One great thing about living in Tucson is the mild winters. Those of you up north or back east probably don't want to hear me tell you that we are in the mid 80s this afternoon. The sky is clear with a few clouds here and there, and the desert is just as beautiful as it ever was.
There really isn't much in the way of news to pass along, so it's going to be random thoughts this afternoon.
One of my retirement projects has been re-reading an anthology collection of history articles back when I was taking History at Evergreen Valley College in San Jose. We had a great history teacher, a Mr. Ron Zarcone, who was a gifted lecturer and made it interesting. I have kept almost all of my college textbooks since, and these two anthology volumes were on the re-read list. I haven't read these since 1977. Although all were not assigned reading, all of them are interesting, as I am working my way thru articles of what Christopher Columbus really knew before sailing across the ocean, details about indentured servitude, and the Salem Witch Trials. It makes me wish I had continued studying history after college, and although I have read some books about history I have only scratched the surface. That's one favorite activity.
Another is going thru my coin collection, but that's been on pause these past few weeks. I have had to work on two necessary projects recently, and one was taken care of last week. The other big one? Not much left to do on that one except for a phone appointment with a senior manager helping to get my second pension activated.
And as you might guess, ham radio has kept me busy too. We had really great band conditions during a major worldwide contest the last weekend of last month, and I picked up two new countries. The 10 meter band was the best I've ever heard it in a half century of this hobby. A total of 48 countries were worked, thanks to the sunspots and low geomagnetic activity.
I said half a century. It isn't lost on me that I have many memories that are half a century old or more. I was still in high school, taking electives in electronics, and fifty years ago at this time we were preparing to move from Virginia to California. I did not intend to stay in San Jose for as long as I did, but a lot of the memories there are good too, and two lifetime friends were made there.
Now here I am in Tucson, retired, and still not missing work. It was a great field to be in and I lived really well because of it. I don't miss a lot of the corporate crap that I went thru. It was fun, but there were times when it was brutal. Now I go back to it if I want to, and this time in an advisory capacity. The thought of doing that is intriguing, but not until I catch up on some things and do some more fun stuff.
With that, I think it's time to wrap this post up.
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