Thank God I do not have to work.

My 19 year old daughter can not find a job, and it is going to send me around the proverbial bend.

I, on the other hand, have so much available work, despite a very large retirement income, that I am somewhat alarmed. I made 20k in part time work last year. I talked to a son who lives in Toronto and wanted to change jobs about selling what I do in Toronto, which consists of Risk Management Plans, Employee Manuals, and Training Materials for places that have licences to sell liquor. The latest emphasis is to develop Patron Management Plans, Employee Awareness Plans, Server Risk Assessment Plans, etc.

The problem is I am 60, grey bearded, balding, former Chief of Training for a 500 person fire department, former consultant to the largest chain of fitness clubs in Canada (my wife still works there), and was an Industrial Fire Marshal for one of the largest American packaging companies in the 70s. So once I did 10 of those, including selling them manuals for Servers, for Security Staff, for Bartenders, Managers etc. they tell someone else, and I cannot seem to say no. I tell them stupid amounts of money, after all it is simply replace this with that in a word processor, take some photos, change a few lines, put in stuff like Security, Fire Alarm data etc. So if I say 4k for 4 copies of a 200 page document, and 6 buck each for manuals they say OK. My son tried and when I sent him they told me he was not able to do it. Might be a crock but .....whatever as the kids say.

So I sit in front of the computer and multi task. Just wrote harmonies for a military march for a friend. Worked on a manual for a half hour, went to the forum, read the news, went back to Band in a Box and worked on Gotta Travel On, went back to the manual and so it goes. And I get 45k a year from the Fire Dept. as a pension with inflation protection, extra medical like private rooms, travel insurance, etc. and have a real hard time with the fact lots of people have no jobs. It becomes hard to understand. My mother gets mad at me because I did work full time while going to high school, did not like always wearing my rich cousins clothes.

Good luck with your endeveours. I have always found that passion and a positive attitude work wonders. Networking. Consistent contact with people who matter. Every smart person has that in common. Lots of people around, lots of friends, and lots of support. I can go anyday to 2 or 3 places for lunch and know almost everyone there, and they wonder where I have been. Slowed down is all. I just have to learn to say no.

To be honest, some local politician will know how to get you work. You do the campaign thing, they appreciate it. You help them, they help you. My Grandfather got all his depression era jobs after painting the head of the Ontario Government s house. A railway job, a munitions job in WW2, and an office job in the Government after that. He said it was luck, but if you knew the guy, well he never stopped working his whole life, even if it was for free.

John Conley
Musica est vita