Retirement

At last retirement is in the very near future. November 30, 2010 will be my last day and I will be officially retired from AECOM where I have worked for the past almost 37 years. I have worked in the engineering field since November of 1965- a total of 42 years. I have met many wonderful people all of whom I will miss. Some I will keep in contact with but many will gradually slide out of my life as Jana and I go in new and exciting directions.

I do not have a picture to post with this blog so you will need to use your imagination--picture me laying back in my chair with my feet up and a cup of coffee(or other drink) at my elbow. I know what I will be doing for my first day of retirement- it is the next day that is yet to be determined.

It has been many weeks since I have added anything to the blog. We sure have been busy for not having anything to do. The company lost the contract I was working on in Virginia and its sister site in New Mexico. It had a huge impact as those two sites kept6- 8 people busy full time. So we are still trying to recover. They laid off two people in the electrical department, a mechanical designer and an architect. Work is starting to pick up a little bit as the stimulus money starts to hit the engineering tables, I think people expected miracles with the stimulus money but from the engineering and construction it typically takes 4-6 months to write the scope and prepare the request for proposal, another two months to get bids, 4-6 months to design the project another 3 months to bid before the actual construction starts. We are proposing on two air force projects right now and the schedule to start construction is third quarter 2010. Anyway they have my name in the pot for some projects in Virginia with the same group I was working with but at a different site.

We are staying home for Thanksgiving. Jean has invited us there for dinner and to spend the day. Do not know yet what we will do for Christmas. Travel someplace if the office decides to shut down for the week between Christmas and New Year.

Jana and I made a trip down to El Paso for church meetings in October. We had a good trip- took the BWM and weather nice enough to ride with the tip down. It has turned cold here so have had the top up for over a week, probably a record since I have had the car (almost two years).

I decided to take piano lessons so will have my first lesson today. My teacher is an older man named Craig Brown. He has a studio here in Albuquerque. I post the outcome when I have the first lesson under my belt.

Jet Lag

Well it has been almost a month since we returned from Scotland and we still haven't come out of the clouds. I took close to 3500 photos during our three week stay an it is a task to sort and make since out of that many slides. Many I have posted to Shutterfly and we have had a couple of photo books made up by Shutterfly. They are really nice, or the first one is we haven't seen the second one yet, it should come early next week We will probably do a couple more books as it is much less expensive with shutterfly then if I try to do it myself. The first book had 102 photos and cost less than $30. I can't print them at home for that price. The second book has 158 photos and it costs $42 with shipping. I completed my outfit while in Scotland by buying the Gillie Brogues, jacket and vest, shirt and cravat and, of course, the sgian dubh. We have had several people ask us what we liked best about Scotland. I think I finally found the answer; what we liked best about Scotland was Scotland. We didn't have a bad day or a bad experience- if it rained which it did some of most days well that is Scotland. When the wind blew and if did most of the time, that too is Scotland. And they even have sunshine in Scotland and we saw much of it almost every day. Some might say we were there during the good weather months but everything I read indicated wind rain and sun almost every month of the year. Most people hear will say wait a few hours and the weather will change; there I heard several of them say wait a few hours and the season will change. The Isle of Skye (misty island) was where we saw the most rain and wind and still in the afternoon we had sun shine and clouds playing on the mountain tops.

And yes, we really were there as can be seen. Not many photos of us and especially me as I usually carried both cameras. Must go for now but will write more next time.

Home from Scotland

The flowers in George Square, Glasgow were beautiful as they were everywhere in Scotland.

Wow! what a trip. We had a great time and really hated to come home so soon, Three weeks is a long time, though, but we enjoyed every minute. the first twelve days we were on a bus tour with 21 other travelers, 19 Americans and 2 Canadians. Our tour guide and bus driver was very good and very knowledgeable of the local history and geology. The final ten days we spent driving around Scotland. A challenge but I was not doing to bad driving on the left after the first couple of days.

Jana in George Square, Glasgow

Scotland and the people were everything were expected and more. We both fell in love with the country and already thinking about our next trip. We covered over 1000 miles on the bus tour and 1200 miles on our self driving tour. We traveled to the farthest point north on the main island and to the Orkney Islands, to the southern most point at Port Logan and Galloway light house, west coast to the east coast and even spent half a day in England. We saw a great deal but not everything so we must go back.

The Millinium Hotel in Glasgow where we stayed on our first night on tour.

Almost time

It is Sunday August 9 and we are starting the countdown. Have are bags nearly packed, passports ready, travelers checks and British pounds. Registered all of our electronics so we do not have to pay duty on them when we return. The flight leaves Albuquerque on Friday around 7AM and we arrive in Glasgow Saturday at 10AM. We will send complete itineraries to family before we leave. I am also taking my computer so hopefully will be able to upload a few photos as we travel.

New Humming Bird Feeder

We bought new humming bird feeders and has it ever been exciting. We have two feeders and there are 6 to 8 humming birds almost all of the time. Four varieties as best we can tell. The photo is taken with my new camera and telephoto lens I purchased for our upcoming trip to Scotland. the lens is a 75- 300mm zoom lens with auto focus and anti-shake. The new camera is a Canon D50. I plan to take a lot of photos.

We are really getting excited about our trip. Less than three weeks and we leave. I'll send itineraries this next week to all so you can contact us if you need. I will have my cell phone but I do not know how good the coverage will be on the north leg of our tour.

The yard has been beautiful this year and we have had a lot of nice comments from golfers. The fence and patio and plantings have all been enjoyable to look at and use. We have especially gotten a lot of use out of the new patio.

Time to eat so will close.

We had a nice rain yesterday. It is supposed to be beautiful today. Hope to start/finish planting flowers and probably pick a few weeds. Will let Sharon, our house keeper/gardener do the bulk.

This is Port William, Scotland, one of the places we hope to visit. One of my classmates lives in Port William. We can hardly wait. Now wish we had booked sooner. Something to plan for and dream about. We are working on the itinerary so that we can send contact information. We should still be available on our cell phone, hopefully with the same number. We'll let you know.

Talked with Amy earlier in the week. The Gray's had all been down with the flu. Hope you are all feeling better now. They were planting their garden a few weeks ago, So Mary Mary......How does you garden grow?

We haven't talked to Charlie and Cat. Need to give them a call today. I did talk to Steve, Connie was in Texas visiting her mother due to return this week. I also talked to Judie. She and Floyd doing fine and getting ready to make their move from Mesa to Lost Trail for the summer.

After all of my travelling last year it has slowed down enough that I am starting to look at what it will take for me to retire. Not yet, but at least starting to think along those lines.

Time to fix breakfast and get ready for church.