Another Retiree Joins the Ranks Of the Deliriously Happy

From all my happy talk about retirement you would think that I had a horrible job but that wasn’t actually the case. For the most part I enjoyed working and believed in what I was doing. Data Management / Database Design was one way that I described to people what I was doing. It’s close enough but not 100% accurate. Firstly, I was responsible technically for Rochade, a data dictionary/repository. And then I helped the developers to design their data structures in a way that minimized redundancy and maximised for flexibility and reportability. And then I nagged them to create documentation for these data structures so that they could be entered into Rochade. All pretty boring and incomprehensible for anyone not in the field for sure. At times I did feel that there was no real meaning in what I did, after all I wasn’t saving anyone’s life, but I was saving taxpayers dollars – I think/hope.

I had a wonderful time yesterday attending a friend/ex co-worker’s retirement lunch. It was fun to see my old co-workers although they might not have been as happy to see my grinning from ear to ear happy to be retired face!  Chris, Bernard, Jo Ellen and myself were coffee mates, sharing a roasted brew every morning at 8am for years and years. We first lost Bernard 3 years ago, then it was my turn almost 1 year ago (already!) and now with Chris gone it is just a lonely Jo Ellen. She’ll probably follow us pretty soon. 

church downtown near the old office

 

 

When we got home the dogs were wild with joy – they aren’t used to us being away anymore and I think they man (or should I say dog) the window to watch for our return. I wonder if they think we’ve gone away forever?

 

 

 

After some wild running around Spike crashed with his toys.

 

 

 

 

 

We had a night of minus 7C so we are really glad that we got the trailer winterized and emptied of freezable stuff. It is supposed to be warm in a few days so we’ll unload all our clothes and linens just in case there are mice (although there are several traps set up).

Last night we watched a really good program about George Harrison’s life. He was an interesting guy with talent in so many fields. One clip showed the Travelling Wilburys recording a song – I didn’t realize that Roy Orbison was part of the group, but it made me want to dig up a few of his songs.

Today we are running around cleaning up the house (a bit) and getting supper ready in the crockpot (Butternut Squash Risotto) cause we are having company over for supper :-) Jo Ellen and Don should be here around 4:30 so we’ll have lots of time for a good jaw before supper is ready. 

 

Let your life lightly dance on the edges of Time like dew on the tip of a leaf.
Rabindranath Tagore

A Full Larder

I  was standing at the kitchen counter today cleaning up roasted red peppers, it’s not my favourite job but I was filled by such as sense of peace and contentment. I didn’t feel rushed like I did when I was working, but could instead just enjoy the process. I’ve always had a sense of… humm I can’t think of the right word… but when I’m doing things like baking bread, preserving food and often when cooking as well - it feels good – maybe like pioneers must have felt when they had a full larder.

Retirement is good.

Pleasures? Eating some freshly cut sweet juicy pineapple ; watching the dogs run for their crates as suppertime – on your mark, get set, GO! ; screwing a few of the legs of the screen shelter to the deck – it was very satisfying feeling the screw grab into the wood ; smelling the red peppers roasting on the bbq ; still eating the occasional tomato salad – last night’s might have been the last though – and darn, I bought some basil and forgot to use it ;

The list didn’t do me too much good today – I got caught up in my scrapbook software… but that’s okay ;-)

It’s Jeff Goldblum’s birthday today – normally I wouldn’t mention a celebrity but there’s a story … At our morning coffee break (in the olden working days) we had a list of names that we would repeat, usually because all 4 of us had tried to remember their name but had to resort to goggle. I’m sure you’ve all been down this road - “remember that guy, you know, the one that was in that movie…”. So we had a list of half a dozen or more names: Francis Gary Powers, Marisa Tomei, Jeff Goldblum, and here’s how bad my memory is – I can’t remember the rest, or even if there were any more!

I, uh, don't think I'm, y'know, so different than your average, y'know, average.
Jeff Goldblum

Old Office Building

We headed into town this morning for a dentist appointment for me and a visit with his mom for Carm. My dentist is in my old office building so it was a bit like a step back in time – yuck – if I  never had to see the building again I’d be happy!

It is funny to visit it though as they are renovating the 3 commercial levels, which they have been doing for a few years... I don’t know what they are thinking, but it’s weird. The new entrance is just strange – a big glass atriumish area that abuts onto a big wall of nothing. You have to weave through these narrow hallways to get anywhere. I should have taken a few photos but I was dumbstruck!

The good thing though is I met Jo Ellen for lunch. As always it is great to catch up with her, and even hear a bit of gossip from the office. I do miss some of the people. But as we parted company I turned around to leave the building with a big smile on my face…

One lady from work stopped to say hi. We talked a bit about retirement and how great it is. She was saying that she doesn’t understand her mother-in-law still doing her grocery shopping on a Saturday. Jo Ellen mentioned that the parking lots are still full during the week to which I added – and they are all really slow moving retired people – no rush to get anywhere so they dawdle along. (no offence meant to anyone of course). I had to laugh later when we shopped at Costco. Sure enough, a fullish parking lot and lots of slow people in the store. We are still zoomers – especially Carm who gets frustrated and has to pass with his cart. Maybe we will slow down someday, but we aren’t there yet!

Here’s a few pleasures for the last few days:

Basking in the sun in October ; eating breakfast outside in October ; reading on the swing in October ; biting into a perfectly ripe banana, even better when paired with partially defrosted blueberries. It’s hard to beat a breakfast that good (okay, pancakes win for sure, but if you are trying to be good…) ;

watching Kabira go crazy and run and run and run ; watching Spike try his hardest to keep up to Kabira even though he has no chance at all but my oh my he tries his little heart out ;

 

while we are on the dog topic though – not so much pleasure was had bathing Spike who rolled in something smelly (something skunk) ; buying a learn to Sketch book – I can’t wait to start learning, it’s supposed to rain tomorrow so it might be a good time to start ; eating crispy turkey skin ; the smell of turkey cooking in the oven ;

hot bath ; getting caught up on all the blogs that I read – a week away from my computer is a long time! ; coming home after a long camp – I love to be away and can hardly wait for the next camp, but every time I step into our great room after a time away I am reminded how much I love our house ; seeing all the trees changing colour on our drive into town ; here’s one of Carm’s pleasures – cutting the grass for the last time in 2011 (although slightly bittersweet – it does mean winter is coming…) ;

I guess I could go on and on – LIFE IS GOOD! What are your pleasures? Do you enjoy every minute or do you live on autopilot (which I tend to do)?

Time We Have Rushed Through

One of the big things I’m learning in retirement is to slow down. For years I was so time challenged that everything was rushed through in the most efficient manner possible. No time was taken to enjoy the doing – the time just wasn’t there. Even things like doing crafts – the end result was the goal, not the doing of it. Working full time and having a room full of parrots and a barn full of horses just didn’t leave much time. Now though, I have none of those demands – no horses, no parrots except Grace, and no full time job. So now that I have all this time on my hands I am finally learning to enjoy the process – it doesn’t come naturally and I have to remind myself all the time but I’m getting there. It makes me sad to realize how much time was lost in the race…

I finally know what retired people mean when they say they don’t know how they worked full time – they’ve slowed down their efforts to a more human speed and can’t imagine speeding it up again.

I think I’ll make this my new anthem.

Slow down, you move too fast.
You got to make the morning last.
Just kicking down the cobble stones.
Looking for fun and feelin' groovy.
Hello lamppost,
What cha knowing?
I've come to watch your flowers growing.
Ain't cha got no rhymes for me?
Doot-in' doo-doo,
Feelin' groovy.
Got no deeds to do,
No promises to keep.
I'm dappled and drowsy and ready to sleep.
Let the morning time drop all its petals on me.
Life, I love you,
All is groovy

 

Today I spent more time in the camper rearranging the furniture. As anyone with a camper knows, there isn’t much you can do to change things around… however, since we have a week coming up where Grace’s big cage will be inside I wanted to make it seem more spacious – ha. I played around with different chairs, but since Spike’s bed fits under the chair I didn’t have any luck with smaller ones. So I ended up just removing the big black chair and sticking his bed behind the comfy chair. I guess it works – Spike was a good helper, checking out the fit of each new configuration (for treats of course).

The pictures in the first row are before, the second row after. Can you even tell the difference? There feel’s like there is a bit more room… Here’s Spike’s bed tucked behind the comfy chair.

“Half our life is spent trying to find something to do with the time we have rushed through life trying to save.”

Will Rogers

A-Tiskat A-Tasket a Blue & Yellow Basket

I woke up at 5am (the time we used to get up to go to work)… it was dark… I went back to sleep… retirement is good!

 

 

My myriad of pleasures today: dusting with homemade lemon dusters – they smell so good and do such a good job ; getting the house all spic & span (it was cleaning day today) ; watching Grace tear apart a whole red pepper – I picked up one at the market for .25 for her to have for fun, she may have ingested a bit, but mostly she just tore it apart – a parrot’s favourite activity, after eating that is ; waking up at 5am, savouring that I didn’t have to get up and go to work, then going back to sleep ; then… waking up on my own time – I don’t miss the alarm clock! ; listening to Grace chatter away – right now she’s saying “Oh Gracie bird, you are a very good girl – woof – oh my God – come on Bella – what a good girl – here – do you want some – woof – look out – hey girl – hey Kabira – okay Grace – what’s that Grace ”, and a bunch of other stuff that I can’t make out… I never tire of listening to her ; shopping at the local farmer’s stand – everything is fresh out of the field. Tonight for supper we will have pasta with tomatoes, red pepper, a hot pepper (this is an experiment), and of course some sautéed garlic. All except for the garlic is fresh from the farmer’s stand.

The quote below really speaks to me. I got it from BPHope, a magazine focusing on bi-polar disorder and how to live with it. I’ve been doing really, really well since retirement but l know there will still be times when darkness descends… and it is for these times that I pray hope doesn’t give up on me but does keep whispering in my ear.

When the world says, "Give up,"
Hope whispers, "Try it one more time."

-Author Unknown

Halfway through the 1st year

Yes, yesterday (Thursday) marked the 6 month point of retirement, that’s 1/2 a year done already, it seems impossible that that much time has gone by, but on the same token it seems like retired life is the norm. How has it gone? Great! There were some adjustments to make, and it did take a while to get the rush out (and I’m still working on that) but hurrah, it’s good. The other day in Costco we wondered why it was so busy, but then said oh yeah – it’s Friday… the girls standing behind us corrected us saying that it was Wednesday – we explained that we were retired and now everyday seems like Friday and so we never know what day it is :-)

I’m sitting at Riverside-Cedar, our closest favourite park, looking out the window at a Laker going by on the river (that’s a ship great lakes laker, not a basketball player laker!). We got here yesterday and set up without incident (checklists in hand help us to remember everything). Carm took off as soon as we were set up to play golf and I mostly just lazed about and read but did get out for a 50 minute brisk walk. Life is good. Today we walked and read, walked and read, oh yeah – and ate smoked salmon… Grace LOVES it and gobbles any bits that we give her. I don’t know how good it is for her (the salt), but the omega 3’s are probably as good for her as they are for us.

We thought that we would have done more camping now that we are retired but actually the reverse is true. The weather in April and the beginning of May kept us home, and then family responsibilities kept us home in June, so here we are – June 30th and only on our 3rd camp. If we were still at work I’d be totally depressed about missing out but now it doesn’t bother me much at all. But still, lets hope the rest of the summer camping pans out.

 

Happy Canada Day

Mediterranean vegetables with roasted-garlic couscous

I watched a National Geographic program last night called "Known Universe". It documented several different ways that the planet could come to its end. It seems that the most likely cause of demise is a super volcano that will poison the earth. I thought that the neutron star quake, sending its waves of gamma radiation bursts was a good one too. I'd rather not know about these dangers and go about my days thinking that the the biggest threat to my way of life lies in the ups and downs of the stock market.

Oblivious to the impending global disaster, she spent the morning putting the trinkets and tinsel of Christmas away, the last chords of Christmas music playing in the background.

Today's word of the day is netroots (NET-roots noun - the grassroots political activists who communicate via the Internet especially by blogs). I'm not particularly political, in fact you could say that I'm not at all, but Carm on the other hand is. I should get him looking for netroots in blog land as there might be topics that will engage his mind. I noticed him on WikiLeaks yesterday so perhaps he will find them without prompting by me.

My idle pleasure today was smelling the vegetables roasting for "Mediterranean vegetables with roasted-garlic couscous" from 125 Best  Entertaining Recipes  - new recipe #1 for the new year. It was delicious and could be made while camping as I think the vegetables could roast on the bbq.

There were a few times today when it really struck me that - yes - we are retired. A profound feeling of relaxation and calmness washed over me.

A Primer for Phase 2

White - nice clean, fresh white. That's what the livingroom and kitchen are now, primed and ready for phase 2. The transition colour between the pink that is and the green to come. Sort of like me - I'm in transition from the working life to the free life - I've mentally left the job, just waiting for the physical leaving! The change to our house has become a reflection of the new beginning in my own life. From pink to white. And then to green.

storm before the calm!

I've been thinking about starting the sewing. I'm not sure how I will match up the fabrics for the cushions yet but they do need to be mixed. Rectangles with 3 stripes of fabric, maybe some with 2 triangles.  Mom, Tammy, and Carole helped me pick out the first bunch of fabric. Then I remembered another one I had purchased few years ago - it was a perfect match and really blends them all. Then I found out I didn't have enough fabric to do the kitchen windows - back to the fabric store and found another perfect fabric. Its blue checks with a green/gold thread running through - I love it and it looks great with it all. I bought enough to do some chair cushions and use it in bits and pieces. Then I dragged out an old slipcover that I hoped to use on the loveseat. Wouldn't you know it, another perfect match! It seems the universe wants us to be green ;-)

Its been good having the house decoration as a distraction from the sadness of RV season over (oh how I miss heading out for a few days) as well as the excitement of upcoming retirement. There's only 27 working days left! I can hardly bear to think about it - it seems so long (as in how will I drag myself through another stupid day) but is so SOON! Its really best not to think about it.

We've already put our names in for a spot at the Titanium Rally at the end of May and are thinking about the one in Sault St. Marie in August, September I'd like to camp at Rouge River campground in Toronto so we can take in the zoo. Sometime in there we have to fit a few weeks at Presquille (aka heaven) and of course there's Jennifer's wedding. Carms got plans for us to rebuild the back deck, and there's some landscaping to do. Its already shaping up to be a "busy" (ha!) summer.  Next year I'd really like to plan a trip in the RV out to BC with a couple of weeks spent camping in southern Alberta or Saskatchewan.

What I'm cooking:

I plan on going through my recipe books this winter and compiling a bunch of recipes to use camping. I'll try them out and see if they are good and if so, enter them into my BigOven software (purchased from the internet). Then I'll have a good "recipe book" to take along on camping trips. I also plan to cook at least one other new recipe every week or better still more often. I'll aim for mostly low fat, vegetable rich recipes that will help us to shed our extra pounds.

I saw a recipe on the food channel that sounded interesting "Anna Olson's Flatbread with fresh coriander". It was okay (Carm liked it) but somewhat heavy, turns out my baking powder was no good so I'll have to try the recipe again - it should be better. And I'll try it with Anise seed for a different flavour. I think garlic and calamata olives would be good too. This is a recipe that I can do while camping as the bread can be cooked over the grill.

What I'm reading:

 "The Perfection of the Morning" by Sharon Butala.

I read it in 1995 and really enjoyed it then. I'm enjoying it this time as well but there are parts that don't sit as comfortably - that seem strange and somewhat alien. She talks a lot about being a woman which is something I've never really thought about. Is my essense so much different from a man's? I don't have a lot of close woman friends so perhaps I'd experience this more if I were around woman more?  I'll have to give this some thought. I do love how she talks about the prairie and live in Nature. I too feel a connection to Nature when I'm in the prairie. I live in Eastern Ontario and rarely get out to southern Alberta or Saskatchewan. I miss it sometimes like I'm missing a piece of myself. When I leave from there its like a part of me is being ripped out. I feel such a connection to the land there. I get glimmers of it here but never the same gut wrenching, soul encompassing connection.

Beautiful sunset and rainbow - a perfect Idle Pleasure!