No Where to Go and All Day to Get There

This thing all things devours;

Birds, beasts, trees, flowers;
Gnaws iron, bites steel;
Grinds hard stones to meal;
Slays king, ruins town,
And beats mountain down. 

Riddle posed by Gollum to Bilbo in The Hobbit

As the TV Soap Opera says "Like sands through the hour glass...so go the days of our lives". 

I can't believe it has been more than four years since I last posted here. I used the excuse there wasn't enough time to write. A bald faced lie if there ever was one.  There was time, I just didn't make proper use of it!  So much sand has passed through my hourglass.  The tales I would have told, the events I could have commemorated. The memories I should have enumerated.  I guess it's true, life is what happens when you're busy making plans.  

The musical world has long been focused on the matter of time.  

"Ain't it funny how time slips away"

"Another day older and deeper in debt"

"Time keeps on slipping, slipping, slipping into the future"

"Time, time, time see whats become of me. While I looked around for my possibilities"

No more excuses.  Because you see I now have all the time in the world.  Or at least as much time as I want to commit to my writing endeavors.  I stepped off the treadmill, no more bosses to answer to, no time cards to punch.  Like many of my fellow members of the baby boom generation, I have retired!

I certainly did not go gentle into my retirement.  My beautiful bride of 13 years (where did that time go?) first decided to take what she refers to as her sabbatical at the end of last year.  

Her decision to call it a career didn't sit well with me at first. Not because I didn't think she had earned it or even deserved it.  It just wasn't her turn!  I am older and it should have been me who threw in the towel first and I wasn't ready yet.  As it turns out her decision was the best thing to happen to either one of us.  

As she eased into her post work life things changed. The stress on her face evaporated overnight.  She has always been one of the most positive minded people I have ever met and yet her outlook became even sunnier.  I was jealous of the fact her time was now her own. Each morning as I trundled off to my place of employment I became more and more disenchanted with my status in the workforce.  I could see my job was robbing me of something I could see was more and more important to me every day.  My time!

There were a lot of demons running through my mind as to why I couldn't retire.  Can we afford it? What will I do with my time? Will we kill each other?  

Angie patiently waited for me to call it a career.  Every day offering sound advice regarding my fears, always with that positive attitude I really admire about her.  Four months into her "Jubilee" I decided the answer to my fears were...yes we can afford it. I haven't had any problem filling my days. We are both still alive and I thank her for opening my eyes to the fact there is life after work.

Angie & Ron's Footprints Miami Beach 2017

When we first got together Angie and I vowed to leave our footprints around the world. We've made great strides in our efforts to fulfill that vow. We even took a road trip to celebrate our new found freedom. I will share some of our experiences with you in a future posting.  We also had a few things which needed to be taken care of around the house which filled a few of our days. Now I intend to carve out a few hours each week putting my thoughts down and leaving something besides footsteps when I leave this world.