Closing My Circle

I am back on the same exact State of Ohio job that I had before our big adventure began. I have "intermittent" status, which means that I can work up to 1,000 hours in a given fiscal year (July 1 to June 31). The State has a hiring freeze on right now; they hire only a few specialized individuals for permanent jobs. My boss, my co-workers and I hope this freeze ends before I finish my 1,000 hours. To that end, I am working less-than-40-hour weeks, in order to extend the calendar time before this arises. Of course, my boss knows a few ways to make things happen, but life will be easier for everybody if I can go to permanent status before using up my hours.

Until I came back to this job last Wednesday, I spent two months on the worst job I ever had. This temporary assignment, which I got through OfficeTeam, featured a 3-hour round trip commute (by bus), the grouchiest and most uncivil supervisor that I have ever had the misfortune to encounter, and four to five hours a day of slack time, among other nasty features. Of course, even this job had a few redeeming features. Most of the other people there were decent, and I learned that information technology jobs pay multiples of the most I've ever made. My next career change will probably be into information technology.

The capper came when, having set up the State job, I put in my two days' notice as requested in OfficeTeam's paperwork. The OfficeTeam people insisted on two WEEKS' notice and had the nerve to tell me that this is customary in temporary work. I did temporary work through most of the 1990s and had been back at it for several months recently. I had read the paper I signed, too, and I knew immediately that OfficeTeam had lied to me and attempted to intimidate me. I managed to restrain my temper, stalling until the next day. After consulting with the State's HR person (who worked very hard on all of this) and my wife, I decided that the best cash flow would result from finishing the assignment. I did so, but promised OfficeTeam that many prospective employees would learn of this event.

Moral of the story: OfficeTeam will try to change their contract with me to suit their own ends. Result: no more OfficeTeam. Should I go back to temporary work at some future time, I will not contact OfficeTeam or work for them. I do not recommend anyone else to do that either.

Long, strange trip

I'm just going to summarize the past six months and let it go at that.

Our plan was to go full-time RVing using the retirement money from my job. The central problem was the three-month wait between the resignation date and the issue date of the retirement check. By my last day on the job, we got rid of most of our "stuff" in preparation for this.

We began our three-month wait in Tennessee, living in a relative's house that we had been offered for "as long as you need it." After two weeks, we were asked to leave.

We spent about the next six weeks living with another relative in Weirton, West Virginia. The country is beautiful in the Northern Panhandle; unfortunately, the economy is terrible.

December we spent in Columbus. Loretta received a sum of money during this time, and we spent the last two weeks in a motel in Grove City.

Finally, my money came. We bought a truck to pull a travel trailer, then suddenly realized that being homeless for three months had left both of us not wanting that for a lifestyle. We decided to go ahead and move to Tucson, Arizona, and hope for the best.

We already knew that Tucson has low wages. That didn't change. At some point after I studied it, unemployment rose. The only jobs readily available are those previously filled by illegal immigrants. The State of Arizona has found ways to chase the illegals out of the area, so now nobody remains who is willing to work for $6.00 an hour. On the other hand, apartment rents run lower than I expected. When the illegal aliens left the state, they left plenty of apartments vacant, so that end of the real estate business is hurting.

We did not expect new allergies in Tucson. The allergy issue that Loretta brought with her increased. I found myself with allergies I had never had, and even our dog, Lil, wound up on Benadryl per the vet.

Of course, we found plenty to like about Southern Arizona. People there "live in a picture postcard," as one of them put it. From almost anywhere outdoors in the city, a nice view of mountains awaits you. The winter weather delivers high temperatures in the 60s and 70s most days, with little or no rain and low humidity. Most of the people seem glad to be there, too, and we didn't find many grouchy people at all. That's refreshing. There's more, but this is only a summary.

After a couple of months, we realized that we were about to run out of money. Neither of us saw any signs of getting good work, and neither of us had the energy to keep looking. We decided to rent a truck and take our stuff back to Ohio.

By the way, renting the truck was a serious mistake. We could have replaced our larger items for about $500; the truck cost us $1100, not counting a huge amount in fuel. Do the arithmetic before you move things that might be easier to replace.

We are back in Ohio, living in the apartment complex where we began this adventure and looking for work. It would have been far simpler to just move, but we would not have the lessons from the trip or some good stories to tell.

Calvin

Blue Ridge--let's get going

This picture shows Loretta, mostly hidden, along the Green Rock Trail, the only trail we actually walked on the whole trip. (One thing we want to do the next time is walk several more trails.) This one runs less than a mile, but does get steep toward the end. We enjoyed all but the stair-step part, which got to Loretta's arthritis.

I feel a need to speed this story along somewhat. These pictures give an idea of what we drove though on most of the first day on the Parkway.

I'll put in one more picture here.

We spent the night at Otter Creek Campground, one of the nicest parts of the Parkway for us. A restaurant sits beside the Parkway, with the campground behind it. One section accommodates RVs, the other tent campers. We enjoyed our site; it had quiet, a nice tent section, good picnic table, plenty of room for a camp fire, and easy-to-use parking and access. Here's a picture of Loretta on our site.