Enlarging Our Tent

Once again we have a full house. It sounds like a card game, doesn't it? Actually it has been more like a chess game as we moved furniture, and closet space to make room for our youngest, vivacious granddaughter Stefani. We moved Grandpa's office out of the last & littlest bedroom to our bedroom.She has been a great help assisting Bryan with his Algebra homework, something we were not able to do.

Oh, yes, that includes another car in the driveway. Grandpa and Gordon have taken every opportunity to sit in the passenger seat of the VW, and Chevy truck for advanced driving instructions on freeways and busy city streets. As she has already been hired at Pottery Barn Kids in Fashion Square, it was important to make sure she could manuever safely through traffic.

The past months have been busy for us with Ron's cataract surgery on both eyes. Unbelievably his vision is better than it has been for years! He only needs reading glasses & his greatest adjustment was to the amount of light and bright colors.

Bryan started highschool this fall and that has been an adjustment for him and us as well. Maybe we will survive the return to parent participation in highschool activities. It has included attending a football game, ROTC gatherings, and parent/teacher conferences.

Retirement begins

My last day in my office. I never realized how hard it would be to turn off the computer for the last time!

Can you believe I finally have a blog set up? Stefi is visiting for a couple of weeks. Monday is our day together & the first activity on the list was to set up a blog for me. Actually, I had it completed except for a template background but didn't realize I had because of template difficulties.

Retirement was a bittersweet experience. I've been there for 18 years and the friendships developed during that time are hard to leave. The celebrations, gifts and expressions of love and appreciation made it more difficult than I expected. Although stressful, the position of management over a team of 12-14 people over the past 8 years was rewarding. I truly enjoy directing, teaching and guiding others. It is even more apparent to me now that I am no longer in a position to do that. Grandpa doesn't appreciate my attempts at that with him. (ha,ha).

I've now been retired (??) for over a month. Retired but not bored. During that time, a visit to the Ophthalmologist revealed that Grandpa needed cataract surgery. This had to be completed before my insurance expires so within a 3 week period he has surgery on both eyes. It is amazing! He is only using drug store reading glasses, and complaining about how bright the light is. The Dr said his recovery so far has been above average but he isn't convinced of that. He is not able to do anything strenuous yet and must wear those snazzy wrap-around sun glasses.

Grandpa in his stylish (?) shades.

I am aware of the random positions of the photos. They just didn't seem to want to cooperate with my attempts to place them in an orderly manner. Hopefully these newsletters will become more professional as I gain experience.