65 it not so fine...

I was up at 8am today after making it all the way to page 41 in my book. If I keep up this double digit rate I’ll be done in another 60 nights. I read 2 books last year. Dan Brown’s “Digital Fortress” and “Wins, Losses, and Lessons: An Autobiography” of Lou Holtz. Lou’s book I can recommend even if you are not a football fan. I thought it was well worth reading and it would be good for teenagers to read. So I gave it to Chris. Now you know why I get that 'look' from anyone under 20. Dan’s book, well he’s done better.

No e-mail or IMs or new blog activity to enjoy with my coffee. I was feeling a bit blue for some reason, so I decided to start on the office relocate while it warmed up outside. I got it mostly dismantled. As the morning wore on I really started not feeling well so I took a break. While on my break Bob is on his way to Tennessee to do some work. He IM me and with his help I got Yahoo Messenger set up and we exchanged pictures and used Yahoo Voice and talked until he needed to pack. I invited Bob over, but this is a quick trip and he goes home Friday. Getting over to see Bob, Julie, and see his granddaughter in the UK is on the list for this summer.

I could tell today was not my day when I went for my run and the only female jogger in the park was bundled in full sweats even though it was 65 degrees. San Diego is the late game so there is still hope for seeing some skin today. Oh right. It’s raining in San Diego – just my luck. Tomorrow is supposed to be 70. Surely full sweats won’t be needed.

A 65 degree day in January is too nice to stay inside so after my run I cleaned up the xB. I then took some pictures of it and the GMC.

David is down under in Sydney IM me on Yahoo when I got back inside. So now I have dots for NZ (Thanks Mark and Toni) and Australia on my tracking map. No dot in the UK. Maybe when Bob gets back it’ll show up. FotoMom would like a visit from you all outside the USA please.

I’ve just seen the Giants beat Tampa Bay and Titans verses Chargers is on now. I had the DVR record them. I’ll have to do a bit more on the office relocate before bed time. I guess I could just sleep in the recliner…

Where I run

Well I can see that I'm going to have to create a to do list. I keep getting distracted and side tracked. I don't mind though. I have lots of time. It was a nice mid 50s degree day. Gray sky however. I went out for my jog about 2:30. I enter the park from the far right on the map below. I come down Wagstaff Road (black on map) and enter at the first trail (yellow) before Kenneth Branch (blue). I run along Kenneth Branch until I reach the main area of trails and then cross the branch and run along the outside perimeter then cross back over the branch and run out the way I came in. That picture of me next to the park sign was taken by Gene today. He and Sandy his wife and their two boys I often see walking in the park as I run.

We had a severe drought here in North Carolina but Kenneth Branch never stopped flowing. It slowed to a trickle during the worst of the drought when we went weeks without any rain. After a heavy rain it will overflow its banks and flood that area. The branch is at the bottom of a valley and the trails wind up and along the hills on both sides.
Besides running I do inclined push ups and squats as I cross over the various springs that feed Kenneth Branch. The rails on the bridges over the springs make a good support for the inclined push ups and provide steadying support for the squats. I added a new exercise starting yesterday. I added three sets of 12 reps of Triceps Dips with Straight Legs . They fit nicely into my run since there are benches along the trails I can use.

Well I'm through the 1st chapter in the book I started a few posts back. I don't remember the title, but I've had distractions. My pages per night rate has dropped to under 10. JB let me know he picked up that book somewhere and realized he already read it so left it for me. I've not read enough to know what it's about. I should be able to know that by 4th of July.

The way I like to start my day

The 2nd thing I do each morning is put water in my new cordless stainless steel tea kettle to and start it to boil. Put some StarBucks whole bean into my grinder and get it going. Ahh the wonderful smell of fresh ground coffee. I then unlock my computer and say morn'n on IM while the water heats. What I like about this kettle is that it turns off automatically when the water boils. I got it last weekend after being summoned back into the kitchen by the screech of the on the burner stove top kettle. The new one is a cordless one - the cord stays with the base when you lift the kettle to pour. Heats 1.5 liters ~4 minutes. I saw this type of kettle when I visited the UK and was invited to spend the weekend with the IBMer I was working with. Real treat to spend time with Bob and his wife Julie in Wales on my trips over. I really messed up my trip over last year and didn't get to stay over a weekend.

Anyway I pour some of the hot water into the glass pot to rinse it. The pot is on the right with a metal cage and black handle already made in this picture. The rinse also help preheat the glass becasue I like mine hot. I pour that water out and dump the grounds in and fill the pot to the top of the band and stir with a plastic spoon. Then I put the press in and secure it, but I don't plunge for a few minutes - you can't hurry good things. I think the instructions say wait 4 minutes. I like to wait a bit longer since I like it strong. When the time is right I plunge and then pour a nice full steaming hot tasty cup . Ahhhhhh that first sip. Almost nothing beats it. It was way hard this morning to take that a picture instead of drink my fill first.

If you like to enjoy it in the morning like I do you can go to Bodum and check them out. Being single I have the liter size (8 cup) which is plenty. But if you are going to share this morning pleasure with someone consider the 1.5 liter 12 cup press pot so that it lasts a lot longer.

Whew...

Well what a day. I told Wally earlier this evening that I needed a vacation from retirement! I've read & sent more e-mail, IM'ed more people, talked more on the phone, took more pictures, and blogged more than I ever have. I swear my computer has fused into with my lap (guess that's why it's called a laptop huh?) and I'm starting to fear that my mother might prove to be correct when she said (and remember this you moms out there) "If you don't get up out of that chair it'll grow to your A$$." That statement I believe does not apply to recliners, so I'm hoping to escape that faith on a technicality. The fear of a chair growing out my A$$ has always motivated me far more than cleaning out my ears so corn wouldn't grow out of them.

I case you are wondering with all this electronic communications if I actually spoke to anyone face to face today. I did speak with 4 people face-to-face. The UPS guy was the first. Do you know that UPS will actually ring the bell when they come? I've never been home in the day to find that out. They just leave the package and/or the yellow sticky to sign. Today I was treated to an exchange of hellos, then hearing “sign here”, then me saying “thanks”, and a back of a head mumbling something in reply as it headed down the porch steps. Ahh the joy of face-to-face communications. I also will point out I signed using a stylus not a pen. I signed on a line drawn on the screen of some type of big Palm Pilot with an antenna.

The other three people were a nanny and two kids in her care walking in the park where I run. One of the kids (the older one 12? 13?) was complaining about the cold even though she was bundled head to toe. The nanny was British and of course was in typical British style "It's a lovely winters day... step lively, step lively now to stay warm...Look at this gent coming he's in his kit and he's not cold" - it was about 35 and sunny and when the wind blew you understood why they call it "wind chill." I shook the leg of my running shorts and said howdy as I went jogging by. I meet them later on a bridge and stopped for a minute and chatted, the oldest still protesting that it was cold and asking why wasn't I freezing. I started to say what my mother used to tell me when I complained about cold..... "This is not cold. Why when I was growing up I walked 5 miles up hill both ways in 3 foot of snow just to go to school." or something along the lines. Instead I just said truthfully - as long as I kept my pace I stayed plenty warm. I went on to explain I rather jog in 35 degree weather than 90 degree. The nanny agreed hearty, and marched on. The oldest as she past stared at me in total disbelief. A look I often get from anyone under 20. I just smiled back and after a few strides let the smile turn into a grin. I knew the nanny had won since that bridge was about as far from the entrance as possible, and the nanny was taking the long way back. Age and experience beat youth this time - but time is on their side.

Well needless to say I didn't make much progress in the Home Office relocation. I did clear the destination, but after taking one look at unwiring job at hand I and a well timed jingle from a incoming IM from the laptop in the den carried me back into my recliner with the glow of the plasma over the fire place keeping me warm.
I started reading "Hearts in Atlantis" by Stephen King last night. 14 pages in I was out like a light, but not the bedroom light. Note to self: Get a sleep timer for the bedroom light. I'll see if I can make the end of chapter 1 tonight before I go lights out. I think JB left that book here. He read it about a day. Now where is that list of books JB left for me to read? That list of books will last me at least 10 years at 14 pages a day. That's OK, with practice I should get up to 50 pages a day and that will get me through the list, and I'll still be younger than most people when they retire.

Out and about

Well I was up at 7am without an alarm. Just woke up and got up - which I hope is something I continue to do. I fired off an e-mail announcing this Blog. I was in no hurry to get out there after reading Let there be no doubt...It's cold out there! in FotoMom (Maryann’s) Blog.

So I watched the AM morning news and was a bit disappointed that the traffic reports on WRAL showed NO backup at my favorite parking lot I440/US1. So I suspect there were others not working today.

I got out about 10am and had a tasty low fat 'good for you' lunch and went to one of my favorite places: Harbor Freight in North Raleigh. JB (my brother in Hawaii) introduced me to them a couple years ago on one of his mainland visits. I limited my purchased to what would fit into the xB. When JB is with me we take the GMC.
That's nice person with the xB is Linda. I bought the xB from her May 2007. This is the only picture of the xB aka 'The Toaster' I have. Note to self: wash The Toaster and take another new picture. After Harbor Freight I went by the computer box store in preparation for tomorrow.
On the way home I stopped by main campus of Wake Tech to check out the CNC classes (Machining Technology). I've always been interested in robotics. I did a paper in College on them ~30 years ago. Gulp. I attended the ShopBot Jamboree in 2006 and hope to go again this spring.

The Sugar Bowl last night was, well, boring. Sorry JB. Hawaii didn't look to good. Hopefully the Tostitos Fiesta Bowl tonight will be better. If it's a blow out also I'll just get a head start on tomorrows project "Clean up/relocate the Home Office." Good thing to do indoors. The high tomorrow is suppose to be chilly 38 . I guess retiring in winter does have a few drawbacks.

Sunset of the First Day

Well today started with the alarm going off and getting me out of bed. A boo-boo on my part made yesterday since I had to go to the office and forgot to turn off the alarm. A boo-boo I'll not make tomorrow!

I made coffee using my Christmas presents from Wally and Carol- a Press coffee pot - I checked my e-mail and IM folks as I took my 1st sips... Gees that sounds just like what I did when I was working! Just the coffee was way better! Gale my sister called to wish me a Happy New Year.

Maryann IM me and shared Ground Control to Major Mom blog which motivated me to create this blog. I had actually thought about creating a blog already, so Maryann's message prompted me to take action. Hopefully I'll use this as a form of personal accountability to keep busy and share the things I do. As I IM to Mark a buddy of mine in New Zealand a few minutes ago, if nothing else the blog can be used by others as a sleep aid, or for a quick break from the work place grind .


I did my run and finished about sunset. I had intended to take a picture of today's sunset, but it was a cloudless sky and very bright so today's sunset wasn't special. Which is actually good because it gives me a chance to share my favorite sunset picture. It was taken in Willow Springs early last month by Maryann. She really got the composition dead on. The tree and branches in the foreground framing the beautiful colored sunset. The clouds leading the eye into the horizon.

Life after IBM offically starts today

Well yesterday I went into the office for the last time. The office was pretty much empty as you would expect for New Year's eve. I thought of it as the eve of starting my life, long delayed. My manager, Steve, took me out to lunch. We really had good meal, and a even better conversation. Steve is good at managing projects, but because he cares he's a good people guy too.

I signed the retirement papers at the restaurant, so when we returned to the office it was just a matter of turning in the badge that I proudly carried for nearly 31 years, shaking hands, and wishes each other well. Steve took this picture as I waved good bye with my retirement hat on, and a smile on my face. IBM was good to me all those years, and I'll always say with pride that I'm an IBMer.

I got home an went for a jog, and watched the DVR game of Alabama beating Colorado. I didn't get to watch it Sunday since I was up all night finishing work. New Year's Eve I was a bit down, but I got a Happy New Year IM just after midnight and when off to bed looking forward to starting the next chapter of my life.