Oops I did it again

I missed my weekly Monday post again.  Pretend it’s still Monday and this is my post.  I have been half incapacitated for the past two days.  You see, I played golf on Sunday and that evening I was in such intense back pain that I had to use an ice pack and pop ibuprofen.  That pain started about halfway through 18 holes of a pitiful display of golf.  I blame the back for my score.  I should’ve stopped once the back started to complain but I kept going and I’ve strained every muscle I think I have. And tested my resolve to continue to own golf clubs.

I went to work on Monday.  I was able to shuffle around for most of the day.  Last night I moved to a heating pad. Most of my sleepless night I was in pain.  A slight roll onto my side caused excruciating pain and then I would be wide awake.  This morning I could barely stand up. 

After popping some ibuprofen and a hot shower I could shuffle around the house.  But there was no way I was going to drive into work, I messaged my boss, it is a WFH (work from home) day.  So here I am with heating pad on back and answering emails.  I messaged the Doc and begged for some muscle relaxers and he called in a prescription.  Waiting for that to be filled.

This sucks.

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Wish me Happy Birthday

Tomorrow is my birthday.  I’ll be 62.  Here in the U.S. I will be eligible for social security payments.  I’ve been paying into social security since my first job as a busboy at Luther’s BBQ in Killeen Texas.  I was 16 years old.  So you better believe I’m ready to cash in on that pile of money.  I’ll be setting it up to start in January. 

If you read last Monday’s post (go read it, I’ll wait) you will know that I announced my retirement at my workplace on Friday, September 29.  I gave 3 month notice. My career in telecom engineering started on February 11, 1985.  My last day of work in that career will be Friday, December 30, 2023. 

Things I won’t miss after retirement

  1. The shitty drive into work every morning.  Dallas traffic sucks ass
  2. Sitting in a piss yellow office with a desk from the 1990’s for 6 hours or more
  3. Performing boring meaningless tasks
  4. The shitty drive home every afternoon, again, Dallas traffic sucks ass

Things I will miss

  1. The paycheck, I won’t lie, I make a lot of money, but its not longer worth the headaches this job gives me
  2. health benefits paid for by the company, its going to be the biggest expense for me until I reach 65

I’m ready to do things that I enjoy. 

I’m looking forward to being creative, but these things may also become a side hustle to make some spending cash.  I’ll probably start an eBay store or marketplace where I can sell off toys and comic books and other stuff I no longer want or collect.  The plan would be do downsize over the next 3 years so when I turn 65 we sell this big two story house for a nice hefty equity profit and buy something more one story manageable and away from the Dallas Metroplex (see Dallas traffic sucks ass comment above).  Can you say lake barndominium? Moving to my home state of Mississippi is always an option as well. Texas has been home since I was 14 years old and I consider myself a Texan, but Mississippi is where my heritage and family roots are.

Just 12 more weeks of working this job are left.

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 I Officially Gave Notice

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.  

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Vinyl of the Month – The Tubes by The Tubes

Have you ever heard of The Tubes?  If you were a teen in the 70’s reading CREEM magazine you would have first been introduced to them.  Like KISS, who I also learned about through CREEM magazine, The Tubes were featured in an article complete with pictures of their stage show.  I was intrigued.  I wanted to know what they sounded like but there were no Tubes albums at the PX (post exchange) on Ft. Buchanan in Puerto Rico.  I had to wait until we returned to the states on vacation in 1975 and walk into a K-Mart in Natchez Mississippi to luckily find the album and then beg my Mom into buying it for me.  I was 13 at the time.

The album, The Tubes, was released in June 1975 and in hindsight it was just pure coincidence and luck that it was sitting in a record bin in a K-Mart in Natchez Mississippi.  It could be considered fate?  Since getting that album I’ve been a life-long Tubes fan but have never seen them live.

The Tubes are a band from San Francisco that formed in 1972.  They made big news with their cabaret style show that acted out their songs.  They were made for MTV before there was MTV.  Two of my favorite Tubes songs off their first album include White Punks on Dope and Mondo Bondage.  Both prominently visualized through their stage show.  Imagine a character in 10 inch platform boots dressed in a glitter costume named Quay Lude singing White Punks on DopeFee Waybill, lead singer for the band, had a vivid imagination.

Most folks know The Tubes from their later songs She’s a Beauty and Talk to Ya Later, both from the early 80s and the MTV era, but I say their best stuff is on their first three albums – The Tubes, Young and Rich, and Now.

Like many of my Vinyl of the Month’s, this one brought back many memories of that vacation during the summer of 1975.  Not just the album purchase.  For that I chose The Tubes by The Tubes to be this month’s Vinyl of the Month.

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I Got Nothing

Would you believe I got nothing prepared for today’s weekly Monday post? I don’t. I let it slip my mind and here I am scrambling to come up with something so I can meet my New Year’s resolution of posting once a week. Not that anyone reads this crap anyway.

Why am I not prepared this week? I’ve been busy running numbers and watching YouTube videos. By numbers I mean I’ve been running my retirement numbers and seeing if it is feasible to retire comfortably and live to about 85 years old. By YouTube videos I mean I’ve been watching every retirement guru out there hoping one of them will point at me and tell me it’s safe to retire and enjoy life work free.

I am happy to say that the numbers add up. I can live to 85 years old. Why 85? I don’t have any illusions that I will live past that year. Just look around and tell me of someone male you know that has lived past 85. The percentages just aren’t there. My Dad passed at 82, My Mom is 84 and will probably live to 90 but that’s a female trait. I expect my wife to live to 90 so there is money to cover that.

I’ve watched many a YouTube retirement guy and they all say retire as soon as you can so you can enjoy your money in the “go-go” years, before you get to the “no-do” years. Don’t say “Just one more year.” I had a work friend that said “just one more year” and he passed from cancer within two months of diagnosis. That was last November. So I am not going to work another year so I can have enough money to live til 90 or even 100. It’s time. After 38 years and 11 months of work (not counting pre-career work), it’s time to call it quits on this career job.

I turn 62 in October and I am announcing my retirement this coming Friday to my boss – that is September 29, 2023 for anyone reading this in the future. That gives my company 90 days, 3 months, to find a replacement so I can provide transition training. We will see what my boss says. A couple of people think I’ll be offered the opportunity to stay on the job but work remotely. Something I’ve been wanting to do this past year but was never given the choice. Tempting working from home, but I don’t want to be bossed around anymore. I’ll miss the money. I make a lot of money. But I won’t miss some of the personalities at this job that are downright mean and talk down to you simply because they are higher in the org chart. I’m done with that. Life it too short for that kind of environment.

I’m retiring from this job but I’m sure I’ll find a part time job doing something more meaningful and fulfilling. Substitute teaching, or restart my recording studio business. Anything but what I’m doing now. A job where if I don’t feel like working that day, I don’t have to. Know what I mean?

I guess I did have something to say this week. I threw this together quickly so please excuse the typos and grammar. I’ll update with how things go this coming Friday with my formal announcement to my boss and HR.

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Peerless

When it comes to non-work related activities, I have a hard time relating to my peers at work.  Perhaps the better statement is “they have a hard time relating to me”. Except for a couple of friends that I met at work with similar hobbies in music (we formed a band), it is extremely rare to find anyone who enjoys the same hobbies, music, books or even movies that I do.

I’ve found that my management peers (I am a Director that answers to a V.P. of Engineering) don’t understand my hobbies and interest.  None of my peers:

  • order, read and collect comic books on a monthly basis.  
  • buy toys with the prospect of collecting and photographing them.
  • own a DSLR camera and enjoy taking photos of stuff.  
  • collect, currently rebuilding, their vinyl record collection.  I don’t think any of them have ever owned a vinyl record.
  • Play an instrument (except for previously mentioned two friends)
  • have ever been in band or played live music
  • write and record their own music
  • like KISS (who doesn’t like KISS??)

When my peers find out about any of the above, they wonder why?  Why waste the money on comics or toys?  I’m sure if my job did not pay as well as it does, I probably would not be buying comics, vinyl records or toys regularly.  Their hobbies are investing or attending and discussing professional sporting events.  That sounds boring to me.  And I played Texas High School football as a starter.

I have stated this many times over, I’m an 18-year-old Nerd trapped in an old person’s body.  

I work with some serious people who take their roles in the company very seriously.  Don’t get me wrong, I am not a slacker, I am a Director because of my experience, common sense, and hard work.  I’m fairly smart and logical.  I’ve paid my dues, traveling to many places in the U.S. as well as Europe for the company, but I’m tired of that and it doesn’t excite me.  Lunch discussions with my work peers usually revolve around work.  I don’t participate unless asked a direct question.  I hate talking about work outside work.  It has come to the point that I just don’t go out and eat lunch with them.  This has had the welcoming affect of saving me money (because lunch has risen to $15-$20 lately) and I am able to stay on my low carb, low sugar diet (see resolution post).

I guess, to summarize, I am tired of working for others.  I want to do something for myself or something meaningful.  I’ve even looked at volunteer activities or even teaching when I retire.  Write a book?  Eventually.  Start back up a recording studio?  Would love to do this again.  Become a YouTube or blog influencer?  Not likely.

I look forward to retirement.

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O.B.L.

copyright US News Sky News

On September 11, 2001, the world changed.  Innocence was lost.  Life for all of us took a sharp turn down a darker street.  That day, of course, was the day terrorist took advantage of America’s naivety and brought down two columns and attacked our military establishment.  It was a call to patriotism.  This disastrous sneak attack triggered a need to express myself and I did that by writing a song in the shower.

Two days after the attack on America, and learning of the perpetrators of this attack, I was busy preparing for work, soaping down my body in a hot shower, when the words came to me.  I was so proud of my lyrics and how easy they had come to me in the shower.  The song practically wrote itself.  The name of the song was O.B.L.  which, if you haven’t guessed, is the initials for Osama Bin Laden.  

The lyrics revolved around the fact that OBL had pissed off the great nation of America and we were going to hunt him down and there would be hell to pay.  With lyrics in hand, I fired up my old desktop computer that was running a basic recording software called Cakewalk, plugged in my Takamine acoustic guitar and a cheap Shure microphone into my Aardvark audio interface and played and sang my song while the software captured my performance.  I had captured my song for all the world to hear and enjoy and tell me how witty my lyrics were and how catchy it was.  I even went so far as to join the song writing association BMI and register my song in their archive in case a famous country music artist would want to take it, re-record it and make it a top country hit.  Resulting it royalty money for the rest of my life.

Of course, no one has actually heard the song.  I was too insecure to post it for anyone to listen to.  I do that now.  This is the only file left from that recording twenty-two years ago (at the time of this confession).  I have no idea what happened to the original Cakewalk track files.  I moved on to better software products and, I’d like to think, better songwriting.  I’m sure if you search BMI you may find my song listed in their database.

Below is a secret link to the song. You are getting special access to the song. Enjoy.

O.B.L.

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2023 Resolution Review – Am I Making a Dent?

I completely missed posting on Monday, I guess because it was a holiday in the states. So pretend it’s still Monday and this is my posting.

Here we are 8 months into the year, 2/3 of the way on this 2023 journey, and it’s time for a 2023 Resolution Review. It’s that time of the year where I review what nonsense I came up with in January to try and fulfill, improve and better my life.  

So here we go.

Resolution #1 – I’m going to journal this year

I continue to journal, if not every day, at least every other day. I have not gone more than 2 days without journaling.  So, there you go.  Journaling has become a habit.  Put a check mark by this resolution. This one is going to be completed by year’s end.

Resolution #2 – I need to slow down and don’t give a fuck

This one is hard.  My personality is all about worry and anxiety, whether it’s work or personal.  I worry I’m not doing a good enough job and they could walk me out, which then triggers worries about money because I still have adult children that rely on some amount of monetary support from me, including health benefits for my youngest son.  I am still impatient when I drive to and from work.  Too many slow fuckers in the fast lane!  So, not succeeding at this resolution.  Maybe in retirement.

Resolution #3 – I gotta lose weight

Put a check mark by this one.  After visiting my hip surgeon and being told I needed to lose weight to prepare for a successful surgery, I buckled down and I’ve been losing 1-2 lbs per week.  Me and the wife have cut out as much carbs and sugar as we can and I have been staying within a calorie count that insures a 1-2 lbs loss each week.  We cut out potatoes, rice, beans and anything high in carbs.  We eat meat, cheese, eggs and we’ve found low carb bread.  Thanks to Hero Bread this diet has not been an issue.  We still eat burgers with buns, and brats with buns, and BLT sandwiches with bread.  And Hero makes tortillas so we still have Taco Tuesday or we have steak quesadillas.  Good stuff.  And we found a perfect use of the tortillas – we make thin crust pizza that is really good and has very little carbs and sugar.  So thank to Hero Breads for giving us the opportunity for a normal diet.  As of this posting I have lost 40 lbs.  Looking to lose 20 more.

Resolution #4 – I need to write (complete) a book or comic book

I need to reword this to completing a FIRST DRAFT of a novel or memoir.  I successfully completed Camp NaNoWriMo in July.  I set a goal of 20 thousand words and I did it.  I wrote 21K words towards a Memoir I’m working on.  I haven’t completed the draft but baby steps.  Just sitting down every day and hitting a word count goal was a successful step in the right direction.  I am going to give the main NaNoWriMo a try in November.   That is writing 50K of words in 30 days.  That would be well on the way to completing a first draft of my Sci-Fi novel.

Resolution #5 – I need to create, record, and release a song into the world

After spending the month of July working on my writing, i spent the month of August putting together one song.  I didn’t complete this.  I created a demo and I posted on Soundcloud but I haven’t finished the re-recording of the parts to make it more cohesive and releasable to a streaming service.  So failure for the month of August.  But I think I can still finish this goal for the yer and maybe add another one or two songs.  I’ve been highly creative these past couple of weeks.

Resolution #6 I’m going to Blog once per week

Since my last resolution update where I added this goal of blogging every Monday, I have done so.  Even it was a brief post saying that I had nothing to say, at least I said something.

In summary, except for resolution #2, I am pretty confident that I will complete my other resolution goals by the end of the year.  That is 5 out of 6 goals completed.  That’s 83%, that’s a B grade here in the U.S.  Above average.  I can live with that.

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Monday’s Weekly Posting

I don’t know that I have anything to share today.  For once I am out of time and ideas to share.  The song I’ve been working on is still sitting in a demo state leaving me 3 days to re-record guitars, re-record vocals and then mix and master and release in order to meet my August goal and one of my New Year’s Resolutions.  That’s going to be tough.

I guess I can try and see what I can get done.

I applied to a teaching certification program.  I have this plan to retire at the end of this year and I’m considering teaching.  My original degree plan, when I started college many many years ago, was to be a Coach/Teacher.  So I’m thinking at the very least I could do substitute teaching during retirement. Or drive a school bus. Or be one of the crossing guards that stops traffic so that the neighborhood kids and cross the street.

I am completely done with summer.  We have had way too many straight 100+ days of heat and I’m so over it. Even the swimming pool water is like bath water.

The Labor Day weekend is coming.  3 days of no work.  On that day I’ll be providing my 2/3 of the year status on my New Year’s Resolutions.

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