How to fill time in retirement

With the pandemic, most members of my immediate family has not been traveling much. I have not been to Vermont since 2019. And my brother Tom and most of my nephews have not been to Florida. Of course, my nephew Brandon lives in Melbourne and my niece Lori and her family visited within the last year from Virginia. So it was a real treat to have my nephew Jared and his wife Sarah and daughter Paislee visit the Melbourne area. They stayed within the apartments where Brandon works, which is just five minutes from my home. They flew into Orlando on a Tuesday and flew back out this past Tuesday, My first day seeing them was on a Wednesday at the beach. With them is Jared's good friend Adam. I told them about Paradise Beach, formally called Howard E. Futch Memorial Park. It is a favorite beach of mine because it has free parking, bathrooms and showers, and a really nice beach. They also have pavilions for picnics. I was able to take my regular walk along the beach while they enjoyed the ...

Today is the last day of April. I cannot believe how fast the month passed me by but I meant to do some spring cleaning on the computer. Here is some of the clutter and other things I have shelved for future reference and amusement. First, a few photographs I collected from where I live in Florida. The first is of the manatees gathering near Desoto Park in Satellite Beach when the weather gets near freezing. I have taken many photos but not from this perspective. I guess I need to get me a drone. When I bought my current house in Eau Gallie back in 1984, my job with Ensco was still located beachside in Indian Harbour Beach. I would have to cross the Eau Gallie Causeway to get to work, but back then it was still a swing bridge that opened every half hour for boats to pass through on the Indian River Lagoon. I had to time it right to get to work in time and not be stopped by the boat traffic. The bridge is now high enough for boats to pass under it. Here are a few old photos I found onli...

 In 2022, I continued my reading list. As I mentioned in my last post about reading, I have also started to read the plays of Shakespeare. That too was continued in the first quarter, but at a slower rate. Here is what I have been reading and my thoughts about each book or play. Unbroken Written by Laura Hillenbrand and published in 2010. It is a non-fiction biography of World War II veteran Louis Zamperini. I gave the book a 3.5 (Great to Excellent). It's a book I own for a while that I have been meaning to read. In 2014 it was made into a movie. This movie was recently on TV and is probably what inspired me to read the book. I have not seen the movie yet. The book spent four years on the New York Times best seller list, 5th longest ever for a non-fiction book. If you are interested in this type of book I highly recommend it. La Belle Sauvage The Secret Commonwealth Both of these books were written by Philip Pullman. La Belle Sauvage was published in 2017 and The Secret Com...