Financial Stress and Unemployment

     I don't deal good with stress. As I've gotten older, it seems that the stress triggers in my life have only become more numerous. Luckily, they rarely pile on me all at once, but as soon as I get one under control, another rears its ugly head. I rarely have time to catch my breath in between crisis moments.

     Right now, the biggest source of stress in my life is financial. When I was younger, I had thought that at this point in my life things would be somewhat stable. It seems though, that like everyone else I know, a lot of people, myself included, live paycheck to paycheck. The size of the paycheck doesn't appear to make any difference.

     Even though I work for the Park Service and have what most people would consider a good job, my position  call for a furlough period anywhere from 4 to 26 weeks. Furlough means that you don't work for a certain period of time without pay. Most benefits are suspended, with the exception of health insurance.This year, I have twelve weeks off with no income. I'm having to rely on unemployment, something I have only collected once before in my lifetime.

     This past Monday, I applied for benefits at the local office. I had a good case worker, so I was aware that there might be some speed bumps along the way. Today, I received a letter from the state benefits office and my claim has been rejected. Apparently, there is a problem with the way the Federal Government communicates with the state as to my earnings. I've made enough to qualify, it just hasn't appeared in state records yet. I'm pretty sure that eventually I will be able to collect but this is a delay I don't really need.

     Even though I've made more money this year than I ever have before, When I look at my leave and earnings statement, it's surprising how little of it I see. After taxes,health insurance, child support and other little expenses are deducted, I brought home exactly half of what I earned. I still had to pay rent, groceries, gas, phone, Internet, car payment, and the list goes on. So needless to say, I didn't have much to fall back on at the end of the year. I'm going to have to look at how I can reduce my expense next year so I don't wind up in this same situation a year from now. And so the stress continues.

     Does this qualify me for being part of that 99% I keep hearing about?

The Beginnings of My Meanderings

Tricorner Knob Shelter, Great Smoky Mountain NP, July 1997

I started hiking when I was 35. I took it up as a means of losing weight, plus to help escape an unhappy marriage situation. Prior to this point in my life, I had spent many years in the retail industry and had lived a rather sedentary lifestyle. As a result, my weight had ballooned to over 300 lbs and I did not feel healthy at all. Walking seemed easy enough, I'd been doing it all my life!

There were plenty of trails in the Smokies from which to choose, so naturally I started out easy. I think my first hike was less than a half mile in length. The more I walked, the more I wanted to see. I wasn't content with just doing short strolls on the same trails. There were over 900 miles of trails for me to explore!

Finally, in 1997, I did my first multi-day excursion. I backpacked the 70 miles from Fontana Dam to Davenport Gap-the entire length of the Appalachian Trail through the Park. Never had I considered doing anything of this sort, but afterwards, I knew I was a changed person with a new zeal for life. This picture was taken at a trail side shelter I stayed at on July 4th, 1997.

My new found love for hiking shortly took me into a whole new direction in my life. I was determined to find some way to make a living doing what I loved. Most people, it seemed, woke up in the mornings only to go to work at a job that they really didn't enjoy. They simply did it for the paycheck. I wasn't sure that I could accomplish this goal, but I gave it my best shot.

The first several years weren't easy. Luckily, at the time, I had no bills, and after my marriage fell apart, no commitments. The first two years, I worked as a full time volunteer with the Forest Service in Southwest Virginia for fifteen bucks a day and a place to stay. Even though I was poor, I was happy. I was hiking every day in some one of the most beautiful areas in the southern Appalachians. I was also beginning to learn some of the fundamentals of building and maintaining the same trails that I was hiking on.

Fast forward to today. I have a dream job with the National Park Service building and maintaining trails. Everything seems to be relatively stable at this point in my life. At 50, though, I find I don't quite feel like I did at 35. The aches and pains are more frequent and the recovery time is longer. I tend to favor a slower pace these days. Some of my weight has come back. Finances continue to be a source of stress. Even though I'm making more money than I have before, my bills are also larger. I have glasses, hearing aids and dentures. The stuff of old people.

Mary's Rock, Shenadoah NP, Jan 2011

I am trying to age gracefully but I don't always feel like I am succeeding at it!!!

A Brief History Of Time; Pt. 1

Meander:
       1.)To follow a winding and turning course; streams tend to meander through level land
       2.)To move aimlessly and idly without fixed direction; vagabonds meandering through life



To say that the past fifteen years of my life has taken a meandering characteristic would be an understatement. Starting after the dissolution of my marriage in 1997, I took to living a lifestyle similar to that of a vagabond, blowing about with the seasons of the year while pursuing a passion of hiking and outdoor adventure. I was 36 years old when this new phase of my life began and I had never expected it to become a career path.

Initially, I worked at a wilderness lodge in the Great Smoky Mountains of East Tennessee near my hometown of Sevierville. Time and opportunity took me to places as varied as the swamps of south Florida to the boreal forests of northern Maine.

For the better part of 14 years, I found myself living in either a tent, a vehicle of some sort or in some sort of employer provided lodging. In 2010, I officially became homeless and wound up at a VA hospital in a program for homeless veterans. It was at this point that I started the process to attempt some changes that were long overdue.

As of the first day of 2011, I began working for the National Park Service in Shenandoah National Park in Virginia. There have been quite a few changes as a result of this position, and reaching the milestone of my fiftieth birthday this past April has caused me to pause, reflect and evaluate on not only where I have been, but where I go from here as well.