And on to Christmas

Thanksgiving was very good. My daughter and her family visited fot the long weekend. Lots of good food, great conversations, some Manhattans, and lots of football on TV.

Now, it's on to Christmas. Most of the decorations are up, and the shopping has started. The grandkids are at the age where the only thing they want is money. Ruins the thrill of opening gifts, but they appreciate it, and so it goes.

Got my wife a cool gift; one of those bird feeders with a camera in it. That'll be fun.

I post a list to my family every year, a list that they ignore. I'll continue the tradition this week.

For now, it's "Let It Snow" time.

Just In Time?

 A friend of mine, Matt, has been a software developer for decades. We worked together as Developer Advodates at Rackspace. He's a Ruby expert, but has a lot of experience in other languages as well. If I owned a software company, I'd hire him.

He's out of work -- by no fault of his own -- and just cannot find a job. It's terrible. As he describes it, jobs as software developers are just not available.

I moved from pure software developer to Developer Advocate in 2013, then from advocate to developer marketing in 2018. I am so incredibly thankful that I made the move when I did.

I recall, in 2018, I was speaking to a user group when an attendee asked me "What do you see as the next big trend in software development?". This was when containers, Docker and Kubernetes were the things.

"Artificial intelligence" was my immediately reply. "I see no reason why we can't use software to write software."

Oh how correct I was.

Gym Time

 One of the best things about retirement is: More time in the gym. I don't feel rushed at all, so I can slow down, concentrate, take longer breaks between sets, and do more work.

Today I did a "pull" day, that included:

• Pull ups
• Back extensions
• Bent over dumbbell ros
• Reverse fly
• Dumbbell standing curls
• Leg curls
• Lat pulldowns
• Concentration curls
• Cardio: Rowing machine

I love that I no longer feel rushed to get home to work. I expect my health and fitness level to improve over the next, say, six months.

eBay Time

 I finally have the time to get rid of old tech stuff by selling it on eBay. I sold an old iPhone 8 and have two Samsung smart watches and an old but never used BLU phone currently listed.

I’ve made about $42 so far. I have more stuff to list.

I think I’ll buy bitcoin with the money just for giggles.

The Weekend Rush

 I still feel that “I need to get this stuff done during the weekend” rush that wells up on Saturday morning. Even though I have every day off work now, I still have 50 years of momentum pushing me toward the weekend rush.

It’s tough to overcome. One way I’m dealing with it is to make very many small items on my To-Do list, and then schedule one for each day. For example: I have six huge stepping blocks; they’re bricks with about six inches of concrete under them. I want to break them up into small pieces to discard them.To do that, I used a large sledge hammer and do the back-aching work of hitting a block over and over until it finally breaks.

It really wears me out.

So, instead of “Break up stepping blocks” being on my To-Do list, I have “Break up block #1, Break up block #2” etc. up to Break block #6.

So much to do. And I like it that way.

Groceries

 I had this idea that, once I retired, I've have time to shop for groceries with more intention. I'd visit the grocery outlet and Lidl and Aldi and save money.

But my dear bride had other plans. So, we drive 50 minutes (25 each way) once a week to shop at Wegmans and we do not save money.

Oh well. We are eating very well.

It gets easier

 One thing that jumps out after retiring: Life is much easier. Not just because you don’t work, but — related — because you have time to do things.

For example: We go for groceries (another blog post coming about that) on a weekday — Thursday will be our day. No crowds. 

Easy.

I have *no* reason to hurry at the gym. I can take my time, rest between sets, and really concentrate (“Be in the moment is the kids say”) and get a great workout without pressure.

Easy.

Preparing lunch for the week? I have tons of time.

Easy.

Working around the house. No hurries.

Easy.

With that, however, comes this: You literally have no excuses.

Remember that.