I wrote a letter ...

to the union last night ... sent it right to the top guy, Mr. Ken. I'm sorry, these guys aren't representing the bulk of their members, only themselves and a handful of long term employees who could care less about anyone but themselves. And for a union that's supposed to be representing professional people, the attitude and tone of the union honchos is unbelievably low brow. It's ridiculous. And now we have a union dinner meeting next week, in the cafeteria no less, so we can voice our opinion, and the union can review the civil service layoff process. Apparently they've already resigned themselves to a layoff rather than a negotiated compromise with the governor. Great. Just great.
Anyhow, on a brighter note, it's going to be moving day on Saturday for S & C, into their new home. We should be able to get the grand tour on Friday night after their closing. Awesome.
The weather has been great this week, very springlike indeed. We've been able to walk at the canal every day so far ... so that's a good 2 1/2 miles a night at a brisk pace ('cause of the dogs). Tonight we ran into a large snapping turtle that was crossing the trail ... the dogs went ballistic of course! We think "she" had been laying eggs and was returning to the deeper portion of the old canal.
That's it for tonight!!

is the ax about to fall?

Everyone received a letter in their email today from our good governor ... basically stating that he had no choice but to order layoffs across the state. The two agencies with the biggest hits? OMH and OMRDD. This whole thing is a big tug of war between the unions and the governor ... and it's not very pretty.

So by the looks of things I'll be out of a job come July.

And no prospects in sight. No one is hiring anyone, anywhere. Especially someone my age. Or with my education and job experiences.

This is definitely going to freak J out something awful.

Ah, but life goes on.

another weekend passes by & another budget meeting

Fast weekend, almost like it never happened! Saturday was shopping here and there for stuff, and then Capital Steps at Proctors in the evening. Very funny, a good time for all! Sunday was a hike up Buck Mtn at Lake George under sunny skies. In fact I overdressed for the hike up the mtn, didn't really need long underwear ... I'd dressed warmly because it was still cloudy and misty when I left home but the skies were clearing when I arrived at the trailhead. Windy at the top though, and chilly. The views were great, like they always are. Seemed like a tough slog up the mountain, took lots of quick breaks along the way.
Back to work this morning ... budget meeting first thing ... agency budget is in good shape but nothing definitive about layoffs. One thing for certain, no layoffs this summer because the layoff process is very involved, and it will take much longer to sort things out. We shall see!

Friday, Spring, and Capital Q

A nice sunny day ... so off we went for lunch at the Capital Q. The BBQ was great, as it typically is. There was a different guy behind the counter, and he was much more efficient than the last guy we had a couple weeks ago. We ate outside on the picnic table, very nice indeed!

I asked directly about layoffs ... and I was told that there would be NO layoffs at Central Office, and not to worry. Most feel that it's a political move by the governor to try and back the unions into some concessions, but who knows? Everything about the NYS budget is so secretive, all done beyond closed doors and then suddenly there will be this budget before the legislature.

Wii Fit ... I have to admit that it's addictive. I've skipped it on some weekends and I've actually felt guilty about doing that! Usually I've skipped it because we've been doing something else during the day as a substitute. And that tune from the step program, it just sticks in your head.

Facebook. I've been able to connect with several people from high school days, and that's kinda wild. And wow, have some people changed. Some people I don't really know, although they seem to know who I am ... I was in a pretty small circle of friends in high school, and some of these folks were the "popular" ones, ones who wouldn't have given me the time of day back then. Again, go figure. And there are a few who seem to be pretty computer challenged, and that surprises me. Next year will actually be the 40th anniversary of high school graduation, and that seems so far away, so long ago, and not all that memorable either.

Tomorrow we might go hiking. Maybe up near Lake George. I think there will still be snow on some of the trails, especially on the shaded, northern sides of the mountains. We shall see. Sunday is supposedly a rainy day, so maybe it's movie time again.

The volcano is still erupting in Alaska ... this time ash is falling on the Kenai instead of being blown further north and west.

that's it for today!

time to worry?

Well, the good governor has announced that he's going to have to lay off nearly 9000 state employees in July because the unions won't agree to concessions. True, the unions have said no deal to his proposals. But then the governor stated that the unions haven't offered any other suggestions to help close the budget deficit ... and that is pure political BS. Is the governor deaf? Or perhaps the unions' proposals weren't written in braille? To the unions' credit, they have suggested several proposals for helping out, and they've done so since the day the governor began talking about union concessions. (The concessions include a 5 day payroll lag, forgoing the 3% COLA that's due in April, instituting another pension tier, and increasing the retirement vesting to 10 yrs) So, what's gonna happen? The online version of the Albany newspaper is full of reader comments with lots of suggestions, and it seems that one of the most popular ones is a move to offer early retirement incentives to current employees. Many school districts are doing just that right now, and that's reducing their payroll costs immensely. Makes sense to me ... you'd cut down on pension payments (most of those close to retirement are tier 1 or tier 2, with loads of pension bennies), reduce healthcare contributions by the state, and lower the average wage across the state employee system. Of course the governor hasn't done himself any favors by buying all sorts of goodies for himself at the executive mansion, hiring a bunch of his cronies at pretty high wages, and then giving raises to lots of his staff. NYS still has a lt. governor's staff on the payroll, even though there hasn't been a lt. gov. in office since Paterson took over for Spitzer! Go figure.
Guess we'll just have to wait and see what the deal is.
The sun is shining once again, and it's slightly warmer today ... maybe spring is really here.

It has been several days since my last post on the blog ... probably because there hasn't been all that much to write about.
Spring is definitely "in the air" ... most of the snow in our yard has melted, and we've been able to get out most evenings for a nice walk with the dogs. But it's like one of those "limbo times", where you really can't do anything with the lawn or the garden because it's too wet, or a bit too chilly, or whatever. Soon enough though! I'd like to plant more veggies this season but I'm not sure where to expand the garden (my idea of planting veggies by the deck instead of geraniums was shot down the other day).
This weekend ... an anniversary party, which we're not thrilled about attending, but it's family so we're pretty much obligated to go. Sunday should be a birthday dinner for son #2, but he hasn't told us which restaurant he'd like to go to. He probably has a lot of other things on his plate right now (school, work, buying a house, all those grown up issues!).
Our friends have accepted our invitation to join us for a mini getaway over the Memorial Day weekend down to Lake Hartwell in South Carolina ... visiting my sister. We really didn't think they'd accept the invitation ... but I suppose we really shouldn't be surprised because we have been able to talk them into some other getaways over the past few years ... and they've all been lots of fun.

One Year Old Today!!

Today is TWild's 1st birthday ... wow, how time has flown by.

So many things happening, and your kids are no longer kids, they're parents, homeowners, and carving out their own paths in life.

Wow.