Our version of retirement: Living a childhood dream

Stepped out to mark my territory in the wee wee hours of the morn
Around 12:30ish

The moon had waned to a sliver

Yet the sky was full

I’ve noticed the stars before, but those heavenly orbs shown so bright
Enhancing the snow covered forest floor

I didn’t need artificial light to stroll the woods

A full moon can light up a night, but the stars……not the dazzling rays of the moon, but a solid luster commanding my attention, giving slight but sure definition to a woodland path.
The soft subtlety of their glimmer upon the snowy path rivals even the bold rage of a sunrise

Some bright

Some even brighter

Some...appearing farther away, faint

The depth, penetrating the heavens, reaching past vision and on into imagination

A photo cannot convey the stunning show

So my limited words must suffice
 

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Snowed just enough night before last to see it had snowed
Yesterday I went about my morning chores of bringing in wood and drawing water
Drawing water involves a 100 yd mosey
Thought that light snow would negate the half foot thick sheet of ice on the path
…..thought it would

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Feet went out from under me half way to the well
Rather quick
No time to even have childhood thoughts
Zip
Plop
Interesting view of the property at that lower elevation
Landed on my wrist and hip
Guess my bones have a while to be considered brittle
Just sore

I have these Yaktrax things that slip on rather nicely

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I just didn’t slip ‘em on

Snowed a bit more last night
Nice try Mother Nature
Not gonna fool me twice

I also have ice skates
 

Oh, and I’ve greatly improved my live edge picture frames

Quit using glass

Just going with glossy photo paper

Frees up latitude when securing the backing to the frames

No longer worry about running a wood screw into the glass

And (big item) I can now use really really curvy wood,
since I’m no longer married to the glass size

This…is gonna be good

Here’s a curvy one, but not as curvy as they’re gonna get


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I’m gonna get wild with it

Maybe call my framed pics venture Wildwood

That little store downtown, where I’ve sold summa my creations is gonna love me

It’s a hope

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the fire burns brightly on this'n
 
Gary O' said:
Snowed just enough night before last to see it had snowed
Yesterday I went about my morning chores of bringing in wood and drawing water
Drawing water involves a 100 yd mosey
Thought that light snow would negate the half foot thick sheet of ice on the path
…..thought it would


Feet went out from under me half way to the well
Rather quick
No time to even have childhood thoughts
Zip
Plop
Interesting view of the property at that lower elevation
Landed on my wrist and hip
Guess my bones have a while to be considered brittle
Just sore

I have these Yaktrax things that slip on rather nicely

5FUCaTC.png


I just didn’t slip ‘em on

Snowed a bit more last night
Nice try Mother Nature
Not gonna fool me twice

I also have ice skates
Click to expand...

The Yaktrax are awesome! Wife and I both have a pair we use when walking the dogs on the path in the woods when it gets icy.
 
The thing about snow
Yeah, it’s pretty
And soft
And fluffy

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But, the evolutionary transition can be fleeting

…and inevitable

Sooner or later it becomes….unbecoming
Been dealing with half melted glop swimming on top of half melted ice


And water

Cold water if yer wearing the wrong foot gear
Like slippers, going to the privy

off the porch;

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I cannot wait to do the daily chores
 
Don't forget to remove your yak-trax when entering a building with smooth floors!

I once entered my office building with them on and sailed right into the security desk. Gave a new meaning to "security", otherwise I would have been a broken heap on the floor.
 
RadishRose said:
Don't forget to remove your yak-trax when entering a building with smooth floors!

I once entered my office building with them on and sailed right into the security desk. Gave a new meaning to "security", otherwise I would have been a broken heap on the floor.
Click to expand...

yer a little late with that
a small cabin is good
lotsa things to grab onto
 
The birds

We get ‘em

Can’t predict what we get
Thought I could

First two winters we got nutcrackers
Lots and lots of nutcrackers
Somewhat bullies
They took over the feeding stations
Wouldn’t let my chickadees and nuthatches near the suet block
Then they left
Haven’t seen ‘em since

Spring, summer we get the robins
They stay, waiting for the wild currants to ripen
Then, they’re gone

The Steller’s Jays come around all year…when they feel like it
Caught ‘em trying to fool me with their hawk calls

The crows fly by, sometimes in huge flocks
The slow steady whooshing flap of their wings cause one to look up

Hawks
Mainly Cooper’s hawks
And the red tails

The year a great bald eagle stayed for the season was pretty freaking spectacular
I hated to invade that south side area at the edge of our place

Got some nice pics though

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We also have three or four woodpeckers at present
Been here a few weeks now


But the last few days?

Juncos

Dozens of ‘em

Looks to be a couple hundred at times

Rather tiny
Smaller than even my chickadees and nuthatches

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I’d like to capture them on the wing, as they tend to take flight when I step out the cabin door
Makes for quite a mass flutter
But, I’m too slow with the Nikon
Yielding pics of…..nothing

They swooped in around a week ago

Seem to be wintering here

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Of course one must play....

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Not a bad day

Highs low 30s

Worked in the shop most the day, while listening to Portishead

Sun made itself known

Nice to see it

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Our little mountain remains packed (good for this next summer)

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Well sated moon tonight

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Goes well with the singing 'yotes

Heard one long low howl...not a coyote


Good to see something besides clouds day and night

Gonna dip to the single digits this even

The Glenmorangie did not stay long in the glass

My lazy boy is full tilt (yer an inspiration, Pappy)


Keeping a fire

....with the door open

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I retired April 2015

Almost forgot what it was like back then

Spent a lot of time in the conference room
A…..lot….of…..time
My time
My life

Planning meetings
Yawn inducing planning meetings

End of quarter meetings
Pouring over numbers, printouts….titillating

Calling people on the carpet
Rather intense

Interviewing job applicants
Fun
I learned a lot about folks

Interviewees were always nervous
Even the most seasoned, the most polished

So, I learned to lighten their load

Humor

Even talking about myself, as it seemed to ease up their self focus, get ‘em out from under the microscope

It helped me to actually get something from them, about…themselves


The rest of my day was on the phone or emailing, talking to the world
Squeezing in 9 holes of golf almost every day with the CEO

Those last 30 years sorta slipped by

No regrets

But life has changed so, since retiring

Took off the wrist watch (my main tool back then) and haven’t put one on since

My schedule was hourly, sometimes by the minute, as there was only one conference room

Now? My schedule is seasonal
Hours? No matter
Days? Not so much
Months? I s’pose

Seasons…..yeah….when to get things done. When I better already have things done
It’s taught me a lot…about me

A…..lot

Seeing these conference room pics from greying beard to my last day….retirement, with a white beard, tells me a lot


I could well have been sleeping;

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Funny
They gave me a clock

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Congratulations, on your retirement anniversary, Gary...... the end of this month will mark 12 years for me. I still wear a watch....finally learned to take it off when mowing the yard! This is a string-cheese poem I wrote:

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THE TURNING OF A PAGE

What in the world is age? It’s like the turning of a page.
Day after day, years send age our way. Our yearly odometer numbers cannot lie.
In the words of a Godless sage, life without God is all the rage.
What is life? According to the bard, a stage. Sometime Just around the bend, life will end.
Life without God is only a cage, but beyond the gates, Life awaits!


What in the world is time? It’s like the rolling of a wave.
Wave after wave, time comes our way causing the commotion of aging.
Time washes over us, leaving erosion and jetsam of emotion.
The time will come, when time will go away. It will eternally be no more, and forgotten.
Standing still with God, timeless, on a wave-less shore, with fruits that never rotten.
 
Meanderer said:
Congratulations, on your retirement anniversary, Gary...... the end of this month will mark 12 years for me. I still wear a watch....finally learned to take it off when mowing the yard! This is a string-cheese poem I wrote:

time_to_go_back_in_1146005.jpg


THE TURNING OF A PAGE

What in the world is age? It’s like the turning of a page.
Day after day, years send age our way. Our yearly odometer numbers cannot lie.
In the words of a Godless sage, life without God is all the rage.
What is life? According to the bard, a stage. Sometime Just around the bend, life will end.
Life without God is only a cage, but beyond the gates, Life awaits!


What in the world is time? It’s like the rolling of a wave.
Wave after wave, time comes our way causing the commotion of aging.
Time washes over us, leaving erosion and jetsam of emotion.
The time will come, when time will go away. It will eternally be no more, and forgotten.
Standing still with God, timeless, on a wave-less shore, with fruits that never rotten.
Click to expand...

There's a lot packed into those few words

Let us hope the book has a few more pages

....and it's an interesting read
 
Our current new resident

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Near as I can tell, it’s called a Hairy Woodpecker
Not the Downy, but close

Been here since mid-summer
Looks to be three or four hanging around
Busy, industrious
They have a manner of complete curiosity, with their little heads hardly still for a moment, pulling their necks back, examining the bark in front of their faces
They are of the few birds of any size able to garner complete mastery of the suet cage.
The Jays have tried…rather comical.
The crows and robins, they don’t even try
The nutcrackers did well, and became bullies about it
My little nuthatches and chickadees suffered for it
But, the nutcrackers are gone, haven’t seen ‘em for a couple winters

These woodys don’t seem to be so guardedly territorial, and my nuthatches seem fine with sharing

I like ‘em
 
Aunt Bea said:
Great photo!

Maybe you can train Harry to help out in the shop!

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Yeah, no

I've had too much trouble getting my nuthatches free from the rafters with my smelt dipping net

Harry has tried the flavor of our cabin siding
Not to his liking, apparently
 
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