I’m Going Back To Work Tommorrow

I thought I’d do something new.  Write a spontaneous somewhat introspective post about things I’m dealing with right now.  See, and here’s a little secret, I usually draw my stuff in a series, and save them as Drafts that I can post at my leisure, or whim.  But after drawing the above, I thought damn, I got a head-trip goin’ on, and what better, more cathartic way to flush it from my mind that blogging about it.

I work part-time for my former employer: a local California Probation Department where I was a probation officer once upon a time for thirty years.  I retired from all that crime-fighting fun eight years ago, but after nine months in retirement, returned to work ‘extra-help’ at our local juvenile facility (jail for kids) and at my same rate of pay.  Cool.  Helped finance a lot of world trips to Machu Picchu, New Zealand, the Yucatan and Europe.  I got layed-off in ’09 due to the financial crisis, but in 20011, money magically showed up and they needed help on the ‘bank’ case-loads (drunk drivers).  So, it was off to the races again.

Working part-time sure helped with the kitchen re-model.  Ended up paying for almost half, reducing the hit to ours savings by a considerable amount.  A month ago, I stopped working for a while (til 2013) because I was maxing out on allowable earnings for Social Security, which I thought was $14,160.  Well sure as shit, I screwed up, and didn’t check what’s allowable for 2012, just assumed it was the same as 2011.  Nope, it’s $500 more.  I could  back and make more money!!!

More money?  Did someone say “MORE MONEY?”  Maybe you can see it coming, the dilemma I’m dealing with:  I’m really done being a probation officer, but I’m not done enjoying making money…cause you can buy stuff with money.  Maybe some would like to be in my shoes: have a well paying part-time job where you can choose your own hours and schedule, and make some serious ‘chump change’ doing something that isn’t exactly rocket science, while working in one of the higher realms of Hell.

Why am I doing this?  We don’t really need the money.  But in this day of rampant consumerism, more is always good.  Plus, there’s some real dogmatic idiots in Washington, that wanna undo all the meager progress we’ve made in this country, and return us to the 19th century.  But I really can’t stand it!  Being ‘fully retired’ is nice, hard to give up…unless of course for the right price.

Oh well.  Anybody out there dealing with similar, or even dis-similar retirement issues?  Maybe I’m goin’ back to work, cause I like it.  Now that’s really sick.