Saturday morning

Whew, yesterday was a high energy day.  First off, I didn't get much sleep the night before--up every two hours to stoke the fire in the yurt.  Then we spent Friday morning packing up, splitting wood, towing gear to the car and driving home.  Within less than an hour, I was at the office prepping the "retirement letter" shown in the post below.  I didn't get out of the office until a little before 3 pm and then had to run some financial errands and do some shopping.  Got home at 5 pm for Wine Time and we both tried to unwind and celebrate a milestone day for the remainder of the evening.  Went to sleep about 9 pm.

Susun got up at 4 am today.  That is not a typo.  We are talking FOUR EH EM!  Why?  Well, she's doing a dog-sitting gig and needed to be at the dog house by 5 am.  She took the dog owners to the airport so they could fly away to Hawaii.  Now Susun will be leading a double life for a week, here at our home for awhile but overnight at the Dog House.  The two little doggies are cutie pies and well mannered.  They love Susun.  Who wouldn't?  Anyway, the owners pay her well for all her trouble and, now that we are "fixed-income seniors," every little bit helps.  They have already booked her again for May 18 so that's a real good excuse to get back here to River City after our Arizona Spring Sojourn. (I'm not touching the acronym for THAT one!)

Things went really well at the office yesterday--far better than I expected.  In fact, I'd have to say it was great.  I really didn't expect things to go as smoothly as they went.  I don't think they could have been smoother, actually.  I met with the HR person and it was a great and cordial meeting.  I even had a 30-minute meeting with the new director and that went great, too.  The receptionist cried real tears when I gave her a copy of my letter.  I passed around signed copies of the letter to everyone in my division.  I also had some great one-to-one talks with some of the Staff.  It was excellent and I am definitely leaving on The High Road.
I am greatly relieved that things went so well.

Well, today promises to be a less busy day but busy nonetheless.  I have to meet this afternoon with the art bench woman down on the greenbelt.  We have to begin the painstaking documentation process of precisely where to place each of these benches.  I figure two more hours today and another couple of hours tomorrow.
Then another meeting at 9 am Monday.  Hopefully, that's going to be the extent of it for now.

Today, I plan to do some fun stuff.  What would be fun for me?  Packing cast iron dutch ovens and cast iron cooking utensils for the Arizona trip.  That's fun.

Well, here's a story that constitutes a "blast from the past."  Waaay back in the Waaay Back Time Machine, some of you will recall I worked for the Verde NRCD in Camp Verde, Arizona.  There was this developer who pestered me a lot trying to get the NRCD involved in his grandiose land development plan.  From the very first phone call, my intuition told me the guy was a con man and a scammer.  He was unforgettable because he used the "F" word as much or more than Jeff Bridges & John Goodman in "The Big Lebowski."

Lo & behold, Dear Friend & LBR Bill C. sent along this hilarious link.  The guy really WAS a con man and scammer of Major Magnitude.  Check this story out, it's absolutely over the top:

http://campverdebugleonline.com/Main.asp?SectionID=1&SubSectionID=1&ArticleID=25381


On that cheery note, I will leave you to have yet another wonderful day.  jp

PS--Today is Stasea Rae's Birthday!  Happy Birthday, Stasea!!!!!