As most of the old timers know i used to be quite outspoken here. Life issues are center stage now so i've laid back alot. My Gov't job is fine and my Florida Retirement Sysytem account is in excellent shape. FRS is still the number one in the Country and her assets are holding. Early on I opted not to succumb to the temptation of converting to the investment side and pretnding to be my own counselor. I left my funds in the retirement plan and in the hands of those who control the Governors, judges , etc... funds. That proved an excellent idea. My wife because she works for the State and not the County but in the same plan had to make an immediate choice (unlike Miami Dade Employess who have multiple, no time-constraint choices ) and opted for the investment because she will not have near the 30-35 years i will likely have ( I am at 27 now). She invested in Agro and Bio-fuels diversely and has lost only .02 this year. She is looking to adjust that. Overtime cuts have removed about $25,000.00 per year from our income, it was dependable yearly, therefore considered normal, but we are holding and not behind.
Ups and downs with children. Some problems with son number 2, but connections got him a reprieve, a year and a day, which the State wanted reprieve with adjutication withheld and time served ( a $7.00 vitamin bottle from Wal-Mart) along with violating a probation on a 3rd degree felony, literally, opening an unoccupied car door and closing it. No damages, no restitution but unfortunately in Plantation acres, a pricey community of rare, one acre lots and 6000 square foot homes. In my neighborhood the cops would not have even considerd it, we've seen that proven with worse crimes. He did 45 days in hell in the cell with a murderer and one 19 year old boy facing two life sentences for armed robbery and screaming and door slamming were constant. Cure, he is back in school and getting jhis diploma, no problems whatsoever. He could heave gotten it all exponged from any records search but dropped the ball, oh well...
Son number three, USMC, doing great, going to Afghanistan in April. Doing his favorite thing, working in the Armory.
Son number one in College, away, doing very, very well and WORKING!!
My wife works for the State. She is doing excellent and despite not so great pay loves her work. we get alot of trips with the job and her training is great. She works in a department that does very important work and feels that she is helping people who have been victimized by to say the least crimes that violate people just short of rape (to me worse than murder). Her reputation has reached the top and she is doing wonderful. Because of her performance she is sent for training above her pay grade and studies at home regularly. She has found a niche and is perfectly suited to the great, small team of comitted people she works with. There are some Government employees who go beyond to help people and do their jobs.
Enough absentee updates:
On one recent trip (I always tag along at my own expense, the rooms are in five star hotels for which the State gets at Days Inn rates in bulk with no "double, single" baloney), we pay it then get reimbursed, I went to Ocala National Forest alone for the day. I was told by co-workers that it was a dead stick, ugly scrub forest fit only for fishing and ATV's. I found that in some ways that was true, along all the well worn paths. But off the path I found a different story in the tiny blooms, dead logs along trails on which I saw not one person but were carefully prepared and meandered for enough miles so that I got way to alone given my blood pressure issues. I decided the risk to see the end of those trails outweighed medical considerations and found that beauty is in the aperture setting on the camera and on what my eyes alone percieve as beauty. Please enjoy a walk through the trails:
NOTE: all expenses for me on these trips are mine alone, taxpayers pay none of mine and no extras for the wife, just hotel, meals and per diem for her and mileage which they calculate from house to hotel to conference and back home, any extra's are from my pocket.
Ups and downs with children. Some problems with son number 2, but connections got him a reprieve, a year and a day, which the State wanted reprieve with adjutication withheld and time served ( a $7.00 vitamin bottle from Wal-Mart) along with violating a probation on a 3rd degree felony, literally, opening an unoccupied car door and closing it. No damages, no restitution but unfortunately in Plantation acres, a pricey community of rare, one acre lots and 6000 square foot homes. In my neighborhood the cops would not have even considerd it, we've seen that proven with worse crimes. He did 45 days in hell in the cell with a murderer and one 19 year old boy facing two life sentences for armed robbery and screaming and door slamming were constant. Cure, he is back in school and getting jhis diploma, no problems whatsoever. He could heave gotten it all exponged from any records search but dropped the ball, oh well...
Son number three, USMC, doing great, going to Afghanistan in April. Doing his favorite thing, working in the Armory.
Son number one in College, away, doing very, very well and WORKING!!
My wife works for the State. She is doing excellent and despite not so great pay loves her work. we get alot of trips with the job and her training is great. She works in a department that does very important work and feels that she is helping people who have been victimized by to say the least crimes that violate people just short of rape (to me worse than murder). Her reputation has reached the top and she is doing wonderful. Because of her performance she is sent for training above her pay grade and studies at home regularly. She has found a niche and is perfectly suited to the great, small team of comitted people she works with. There are some Government employees who go beyond to help people and do their jobs.
Enough absentee updates:
On one recent trip (I always tag along at my own expense, the rooms are in five star hotels for which the State gets at Days Inn rates in bulk with no "double, single" baloney), we pay it then get reimbursed, I went to Ocala National Forest alone for the day. I was told by co-workers that it was a dead stick, ugly scrub forest fit only for fishing and ATV's. I found that in some ways that was true, along all the well worn paths. But off the path I found a different story in the tiny blooms, dead logs along trails on which I saw not one person but were carefully prepared and meandered for enough miles so that I got way to alone given my blood pressure issues. I decided the risk to see the end of those trails outweighed medical considerations and found that beauty is in the aperture setting on the camera and on what my eyes alone percieve as beauty. Please enjoy a walk through the trails:
NOTE: all expenses for me on these trips are mine alone, taxpayers pay none of mine and no extras for the wife, just hotel, meals and per diem for her and mileage which they calculate from house to hotel to conference and back home, any extra's are from my pocket.
Ocala, Florida National Forest
Along Spring Boils Trail, you will note that one photo is a bubbling spring, thousands in the are bubbling up clear, beautiful water through the white, fine, sand
Along Spring Boils Trail, you will note that one photo is a bubbling spring, thousands in the are bubbling up clear, beautiful water through the white, fine, sand
Lichens growing on a log
NO ASSET
Comment