Post Kinetico Transition

For the rest of my working career, I was an on and off again ‘full-time’ temp (Contract Technical Writer). I never did find a full-time permanent job with any kind of benefits at all. The rest of this memoir will detail some of my jobs and ‘gigs’. Then, some of my retirement experience.

After Kinetico, I renewed my OH teaching certification and started substitute teaching in Ravena, Aurora, Kent, and at the Portage County Joint Vocational School. One of the problems with subbing was that subs weren’t allowed to work more than 3 days in a row at the same school.

It was a big pay cut, but I usually made enough to pay my basic bills. My unemployment compensation only lasted 6 weeks, but that was long enough for me to start subbing, that and the off and on again temp jobs. My income was so low that I was able to get food stamps for a while. Summers were particularly hard. Two summers in a row, I worked as a part-time waiter in the Blosum Cafe prior to the orchestra concerts at Blossom Music Center on the weekends. But that’s a couple of years in the future. I also mowed lawns for extra cash. Evenings and Sundays, I was teaching Aikido and Tai Chi at recreation centers in the area. That also generated a little income, but nothing like full-time employment. I wasn’t even making the equivalent of minimum wage the first few years after Kinetico.

Also, Anne, prompted by her mother, came after me for more child support. You may remember me mentioning previously how much her mother despised me anyway. After meeting with Anne and a state child support case worker, who reviewed my employment records, education, and current temp-employment situation (I was between temp jobs at the time), decided that I should be able to make at least $30K a year and based my support payments on that sum, even though I had no appreciable income at the time. My unemployment had run out long ago.

She got a court-ordered attachment of my wages for any job that Social Security tax could be taken from until my three children with her reached the age of 18. At the time, she had a low 6 figure income. Mine was at and often below the poverty level. Yes, toward the end, I did start to make more, averaging in the low 5 figures as I neared retirement age. I did have one very good year during that period where my income went into the mid-five-digit. But, sadly, that was the only time. Needless to say, my debt to the state child support system started to accrue exponentially, especially in those first years. It took me nearly to my retirement to pay it off. But that’s quite a few years from this point in time.

To be Continued

–LE