After the Winter

I have my cherished delusions and the Early Spring is chief among them.  Yes, blizzards notwithstanding I begin to envision warm, verdant idylls around the first of February.  Hey, it happens once in a while, usually in peculiar weather anomalies such as Rapid City South Dakota. Why, they once had a 49 degree (F) temperature rise in two minutes....followed by a 58 degree drop over 27 minutes but I am ignoring that part.  Remember, I'm delusional.

But back in the real world it has been a quite tolerable winter.  Not too much sub zero weather, only the occasional blanket of snow and even that is an excuse for impromptu neighborhood fun.  You have to keep a close eye on things to ensure that you are out with your snow blower at just the right moment.  Out too soon and you will have to plow twice.  Wait too long and the folks next door will steal a march on you and plow your sidewalk before you can get there.  When timed just right it is a sort of mechanical ballet done to the basso thrum of internal combustion, we meet at our shared sidewalk convergence, nod to each other and pirouette our turns.  Of course then veering off to plow the sidewalks on the rest of our half block before the folks there can roust their sluggish teens out the door with shovels.

FIRST robotics has made things fly by.  Nothing like a time compressed major undertaking to make the days and weeks seem fleeting.  Am I the kind of person who wakes up at 5AM having in my sleep come up with a nifty solution to a technical quandary?  I am surprised you would even ask.

And so I wind down my retirement.  It looks as if I am heading back to work the last week of February.  This would be an 11 week hiatus, eclipsing my previous longest retirement of five weeks.

It's been nice.  I could get used to it.

In my current mode there are so few rules.  Be awake, be asleep any time I choose other than the six day a week robotics build sessions.  No long distance drives, no being up all night having to actually make life and death decisions.  We have a routine for daily exercise and for regular grandchild time.

I am going to take the work life a bit easier too.  Clinic and Urgent Care stuff, no more night and weekend ER punishment.  Enough to keep me out from underfoot and to avert guilt regards minor extravagances.

Adventures ahead of course.  Another trip to Vindolanda for a bit of Roman excavation.  We should have a jolly crew on hand this year.  Oh and some other interesting ventures. Stay tuned.
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