Change is the Currency of Life

It occurred to me today, that I haven't written much about the changes about to take place in life for me. As of today, I have 10 days remaining before I will be officially retired - for the second time for the school district where I've worked for nearly 23 years. Before I came here, I had worked in two other districts for five years each.

About this time a year ago is when I retired for the first time. Even though I had retired, I remained "on the job" for an additional year as a transition year. But now, that year is drawing to an end and so will my world of formal work. It isn't that I don't like my job or am unable to do it, but its time to move on.

Nearly three years ago I had a fairly significant heart attack and at that time, I realized that there were lots of things I wanted to do before it was time. I thought I'd better decide about the future then and put together a plan that has gotten me to the next ten days.

One of the things I've missed for the last five years or so, is traveling - especially to the tropics for bird watching. So that is the first thing that my plan called for. My last official day of work will be June 29 and on the 30th, I'm headed to Peru, a place I visited back in the late 90s.

My plan also provided for the cabin that I've written about extensively over the last few months. The plan didn't have this place in mind, but I knew that once I saw this place, that it was exactly what I had in mind.

I have a few things to get in order before work is over, and I will be working to get those things done over the next few weeks. The District would like me to continue on for a few more weeks and I may do so very part time. However, most of what I have planned for when I return is to throw myself into finishing the cabin so I have "my place" to live in retirement.

New Plant at Cabin

My work at the cabin has been slow as the plumber has been hard at work getting his work completed. I did notice on my last trip, that I have a few new and interesting plants growing close to the cabin. Here is a favorite - a Pink Lady Slipper Orchid.

My plans are to spend some more time looking around through the trees and see if there are other pleasant surprises tucked in here and there.

On the construction end, I hope the plumbing is done this week so that I can get the go ahead and start getting insulation up and the wall work moving. Basically, I'm down to insulation, drywall, ceilings, flooring, and the final wood work trimming.

Now that it is June, I have some 12 days to work this month. The first two weeks of July, I'll be traveling out of the country (A trip along the Amazon in Peru) and then just a couple days of finishing up employment. With luck, I'll be fully retired by Fall!