If I had ten bucks for every time I’ve been asked some variation of that question just in the first two weeks ………                                               The phrase I’ve included in my answer most of the time is, “I’m in awe of it.”                                                                                                                                   I think that it’s because it so clearly feels like the reward for the long trail that has been my work life.  It has been countless days of trying to make the sale, working to land the new account, plowing new operational ground, problem solving, counseling, teaching, and occasionally stealing someone else’s best Customer Service person. 🙂

Now everything has a newness to it.  You get to reset all your possibilities.  The gift of time has a luster.  It is in fact the currency of retirement.  I’m confident I will treat it accordingly and I know I will thank God for it every day.

It seems like I’ve already spent a lot of time thinking about the slippery slopes of retirement.  You begin to face them almost immediately and they all have to do with choices and time.

I’m an early riser and to this point more than half of the days of my retirement have started with morning mass and then right to the Y for a workout.  Funny, those are the days that seem to turn out the best.

I could go on and on about some of this stuff but my sense is that there is such a thing as a post that’s too long.  Undoubtedly some of it will creep in to future posts.  In the meantime, you can be confident that the answer to the question is, … really, really keen.

The other night I was enjoying a cigar at my favorite cigar shop and studying weather patterns down through the center, and east of center, of the country.  I did this by adding locations in to my Weatherbug app and then looking at the 10 day forecasts of those locations.  The conclusion I came to was that it looks like there is a good window of opportunity for leaving Minnesota Tuesday,  going down through central Illinois,  over to Memphis, and then down into Alabama.  So that’s the plan unless weather changes it.

……… you are tuning in hoping to read about travel adventures,

I’m still in Minnesota and probably about a week away from heading south, depending on weather windows.

Not long before he died, Rick Danko was interviewed on his front lawn in upstate NY.  Rick was the bassist and vocalist for The Band, and one of three members who are no longer with us.  He said something in this interview that has always stuck with me.

“When we were young we wanted to change the world and we thought we could.  But now that we’re older we found out that all we are really supposed to do is take care of the neighborhood.”

So why do I lead with that?

I always tried to make Applied Power Products first and foremost a good place to work.  But along the way I learned that Applied Power is not a good place to work because of me or any other one person.  Applied Power Products is a good place to work because of everybody.

Our work lives are a huge chunk of the time we are given and I want to say to all of you who read this that having you in my work life made me feel blessed.  I know everyone doesn’t feel that same way, but I do, and I want to thank you for that.

And I want you to take care of that neighborhood.  Do your job well and thoroughly every day and take care of your co-workers.  It’s easy to criticize, but helping someone takes a little effort.  Be that kind of part of the neighborhood.  Do that and no matter who comes and goes, Applied Power Products will remain a good place to work.

My heart is filled with a hope for the health and happiness of you all. e

…….. about writing something to my former co-workers.  But I also need to figure out the workings of this site including getting photos and other media on to it.  So I thought I’d post this picture that I have of Vern, my eldest former co-worker.  Vern is now deceased but this was him as we celebrated his 95th birthday.  Yes, he was still working at 95.  And inspiring us.  Not that he made us all want to work until we’re 95.  Yikes!  But he inspired by living what was important to him, being dependable, doing the job right, expecting others to do the same, and never throwing anything away.