Now I can enjoy being “fully” retired

September 22, 2024

In late June, I wrote about receiving my official retirement notification letter from TRS. That letter merely set into motion a series of steps that had to be completed before I would be through the new retiree process. I’m happy to report the final step of awarding service credit for unused sick leave is currently in process and the additional 1/2 year of service credit will be added to my benefit calculations retroactively to August 1st. This means is will have taken five plus months from the date of that letter to get everything resolved.

It’s been a journey. Last week, a health plan drop notice caused momentary panic. Turns out it was a mere formality needed to stop billing notices when premiums started being deducted from my monthly pension check. All is well. Health insurance premiums are being deducted as they are supposed to and we’ve received all the open enrollment information for our 2025 plan choices.

Now, if all the damned political ads would disappear! I cannot wait for this silly season to be behind us.

done.

Be resourceful

September 20, 2024

Sometimes the best laid plans don’t always work out as you intended.

The Asheville Quilt Show is next week. This event has been on my calendar for several months. Originally, I’d planned for an overnight stay in Asheville and hubs would be home to keep the dog. He now has an event with TR next week.

The sticky wicket: What to do with Sadie?

It’s Fall Break for our local school district. Our doggy day care is full. Friends who could keep her are on vacation themselves. The college student who occasionally housesits for us, now has a full-time job. Even Grandma and Poppy are away next week.

I really didn’t want to cancel my trip, so Sadie is coming with me. I understand Asheville is a super dog-friendly city. We’ll see if that is true. I have a pet-friendly hotel arranged AND doggy day care session(s) reserved for her while I attend the quilt show. The weather is also cool enough for her to safely sit in the car if I want to stop somewhere along the way. Let’s hope the 10 day weather forecast is wrong about the rain. We’d both appreciate getting to explore Asheville without getting soaked.

The “hard” therapy dog visits

September 18, 2024

The bulk of our visits are the feel-good type where everyone is smiling and happy. Then, there are those that are a bit uncomfortable at first, but end up being so worthwhile.

GEMA requested our therapy dog group deploy therapy dog teams to Winder to provide services after the shooting at Apalachee High School. The students, families and other community support organizations in Winder were so appreciative that the therapy dogs were there. We were stationed at the community resource center, schools and the courthouse.

The Georgia State Conference on Family Violence invited CAREing Paws teams to help attendees destress after some very involved conference sessions on difficult topics. At the conference, I learned of other organizations that would welcome our visits and connected with community representatives from my own part of the state.

Another type of hard visit is the one you worked to make happen that didn’t get off the ground. The invitation to visit was rescinded last minute. This happened multiple times in my former school district over the past year. No reason was ever given, of course. We thought the one school district was just a fluke. Then, it happened with a different district this week. Guess what? The two local school districts share the same outside law firm for legal work.

If we’re asked by GEMA to come provide therapeutic support after a school shooting and you invite us to attend your big reading event every year, please explain to me what the issue is with us coming into one of your elementary schools each week to have kids read to the dogs? The kids and staff will benefit. But never mind. You’ve had your chance (multiple, actually). I will not be doing any visits to my former school district or the small city school district. Period.end.of.story.

I’ll go where we’re wanted and appreciated.