How to fill time in retirement

When I woke up this morning, I knew I had an appointment at the dentist office to get my teeth clean. Usually, that alone does not start the day off too well. I went and retrieved the morning paper and to my surprise, there were two deaths that were big news. The first death was of Arnold Palmer, the professional golfer and humanitarian. I can still remember my dad watching golf when I was a kid. Back then, it was mostly the Palmer-Nicklaus show, and I am sure my dad would have been part of Arnie's Army. He loved to cheer him on.  I put a note on Facebook about this and saw I was not the only one sadden by this particular death.  It was hard to believe he was 87 because I always thought he did not look much different from when he was 37. The first picture I saw was from my friend Patty. She had a great picture of her with Mr. Palmer... Patty Sheehan with Arnold Palmer The second picture was posted by my friend Bob Bicknell of his younger brother Rodney with Arnold Pal...

It was not just a lunch with some old co-workers.  It was lunch with lots of old friends and current ENSCO employees.  The location was River Rocks which has a Rockledge mailing address, but everyone assumes it is in Suntree on US 1. Sign on US 1 for lunch location Being retired, I was a little early. We retired folks get excited when we have something extra-ordinary to do. Lunch with other people! Yippee!  The first person I saw was Maria, she was the organizer of the lunch and the person I had asked for permission to attend.  She was bringing the cake (ENSCO loves to have cakes) which was being carried by Bill, someone I did not know. Two and a half years since I left and the whole company has changed. Remember, I spent 34 years working at ENSCO. Cake for the lunch at River Rocks I did get a picture of Maria taking a picture of us.  She is real good at documenting these events... Maria taking my picture at River Rocks Bob Thieme started at ENSCO...

My latest new restaurant was the Mangetsu Restaurant on Strawbridge Avenue in Melbourne. It is located on the causeway side so it is a busy intersection. I went in the back way from my house using the river view road. My first time in this building, is was to catch a Greyhound bus back to Vermont. You heard that right, when I was in college all I could afford was a bus ticket. It was my first bus trip. Stopped at every stop between Melbourne and Jacksonville, express to New York City (stop for meals only) with a stop at the famous Transit authority in the middle of the city, and then a Vermont Transit Bus to Burlington, stopping at every small town in Connecticut, Massachusetts, and Vermont that had a bus station. It was 32 hours of hell and the last time I ever went by bus. Since the bus station left, the place has been all kind of diners, restaurants and bars. No one has seemed to survive in this location. I think Mangetsu may make it. It was lunchtime so I was not real hungry....

As I continue my project of scanning all my non-digital photographs, I have been sharing a few on Facebook, but a lot of these pictures are bringing back fond memories of times past. I wanted to reminisce on these pictures of my earlier life, and keep some kind of record of the stories behind the snapshots. What better place to do this but in this blog. I can share and I can have a record, of what I am calling a Photo Memory . Most posts from the last few years have been using photos from my digital camera or phone camera. Only recently did I do a post using scanned photos from my first ski trip out west.  This post is about my second trip to ski out West, this time in Utah. Park City Utah Library It was January 1988, our ski group had grown from four people to seven.  At the time, I was getting two different ski magazines and I was really inspired by the first trip to Breckenridge Colorado.  I had read that Utah had what was called "Champagne Powder".  I have...

I am finding in retirement that it is very easy to be complacent and sit around the house making  lists of all the things I would like to do and chores that I need to do.  But my motivation to actually do them disappears when I plop in front of the TV and see that one of my favorite Andy Griffith episodes is on. So, I find that I just need to keep busy with the small things...get away from the TV. Last Sunday I decided to go to the surfing contest in Cocoa Beach. This is a National Kidney Foundation event that has been going on for years. I remember seeing Kelly Slater as a kid surfing, and Don "the Dragon" Wilson performing martial art demonstrations near the pier. I even saw Dave Mason and Sister Hazel play for free at theses events. This year I wanted to get some photos of the tandem surfing. Tandem Surfing at Cocoa Beach Pier  The waves were small and they were having trouble getting speed on the not-so-great conditions. I did get some photos of the tandem but ...