Retirement

Almost a week ago a bunch of folks gathered at work to celebrate my celebration of retirement. Thirty years at the university and I had a ton of folks as friends, colleagues, unindicted co-conspirators and cronies to show for it.
     In truth it was a very sweet moment. Unlike my departure from the US Navy nearly 38 years ago, this time I knew that my departure was not going to be like current through a diode: once you leave you can't come back, at least not with the access and depth to which one might have become accustomed. The ol' university is built on glacial till and moraines. It's a large number of very impressive buildings, most of which are structurally sound enough to not be going off on their own like the moon will some day.
     In other words, I will be back.
     I have many friends at work, folks whom I've known for many of the past thirty years, and I have no intention of disappearing from their lives any more than I want to be left alone. Their place in my own mental and cognitive life is deep enough that not going back would be like turning off my frontal lobe 'cause I graduated from high school.
     A few of the folks with whom I've worked over the years have knowledge and judgment that I need from time to time. If they feel the same way about me, that's cool. But the simple fact is that all of them – co-conspirators or just plain friends – are part of how my brain appears to be working & I'd just as soon keep that part of me going until I run out of heart beats.
     In other words, I'll be back.
     Tough love.
     So, after the shindig in the computer department's neato lovely atrium/meeting room, I picked up a pile of stuff and shuffled out the door. The next Tuesday I drove over to see if I'd left anything that I really might in the future need. Of course, this came after I'd gone off on one of my perigrinations to find stuff I thought would be interesting in retirement.
     Then Wednesday I drove over to drop a frozen chicken on Dale's desk. With a thunk.
     Today I am going to head out to buy some lumber for a project needed in the office as part of the nominal process of de-cluttering and de-hoarding. I say "nominal" because it's not really something that looks all that important but I figure if it has a name (as in "nominal" meaning "having a name"), then I can explain it better.
     Yeah, right.
     So a week of retirement and I'm still finding stuff needs done. It would be nicer if it were warmer and I could do all the stuff that is far from nominally needing done, if not more like desperately needing done.
     Like the attic, which looks like an episode of Hoarders.
     And the outside radio shack/ET work shop, which looks like an episode of Hoarders.
     And the office/radio shack which looks like an episode of Hoarders.
     And the garage, which really looks like an episode of Hoarders, not that it's any less needing cleaned than the attic.
     And then there's stuff I want to do in the yard, which will obviously need much warmer weather before I'll even think of turning to on that'n.
     At which point I run out of really important stuff and can get down to the penny-ante stuff like building a shelf/rack unit for over the window in the office, which is a whole 'nother blog entry.
     In all, this is looking to be a nice set-up, one that I'm glad I did, even if it looked a little (or even felt a little) like I was being shot out the port tube. I have time to indulge myself a bit here and there in ways that I hope will not look like a frivolous waste of money and I have time to work in a more leisurely fashion.
     So there. And now if you'll excuse me, I have a nap to take.