An anniversary and a milestone

Today's post marks the 8th anniversary of this blog. May 14, 2007.  And coincidentally, this is also my 1,000th post.

I never set out to write 1,000 blog posts. I got the idea of being a blogger from my kids, who both blogged actively at the time. It was something that I thought might keep me occupied upon the occasion of my retirement, and I set some guidelines from the very beginning:

1. This blog is solely for my enjoyment. If anyone else finds it amusing or interesting that is serendipitous.
2. This blog is an opportunity to share some of my more interesting life events with my grandchildren.
3. If this blog doesn't occasionally embarrass my kids, I am not trying hard enough.

Of the 1,000 posts, more than 300 have been Monday Meanderings and some 60 have been directed toward my grandchildren. The rest are a hodge-podge of whatever amused me at the moment. Google says that over the years, some 45,000 people have taken a peek at what I have written. The majority of views were from people in the USA, of course, but there also have been page views from Germany, France, Russia (more than 1,400!) the UK, China, Ukraine, Canada, Poland, Australia and 21 other countries.

The most-viewed post by far is "Traveling in Comfort" March 16, 2012 with 5,135 views (though I have reason to believe there may have been some funny business going on there - it was viewed more than 400 times in a single day from the same person. It wasn't that good, believe me). The 2nd most-viewed post (more than 1,500) is "The Mystery Album" on November 24, 2010, followed by 726 views of "Never Underestimate the Power of a Sweet Potato Pie" December 14, 2012. Hmmm. Looks like I peaked in 2012. My favorite post? Hands down "Deep Thoughts while watching a soccer game. Really" on 7/13/2011 (and again on 8/8/2012). Most fun to write? The "Bob the Dog" series.

Most non-commercial bloggers wear out. If you have followed favorite bloggers for any length of time you have seen many dwindle to nothingness. Sometimes a blogger will just hang it up and say, "That's it. I'm done." When I saw the 1,000th post coming up, I gave some thought to doing the same. And I may, in the not-too distant future, do just that. But for now, though I post much less frequently than I did, I'm still enjoying it, and occasionally I find something new to pass along.

So if you weren't around on day 1, here's how I started it all.

Last August, Neill, the guy who takes care of our 401K and 403B and WD40 and I don’t know what all else, said, “You can retire in March, 2007.” Excuse me while I kiss this guy! Barbara was already receiving more income in retirement than she was when teaching school, and my Social Security benefits would begin in March, and suddenly all those years of payroll deductions had accumulated to the magic number and we left Neill’s office pretty giddy.

 

In January, I told my boss that I was retiring. He asked if I was interested in doing contract work, and I said that I was, but on a significantly reduced schedule – like half time. I had already decided that I wasn’t ready to come home and wonder what I was going to do for the rest of my life, and since I didn’t have a lake cabin to occupy my time, nor do I golf or fish, I thought I could ease into this venture by working part time. 

The need for what I do professionally is entering the twilight years as well; we’ll go out of style together. I figure that there’s a need for my skills about another nine to twelve months, at least from the standpoint of my present semi-employer. Of course, I said I was going to be out of the computer business before the year 2000. I’ve been wrong before.

Of course, the real reason for wanting to work part-time is that I’m not sure Barbara and I can stand that much togetherness. You know, twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week. I know of early un-retirements under those circumstances. Homicide is not unheard of. She has her office in one end of the house and I have mine in the other, and she has long suggested that a sound proof room where she could go off and shut the door would be a good idea. Remember, this is the woman who used to call my boss and say, “Can’t you send Bob somewhere? I really need some time alone.” 

Well, her schedule at Austin Grad had her away from the house all day on Mondays, and she volunteered at her old school Friday mornings, so I arranged to work Tuesday through Thursday and it was almost like the before retirement schedule. We meet up Friday noon to do our shopping, have Saturday to do whatever, Church all Day Sunday and singing on the ground, and then… then gloriously, for me Monday is a free day. Better than free, it’s a sit on the patio, drink coffee and watch the tomatoes grow day. You can do that in Austin for another week or two this time of year.

 

People ask what I do with all my time now that I’m retired. My standard answer is “First, there’s coffee on the patio and then there’s Oprah, and Ellen and Dr. Phil and those three women – and oh, there’s Jerry Springer!” The truth is I have never seen any one of those programs. What I really do (so far) is fodder for later blogs. Then there’s work. When my boss agreed to the 3-day work week, he didn’t mention that he still expected me to work 40 hours a week. The company is trying to meet a significant deadline, so I’m logging extra hours – and getting paid a righteous sum to do so.

A friend kept telling me that I should become a contractor. Now that I are one and am making twice as much money as I was as an employee and working half as many hours (in theory, at least), I wonder why I didn’t do this twenty years ago! Of course, there are the little things like taxes to be paid, and both portions of my Social Security deductions (I sometimes wonder if my deductions and benefits wave to each other as they pass in the night) and insurance payments (now there’s a blog subject for sure). But I’m having fun being semi-retired in Austin.