Robin Scala:
CLASS OF 1977
Pequannock Township High SchoolClass of 1977
Pompton plains, NJ
Penn State University Worthington ScrantonClass of 1998
Dunmore, PA
Pequannock Valley Middle SchoolClass of 1973
Pompton plains, NJ
Gerace Elementary SchoolClass of 1970
Pequannock, NJ
Pequannock SchoolClass of 1969
Pequannock, NJ
Robin's Story
LIFE IN GENERAL
Being disabled by Lupus and/or Fibromyalgia and/or Chronic Fatigue can bring life to a grinding halt at times.
THE BIG BACKYARD
We have our house on 68 acres in a beautiful small northeastern PA town. Since moving here in 1989 I have experienced the most amazing things. Animals seem to follow me around, so Joe calls me "the pied piper". I try to walk the property every day, but when my body doesn't cooperate I have the golf cart, a/k/a our "wheel chair".
I also have 45 acres in NY near the Finger Lakes region that has been in our family since the '80's. I live closest so it has become my responsibility.
THE GAS BOOM
Unless you have been living under a rock, you may have caught the news of a giant natural gas play covering much of PA and southern NY. Texans have been swarming the area like flies, trying to get us hicks to sign gas leases.
At first I wanted to sign a gas lease I had negotiated, but now I think we will sit back and wait .....
In case you want to keep up with the daily wars about gas leases (PA & S. NY vs. Texans) read our daily arguments, fights and philosophical musings on PAGASLEASE.COM
MY HUSBAND JOE
Joe's business (Joe Scala Tree Service) is always busy due to a large satisfied customer base and plenty of word-of-mouth. Joe started on his own in 1985, while we were still in NJ and right after we bought our first house. His partner Carl Loriz bought out Joe's half of Superior Tree Service when we moved to PA in 1989.
UPDATE: Joe may now be the only tree surgeon who has TWO fake hips. The first was replaced when he was 45 and now the other was replaced Nov. 2010. He still climbs trees when the bucket truck can't reach. This has to be some kind of record.
OUR "CHILD"
Our son Trevor, an only child, is 29 as of Sept. 2008 and has grown into a handsome, 6'8" man to be proud of. After college he was hired in electro-mechanical design and maintenance work, which suits him perfectly. As of 2009 he was promoted to electrician at General Dynamics.
We can't seem to get rid of him either. I guess he's waiting for us to "kick it" so he can inherit everything.
(I would miss him anyway. He does so much work for us, takes care of things we don't have time for, fixes cars, trucks and machinery, and builds custom items. We REALLY can't complain!)
THE BOAT
We finally bought Joe's dream fishing boat in 2006, and have been taking overnight trips on the ocean from NJ. I think Joe is jealous because I love the boat at least as much as he does. I never expected to feel this way about a fishing boat.
2011 season...so far we have seen WHALES off the NJ coast on two trips. Each time they were close to shore and near Belmar and Asbury Park. Joe had two giant sea turtles hanging around the boat last week. We looked them up and they were Leatherbacks, the largest sea turtle (up to 2000 lbs) and generally live in the tropics)
OUR ADDICTION
Ever since a trip to Jamaica for our 25th wedding anniversary, we go to the caribbean as often as we can. There's nothing like getting off the plane in January and instantly being in summer.
We had to skip the 2011 trip because Joe just had a hip replacement a few months before.
HEALTH-MIDDLE AGE CONVERSATION
Both Joe and I have lots of surgery and health problems, which is the down side, but we have the life we wanted from working our butts off for 30 years. We keep looking at each other in surprise -- now we are the old people!
STUBBORN GERMANS
Considering what could have happened, since we married as teens with less-than-no-money, we have come a long way and learned a whole lot in the process. We have been way up and we have also hit bottom, multiple times, so whatever life throws at us from here on is just more of the same.
MARRIAGE
AS OF MARCH 17, 2009 WE ARE MARRIED 30, yes 30 YEARS!
We understand now what marriage is about, besides a growing love, great sex, and a best friend who will fight obstacles with you. Sure, we fight (loud) which is why we had to build in the middle of 68 acres. But we are both stubborn and have to be right. When it comes to really important things, though, we band together to fight the world. The amazing thing is that we still love each other like we did in the beginning.
THE REST OF MY FAMILY
My parents, sisters, and brother are all doing well. The age-related health issues are a problem for my parents, but they keep going without complaint as usual.
My sister Lori, class of 1973, bought an 1800's farm with 69 acres just a few miles from my place. Farm life was so good that at age 45 she gave birth to a son, Arent Oak Moore. He goes through these stages, like last summer he wore big green rubber boots every day for some reason. He's funny and gets along great with his cousin Dabi, and with my nephew from Joe's side Kyle. What a crew.
My sister Heide, class of 1975, is a professor of European History...first at Colgate College, then at Emory, now at NIU with her husband, Philosophy Professor David J Buller. At the age of 40 Heide discovered she was pregnant and gave birth to a son, David Herbert Buller (a/k/a Dabi). He is 10 this year (2008) and plays his electric guitar every day. He gets interested in learning something new all the time and is a great kid.
My brother Herb, class of 1981, is the owner of Townsmen Properties, LLC., a well-respected property management company. He also owns multiple properties and is so busy I can't keep track of him. What a pisser he is, too. He just added a "country estate" to his list of properties, located a mere 30 minutes from his other homes.
My youngest sister Krista, class of 1985 or so, (since she left school and graduated before her class did) has been with a really great guy for a while now. John was her friend for many years and rescued her when her life blew up. He surprised her by admitting his true feelings and she discovered she felt the same for him. News break: John and Kris are married for a few years now.
School
School was nothing special to me. In the early years, when I actually learned to read, write, understand math, etc I was interested because I wanted these skills. In high school it became a total bore. The politics of being in the right "group" didn't interest me and I just wanted to get out and start life.
Later, when I became a member of MENSA, it started making sense. Boredom of school seemed to be a common theme with people who have high IQ's. Not that I am one of those major...Expand for more
genius types, no, I just made it in. It was a mistake to let anyone know you were mensa material, and if you could "dumb down" and blend in you might have a chance.
People assume you are stuck up, unsociable or whatever if you are on a different wavelength and prefer to have higher interests.
Frankly, I've slid down the IQ scale since getting fibromyalgia. "Fibro Fog" has fixed my problems, helping me to not remember a damned thing anymore.
College
I could never understand how people expected you to know what you want to be when you are so young. I wouldn't have jumped right into college after H.S. anyway.
My solution has been to become whatever is available at the time. For instance, in 1982 I went to school to be a paralegal. That training and the jobs that followed have helped me throughout my life.
In 1985 I went to school to learn Title underwriting and Advanced Title underwriting, then I passed the NJ state test to be a licensed Title Officer. I loved real estate, reading old deeds, plotting out metes&bounds descriptions and all that went with it. I was good at it too.
In NJ I had a Real Estate license, then I got one in PA too, but they just hung in the office and I never used them.
In PA I learned about all other types of insurance and got my PA state licenses for all insurance lines and securities.
About 1996 I learned and tested for all seven specialties to get the APICS CPIM (certified in production and inventory management) within one year. Grumman paid for it, so why not?
The next year I went to Penn State for a few semesters studying business law, management, computers and information management. Grumman paid for that also.
I have probably read more on my own and learned enough for a degree years ago, and that learning stays with you. I use it many times over the years, whether I am working or not.
Workplace
I've been working since anyone would give me a job.
When I was 12 I had a paper route. 125 newspapers. Delivered on my bike.
I also did babysitting for people, and my mother went back to work, so I became "the mom" at home. I took care of the two youngest and cooked dinner for the family every day.
Next was A&P cashier, part time, while I was still in school.
At 16 I took the bus to Willowbrook and worked one of the stores upstairs. After 6 months of that, I became the bookkeeper at Butler Auto and hitch-hiked to work.
Next I was offered two jobs at once - NJ Bell wanted to hire me as a pole man (I impressed them with my army test scores) and Wayne Savings wanted me to be a teller. Joe had an issue with the NJ Bell job, so I caved and took the teller job. Wayne Savings was a great place anyway.
Next we got married and I was a full-time Mom until we moved from Newfoundland back to Pompton Plains.
While Trevor was a baby/toddler, I worked nights in the Russ Berrie warehouse. When Trev was old enough I moved into accounting there. I also went to school at night and wrote for the newspaper.
As soon as I finished paralegal school, Sommer & Engelhart hired me.
When they opened a Title Ins. office, I went to school and became their licensed Title Officer. This was the real estate boom, so I had my sister Lori trained to be a title searcher and she continued at searching long after I was gone. I stayed in the title business moving upward to run Hamilton Title Agency in Clifton NJ and brought in my sister Krista, who then got her title producer license. I stayed until we moved to PA in 1989, when Krista took control of the agency until it closed in the '90's due to the real estate downturn.
My first PA job was with Prudential. I got my life, health, auto & home, and securities licenses and started selling within a month of moving here. That job became a life instead of work, so I had to leave.
I put my title experience to work with Tellie & Coleman, running their entire title operation. When they got slow, I worked for any insurance office that needed help.
Then came my break--in 1992 Grumman Aerospace called me to work for them. I passed all the government security tests, etc, and jumped in. I was there for 7 years and moved into at least 5 jobs during that time. Who knew it would be the last good place to work? The plant was closed in 1999.
I opened a dot-com after that and went down in flames just like all the others. I learned everything on my own - trial and error by reading experts on the net - about web site construction, setting up credit card merchant accounts, and moving your site up the search engines
In 2001 I started working at Cigna Healthcare, which was anyone's version of hell, and stayed until I fell in their parking lot after having neck surgery. I worked in pain until 2004 when I gave up.
It took 3 years to win the workers comp action, and another year to win the social security appeal. During those years I had no income of any kind. Now I spend my time trying to get healthy again to enjoy my life as it is. When the lupus and EBV or whatever is in remission I can do most things. When it flares up, I'm in bed for the duration.
FUTURE PLANS
Joe does a lot of traveling with his best friend Carl Loriz, mostly hunting and fishing trips to the Arctic Circle and other Canadian wilderness, Colorado, tuna trips in the Atlantic.
Joe and I go many places by ourselves too. During long drives we talk about how nice a helecopter or small plane would be. There are two small airports within a few miles of my house and they both have training, so I plan to learn to fly as soon as I possibly can.
THE UNENDING RENOVATIONS
Oh, yes, the house renovations continue on. We waste so much time keeping up with the business, attacking the required piles of paperwork, just keeping our lives moving ahead, and the house updates take the back seat. Sure, the wood floors are done, several rooms are painted and have new molding, stone countertops in the kitchen, some new lighting and doors etc.
The three bathrooms, the rooms that annoy me the most, just can't seem to get off the ground. I have the plans mapped out, know what I want, but never get someone in to do it. They are absolutely NEXT ON THE LIST. I will even post photos when they are done.
Ok, scratch that last promise. I need a new roof on before winter. Bathrooms are absolutely after that.
I GOTTA REAL 'TUDE NOW
Since I am middle-age I've noticed that I don't care at all what other people think of me. Not that I cared much anyway. But I am by far much worse now.
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