It’s been just over a month since my last post. Since then, I’ve still been writing, but I will actually be paid for those scribbles. The paying customer always comes first!
This blog, and the book I’m working on feed my soul. The technical writing feeds my belly! As we strip our yard in preparation for new topsoil and sod, I am particularly grateful for some extra cash coming in.
It’s a curious thing. For years we watched our money go out…it always has, to varying degrees of course but it was a little less daunting watching it go out when there was also significant money coming in. For the first time, we are scratching away at our savings and watching it be replaced in smaller increments than it used to be.
And so I do some paid writing, mainly reports for departments throughout the college I used to work for. I know more about that college than I ever knew in my ten years as a full-time employee! I also look for random opportunities to bring money into my vacation fund. (I know, I know, I’m supposed to be retired what do I need a VACATION for?!)
This aspiring writer has entered the newspaper business…so to speak.
My husband and I have a paper route! We were walking along this street quite regularly to get some exercise. When a paper route became available in the area, I thought, “Why not get PAID to go for a walk?” We live in a small town, so this is just a once a week commitment, hence the pay is a tad underwhelming.
Underwhelming pay aside, it adds about a thousand bucks to my vacation goals over the year. (Tuscany for my 60th birthday!) The exercise we get is a bonus. It’s incredible how fast someone over 55 can make herself walk at minus 30!
After these writing contracts are done, I’m hoping to land one I’ve done before. Writing descriptions of wine and their vineyards for a wine auction was a lot of fun, and I even learned a little bit about wine in the process.
Perhaps I should start “research” for that one early…just in case?
Make that Italian wine…simultaneous vacation and work research, now that is what I call efficient!
Salute!
Path to Pasture 