A New Year - A New Life

Well now that we're all but finished with the first quarter of the year, I suppose it's time to post some thing...anything.

The big news is as of December 31st I am officially retired from federal service. After almost 38 years, it was time to get out and see what retired life is like. I have had several friends that have recently retired and none of them has expressed regret in retiring when they did. So what have I've been doing these last few months? Actually not a whole lot of anything. Sleeping a lot (Yea! No more getting up at 3:30 to get ready for work). Walking the dogs a lot. Doing more of the cooking.

By Washington standards, we've had a very mild winter. We've had no real snow to speak of. We've already had temperatures in the 80s. Its been mild enough that one of my boat clubs has okayed going out in singles 2 weeks earlier then usual. Singles aren't usually allowed out until 1 April. I've taken advantaged of that opportunity and taken a single out twice so far and looking to do more as time goes by. What I've found out so far on my two outings is that no one is on the water during the week. I have the reservoir to myself. No settling for the sucky boats since others have already claimed the best and are out n the water. No fishermen who seemed to think you're either invisible or think it great sport to wake you. It was incredibly peaceful. I did the seven mile round trip row to Fountainhead Park and back. As I get back into some semblance of shape, I'll stretch those out to eight to eleven mile rows. The old dam beckoned me on Thursday, but I resisted rowing the extra mile that would entail for perhaps next week. I've even been out on the bike a few times. Extra rowing and biking were the two things I was most looking forward to doing a lot more of during my retirement and now that winter is over, it's time to step up and start doing it.