Archive for category Personal
The First 1000 Days
It’s difficult to believe it’s been 1,000 days since I retired. The perception of time –how fast the days pass– is surely the thing that is most different since I stopped working. I can vividly recall that first Monday in March 2010 when I slept in, got up and didn’t have to be somewhere at a specific time. What liberation!
It has been a most wonderful thousand days, including:
- almost 300 rounds of golf
- over 200 trips to the gym
- 14 national parks and monuments visited
- scores of books read
- 8 hours of sleep almost every night
- cataloging the U.S. stamp collection (just a few less than 10,000 items)
- countless hours working with plants in our yard
- around 840 hours and 18,000 miles NOT spent driving to/from the office
Oh, and all the home remodeling (not on my original list of retirement goals).
1,000 Miles
Hit 1,000 miles on the new Acura today, thirty-four days since we picked it up. That would add up to about 10,735 miles for the year, just about exactly what the Federal Highway Administration says is the average for a person in my age group. I bet we end up with a lot more than that.
Beautiful Golf Morning
Three of my former Microsoft golf team buddies suggested we get together for a round to celebrate my birthday. So I was up early for a 7:06 tee time at Druid’s Glen. What a spectacular morning. A light fog still hovered over the various ponds, deer bounded across the practice range and Mount Rainier loomed impossibly clear.
Me, Michel Cote and Julian Benjamin on the ninth green
After a shaky start –six over par after three holes– I settled down, finishing the front nine with a 34-foot birdie putt. I ended the morning with a satisfying 89, my best score at Druid’s with it’s 134 slope rating. It’s the first time I’ve broken 90 on a course with a slope rating of 130 of higher.
Birthday Trip to Sunriver, Oregon
Trisha and I had visited the area near Bend, Oregon way back in 1992 and I never forgot the beauty of the mountains and high desert. So for a 65th birthday celebration we decided to spend a few days in a rented home at the Sunriver Resort just south of Bend. The drive from North Bend was a little tedious but the time went fast. We checked out the rental: a very nice two-bedroom unit overlooking the ninth fairway of the Resort’s Meadows golf course. One of the first scenes awaiting us was several families of geese with their young in the small wetlands just off the back deck. We made a quick trip to Whole Foods to pick up a dinner and by 8:30 or so we were sipping a local rosé wine and admiring the sun setting behind Mt. Bachelor and the adjacent Cascade peaks. Life it good, even as birthday 65 nears.
View from our back deck.
45 years ago today
Second place in shot put, Toledo v. Cincinnati; not bad for a 5′ 8″, 180-lb sophomore (click image to enlarge).
Hand Surgery Again
The same “trigger finger” malady that bugged me during my last year of work at Microsoft came back, this time in my thumb. I received a cortisone injection on it last year but it came back. I was able to schedule the surgery during the same time as the NCAA basketball tournament and while the weather is still mostly wet so I hope to be able to golf again by the end of the month. In the mean time, it’s lots of TV-watching and more work on the stamp collection. I can still use the keyboard, manipulate the mouse left-handed and manage the tweezers when needed.
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Christmas Letter for 2011
Posted by nbdog in Around the house, Personal on 25-Dec-2011
2011 Christmas Letter
2010 Stock Market Close
The year turned out surprisingly well for investors, including retired folks like us who will be living off those returns. The Dow Jones Industrials Average ended at 11,578, up 11% for the year. While that’s still a long way from the lofty 13,265 at the end of 2007 it’s a nice way to get through my first ten months as a retiree.
Forty Years Ago – The Doors At Cobo Arena
I was there. I recall this concert very well for various reasons. For one I remember how tired I was by the time The Doors came on stage; it must have been well after midnight. Me: I was wearing a suede leather jacket with fringe on the sleeves and bell-bottom jeans. Any how many people in the audience were just totally stoned out of their minds, most on marijuana but probably a good mixture of other things as well. And Morrison himself seemed drunk from the beginning; I think he came out with a bottle of beer in his hand.
But my most positive impressions were of the two lead-in acts, Blues Image and John Sebastian. Blues Image was just emerging as a major group (although very short-lived) but they were really polished: great instrumentation and harmony. Then after a long pause, John Sebastian came out, sat on the edge of the stage –just him and his guitar– and offered a series of lovely solo songs. I was impressed how he mesmerized thousands of doped-up hippies who had been dancing in the aisles a short time earlier and were waiting for the insanity of The Doors. His performance and the guitar work of Dickey Betts of the Allman Brothers a few years later at the University of Iowa were the best live rock events I’ve seen.
Ernie Harwell
I was saddened today to read the news of the death of Ernie Harwell. I spent countless hours listening to Ernie’s broadcasts of Detroit Tiger games beginning with a mediocre 1960 team but including the magical 1968 world champion season. Ernie’s voice provided many memories; like that 22-inning loss to the Yankees on June 24, 1962 and Denny McLain’s 31st win on September 19, 1968. Ernie and Jack Buck will always be my two favorite sports broadcasters.
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