Things have changed

I have finally retired. So far I have had two days plus the weekend. Since life has been busy anyway, it is too soon to reach any conclusions. But not going to the office, not having to worry about work, and being able to do things on days other than Saturday and Sunday have been nice.

I did spend a lot of yesterday working on web stuff. Dreamweaver is a pain, but I have updated my front page, my link page, and my vita. Everything points to retirement. And the opening picture is of Venice, not Gregory Hall.

The weather, on the other hand, has not been nice. Rain, snow, lots of cold--none of it calculated to make me happy. My feet got almost frostbitten last Sunday when we did a ride on what looked to be a nice, but ended up cold and windy, day. We did 22 miles but some of it was very hard going. I have been working on shoe and sock solutions since then. I did ride my bike to the LBS on Friday, so I got 3 miles in. Otherwise it has been indoor cycling. I am hoping for a few nice days when I get back from Phoenix so I can get some miles in. I won't be able to ride while we are away, and I probably won't even work out. That is not good since I have been eating far too much really good, but really unhealthy food for the last week. Two dinners out, two lunches out, a party for Charlotte today where the food seemed to be based on puff pastry, cream, and chocolate are not the ideal ingredients for keeping the weight off.

Tomorrow we leave for Phoenix and we come back Friday night. The weather will be good and I hope my mom will have some good days. Thanksgiving at Mark and Kathleen's house is always nice. We will enjoy seeing the kids. Then it will just be a rush from the end of November until we leave for Istanbul. Of course it will be a rush while we are in Istanbul and when we get back, until my enforced rest from the end of January into March. I hope I can work on my Italian. I plan to watch all the tv shows we have recorded but not watched. I have a bunch of DVDs I haven't watched and books to read. And I can think about the new bike, which I will order after we get back and before the hospital.

Now we just need to pack for tomorrow. I am debating the knitting stuff but I think that socks should be ok. Socks usually work out.

I think retirement will be good.