January 2008 Archives
Today is my 59th birthday. Not going to say anything about that except that we had cake and ice cream to celebrate. I took a walk at Newport News Park just to stretch my legs. I need to exercise more as I get older as it is very hard to keep the weight off without exercising. As soon as I get my payback amount for my military service I am going to set a date to retire by August. Not exactly sure what my long term plans are except I want to travel and I want to move from this area. I need to start doing my taxes again as tax time is fast approaching. Next Sunday is Super Bowl Sunday and I will be rooting for the New York Giants. Just some of the scattered thoughts meandering through my mind.
Still hoping for snow but I am not holding my breath. I received what I hope is my last performance appraisal at work yesterday. I got high marks in all areas and my senior rater said that I should be promoted as soon as possible. So maybe I will be a GS-13 before I retire. I would like that. But the chance for a promotion will not change my goal of being retired this year. I am still hoping that I will be off the work roles and into my golden years by August of this year. In other news I had my first cottage meeting at our house on Thursday. Only a couple of people showed up but it did give me an opportunity to practice my roll as a facilitator. I am in need on a mini-vacation soon or some sort of adventure as it seems that I am becoming bored and restless lately. Nothing seems to hold my attention for long. Taking rides to a park somewhere to walk Max are about the only things I look forward to lately. I think all that will change once I am retired.
Friday as I left work I was excited as the weatherman (yeah, I know I should say weather forecaster) was calling for snow Saturday night and Sunday. Predictions were for 4 to 7 inches depending on where you were. Knowing the past record for snow predictions in this area I had my fingers crossed but did not really expect to see much snow. Well, the weatherman lived up to his abysmal record for snow predictions once again. It did start snowing Saturday evening but I could tell by the intensity of the snowfall that we were never going to get 4 to 7 inches. But to make matters even worse, it stopped snowing altogether before I went to bed. Sure enough, in the morning there was only a dusting of snow on the ground. I should have know better than to expect any significant snow accumulation for this area. Thinking maybe there would be more snow to the west of us I took a drive to Smithfield. While there was more snow on the ground in Smithfield it was still nowhere near the predicted snow accumulation. As usual the weatherman was covering his ass, saying that Smithfield had received between 1 and 3 inches of snow. Three inches my ass, maybe 1/3 rd of an inch. I guess the only way we will get any snowfall around here is if the weatherman predicts that there is not a snowball's chance in hell of getting any snow. Then we will have a blizzard of epic proportions.
I hope I am not in over my head at my church. I seem to have
a penchant for saying yes to everything my church asks me to do. Right now I am
chair of the interim team which is tasked with writing a mission and vision
statement and a behavioral covenant. I am also a member of the New Beginnings
committee and am co-hosting 4 cottage meetings over the next month. In addition
I have recently become a deacon of the church and have volunteered to help with
communion this month. Last but not least I have accepted the position of
Outreach director. Oops, one more thing is that I have volunteered (very
reluctantly) to go back to
I found out this week that my boss was retiring this March. Since I knew he was not old enough to retire I suspected that he was getting what the federal government calls a VERA. (Voluntary Early Retirement Authorization) This allows you to retire without meeting the mandatory age and time requirements. There is a penalty for retiring early but it is only about 2% per year that you retire early. So I asked him about the VERA and he told me that he did get one. I asked if they were still available and he told me yes. So to make a long story short I will be retiring this year. I will retire by August at the latest and May at the earliest. It all depends on how I want to cash in my accrued sick leave. Anyway, before the year is out I will be retired at the ripe old age of 59 with 28 years of federal service. Needless to say I am REALLY excited about this. I am finally starting to sense what being retired will really be like, and I can't wait. So next week I will be busy getting all the calculations and paperwork done so that I can get a final retirement date. In the meantime I am giving serious thought to what I want to do with the rest of my life as a retired person. To use an Internet phrase W00T!!!
The New Year has come and gone and I have great hopes for this year. I hope that this year will be the last one where I am fully employed. I plan on retiring in January of 2009. I have many plans for my retirement, including moving to a new home and traveling. I want to have a vacation this year, hopefully at one of the national parks. I am planning, with some trepidation, on returning to Gulfport, Mississippi with my church again. I am also going to start exercising and hopefully lose some weight as I cannot stand being the weight I am now. I have been very active with my church and I anticipate being active all year. But mostly I am looking forward to being retired. Work has become very tedious for me lately and I am way past ready to start a new era in my life.
