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Thoughts on Retiring

Early this morning while lying awake in bed, I did some mental math and realized I will be retiring from my career in IT almost exactly 30 years from the day I started my first job out of college.  It is a bittersweet experience.  While I’m excited about the next chapter in my life and our big adventure moving to Idaho, I’m also sad to bring my IT career to a close and leave my work family.  I have spent 40+ hours per week for the last 30 years solving problems, writing code, implementing systems, learning new technologies, meeting with customers, counseling staff, reading email, and attending way too many meetings. To help me through this change, I started thinking about all the things I won’t miss, like those meetings.  People compliment me on my copious note-taking in meetings.  Here’s the truth, I started taking notes in boring meetings to keep from falling asleep and then it just became a habit.  I started with legal pads and saved the loose l...
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Day 14 – The End is Near (a.k.a. Friday the 13th)

We woke up in Oregon, but we are going to sleep in California. Emigrant Lake Campground The change from Oregon to California seemed drastic on I-5.  The pine trees turned to oak trees and scrubby bushes, the ground from green to brown, the sky from gray to blue, the temperature from cold and damp to warm and sunny, and the condition of the pavement from smooth to potholes.  An hour into California we got great views of Mt. Shasta. We decided to stay over in Red Bluff instead of driving all the way to Sacramento.  We’re staying right off the highway in the Durango RV Resort.  It is quite impressive with full amenities: community room, pool and hot tub, bocce ball, tetherball, horseshoes, laundry, curb side garbage pickup, and full hookups.  I think the 3 RVs to our right are having a family reunion.  It looks like they brought 20 extra folding chairs. Steve is ready to hit the road and go home  Since the weather was warm, we ...
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Day 6 - Oh, the Beaches...

Since we are staying two days at South Beach, we started the day with a long walk.  The trails around the park are very well groomed.  We walked along the interpretive trail learning about the local plants and trees then along the jetty leading into Newport.  We headed back along the grassy dunes to the beach.  The beaches in Oregon are so nice (also known as beautiful) with fine, brown sand.  There was very little wind today and the sun was shining. We went into Newport for lunch and a bit of beer tasting at Rouge Brewery.  Shawn had the Kobe beef burger with blue cheese and I tempted fate and had the smoked cheddar mac & cheese.  While it was not as good as the world’s best Face Rock Creamery mac & cheese, it was darn tasty and went well with the beer samples.  Our favorite was the 10 Hop IPA.  We even bought a 32 ounce “Crowler” (freshly canned to order) to bring back to camp. On the way back to camp, Shawn sp...
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