Patricia headed back to work today...After retiring from 25 years of teaching special education at 3 school systems, she left St Henry in May and took an early retirement...knowing she would probably teach in some capacity for the next 5 years or so. This summer she tutored and then was offered a part time position here in Celina as a teacher, working with immigrant children from the Marshall Islands...that every other week position for some 25 hours has quickly become a every week schedule for 28 or so hours per week...so much for retirement!
Much like when I "retired" from Public/Environmental Health, she knew she had to and wanted to work, so the extra hours are welcome, as is the extra money, although we would have survived without it. When I left the Health Department, I knew I had to work...Hell I was only 53 back in the Summer of 2002. So I drove RV Motor Homes for 5 years and umpired baseball...I eventually picked up football and then basketball, and gave up my RV gig when the gas prices basically destroyed the RV business in Indiana...with 150 or so contests per year and now a bit of Social Security, I am doing enough to stop the boredom.
Patricia and I have been together for 40 years and will be married for 37 this Christmas season, but neither one of us is willing to sit around waiting for death by staring at 4 walls or each other 24/7....
The Future?
So for now, at least the next five years if God gives them to us...Patricia will teach, I will officiate{at least baseball, not sure about football or roundball} and we have initial plans to spend at least a month near the Gulf of Mexico each summer, when the weather is hot and the crowds are down...those are still in the planning stages. Of course we will sit with grandson Kasyn as much as we can or Hal and Lisa need us...Patricia will still take care of Anissa's needs although she only comes home on weekends for a few hours, she is still under our guardianship.
As for me, as mentioned I will continue to officiate and umpire...I have a pretty full schedule for the next few years, but will begin to cut back on football and basketball, working mostly lower level games in those...but will, if my eyes and health permit, continue to do a full Spring Baseball schedule on the Varsity level. In fact I have already been offered tournament games for next season...so somebody thinks I'm still a good umpire, the tournaments assignments don't get handed out like parade candy.
One thing I am looking at....call me crazy since I turn 65 next March, is getting another "Duel Sport" Motorcycle...I have been getting the urge to ride for a few years now, and when my life long friend Bob Jones stopped in the other night with his Honda 1300 tourning bike, I was pretty much hooked. I've got friends, some older, like Sam Lewis and Mike Tillman my Vietnam/VSPA Buddies and old Junior High friend Don "Rat" Boyce, who ride big Harley-Davidson bikes, and Bob rides a touring Honda. Now mind you I have no interest in riding a "Hog" or big bike...been there with a Yamaha years ago...I'm looking to revert back to my life in the mid 1970s when I had a Kawasaki 250 On/Off Road Bike....I want to get into the dirt and still be able to ride to the games in the good weather {Summer Baseball and Fall Football} to save some gas and just ride...so if the fiances hold out by next Spring I plan on getting a new or late model Kawasaki 250S and see if I still "have what it takes".
Last week we were in Wisconsin celebrating with Patricia's family and friends the 90th birthday of her dad Bill....a World War II Vet who turned 90 on the 13th of August. Hal flew in from his work in Alabama{he's in Oakland, California this week} and Sam drove up from Chicago .. so about 30 of us celebrated. Hal and I took in the Reds game at Milwaukee on Saturday night....another Reds lost, I am now Oh for my last 5...as good as the Reds have been, they seem to sense me in the crowd at home or on the road and fall flat...guess I'll boycott myself for awhile.
This week football scrimmages began on the Junior High level, tonight I am filling in with Garry's crew{yes the same guy I umpire baseball with in the Spring} for a Varsity scrimmage at Van Wert against Greenville tonight...then tomorrow, despite putting my baseball gear up for the season, I will pull it back out and work the first of 6 straight Saturday's umpiring Junior High Fall Baseball....heck, the games have a time limit and $100 cash for 4 hours at most...how can I turn that down? I can't so baseball, my main sport, will still be in the offing until early October....Keeping Busy while being retired indeed!back later>>>>
Photos-The backyard Sunflower "Big Daddy"...this one is big as a Basketball and sits on a 14 foot high stem/The first model Kawasaki 250 I owned was the 1974 like this one...the next one, if all goes according to plans are like the ones below it/Bill Callies celebraing 90 years on this earth....and another Reds game, this one at Miller Park in Milwaukee, another Cincinnati loss.
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