A Bad Loss, 17 year Vacation

So a couple weeks ago I recalled seeing an email from my accountant saying my tax year summary packet was on it’s way in the mail.  Late last week it occurred to me that I never saw the packet but I thought I would give it a couple days.  Yesterday,after still seeing nothing I decided to dig into it.  I emailed my accountant and told her I never received anything.  She looked up the tracking and USPS claimed it was delivered to my mailbox on March 25th. That definitely did not happen.

So I brought up the tracking information on USPS myself, it did indeed show the mail was supposedly delivered on the 25th however I immediately noticed one important detail.  The package was supposedly delivered to the 34119 zip code. Our zip code is 34120.  I double checked the To: address was correct on the envelope, it was.  When you look at the tracking each step indicated it was going to the 34120 area code, until the final destination.  Someone f’d up.

I filed a lost mail report with the post office although I have very minimal hope it will result in anything.  The fact that all of my tax information was delivered somewhere else is a huge problem.  It basically gives a dishonest individual access to tons of PI of mine which could be used in all sorts of criminal manners.  It’s frustrating to not have any realistic recourse at this point.

I got a call from my dad yesterday, the topic of which was quite surprising, he is going back to work.  My dad has been retired for somewhere around 17 years which in itself seems a bit hard to fathom.  During that time he has moved four times which has taken him all the way to New Mexico, western PA and now back in eastern PA once again.  He and my step mom have racked up countless experiences and adventures during this time.  The biggest one I was part of was the family trip to Ireland of course.  He has accumulated farm animals by the dozens and moved them across state with him during the last move from Marienville to Lenhartsville.

I never saw the first house they lived in briefly but the home in the canyon and Marienville contain the most memories for me personally.  The epic western road trips to New Mexico to visit them contain some of my most special memories.  Marienville and it’s brutally cold winters, as a town was trapped in the 50’s but the house they lived in and the grounds it sat on were epic, peaceful and beautiful.   I again had a bunch of really special times there.  Their new place is less unique but geographically made more sense so they could be closer to family and have slightly less upkeep to maintain and I stress SLIGHTLY as all the animals are still there.

This 17 year time period also has seen dad spend massive amounts of money renovating every place they lived except for the first model home in Las Cruces.  The amount of projects and improvements he has bankrolled over these 17 years would fill a small novel, perhaps part of the reason that after nearly two decades he is going to rejoin the workforce.  Maybe the other part is just to give him some more structure to his schedule, I’m not 100% sure.  Personally I think going from doing whatever you want whenever you want to a more conventional job is not going to be all that smooth of a transition.

The job however is only part time and is actually with the same company he retired from back in the early 2000’s.  He is going to be an independent consultant that is going to help them with a new branch location they are launching.  It seems like dad’s main role is to pass along the immense amount of waterworks knowledge he had accumulated over his 40+ years in the business to the staff at this location.  Having first hand experience with how slim his patience can be at times, it will be interesting to see how he adapts to this mentor role.

The reason he needed to talk to me was to get some smart phone advice.  Because a big portion of communication nowadays is handled electronically, dad is going to need a smart phone as part of the job requirements.  I advised him to get something with as much screen real estate as possible as I know he is going to struggle massively with the typing on a virtual keyboard. I fully expect to get multiple calls from him regarding getting the tech integrated as time goes on.

I hung up from the conversation feeling a little in shock.  I never expected my dad to unretire, he always has seemed so content in not working.  It gave me a second to appreciate that unlike my dad whose retirement funds have been a big block of cash that he has tried to manipulate through the stock market mostly, my pension will give me reliable income for as long as I am around.  I also have a conventional retirement account that will give me a block of cash as well but nowhere around the level of what he has/had.  Dad has had a lot of that money in the roller coaster stock market, which is something that is very stressful and not normally advised for people in his age range. The tolerance for risk goes down as you count on that money to get by when retired. It sounds like he pulled back after the big 30% drop last year so at least he doesn’t have to get pissed off losing 10’s of thousands of dollars in a blink of an eye, of course he can’t gain it in a blink either.

My hope is the added income, structure, and responsibilities will be a good thing for him in the big picture.  We all just want to be happy, whatever that means to each individual.