retirement

One last snow before the thaw

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Tuesday evening we had another snowstorm.  First it snowed, then it stopped.  Then it came down freezing rain, and by Wednesday it was back to snow again.  At the end of it we had a foot of snow.  Everything was covered in a deep blanket of fluffy white stuff.  We stayed home and caught up on email, had a late breakfast, and considered how to catch up on our cancelled meetings and appointments.

Then I started thinking.   What do we do with our time?   Where does it get us?  What is important and what is not? Continue reading →

Ringing in the New Year: looking ahead in 2017

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We rang in the new year quietly with a mildly alcoholic drink and a movie.  No late night parties for us or big celebrations in a bar or hotel ballroom.  Maybe it’s because we’re not in our twenties anymore or just that we enjoy being at home with our canine friends.  Whatever the reason, we were satisfied with our quiet evening at home.  We are at the point where we didn’t even have to explain to each other why we spent our evening at home.  Our priorities had changed.   Continue reading →

A first place ribbon at the Quilt Show!

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Look at that winning smile!

The past week or so has been jam packed.  Larry and I went on a vacation — more on that later.  My friend BJ came for a few days and we attended the Pennsylvania National Quilt Extravaganza at Oaks, PA.  BJ is a master quilter and had entered one of her quilts in the Show.  I felt very fortunate that I live close to Oaks so I got a nice visit with her.  I went last year —  without BJ — and did a post about it with a picture of her quilt with a ribbon.  This year we went together, and, yes, another ribbon.  I was not surprised because BJ is one good quilter.   BJ retired a few years before I did and decided to pursue her love of fiber and become a professional quilter.

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Absence makes the heart grow fonder

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There is an old adage that says absence makes the heart grow fonder.    I was thinking about this recently because my husband is away for a while.   When he travels he says that I don’t miss him, while he misses me.  That isn’t exactly true.  What happens is that I adjust to him being away, which in my book means that if I think too much about missing him I have a harder time during the separation. Continue reading →

Groundhog Day: the day after

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Bill Murray in Groundhog Day

 In the movie   Groundhog Day Bill Murray plays a weatherman who wakes up to discover that each day is February 2nd and is forced to relive it over and over again.   Finally, after what seems like a lifetime of anger, bitterness, nastiness, depression, and a lot of humor, he changes his fate by changing his behavior.  I never tire of watching this movie.  It has such a feel good message of redemption through personal growth.

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Survivor’s guilt: am I good enough without a real job?

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A few days ago I hit day sixty of my post-retirement life.  A lot has happened in two months.  I moved, left my career and friends in the DC area, got to know a new community and neighbors, and started working with a volunteer organization.  I’ve kept busy and engaged with all kinds of tasks, but every once in a while I think about that prior life when my value came from my job title and the size of my office and the number of people I managed.  What is my value now?  Am I a success or a failure? Continue reading →

Weeds as a metaphor for life

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I don’t like dandelions.  I don’t like crabgrass either or other weeds, but my dislike for dandelions is extreme.   For the past two weeks I have been outside every day with my forked tongue garden tool digging up the dandies.  They yield willingly to me after a rain or in the early morning when the ground is soft.  When the grass turns brown from lack of rain, the dandies thrive in spite of it, sticking out their dandelion tongues at me in defiance.  See, they say, I will grow in any weather in any soil and   Continue reading →

Little Lost Creek Alpaca Farm

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One of the alpacas at Little Lost Creek farm

One of the alpacas at Little Lost Creek farm

We recently visited an alpaca farm in Salford, PA about five miles from our house.  I met one of the owners, Alex Frazier, at a craft fair at Pennypacker Mills.  He and his wife Sandy are the owners of the Little Lost Creek Alpaca Farm.  He told us about their upcoming open house and we decided to take a look.  By the way, it’s called Little Lost Creek because the creek so rarely has water in it that it gets “lost”.  Continue reading →