It’s getting lonely out here, no comments but for the spambots. Don’t be afraid to leave a comment… please.
Change in the weather
After an incredible run of spectacular late summer and fall weather, my first day of retirement is remarkably dreary. It’s 5 pm and it looks like 10. I hope this isn’t an omen.
So how’s retirement so far? Well it’s wet. It’s been raining almost all day. I did demonstrate to Becky that there were benefits to having a retired spouse. I drove her the one block to the bus stop so she could stay dry while she waited for her bus. I think I might be winning her over to the idea, and I haven’t even done any laundry or cooked any fabulous meals yet. The meals thing is going to have to wait because she’s in the middle of a three day run of going out with her various women friends. To this I usually say, “I wish I had friends,” but that doesn’t work because I had lunch with my buds Steve and Lon today and tonight I’m meeting Mike for dinner and tomorrow, lunch with a musical buddy and former coworker who’s also gone off to entreprenuerate*. Ah the social round.
I did achieve one of my goals today. I got to be one of those guys that sits in coffee shops and surfs the net. Although that almost didn’t happen. The wi-fi was down at the coffee place and I couldn’t get on. I didn’t say anything because I thought I was just being the clueless old guy. Turns out the other three people were similarly unwilling to expose their ignorance.
But the real story of this trip to the coffee shop started yesterday morning as I headed into work. I stopped by for my daily dose of dark roast and ran into the woman who I assumed, correctly, was the manager. “You won’t be seeing much of me anymore, this is my last day at work.” She looked concerned before I reassured her I was retiring. Continue reading Change in the weather
Holy Shit….
Now what!
My daughter is in a mixed relationship.
I understand your flustration, Sir.
The weather has gone from gorgeous to dark, windy, cold and foreboding. I was having a petty manic day, couldn’t stop smiling over the fact that I’m taking the career leap and won’t have to show up at cubeville after Wednesday. I attributed my high energy level to that but maybe it was just a sugar rush. I came home, the house was cold, I was feeling sneezy and suddenly bone tired, the hypochondriac in me concluded I was coming down with sHw1iNn1e flu. I decided that the thing to do would be contemplate the insides of my eyelids for awhile. The couch beckoned. I was just drifting off when Rebecca came downstairs with her laptop and some questions.
So you might understand why I was feeling a twinge of crabbiness. First question was an easy one, can we survive on the Blockbuster 2 movie plan as opposed to our current 3 movie plan. No brainer! After all we have to cut back now that I’m retired unemployed between jobs exploring entrepreneurial opportunities. The next one is the kind of question I hate the most. “What’s this $12.83 charge on the credit card for “Credit Defense?”
I knew exactly what it was. Wells Fargo calls me about once a week to try to sell me dumb ass enhancements to my accounts and this is one of the faves. I NEVER sign up for it. But apparently some asshole decided to make their quota by signing me up anyway. Now I my ass was really chapped.
Continue reading I understand your flustration, Sir.
Exploring other opportunities
It’s been awhile since I’ve floated in the blogosphere. I used to be on Xanga, Bkeller49, but I’ve opted to come over to WordPress for the flexibility, and I suppose the bigger audience. I’ve had a site at this address for years, I had big plans for a money making concern based on writing about my myriad hobbies and selling stuff along with it. It was WAY too ambitious and scattered. So I’m resurrecting this site with a couple of intentions.
I want to chronicle the big life change I’m making. Wednesday is my last day working for Dex. I’ve spent the last 18 years working in the Yellow Page industry. The last 14 or so were as a supervisor, which should earn me some kind of “square peg in a round hole” award. More about that later. My sweet wife, Rebecca, won’t let me use the “r” word, and I’m certainly not ready to retire, financially or emotionally. I’m going back to trying to earn a living with my wits and my creative skills. One of the things that I’m going to try to do is web design. So another reason I’ve rekindled this site is to learn WordPess. And finally there’s the faint hope of making a few bucks off my efforts here. After all if Dooce can get rich talking about her constipation, I should be able to make a few bucks with my opposing digestive complaints.
Why “Horizontal Ambition?” Check out the Manifesto.
So wish me luck in my not-retirement as I explore other opportunities! Oh, and those banner images? Not much related to anything, they’re just holding a place until I come up with an appropriately cool and hip graphic.
I just published a new portfolio website: robertckeller.com
My wife is in Mexico, but I’m not lonely.
I have a very talkative cat and the ghost of some rock station
that’s haunting my computer speakers.
April Fool
I thought it was supposed to be spring. Instead nature played a joke to the tune of 9.5 inches of snow overnight. Blah.
March Madness
Snow that is. March gives us hope and then smacks us down. Shows us who’s boss. March also brings the high school tournaments, which have become synonymous with “blizzard,” as in “State Tournament Blizzard. Last night a pal of mine and I went down to the Target Center to watch a class 3A boys quarterfinal. Patrick Henry an inner city school with a big basketball tradition versus St. Michael-Albertville near in rural town that’s one of the fastest growing in the state. Pretty much all white against all black. The head coach of the Patrick Henry (what else) Patriots, was Jerry Williams Jr. known far and wide as Buggy. I guess he doesn’t go by Buggy anymore, but that’s what everyone called him when he was about 10 years old and shooting hoops in my driveway when I lived in the city. That makes me feel kind of old. It was a great game to watch, both teams were very good and the score was up and down. SMA got up by twelve early on, Henry fought back, closing in at halftime, took the lead early in the second and then went down by 5 with about six minutes left. But I think SMA was exhausted from playing as hard as they did all game, faded at the end and the Pats won by 12, dominating the last 5 minutes of the game.
And the snowstorm predicted for last night and today never happened!