Sharing photos, videos, vintage images I've discovered, and -- occasionally -- commentary and thoughts from retired life and travels.

beliefs

Applying for Unemployment — The Rest of the Story

February 16, 2009

In January, I wrote about a coworker’s suggestion that I apply for unemployment when the contract that I was on was over — even though I didn’t need the job when I took it.  Comments on the piece overwhelming supported my decision not to apply for unemployment compensation. (see Applying for Unemployment)

aarp

The contract was over at the end of August.  In the turbulent economic months since then, I’ve had a few moments where I’ve thought about the extra cushion that unemployment income could provide.  However, I’ve never had a moment where I regretted my decision.

A few weeks ago I was at one of our every-other-week retirement breakfasts when I heard some fellows talking about putting in for unemployment benefits after thay had finished a contract job.  The nature of the industry that we retired from is that there is a lot of opportunity for contract work for those with the right experience and/or credentials. It wasn’t surprising that the idea of putting in for unemployment had occurred to others.

Apparently a couple of them had actually applied.

They were turned down!

They weren’t qualified because they were making too much money from their pension!

Since I was a contract worker working as an employee and NOT an independent contractor, if I didn’t have any other income, I could have applied for unemployment payments.  However, with my pension and other income, it didn’t seem right to apply.

In the end, I was not only morally right, but legally right, as well.

I would not have been able to receive unemployment compensation.

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Applying for Unemployment

January 25, 2009


Posted on flickr by royal_broil

On my last job, one of my coworkers asked me if I was going to put in for unemployment when my contract was finished.

“I hadn’t really thought about it,” I told him.

“You really should, ” he said.  “After all, you’ve been paying for it all these years. It’s your right. I’m going to when I do contract work after I retire.”

He went on about it a while longer, but I didn’t have much to say on the subject.

I thought about it for a while, though, and concluded that, no, I was not going to apply for unemployment.

While the extra income would be helpful, I didn’t need it and, after all, it’s supposed to be used to help those who need it bridge the gap between jobs.  I wasn’t going to be looking for another job.

For that matter, I didn’t actually need the contract job that I was working.  It was helping to pay off some debt and, while I was working, we weren’t having to use any of our investment funds.

So, since I went to work when I didn’t need to, it just didn’t seem right to me to apply for unemployment.  It felt like taking advantage of the system.  (I’ll have more on this in a later post.)

What do you think?  Should I have applied for unemployment?

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Opportunity in Unsettled Times

November 25, 2008


One of my favorite places in the world is 20 miles from the nearest town and seven miles from the nearest road.  Nearly treeless except for those few planted to provide breaks from the harsh winds of winter, it is a broad expanse of lush grass covering the dunes of an ancient desert — land unforgiving of those who tired to break it to the plow — land perfect for ranching.

I never knew the whole story of how the ranch came to be.  All I can remember of it is that a farmer in the days of the Great Depression, with no market for his crops and beef, was able to save his land and his herd by being able to buy a large supply of grain at extremely low prices.  As a result of taking advantage of an opportunity in an unsettled time, the family was able to make it through the hard times and, a little later, buy 21 square miles of range land where the farmer’s son and his bride settled in 1941.

The ranch hold significant positive memories for me. Experiences associated with the ranch, its owners and their family helped shape who I am.   The ranch — a result of a farmer taking advantage of an opportunity in an unsettled time.

The world again faces unsettled times — and opportunities.

What kind of new opportunities might be on your horizon?

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“That Obama scares me.”

November 8, 2008

obama posterI overheard it the day before the election.

“That Obama scares me.”

I tried to believe that his fear was of the changes that are going to occur as a result of this election.

I really would like to believe that.

But I know better.

It was fear of something different, of someone different.

“HE isn’t like us.” “HE looks different.” “HE sounds different.” “HE can’t be a real American.” “HE pals around with Bill Ayers, a domestic terrorist.” “HIS preacher teaches hate.” “HE’s a Muslim.” “I can’t vote for him, HE’s…, HE’s…, not white.”

“THAT Obama scares me.”

“THAT one.”

Despite the misinformation campaigns, the hate ads, the robocalls, and racial bias, the American electorate overwhelming elected THAT one — the SENSIBLE one — the RIGHT one.

Yes, WE can!

Yes, WE did!

The change is started.  It’s going to take some time.

Some people aren’t going to like it.

It’s not going to benefit everyone.

I’m not going to like everything about it.

But the nation was off course.

The nation needed a new heading and there will be a new hand on the tiller.

Yes, we can!

I’m not afraid of Barack Obama — Never was.

Note: This commentary is not intended to imply that all who voted for McCain and against Obama were racist.  In my view, race was not an issue for the majority of those who voted for the Republican candidate, but there were many voters who were influenced by race and/or the campaign ads and speeches that were designed to foster fear — and that is what this post is addressing.

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We did everything right…, and now we may have to pay anyway!

September 22, 2008


To support his family during the
Great Depression, my wife’s grandfather
had to travel to places where there was
work.  He built this small “camping
trailer.”

We did everything right…, we thought.

We “bought” a house that we could afford on our budget and never re-financed, though it probably would have been smart in order to get a better interest rate…, or to pay it off earlier.  But now it’s paid off and that doesn’t matter.

We never bought more on credit than we could afford…, but sometimes it was close.

We did without the toys that others bought…, no bass boat, no four-wheeler, no recreational vehicle — until recently.

However, we did travel, sometimes on our own dime and sometimes on company business, with us paying Karen’s way and the cost for the side trips that we made.

And we saved, saved, saved — most of the time on a single income.

Our vehicles — except for one — have always been new, never used.  But we always drive them until they are just about falling apart — except for one, a different one — , so we generally get decent value out of them.

And we always, always pay our bills on time — except for that one bill that fell behind the couch back in 1978.

Creditors usually like us — we did everything right.

And now it’s likely we’re going to have to pay because others didn’t do it right…, and I’m just a little upset about it.

I’m not upset at the people who were able to finance more than they should have been able to.

Its.. not… their… fault!!!

I’m upset at the greedy bastards that let them finance more that they could pay for — the people who came up with variable interest loans and other creative financing schemes that were going to make the loans possible for those who were too close to the edge — the regulators that deregulated — the politicians that made it legal to deregulate.

I’m upset at all the people who worked to change the rules that said you had to live within what you could afford, that said you had to be able to afford whatever debt you took on.

The way we did….

Damn greedy bastards!

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Why the change from the same old, same old?

August 9, 2008

Years ago, I read a book called Black Like Me, and, as I recall, it had quite an impact on me.

In 1959, the author of the book, John Howard Griffin, a white man, undertook a project on his own to darken his skin and go into the American South to see what life was really like for the blacks there.

Recently, I was questioned by a black lady about my interest in her blog and part of my explanation included that I had read Black Like Me as a young man and that it had made an impression on me.  She is an older lady and what she is doing with her life today as well as her her reflections on the past is fascinating.  I don’t know if I was able to explain satisfactorily why a middle aged white guy with a science and technology background would be interested in the blogging of an old black lady grounded in the humanities.

While in Little Rock last Sunday, I found and purchased a copy of the book and read it from cover to cover over the next couple of evenings. This is the third time that I have read it, and, once again, it has made an impression.

The South that Griffin visited as a black man in 1959 for the most part no longer exists outside of the history books and memories. Segregated schools and separate facilities — or lack of facilities — for non-whites have been left in the past.

However, hatred, racism, and bigotry have not been been left behind. Prejudice, unfortunately, is still alive and well.

“But,” the reader asks, “What does that have to do with your changes, with your moving out of your comfort zone.”

The answer is that I have not fully addressed my own prejudices and I carefully stay away from anything that has anything to do with race, homosexuality, gender bias, profiling, immigration and anything else that is related to the prejudices of others.

Lorelle VanFossen has a blog challenge for readers to “blog about where you find your inspiration to blog.”

Going forward, and in moving out of my comfort zone of only writing about things that are safe, I will be looking for and writing about things that challenge my perceptions and the perceptions of others.    I’m going to be diplomatic and still try to use reason, logic, and persuasion in presenting things that might be a little uncomfortable for me, and , perhaps, for some readers.  But, I won’t be avoiding all of the hard topics that I steered clear of in the past.

I’ll still be doing many of the things that I did before on the blog, of course, including photography and travel.

I plan to re-read Black Like Me again soon.

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The answer, my friend, is b….

August 8, 2008

…blowing in the wind.

For some reason the title of this post reminded me of a classic song from my youth.

I didn’t intend the previous post asking about who I am voting for to be a trick.  Rather, I was presenting a stereotypical representation of what I could be like.  The regular visitors who responded, though, saw through it.

All of my statements were true.  They just weren’t the complete truth.

I did vote for Reagan for president and for George Herbert Walker Bush in his first election for the presidency.  I voted against Bush in his second term because he wasn’t doing what I thought he needed to do on the economy.  I never voted for his son.

While I can trace many of my ancestors to colonial America, my grandmother was 100% Moravian, her parents coming to America in the early 1900s…, and they were Catholic, which I didn’t know until recently.  Her husband, my grandfather, was an ardent denier of his Native American ancestry, which was actually pretty diluted as far as I can tell.  I grew up believing my heritage was entirely white, anglo, and protestant.

While I believe abortion to be a very bad thing, I don’t oppose it and I certainly don’t want things to go back to the way it was before Roe v. Wade.

I am uncomfortable with gay marriage.  That’s not the same thing as being against it.  I’m not and that is a recent change, within the last week, for me.  I voted against it when it came up for a vote in a state constitutional ammendment defining marriage as between a man and a woman.  I would not vote the same today.

In some small degree my vote is going to be about race and age. Barack Obama is a relatively young man of mixed ancestry who has taken much of the best of both cultures and is moving beyond it.  Electing Barack Obama would show to our young people and the world that the great potential of the American Dream is still alive and well, despite everything that is going on.

In general, I like John McCain.  If McCain had been the nominee in 2000, he would have had my vote.  However, today, John McCain is not the best choice for me — though he was the best out of all the Republicans, in my view — and part of that is because he is just too old.

The most important thing, though, for me in this election, is that we have a good turnout for this election, no matter who people are voting for.

If you aren’t registered to vote, do it soon!

If you are registered, please make sure you vote for the candidates of your choice!

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Can you guess who I’m voting for?

August 7, 2008

Yours truelyI’ve made up my mind on who I’ll be voting for in less than three months.

I’d be interested in visitor comments on who they think I will be voting for.  Here’s some more information that might help:

I haven’t always voted, but in previous presidential elections where I did, I voted for Ronald Reagan and George Bush.

Before I went in the navy, I lived in the older George Bush’s congressional district in Texas and for some reason I paid atttention to what he was doing over the years.  I knew when he was ambassador to China and head of the CIA.

I can trace my ancestry back to the 1600s in Virgina, Massachusetts, Rhode Island and New Jersey — WASP all the way (White Anglo Saxon Protestant) — and if I ain’t, I’m not tellin’.

As a couple, we are better off than we were 4 years ago and 8 years ago.  I have benefited personally and professionally from the policies of the current administration.

I served in the United States Navy for just short of nine years and was honorably discharged at the end of my last enlistment.  I got most of my college education under the G.I. Bill.

I own a rifle and a shotgun and have fired the shotgun from my front yard.

We live in the south along a country highway and I drive a big red pickup truck.  We’re into camping and RVing.

I graduated from high school in 1970 from a southern school that was not yet integrated.  Our kids graduated from an all white southern high school in the 1990s.

When I was in high school, we were poor “white trash.”

I supported the invasion of “Iraq,” though I wasn’t sure we were doing the right thing.

I support controlled and responsible drilling for oil offshore and in areas like ANWR.  The technology is there to do it with minimal impact to the environment.

I believe that we need, as a country, to invest heavily in new nuclear power plants.  Nuclear power has a proven track record and we are going to need a lot of new electrical power capability if we are going to really move away from foreign oil.

I am a small investor in oil and natural gas production.  I’m not a speculator.  My investments are at the well-head.

I’ve been retired for over a year and a half.  When I was working, I didn’t talk about politics because most of the people I worked with had very different views.  I’m back contracting in the same office I retired from and, surprisingly, we are in much more agreement than we used to be.

A very small part of my reasons for voting the way I will be voting is based on the racial heritage of the candidates.

I think an abortion is a very bad thing.

I’m uncomfortable with gays getting married.

A very small part of my reasons for voting the way I will be voting is based on the ages of the candidates.

Please make a guess about who you think I’m going to be voting for.  After a reasonable period of time, I will let ya’ll know in a post who I will be voting for.

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Moving out of my comfort zone

August 6, 2008

comfort zoneOver the last several days, I’ve been evaluating parts of my own beliefs and values.

For the most part, I was pleased with what I discovered.  I also came to a few new perspectives on our culture and way of life.

And I discovered that I need to make some personal changes.

I’m going to make those changes.  I’m not just going to work on them.  For me, the changes are going to be real — and along with those changes will be some changes on what I blog about.

As long as I’ve been blogging, I’ve pretty much just blogged on things that were comfortable for me to talk about.  I stayed in my blogging comfort zone.

I’m going to be moving out of that comfort zone.

Stay tuned to this blog for more information.

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