How to fill time in retirement

My bucket list item to visit a new restaurant every week has changed slightly for 2016. Last year, I was able to hit 58 places in 52 weeks, but I tried hard to have at least one new place a week. This year, I have amended my item to visit 52 new places, averaging one a week. By changing this slightly, I can now hit two places in one day like I did yesterday. Last year I would not have gone to the second place because my one a week quota was fulfilled. Now I go when I want and just keep track of the total. My first new restaurant, Long Doggers,  was not a new place for me because I have visited three of the current six locations in the County. These include the original in Indiatlantic, the one on Post Road near where I use to work, and the one in Satellite Beach. It was new because I visited the Viera site, which I had never been to before. I had spent the morning in the Viera Wetlands photographing birds and gators. I decided to swing by the Space Coast Stadium to see how crow...

Adding a bucket list item to visit more friends was new this year (2016). How to choose those people, I have not figured out yet. The idea for this item in the bucket list came about last August when I visited Vermont. I decided on that trip that I would look up my old high school classmate Jerry Atkins and his wife Cindy, a friend from when I was a kid. I got his phone number from my brother and I made the call. I ended up going over for a cookout and it turned into a small group gathering including their daughter and her husband and their two grandchildren, Jerry's mom, Cindy's mom and dad, and Cindy's brother. It was a beautiful afternoon that never would have happened in the past because I would have decided that the first phone call would be a bother and I would not make it. Well now, if I call or email you, you better tell me quickly you do not want a visit. In the trip I took yesterday, the selection of Ed came out of me working on another project, organizing my an...

As I mentioned in the last blog, sometimes circumstances allows you to accomplish two things at one time. Well, I did even better yesterday, I visited a different town for the day, I met up with an old friend from my past, and of course, I got to eat at a new restaurant. Three things at one time! Visiting other communities and looking up old friends are new to my bucket list this year. I know a lot of people so it should be easy, but I have made it harder than it needs to be, to visit people I know that I have not seen in a while. Visiting other places was in my original retirement bucket list but I was focused on the whole world, and not all the cool places within a day's drive from my home. So, I called my friend Ed Kennedy, and said I was coming to visit him in New Smyrna Beach. Sign on Canal Street in New Smyrna Beach As I am writing this, I have decided to split the blog into two parts. The first will be about the new restaurant of the week. The second will be on my v...