The Car Show

Last night, when I was over at Lorna and Warren's, having a hamburger and looking at the photographs Warren took during their trip to France, Kikay stopped by to tell them about the car show that was going to be near his restaurant and across from Market Basket starting at 10 this morning. 

We went. The noise was incredible, amped up so loud that you couldn't think.

Thinking is very over-rated.

Before that I worked on my handout for the Photo I class, trying to imagine how to compress what I've been doing in two hours and twenty minutes of class time down to an hour and a half.

I find it painful to be teaching part-time. I definitely need the money -- roof repair, exterminator, vet bill. But I shouldn't have retired and I wouldn't have if I'd known the economy would go to hell in a wheelbarrow. 

I didn't start saving until I was fifty and my pension was based on how long I was in the state system. Not that long. Twenty-three years. You have to be there for thirty-five before you get 80% of your salary and if you didn't start with that high a salary because that particular Chairman didn't like you, then you never catch up. And I don't get much of my social security because I was in the state system. That's thanks to Reagan who passed that bill about double dipping, the assumption being that state employees make a lot of money and shouldn't benefit from all the years they worked in the private system and had money taken out of their salary for social security.

So, I'm glad that I'm still teaching-part time because I need the money. But I wish I'd figured out a second act that didn't involve teaching and still earned money because seventy is just too young to stop working. I've worked since I was fourteen. I'm programmed to work, as in earn money, though I wasn't all that clever at that task.

However, I was lucky. And ended up with a job that actually has retirement benefit. 

So, the glass is half-full. It's just sort of luke warm. Not that I've ever expected Champagne. 

Tipping at Starbucks

     Since the economy seriously crashed, I've been using my Target credit card at Starbucks. Usually I buy the Times and I always buy a tall, non-fat, extra-hot latte. Before December, I just bought the latte, used cash and always tipped, though I always tried to preserve the valuable quarters for parking meters.

     This latte is a serious indulgence and I think about it all the time, about the amount of money I could save by not buying it. I used to watch pennies, refusing to buy paper towels or avocados. That was in the olden New York days before we knew that using paper towels might cause more ecological damage than washing dish towels does. Now, since I'm living on a pension and have lost such a large portion of my hard-won savings, I'm watching them again. 

    But not tipping at Starbucks? That's crazy. Why would I not automatically continue to do that?  

     But I've noticed that the tip box isn't as full as it used to be even though those behind the counter are just as helpful and cheerful as they always are. And I've read that people are tipping less generously.  

    A recent NPR broadcast encouraged increased tipping because so many women have become the only wage earner in their families. The gist was that when you go out to eat on Mother's Day, remember that this may be the second job  your waitress has and tip well.

     Several months ago, I began tipping again. Still using the credit card. And now wondering whether it's better to let the person at the cash register notice  that I'm putting change in the clear plastic box, that I care.