forms were exceptionally bad. It was not that they were any more incomprehensible than usual. It was just due to the reason for filing them. Being as I am turning 65 this summer, I had to submit an application to be covered by our government senior drug plan, plus I had to submit an application for a my husband for spousal coverage because he is over 60 but under 65. Here is the thing though – neither my husband nor I qualify for this plan. My husband still works – and will work for another 4 years. He makes too much income from his employment for either of us to qualify. We have to submit our applications so that we can receive a denial for coverage from this plan, that we must send to his company’s insurance company so they will continue our health coverage because we do not qualify for government coverage, because his employment income is too high for us to qualify. They have his employment records. They know he works. They know what his wage is and they know his wage would disqualify us. So, why??? Why do we need to do this?
3) I do not hate paying income taxes. 😛. I am not thrilled that our provincial government squanders a LOT of our tax revenue and that much of it does not go where it should go. I am not thrilled with our provincial government for a LOT of reasons. That is a whole other blog. But, I do not hate paying income taxes. I have been paying taxes since I started working. I have always felt that I was fortunate to have employment that covered providing for my family – as well as allowed me to contribute to our country & province as a whole. Even as a single mother, I contributed to schools, hospitals, highways, law enforcement, social programs and the like through my taxes. I was pretty proud of that actually. Still am🙂
4). Finally, I am glad that I finished doing and filing our taxes and drug plan applications in a timely fashion. I used to be terrible for procrastinating on things like this. I was scrambling on April 30th for years and years. I have learned to get on it and get it done! Finally! 🤸🤸🤸
Ready to start my Friday. Fed my dog, had my coffee and vitamins, checked the weather and news and I wrote my morning affirmations.
Going for follow up x-rays on my way to work. Hopefully that will be the end of pneumonia 2020. It’s Friday, so that means order out lunch with Kori. We are celebrating today so I am treating us to a special lunch. I forget what we are celebrating but Friday lunch is always the best part of the work week so worth celebrating. 😂
Last night my office partner got home from work to find her cat sick and suffering. It is always hard to have a sick pet. It is even harder when you cannot afford the medical care, medicine and special diet food they require. Luckily, Kori had a friend to help her with the finances to get Ziggy the care he required. By tomorrow night, he will be home chasing bottle caps and looking for kibble and cuddles.
When we had our dog Casey and our little blind cat Suzie we spent a fortune on veterinary bills. One month alone we spent $1,500.00 on ear surgery for Suzie and $2,500.00 for dental surgery and to remove a small growth for Casey. Even in a good year, our vet bills were in the hundreds.
When we got Kat, I looked into veterinary insurance. The cost is rediculous. There is no way around it, keeping a pet healthy and well takes money and a lot of it these days.
It costs a lot to provide veterinarian services. The equipment, staff, building, utilities, taxes, insurance, administration, cremation charges, supplies, ongoing education and training of staff – it all cost. The bottom line is veterinarians have to charge for their services because they have to cover their expenses and make enough profit to provide for themselves, their families and their own pets.
I don’t know what the answer is, but I know people love and need their pets and want to provide the care they require. With today’s veterinarian prices – I don’t know how a lot of people manage to do that.
I have been working for about fifty years. I am relatively intelligent, concientious and responsible. My employers, for the most part, have appreciated me. Unfortunately, even the best fall – and when I fall, I fall hard. If you are having a bad day at work, take a few minutes to read about a few of my less than stellar ones.
As a teenager, I worked at the local theatre. I sold entrance tickets and worked the canteen. During the movie, I would walk up and down the aisles making sure no one was smoking, drinking alcohol, making out, or pushing their knees against the seat ahead of them. I carried a BIG flashlight. If someone was out of line, I would shine my flashlight down on them. This was usually enough to get the offender to shape up. One night a classmate had his knees up against a seat. I shone my flashlight on his knees and he put his feet down. I walked to the front of the theatre, turned back, and as I passed my classmate, I noticed he had his knees back up. I reached out to gently tap his knee with my flashlight. The head flew off the flashlight and clattered to the floor. Lightbulb, spring, and batteries flew in all directions – shattering the silence of the moment – that moment when everyone is holding their breath in anticipation of the most terrifying scene of the year’s number one horror movie. That week my boss bought me a new flashlight. A really small flashlight.
After I graduated, I went to visit my sister and brother-in-law in Thompson, Manitoba – northern wilderness at its finest. I decided to stay a while. I applied for a position in a small construction company’s office. I agreed when my tentative employer asked if he could take me to lunch to discuss my possible employment. He offered to pick me up and I agreed to that as well. I did my long dark hair, fixed my make-up, dressed up in a pretty little dress and stepped to the top of the stairs – just as my sister opened the door. I had a good look at my boss- to-be as he stepped inside the house at the foot of the staircase. I took one step down, slipped on the top step and unceremoniously slid down the length of the staircase, body slammed the poor guy into the door and landed on top of him (with my pretty little dress wrapped around my throat). I found my resume months later. The note at the top of the page read “nice hair”.
My next adventure, was going to visit another sister and brother in law and their children. I became a nurse’s aide in their local hospital. I had a few bad days there but one that has remained particularly memorable. I was working the night shift. The head nurse sent me to change a patient’s colostomy bag. I had no idea what a colostomy bag was. I went to the store room and found a package marked ‘colostomy bag’. I cannot remember wondering what I would do with it. I proceeded to the patient’s room. As I stepped up to his bed, he said “I removed the old bag for you”. He lifted a towel off of his abdomen. I panicked, flipped the red emergency switch and ran into the hall, lights flashing, sirens wailing. Nurses, doctors and orderlies were rushing towards me. I rushed up to them and as calmly as possible said “My patient exploded – there is poop everywhere!”.
I finally decided that I should probably settle on office work and landed back in the construction industry, working for a millwork company. Amongst my many duties, I was in charge of getting shipments out. One month we had a large contract for cabinets to be shipped out to RNF in Prince Albert – several shipments, and I got them out without a hitch. Then my boss told me there was another trailer filled and ready to go. I grabbed labels, packing slips and bill of lading. Everything was filled out, the transport company was called, I had time to start working on the invoicing. Two days later, Logan Stevens from Yorkton called to ask where their cabinets were. Oh….
And today… I have been having a great week. It is only Tuesday, but so far so good. This afternoon, I got a call. A contractor called to tell me they wanted to proceed with an order that I had priced. It is a big order. I grabbed the file and started going through it. I had missed a major step in the pricing. My boss came back from site and I brought him the file. I had already figured out that I had also made one mistake in our favour, that there was one cost that had decreased and another that we could negotiate a better deal on. He offered a couple of additional suggestions. We will make it work, we will even make a profit. But…
Working is a part of life. We all have bad days. Through the years, I have found that when things go wrong taking responsibility is key. Finding a fix, if possible, is crucial. And, you cannot die of embarrassment even when you really want to.
It was back to work this morning after a week off to recover from pneumonia.
It is strange how one can plug along day after day, doing what one has to do – until you can’t. I was struggling to eat. I was struggling to breathe. I was definitely struggling to think and focus. I was just so exhausted. Now that I feel so much better, I cannot imagine how awful I was feeling before and why I did not realize that there was something serious out of sync.
I felt so good today. I dealt with a dozen files, wrote up a dozen invoices, sent out price requests and samples. I cleaned the washroom. (I am not going to care once I am gone but I cannot imagine how a half dozen adults can use a washroom for a week, rinse coffee cups and wash dirty hands and not once wipe off the sink?) 🤷. It is not rocket science. 🤦 I went through the electronic plan room and checked out new tenders that had been uploaded. I answered countless calls. It felt so good to feel efficient, energetic and reasonably intelligent.
I am still anxious to retire – more so every day. But I am glad that I feel well enough to kind of enjoy being back to work!
Last night I watched one of those movies that included the typical childbirth scene that is intended to bring the expansion of the human race to a screeching halt. The mother- to- be writhed and screamed, changed colors on occasion, and fainted at least twice before welcoming her little one into the world. For the benefit of anyone thinking of becoming a first time time mother, I thought I would put my two cents on the subject out there.
1) There is no such thing as a typical birth experience – even if you have ten such experiences in your life, every one will be different and the offspring you bring forth will be totally different. It keeps life interesting.
2) If you waste your energy writhing, screaming, changing colors and fainting, you will never get the job done.
3) When your time comes, you will be so jacked up on excitement and adrenalin, you will not even notice most of the pain. Even if you do experience A LOT of pain, once that little one is placed in your arms NOTHING else matters.
I have had several birthing experiences to base my opinions on so thought I would share:
1) My mother often told of the painful deliveries she experienced. To be fair, my mother gave birth to six children. My sister Lorraine thought it would be fun to try to slide out sideways. From all accounts it was not. She gave us and all of our arrivals a bad rap.
2) When I was eighteen and totally naive on the subject of childbirth (and most other life altering events), I spent several months working as a nurse’s aide on the night shift at a small hospital. One night the charge nurse thought it would be amusing to assign me to the labour room to watch over a first time mother. Every few minutes she would scream. I would jump a foot and shriek. The resident paramedic came in, asked what idiot had sent me in there and booted me out. He stayed with the young mother until the doctor came to see her through a safe delivery. From what I heard it all went well.
3) I had three children by natural (?) childbirth. When I was pregnant with my son Mark I developed severe toxemia. By the the time he was born, I was so wasted on Valium and other medication to keep my blood pressure to a level where I would not stroke out that I did not even know I was pregnant much less giving birth. Mark slept for the first month of his life which helped me to get ample time to rest and recover.
4) My second birthing experience was the arrival of Danny. My husband and I were playing cards. Every so often my insides would turn to jelly, I would pass gas and experience an hysterical fit of giggles. At some point, I noticed this was happening regularly at closer and closer intervals. We headed to the hospital, where the nurses in emergency assumed I was having a psychotic meltdown, however they sent me up to maternity to be checked out. This was at 11:35 PM. The elevator was out of service and my husband was on crutches. I hauled myself and my suitcase up two flights of stairs. Danny leapt into the world at 12:05 AM. To this day, he still leaps into every day as if it is his first opportunity to see the world.
5) My third and final personal birthing experience was Jennifer. I awoke at 5:30AM to the unmistakable signs of impending birth. My husband was working away from home so I was alone with a three and a half year old and a one and a half year old. Thinking of Danny’s quick arrival, I called my in-laws to get me to the hospital. My husband arrived a few hours later. And we waited. At 5:30 PM we watched I Dream of Genie. Sometime in the next hour we moved to the delivery room where Jennifer finally made her entrance into the world. I remember two things. One she was absolutely beautiful. Two she was shrieking like a banshee. She still is and she still does. (39 years later)
6) Finally, my husband Dan and I were in the delivery room when my daughter Jennifer gave birth to her daughter Genie (Genevieve). It was WOW! It was bad. Jennifer did not scream or writhe but she definitely changed colors a few times and passed out several times. Genie was born five weeks early, tiny, and perfect. Jennifer recovered and went on to repeat the experience with Rory, Madison, and PrimRose. It never got easy for her – but it did get better.
If you are planning, or in the process of starting your family, go for it! I doubt if the birth will play out like the typical movie scene. I hope that it will be amazing, memorable and worth any pain involved.💖
There are many careers that involve shiftwork. My husband Dan, works in the pipe mill of a steel plant that runs twenty-four seven. Currently they are working a five on four off/ four on five off mix of day and night twelve hour hour shifts. Shiftwork is never ideal but it has it’s benefits and it has definite challenges. Some of my thoughts, based on our experiences:
1) Shiftwork is brutal when it comes to living a healthy lifestyle. Your body is constantly trying to adjust to changes in routine. Eating, sleeping, lack of sunlight, too much sunlight – it is all hard on a body! In a steel plant, you have the additional challenges of air quality, noise, temperature control and dangerous work conditions.
2) Shiftwork can be a major strain on a relationship – especially if your partner works conflicting shifts or has a regular Monday to Friday 8 to 5 career. In our case, that has been a bit of a bonus. Our time together, day or night, is so random and rare, that twenty years in we still very much appreciate our time together and look forward to our retirement years together. There are, however, a lot of relationships that do not make it.
3) Shiftwork makes meal planning difficult to impossible. When I am working, Dan leaves for nightshifts before I get home from work. When I am home, we eat supper by 3:30 in the afternoon so we are not particularly hungry but are both snacking later in the evening. When Dan works days, I come home, make supper and wait hours before he comes home and is ready to eat. By the time we finish supper and clean up, our evening is over.
4) We have never had the challenge of raising a young family together but it has to be hard on both parents and the children. It is even harder raising children if the parents are not living together. A major change in shifts at Dan’s plant lately was a legal and logistical nightmare for many parents.
5) There are a few bonuses to shiftwork – Dan can handle vehicle repair and medical appointments and the like on his mid-week days off, there is almost always someone home with our dog, Dan can get peak golf times during the week when he is on days off, I come home to fresh cooked meals on Dan’s week days off (definitely a bonus as he is a great cook), and when he is off shift, he does have four or five days in a row to rest and recover. This will be especially nice once I retire and we can use such times to take short trips and get out of the city.
6) Workers who work shiftwork tend to have a special bond with their fellow workers (in a survivor mentality/shared pain type of way). They also tend to have an intense passion and dedication for the work that they do.
Overall, shiftwork can be challenging for a worker, their partner and their family. Like anything else, it takes work and it has it’s rewards!
I am having one of those super great days that runs along like a roller coaster
1. My meds are kicking in and My breathing is so much easier today! But, I am not loving the pharmaceutical companies that cannot create one single drug that does not cause headaches, vertigo, constipation, and/or diahrea! 🤦
2. Spring has sprung, the sun is shining, the air is warm, and the snow and ice are quickly melting! But, our vehicles are filthy. I get that Dan has been taking my little car to work and there is no avoiding the puddles, mud, and steel dust out at Evraz. No idea why the Jeep is so bad. It has not been going anywhere! 🤷
3. I went to the bank this morning. Banking is good! But why do so many (obviously retired) seniors want or need to go to the bank at ten o’clock on Saturday morning to pay all of their monthly bills – one at a time?! (Like they did not know they had six of them going in 🙄). Seriously, once I am retired, I am never leaving my house on Saturday. Wednesday morning sounds good. 😒
4. With all this springy weather, our streets are melting and drying off. I love dry streets! But why do dry streets bring out every lousy driver in the city? I put my signal on to move into the left lane. Some dough head took that as a challenge to boot it so he could cut me off – just so he had to slow down because he was turning left RIGHT THERE! 🤯
5) And finally… Spring has sprung, I am feeling much better, I have places to go and things to – life is good. 😊. But, I have to return to work on Monday and with the way things have been there for the past two years, I would definitely rather not. 😢.
Seclusion 101 with AnneMarie 