It has been one heck of a couple of weeks. My last day in the office was Friday, five days ago. Technically, I am on vacation until June but the reality is, I'm done. No more going back to the office, airport security checks, getting on a plane, passing through customs with jet-lag so bad you don't even know what country you are in, and staying in countless hotels. It's over and I will not miss any of the things mentioned, but, and it is a big but, I am having separation anxiety about leaving some really great people behind. The folks I worked with were smart, funny, innovative, dedicated and just genuinely nice people. I am not particularly excited about parting their company, but it has to be. There is a great adventure ahead for Cyndee and I and it begins now.

So, since my last post it has been a plethora of phone calls, cards, emails and personal visits from friends all around the world. The kind words and gestures that have been extended to me has been stunning. I have been at a loss for words repeatedly at everyone's goodbye's. A retirement gift I received that was from a collection taken up at the office was a zoom lens for my camera. Wow!, what a perfect gift. I am going to be in places of great vistas and amazing life, this lens is going to be at the heart of me exploring my artsy-side. I have been practicing on the wildlife visiting our bird feeders. These shots are taken hand-held through tinted, double-paned glass on a completely overcast day. I am super impressed with this lenses' ability to gather light.



Above from left to right we have: Cardinal, male; Downy Woodpecker, female; House Finch; Red-headed Woodpecker. These photos are HTML links to the original file so they display at low resolution.

Below from left to right:
Cardinal, female; Goldfinch; Red-bellied Woodpecker



It is a shame that the image on the blog is so poor. Believe me, on my 22" monitor at full-screen they are gorgeous.

There have been a couple of receptions in honor of my retirement. Both were overwhelming to me. The shear number of people that attended blew me away but even more so when it became obvious that many of these people had traveled from afar, arriving from Chicago, Detroit, Phoenix and Brussels. You know it wasn't just the cake that brought them in.



And speaking of cake, I nearly fell over when I saw the one they made for the cocktail reception. One of the women that work in HR also makes cupcakes and cakes. My (phenomenal) admin assistant had acquired a picture of my rig and the lady making the cake perfectly reproduced the paint scheme. The detail was awesome. The picture does not show it well but even the license plate was perfectly lettered with the word 'Retired'.



While I am basking in the glow of my last days at work, Cyndee is still fully submerged in her job. The end of the school year is a hectic time and she has little time to think of anything but the tasks in front of her. Just a couple more weeks and that will be it for her. While she is still hard at it at work I have begun all the little chores that need to be done to get this rig broke loose from the spot it has been in since last October.

The truck needed new valve stems on the inside duals. It was an hour and fifteen minute drive to get to the folks over at University Tire in Athens, but it was worth it. They are one of the few in the whole of North Georgia that have both the equipment and know-how to handle commercial-size aluminum wheels. Once I got the valve stems it was possible for me to mount the tire pressure monitors. Before I was done I had installed and programmed 8 monitors, two on the truck and 6 on the trailer.

My last oil analysis showed that things were looking really good but that I was getting to the end of life on that oil change, a little over 9,000 miles, so first thing this morning I got the truck down to the only place I know of (outside of the Ford dealer) that has a rack big enough to hold Big Gulp. $268 later I had 15 quarts of oil, oil filter and two fuel filters. I think that is the end of things I have to do that make me get my wallet out.

The rig has gotten pretty grungy sitting here under the trees for the last seven months. At the very least I am going to have to get up top and clean the roof and slides, maybe even wax them. And, if there is a long enough break in the seemingly endless rain we have been having, I would like to wash and coat the front end-cap with some slick stuff that is supposed to make the bugs just slide off. We'll see.

T -17 days until departing Georgia.