How to fill time in retirement

It is always fun, now that I have retired, to be there when someone new retires. I want to send them this Blog as a means to ease them into their new life. The discussion is always "I am so busy how did I ever have time to go to work." Dr. Greg Taylor started at ENSCO back in 1984. Al Siegel knew him from college and brought him to Indian Harbour Beach, the small town where our Division office was located. It is hard to turn down a job when the office is on A1A and across the street from the ocean... Al Siegel, Greg Taylor, and Joe Vervier The luncheon was being held at River Rocks in Rockledge, and I was one of the first to arrive with Greg arriving behind me. We walked in together to the "middle room," a place set up for the 20 people that were expected. There were going to be people from ENSCO's current and past. Dr. Norm Bush talks with Nancy Provoncha Norm was our Division Manager back when Greg was hired, and he went on to become President of ...

Usually, Mondays are shopping days but I had seen in the Sunday paper that the Florida Institute of Technology (FIT) was hosting an open tour of the newest research vessel from the Florida Institute of Oceanography (FIO). The R/V W.T. Hogarth, FIO’s newest state-of-the-art Research Vessel completed construction in May 2017 and will be ready for work in January 2018, following sea trials and the R/V W.T. Hogarth Florida 2017-2018 Ports Tour (PDF). I decided to go after mowing the yard. It was 76 degrees and sunny. I have a connection to FIT, I graduated with an MS in Applied Mathematics back in 1989. Plus, it was a beautiful day and I wanted to take some pictures. The tour started at 2PM and they were taking 15 people at a time. The line was not too long so I estimated, using applied Math, that I would be in the fourth group. I took some photos from the pier while waiting. This piece of equipment does something underwater. The boat will be based at USF in St Petersb...

Being retired and having way too much time on my hands, and having a Masters degree in Mathematics, I just have to love spreadsheets. I keep them for everything including the list of New Restaurants I would like to visit during 2018. The list is much longer than the 26 I need to meet my bucket list item, but things do change from year to year. I have included the year the place was added to my list. As the list got longer and longer, I added a column which I called Desire . How much do I want to go to a particular restaurant? The following table contains the four that I give a 5.0, the highest Desire . Also, I realized I needed a column for Guests . Can I visit this place alone or do I need to go with someone? Simple, and I am willing to add a third value, Get a Group . Here are the new restaurants with a Desire value of 4.5. See anything you like? The yellow highlight was an addition this year. I wanted to visit other places outside Brevard and I had read a mag...

Another new year and another chance to successfully perform a bucket list item. Of all my bucket items, the new restaurant is my favorite. I get to eat at new places, at least every other week. Trying to find new places is not a big problem as new restaurants are opening and old ones are closing. I have been working on the plan for 2018 when I realized I needed to go to a place for the first two weeks. My choice was Red Ginger, located in the Melbourne Square Mall. There is a sister restaurant in Suntree, but I had been there before. Here is the sign inside the mall... Of course, when I walked in, I was reminded that I use to go to Morrison's Cafeteria, located here when the mall was first built. I enjoyed many meals there, and as I sat looking at the menu for Red Ginger, I felt ghosts of diner's past. There is a big bar at Red Ginger and a large piano in the waiting area. A hostess sat me in the larger dining room which has a sushi bar at one end. The photo is from my boo...