And a great man has gone beyond

[ishte]

That would be my Dad, who passed away at about 9:30 this evening.  I don't really have a lot to say about it right now.  Kind of numb.  The thing is... He was just trapped inside that body... to the point where he couldn't even get out enough to acknowledge most of us... so now, he's out of it.  He's not trapped in there any more. He's not suffering.  I can sense him around me.  I have his song in my heart.

Comments

[ishte.livejournal.com]

Well... We knew this was coming. We're more relieved than anything. Death is an experience that we all have to go through at some point, and in the mean time, all we can do is remember the ones who go before. I don't think I could play his death song right now... not clearly. But I will play it at Samhain for him.

I appreciate the offer. But at the moment the house is kind of messed up with Lexi moving in, and finally she's moving from the guest room into her room.. but meanwhile the guest room is full of stuff from that room that I have to go through. Maybe you can come visit in a while for a week or two and help me go through these damn boxes in the basement. haha...

[marynachaotica.livejournal.com]

Eh...you never know....if fates smile upon me maybe I'll be heading East. And you know if that happens....TADA ''SUPER ORGANIZER" at your door! *LOL*

[ishte.livejournal.com]

Yus.. but maybe you can visit me before then. ^_^ Once I get the guest room situated. See, I put a bunch of stuff in the spare bedroom to have it set up as something other than an empty room, since my last roommate needed a furnished room, she rented the guest room... but Lexi is taking the bigger room and so right now the stuff I put in there is in the guest room. waiting to be put back where it was before. That shouldn't take me long if I can just get my mind on doing it now that everything is done with Dad.

[marynachaotica.livejournal.com]

Way things are looking with the housing market and prices going up...I'll either need to close this place up and go live in Mary's basement ...or find a pagan roomie with a job! Get a job at Taco Bell as well.

[ishte.livejournal.com]

Who says your roommie has to be pagan. *shrug* as long as they aren't judgmental about your faith, they don't have to be the same faith as you any more than you have to be the same faith as them. And of course there is no shame in working. You may find a part time job at Taco bell is enough to make those ends meet. Things will get better once we have a new president. The one we have utterly failed to run our economy like a business. He has spent more than the democrats did, and talked us right out of a boomming economy into recession after recession. Everytime he talks about how our economy is good, and everyone has work, I'm like.. sure.. everyone has work because you don't count the people who have already fallen off the unemployment rolls months and years ago or those who have stopped registering with the employment agencies because they've given up on finding work as unemployed. Don't mention either that everyone who has a job right now is underpaid because minimum wage laws do nothing but raise prices so that the income to outgo ratio is wider than ever... and even people in higher than min jobs are being paid less than they're used to, less than they need and less than they are worth based on their experience and education.

But there is no shame in working wherever you can work.

[marynachaotica.livejournal.com]

I say they have to be pagan. Nothing against non-pagans, there are some nice ones out there. But I've found energies flow more smoothly if everyone under the roof is of like mind. Besides my ghosts wouldn't take kindly to a non-pagan....they've proven that in the past!

Well I've talked with the manager of Taco Bell, and they couldn't pay me much beyond minimum wage. With the price of gas being the way it is....there's no way I could afford to work there! All the income would be going into the tank, so I could work...so I could put it in the tank..so I could.....Catch 22.

[ishte.livejournal.com]

I think your calculations are way off. Harrisonville (if that's where you're looking) is only about 15 miles... If I were driving Thom, who gets 18 miles to the gallon, and gas costs an average of 3 dollars a gallon, and Missouri min is $6.65. Let's just put gas at an average of half that 3.33 to make it easier to calculate and say your car gets only 15 mpg.)

So... you go to work its 30 miles round trip. So it costs you one hour of work to get to and from work each day. If you work 4 hours a day 4 days a week, you pay 4 hours for gas... and make 12 hours in clear pay... which is about $70 a week you'd earn after income taxes.

Another calculation: 6 hours a day 3 days a week. Now you only have 3 hours a week in the gas tank, and get to keep 15 hours. which is about $85 after taxes.

(bear in mind that your actual paychecks will be more than I just said on those two scenarios... I've already taken out for the gas you'd spend getting to work based on those figures. I know your car gets better MPG than Thom.. about twice that I think. Bear in mind too that you could save your banking, post office, shopping and other trips to town for days you work a few hours and some of those trips you'd have to make anyway job or not... so why not make a little money while you're out.

anyway, the trick here is to a) make the most of the trip and b) make sure to remind your boss that you're not local, so you would appreciate not being scheduled less than 4 hours at a time. It's not an unreasonable request at all, as most places don't usually scheduled under 4 hours anyway but instead overlap their full time people on longer shifts to get the equivalent of another person there for 2 or 3 hours rather than expecting an employee to come and work for such a short shift. My boss schedules Sarah one day a week to come and work for two hours in the morning, but Sarah also lives right down the street, and she has nobody else that can cover those two hours, so Sarah doesn't mind. Your boss is going to understand when you ask that she not do that since you have a ways to drive. you can go to the gym after work to relax and work off the tension from working. It'll improve your energy.

[marynachaotica.livejournal.com]

You have a very good point there!

Okay I'll go back and talk with Connie some more. She already knows I'll only work days, and those would be when she's there. No nights and no weekends.

[marynachaotica.livejournal.com]

Speaking of Connie..guess who just called me!? She said to come in Tuesday and we'd talk....she'll pay me $7.25 an hour...10:30 am to 5:00 pm....Tuesday Wednesday Thursday and Friday.

You know...if I can get the job, I might be able to afford the gym membership. As it stands it runs out on May 1st and it's $310 a year.

[ishte.livejournal.com]

Well that's good news. I'm glad I was able to put it more into perspective for you.

That Gym Membership is not a bad price. Just Our local YMCA is $50 to join and then $40 a month. That works out to my first year being $530, and every year after that I guess is $480... and it's not even that nice of a facility. I'm going to try to look at other options.

Here I'll give you a little more perspective based on what we know. We'll assume you manage 30 mpg in your car, just for simplicity's sake. I think you told me you averaged about 32, but we're talking cents up or down not dollars. Even if gas goes to $4 like they think they're going to try to make it do (and trust me on this, the OPEC countries are the ones trying to do this, not the oil companies. They want us to have to pay the same price for gas as Europe has for many years because of all the tariffs and shit the EU puts on Petrol.

Ok.. so no political rant here... you make $7.25/hour... and work (The exact same shift as me! only one day less per week.) 6.5 hours a day, 4 days a week, which is 26 hours a week. That's not bad. You'll drive 30 miles a day, 4 days a week, which is 120 miles. (which btw is about a third of an average tank of gas, so whatever a third of a tank of gas costs you now, that's your gas expense for work pretty much on a dime.) Anyway, we'll be generous (allowing your car to get worse mileage than I assume) and say that's 5 gallons a week you'll use getting to and from work. So that's uh... say $20 a week on gas... and you'll gross about $185 and net about... well I'll be generous again and assume the tax man will get 20% for state local and fed/fica... I doubt it'll be that much, but let's just say 20% which means you will make a net of $150... and pay out $20 for gas... which means an extra $130 you earn each week for the trouble, and then you can also take care of your business in town while you're up working... so that's not bad either... because you'll spend less on gas for those trips.

Oh... and most food places have either free meals while you're working, or a 50% discount and a discount when you're not working too. Which applies at any branch, as long as you can present a current pay stub. That can cut out some of your food budget too.

The long and short of that is that I do encourage you to take that job. You may find you like it, and once you get over your initial shyness you'll find it fills a lot of your social needs. Seems like most of those gals know you and accept you pretty well anyway. ^_^ You may find it quite enjoyable. Food is not hard work. Mostly it's just a matter of getting used to being on your feet. I recommend a good comfortable sneaker that has good venting, and a good insole, like Triad (http://www.americarx.com/Products/7038.html). Triads are what I use in my skates, and believe me it makes a huge difference when you're working on skates what kind of insert you have in there.!

[marynachaotica.livejournal.com]

The nice thing is...Connie has agreed I don't work the cash register, won't work the window. I'll work the line and be given opportunities to occasionally sit down because of my lower back and hips.

She also knows I'm on the shy side, and the people there also know this. So that's good...I won't be put in a situation that will make me uncomfortable. All I have to do is make food, and listen to the others carrying on. *smile*

Yeah I was figuring on taxes being 29%...that would still give me $573 a month.

This is quite a step for me...working with others. I'm more used to the jobs where I'm on my own.