This'n'That; March Twenty-Eighth #2; Time's Here!

It's Time For A Change....!
    Here I am.... at a point I never thought I'd see!! 
Unemployed!! 
Sixty-five years old!! 
On Social Security!!
    I grew up in the 1950s-'60s in a bustling little village in western New York's Southern Tier; Cohocton, to be exact.  I started working when I was about 15; setting type by hand for a small weekly newspaper and 'job-shop.'  That's when I really started learning about saving, budgeting, investing.  My Dad and I had been having informal conversations-discussions on the stock market and investing since I was about 12 or so. (FYI [dads, parents]-Those conversations became invaluable to me in future years; future investing ventures!)  I spent most of my early years as a naive school kid, graduating in 1964.  I didn't find out until much later, but my high school Principal--Mr Dunn--had commented on the back of my transcript that essentially, I wouldn't amount to crap without close supervision.  My assessment of that comment is:  I was an undiagnosed, unlabeled 'A-D-D' kid, before that affliction was socially acceptable.  To me, I was just 'the class clown' who never paid attention!
    My first real dose of reality came when I arrived in San Antonio, Texas--two days after high-school graduation--for Air Force basic training.  After that came almost thirteen years of active--Air Force--duty; lots of different military jobs--some flying, most not.  Along the way came four kids and lot'sa marriages and the subsequent divorces-none of which were my idea!
    Next, another dose of reality: civilian life!  To be 'dropped on the street corner,' mostly single (divorce finalization pending), mostly broke, was a bit dose.  Nobody to tell me where to go, what to do when I got there; I was a bit "at my wit's end."  No money, no place to live; I literally moved into "a refrigerator box under a bridge" in one of the towns outside Kansas City, Missouri, near a second town where I'd later find work, a temporary home and most of a college education.   The young people of my era--and those of following eras--had it drummed into our heads: we had to go to college to amount to anything!!  So I applied and was accepted into Central Missouri State University, Warrensburg, Mo., for the Fall Term-1980, with a double major of accounting and finance.  While there, I survived by working in a beer-joint, a mom-n-pop fastfood joint, on the Korean Era GI Bill monies and as unskilled labor for a plumber.  Oh, and with the help of my friend David!  He was 'a local' and a student at CMSU.  His sister owned a mobile home that David and I shared along with his young son Kevin, and on weekends-with his daughter Trisha, as well.
    As has happened with many students before and after me; my Mom--a long-time diabetic--became ill with other maladies as well.  Dropping out after 2+ years, I returned home to help as I could.  (I'm still 18 credit-hours short of a bachelor's in either major!)  For a time, my brother and I worked together as contractors, but a 'parting-of-the-ways' was required-we didn't get along any better as adults than we did as kids!  That brought me to The Gunlocke Company; an area 'high-end' office furniture manufacturer.  Starting as an 'order picker' for the assembly area; on to an operator of a 6-head computerized router; onto an Engineering Draftsman; on to a Product Engineer.  After becoming a 'downsizing victim' and on unemployment for a time, I worked as a machine operator for an electrical insulator manufacturer.  This involved a nighttime commute of about 28 miles-one way.  What a sucky job!!  It involved machining clay blanks into the required shapes and profiles-plus the added benefit of being covered in fine dust most of the time!  (Somewhere in all that, I put five years in the Army Reserve.  Again, somewhere in there, I was a Cohocton Village Board member.)
    Then I found 'the best job on the planet;'  my true calling!!  I answered one of those ubiquitous ads to drive a truck for 'J.B. Hunt!'  I went to a truck-driving school in Indianapolis, Indiana for 16 days and graduated with a CDL-A!!  On July 4th, 1996, I was a truck-driver!!!  I then drove for (in order) Transport America, Crete Carrier Corp., MS Carriers (as an owner-operator), Crete Carrier Corporation (as an owner-operator) and Crete Carrier Corporation (as a company driver).  In 1999, I took 'a leap' and bought my own truck: a 1998 Freightliner, FLD-120, which I leased to MS Carriers and later Crete.  When I sold it in 2005, it had 943,000 miles on the odometer (NEVER a major rebuild of anything) and during that span I earned just under a million-dollars with it!!  Not too shabby for a $72,000 investment, aye?!?!  Another thing I'm quite proud of: 1,250,000 accident-free, incident-free, ticket-free, COMMERCIAL miles!!  I stayed with Crete for about six-months when "my best darlin'" suggested that she'd like to have me home more than every-other weekend which led me to drive a straight-flatbed truck for one of the local Lowes' stores.  I finally left Lowes' for the last time in April, 2010.
[I know wha-cher thinkin:'  "Is this guy ever gonna get to the point?!?"]
YES, and it's right here (.)!  The point is:  Throughout my working life, I've let my job be my exercise regimen and most of the time, it's been enough.  Now, I find my self unemployed/retired and slowly losing muscle mass and strength.  This is the point I never thought I'd find myself; nothing to do and nowhere to be!  I gotta tell ya'..... it's tough to get into an exercise routine when you've never had one-but that I must!  About a year ago, we bought one of those fancy 'hang your cloths here' thingies that doubles as an exercise machine!  Yesterday I decided that today would be the first day of the rest of my exercise life; with the machine, a pair of 15-pound dumbbells and walking for a half-hour every morning.  I know, I know! 15-pounders?!?  Ya gotta start somewhere!!  I'll let'cha know how it goes....
Til Nex'Time....