A Room of My Own

I am now 10 months into this retirement thing. I spent 3 months sleeping a lot, and I think recuperating from the stresses of last 5 years. 5 years, two takeovers and two lay offs. I started working up a head of steam in June and now in October  I can say I can see to the end of the tunnel. It really is a full time job to be retired, especially when it is not planned on. Unemployment, social security, health insurance, it has been a constant hassle to keep it going. This week my Medicare card came. Come February 1, 2012 I can quit worrying about health insurance. My former employer switched providers September 1st and according to the Cobra people they will not confirm if I am covered or not. They also no longer return my calls. I send Cobra $618.12 each month, but I don't know if I have insurance or not.  3 months and 2 weeks to go and one major problem solved.

For two weeks we have been sorting and tossing some of our too much stuff. We are getting rid of a lot of accumulated baggage. Baggage fits because it weighs us down and keeps us from doing what we would like to do. I have some 60 Beanie Babies, 30 wonderful cookbooks and so far, 470 books waiting to be picked up on Wednesday next. Since John's heart surgery we cook and eat differently and always will. Therefore my cookie, cake and Paula Dean cookbooks are useless. I will trade 30 lbs lost without dieting and a tax write off for all the chocolate chip cookies in the world. I got a Kindle two years ago and it has been a blessing every day. My vision is so poor now I can't read a real book, but I can read anything on a Kindle. Goodbye dusty paperbacks, I hope someone will appreciate you like I did. All this sorting and tossing has paid off in an amazing way.

I now have my very own art studio. Yesterday I sat at my very own work table and worked on a collage I started a month ago. I ended up scrapping the idea I started with and going in a different direction. I love it, I think it is the best one I have done so far. I haven't felt this inspired since 1964.

Life is good when you have a room of your own.

It just means I haven't found them yet

The time has finally come where I no longer work for a living. Instead the nice people at Social Security deposit money into my bank for me, which is more than my last employer ever did. I have to give Social Security credit where due. They have been helpful and everything has been just as it should be. Unusual in this day and time, at least as far as what I have had to work with lately. These folks are a pleasure.

Now that I am going down the mountain I have the time to do all the things I haven't done while holding on to a job. I can knit, read and sleep when I want to knit read or sleep. What a pleasure. Mostly I have been working on my family history. I am determined to find grgrgrgrandmother Lily prior to 1855. 1850 would be great, but it seems elusive at the moment. I enlisted the help of a genealogist where I know they were living in 1860 and she found nothing other than census information for them. But as she said and I keep hearing...it doesn't mean they weren't there ...it just means we haven't found them yet.