Going over the figures on what I'd need to spend 3 weeks in Derry researching "Place of Safety" showed me it's just about possible for me to cover a month's normal expenses and the cost of the trip. Of course, that's if everything goes just right...which with my luck is no guarantee. I'm more certain I could cover a week there but I haven't backed down from the full time I want, yet. I need to do more research.
What I've already done is tell the people I work for I'm taking August off, through Labor Day. They seemed relieved. It's still possible a packing job will come up in August...but if it does, I'll work around it. And I may well just not bother letting them know it did. It's an installation job, really, which requires nothing in the way of shipping. I just go there and take the books off shelves and move them to a new place and put them back in the exact same order. I could easily handle it on my own...so we'll see how it goes. The guy may not want to do it once he sees the estimate I work up.
That's the shitty part of contract labor -- you don't work, you don't get paid. On top of paying self-employment tax and not getting paid holidays or vacations. When I was at Heritage, I had seniority enough to get 4 weeks paid vacation a year. I liked it. I miss that. But then, Ben and Lou were very generous with their people if they felt they were doing a good job. It never ceased to amaze me just how ungrateful most of the crew there was.
Don't get me wrong -- this job has its pluses. I get to travel a fair amount and things are fairly flexible. And the people I work with aren't obnoxious or cruel. I just wish I could get ahead, and what I'm being paid here just won't do it. Maybe once I'm done paying back the money I borrowed from my mother I'll be better off.
As for now...if I don't work it out to where I can do the trip to Derry, I'll spend August writing the first draft of POS and at least get that done. Then I'll start saving for a trip there in December. Not my first choice but not a horrible option.
What I've already done is tell the people I work for I'm taking August off, through Labor Day. They seemed relieved. It's still possible a packing job will come up in August...but if it does, I'll work around it. And I may well just not bother letting them know it did. It's an installation job, really, which requires nothing in the way of shipping. I just go there and take the books off shelves and move them to a new place and put them back in the exact same order. I could easily handle it on my own...so we'll see how it goes. The guy may not want to do it once he sees the estimate I work up.
That's the shitty part of contract labor -- you don't work, you don't get paid. On top of paying self-employment tax and not getting paid holidays or vacations. When I was at Heritage, I had seniority enough to get 4 weeks paid vacation a year. I liked it. I miss that. But then, Ben and Lou were very generous with their people if they felt they were doing a good job. It never ceased to amaze me just how ungrateful most of the crew there was.
Don't get me wrong -- this job has its pluses. I get to travel a fair amount and things are fairly flexible. And the people I work with aren't obnoxious or cruel. I just wish I could get ahead, and what I'm being paid here just won't do it. Maybe once I'm done paying back the money I borrowed from my mother I'll be better off.
As for now...if I don't work it out to where I can do the trip to Derry, I'll spend August writing the first draft of POS and at least get that done. Then I'll start saving for a trip there in December. Not my first choice but not a horrible option.
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