A Rough Holiday

Right after Thanksgiving the big shopping season started and family was making plans to come for Christmas. We haven't had a family Christmas at our house in 11years, so there was a lot of planing and gifts to get ready. Both of our daughters with our four grand kids ages 4 to 20 would be celebrating the holidays together  for a full 10 days. We were so excited that they were coming, but I was thinking this is not a very good time.

I had lost my job in September and had not been able to find other employment, so we were living off our savings. It doesn't take long to put a strain on the bank account when there isn't any income for 5 months.We still had a lot of gifts to buy and meals to plan for each day. I was out almost every day filling out applications either in person or online just trying to find some part time work. It seemed that employers were looking to hire , but I was not getting any return  messages or interviews. As frustrating  as that was we were able to get most things done and ready for company.

Saturday morning came and our daughter called to say her 4year old was vomiting and running a fever. They had packed the night before and was already to leave for their 350 mile trip to see us. We encouraged  her to come anyway and if she needed to go to the doctor, she could do it here. Six hours later they were here and the excitement was running high. We helped unpack the truck while listening to our granddaughters ( 4yrs. & 7yrs. ) tell about their trip,and wanting to be picked up and played with.

It had snowed about 4" two days before and was a good moist snow for building a snowman or sledding. One of the last things to get unloaded was their plastic sleds.They said there was no snow on the way until about 50 miles from here, so the closer they got, the more excited they were to go sledding.. We live in a bowl surrounded by mountains, and it snowed 1/2" every night for the first week they were here. No more than about 100yards from our house is a big steep hill that a lot of the kids come and go sledding on, so you can guess how my afternoons went. Most of the time it was with our 7 yr old ,but the 4 yr  old did get to go out once and had a blast.

Christmas evening was filled with a Christmas service and carols, then soup and sandwiches! After dinner it was time to open some of the presents. Each person was given one gift and then they opened them one at a time. After a couple of hours it was time to put milk and cookies out for Santa, and then off to bed. Waking up in the morning, it was no surprise to discover Santa had stopped by and brought more presents.

Christmas day was full of snacks, food, and more snacks. The kids were playing with their new toys and reading in the books Santa had brought to them. All of our grand kids love to read. Mainly because mom and dad have read to them since they were one day old. Our 4 year old granddaughter is in preschool and can read out loud 3rd grade reading books! She amazes me how fast she processes words and sentences.

The next day every one wanted to go shopping at the mall to spend their gift cards and get a little walking exercise in. While the grownups were in the shops looking at clothes I took the girls to the Pretzel shop and Orange Julius for a little snack break. We had fun just sitting and watching the people go bye.

Back home I had put some cut onions around the house to absorb the germs and bacteria. I wanted to try a home remedy I had read about for curing colds and flu germs. We were all starting to get the sniffles and coughs and I didn't want it to get any worse. There was only a couple of days left before everyone was going home so it was a last minute effort to kill all the germ bugs.

Our company is all gone and it's 2 days until a new year. We cleaned up the house and thru away the onions, confident the germs were all gone. On new years eve day both of us had running noses and coughs, then by 11:pm we couldn't stay awake any longer and went to bed. We woke up in the morning sweating with a head and body aches. The onion cure did not work! We both had a full blown case of the flu. We are starting the new year out with the flu and hoping for good health for the rest of the year.

NOW TO GET BACK TO JOB HUNTING.
Earl

My paper route

It's been almost four months since I officially retired at age 70. I don't think I was home for three days and I was out looking for a part time job to keep me busy and supplement my income from Social security. I found what I thought was the perfect thing for me to do; Deliver newspapers. Since I am an early riser in the mornings, getting up at 2:30am would be no problem.

They gave me three days of on the route training, which was a big farce. Total darkness and zigzagging up and down the streets not seeing the house numbers at all; Then I was on my own.The next day I picked up my 300 papers and started out. Thought I was doing pretty good, I had only tripped on cracks in the sidewalk twice and was pretty sure I hadn't missed any houses.

I finally finished the route 3 1/2hrs. late with 17 papers left over. I had no idea who I had missed so I just discarded them and waited for a call to redeliver the missed ones. The next morning there was a note in my bundle of papers that 17 houses were missed and their house numbers.

I did not have to re-deliver the papers, just a reminder to check each house off the route roster as I deliver the paper. There was no sequential order to the roster of house numbers. So as I checked off each house and drove to the next it took a lot longer to deliver the papers. I was supposed to have all of the papers done by 6:30am and at 9:00am I still had 45 papers to go. As the week went by I continued learning the route and being late along with a few missed papers.

Monday morning the next week I was called into the office for some additional training and route changes. I had complained about the route having no order to the main and side streets which coordinated with the house numbers. After a short discussion and some training, they printed me a directional map with the house numbers in numerical order.

I thought now I can finally do my job and start making some money. Things actually started going along pretty smooth; I was getting the papers delivered on time and had only a few changes in  subscriptions.  I noticed I was filling up with gas every week; and with gas at $4.00 a gallon it was eating up all of my profit. Then at the end of the month when I received my statement and figured up my expenses, I was earning $2.05 an hr. (Shock )

It didn't take long for me to decide to give the route up. With winter coming on and plowing through the snow this was not for me.

I want to stay busy and active in some kind of Part time employment for seniors. So now I am in search of a new occupation to learn.

Part of keeping fit in the golden years is staying active  whether it's doing manual labor, or belonging to a fitness club and exercising.
A good fitness site that I have found that you can use in your home is thefitnesswiz.com

Cigarette Bums and butts

I've about had it with people ( I'll call them bums) who pick cigarette butts out of ash cans and garbage pails.

My two apartment buildings set on 3/4 of the block with a parking lot connecting them. I house about 32 handicapped residents between the two buildings. Being the caretaker for both properties I am also responsible for the security of and around the buildings.We have a no smoking policy inside the building, so all smokers must go outside.

Two years ago I had a neighbor who was on some type of hardship assistance come by the front of the building and collect any cigarette butts in the ash cans.This soon became an every day occurrence even through the winter. He must of told his friends about his new discovery because over the next few months three more bums were stopping by at different times collecting butts.

I have about twenty different health care staff come and service their client residents on a daily basis so you can imagine how many cigarettes get smoked. Often when they are on a smoke break they will get a call and have to put out a freshly lit or half smoked cigarette.That makes my buildings a prime target for the butt collectors.

Early this spring I noticed a car pulling in and park in the lot and three guys and a lady got out and went around both buildings collecting butts (I have 6 butt cans), got back in their car and left. I decided then I would go out several times during the day and empty them into the trash can under the ash tray. Lately I notice several people riding there bikes around to each butt can. If the tray is empty they will pull the ash tray off the trash can and dig them out of the garbage.

The butt traffic is increasing and causing a nuisance to the residents and staff. Now I go out with a small pail and empty the ash trays, then dispose of them in the inside dumpster. Since my corporate won't buy disposable butt containers, I will just have to keep the ash trays as empty as possible. If the butts aren't there they can't collect them.

Earl Baldwin