Columbia Gorge News
www.columbiagorgenews.com
Wednesday, June 9, 2021
B3
Part time work can be worthwhile endeavor
Senior
Living
Scott
McKay
N
OW THAT YOU ARE RE-
tired have you thought
about working part-time?
No, hold on. I know what you may
be thinking, “Are you nuts! I’m
already working part-time: Taking
care of my garden, watching my
grandkids, and volunteering. I
don’t have time for a part-time gig!”
But if you have thought about
being a new “gigster” by work-
ing part-time and are willing to
commit the time and the employer
is willing to be flexible, it can be a
win-win situation. And this may
be the perfect time. “We’re Hiring”
signs are everywhere, and I have
been approached three separate
times asking if I knew any older
adults who would be interested in
working in hospitality or driving a
bus or taxi.
Many employers view us as
valuable workers because of our
experience, maturity and we aren’t
always connected by an umbilical
cord to our smartphones — well,
at least not most of us. And we
already have health insurance
through Medicare. What a deal!
So why would anyone want to
work past retirement? After survey-
ing older adults who are working
part-time, Transamerica Center for
Retirement Studies found for many
it is economic. They found 53 per-
cent want the additional income,
and 35 percent couldn’t otherwise
afford retirement. But there are
other reasons too. 47% percent said
they work to stay active, 39% to
keep their brains sharp, 34 percent
said working gives them a sense of
purpose, and for 21%, it is a way of
maintaining social connections.
The right job can be good for your
health as well as your pocketbook.
But there are several aspects of
working part-time you should con-
sider. Working after retirement can
complicate your financial situation,
such as putting yourself in a higher
tax bracket than you were expect-
ing. It’s important to consider how
the additional income fits into your
long-term financial plan.
You may be thinking about
working for yourself such as an in-
home caregiver or house sitter —
or turning your hobby into a small
business, selling your handmade
crafts at bazaars or on the Internet.
But beware. The administrative
and operational tasks required to
run a small business, such as taxes
and workmen’s comp, may take
more time — and require more
money — than you expect.
And that leads to the part-time
slippery slope: Finding yourself
working more than just part-time.
If you want to spend time with your
grandchildren or travel occasion-
ally, you should make sure there
is an understanding of what is ex-
pected of you and your employer.
The look of retirement has
changed over the last half-century.
Today many who reach retire-
ment age want to keep working by
finding a part-time “gig” for the
personal satisfaction and addition-
al income. Whether working part-
time for an employer or yourself,
being a “gigster” can be rewarding
by keeping yourself engaged and
connected while earning a few
extra dollars — as long as it doesn’t
become a “real” job!
•••
The name of the wealthy,
short-statured cartoon character
voiced by Jim Backus who gets into
a series of comical situations be-
cause of his extreme near-sighted-
ness is, “You’ve done it again” Mr.
Magoo. I received correct answers
from Jeannie Pesicka, Susan Ellis,
Steven Woolpert, John McEwin,
Emmett Sampson, Bob Thouvenal,
Tina Castañares, Norma Simpson,
Catherine Whalen, Marilyn
Wong, Shelly Baxter, Lana Tepfer,
Kim Birge, Dave Lutgens, Margo
Dameier, Gene Uczen, Julie Carter,
Patty Burnet, Timothy Curry-
Stevens, Mike Yarnell, and Alan
Winas, this week’s winner of a quilt
raffle ticket. And last week I missed
Steven Woolpert.
I was only 8, but I remember
watching Your Hit Parade and
hearing this 1956 number-one
hit song recorded by Jim Lowe.
For this week’s “Remember
When” question, Jim Lowe sings
“Midnight, one more night without
sleeping, watching till the morning
comes creeping”, as he is deter-
mined to know the secret behind
what? E-mail your answer to
mcseniorcenter@gmail.com, call
541-296-4788 or send it with a 45
rpm record of “Love Me Tender” by
Elvis Presley - the song Jim Lowe’s
recording replaced as number one.
•••
Well, it has been another week
watching for things that go bump
in the night. Until we meet again,
as Joey Adams reminds us “Don’t
worry about avoiding tempta-
tion — as you grow older, it starts
avoiding you.”
•••
“I lost my job. I didn’t lose it — I
know where it is — it’s just when I
get there, someone else is doing it.”
— Bobcat Goldthwaite
•••
Nutritious home-delivered
meals and pick-ups are available
for anyone over 60. For more infor-
mation, you can call the meal site
in your area.
Hood River Valley Adult Center
at 541-386-2060;
The Dalles Meals-on-Wheels at
541-298-8333;
Sherman County Senior
and Community Center at
541-565-3191;
Klickitat County Senior Services
— Goldendale office at 509-773-
3757 or the White Salmon office at
509-493-3068;
Skamania County Senior
Services at 509-427-3990;
Seniors of Mosier Valley at 541-
503-5660 or 541-980-1157.
The City Council: A fictional narrative of rural life in the American West
Episode 163: The Quaish Way
■ By Jim Tindall
Ike Moseseek strolls near
home, dreams whimsically
of his eventual passing.
When he reaches paradise,
the Place Beyond, Wotahish,
he does not want the tropics
and a sweet cocktail; he
wishes for snow in the trees,
a cold, crisp, blue sky, and a
good walking stick through
Quaish Ishseek into death,
into Aneeneseek, as the
released ghost, a happy-go-
lucky chidiseek.
Winter has always been
the time of awe for him, for
reverence in and gratitude
for the glory that is nature.
He supposes he seeks to
live as the tap root of the
oak and pine, as well as the
broad spreading tendrils
roots of the fir, his personal
quest for groundedness. A
squirrel chitters.
He walks on, mulling the
Quaish fable, “Coyote and
Squirrel.”
Ike Moseseek considers
the firm ground upon which
he walks, the path packed
from generations of feet and
hooves up into the heart,
to the peaks of the Quaish
Ishseek, where the elk and
berries reside. This is a place
of trust. But the people, all
people, are uncertain. Yes,
capable of being martyrs and
fine parents, but also so able
to be uncertain, undirect-
ed, yes, even disloyal. The
trickster Coyote, the oppor-
tunist, and the Squirrel, his
coffers full of the hard labor
and determination of other
creatures.
Ike laughs, “It is easier to
trust a tree in a windstorm
than a neighbor drinking
beer,” he thinks. “The ironies
in life and death! Yet Coyote
and Squirrel remain im-
mortal with Coyote tricking
death out of Squirrel and
Squirrel stealing Coyote’s
death. What is the lesson of
life there?”
He strides further up the
slope, musing, “Death is a
friend, a kind of reward for
good living, another portal.
These dishonest beings
give themselves the short
end of the stick. Coyote and
Squirrel are doomed to go
on in flesh being devious
and conniving for eternity.”
Ike halts and looks about
him. “When my spirit de-
cides to rise above the land,
leaving my body behind, it is
this way I hope it travels, up
to the chilling peaks of vistas,
of thin air.”
Ike had been inspired,
or shocked, into this line of
thought by a ladder mishap
he suffered the day before.
The ground was unlevel.
He was five steps up when
the ladder leaned, and he
went with it, luckily landing,
bouncing, on his feet, and
then down to his rump onto
soft earth. It was a wakeup
call. Ike Moseseek knew
several contemporaries who
were somehow gimped up
permanently from ladder
accidents. Not one of them
was foolish or fool hearty;
luck was just not with them
Illustration by Peggy Ohlson
that day. They walked like
veteran rodeo riders.
Ike sighs.
The Quaish way is a
peaceful one. Theirs was
not a warrior culture. The
whites had been civil, not
butchers. They had avoided
the Spaniards. Their wander
here to Quaish Ishseek so
many, many generations
ago came down to the living
as a tale of peace and of
exploration, the wave south,
separating from their Navajo
and Apache cousins in a
wide valley, ice on the ridges
to east and west. Each day,
the stories said, the people
found new plants, new
animals, better weather.
Theirs was a way of hope,
a simple hope born from
a continued peace. They
avoided the warrior tribes;
when the horse came and
brought the warriors a wider
swath, the war makers kept
out of the mountains shel-
tering the Quaish. (Lest the
reader think them weak and
timid, let it be known they
were tenacious defenders
of their domain and were
masters of two battle tactics,
close quarters fighting
with blowguns employing
darts of black locust thorns
smeared with toxic herbs
that made the enemy’s eyes
immediately swell shut and
a long-range weapon, a kind
of crossbow, that from a
high vantage point could hit
its mark at 200 yards.) The
people avoided the ravages
of the diseases that came
with European contact. The
people believed — still do —
in what the Judeo-Christians
call miracles. How else
might you explain such good
fortune?
Ike wonders, “Really, who
are the chosen people? We
are not a timid people, we
are prudent. We are survi-
vors in our own way.” He
looks up into the boughs.
“Is this the natural order
of things?” he asks himself
aloud. “Are we Quaish out-
side the order? Do we walk
the blessing way, or are we
somehow luckily lost?”
Ike walks now through
a grove of wind-gnarled
pines, approaching a saddle.
The wind might sound as a
banshee to you or me, the
twisted trees appearing as
ghouls on the hunt, but to
Ike, he hears a bassoon and
a viola accompanied by a
brushed snare drum, the
trees as pow-wow danc-
ers, celebrating the eternal
dichotomies of hopes and
dashed dreams, of life and
death.
About ‘The City
Council’
The City Council is a
work of fiction that sprang
from observing contentious
politicians. This narrative
serial was initially conceived
as a radio project back in
2006. That year it began to
be published in print in the
White Salmon Enterprise.
This creative writing is set in
the imaginary western town
of Warhaven, which lies at
the confluence of the Rushing
and Big rivers. The town was
settled in 1867 by veterans of
the Battle of Gettysburg, who
sought to leave the carnage
and duplicity of the East for a
more harmonious society in
the West. In Warhaven, city
government works efficiently
with altruism for the com-
monweal of the community,
which is the work’s overrid-
ing theme.
Hiring
Hiring
Dr. Cullen’s
Student of the week
Kramer
Keegan
Ku Benjamin
Ku for Global
Studies:
as the Algebra 1 Student of the Week:
Keegan
comes
to
class
every
Regardless of the struggles present day
in the
distance
learning attitude
format, Benjamin
has
with
a positive
and works
shown not
resilience
and determination
in his
hard,
only improving
himself,
math studies. Thank you Ben for all your
but
fellow
classmates
as
well.
hard work and excellent communication!
Congratulations
Benjamin Ku
Kramer,
TDHS
Keegan
Ku, TDHS
Columbia View Dental
1915 E. 19th Street | The Dalles
Victor Cullen, DDS
Wilkins,
Kaiser,
Compeve
wages Olsen Inc.
Paid Time Off
Compensaon
and benets include:
Medical/Dental/Vision/Prescripon
Insurance Offered
Compeve wages
Life Insurance
Paid Time Off
401K Tradional/Roth
Medical/Dental/Vision/Prescripon
Up to 4% 401K company
Insurance Offered
contribuon match
Life Insurance
401K Tradional/Roth
Up to 4% 401K company
contribuon match
Wilkins, Kaiser, Olsen Inc. is an
Equal Opportunity Employer
WKO lumber facility in Carson, Washington is
WKO lumber
facility in Carson,
expanding produco
expanding
production.
We are Washington
looking to is fill
We are positions
looking to ll
mulple
in our fast
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for for day
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of of
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positions
please
apply:
apply: lumber facility in Carson, Washington is expanding produco
WKO
We are looking to ll mulple posions in our fast paced lumber m
Forkli Driver
Forklift
Driver
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night shis. If interested in any of these posions plea
Log Yard Operator/ Equipment Operator
Log
Yard
Operator/
Equipment Operator
apply:
Millwright/Mechanic
Millwright/Mechanic
Forkli
Driver
Chain Puller
Chain Puller
Log
Yard Operator/ Equipment Operator
Cleanup
Cleanup
Millwright/Mechanic
job
Chain
Puller
Full
descriptions
and
required
application
ffi
be
Cleanup
can
obtained at
Job main
posngs
can located
also be at
found
on Wind
Indeed.com
the
office
2022
River Hwy.
Carson, WA 98610
ffi
•
•
•
•
•
Job
can also
also be be found
found
Indeed.com
Job postings
posngs can
on on
Indeed.com
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