Stress

Work stress (15 hours before our flight) I had one hour of my work day to go when I heard that a program I wrote was failing. I wrote a nasty ham handed fix and got out of there in an hour. Home stress (10 hours before our flight) I wrote out two bills, both due while we were to be on vacation. Since I had stopped the mail, I needed to drive to the mailbox outside the grocery store. Leaving the house during the packing process is fraught, so I was very careful. I kept all the contents of my purse in the house. I drove barefoot so I wouldn't misplace my shoes. All I had on me was my drivers license: and even then I had taped a note to the suitcase reading "DRIVERS LICENSE IS IN POCKET OF BLUE SHIRT." When I got to the store and held up the envelope to put it in the slot and saw I had sealed the envelope with no address on the outside, I stayed calm. I bored a hole in the envelope to extract the bill with the address. All had to do was find a pen. Five minutes later when I stomped back into the house screaming "HOW IS THERE NO PEN ANYWHERE IN YOU CAR," Gary asked, "Why didn't you just buy a pen at the grocery?" Well, I had no money, because moving the money would mean misplacing the money. Relative stress (9 hours before flight) Dave called to let me know he was withdrawing another 10% of the capital in the investment mom left him. I was stressed, until I realized Dave's "retirement account" differs from mine in that he'll never have to buy food with it. I don't think disability income cuts off when you turn 65. Does it? TSA stress (2 hours before flight) I was randomly selected to have my hands checked for explosive residue. Evidently, we no longer take off our shoes, but they check our hands now. Dallas Ft. Worth airport stress This is a two stop journey, and between flights one and two American Airlines changed the gate fifteen minutes before boarding. Or it might have been one minute before boarding, which is when I noticed it. We made to the new gate with minutes to spare. Yesterday I told Friend #2 that since our lives are so relaxing, we go on vacation to get stressed. I'm ready for some relaxation now. I still have one plane flight and an hour plus drive. Megabus is sounding good right now. UPDATE: You may be seeing multiple copies of this since type pads remote posting feature seems to be wonky, still. But, we are here, it is grand, and swarming with elk.

Comments

[Tami]

Oh, god. At least there are elk.

[~~Silk]

From http://www.disabilitybenefitscenter.org/blog/how-long-social-security-disability-benefits-last

" For those who do receive Social Security Disability benefits until age 65, Social Security benefits will not just stop altogether. They will simply change from Social Security Disability benefits to Social Security Retirement benefits."

So, yeah, technically they do stop, you just switch to retirement benefits -- but um, if you are disabled and your retirement benefits are based on your past earnings, and your past earnings are zilch, how much do you get? They seem to imply you'll get the same amount as for disability.

[allison]

"Our lives are so relaxing we go on vacation to get stressed". YES YES OH MY GOD YES. Happy elking.

[Hattie]

Elk. You saw elk. We didn't see elk. But we saw a squirrel.
Well, have a good time now.

[Thequeen]

Tami - there are a lot of elk. Or they might be enormous camel like deer.
Silk - thanks for finding that. Maybe they count the previous disability payments as income? You'd think HE'd know.
Alison- and evidently part of that stress is having a cold. We both have colds now.
Hattie-Gary commented about how odd the squirrels look and I was able to tell him about north rim vs south rim squirrels, thanks to you. Plus, all the elk are in the Mather campground.