My First Week of Retirement

Retirement Week 1

Well, I made it through my first week of retirement and managed to keep myself busy. In fact, I was just as busy as before, I do believe. Of course, I am sure things will slow down once I get through my list of "things to do when I retire."

One of the things I did this past week was read a new book. It's a special book, one that was given to me by the ladies in the office on the day I retired. Every retired person should read this book when they retire. It gives a nice outlook on retirement.

I know you're saying to yourself, "But that's a children's book!" However, if you read it from the perspective of a person who is about to retire, you will see what I mean. It is all about going on new adventures, which I definitely believe retirement will be. It seems to me that Dr. Seuss wrote this book for people of all ages. I recommend it for anyone who is heading into the unknown on any kind of endeavor.

I'm still working on the blogging thing, it is definitely a work-in-progress. There is certainly a lot to learn, but they say that's what you need to do when you retire, continue to learn new things. I am always up for that so this is perfect for me. Besides, I always wanted to be a writer although life seemed to get in the way every time I even thought about it. But I did find time to keep a journal occasionally, and I think I came by it honest. My father used to keep a journal and write in it every single day. I haven't been that dedicated to it, although I have tried to write in it daily during the summers when my garden is up and I have so much going on.

So, where will we go on our first trip? I'm not really sure yet, but I do know I would like to take a trip back East in the not too distant future. We just need to decide when is the best time to go. We want to avoid hurricane season, the really hot and humid weather and the time of year when mosquitoes are really bad. I'm not sure what time of year that would leave as an option. But before we take that big trip, we will probably take a few smaller trips around to places here in Washington. All of this is on hold right now, though, due to the weather. At this very moment it is snowing and we are none too fond of driving in the snow. But as soon as the weather changes (in a couple of months) we will be venturing out and I will report our travels here.

The local newspaper had some interesting statistics about the snowfall for this year. So far this season, we have had 18.2 inches of snow, which seemed like an awful lot to me. But last year up to this same date, we had 24.1 inches of snow, so I guess I forgot how snowy it was last year. Our normal snowfall for the season to this date is 14.9 inches. It has stopped for now and I can actually see some blue sky out there...Carolina Blue!  Below is a video out our front door taken a couple of days ago.

All this snow leaves plenty of time for reading, so I decided to join the Goodreads Reading Challenge for 2017 on the Goodreads.com website. I put down on my challenge that I will read 30 books this year, which doesn't seem like all that many to me, but I am hoping it is a goal I can reach. I can always increase the number if I see that I am reading more than I anticipated. I already have one book towards my goal that I actually started in 2016 but was able to count towards this year's goal because I finished it in January. It was book #1 of The Breakers series by Edward W. Robertson, and I really enjoyed it. I am now reading book #2 in that same series and this one is turning out to be as good as the first book. I highly recommend this series if you love science fiction or dystopian novels.

We got brave yesterday and ventured out in the truck to Starbucks. Gotta have our coffee treat! Besides, we were getting a bit of cabin fever and needed to get out of the house. Actually, I ventured out alone in the truck and Linda decided to walk. Backing out of the garage was a new experience for me! Since we only drive when we have to in the snow, I was not prepared for driving in several inches of snow. I didn't think I was even going to be able to get out of the driveway to start with, but after going back-and-forth a couple of times, I was able to finally get out to the road. From there it was like driving a boat...you point your vehicle in one direction and you kind of eventually float to where you want to go. This is okay unless you are in traffic. Fortunately for me, I was the only one on the road so I was able to make it the two blocks up to a main road, which had been somewhat cleared. From there to Starbucks was easy going. Maybe I will be a good "snow driver" one of these days.

That's about all for this week from up here in the snowy Northwest. Join me again next week for more adventures from the retired!