On another note entirely, has retirement agreed with you, or do you miss the old job?
* I didn’t know it would be this good! You perhaps are unaware about the circumstances of my retirement.
– sister Diana’s husband passed away after 4th battle with Cancer in 2012? She subsequently completed writing his book, and had written her own. When I read it, I did as you might do, and said of her published book, “oh, by the way, did you know?”
– I let her know that I read it pretty much in one sitting, weeping, and in awe. I believe the name of the book is Hope in the Mourning.
– I’d walked those last steps of her journey with her, had been alongside of her, in person and over the phone. Reliving those moments was profoundly moving for me.
– so after having told her this, I mentioned a few typographical errors, and maybe a few wording suggestions.
When she subsequently went to re-publish it having sold out (self published by the way) of her previous batch, she contacted me and said hey would you mind reading over my manuscript finding those things you mentioned and making note of them for me? So yes indeed that’s what I did. She sent me the *.doc manuscript and I made notes throughout including explains joy and tears.
She then took that manuscript with the edits and notes and sent it to her new publisher, who then asked her, “wow! Who is this guy, and can he come work for me!?”
So… I started doing what she called editing. I look into it and I acted in the capacity of a developmental editor, suggesting rewording, and catching grammatical stuff and like that. I collaborated with the author, and interacted with both the publisher and author as needed.
It was my first ever experience doing something like this, and I found it extremely exhilarating, to say the least.
It felt like for me to fulfilment of a lifelong dream! She paid me. I think it was two cents a word, and I really didn’t care about the money. I was making my full-time wage as a bus driver and we weren’t hurting for money, it was bonus.
There’s more to that story, but I’ll cut ahead for the fact that I always seem to take a long time to answer. Simple questions, don’t I? LOL
after about three books, I asked her is this going to be a regular thing you need from me, she said you’re doing great you’re doing fine yes etc. So I sat down with my wife and said this is what my retirement will give us and this is the extra money we will need to be retired comfortably – about $500.oo extra a month – from editing. I’m gonna skip some information here, not to keep it from you, but for the sake of gravity, haha brevity!
It takes about few months for the paperwork etc to retire from being a full time bus driver for a government run bus company. Once I’m motion it’s not impossible to reverse, but it isn’t easy either. So I was set to retire March 31, 2022. I had left over vacation to spend, so that was what freed me from mid December 2021 to early March 2022. I worked the final 2 weeks.
Mid December I sent in a completed manuscript assignment, and asked for my next book. The email was bounced back, her voicemail declared that her mailbox was full and her website was no longer there.
I had rowed my little boat out into the ocean, and my Titanic never showed. My oars flopped helplessly as the waves and currents tossed me gently …
So my wife and I panicked !
I called my boss at Coast Mountain Bus Co., and said hey is there a way to undo all of this and he said yes but it’s a process and I and then that he’d call me back. When I hung up, I turned to look at my wife, and she said to me, with a heart full of faith… we can do this! God will provide!
So I phoned my boss back and I said never mind we’re doing it!
As I said already, I was getting my full-time wages as a bus driver, so no worries until the end of March, and in the meantime, she managed to resurface and give me another book which is another nice story, and I earned another $500 or so, in and around that time I begin attending a virtual men’s Bible study group in the mornings in connection with the church that I was going to. One of the other fellows upon hearing of my impending retirement, ended up telling a mutual friend and former co-worker Gerry Essex, who messaged me and said, “hey, if you’re ever interested in driving school bus, give Scott a call… I work for them at such and such school…”
So being like I am… I called Scott to say “hey, if you’re ever hiring, give me a call…” but before much could be said he goes,
“I need
- your driver’s abstract
- Resume
- Criminal record check
And let’s get your road test booked for next week Wednesday…
Having not consulted my wife AT ALL about this, I began to stammer, and made up a hedging kinda stall tactic excuse and said I’d get back to him…
My wife with the ears of dumbo said from the other room (after I’d hung up) “never mind it’s all good!”
So I called him back and I was hired… before I had even called.
My first day on the job, all but one of the other 6 drivers were former Coast Mountain Bus Company drivers whom I knew well and visa versa… they had all vouched for me!
I began in February to do sports trips on call… at the end of the summer, while sitting in a parking lot outside a McDonalds where my wife and son were inside haggling over getting their meal properly dispensed! I received a text message from SCOTT saying “call me when you get a chance”
So I gave him a call immediately and he said someone just quit on us…”
oh by the way, it was the last week of August school begins the Tuesday after Labour Day.
“…. The rest of the school has heard good things about you and we as a team would like to invite you to work for us full-time”
I had already been having anxiety about being able to make ends meet and with my wife in McDonald’s… I committed a marriage feux pas!
I took the job with neither conferring nor receiving her permission, and I had it in my belly to say this is the way it’s going to be baby!
My wife actually did have a fit that I had accepted this full-time job and in order to save her pride or whatever you wanna call it, she issued the addict that I would be quitting after Christmas! By Christmas Sheryl said to me why the heck would you quit? This is gotta be the best situation we’ve ever been in!
So I’m getting my company pension, my Canada Pension, and I’m also receiving around 2000$ a month from the school, and even get EI (employment insurance) when we’re laid off during school breaks.
Matthew 6:33-34 is what you are already doing!
Look it up!
❤
Running Down Vimy 