Farm Sale Continues / Mom Goes Silent Again / Quite A Raise! / Job Change Coming...
It's a long story but my grandfather left behind a chunk of land in North Dakota which was to stay with the descendants forever perhaps. Unfortunately, one of my distant relatives fell on hard times and was forced to sell their share. We couldn't just sell one share, so the family agreed to sell the land and cash out. This was like three or four years ago and the sale is still happening piece by piece. We just had a large chunk sell and the cash arrived recently. We're now down to only one chunk left to sell which could happen late this year or early into 2023. We'll see. I'm thrilled to finally be close to done with this whole process as dealing with the relatives and wondering if we're all getting a raw deal is tough to think about. Plus this has been--like I said--a three-or-four-year process. Whenever we get a check, tempers flare and shopping sprees happen. It's a funny thing.
When this all started, my parents officially put their share into the names of my siblings and I. In return, they were expecting (and did ultimately receive) the inheritance from a different set of relatives. As I said, when they did that, they expected the land would be in our hands forever. Like we'd pass it down to the next generation and so on. Unfortunately, that lasted literally only a couple years before someone had to sell their share and ruin that dream.
Anyway fast forward to today. My mom and I have been trying to rekindle our relationship after two years of estranged silence. It's been a good couple months of chatting on the phone and things were proceeding nicely. However the day she got wind that my siblings and I were receiving a check for the land sale, she blew up at us and called my brother, Ryan, and I names. It was such a shock. She called us ungrateful and all this other narcissistic and abusive nonsense. I tried calling and responding asking to come back to the table and just talk but then silence. So here we are yet again at the beginning of another period of us not speaking to each other. The difference this time is that my brother is also on the receiving end of this and isn't speaking to our mother either. One by one, our mother is cutting us off. We'll see where this goes...
In happier news, February is when my workplace hands out raises and bonuses. After being bestowed with the job title of Engineer last fall, it was expected that there would be a considerable pay increase right now to go along with it in the hopes that I could catch up to some of my coworkers with the same title. In years past, I've gotten modest raises but stayed within $10,000/year of where I've been pretty much since I was hired in about seven years ago. Welp, my ship has finally come in. The raise I was given was $40,000/year including benefits on top of my existing pay. For the first time in my life, I'm solidly into six-figure territory. Nicole and I are relieved that some of the pressure is off in terms of what we can do with our lives, but we're not going to let this extra money change anything. We're going to continue to live our frugal and modest lives and invest in our health, our growing family, our retirement, and the house we're in. Maybe we'll get a new car but that's a little ways away. I'm very thankful and feeling lucky. It's nice to be rewarded and recognized for the effort and skill I'm bringing!
But at the same time, I was also warned that my job position will be changing soon. My position is being migrated over to a different team that's part of a different organization, and my role will switch from one of creative code writing to maintaining existing code. It's all very much up in the air at this moment so I'm not sure what to believe right now. It's scary because it'll be new and there'll be new people and I'll be losing my team which has been a great bunch of people over the years. I'm sad and anxious. As the coming weeks go by, I'm sure I'll learn more. The COVID-19 pandemic is coming to a close, too, so I'm sure we'll be back into the office in a matter of weeks to months...
When this all started, my parents officially put their share into the names of my siblings and I. In return, they were expecting (and did ultimately receive) the inheritance from a different set of relatives. As I said, when they did that, they expected the land would be in our hands forever. Like we'd pass it down to the next generation and so on. Unfortunately, that lasted literally only a couple years before someone had to sell their share and ruin that dream.
Anyway fast forward to today. My mom and I have been trying to rekindle our relationship after two years of estranged silence. It's been a good couple months of chatting on the phone and things were proceeding nicely. However the day she got wind that my siblings and I were receiving a check for the land sale, she blew up at us and called my brother, Ryan, and I names. It was such a shock. She called us ungrateful and all this other narcissistic and abusive nonsense. I tried calling and responding asking to come back to the table and just talk but then silence. So here we are yet again at the beginning of another period of us not speaking to each other. The difference this time is that my brother is also on the receiving end of this and isn't speaking to our mother either. One by one, our mother is cutting us off. We'll see where this goes...
In happier news, February is when my workplace hands out raises and bonuses. After being bestowed with the job title of Engineer last fall, it was expected that there would be a considerable pay increase right now to go along with it in the hopes that I could catch up to some of my coworkers with the same title. In years past, I've gotten modest raises but stayed within $10,000/year of where I've been pretty much since I was hired in about seven years ago. Welp, my ship has finally come in. The raise I was given was $40,000/year including benefits on top of my existing pay. For the first time in my life, I'm solidly into six-figure territory. Nicole and I are relieved that some of the pressure is off in terms of what we can do with our lives, but we're not going to let this extra money change anything. We're going to continue to live our frugal and modest lives and invest in our health, our growing family, our retirement, and the house we're in. Maybe we'll get a new car but that's a little ways away. I'm very thankful and feeling lucky. It's nice to be rewarded and recognized for the effort and skill I'm bringing!
But at the same time, I was also warned that my job position will be changing soon. My position is being migrated over to a different team that's part of a different organization, and my role will switch from one of creative code writing to maintaining existing code. It's all very much up in the air at this moment so I'm not sure what to believe right now. It's scary because it'll be new and there'll be new people and I'll be losing my team which has been a great bunch of people over the years. I'm sad and anxious. As the coming weeks go by, I'm sure I'll learn more. The COVID-19 pandemic is coming to a close, too, so I'm sure we'll be back into the office in a matter of weeks to months...