Garbage

So, the City of Peoria is considering raising the "garbage fee" to $14.00 a month. It is not a lot of money and I have not complained about the $6.00 fee, even though I do not like paying it, but this is ridiculous! If taxes (I believe the fee is a tax) need to be raised, I would rather see a small increase in property tax than increasing the garbage fee. Raising the garbage fee seems like the coward's way out. "Gee, people won't vote for me if I vote to raise taxes". Well, I for one, won't vote for any councilperson who votes to raise the garbage fee. With a small increase in property tax folks in $200,000 houses and roll out three toters of garbage each week would be paying their fair share.

I don't want to be forced to buy a particular toter either. I have one that is the perfect size for my single-person household. The huge ones from PDC will not fit between my vehicle and the house. Some of us who live in the older neighborhoods have very narrow driveways. I had one of their brown toters to begin with, it did not fit without moving a vehicle. The old green one from Waste Management was shaped a little differently and would barely fit, but it did.

To sum it up, I will be looking at how the votes go on these issues. Those votes (along with the museum and the "wonderful development" will help determine how I vote in the next council elections.

And Life Goes On

It has been almost two months that I have been retired. Although I quit without official notice, I have been telling people for the last couple of years that when the time came, I would toss my keys on someone's desk and be done. That is exactly what I did! There is a real sense of sadness when it comes to my former place of employment. For the most part, I loved my job, but the "social worker" part of me had difficulty finding a balance with the "business" part of me. It was always difficult to hear public perception of my place of employment and not being able to defend it with reality. Truth often has nothing to do with reality as people on the outside see it! Some of the publicity since my retirement has been true, some has been half-truth, some has been conjecture and some has been downright false. But, that's the way it is. I can't change it. All I can say is that I have no regrets in retiring. I spent over nineteen years in their employ and I decided to leave "my way". I am not good at good-bye scenes.

Before I decided to leave, I had frequent thoughts of a woman I used to work with. She retired and came back to work, retired again. Shortly after that, she became very ill and passed away. I did not want to follow those footsteps!

I will be sixty-seven in a couple of months. I am healthy and have things I want to do, places I want to go and people I want to see. This was truly brought home this weekend when I attended a family reunion. This was the first one in probably 25 years. Attendance was small, but that didn't matter. Family was together! Maybe there will be more that will be able to come next year. We looked at family history and old photographs. We talked old times and future time. We laughed! We loved!

My son, my daughter, their spouses and their kids - does life get any better. It very well may, but for now, I am content. No regrets and the future looks bright. I am one happy Grandma!

The Deed Is Done

Anyone who knows me or has read this blog, knows that I either think about a decision for a long time or I make one in the blink of an eye. In this case, I did both! I have been mulling it over for several years. Yesterday, I decided to move forward. This morning I checked to see if I had any personal days left. I had 8 hours of personal time left. At that point, the decision was complete. I took 4 hours of personal time and entered the world of a retiree at 12:01 P.M. I turned in my cell phone, my fob for the doors, left my keys behind and said my farewells to a few people. No potluck or plaque on a clock for me.

Had more than enough available in the Home Equity loan to pay off the car and have a very manageable payment. So now, my Soul is paid for! Will have to take a couple of months to see how I do - living on Social Security. I don't have expensive tastes, but I am used to getting something if I really want it. May need to think about a "stress-free" part-time job for the "I want, but don't need" things. That would be OK.

I have lots of projects to keep me busy and new things to learn! Excited to begin this next phase of this adventure called life. Yippee!

Say Something Good

There are plenty of people who complain and fire nasty comments back and forth. Some cannot seem to find one good thing to say about some people and have difficulty finding something good to say about Peoria. I am also guilty of falling into "bitch, moan & complain" mode. Wonder what would happen if we all became solution focused? What would happen if we welcomed newcomers to the neighborhood, regardless of their economic status and how their rent is being paid? What would happen if we all picked up the litter around our homes? How would it look if we all got involved in the Great American Cleanup this year? (By the way, that is on April 16th this year.) How full would the room be if we all attended our local neighborhood association meeting? What would the world be like if we looked at every individual, rather than at their disability, skin color, nationality or religion? What would the life be like if we stopped looking for excuses and started looking for solutions. Unless I can identify how I am part of the problem, I can never be part of the solution. I need to work on that!

Because they can!

I am glad that the link to retrieve my forgotten password at PJ Star does not work. I would probably regret any comment I might make today. I know that most intelligent people do not give much credibility to some of the consistently negative commenters, but that is beside the point. At least two of the comments on the story concerning the City Council voting against the low-income, elderly development proposed for the corner of Sheridan and War Memorial Drive contained misleading inuendos.

Some how the PHA Board was put in the mix in one of the comments. The PHA had nothing to do with this proposed development. It is not their development. Peoria Opportunities Foundation was working with the developer, not the Peoria Housing Authority. Seems like numerous locals think every low to moderate income development in the city is under the PHA. Not true folks!

Another commenter showed real lack of knowledge concerning a Internal Revenue program that encourages banks and large corporations to make investment in low income housing in exchange for a credit toward their corporate taxes. Tax Credits are issued to the states by the Internal Revenue Service and development projects enter into a very difficult competitive process to be granted these tax credits. Once granted, they are sold to various corporations or syndicators that represent corporations that get the credit over a period of years (normally 10 years). Without the Tax Credit Program, corporations would be paying much higher taxes than they are (which could lead to moving companies off-shore) or they would find less worthy loopholes to avoid the taxes. The program is not the direct flow of Joe Citizen's tax dollars into low income housing.

Rant over!

They Did It Again

http://www.pjstar.com/news/police/x1040068272/Arsonist-strikes-Bigelow-Street-for-second-time-this-week
Bigelow is not in the East Bluff.

Where To Go From Here

Although I said I would not blog about retirement, I must admit that I have changed my mind. A woman's prerogative, you know. I have reached the age where I can retire. I wouldn't mind retiring, but I would mind not working. I seem to need somewhere to be at 8:00 AM. I just want to do something different. Never was someone who knew what they wanted to be when they grew up. I still don't. I worked a couple of jobs for 10+ years, a few for much less and have been where I am for 19 years. As a youngster I was taught to never leave a job unless you have a job. I guess I learned it too well! Between Social Security and annuity payment, finance isn't the issue. My sanity is the issue.

Will work for minimum wage (although I would prefer not to) at a low stress job that I could walk away from at the end of the day and not be concerned about until the next day. Does such a job exist?

In the meantime, I know where I will be at 8:00 A.M. on Monday.