Retired for One Year

Today it hit me that I have been retired for one year.  It doesn't seem that long ago when I was out-processing, and I couldn't wait to get home that day.  I have no regrets about going out when I did.  I miss the people I worked closely with and I am in occasional touch with them.  It was great getting to serve on that kind of team.  But situations like that are not forever, and for me it was time to get out.

Looking back, I thought I would have done more road trips than we have.  I want to reprise that one we did when we went up to Four Corners and back.  Dang, that was some really neat scenery we saw when we were up there!  But as I said in my  last post, we want the next one to be Alamogordo.

As for all those projects I told myself I was going to do..........well I've started a bunch of them.  And I'm still working on those.  The "Ugly Money" page has three times as many images as it did a year ago.  My coin collection has been worked on.  I've done a lot of reading, alternating between previously read books and those that have been on the shelf for more years than I would like to admit.  And with another heat advisory (this one "severe") underway there's been a lot of reading.  And very little yardwork.  

In spite of all of that, there have been a lot of necessary but not fun tasks at hand.  Today we took a truckload of items to Goodwill.  Some from my mother's house, some from the master bedroom closet, and some books that I know I will not be re-reading.  I guess this begs the question, what books am I keeping?

I still have all of my college textbooks.  On a rare occasion I will pull one out, thumb through it, mainly to see if I still understand what I studied 45 years ago.  Not a lot of it was used as a reference during my career.  I think the degree I earned is evidence that I was trained how to think like an engineer.  There wasn't a single course I took that addressed satellite engineering or aircraft engines.  But I had an understanding of why they worked they way in which they worked.  

I've also kept the Tom Clancy and James Bond novels.  All are interesting reading.

The Isaac Asimov novels are remaining in the bookshelf.  I have read all of them at least twice, maybe three times.

The recipe books, which I really need to dig out and get some ideas on what to cook.

So, what do I foresee in the coming year?  I'm not going to dwell on that in this post, but I can list some goals.

One, some more traveling, preferably via road.  We are looking at getting a trailer and living out of that during our adventures.  I have researched solar panels which we intend to use to power the trailer, and I've somewhat recently purchased a ham radio rig that's ruggedly designed for portable use.  

Two, have my coin collection and currency collection better organized.

Three, some more reading.  

Four, more genealogical research.  I'm not sure if I should dig some more into my Bonsall roots, or to concentrate on my Pilkington ancestry.  As of late it's the Parkers I've been looking into.  

The bottom line is that I will keep busy.  The challenge is to live long enough to get the rest of the things I want to do done.