CHAPTER 187: IMPRESSIONS OF MY LIFE: AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF A RECHERCHE POET OLD JOBS AND NEW MORNING AFTER THE MORNING AFTER 2001

 Chapter 187   THE MORNINGS AFTER THE MORNING AFTER.  

No one panicked. I expected Lois to go to pieces with her Bipolar, but she held it together while we assessed our situation, which was hardly good. I now had no income coming, but my obligations still remained.  I received two moths os severance pay, which barely lasted us the next two month, because all my liabilities remained: mortgage payment, car payment, utilities, food and other miscellaneous bills.  I still had the healthcare situation. I also still had my ID Badge, but quickly discovered it had deactivated. It was now a photo of a non-person.

As a Wilmington Trust Pensioner I was still covered by the companies Blue/Cross and they paid for it, but they did not pay for anyone else in the family anymore. Buying health coverage would be an expensive cost to add to my other liabilities.

Noelle had graduated high school in 1999 and had joined the Army reserve for eight years. But she had just begun service one
weekend a month at  Fort Dix,  Laurel had graduated in 1996. She found  job with the Humane Association of Delaware, but in 2000 she would fly off to the Colorao States University. She took  a loan to pay for college and she paid for it herself. She only lasted a year out west, then dropped out and came home, going back to Delaware Humane.  Darryl just Graduated before the ax fell upon me and was looking for employment.  

Therefore I had a full house when I left Wilmington Trust, all three kids were still living at home. 

I had a 401K, but a few years earlier had borrowed from it to install a new kitchen. When I was let go the remaining portion of that load had to be paid back to myself. What remained was no where near what I would have expected and would have gotten if I had made it at WTC until I was 65. What remained I rolled over into a Roth IRA.

If I had retired at 65, which is really what I had planned upon, I would have been in fair shape. I would have had perhaps $35,000 in my 401K. My car would have been paid off and I would have only had two years left on my mortgage. I would have also received my full pension and the full benefit from Social Security.  This was  not the reality.  I was left with some remaining car payments and about another 7 years on the mortgage. I only had a few thousand that went into the IRA.  Then to top it off I was hit with a large Tax bill. You see the 401K money that paid off my load to myself, which had eaten up most of my savings, was considered a contribution from the 401K , and thus taxable income.

I owe the government over $7,000 between that and the
severance pay I had received.

Just wonderful.

 

I was informed by someone supposedly in the know that I could reduce my IRS bill be averaging I finally earnings over several years, however, when I tried to do this I found I couldn’t. The law had been changed by President Clinton as a plug on the loopholes for the rich and you could no longer average.  I was stuck. Only think I could do was arrange a payment plan with the IRA and  several years later I did pay off this debt.

I began looking for a new job. Wilmington Trust had a side
venture that was a temporary job agency called Volt.  I went to their office and signed up. They made me an ID badge, but in the picture I am kinda fading away. I guess this was the reality of my life now, just fading away.

I was sent out to Brooks Armour

Car’s depot along Governor Printz  Boulevard in Wilmington.  It was a strange factory-like building, very long with a Parking lot in front. What was strange about it was it had no windows. There was an entry door in the middle of the front, but no other entrance to see.  This was where all the transactions picked up by Brooks each day were brought, to be processed and counted. 

A person entering went through a metal detector and security
check I was given a desk in a room somewhere in that building, with a calculator. I sat and went through packages as they arrived. There were a few people working near  me, all former WTC employees.  It was quite boring work. I only stayed about a week in those  ending ending days of 2001. 

Each night as I left I was patted down and passed through the metal detector again. 

In newton registering with the Labor department, checking their database of open jobs (never found any) I went to a business mall that bordered thee Bellview State Park and registers with the AccuTemps employment agency. They sent me different places, but none seemed to line up with my experience or skills. 

For instance, they were quite enthusiastic about an interview they had arranged for me with the New County Council. It was Budget Clerk job they said, gathering the data to prepare a budget. I had mucho experience doing budgets.

I went into Wilmington, parked almost at the Art Museum because the streets were not posted for limited parking. I the had to walk all the way across to west Wilmington, where the Council offices were located, a couple mile hike. Walking distance never bothered me. I did long walks for fun.  It was a very hot day though and I wasn’t certain where the actually met. ]

I walked down through the Trolley Square section. This is where
the Army Recruiter  who interviewed Noelle was stationed. I would eventually perform my poems in a restaurant in this shopping sense.  From there I walk all the way down 10th street to center city to Frence Street turned west until I was near the location of the new courthouse. I had to ask some stranger where the Council office were, but I got there. The receptionist sat me in a hallway, and everyone who passed me gave me a friendly hello. But when they said anything about the job, it sounded odd. Budgets were never mentioned. 

Finally, this short, bald man came along, greeted me and led me into a office containing a long conference table. 

“Hello,” he said, “I’m Chris Coons, Council President.” (As of

2021, he is the Delaware member of the Senate. “Before we start I’m like a couple others on the Council to attend.”

We sat down and soon a couple more council members joined us. They began asking questions, but no one was yet mentioning budgets.  No, they were interviewing me for the position of County Auditor.   They went on and on how they wanted me audit the Executive and how secretive I would have to be in doing. I would probably given the employee number 007, if In accept the offer.

I thanked them, but back at AccuTemps I withdrew from consideration.  I don’t think I was really qualified to be an Auditor, but even so, I wanted nothing to do with politics. I didn’t want to be caught between the County Executive and the Council, especially since the Executive was a Republican and the Council were mostly Democrats.