It’s A Rainy Day In…

The South is humid. (I love humidity. It makes my skin soft.) Rainfall where I live is usually 56 inches per year. The total 56 inches is normally distributed throughout the year. Last year, it felt like we got all 56 inches within a 4-5 month period towards the end of 2009. Wait, we did!!! So far this year (2010) we appear to be headed for a similar scenario. Added to the H2o, frigid air from the north (Canadian Clippers) and from the west (yep, Texas), are keeping me indoors. It is unusual to have S.A.D. (Seasonal Affective Disorder) in the southern part of the US, but I am beginning to get a little depressed. I got up this morning at 5:30 am to let the dog out to poop and to feed her, then walked around my very quiet house feeling a little "blue". People in the South rarely spend more than a week or two avoiding bad weather any time of the year. El Sol is center stage most of the time even if it is cold. This season has been cold, wet, and dim. I’m looking forward to February and March when the grass will green, the birds will sing in my backyard, the Bradford Pear trees will blossom, and Dogwoods will brighten up the highways. Spring is on its way. I saw a Woodpecker this morning testing out a choice spot on the Sweet Gum tree in my front yard. The rain has stopped for awhile. I’m going to CUPS for my morning coffee, muffin, and conversation. Things are looking up in my galaxy. I’m feeling much better already.

TODAY WAS A GOOD DAY...

Today was a good day at work. I caught up on the latest political trash coming out of DC on my Yahoo page, kept up with friends on Facebook, emailed more friends, looked up new phones on the Verizon website (can’t afford even the free ones), listened to the soundtrack from Crazy Heart, music from John Butler Trio, Scissor Sisters, Robert Palmer, Free, Gordon Lightfoot, and talked to my husband on the phone. Oh yeah, and I did some work. All-in-all a relaxing day at the office. It did make the day go faster. One day closer to retirement!!!

We have a friend staying with us. He is an engineer on contract with a local company. He lives in Seattle with his wife (my BFF) and their two big puppies. It is so nice to have him here and to be able to communicate without measuring every word. People here in the south are so very nice and that is part of the problem. When I want to express myself with fervor, I resort to 4-letter words, something I picked-up when I lived in LA. Definitely the sign of a poor vocabulary. WTF? So now I can really express myself while he is here. Also, I am able to talk about things “liberal” and “green”. We also share a fondness for “My Cousin Vinney”. I will be sad when he finds that job back in Seattle and has to leave. But wait, there’s SKYPE. Yayyyyyyyyyyy.

Time for me to go into the living room and read another chapter of “I Sold My Soul on Ebay”. Checking out other viewpoints and taking a break from my stash of SciFi books. Another day in the life of G.R.I.T.S.

Thinking about Retirement, ahhhhhhhhhhh

Although I’m not officially retired (tired but not retired), I am mentally preparing myself for life after work. My actual working career has spanned about 49 years. I began working at age fourteen for a lady down the street from my parent’s home in Smyrna, GA who decorated linens (tablecloths, pillows, etc.) by sewing/embroidering flowers and other decorations into the fabric by hand. My job was to illustrate the flowers, etc. as a template. Thus began my artistic career! I was paid in custom knitted bedroom slippers. Since then I have had many jobs and the one thing that stands out in my mind about all those jobs (except the illustration job when I was fourteen and having my own business when I was 27)… I HATE WORK!!! However eating and having a roof over my head have been a priority. I have tried to make each work experience feel temporary. To date, I’ve had 49 years of temporary jobs, the longest of which lasted eleven years. Now I am down to my last temporary job, I hope. (It actually began as a temporary/part-time graphic design position and became permanent full-time.) I am on year three at this job and have less than three years to go till I am eligible for social security and medicare. It may seem odd to talk about a permanent, full-time job as being temporary but it is mentally liberating for me.

So, now I’m thinking about what I’ll do when I actually stop working and my time belongs only to me.

First, I can turn my alarm clock off permanently. There are so many other reasons to wake-up early that don’t require an alarm…the dog wanting to go out to pee, insomnia, dreaming about asteroids hitting the planet, nightmares that the Republicans win in 2012, TEOTWAWKI, etc.

Second, I will have free time to do whatever I want. I can resume my artistic career started when I was fourteen. Maybe not. I think linen is now embroidered by machine at a factory in China or the Czech Republic.

Third, my husband and I can travel internationally. But where-in-the-world can we go that won’t cost as much as both our social security checks combined? We could visit our children and grandchildren! Virginia, Ohio, and…Texas. That way we won’t have to pay for a hotel room. Should keep us busy for about six weeks a year. Then we can go visit my sisters in Minnesota and, oh yeah…Texas. (Why does almost everyone I know, or that I am related to, live in Texas?) I have a brother that lives in, yep...Texas. So, if Texas becomes a sovereign country, I WILL have to keep my passport current. Texas may be the extent of our international travel if we can’t afford to go to Canada or Belize. Wonder if flights into Dallas, Houston, and Austin will require an entrance and exit fee like in Central America? Do I need to “declare” those gifts I brought for the kids birthdays? I LOVE RAGGING ON TEXAS. It’s bigger and weird-er.

Retirement may not be the “Nirvana” (a place or state characterized by freedom from or oblivion to pain, worry, and the external world) that I think it should be. Maybe I will get another “temporary” job just to fill in those days when I have nothing to do. Hope it comes with vacation time and benefits!!!

A Church on Every Corner, A Chicken in Every Pot!

Two things you can count on in the South are churches and chicken. (That doesn’t include Church’s Fried Chicken.) I believe almost every Christian denomination is represented in the Southern State where I live. Surrounding my subdivision, within a radius of about 5-7 miles are 3 Baptist Churches, a Presbyterian Church, Church of Christ, Unitarian Church, Episcopal Church, Catholic Church, Central Assembly Church, and a Methodist Church. (The rest are under construction.) In addition there are Jews, Muslims, Buddhists, Shintos, Hindus, Wiccans, and Native American faiths represented. I haven’t seen too many Synagogues but we do have a beautiful Hindu Temple being built right in the middle between local businesses and a trailer park. Location is never a problem. Some churches look like warehouses. Some are elaborate and full of stained glass windows. Christian faiths, by far, make up the majority of places of worship in this state. I never give anyone directions to my home like, “turn right at the church” ‘cause there’s a church on almost every corner and two of the three entrances to my subdivision have a church on the corner. FACT: There are more churches per capita here than any other state in the Union. I believe there are more churches here than there are fast food places, grocery stores, WalMarts and car washes combined.

After church on Sunday there’s chicken for dinner (er lunch). (The three meals served in the south are: breakfast, dinner, and supper. So dinner in the south is lunch everywhere else.) Chicken is at the top of the food pyramid here. It is fried, boiled, broiled, blackened, fricasseed, stuffed, BBQed; it’s used in spaghetti sauce, soups, salads, veggies; for breakfast, dinner and supper. Chicken is inexpensive and plentiful. Southern cookbooks dedicate almost half of the book to chicken recipes. I haven’t seen a recipe for a chicken dessert yet but I might have missed it. I like chicken. I haven’t met a southerner yet that doesn’t like chicken or have a special chicken recipe handed down to each generation in the family since the Civil War. Wasn’t there a scene with a chicken in Gone With The Wind? Ahhhhh, the Civil War, but that’s a story for another day.

SKYPE-ing

Ain’t technology great? If you can’t be with the ones you love, SKYPE ‘em. My husband and I have been SKYPE -ing with his son and grandchildren for the past two years. They lived in El Salvador and since trekking down to Central America is costly and not too easy for older people (my husband is the older person, he’s almost 80) we can “virtually visit” with them. Now they live outside DC and that trip isn’t too easy for “older people” either so we still SKYPE. We now have a vidcam on 3 computers so we can SKYPE with three different contacts if we want to. We don’t want to! That would be reverb-city. All those conversations bouncing off each other in one tiny office. Running around, talking to three different people requires some aerobic training too. At least we will have the ability to SKYPE on two machines in case one computer dies. So we are always available, (if we turn the computers on). I dread the day when SKYPE starts charging for their services that are free now. But we might be able to afford it if their charges are similar to the rates my husband paid when he was using SKYPE last year to make calls as an independent contractor. They charged $2.95/mo. We still have the headset he used to talk to clients. Hey, even “older people” can get the hang of this internet stuff.

SKYPE FOREVER!!!

Recently, I got to SKYPE with my son, daughter-in-law and my two grandchildren. OMG, too cute!!! They live in Texas, so if the state secedes from the Union, I WILL need my passport. Although the trip won’t be as tiring as a trip to El Salvador, I think it will be less costly. I just hate having to go through customs and now they might be using “full body scans”. That means I’ll have to get in shape before I let strangers see me naked. Ugh! In the meantime, I can SKYPE with my family and see all the clothes and toys I sent them for birthdays and holidays. Maybe someday SKYPE will be able to transport our bodies through cyberspace (BEAM for us Trekkies). Can’t wait to try that one out.

I don’t know about anyone else, but I don’t put on makeup to SKYPE. Heck, I sometimes SKYPE in my pajamas. I shudder to think how other people with fewer inhibitions use SKYPE. What I don’t know I can imagine. Hmmmmmmmmmm.

The "A" list

I lied, I haven’t EXACTLY retired, yet. I have 2.75 years to go. But who’s counting? I did move to the South for several well researched and maybe some “not so well thought out” reasons/excuses.

The "A" List:
First, Affinity. I was born in the South (a different Southern state than the one in which I currently live).

Second, Affordability. Most everything in the South is more affordable than anywhere else in the US.

Third, Amusement. Southerners are great storytellers and most of their tales run the gamut from humor to absurdity. There is usually a moral, an animal, or a history lesson in each narrative. Some of the best authors come from the South. Joel Chandler Harris, Truman Capote, Harper Lee, Eudora Welty, etc.

Fourth, Amity. Southerners are very friendly and even if you are a Liberal Yankee, they will help you when you are in need, (mostly because you are a real curiosity to them since not too many Liberal Yankees move to the South, but also to honor their tradition of Southern Hospitality).

Although I was born in the heart of the Confederacy, I escaped for about 25-30 years to Missouri, Japan, California, and Texas. I don’t recognize Texas as being in the South since THE SOUTH is usually defined as the general area south of Pennsylvania and the Ohio River and east of the Mississippi, consisting mainly of those states that formed the Confederacy. Texas wants to be its own country now so maybe I should dust off my passport. I did do time in North Carolina, Georgia, Louisiana, Alabama, and Mississippi. So you might say I am well versed in Southern Culture. I can blend in. My husband, who was born in NYC, has lived in the south for many years but has given up on the blending thing. He just tells everyone that he is a “damn Yankee” and won’t go home. He loves almost everything about the South. Although there are many differences between me and my Southern roots, I picked retirement in the South because of its familiarity. I understand southerners. I don’t agree with their politics but they are genuine, caring, and predictable. I need stability in my life now.