As i mentioned, I bought a house with a partially finished basement apartment two months before the sudden retirement. Luckily, my severance package and social security combined were enough to finish the apartment and furnish it. That occupied a lot of the first year. The basic stuff-plumbing in the bathroom, some electrical and partitions were done. One area had been carpeted and an exterior door installed. It even had a parking pad with it's own driveway-not a finished driveway but a driveway. Finding a contractor that I could afford and that actually knew what he was doing was adventure #1. I had the block walls covered with sheetrock so it looked less like a basement. The area closest to the exit door was just over 9" lower than the floor in the back of that same section-much too high for a stepdown. I had the floor raised by 5 inches so there was still division between kitchen and living room. One of my former co-workers was remodeling his kitchen and emailed to see if i wanted the old cabinets. I got even luckier when another friend told me about a Mexican crew that had done some work for him and the rest of the construction was a breeze. It took a little longer than I had figured on-they worked me in as a side job but they got it done and it looks very nice and comfortable.
In the meantime, my old house was now a rental This economy is not conducive to selling real estate. My first tenant was a single mom with 2 teenaged daughters. Mom worked 2 jobs to keep them going. In 5 months time, she added another daughter, 2 young granddaughters and a son that showed up every now and then. Seven people in a 2 bedroom house with only one bathroom! Then she lost her part-time job and her house of cards fell apart. She did let me know that she could no longer afford the house and all of her family. #2 tenant was a newly married couple in their 20's-a teacher and an IT manager. They had just passed their first anniversary when they moved in with one dog and 3 cats. Soon after they got a second dog. They signed a 2 yr lease. They had requested the 2 yr lease. Just after their second anniversary, they let me know they were divoring and would be moving out. Here we go looking for #3 tenant. The apartment was finished and rented on a short term basis to a single mother moving from Mississippi.
By now I had discovered that, with the projects done, my main entertainment was the tenants-not necessarily good entertainment, but entertainment.
That's when the depression that has plagued me for most of my life began to rear its head again.
Sunday, August 21, 2011
Sunday, July 10, 2011
retired-day 2
This is really more second impressions than a literal day 2. Probably no need to explain that but i did anyway.
I left the office on that last day at the regular time after spending the day trying to unobtrusively gather my personal belongings. Luckily I had removed some things when we were first bought out and more when McKesson-the new guys- closed a 100,000 sq ft building with lots of room for expansion after splitting up groups and moving groups all over. The most profitable part of that location was moved to Iowa and partly outside Chicago and almost immediately began to lose money and clients. Plans were made to consolidate 11 data centers down to 2, maybe 3. More plans were made to move the existing data center to a much smaller location. Lots of corporate decisions based on very little. But I digress. I wanted to act like it was a regular day and leave like it was a regular day and not have to go through a lot of goodbyes. I told a very few people and left. In so many ways it was a major relief to get away from there. I have yet to cry about losing a job that I really had liked and leaving people I genuinely care for. McKesson did give me a decent severance package. So that was that.
Except for the part about what in the world does one do with all that time?
I left the office on that last day at the regular time after spending the day trying to unobtrusively gather my personal belongings. Luckily I had removed some things when we were first bought out and more when McKesson-the new guys- closed a 100,000 sq ft building with lots of room for expansion after splitting up groups and moving groups all over. The most profitable part of that location was moved to Iowa and partly outside Chicago and almost immediately began to lose money and clients. Plans were made to consolidate 11 data centers down to 2, maybe 3. More plans were made to move the existing data center to a much smaller location. Lots of corporate decisions based on very little. But I digress. I wanted to act like it was a regular day and leave like it was a regular day and not have to go through a lot of goodbyes. I told a very few people and left. In so many ways it was a major relief to get away from there. I have yet to cry about losing a job that I really had liked and leaving people I genuinely care for. McKesson did give me a decent severance package. So that was that.
Except for the part about what in the world does one do with all that time?
Day 1
Everybody looks forward to retiring. Life of leisure and all that stuff. I guess I'm weird-I would rather be working.
Maybe if I hadn't been retired by layoff I would like it better. But that's probably not it either. I was working towards the goal of retiring when I got laid off. I had been getting things in order for quite a while. I didn't like the company that had bought out my longterm employer so I was clearing the decks so I could stop working. I paid off everything that I could so that all I would have is the stuff nobody gets rid of-insurance, utilities-that kind of stuff. I even bought a house that had a patially finished apartment in the basement so that BEFORE I retired, i could finish it and find a tenant to help with expenses-those same can't get rid of them expenses. I thought I would have a year or so of salary plus social security to complete preparation. I closed on the second house in November 2009 and moved in in December. The end of February 2010, my position, along with 18 other positions, was "eliminated". Curiously all but 5 of those positions belonged to longtime, over 50 year old employees. That was when I realized I was officially retired. I was out of the total chaos of a very large company that ran in spite of itself. Somewhere over 32,000 employees made up of other bought out companies and communication seemed to be against company policy. That was a major relief to be out of the stress and confusion. That part was OK. No more commute. That was OK. No more feeling like i should decorate the walls of the office space with targets of varying heights so we would all know where to bang our heads on the wall to feel productive. I was retired!
Maybe if I hadn't been retired by layoff I would like it better. But that's probably not it either. I was working towards the goal of retiring when I got laid off. I had been getting things in order for quite a while. I didn't like the company that had bought out my longterm employer so I was clearing the decks so I could stop working. I paid off everything that I could so that all I would have is the stuff nobody gets rid of-insurance, utilities-that kind of stuff. I even bought a house that had a patially finished apartment in the basement so that BEFORE I retired, i could finish it and find a tenant to help with expenses-those same can't get rid of them expenses. I thought I would have a year or so of salary plus social security to complete preparation. I closed on the second house in November 2009 and moved in in December. The end of February 2010, my position, along with 18 other positions, was "eliminated". Curiously all but 5 of those positions belonged to longtime, over 50 year old employees. That was when I realized I was officially retired. I was out of the total chaos of a very large company that ran in spite of itself. Somewhere over 32,000 employees made up of other bought out companies and communication seemed to be against company policy. That was a major relief to be out of the stress and confusion. That part was OK. No more commute. That was OK. No more feeling like i should decorate the walls of the office space with targets of varying heights so we would all know where to bang our heads on the wall to feel productive. I was retired!
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