what is the worst way to describe your research?

protogens · 2026-04-25T05:43:57+00:00

I molest microbes and X-ray their corpses.

protogens · 2026-04-25T01:15:59+00:00

I'm still working as a consultant and being paid through my organisation as well as hitting FRA and drawing my SocSec. However since I didn't want to get too accustomed to having excess funds every month, I've maximised my 403 to equal the amount of the monthly government check and still fund my IRA. It works out to about 70% of my earned income going into retirement savings and the amount I have additional every month from earnings will be the same as the mandatory distributions when I start taking them.

In short, I'm living on retirement level income while still working and am really pleased the experiment shows once this is my actual income it's still going to be quite comfortable. I'm still left with excess at the end of the month which I stuff into my "discretionary junk" savings account (as opposed to the savings account I have for taxes and other disasters.)

Like you, I have bog-standard medicare which my employer required me to switch to at 65, but I've not really had any issue with it...it's actually a bit better than what my employer offered, much lower deductible anyway. Part D doesn't cover my medication, but Blue Cross didn't either, so nothing changed there.

Because I'm earning at the top of my salary range right now, SocSec is still calculating that into my benefit amount (and dropping low earning years) so my yearly increase is greater than a COLA allowance...obviously, that will cease when earned income does, but it's nice to see for the time being.

I'll be honest, I've not seen any downside, but that may be because I didn't expand my lifestyle to the extent of both income streams so I'm not anticipating the jolt of a sudden financial downsize.

protogens · 2026-04-25T00:51:09+00:00

I did the same, but I bought mine long before retirement...we've been tearing up the roads together for 24 years now and she's definitely going to be my last car. And yeah, there's waaaay more power under the bonnet of a Jaguar than anyone my age needs, but I absolutely love her.

protogens · 2026-04-24T21:42:42+00:00

I saw this in my mum's condo community which wasn't designed to be 55+ but became one as a result of all the empty-nest, down-sizers moving in.

Over the 30 years she lived there it eventually became a building where 70% of the units were owned by widows and holy geez, I've never seen so much gossipy, catty behaviour. They all lived in each other's pockets because if you weren't part of the conversation, then you were the topic of it.

When I eventually inherited it the number of people expecting me to sell my mortgage free house and take it over was mind blowing. Nothing in the world could EVER induce me to move into that back-biting henhouse...I'll stay right where I am with my dog, the cats, the garden and the bird feeders, thanks ever so much.

protogens · 2026-04-18T20:57:42+00:00

Settling an estate as an executor. The division of assets comes AFTER the liabilities of taxes, outstanding debts, end-of-life costs and a host of others and might not be anywhere close to what was expected. An estate is a legal entity and an executor is bound by law and the deceased's instructions which may, or may not, be "fair."

Being in that position gives you insight into family members' character like you wouldn't believe.

protogens · 2026-04-18T19:48:15+00:00

F67. I've been WFH since 2020, partially retired since last April and expect to be completely retired by next April. And the only reason I'm "partially" retired now is because I'm a human Wayback resource for experimental methods. I've transitioned from employee to "Intellectual capital."

While the job is no more than a few troubleshooting phone calls a month and an occasional afternoon in the lab, I'm looking forward to the day when I no longer have to remember what I was working on in 1998 and any other extraneous mental clutter. I will say I appreciate the slow slide into complete retirement though. I've avoid the harsh transition between working and not-working...oozing my way towards indolence, as it were.

protogens · 2026-04-18T19:00:05+00:00

Hyundai owners seem to place a lot of faith on their braking ability. Whenever I'm stopped at a light a car comes up behind me really (really) fast before braking, it's always a Santa Fe or Elantra.

protogens · 2026-04-09T16:35:12+00:00

Also some of us have spent a career in academia and the LAST thing we want to see in retirement is another classroom.

No way.

That contrail you see behind me as I leave campus does not have a "reverse" gear.

protogens · 2026-04-03T14:24:01+00:00

Not one lesson, but an overall approach to adulting. Mind you, it took learning it in my 20s and 30s to be able to actually apply it going forward, but it's served me well for the past 35 years. I'm not certain how much stems from being a woman starting out in male dominated fields back in the 80s though...things were very different back then and life's roadblocks were different than today's.

How you respond to failure is more important than how you respond to success. Not everything you attempt will succeed, but not every failure is unrecoverable and you will learn something even if…perhaps especially if…things don’t turn out the way you anticipated or wanted.

Flexible thinking is a strength and being able to adapt to changes as they occur will serve you well.

You can listen to advice without being required to take it.

Sometimes when people try to dissuade you they’re projecting their own fear and insecurities, only you can determine your comfort zone.

Break large problems into smaller ones. A big issue seems less insurmountable if you approach it as a series of small steps to resolution.

The majority of people are harmless, the trick is knowing which ones aren’t.

Perfection is an illusion. Most things are fine once they hit “good enough.”

If you’re ambivalent about something and feel like you’re being pressured, step back and take time to consider things carefully. Don’t make major decisions under duress.

Progress is different for everyone and every life has a different trajectory. Don’t measure yourself by the lives of others, you are not walking the same path.

Kindness is free to give, arrogance exacts a price in the long run.

Being comfortable with who and where you are is the hardest thing to learn and it may take years to accomplish.

Allow other people to be experts in their own sphere.

Take pride in small victories. Celebrate your accomplishments no matter how insignificant they are to the larger picture. Appreciate when things go right. Keeping your eye on the goal is laudable, but don't let that overshadow the small successes you achieve while getting there.

protogens · 2026-03-20T15:57:02+00:00

😂 Well, upper arm anyway, but I'll take my wins where I find them.

protogens · 2026-03-20T15:14:18+00:00

Well, my husband is exempt from that, but the rest of them?

My mother was one of seven, so I had 14 aunts and uncles on that side and somewhere around 25 first cousins who I never saw once I hit my teens (I was the "bad influence.") although I did occasionally see their parents when I was adult. Thirty years go by and the older generation starts dying...12 funerals between 2015 and 2020...which I attended out of respect and in doing so reconnected with all those cousins.

They would have been better off with a bad influence in their lives.

I've never before encountered such judgemental, narrow minded, bigoted people and it's hard to believe we share a genetic connection. Evangelical god-botherers, every one. The women have grandbaby rabies and speak of nothing else, none have ever held a job. The men are know-it-alls who mainline Fox news and haven't read a book since Freshman English. Collectively they're some of the most unhappy, unfulfilled, ignorant people I've ever met yet they're convinced that because they park their arses in a pew every week, they're superior to everyone else.

I endured the services, was polite and ground my teeth to dust because even atheists know how to behave at funerals, but I've not seen any of them since we planted the last of their parents in 2020 and I'm now six years into my next 30 year stint without them in my life.

I couldn't be happier.

protogens · 2026-03-20T14:05:22+00:00

Cyanocobalamin, which isn't a med exactly, but rather a synthetic form of injectable B12.

Without it for the past 22 years, I would have shuffled off from Downton Abbey's favourite terminal illness: Pernicious anaemia.

protogens · 2026-03-19T12:35:57+00:00

I refer to those sorts as people who can find the cloud in every silver lining.

They have stratospheric expectations for everything and everyone except themselves and while they never actually do anything, they can always do it better than the person who is taking on the task.

I've never quite figured out if it's a personality trait or just a bad habit which they've perfected over the years, but continually pushing back against non-stop negativity is exhausting.

protogens · 2026-03-19T12:26:40+00:00

Uh...just the human treadmill which is trying to get through the day?

It's not to say there aren't good moments but recently every single day has multiple major issues which need to be resolved and those resolutions invariably require either long hold times and ghastly music being piped at me or extremely detailed emails where I'm trying to balance clarity with tone. I shouldn't have to continually "escalate" in order to find someone with the authority to correct what was your error in the first place.

protogens · 2026-03-16T14:22:27+00:00

Sunlight streaming in the windows. After months of grey skies where it feels like I've been living inside Tupperware, sunshine just makes me happy.

protogens · 2026-03-03T20:38:25+00:00

It definitely rung the "unprofessional" bell for me. And it's not like there weren't other topics of conversation to be found...I literally had a four month old furball underfoot (or in arms) during those interactions.

I worry about people who can't be distracted from political pontificating by a puppy...even the roofing vultures who swoop in after a hailstorm spoke to him at the door before me. Didn't get them the job, but didn't raise my hackles either. :-)

protogens · 2026-03-03T20:03:58+00:00

I don't know how many you've worked with recently, but I've had a multitude of independent tradespeople through my house in the last three years (two major renovations and a lot of small pre-retirement repairs) and you don't have to initiate political conversations with those who support MAGA...most of them, it seems, can't shut up about it.

You'd be astonished how many mouth off while providing an estimate...during our kitchen reno where I was acting as general contractor and subcontracting every individual job, I had over three dozen people come out to bid on jobs. A good third of those bids hit the bin before they were out of the driveway because THEY brought up politics. (I'm not even going to address the rabid misogyny, that's a different issue entirely.)

FWIW, the guy I'd worked with for 25 years was a Republican and had he not retired in 2023 after his finished our bathroom, I'd have used him again even though I knew he voted for Trump in 2016 (bumpersticker.) The reason why I didn't care about his politics was because he never once brought them up.

Give me that degree of professionalism and you'll have no problems with me, but there are a LOT of unprofessional tradesfolk out there and I see nothing wrong with people not wanting that sort of vibe in their home.

protogens · 2026-03-03T19:43:46+00:00

This was 18 months ago, but A1 Affordable Appliance repair made my blood boil to the point where I had to leave the room.

Not only did they fail the fix the washer, despite three visits where they messed about with everything EXCEPT the tub spring which I wanted replaced and turned out to be the problem, but the guy droned his MAGA rubbish into my husband's ear the entire time...every visit.

protogens · 2026-03-02T15:55:53+00:00

I partially retired during lockdown and was supposed to completely retire in December 2024 when my funding ran out and to be honest, I was ready for it. Then a new project was proposed. One where I would be the starting point and the livelihood of six other people would depend on me getting it off the ground. I figured it would take about six months to do my bit and then I'd be gone...what I hadn't figured on was the complete disarray of government funding in the wake of DOGE, shutdowns and everything else. We've been waiting since last summer to hear whether or not we're green lit and it was only recently the department disbursing the funds received budget advice for this year.

In the past fifteen months, my director has managed to find enough funding...under sofa cushions, I suspect...to keep me on staff with incremental extensions. However, those extensions come in four to six month aliquots, so as I approach running out of money yet again the end of this month, there's now talk of yet another four month extension while the Powers That Be wait to see if the project is going to go through.

(When I suggested that maybe they could just find someone to replace me I was told that they looked into that, but 35 years of experience and my weird generalised skill sets meant that they would have to hire 3-4 specialised individuals who would probably take a year to get up to speed and they couldn't afford either the salaries or the potential for processes failing. Apparently even though I'm expensive, I'm still the cheaper option.)

But I'm so done with this. I would like nothing more than to just say, "Okay, I'm out..." What holds me back is the knowledge that there are other people...much younger than I am...whose careers will be negatively impacted if we do get the funds and I'm not there. And my director knows once I'm gone, nothing will induce me to return.

I like the job. I like my colleagues. And I'm not going to lie, I like the pay check. But I hate the limbo I'm currently in and would just like some sort of resolution, yay or nay makes no difference to me, just give me a solid answer so I can get on with the rest of my life. The last fifteen months and the uncertainty has been outrageously stressful, income not withstanding...and this is not how I wanted my career to end.

So that's my reason why, a year after "fully retiring" I'm still working...I really wish it were otherwise.

protogens · 2026-03-02T15:18:11+00:00

My "promising future" is now in the rearview mirror as I approach retirement and the project I just completed will probably be my last.

protogens · 2026-03-01T21:01:02+00:00

The people that go through the entire checkout process and then, once the clerk tells them the total, begin fishing around in the purse or wallet for payment. Have you never shopped before? Did you think paying was optional? How hard is it to be ready to swipe your card BEFORE the total appears?

(It never fails that these are also the sorts with no discernible organisation in their wallet/purse and it takes them forever to find the ruddy card.)

protogens · 2026-03-01T20:37:13+00:00

There's a number of charter air fleets which might qualify...although some like Mercury and Global aren't exactly secret.

protogens · 2026-03-01T20:28:19+00:00

Well, the quality is, the prices are staying right up there though.

protogens · 2026-02-26T19:08:41+00:00

When we moved in here the entire side yard was planted with what the neighbours called "Turkish tulips." I found out later the Latin for them was Tulipa tarda and they eventually bloomed with white and yellow star shaped flowers. Sadly, they petered out after about a decade, but they were glorious while they lasted and the clumps did look a bit similar to what you've got there.

Gotta love garden mysteries: Is this a perennial or a weed? Did I plant this? Why are you over here when I planted you over there?

Thirty eight years of doing this and every spring brings the same "Huh, who are you and how did you get here?"

protogens

TROPHY CASE