That's a Wrap and where have I been

 

I finished my five hundred and eighty five card autograph frankenset with these two cards.  It was a challenge and I am glad that I did not keep track of how much it cost me.  I would to thank each and every one of you who also helped me complete it.  The next task is to update the frankenset page so you can see it in all its glory.  That will be fun to do.  On that page each row is a page.  

For the past nineteen years I have managed a bookstore for the county library system.  We sold the books that the library did not have room for on the branch (nineteen of them) shelves.  All the money went back into the library's general fund.  Everyone that worked at the bookstore, except for me, were volunteers.  We had five people that had been here for the entire thirty two years the bookstore had been open. The bookstore was a valuable community resource.  We had many teachers, public, private and home, who shopped to teach with.  The books were below reasonably priced.   In March we closed because of the virus.  We thought we would be back in a few months.  In June I came back from my temporary assignment at the county's Emergency Operation Center to begin getting things ready to reopen.  After just a few days I was given a new mandate, destroy the bookstore.  The library had decided that the bookstore was no longer needed and decided to move a branch in from a leased space.  I had to call sixty five volunteers and let them know that there would be no more bookstore.  Many of them were hurt and angry.  I worked with a moving company to pack up all the books so we could ship them to a consignment company.  After that I was told by a newish staff member to get rid of anything that would remind people that this used to be a bookstore.  Some of the things they wanted me to do were just dumb, but what you gonna do. Back in January I had been told that I would no longer manage the bookstore but would move to a new position.  That position no longer was viable because of "voluntary" retirements and layoffs.  So I waffled for a couple of weeks and decided to take the "voluntary" retirement.  That became effective August 31, so basically for the last two months I have been in a big funk.  I read blogs each day but couldn't bring myself to write much.  The other thing I have doing for the past month is submitting paperwork for retirement and looking for work, part time preferably to supplement my retirement income for a few years.  I can start drawing full social security in 3.5 years.  I want to wait as long as I can for that day.  Plus I have to rectify some mistakes in my social security statement.  When I worked at the LCS, the boss withheld the taxes and such but didn't pay them to SS, so there is one year where it says I only have $20 of SS taxes paid.  There are three years messed up.