I started an entry a couple of hours ago, didn't have too much written and then the phone rings. It's my ex. A van full of people had come back from the Salvation Army camp where my son is working and she said he had sent some pics, she was going to bring them over to me. Send pics? Personally? I had some weird thoughts about it - who does THAT? You can just email them and if you want them printed, make a disc and take it to Walgreens - or your store of choice that does such.
Instead, something told me to take a shower - so, I jumped in the shower, got on some clean clothes and then waited for her to bring me the pics.
15 minutes later, she calls and says she's outside my house with the pics. Okay. I walk out there, go through the gate, start walking out to the car and, walaaaah!! CALEB jumps out of the car!!! Now, for once, I was SHOCKED!! I didn't believe my eyes. My mind goes into - how is he home? How is he here? I'm that kind of person: instant analyzation in the mind, but showing great joy on the outside (well it WAS on the inside, too, just a lot of mind junk that sometimes gets in the way of things) to see my son!!
Yes, I got my pictures: LIVE pictures, lol. Mom had him for an hour and she brought him to me for an hour as well. We sat here in my kitchen and talked and talked until it was time for him to leave. I had to take him to the mall down the road to meet up with the rest of the people to head back to the camp. Today was a day off and he decided to hitch a ride down and visit us. Way cool. We had a good conversation, I mostly listened to him telling the stories of his great adventure/journey. Isn't that what parents of adult children are supposed to do? I dunno, folks, I am in a learning curve here, my boy went from childhood to adulthood in one fell swoop and it is definitely an adjustment period.
And mind you, he isn't just an adult by fact of age, he has matured GREATLY in the last 6 to 8 months. I dunno, I was ecstatic to see my boy, it was QUITE the surprise and a good one at that. We got to the mall and he started walking. A very noticeable difference in his gait: he used to walk slow, now, by fact of having to walk all over the place at that large expanse of a camp, he is walking as fast as I do at a normal clip. I brought it up to him: you are walking a bit faster, I see. The light went on: I hadn't noticed until now!!
We traipsed around that mall - large place - until we found the exit where everyone was supposed to meet. I know that it isn't going to be long and I won't be seeing much of my son at all - life takes over, you grow up, you get busy. I'm good with that, but I hope he does what I do with my still-living parents: email them and call them regularly.
It was a great visit. When your kids are with you, perhaps it's easy to take it all for granted. When they leave, then you may begin to see the gift of God that they are to you. My boy has turned out well, that is the greatest gift of all.
ben
7 comments:
Very nice, Dad!
fin
Thanks, fin!
Monday
I had forgotten that today, my manager is going to be off. It always leaves up in the air who, exactly, is going to take his place. I can't run the shop AND make deliveries, hence the need for another body to fill the manager's position. Even if there were no deliveries in the system, you still have to have 2 people here in case something comes up.
Look, this debt ceiling and Obama's posturing aren't fooling me, I doubt it's fooling too many others, either. He is attempting to make it look like the GOP is holding any kind of a deal up, when, in reality, he didn't even want to make ANY kind of adjustments to government spending at all.
He would have rather just gone ahead, pushed for another 2-1/2 trillion debt ceiling increase and not done ANY kind of cutting. Dems weren't even talking about this until conservatives made a stand and forced the issue. Remember, at the same time, the Obama that was an Illinois Senator (of which very few people knew ANYTHING about, let's vote him into office because he's black and if you don't vote for him, you're a racist - I will never forget that garbage) said it was irresponsible to increase the debt ceiling.
Also never forget his statement the he knows what's best for America and Americans - alienating those of us that have our own minds and use them to think with on a daily basis. In other words, we're all too dumb to know what's going on, trust Obama.
Obama wants bigger government, that's the end of this story. If he could get away with upping ALL of our taxes, regardless of how much (or little) money you make, he would definitely do it. The entitlement programs thrive under such a presidency, unless, of course, you have a grouping of "Tea Party" backed conservatives who aren't going to budge an inch. And because of their stance, Dems come along and start calling them names - you must have seen all that stuff they were calling Eric Cantor last week because he refuses to give in?
The dems have also apparently forgotten the rebuking they received in the last elections. Do they truly believe that we just "forget" about all of this stuff? They lost a super-majority because they were not listening to the vast majority of the American people who are sick of Washington politics as usual. Now you have McDonnell and Boehner talking about compromise. With what? A president that can't seem to get it into his thick head that we don't WANT bigger government and that many of us happen to think it's already too big?
Are any of these people on either side of the fence talking about fixing Social Security? Of course not. I've been paying into it all my adult life, I say get rid of it. Keep it for those that are already retired and receiving the benefits, you can't just screw them and blwo them off, but get rid of it for preceding generations.
I would FAR rather take that money and invest it myself. Instead, I am being forced to take even more of what little money I have left after taxes and attempt to save it because I know,in the end, if they don't change that system there isn't going to be anything left for me when I get to that age. I'm not going to go into my 60's broke and desperate if I have anything to do with it, and yes, I have something to do with it.
I have decided, after much internal deliberation on the subject, to up the amount of savings to 10% versus the 5% it's at now. BUT, the 5% is going into a savings account, initially, until I have enough to by CD's or some other investment venue. I may up the 401k from 5% to 7% and do a 3% savings plan instead. Any way about it, I am going to attempt to save a lot more money than I am doing right now.
The point? I cannot base my retirement on a system that may not exist by that time, or have so little left in it that what I receive is next to nothing. I cannot also depend on inheritances. I may very well get some, but you can't really forecast your financial future on such. No, I am facing the fact that I am going to have to supply my own retirment and to do that means upping substantially my savings portfolio and also, yes, I really want to get into the rental type of business in owning properties and renting them out.
That's a goal. I am starting to work forward to getting to the point where I am realizing that goal in my life, not just in my head.
Regardless, time is up.
G'day.
ben
It is wonderful that you are attempting to save money for your future, even though you typically don't have a lot of extra.
Still, with three tenants and your trailer folks and all those gluttenous teens out of your house, things SHOULD be easier for ya.
Certainly, the reduction of 2 mouths that ate an EXTREME amount of food certainly helped my finances. The 2 loan modifications helped as well. 3 tenants with 2 unemployed. Only one of the 3 is current, not hard to guess which one: the employed dude. One is only $100 from having this month paid up, but, the 3rd?
Anyway, my pay raise is starting next month, that will pay for some of it, the rest of the amount will just have to be eaten and find a way to cover it.
So nice that you got to see Caleb!
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