There's no going back now.

I've had my conversation with my boss, Tom Smith, and all will move forward as planned. I'll go to SNC tomorrow for my official last day of work. They will take me to lunch at the Abbey with the whole department. From 2-4 p.m. there will be a reception for me down the hall from my cubicle. After that, I'll drive down the road INTO the sunRISE. The sun will rise on a new chapter in my life. As I've repeated often since Martin Luther King Jr. Day, I don't know what the future holds but I know who holds the future.
Today, I managed to upload a song that I recorded to my Facebook profile. I recorded it here in the sunroom using my M-Audio Firewire Solo mixer and my MacBook Pro using Garageband. I wrote the file from Garageband to an MP3 file on my computer. I had to sign up with a website called ReverbNation in order for them to host my song. That means I had to upload it to their server. They then provide an Application that I put in my profile on Facebook and presto-George, my recording is available for you to stream.
The song is titled "These Roads Don't Move" and it is from Jay Farrar of the band Son Volt and Ben Gibbard of the band Death Cab for Cutie. You can see them perform it at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QXfUSmdGa6E
I'll be adding more songs although ReverbNation limits me to 8MB of space for free. It's about $30 per year for them to host "unlimited" amounts of my songs so I'll probably just keep only two or three on my Facebook profile at any given time. This is something I have wanted to do for a long time and it's what retirement is meant to allow me to do.
That's it for now.

Ciao, babies!

Hot TV deals

The phone rang while I was on the treadmill this morning at about 8:20 a.m. I answered. The lady said, "Good morning, may I speak to Mr. Possley." I replied, "This is Mr. Possley." She said, "Mr. Possley, we'd like to thank you for your purchase of the Pet Zoom Pet Park." I said, "If you are going to give me any other offers or try in any way to sell me anything, please stop right now." She said, after a slight pause, (no doubt to check her script), "Mr. Possley, have you been validated?" I hung up.

The Pet Zoom Pet Park is a mat that you put on the floor where your dog is supposed to pee. We use pet pads because we are not able to take Gidget outside to pee. The pet pads are smelly and expensive. I don' t know if this $35 Pet Park will be any help but am willing to take the chance that it might.

I'm writing this because this is the second time in the past few months that I have ordered one of these highly advertised TV items over the internet and been targeted with additional marketing. The first time, was when I ordered a device for cleaning the inside of your windshield. It is a handle with a pad on the end. Having to reach over to get all the edges of the inside of a windshield can be quite difficult.

When I ordered the Windshield Wizard, after giving my credit card information (don't roll your eyes or give me advice, I've been doing it for years), I was besieged with at least SIX additional offers wanting me to buy an additional item at reduced cost, insurance, and related items. It seemed like forever before I could complete the transaction. A few days after I ordered the Wizard, I began to notice phone calls that had been made to our home phone but no message left. Once they finally got through, I was able to determine that this was marketing follow-up to my order of a ten dollar piece of plastic. It took a couple phone calls to get them to go away but they have.

So the point of this message is to tell the reader my experience and my opinion.

"Marketing" in today's world is pretty much lying for a living. These people are clever and I have to hand it to them. They can sell a clever product, one that attracts your attention, and use it to gain access to the ability to try and attract you to spend more money on things you may not be interested in.

I don't go to the mall very often. Maybe I will now that I have retired. I know that they do sell, or at least the last time I was there they did, TV offer merchandise at Bed, Bath and Beyond. Perhaps I'll call there to see if I can buy the item at BB&B before I order online again.

Otherwise, I believe that my proactive preparedness, helped to fend off today's telemarketer. Hopefully, they will not further target me.

I had that lady scrambling for her script. She probably blew it by giving me a chance to talk so early in the conversation. I am so tempted to use derogatory names for such telemarketers. That said, some people sell drugs or their bodies to "keep the wolf away from the door". I don't have the right to judge what other people have to do for a living. God bless all telemarketers! And God give me the strength to deal with them with compassion.

Ciao, babies!

Day 3 Retirement Report Card.

Ok. Let's dispense with your initial guffaws over the short time frame. Yes, I am STILL IMPULSIVE AND still always defending myself.

Here are some facts dealing with my first two days of separation from St. Norbert College active employment:

1. I have been up before 6 a.m. every day.

2. I have increased my time on the treadmill from 30 minutes (on days when I went to work) to 45 minutes.

3. Still eating the same breakfast of two PB&J sandwiches. Going to lose the J when the jar is empty.

4. One additional AA meeting yesterday at 10 a.m. in Plymouth. Met several people I have not seen in years.

5. Paid my property taxes and my homeowners insurance.

6. Paid off all my Fantasy Football and Pick'em Pool winners.

7. Had supper on the table at 6 p.m. for Liz both days. Ok. It WAS frozen pizza on Monday but I made spaghetti (love hearing Conner say spa ge DEE). Tonight it might be something out of a box, or maybe I'll live on the edge and try something else.

8. I am totally at peace with my decision to quit working.

9. Did my push-ups (30-35 from the knees) on Monday and today.

10. Had nice long conversations with each of my brothers on the phone yesterday.

11. Received a call from the General Service Office in New York about some things I had ordered. That would have been a phone tag thing had I been working.

12. Watched two movies. Revenge of the Nerds on DVD on my computer in the sunroom on Monday and Funny People yesterday afternoon/evening on TWC PPV.

13. Have not peeked at Footprints nor do I intend to. Checked SNC email and realized that some people are responding to my "I'm retired" auto-reply message.

14. Am very relieved at not having to care whether some student who asks for a job gets a quick response, whether Andy is having trouble with the consultant schedule or whether anybody is experiencing any discomfort because of my absence.

Today? I'm going to do whatever the heck I want.

Ciao, babies!

The naked perceptions of one on the brink:

I happened to mention my frequent musing about retiring or not retiring in a Facebook post a few days ago. My brother Joe, retired for a couple years and several years my junior, said, "Why not? Do it!". My cousin said "Go for it!"

Then, on New Year's Eve, our friend Shirley, retired from teaching for a couple years was our guest. I asked her if she still liked what she was doing and she said she did. She said she decided to quit because of the change in superintendents that was imminent and because of some of the new requirements including those related to technology.

These things were swimming around in my mind.

When I awoke at 5 a.m. on New Year's day the decision was "there". I lay in bed having "gone around the bend".

Pro: I'm 62 and can start Social Security whenever I want.

I'm healthy enough to do whatever I want to do without being limited by my body.

That 3 hours per day on the road will be missed but I can take a ride in the Kettles if I want to see trees, turkeys and sunrises.

"Going out on top". No unpleasantness of any kind to act as a springboard. This is very important to me.

I want more freedom to pursue things that time won't allow right now. Singing? Coffeehouses? Volunteer work? Visiting the kids whenever they can put up with me? Being available to help when needs arise? Making Liz's days a little easier by making dinner and doing some cleaning? Ok. Let's be realistic. I am, after all, basically lazy. Perhaps I'm bordering on the idealistic.

Con: The wonderful people I work with and those I serve.

Being "involved" in the evolution of technology.

Having people to talk to about tech stuff.

The pride of owning a job in the technology field.

A decent salary.

The security of employment.

A place to go on a regular basis and the built-in motivation that comes with it.

The satisfaction of helping people and being valued. People think I know more than I do.

Have I forgotten any really obvious things here? Sure. I'm human. I will continue to try and listen to God.

Time to make breakfast and be with my beautiful grandsons. More later. Maybe lots more.

---Ciao, babies!!