week two of this retirement thing.

Well I made it through my first week of retirement.  So far so good.  On the bad side, my plan for getting up and going for early morning walks got a little thwarted first of all that it is bloody cold outside in February, dark too.  Also, I got busy.  On the good side, I have been pretty relaxed.  I have been enjoying my time with Marla.

Today was nice, I went out for lunch with Anne and Kathy.  It was great to share some time with old workmates and friends.  I think seafood chowder or clam chowder is becoming my favourite soup.  I tried making fresh tomato soup, which was really good, but only made 1.5 cups of soup.  I have to try thiagain.

I worked on a couple of Royals Hockey games.  Good games and good times.  my downfall is the buffet of cookies they leave out.  I have got it down to a limit of four per night.  One before the game and one ofter each mid-period commercial break. 

Tomorrow I am working on the Tenors and then I have a week or so off.  Most of it I should be using for my studying.  I have been working of making my memory right.  So I am trying to learn some Shakespeare speeches.  I am starting with All The World's A Stage - Jacques' speech from As You Like It.  It took three days but I think I have it -
All the world's a stage,
and all the men and women merely players.
Their acts being seven ages.
They have their exits and their entrances
Each man in his time plays many parts.
First the infant, mewling and puking in the nurses arms.
And Then the whinning school boy with satchel and shinning morning face
creeping unwillingly to school.  Then the lover, sighing like a furnace,
with a woeful ballad made to his mistresses eyebrow.

Then a soldier, full of strange oaths and bearded like the pard. 
Jealous in honour, sudden and quick in quarrel
seeking the bubble reputation, even in the cannon's mouth.

Then the justice, with fair round belly and good capon lined
eyes severe, with beard of formal cut,
Full of wise saws and modern instances, and so he plays his part.

he sixth age shifts to the lean and slipp'red pantaloon. 
With spectacles on nose and pouch on side,
his hose, well saved, a world to wide for his shrunk shrank,
His big manly voice turning again to childish trebles, pipes and whistles
in his sound. 

The last scene of all to end this eventful history is that of second
childishness and mere oblivion.
Sans teeth, Sans eyes, sans taste, sans everything.

Retiring - ready, set, what - go

An now I am retired.  I think if you ever want a self validating experience resign after working at the same place for 33 years.  I felt absolutely gluttenous from the week long of splurge of saying good bye, hugs, and wishing good thoughts.  There was a departmental party where there must have been about 80 people dropping in to wish me well.  I felt so focused.

It was a wonderful send off.  The week wasn't all that much fun from the transition point of view.  The guys were a bit unhappy about how my leaving will affect them and I had a lot of catching up to do despite my planning.  But it is all done.  I am sure the department will carry on well without me. 

So now I have started my retirement phase.  I wonder what it will bring.  My standard answer is that I will: 1) return to school to complete my degree in history 2) continue with theater and stage work 3) travel and 4) write.

I have secret desires too.  I think I would like to act - maybe I will audition for a show to see what happens.  The other thing I want to do is exercise more.  so precious the pooch is in for a lot of walking.

I will tell you more as it happens.

two weeks to retirement

Wow, the time is coming close.  In two weeks I will retire.  I feel like I am closing a chapter on Camosun College but after being there for nearly 34 years it truly is a part of me.  I am very thankful for my time there; it has provided me with a future.

But as I write this I am more focused on just being sore all over.  Yesterday Megan worked our buns off in the My Large Friends workout.  I really pushed it even to the point of running in  my cardio set at the fastest I have gone for five minutes and at one point I went for 30 seconds at level 6.0  I was exhausted and got my heart rate up to 155 pbm.

Today, Friday Jan 17, Marla and I went out for Lunch at the Japanese Village.  We tried going to Sauce first but it was closed.  Looks like their renovating (again)  that makes me a little worried. 

I had a very nice but sore walk this morning with precious.  this time instead of walking towards cattle point we walked along the lower breakwater.  Precious didn't like the idea of jumping on the concrete blocks but we had a good time scrambling about on the stone.

Precious will feel better when we walk tomorrow and go on our usual route.

Back for more - this time a class about English Royalty

So I didn't sleep well last night at all.  I wore my fitbit and it reported what I really did which was tossed and turned.  Today I had a very very stiff neck.  Maybe it was I really didn't want to go into work.  I know, I know, I am on the home stretch of my time at the college.  But I did have stuff I need to do.

I was having a bit of difficulty with my exercise for today. Today was the first day in five that I did not get out for a long walk. today was the day that I had to be at work at 7:30am; worked through lunch; rushed home to get organized and go to my evening history class. But I did do my walking tricks. I parked as far away from the office as possible so when I walked into the college it had a misty fringe to it as the rain tried to convince itself to drop from the sky. Then whenever I went out on a trouble call I made it a point to take the stairs up to the top floor of whichever building I went into once the job was done. Finally I walked quite a distance from the parking lot at UVic to my class in the clerehue building by the library. Walking through the University at night makes me feel very vulnerable. I was glad I had my big bright yellow jacket and it was useful as the cars actually did stop for me - glad to know the reflectors work.

 My class sounds really cool but I always enjoy the first class of the semester. Lets see how this goes, I have lots of reading to do.

January 5, 2013

Saturday

I got up and was all set to go walking with Christopher at 7:30am but it was piddling down rain.  I unlocked the door and let Precious out for a pee in the downpour.  No Way.  She wasn’t moving.  So I convinced her to at least go out – part of my accident prevention policy – and then called Christopher to cancel our morning exercise.  I had planned on going to the WLS meeting this morning but about the time I got ready to go it cleared up and I felt that both Precious the Pooch and I needed the walk.

We took off and walked what I am going to call the great circle.  It goes from our house to Uptown all the way up to Admiral’s Road then all the way to the Gorge and down to Tillicum then home.  All in all it is about 10 Kms.  Precious apparently liked the walk even though she was on the leash for the whole time.

In the afternoon Marla and I went to Costco to return some stuff.  Even when we return stuff there it costs us money.  But we got some good stuff.  I was putting some laundry away and I found my replacement or placeholder ring.  After it fell off my finger I couldn’t find it.  But it must have got caught in the sheets when I put them in the laundry.  It went through the wash and dryer only to fall out as we folded up the sheets.  After a nice afternoon at home I headed off to work at the arena.  It was a really good hockey game where the Royals won 5-2. 

January 6, 2013

Sunday

I was up early to undeck the halls.  It was time to put away all the Christmas stuff.  So I went the extra step and packed up everything neat, clean and tidy.  I got rid of a lot of junk and trash and even created an empty box.  Once done that Precious and I went out for a walk.  We repeated most of our path from the day before.  I extended my walk to the overpass past Admiral's Road, and all the way down to the Craigflower School.  It was a very good walk.

Marla and I spent a quiet afternoon at home which I quite liked.  We did slip out to some shopping at XCESS Cargo and Canadian Tire but mostly it was just nice to be home.  This marks the last of my 16 days off work for the Christmas holiday.  It was a joyous time and I am looking forward to the changes on the horizon.

Last week posts

Catching up on my Journal

Thursday January 4

I started the day off driving Marla down to her volunteering at Beacon Hill Villa. Marla wasn't feeling all that well but she was ready to give it a try. I took the opportunity to take Precious for another walk along the ocean. We just got started when Marla called. It turns out that the people she would be working with were also not feeling so well. So she was going to take the day off. I forgoed my walk with Precious and picked up Marla.

We had a great morning restricting ourselves to knocking off some chores. We started off by going out to Costco. I had to get the tire bolts re-tightened on the truck. It is a free service with quite a cost to it. Since we had to pick up some stuff (Marla's eye drops) we took the repair time to do some shopping. The first thing we found, well I found, was a WD TV Live box. It is a little box that allows users to access the internet without a computer and also play AVI, MP4, and other files. I was looking to buy one of these anyways to fix my issues with the DVD playback and this was only just a little more expensive so I gave it a try.

I was also doing some more shopping, apparently just for me, I got a new shirt (Maroon size L), some new waterproof gloves, and other treats. We found a spank type of outfit for Marla. She picked larger than she really is so we will have to take her stuff back. In the end our free tire repair cost $300 but we got some good stuff along the way.

Our next stop was down to Dr. Poon's to get Marla's eyes checked. I took the opportunity to go take a walk while Marla was getting checked out. When we finished up we were going to go to Smokin' Bones for lunch but I checked their menu while I walked and it kind of sucked. So instead we went over to John's Place – a choice that Marla much preferred anyways.

Lunch at John's is one of our favourite things. I don't think we could be called regulars but we are there often enough that some of the staff know us. Rodney and Deb provide great service in a delightful atmosphere. Marla had her usual Belgian Waffle with cream cheese, whipped cream and strawberries. I went for the meatloaf. It usually comes with awesome garlic mashed potatoes but taters are off my diet. So I checked with Deb and she said she could do a substitution for me. I chose to have more mushrooms and it was a good decision. They were great. I have some eating issues where I am unable to eat very much. I end up doing things like ordering a senior's smaller dinner and bringing half of it home with me. It will be a good supper at one of the hockey games this weekend.

When we got home I was gathering up stuff to take into the house and I looked down into the seat well beside the drivers seat. Low and behold, there it was, my fitbit. I had lost it months ago and felt really bad for missing it. I thought it was in the house somewhere but all the time it was here in the car.

Before we settled into the evening I headed out to the treadmill and walked on it for about an hour. It felt pretty good but I don't feel like I am ready to push off on my leg into a run. I run now and then on the treadmill's at the gym. But it is a little tougher to get going in the garage.

We decided to have a nice quiet evening so we stayed home and caught up on some tv. We enjoyed the night.

Friday January 4, 2013

We put new fuzzy sheets on the bed and I really really like them. So after a very comfortable night I was up and ready to go. I started my day with programming the logictec harmony remotes for the DVD and the WD TV Live player.

I spent a bunch of the morning trying to figure out, of all things, how to dry a rug. I finally got it dry enough that I could run it through the dryer. I also took the morning to go on a long walk with Precious. We walked from home to the Gorge, then down by the soccer field and then finally over to Wal-Mart. Precious did really good going through tunnels and over bridges. It was a good hour and a half walk.

When we got home I still had bunches of energy so I put it to use taking down the Christmas lights on the house. Sunday all the inside decorations will come down.

After all that, I had to go see Dr. Amson this afternoon for my 14 month check up. I think I have gained a couple of pounds but I feel great. I think I am coming to terms with my new size. I enjoy who I am, how I look and how I feel. I can move, walk, run (a little) and work. My check up was okay and I am doing as I should. It is like a regular visit to the dr's office for the average 50+ man – exercise more, eat less, keep on track. So all is good.

I was off to work at the Arena for the Royals game against the Tri-Cities Americans. It was an excellent game until the Royals lost in overtime. A shot slipped by four players to get by the goalie in the last .3 seconds. ACCCKKKK!!!!

Happy New Years

My head hurts.  We were up until two in the morning drinking champagne and watching James Bond movies until two in the morning.  A little wine goes a long way with me and I started the new year off with a very good sleep. 

I was up early enough to go for a walk but frankly I felt so yucky that I opted to stay in and watch the Rose Bowl parade.  We also have a backlog of stuff to clean up and seeing as I am off work for the next few days I thought this would be a good opportunity to get some of the chores done that I have been procrastinating.  Tomorrow, must walk.

I had a good day with Marla who also was not feeling so well today.  We had a delightful time catching some shows and cleaning up.  I am far from a whirlwind when I clean up but I did get some stuff done and that was an achievement.

In the evening we watched a really interesting shows about Jews in musical theater.   It was very interesting.  It also makes me wonder.

2013 has begun.