Another Sunday Drive-by

[squidgiepdx]

I'm trying to post more often, but you know - ::waves hands at the state of the world:: - all that is going on.

Life's been pretty steady here. I managed to get wrangled into volunteering for our local Democratic Party to set up and work a table at the 2026 Boring and Dull Day (now with 100% more Bland!). Yes, I live pretty close to Boring, but because we're unincorporated where I live (long story) we can actually call ourselves Boring if we want and it's all good. Anyway, setup and worked the booth, lost my only pair of glasses, and was only cussed out once. But that was overshadowed by me meeting one of my heroes; a woman who runs our local Blackberry Alliance, which is the people who bring us the No Kings rallies. Meeting her was awesome!

Other than that, work is still weird. I proudly called myself a "grunt" on a call, because I love being on the front line of Pharmacy Informatics and digging through data, making processes better/smoother/etc. for nurses, physicians, and pharmacists. I didn't think about it at all, but my boss called me the next day to say she thinks "So much more of me than being a grunt" - which is nice. I tried to explain that it wasn't derogatory, but she didn't really care. 

It sucks when you have to censor yourself in front of your boss (more than usual).  Just goes to show that honestly, I'm almost ready to retire. I'm not even 60 yet, though I can see it coming up in less than 16 months. But I'm honestly hoping that things will swing my way and I get to retire early. By choice, mind you - I don't want to be 58+ and be told I'm out of a job. That would suck.

In all honesty, I'm just working for the health insurance at this point anyway.

Oh, and the good news, I didn't actually lose my glasses! I found them 3 days later, sitting on my bedside table. Thing was, as soon as I saw them, I remember saying out loud - to my husband right before we took a nap last Saturday - "I shouldn't leave my glasses here, because I'm going to instantly forget and will think that they're lost!"

I hate being right sometimes.

Anyway, back to Sunday chores, and then to join in with at least a few minutes spent with fen. YAY!  Oh, and for those who have offered to beta my Brock Youngbottom book one, that's probably going to be coming to you pretty soon. ::knock wood::

Comments

[senmut]

Don't you love being that forgetful but so aware of it?

I hear you on the censoring self-expression. And I had to fill out a goals thing with my boss the other day, finally said "not looking to advance, will help others do so, working toward dropping to part-time in the next five years". I will never, short of UBI, be able to retire, but I can by golly drop my hours once debts are paid down.

[squidgiepdx]

Our laws in the US are stupid; like I could retire any time I wanted, but I can't access my retirement funds that I put away for another 2 years (May 2028 when I'm 59 and 1/2 years old). And I can't claim Social Security until I'm at least 62. Then there's the ultimate stupidity which is that Medicare doesn't kick in until you're 65 years old.

I honestly hope our next REAL president actually does something about it.

[senmut]

YOU SAID IT! +agrees so hard+

[full_metal_ox]

How feasible would multiple eyeglasses (a set for home and one to keep in your Going Out bag) be?

(Granting the limitations of your budget and health insurance, as well as Big Optical having unfortunately become very much a thing, because Big Everything has. But a lot of places will have 2-for-1 specials during back-to-school season.)

[squidgiepdx]

I could do this when I had single vision, and glasses were CHEAP! Now? Now I need bifocals and a single pair of glasses, lenses only, start at like $200. Even with the best vision insurance, I still pay a couple hundred out of pocket for each pair.

What I didn't know is I can reuse my old frame! I've been buying new frames every time, but apparently all I need to do is tell them to put new lenses in old frames and I'm golden. I'm gonna do that from here on out!

[full_metal_ox]

I hear you. (The mom-and-pop optical shops I favored, which would often offer a further discount for cash in full upfront, are now largely defunct because Big Optical.)

[squidgiepdx]

We still go to a local mom-and-pop place, but even then they don't offer anything. Besides, everyone is sending their prescriptions overseas and not really making things here anymore. Doesn't matter if you order from Zenni or an online company, Sears (our old place to get eyes checked and glasses), everyone sends the glasses overseas and takes the profit - leaving us in the lurch.

I do remember before I had bifocals that I could buy through like Zenni for $75 or so a piece. Now? Not so much. ::sigh::

[jerusha]

I guess that's one good thing about working for my boss. He doesn't censor himself, so it's not something I have to worry about.

[squidgiepdx]

That is SO DAMNED REFRESHING! And I wished I had it. Even with my coworkers sometimes - which just makes it WORSE.

[mistressofmuses]

I'm glad it sounds like the booth staffing was much more positive than negative.

I hope the early retirement happens for you (by choice!)

[squidgiepdx]

SAME! I would really much rather retire. I mean, unlike my husband who's just kind of floating from thing to thing, i've got a TON of stuff to keep me busy in retirement. It would be so damned nice...

[mistressofmuses]

Right? I never feel like I can relate when people say things about not knowing what they'd do if they retired/not knowing how to fill the time/would be so bored... Please, I'll take the opportunity! (My mom isn't quite retired, but works very part time now, and I find myself very jealous of the amount of time she has. But also being very happy for her, ha.)

[melagan]

It was great to see you. I'm glad you found your glasses. :)

[squidgiepdx]

Sorry I didn't get to see much of you at Squee. I hope you had a wonderful time, and maybe I can go next year. I wish you well!

[adafrog]

Boring!

[squidgiepdx]

I know, right? One of the best reasons to live here is the name alone. :)

[adafrog]

lol I used to laugh at people who couldn't say Willamette and Tigard, but being in Texas now with places called Boise City=Boyse, and a street called Versailles=how it's spelled, not the French pronounciation, I have stopped.

[verushka70]

Gah, I hate when I put my glasses down someplace and forget where: I am BLIND without them; everything more than a foot in front of my face is blurry and it just gets blurrier the farther out you go. And I hate when I tell myself I'm going to forget or lose something, and I do. I'm trying to get better about listening to myself when I say that (mentally or openly) and then not do the thing I know will cause me to lose whatever it is.

I think I understand what you meant about being a "grunt" - and while it's too bad your boss misunderstood what you meant by it (that she considered it derogatory is, welp, I think fairly common with management...), it's cool that she complimented you.

But let's face it: grunts, not management, get work done. They're the ones who know how to do it and then do it. They don't get to pass the buck or delegate, they do something about the problem. (And yet despite all that, they must be "managed"... huh.)

Good that the Democratic Party volunteer work only resulted in one cussing-out - and fabulous that you got to meet a local "NO KINGS" hero! That must've been really cool! Also, I love that Boring's sister city is Dull, Scotland, lol! That's awesome. A classic car "snoozefest"? I thought I was the only one who regularly used the term "snoozefest". Glad to see I am not!

I am in the same boat as you (since we're the same age), but I am in the process of buying back my service credits in a previous but reciprocal pension system so I can hopefully retire earlier than, well, dropping dead on the job. My current job (at the hospital serving the second largest county in the US...) began in 2020... and we have a tiered pension system.

Everyone hired in our system after 2011 is Tier 2 of the pension system, which pays significantly less in retirement than Tier 1 pensioners, thanks to some pension cost saving legislation enacted by state politicians who, of course, exempted themselves from that and had their own golden parachutes and screwed everyone who keep things running. So typical.

Several months ago I found out that my years of working at the university half a block away from my current job (well before I became an RN) could make me Tier 1 because the pension systems are reciprocal. Only problem? I was in the self-managed pension plan, not the traditional one - so when I left the university, I had to take the self-managed pension plan money and roll it into an IRA.

My current pension system can see my years of work credit in the reciprocal university pension system, but since my money is not in that system, the service credits don't count. So I just executed the buyback into the traditional pension with part of my existing IRA. Luckily I only had to pay back what I took and rolled over into the IRA when I left in 2003 - not that money plus all the money it would've made in the intervening years, which was what I was afraid of. Once it all goes through... I'll be a Tier 1 pension worker, yay, and able to retire sooner.

That being said... I will still probably wind up working until 65 anyway, because my mortgage payment would still be most of my monthly income even with the Tier 1 pension. Given lifespans in my family and of my parents, living to the end of my 30 year mortgage (27 years left) seems... unlikely. So I just have to try to make it another 7.x years, I guess, and pay this place off as fast as possible so I won't spend the majority of my monthly pension/SS on the mortgage, once in retirement.

All of that to say: it is totally understandable that you'd want to retire sooner rather than later! I don't know about you, but I started working PT at 14 (you could do that, then, remember? with a parent's permission, anyway). I'm effin' tired, and I'm sure you are too.

I hope you can retire sooner rather than later and enjoy your retirement years!

[squidgiepdx]

At least now that I've lost them once, I will actually say out loud, "Okay, I'm putting my glasses on the bedside table" or such, because if I say it out loud, it sticks in my head longer.

I totally get it about the grunt thing - it makes sense to me, as a frontline worker who does a LOT of the work in my department. Why people get hung up on stupid preconceived stuff instead of appreciating people for the actual work that they do, huh? ::sigh::

Oh god, I thought my retirement was going to be complicated - but dang. You're going through it! I wish you all the luck!!!!

[verushka70]

Thank you! Fingers crossed it all works out for both of us!

And I consider myself a "grunt" too, lol! imo, a grunt is anyone who does the actual WORK in a workplace, rather than "managing" the work or workers - so I think we both qualify as grunts!