Another Day 20: Life Goes On

 

Today is day 13 of being unemployed, because holidays and weekends don't really count. Considering I'm getting paid, am I really unemployed ? I guess so. It's going to continue to be a scary place until I have a job, and it looks like that may happen soon. For now, I consider this time off to be an extended vacation. I got paid for 12 vacation days, so today is brought to you by my severance pay, whenever that shows up.

I somehow contracted a cold or COVID. It started with a scratchy throat and sniffles on Tuesday. As of today I just have sniffles. I've been taking Benadryl at night and that dries things up and helps me sleep. I take 2 at bedtime and 1 during the day. I'm not sure how this happened as the last time I was out was last Wednesday. Odd to get sick 6 days later. Oh well.

I did manage to get to the post office yesterday and got all my retiree paperwork and the check for my 401k. I realized I haven't received my village tax bill or my water/sewer bill, so I stopped at the village hall to get copies of those today. Then I dropped the check off at Edward Jones. They'll use it to fund an IRA and start making me some money ! They advised the best thing to do with my pension is to leave it where it is until I'm ready to start collecting it. It will continue to accrue interest. After I left EJ I went to the credit union to get some cash and then went to Turning Stone. I was out and wanted to have some fun. I "only" lost $220 and I'm ok with that. It would have been more but in a twist of fate I accidentally hit the "max bet" button ($8) on Cleopatra Keno and got the bonus ! I won $144. What are the odds of that ! Maybe that was a little gift from mom, though I was using the numbers the last person who played the machine had used. The numbers were 4, 5, 6, 15, 25, 35 and 45. I had my General Tso chicken with veggie lo mein while I was there, so it was a great day. I left the house around 12:30 and got home around 7:30. I was glad to get into my pajamas and hop on the couch as you tend to feel worse at night when you have a cold or flu.

I ordered my retirement gift from AT&T this evening. I chose a LG 65" 4k uhd smart led tv. Hopefully it fits my wall .. lol ! I still need to register for the continuation of my medical and dental insurance as I'm technically not covered right now. If I get the job at Accenture soon I'll be able to cancel that. Once the insurance is cared for, I'll be done with all the post-employment stuff. I checked the bank again today and still no severance. It's a good thing I have money in the bank to pay my taxes and insurances that are due in July !

If I get the job at Accenture and the pay is good I'm going to look in to having my front porch remodeled. I really need new windows, so that is the top priority. 

Last night I had a zoom call with Laurie and Cary. Laurie is frazzled as they're working her like a dog, which is no surprise. She's to the point where she can't wait to be off the payroll ! Cary just moved to Rochester so she's settling in to her mother's home. She doesn't have a new job yet but I have no doubt she'll find something. There's a lot of big companies in Rochester. She'd like to work from home too because of her husband's health issues. Any company that hires her is going to get a rude awakening when they see the medical expenses for her husband along with her FMLA requests for time off to take him to appointments. Hopefully she is smart enough not to disclose any of that up front. Laurie is considering jumping ship if she is offered a new job with decent pay. I can't say that's a good idea as she'd be leaving 6 months pay on the table. My advice to her was to keep saying "I don't know" when they ask her to help with the stuff that we used to do. Ambrosia and Chuck didn't come to the call. We already know Ambrosia has a new job and Chuck wasn't planning on looking for one. I'll have to check in with him and see what he's up to. I told them about my potential job but didn't disclose it's with Accenture.