. Drove J. to work this a.m. as per the routine and he's already paid me for my first week of driving him...$200 cash. 
I'm really appreciative of that since 2 other streams of income have dried up for much of July. That would be the loss of the publishing job, which is permanent, of course, and then temporary suspension of unemployment benefits.
It's possible I get the held up unemployment checks released before month's end, but I don't think it will amount to much anyway since I had to report some freelance income. I may or may not get the severance paycheck from the publishing job if the prez follows through and mails it out promptly. (He wrote back to me yesterday after I inquired about it and he apologized about simply forgetting to cut the check.) He put it in writing that he would do so, so I'm not too worried that I won't get it.
Last night we had, as they say in Boston, a "wicked bad" thunderstorm. It moved through quickly, though. Today is again just as muggy and uncomfortable as yesterday.
I find my energy and productivity level are directly tied to my personal (physical) comfort level, and that in turn is directly connected with the weather. It would be different if I had air conditioning here, but I do not, so when the weather gets super humid/hot, I don't get much done, indoors or out. I get like that in the winter, too. I keep the house so cool that I don't do much, and that kind of inactivity for half the year is not a good thing.
Summer is my personal "prime time" since I mow the lawn 2 or 3 times a week, do a great deal of other yeardwork, am busy harvesting and preserving food for winter use and doing a bunch of other things. But I need to keep my activity level up in winter so I don't get that seemingly inevitable weight gain.
For the month of July, I had higher than usual expenses, as I had to pay car insurance and borough insurance. I also spent an extra $800 or so due to paying off the mortgage, and the first of two annual installments on my property taxes, $3300, will be due in August. However, August will also be the first month when I won't have to make a mortgage payment.
Yesterday I picked a bunch of collard leaves, blanched them and then froze them. There is nothing so satisfying as being able to grow your food during the warm weather months of plenty and then preserving them for the cold days of winter. I also saved and froze the water I used to blanch the collards, since they are homegrown and I can use it as a soup base to capture those nutrients otherwise lost.
Like the proverbial ant, it makes me feel more secure after having filled up my oil tank (to get me through the first half of winter) and a freezer full of homegrown produce.
Me thinks I will blanch some string beans today. I keep checking the soybeans, but I don't think they are ready. It is possible I won't have a crop at all and that the reason they are so small is due to insufficient water.
I will be planting a fall crop of lettuce in early August.
Sweet reward...
July 27th, 2012 at 03:02 pm
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July 27th, 2012 at 07:27 pm 1343413655
I don't really want to nag the employer about the severance. Considering that I worked there part-time for just 6 months, I don't think most people would have felt they would be getting severance at all; I know I didn't.
I could be wrong, but my sense is that he's giving me the severance as a nice gesture. I don't think he's obligated to. Perhaps he feels a bit bad about the editor in chief firing me. I imagine his hands are tied there becus he needs her to get the 3 books published. With a skeleton crew there now and her having been there 25 years, I'm sure she fills a somewhat indispensable spot.
I'm sure if the editor in chief had her way, I wouldn't be getting any severance at all so.
This is a very small company. although i hardly knew the president, the few emails i exchanged with him after my firing told me he's an honorable guy and will do the right thing. If not, I have a few options, but I really don't think that will be necessary.