Category Archives: Work

Tiny Dancer

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Anne in the 5th Position, 1960

Anne in the 5th Position, 1960

Last Christmas, when we were in Ann Arbor, Harry treated us all to a home slide show. We offered to scan those slides and since last weekend that is what Anne has been busy doing. Here is an especially cute photo that shows prima ballerina Anne, all decked out in a black leotard, ready to perform some modern dance routine. You can almost hear the beat of Dave Brubeck’s Take Five playing in the background. She has assumed the 5th position, with its all-important footwork. Wait, someone cropped off her feet and I don’t think that I can reattach them using Photoshop. Oh, my! 

Terminator: No. There is one more chip. [points to his head] And it must be destroyed also. [hands Sarah the controller for the winch] Here. I cannot self-terminate. You must lower me into the steel.

Well, I’m no mindless robot, or even a muscle-headed actor trying to portray one, so, I had no such problem with self-termination, but Spacely Sprockets did take a wee bit of convincing this morning. Are you sure? Yes. Are you sure, you’re sure? Yes, I say so, three times! I set the date for July 8th. I’d long since given up on ever snagging a layoff package, in fact now too many other rats are deserting the ship to make such layoffs even necessary. I had also successfully completed my trial 401k withdrawal. The funds were deposited in the bank this morning. I’m ready for termination, I mean retirement.

Playing Hooky

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Garden Poppy

Garden Poppy

Today’s short course is I got up early, got to work early, left work even earlier and then Anne and I spent a delightful afternoon at the botanical gardens. I must admit that I did feel a twinge of guilt about this last item, because there are big meetings going on this week, but since I have no role in them, I decided to take a half-day off. I saw my boss on my way out. He didn’t seem pleased to see me, but then neither was I to see him.

Moving on, because that’s what I’m all about these days, it looks like warmer weather has finally arrived. I wouldn’t say that I’ve been missing it, at least not like the AC repairmen who was by yesterday to check out our unit, but it is here now, so let’s go with the flow. It was only in the low eighties, but the humidity was up. I’ve always felt that late May and early June feel the hottest here in Saint Louis, because they are normally so much more humid than August, plus you’re just not used to the heat. This has been a wet spring and we’re now looking to see another five days of storms. One good thing about this expected bad weather is that it should improve my work ethic, I’m not going to take off from work if it’s raining out.

There were about a gazillion flowers out today, maybe even a gazillion point five. There were more people at the gardens than I expected too, but as Anne pointed out most of the schools are out for the summer and most of the summer camps haven’t started up yet. One interesting party comprised four elderly women in wheel chairs. When we first saw then, they were all sitting in a row, with just one rather youthful male attendant who seemed to be waiting for someone or something. I questioned then how could one person attend to these four women, but later, I saw that he had a more experienced partner. I’m sure that between the two attendants the ladies had a good time. The women could take turns sitting in the shade, while the other two were wheeled about. We too spent plenty of time sitting in the shade. The heat, humidity and eventually the threatening weather drove us to the car and then home.

Crowing

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Point Lobos Crows

Point Lobos Crows

Bob: Looks like you’ve been missing quite a bit of work lately.
Peter: Well, I wouldn’t say I’ve been missing it, Bob.
— from the movie “Office Space”

I should have probably have substituted my name for Peter’s in the above quote, because I have been missing a lot of work lately, without really missing any of it. For example, today, I took the afternoon off, just because the weather was nice. Now that may sound rather cavalier of me, but days as nice as today are not all that common here in Saint Louis. You’ve got to take them when you can.

Today, we went for a bike ride, we being Anne and I. She is almost done for the school year, this is the last week of classes and she had the day off. The park was delightfully uncrowded. About our only impediment there were workmen. Imagine, men working? I guess someone has to do it. I almost got run over by a big riding mower, when without looking, he was looking at Anne, the guy cut me off as he cut across the bike trail right in front of me, but no harm, no foul.

After our last turn around the park, we veered over to the CWE and Jeni’s Splendid Ice Creams. This was our third visit there, in little more than a week. The place is starting to become habit-forming. We both always get the small cup for $5. It comes with two scoops, which we always translate into two different flavors, plus a slice of waffle cone on the side. Anne enjoyed their Darkest Chocolate, which is richly delicious and Churro, a red-hot cinnamon ice cream with pieces of toffee and flakes of pastry in it and of vaguely Mexican origin. I had the Bourbon Salted Pecan, which is like three flavors in one and their Intelligentsia Black Cat Espresso. To call it coffee ice cream would be an understatement. It was a delightful repast for a delightful afternoon.

My Farewell Tour

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Eiteljorg Totem Detail

Eiteljorg Totem Detail

Like an aging rocker, I am in the midst of my farewell tour. I started this victory lap with the high hopes of snaring a severance package, but alas that seems unlikely now. “Let my people go”, was my going in mantra, but it appears that I’ll just have to leave, with my head held high and without any extra coin in my pocket. Who said honor was cheap? Too bad, but this process is still a lot of fun. I understand now why entertainers do this thing all the time. People are always coming up to you and saying how much that they will miss you, asking about your future plans and wishing you well with them. It’s a nice experience. I’m giving more and more thought to what I want to do after I retire. I’m making travel plans, but I am also looking at ways to fill my days in between the trips. I figured out that while I won’t miss working, I will miss the social interactions that occur as part of work. Not to put too fine a point on it, I’m going to miss the boy’s club atmosphere. What I really mean is the camaraderie. So, this is my current area of concern in this life changing event, but then if I don’t have something substantive to worry about, then I’ll just worry about something trivial instead. This concern actually makes the prospect of retiring a little more exciting. I feel ready to hike up my pants and charge right in to it. It is going to be fun. I’m looking forward to it. I’m literally counting down the days.

Retirement Planning

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Flowering Dogwood

Flowering Dogwood

When you go around announcing that you are going to retire, everyone wants to know when. My somewhat nebulous answer, “in July”, just doesn’t seem to cut it with some people. They want a date certain. I too wish that I could be that certain, but even at this late date there are some variables left to consider. I’m about to embark upon one final activity that should finish in July, but you never know. I can’t see leaving them in the lurch, so July is more of an estimate, but to placate the numerologists at work, I’ve started a countdown. It is a concept that has worked well for others and I’ve adopted it too. Today’s number is 75. That is, I have 75 more working days left. That should keep me employed through July, but it gets more complicated than that. In the next 75 business day there are two holidays. So, you could say that my magic number is 73 not 75. I also have eight more days of sick leave and they are use them or lose them. That then makes the number 65. Then there is vacation. I could save those days and get paid for them instead, but I’m more likely to use them and either lower my magic number to 50 or use all those decremented days to extend my career one more month and make August a virtual work month. I’ve always gotten paid in the past to lie on the beach. Why should this year be any different?

The Long Leg

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The Long Leg, Edward Hopper, 1930

The Long Leg, Edward Hopper, 1930

Last week, I announced my retirement. What?!? You might say. As I all too frequently do, I buried my lead at the end of a silly and somewhat disjointed post. So, don’t feel too bad if you missed it. Only Jane seemed to pick up on it. I picked July as my retirement month, both because it is neither too soon nor too far away. It is also my birth month and at this point in life every birthday accrues additional retirement benefits. I am also angling for a layoff, because my severance package would be pretty lucrative. However, that boat may have already sailed. Such fishing for a pink slip requires some flexibility, so my planned July exit date could be subject to a better offer. Anyway, I plan on leaving the proletariat this summer, with my birthday as the target date.

Other than last week’s announcement, I haven’t said anything more on this subject, at least online, but I have been talking at work. The first person I told was my boss, whose only comment was, “I’m not surprised.” I’m really going to miss that guy. After that rather reticent conversation, I have been busy slow-rolling out the news. Initially, I did this to help backstop my decision. I figured that letting other people know would make exercising any change of heart that much more difficult, but now any cold feet have all but disappeared and body and soul, I have crossed the Rubicon and I am ready to leave.

When I tell people at work, I am usually met with disbelief, as in, “You’re kidding, right?” After the realization that I’m not, I am next presented with the statement, “You’re not old enough to retire.” I have a stock answer for that and explain that they’re just being fooled by my immaturity. Then they invariably ask the dreaded question, “What are you going to do when you retire?” At this point, I should come clean and say, “I don’t know.” I’m afraid to tell the truth though, for fear of them saying that I can’t retire until I’ve come up with a suitable plan. So, I usually fallback on another stock answer and say something like, “Travel, more bicycling, you know, enjoy life.” They’re usually placated with this, but I should come clean, because I don’t really have a plan. On the other hand, I’ve worked over 38 years without much of a plan, so why should I formulate one now? Let’s just say that I’m completing a long leg of my journey through life and I’m now ready to tack and begin the next leg.