Tag: worklife

On Saturdays I took the bus downtown to pay my newspaper bill. In the mid-1960s my home town had a downtown, and it wasn’t unusual.

Newspaper carriers collected subscription fees from customers, then remitted the cost of the papers at the building where they were printed. Whatever was left—a few dollars at most—was our margin.

I spent mine on the bus trip, on snacks at the automat inside Parker’s Department Store, and for an occasional book or magazine. Back then there were at least four department stores downtown and I shopped at them all from time to time.

I continue to have an urge to go downtown on my day off, but of course there is no downtown the way there was.

Sometimes I give in and go, but the impulse is less about the trip itself than feeding a connected and primal need. It’s not the same even though today’s mental awareness is connected to that long ago paperboy. Usually I end up buying things we need if I venture out, like food, light bulbs and hydrogen peroxide.

Days off are more complicated than they were. On every day there is some paid work to be done whether at a work site, or at my desk. I don’t mind. Modern life is about choices we make.

After re-purposing, there was no idea where the road would lead, and that was mostly a good thing. I knew there would be constant work to sustain a life outside of the old fashioned single big paycheck. I embraced the change. Some say over 40 percent of the U.S. workforce, or 60 million people, will derive their livelihood from this kind of “freelancing” also known as “working as needed.”

Dig a bit deeper, and what I am doing is a harbinger of the near-term future, which according to the Intuit 2020 Report, is where “2020 will see a new breed of senior citizens with ‘unretirement’ and active engagement best describing their lifestyle choices.” Translation: my cohort will be working for money until we croak.

So even if I feel the urge to venture downtown, a place that no longer exists, capitulating from time to time seems okay. I would argue it is necessary because so much depends on our connections to the past that if we don’t periodically revisit them, sustaining a life in the present would be nigh impossible.

So now and then, I take a day off.

This weekend is arguably the end of the holiday season. I previously suggested the holidays end Super Bowl Sunday, this year on Feb. 1, but who except people working for large corporations can write off the whole month of January?

So the work begins.

Part of the work is paid, and more paid work is needed in 2015. Partly to make up for one-time revenue streams that ended, and partly to ensure financial stability which ultimately will lead to financial sustainability. My preference is to find additional free lance writing jobs and some portion of research and development will be devoted toward that end.

The easy resolution to the income shortfall would be to take one of the many $9.25 per hour part time jobs that are available in the area. If it fit in my existing schedule, such a job would fill the cash flow gap short term. I may end up doing this, but am not ready to give up on other options yet.

2015 is planned to be a down-sizing year and some one-time income could be realized by selling some items. This may fill the February cash flow gap, buying me more R & D time, if January affords enough time to work on it. We’ll see if that happens.

At this point the road to a successful 2015 is open and full of opportunities. With an open mind and a ready attitude I have taken the next steps toward sustainability and a life worth living on the Iowa prairie. Here’s hoping for a happy new year.

LAKE MACBRIDE— Is it better to use home electricity to power devices or batteries? As readers can see from the image, I opted for battery power and here’s why.

I already own a Kodak EasyShare Z1285 camera that takes two AA batteries.

While cameras come and go in the course of a person’s photo taking, extending the investment in currently owned equipment is more convenient and less expensive. Both of those things matter.

There is also the issue of coal and nuclear generated electricity coming into our house from the rural electric cooperative. While I don’t know how these alkaline batteries were initially charged, they are made of common metals—steel, zinc and manganese—and do not pose a significant health or environmental risk as burning coal and disposing of nuclear waste do. Heavy metals, mercury particularly, were eliminated in alkaline batteries in the 1990s.

The large pack of batteries also frames a project for the new year with the highest resolution digital camera in the house. When the batteries are gone, the project will end.

For now, I am batteried up with energy to create.

LAKE MACBRIDE— Christmas is a busy time for retail workers. The end of year holidays, stretching from Halloween until the Super Bowl are a key time for companies to close sales that impact annual results. A lot of part-time and seasonal workers are needed to get everything done.

The working poor I know have their hands full of wage-earning opportunities at multiple jobs. For most, having Christmas Day off is not a benefit. It is a time to bank wages for the slow times coming later in winter. If hours were available Christmas Day, many would gladly work them.

My previous retail work ended when I left home to attend college. It was a part-time job stocking shelves in the drug department of a box store. We handled everything from sanitary napkins to record albums. As long as I had money to fuel my car, eat out with friends once in a while and buy some personal items, most of the dollars went into savings for college. In retrospect, it wasn’t many dollars, but a dollar had more buying power in the late 1960s.

My high school job is an example of how some view the current role of low wage jobs in society. They are dreaming. It bolsters an argument to keep minimum wage where it is, or eliminate it altogether. The truth is today people pay living expenses from low wage jobs like I had, and work at more than one job to earn enough to keep the bill collector from their door. Low wages are not about getting people a start in their work life. Working poor is a never ending vortex of not enough money to pay expenses with little time for a break, let alone a vacation or holiday.

There is help for working poor and I don’t refer to government social programs. It is social networking. Car broke down? A loaner is offered. Don’t have a car? Rides are shared. Turned out of your apartment? There is a couch or extra room. Need a job? Maybe you can work where I do. Social networking has always been around. When working poor it is a necessity and way of life.

We live by the choices we make in life, and no one chooses to work poor. The progressive lament that working poor is wrong isn’t helping as life goes on and we make up for losing a day’s wages somewhere else as one of our employers closes for the Dec. 25 holiday. There is no holiday when working poor.

After three days and two nights in Chicago it is good to be home.

The tail end of a cold persists, but I feel much better after spending a couple of days with peers from around the Midwest making sales presentations. We’re selling blenders on the Black Friday weekend—something else writers do to pay the bills.

I watched this Polish-speaking carpentry crew in Schiller Park get started on a project while waiting for our first conference session to begin. I was impressed by the uniform white T-shirts without logos, and the speed with which the partition wall went up. Wonder if they were hiring?

The exigencies of self-employment are always tapping at us, urging for our attention. Today there is a lot of work in the pipeline, and with a bit of organizing, I’ll be at it—bottom to the chair and typing away as quickly as the stories permit.