[Magdalen] Long-overdue update (is LONG); was Airshow.

[Christopher Hart]

Good to hear from you, Mike, though I'm sorry for your troubles. Do you
have any new links to Tuba Skinny?

On Sat, Mar 23, 2019 at 11:26 PM M J _Mike_ Logsdon <mjl at ix.netcom.com>
wrote:

> So far, both Marion and Lynn want to know how the hell I am.  Might as
> well brave the pain and do it now.  (Pain, due to the vasculitis not
> allowing me to sit at my desk for too long at any given time.  I generally
> do anyway, for other reasons, so, might as well admit laziness, and, as I
> said..., etc, so forth.)
>
> First, here is a pic from last July just days before I issued my
> lunch-time resignation.  (Thanks to Mr Reid for hosting said pic, as you
> can see.)  Does it look like a man at the end of his work/career rope?  If
> not, study it as long as you need.  Because it is... :
>
> http://reid.org/~brian/images/IMG_2120a.jpg
>
> I don't know how much I might have said last year when it all happened,
> but I don't think I'll be repeating much.  And as I'm sure most of you have
> more to do than remember my details of woe, just let it be new all over
> again.
>
> I resigned Fri 07/31, approx 1:53 pm.  And like any good, self-respecting
> dysfunctional governmental office, no one called to try and talk a 25-year
> veteran out of it.  From what I was told, supervisor and HR folk combined
> were "shocked" yet had no qualms about strutting about squealing about how
> I'd "abandoned my position".  My attempt the following month, via a Union
> MOU provision and at the encouragement of my Union rep, to reclaim my job
> only cemented that I'd "abandoned my position".  Once that was clear, and
> with the need for at least some money coming in with no end date, I retired
> from the CalPERS system at age 53 and, with future COLAs in mind, $2,214 a
> month.  Not enough to live on (my rent alone eats up the lion's share), so
> the next thing I did was file for State Disability Insurance, which was
> approved via my Stanford Doc's certification, but which ends on 07/31 of
> this year.  During this time, I'm actually bringing in more than I did,
> net, while working, so I've been socking as much as I can away in savings,
> which will hold us for quite some time following 07/31, thereby allowing me
> more than "panic time" to evaluate my "post-retirement" future.
>
> I called a popular local disability attorney only to find out that
> attorneys such as he only exist for fighting for a person's legitimately
> earned Soc Sec permanent disability, which I don't have, as the Agency I
> worked for did not take part in the Soc Sec aspect of life, and I can
> attest I was NOT the only person in 2011 (when newbies brought the issue
> up) to roll the dice and stay out, relying solely on CalPERS.  (Don't
> gamble, young people, don't gamble.)  So, after 07/31, I'm kinda
> shitoutaluck.  But said attorney did give me a number to call (Legal
> Services for Seniors), who, though not being able to provide tangible help
> themselves, could no doubt put me in touch with some programs that could.
> Plus, I happen to know that my apartment complex does deal with Section 8
> housing assistance, so I definitely also plan to call our County's Housing
> Authority to see if I qualify for said assistance.  PG&E also has a program
> where one's ONEROUS gas and electric bill can be signficantly lowered if
> one qualifies.  I'm told I will, after SDI runs out.  Only other immediate,
> and personal, issue would be potentially filing for bankruptcy.  I have A
> LOT (understatement) of credit card debt (most with 0% balance transfer
> benefit, so not as bad as normally assumed).  But, it's my decent
> (emphasise "decent") credit rating that's kept me afloat for many, many
> years, so I'm loathe to let that benefit go.  We shall see.
>
> Anna has actually told me that if she CalPERS retired in the near future
> (she's older than me, and has been in the system longer albeit with a lower
> income than me, so she may actually make out like the bandit in this
> scenario) she'd be willing to pay me on a monthly basis the percentage she
> "took" from me when, post-divorce, she had our divorce settlement
> re-negotiated to "get her share" of my CalPERS (we'd originally agreed not
> to touch each other's retirement).  Several thousand dollars later, she
> only got 2.77% of my retirement.  Great effort, little return.  Oh well.
> She's definitely in a different mindset now, as this year was the first
> time, at my obvious request, she didn't claim Everett as a dependent on her
> taxes.  Considering how wonky mine will be, I'm definitely appreciative.
> (I've let her claim him all these many years, because I'm a nice guy.)
>
> End result I'm dimly looking at in a year or two?  Is there still such a
> thing as "welfare"?  Or has it been so modernised that people who cannot
> work, but also cannot qualify for permanent Soc Sec disability, are simply
> screwed?  I've even thought about a decently worded GoFundMe account; would
> that be worth it, or even moral, so to speak, as it were, etc?
>
> So there's the update.  I can only add that, in the
> not-too-distant-distance, I think I hear the monster-struck
> whateverthehellitis ruckus going on at the airport.  Repeated roaring
> crashes.  Must be no significant breeze tonight, or I wouldn't be hearing
> such a thing.  Been a lot of rainy, windy weather lately, so this is a
> change.  (You can take the boy out of the Water Agency, but you can't take
> the Water Agency out of the boy, so I can say I'm very, very glad we've had
> so much precip lately.)
>
> Only other thing I can say is that I've got a lot of high-end Pre-VatII
> stuff I gotta get up on eBay so as to bring in some extracurricular money,
> as it were.  (It's good stuff, so the starting bid will generally always be
> high.  I bought most of it in the early to mid-2000'ies when one needed to
> pay the proverbial arm and leg.  Things are different now, economically
> speaking, but I ain't gonna give it away for a song!
>
> God bless, and, as always, thanks for listening.
>
> M J (Mike) Logsdon.
>
> "Aaugh[.]" -- Charles Brown.
> "Avoid dull needles and use a soft cloth." -- E Kovacs.
> "Because that's the kind of guy, I'm." -- C Reiner, "Your Show of Shows",
> skit: "From Here to Obscurity".
>


-- 

Christopher Hart

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