Mental health check-in

[PunkKitty]

Not doing great at the moment. Car problems and vet bills have put my finances in a negative state. My car is still in the shop because of failed emissions tests. I should get it back today, but that's another $500+ bill. Then I have to renew my plates by tomorrow. Hopefully, the problem is fixed. Because I had to drive the car close to 1,000 miles to reset some sensors, my time was eaten up over the last week, and nothing got done at home. I'm beyond frustrated. I set up a GFM for myself and posted it on FB, and it has gotten some traction. Any little bit helps. I just hate having to ask for help.

 

[Mark Wein]

Blanket mojo for all - I've been a little MIA the last few months around the forum but things are just kind of crazy right now. Not even sure I want to share because none of it is as life-changing as what most of you are going through but its a lot all at once.

 

[jrockbridge]

Not doing great at the moment. Car problems and vet bills have put my finances in a negative state. My car is still in the shop because of failed emissions tests. I should get it back today, but that's another $500+ bill. Then I have to renew my plates by tomorrow. Hopefully, the problem is fixed. Because I had to drive the car close to 1,000 miles to reset some sensors, my time was eaten up over the last week, and nothing got done at home. I'm beyond frustrated. I set up a GFM for myself and posted it on FB, and it has gotten some traction. Any little bit helps. I just hate having to ask for help.

Mojo.

I’m in no position to help. I could sell off all my gear and it would be like a drop of water in the sea of my financial woes. But, if you do have any gear that’s worth something, this might be the time to sell it off.

I know we tend to covet gear. We hold onto it as if the gear is our family or children. But, in reality, it’s just stuff. It’s not crucial to our success or happiness, not truly.

I wish you the best!

 

[Peen Simmons]

Mojo.

I’m in no position to help. I could sell off all my gear and it would be like a drop of water in the sea of my financial woes. But, if you do have any gear that’s worth something, this might be the time to sell it off.

I know we tend to covet gear. We hold onto it as if the gear is our family or children. But, in reality, it’s just stuff. It’s not crucial to our success or happiness, not truly.

I wish you the best!

I will give @jrockbridge FIVE AMERICAN DOLLARS for his favorite guitar

 

[PunkKitty]

I'm probably going to take a guitar to CME tomorrow for a quick sale. I'll take a loss, but that's life. The problem is that I'm running out of gear to sell. I sold my Les Paul's. Most of my Heritage guitars are also gone. Partscasters don't have much resale value.

 

[jrockbridge]

I will give @jrockbridge FIVE AMERICAN DOLLARS for his favorite guitar

Why so generous?

I'm probably going to take a guitar to CME tomorrow for a quick sale. I'll take a loss, but that's life. The problem is that I'm running out of gear to sell. I sold my Les Paul's. Most of my Heritage guitars are also gone. Partscasters don't have much resale value.

That’s stinks! Sorry, I wish I had more than mojo.

 

[Tig]

After being fired from her job in May, Mrs. T has two offers from the same company at two locations. She starts next week. Thankfully, she was able to get unemployment since the state's investigation concluded she committed no wrongdoing in her old job. things have been very stressful the last few months, but she is enjoying the time off to decompress.

I'm officially dead in the IT world, and at 61, no one will hire me for anything else outside of Walmart greeter. I hang in as best I can and take it one day at a time, but lack of purpose and income makes it hard.

 

[mongooz]

After being fired from her job in May, Mrs. T has two offers from the same company at two locations. She starts next week. Thankfully, she was able to get unemployment since the state's investigation concluded she committed no wrongdoing in her old job. things have been very stressful the last few months, but she is enjoying the time off to decompress.

I'm officially dead in the IT world, and at 61, no one will hire me for anything else outside of Walmart greeter. I hang in as best I can and take it one day at a time, but lack of purpose and income makes it hard.

what kind of IT work did/do you do?

www.stantec.com

give it a try, if you want.
PM me if you need my real name for a reference.

 

[Tig]

what kind of IT work did/do you do?

www.stantec.com

give it a try, if you want.
PM me if you need my real name for a reference.

IT security, but I can still support desktop/server/laptops and LANs.
Thanks! I searched your company's career section, but there currently are no local positions I'm qualified for.

 

[mongooz]

IT security, but I can still support desktop/server/laptops and LANs.
Thanks! I searched your company's career section, but there currently are no local positions I'm qualified for.

our guys/gals work from all over the planet.
just sayin'

my office's staff are mostly here in toledo.
but also, columbus, chicago, virginia.....and still work on this office's projects.
just sayin'

 

[sunvalleylaw]

Blanket mojo for all - I've been a little MIA the last few months around the forum but things are just kind of crazy right now. Not even sure I want to share because none of it is as life-changing as what most of you are going through but its a lot all at once.

Your stuff is as valid as anyone else's. And I figure it is not a contest. Blanket mojo for all back at all of us!

 

[sunvalleylaw]

After being fired from her job in May, Mrs. T has two offers from the same company at two locations. She starts next week. Thankfully, she was able to get unemployment since the state's investigation concluded she committed no wrongdoing in her old job. things have been very stressful the last few months, but she is enjoying the time off to decompress.

I'm officially dead in the IT world, and at 61, no one will hire me for anything else outside of Walmart greeter. I hang in as best I can and take it one day at a time, but lack of purpose and income makes it hard.

Mojo emoticon inserted here. I am also 61, closing in on 62, and am glad I can be self employed with my law degree for as long as I need, and can at least do my ski gig.

Maybe you can do some youth cycling thing at the parks and rec or something for de minimus money but at least involvement? Or go wrench on some bikes at the local bike project? Just spit balling about things I know you like.

 

[Lerxst]

I'm officially dead in the IT world, and at 61, no one will hire me for anything else outside of Walmart greeter. I hang in as best I can and take it one day at a time, but lack of purpose and income makes it hard.

The unfortunate reality is that ageism is rampant in the industry. It's something that weighs on my mind very often these days and I see it everywhere.
One tip I've seen mentioned frequently is to sanitize your resume by removing many of the indicators that would imply your age and length of experience...but that'll just get you into the interview cycle and then all bets are off.

I'd probably think long and hard about pivoting into something else if need arises in the future. Easier said than done though.

 

[jbj]

Mojo to everyone that needs a bit of it.

 

[jrockbridge]

The unfortunate reality is that ageism is rampant in the industry. It's something that weighs on my mind very often these days and I see it everywhere.
One tip I've seen mentioned frequently is to sanitize your resume by removing many of the indicators that would imply your age and length of experience...but that'll just get you into the interview cycle and then all bets are off.

I'd probably think long and hard about pivoting into something else if need arises in the future. Easier said than done though.

The trouble is that employers can look up prospective employees ages. It used to cost them a small feee. But, all they need is your name and address and they can now look up your age for free. Technically, they don’t even need your address since they can look that up but many simply have you fill out a questionnaire that asks for your address and screen out older people.

I’m 60 and will turn 61 in November. I’ve been working in sales for decades. I had a tough time getting hired when I was 50 because most places wanted young salespeople. I was laid off in December of last year along with the entire western region of my company. So, at least, it was not an ageism layoff.

I could not get any company to hire me for 6 months. In an interview, I had a young manager stop me while I was going through my experience and he said, “We don’t even need anyone with experience.” I got the message. He might as well have said “We don’t need any old people.”

Fortunately, I did find a job and the manager is great! He is happy to have an experienced salesperson on his team. Most of his team are young people but they have all welcomed me. I think it’s an excellent fit and I plan to work there for, at least, the next 7 years.

 

[Tig]

The unfortunate reality is that ageism is rampant in the industry. It's something that weighs on my mind very often these days and I see it everywhere.
One tip I've seen mentioned frequently is to sanitize your resume by removing many of the indicators that would imply your age and length of experience...but that'll just get you into the interview cycle and then all bets are off.

I'd probably think long and hard about pivoting into something else if need arises in the future. Easier said than done though.

That's a good tip. I removed a few older jobs and any reference to age, like the years I attended various schools. It all comes out when you fill out an application, however. I usually interview well and I still look younger than my age, but I'm still too old to some eyes.

I've tried to switch careers, but there were no bites from hiring companies. I just applied for a 4-day pain relief study at UTMB that pays $2000. How much does whole blood sell per unit these days, anyway?

 

[nuke_diver]

mojo to all.

 

[Lerxst]

The trouble is that employers can look up prospective employees ages. It used to cost them a small feee. But, all they need is your name and address and they can now look up your age for free. Technically, they don’t even need your address since they can look that up but many simply have you fill out a questionnaire that asks for your address and screen out older people.

Sure, but in my experience most employers don't bother doing much background investigation outside of a social media search until you're moving past the initial candidate screening process into interviews. Some don't even pull background checks until they a narrow down candidates after interviews. You at least have a window of opportunity in many cases.

 

[jrockbridge]

Sure, but in my experience most employers don't bother doing much background investigation outside of a social media search until you're moving past the initial candidate screening process into interviews. Some don't even pull background checks until they a narrow down candidates after interviews. You at least have a window of opportunity in many cases.

That may be true. I certainly had some great phone and zoom interviews. It’s when I followed up that they were cold, either because they sussed out based on my appearance that I was older than they wanted, or because they checked my age online.

I know certain, specific, skill sets are not that easy to come by in employees. Since there are fewer individuals with those skills, employers look for those skills and choose the best candidates. You can’t always find a pharmacist with all the extra education and certifications that take years to accomplish, for example. There are shortages of good doctors.

The bottom line is that, if it comes down to two individuals with the same basic skills, but one is over 50, and one is under 30, they pick the younger person most of the time.

A perfect example is my brother in law who was a VP in financials on the east coast. He worked in finance his entire career. He got laid off at age 50 and could not get hired by any company. He had so much free time that he got certified to teach school. The younger candidates kept getting the teaching positions ahead of him. There was a pretty large supply of young teachers coming out of schools at the time. He finally landed a job as CFO for a company within an American Indian tribe because that culture’s reveres their elders.

Yes, older people can get hired. It eventually happened in sales for me after 6 months of applying at age 60. But, we have a cultural bias that elevates youth and dispossesses of old people. So, unless you have some very specialized skills, you are going to have a tough time getting a good job in many fields which have a good supply of young people.

Sales skills are common. IT skills are common. Web developer skills are common. Etc, etc. In areas where there is a steady supply of young people graduating from school, older employees are finding themselves aging out of many fields of work. And, some have to take jobs getting paid less than a third of what they used to earn.

 

[Brian Krashpad]

Mojo to errbody.

I'm in a pretty weird headspace. Work is a little bit in the doldrums, which is common for summer, with my clients going on vacation. Since I'm self-employed, that means less dosh, but that's OK, it's sorta like an unpaid vacay. I'm 66, but still working "full time," however, as I and very small client base "age out" (I had a client, younger than I am, die a year or so ago), I expect the income to slow, but will put off getting Social Security income until its maxxed. I did go on Medicare at 65 so, while I'm still getting used to the transition from (my wife's) private health insurance, that in itself is a big monthly savings.

But speaking of health, haha, what a fecking mess.

My blood pressure and pulse rate are just all over the map. A week or so ago I woke up and felt like my heart was racing, put on the blood pressure cuff and my pulse was over 100, and when it stayed high for several hours, I went in to a doc-in-a-box, had an EKG, but they couldn't find anything wrong. My daughter (who's a traveling invasive cardiovascular technologist) thinks I have POTS (Postural Orthostatic Tachycardia Syndrome), but I'm not sure how that explains my heart racing for several hours straight, since it shouldn't tie to any postural change. But meanwhile my BP has ranged from normal to really low, this morning it was 80-something over 60-something. I'm on a minimal dose BP med (metoprolol) but when it gets scary low I skip it.

Meanwhile, my teeth/jaw are totally fecked from the radiation I had 13 years ago. My lower jaw was rebuilt with veins from my ankle and a piece (the top of the Iliac Crest, for those of you scoring at home) of my hip, and has "shifted" over time so the lower teeth don't meet up with the upper teeth correctly, and my gums are receding despite all sorts of daily stuff designed to combat tooth problems, including "dental trays" kinda like athletic mouthguards, that I fill in with flouride gel every night to try to erase tooth decay from the rads. And since my teeth are now brittle AND no longer meet up correctly, the bottom teeth have majorly chipped one of the upper incisors, right in front, of course. I'm going to see about getting that fixed, but options are limited because the radiation fucks up blood flow in bones/teeth, and if one gets work done, it might never heal back. Oh, and did I mention that the flouride "trays" nightly treatment also stains the teeth? Because that, too. Just lovely.

But wait, there's more!

When Mrs. Krashpad and I went on our dream vacay to France in March, on the plane on the way over, afterward, my left ear wouldn't un-pop from the plane ride, and I lost a significant amount of hearing. Although my ENT didn't tell me, in reading my online record, he's written to my GP thinking the ear thing could be a cholesteatoma, which is noncancerous but nevertheless destructive growth in the middle ear. There's no cure, the only thing they can do is operate, to try to remove it. That has not been brought up with me, but is on the horizon. Hven't even mentioned this with Mrs. Krashpad yet.

So, wait, although the ear thing isn't cancer...

I recently got pissed at my urologist (see what I did there), and switched to a different one. As part of their "incoming patient" routine, I had a pelvic MRI. Now, I have had PSA numbers fluctuating between "high normal" and "kinda scary" for years, and am meds for that too. But the MRI result was not good. Results have 5 possible levels:

Level 1: highly unlikely that clinically significant cancer is present
Level 2: unlikely that clinically significant cancer is present
Level 3: equivocal that clinically significant cancer is present
Level 4: likely that clinically significant cancer is present
Level 5: highly likely that clinically significant cancer is present

So, 1 good, 5 bad.

I'm a 4. So now I gotta have a biopsy minor operation to see for sure whether there's cancer or not. And obviously if there is, undergo treatment for that.

Because I've had my PSA on monitoring for years this is not a huge surprise or shock, but it'd sure be cool if I could catch a motherfecking break and not get cancer a second time.

Short version/tldr: BP/Pulse. Toofies. Ear owie-toma/operation. Prostate cancer biopsy.

So there's all that. And you know, that kinda effects shit.

I did just sell a 100W Peavey 2x12, that I bought for $75 USD, for $300. Which was a pretty damn good return on investment (sold within six months of having bought). Plus more space freed up in garage.

And missus and I just went for a 4-day weekend to Cali to visit the daughter. which included a day trip to Lake Tahoe, with her, which was great. First time I'd been to Cali (and momentarily Nevada) since I was a kid in the late 60's.