On September 29, 2023 I officially gave notice of my pending retirement on December 31, 2023.

I sent notice Friday morning before lunch to my direct boss (no one else copied on email) as a courtesy since last year we had a guy retire and he completely bypassed the boss and sent an email straight to H.R. and this pissed off the boss somewhat.  I wanted to deliver things in person but my boss had just gone through hip replacement surgery and so he was working remotely.  So I thought I would let him know first.  He never responded to my email.  Nothing.  No thanks or please don’t go or anything.  Complete silent treatment.  I gave my boss until 4:00 PM that afternoon and finally said “screw it” and sent my email to H.R. making if official and I copied him on the email.

H.R. responded within 15 minutes, even though she was out of the office on vacation.  So go figure.  “Hated to see me go but understood the desire to retire”, blah blah blah.  She does want to meet with me this week while she is in town so we can finalize stuff and discuss the next steps in the process.  

Meanwhile I am counting down the days (90 as of today) until I am done with this job.  I’ve been in telecom for 38 years and 8 months as of this posting.  Put a fork in me, I am done.  I want to work on my hobbies.  You know, the things you should’ve done when you were first getting started, instead you got a career in a technology area that would pay you good money because you are a pretty logical thinking guy and can figure shit out.  Now it’s time to let the creative side out full time.  We all know the creative side doesn’t pay as well as the logical side.

So what am I going to do?  Maybe start a freelance photography business doing portrait and engagement photography work.  Write and produce music in my recording studio.  Write that Sci Fi book I’ve been bragging about.  Go see America.  The wife and I have already agreed we want to get on an Amtrak train and circle the U.S.  I’ve seen more places in Europe than I have in the U.S.  Grand Canyon?  Haven’t seen.  Mount Rushmore?  Nope not that either.  Any of the federal parks like Yellowstone?  Nope.  So you see, the wife and I have a lot to see just in the U.S.  Hell, there is a lot to see just here in Texas where we live.  I’ve never seen the Texas coast and I’ve lived in this state since 1976.  So lot’s of stuff to do and very little time to do it.

Of course I will continue to post here what’s going on with things in my life.  I plan to announce the existence of this blog on my Facebook account.  That will really set things off.  No one who actually knows me (family and friends) knows about this blog.  But on my birthday, October 10, I will announce the existence and provide the URL.  Ought to be interesting.