Episode #62: Sharpening The Focus & The Focus Is Becoming Sharper

Banks Corner Park, Newington CT

Yeah, having another one of those weeks where post title originality is not a doable commodity. On one hand, I'm maddeningly consistent about my post titles making absolutely no sense whatsoever {since 2008, which is about 12 years, give or take}; and on the other hand, I'm maddeningly consistent about making sure that my posts have at least one point contained within, even if it takes a while to deduce what that point may be.

Since the intended goal in this particular post is to make the point as obvious as possible, we shall get to it.

We're finishing up the month of November in style, which is to say that we're settling into retirement quite nicely. I've gotten all my ducklings in a zig-zaggish kind of a row and now I'm simply waiting to see my doctor the 1st week of December so that I can get the actual ball rolling on everything {I have a concrete deadline of February 2021 to get all the pertinent medical records in}. I got a temporary routine done of goofing on my computer for a few hours in the a.m., then do an early morning walk that knocks off about 75% of my step quota, which is then followed by lunch, running what few errands that I deem necessary to my day, which is then followed by another walk, goofing on the computer or YouTube {yah, I know, major time vacuum} until bedtime. Rinse, lather, repeat.

The reason as to why I say "temporary" is that come December, I plan on tweaking my routine to include less goofing with YouTube and more....writing, which was one of my long term goals. I haven't done any kind of non-blog writing since Spring 2019, and that is something that I really want to get back to performing. I've been getting little nudges here and there for the past 1 1/2 years, and I think I've procrastinated long enough. 

Writing that weird short story of mine {called What A Day...}, helped get the juices flowing just a little, even though it took me the better part of 6 1/2 months to complete. But sometimes, all you need is a spark to get the creativity flowing yet again. 

Tune in next week, when I'll start bloviating about writing in earnest while blowing out the cobwebs at the same time. Should be neat. Until then, always remember that thinking for yourself and not the collective, is the greatest thing that you can accomplish on an daily basis.

{c} 2020 by G.B. Miller. All Rights Reserved

Episode #61: The Thrill Is Still Coming Into Focus

So basically this is what Cedar Mountain is pretty much looking like for mid-November: autumn is here and the trees are lonely, naked and aching to shower affection on some unsuspecting passerby.

My post work life {retirement} is starting to come into a clearer, if not quite sharper, focus these days.

Being the heavy procrastinator that I am long known to be on this blog {and to a lesser degree at work}, I knew in my retirement days that I would have to get up out of the chair and get my non-sexy butt in gear if I wanted to have the decent financial stability for my later years.

So that basically required me to write a thoughtful letter to my doctor {not my PCP but the one that is monitoring my current neuromuscular malady} and set up an appointment so that we're on the same page with my health issues. After playing some phone tag with the clinic and getting some clarification from the Retirement Services Division {note, they are one of three agencies, state and federal, that you should never, ever tick off. IRS and your local DMV being the others}, we're all now on the same page for paperwork being submitted.

On a lighter note, I got my issue resolved with saving a Google doc to somewhere else besides Google Drive. There is an option in which you can download the doc to roughly a half dozen other formats, which you can then save to other places, i.e. a USB flash drive. This will definitely give me another option to seriously consider when it comes to doing what kind of writing on which computer {Chromebook or Win7} in the coming months. Ya just gotta have options these days.

On a still even lighter note, well, hmmm...not sure if there's even a more lighter note to end this post on. Well, life is slowly becoming more manageable and more malleable, as I'm starting to put together a potential project list for 2021, which will be in conjunction with the writing projects that I'm looking to prioritize for 2021 as well.

As always, keep safe and keep sane for Thanksgiving, and make sure you celebrate it in the way that feels most comfortable for you. Because only you know what your comfort level is for this pandemic, and don't let anyone tell you otherwise. Consider all the advice being thrown around, but ultimately, the final decision is yours {and no, I'm not endorsing one way or another. I have no right to tell you what to do, I can only present you with enough information so that you can make an informed choice}.

{c} 2020 by G.B. Miller. All Rights Reserved

Episode #60: The Thrill Is Semi-Back

This pic just about sums up my feelings about the side of the political spectrum.

'Nuff said.

It's just another pleasant valley Sunday, albeit a little crispy, here in Connecticut. And in Connecticut is where I'm currently plying my trade as a double nickel early state government retiree {aka 55}. Currently, we're prepping ourself to call our other doctor to either 1} make an appointment or 2} depending on the day of the appointment, a fax number to send a letter and a blank medical report request that would need to be submitted in order to qualify for a disability retirement.

Yay me.

In other exciting news, we finished our short story that we had started back in mid April during the tail end of the "two week curve" to contain Covid19 {HA!!!!}. As per the norm, whenever I finish writing a story, I always try to save it in multiple places (e.g. C drive, USB stick), but apparently with Google docs, this is not a viable option.

So right now, if I want to continue working on old projects, I'll have to make sure that I have the most updated version on my flash drive, then go from there with automatic extension that ChromeOS has whenever you open a non-Google product; or boot up my Win7, work on my projects, then make sure to copy/paste at least once a week to my Chrome.

New projects though, will probably be done on Chrome. Food poisoning for thought, eh?

Ugh.

As as an old boss of mine use to say as her go-to phrase of frustration: "It's never simple!"

{c} 2020 by G.B. Miller. All Rights Reserved

Episode #59: I Are Ready To Do....New Things?

Hi-dee-ho everyone! Welcome to my little slice of suburbia, where opinions are given careful consideration before being stored for future muddying of the waters.

I actually gave some serious thought about commenting on the fiasco that will bring Harris/biden to the White House in January (yes, I know that technically biden was the official candidate, but we all know who will actually be finishing the term as a one and done, so 'nuff said the better), but since I've posted but three times in 11+ years about the national political scene, posting for a fourth would just make me go on a ginormous rant to prove my preference of saying Harris/biden, and I really don't feel like doing that just right now.

I could also go on about my home state of CT, but how many times can you talk about one party control w/o repeating yourself, especially since Democrats have things the way they want in Connecticut again, which is a veto proof majority and absolutely no need to engage the GOP for anything?

Instead, we'll talk about how yesterday got me feeling like our late dog Lucky in the picture there, just stylin', profilin' and chillin'. Yeah, it was just that kind of day yesterday (11/7), mid 70's, nice breeze and a good day to be alive.

So we're a week into our retirement and we've already got a strange routine down for a typical day: breakfast/goofing on the computer until 9-ish; going for a morning walk (minimum one hour); then vegging out watching YouTube until lunch; lather, rinse and repeat for the afternoon; followed by dinner and evening errands; and concluding with computer and YouTube. Oh and listening to a ton o' podcasts while on those walks.

You'll notice that I haven't said anything about writing yet. Well, with the exception of restarting this blog, I haven't found that happy space yet that I need to do any writing. My den has moved from work mode to non-work mode, which is a plus, but I haven't really found the energy/motivation to turn on my old computer to work on any of my partials. I have plugged it in from time to time to charge the battery and I have turned on at least twice to run virus scans (still have the anti-virus software for my Win7 from my ISP) but other than that, nothing.

Well, nothing except a short story that I had started working on about one month into our man-made global pandemic. It was pretty much the standard fare that now populates what few micro/flash fiction that I write: mixture of very dark horror (think Night Gallery on steroids) and the normal day-to-day activities that populate our existence, like work and family. Somehow, I managed to crank out just a shade under 4k words, with the bulk being writing in April and August.

I'm thinking of going back to that story in order so as to complete it, although I'm not sure if I really have to add anything to it. The point where I had left off at actually makes its own nifty little ending, so I definitely have some serious thinking to do to see if I want to leave it as is, or create a proper conclusion.

So this is what my post work life is like presently. My goal is to get back to serious writing in 2021, but who knows what the next two months will bring us. 

{c} 2020 by G.B. Miller. All Rights Reserved

Episode #58: Today, We Turned The Calendar Page

Today is November 1, 2020, and I am now officially retired. With most local/state/federal entities, you are required to retire on the first of a given month. This usually means working up to the final day of the proceeding month (28th, 29th {leap year}, 30th or 31st). This is relatively easy to do if your work schedule happens to include the weekends on weekly basis (e.g. hospitals, prison facilities, detention centers). Not easy if you work a traditional M-F schedule (like myself).

Thus, my last official working day was Friday October 30, 2020. 

It was interesting to say the least, in that 1} we're hip deep in global (IMO a man-made) pandemic, which means that 2} our department has a maximum allowance of "4 employees"at any given time and 3} there weren't a heck of a lot of employees in the building to begin with. 

So I was only able to say a personal goodbye to about a baker's dozen of staff members, including a few co-workers. I did receive a few nice gifts, including food, gift cards and electronics. I actually did some work, which normally takes about 45 minutes, and managed to stretch it out to about 4 hours. In addition to all the fun stuff, I created a few necessary e-mails. One was the outgoing bounce back that basically said it was a pleasure doing business with everyone, I had great time, met some great people and who you need to contact with questions about your payroll going forward.

The other was a rather personal good bye to my immediate co-workers. I would like to share that e-mail with everyone here. And if I extrapolate from the response from one co-worker who had forwarded me the e-mail (silly me neglected to cc myself on it), I think I managed to touch some emotion with it. So my friends, let me know what you think.

Note: even though I spent 14 1/2 years at my last agency, I only spent the past 7+ years with this last group of outstanding co-workers.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Good afternoon to one and all,

It's October 30, 2020, and a somewhat dreary snowy day to end one's working career on. In an curiously odd twist of fate, I'm ending my state and DCF career the same way I had entered DCF back in May 2006: by myself with no one really around to greet me (or in this case) or say good bye.

While I had entered DCF all by my lonesome after a tumultuous two year stint at DOC, I am leaving DCF on a high note, comforted by the fact that I'm leaving behind co-workers who I consider to be a genuinely close part of my extended family. I am honored and privileged to be allowed entry into a small sliver of your personal lives and I believe it has made me an all-around better person. And I'm glad that with everyone showing me a small sliver of their personal lives, it gave me the confidence to, being the actual semi-introvert that I am, share a sliver (medium-sized at best) of my personal life with everyone. 

I will truly miss the camaraderie as the reality that is retirement slowly starts to sink in on November 2nd, as well as the richness of the tapestry that is called "the working life". I will always have fond memories of everyone that I have worked with in Payroll for the past 7+ of the 14 ½ years spent at DCF. Believe me when I say that I leave my job with a slightly heavy heart and a few tears in my eyes. 

Thank you once again for showing me the all that you are and the all that you have become. 

I am forever your friend,

George

{c} 2020 by G.B. Miller. All Rights Reserved