Over a month into retirement and time is flying by.  We have not settled into any routines, each day is new.  We have some projects underway.   We have made progress on some painting and just signed to have tile installed throughout the condo.  That is something we have been thinking about for several years and now is the time to get it done.  So we looked at lots of tile and think we have found a reliable company to deal with.   Will let you know how that project goes!

Marie took us on a cruise for Chris’s birthday.   We left from Miami for a three night cruise to the Bahama’s.  It was relaxing, plenty to eat and drink, and we had great weather.   Our friend Audrey is an experienced cruiser who helped us find a good deal and showed us the ropes!  I enjoyed being on the ship more than going on shore, and since it was only 3 nights I was still finding my way around onboard.  There is a lot of real estate to explore onboard,  I may have missed a couple of bars.

And we went up to Port Canaveral to visit the girls’ cousin Jackie and husband Tom.   They treated us great and we had a good day of catching up, and stories!   And Chris was treated to another birthday cake.  We need to go back for some sight seeing.

Marie was headed home to Albuquerque today, but Mr President is campaigning  and her flight could not get into West Palm on time.  Try again Sunday morning. That is what she gets for voting for him.  Our friend Mike is coming down for a week starting next Tuesday, although it looks like Wisconsin is having its own heat wave!  But we will get him some sight seeing and sun and taste a few new beers!  And when he leaves we will try to get the tile project done and then a few things need to follow that up.  March will be busy.  So take care.

cruising

Nassau and our ship

cruise

Cousins

Well into January and enjoying life!  Florida weather has been wonderful, especially since I was home for below zero weather in Wisconsin.   But after I retired January 6,  I flew back down to the good weather.   Although it does look like Wisconsin is having a mild January.   I spent my first week of retirement preparing our windows new blinds we had ordered.  The windows needed a fair amount of patching and paint.   But they look good now, and the rest of the winter I will work on patching and painting other walls, slowly…       The second week of my retirement we went to the Florida panhandle to pick up Marie who was staying with old friends.   And on the way home from there we spent a couple of days in St Augustine.  St Augustine is the oldest continuing settlement in the United States.  Lot’s of history and an enjoyable time.   Our old friend Jeff VW joined us for an evening.   We especially enjoyed a tour of the Flagler College, the first major building ever constructed of concrete and wired by Thomas Edison 8 years before the white house.  It is impressive.    We have not settled into a routine yet, just enjoying each day as it comes.   It is wonderful, and will continue with that plan for as long as we can!  Best of health to all for 2017.

Flaggler College, original Ponce de Leon Hotel

these Austrian crystal chandeliers are now valued at 2.2 million dollars per unit.

the Spanish fort from the 1500’s was never taken in battle

Tiffany did all the stained glass

We are almost to Christmas and we wanted to make sure we did not miss telling anyone that we wish them a very Merry Christmas.   Many blessings to you and yours.

We certainly feel we have had many blessings.  We will enjoy Christmas in Florida, and the weather has been beautiful.  Above average temperatures here in south Florida.  Mary Jane flies in Christmas Eve and will be with us.  We came directly from Chris’s retirement luncheon on Dec 1.  My work has allowed me to to stay until after Christmas.  Then I return north until I retire January 6.  And hopefully that will be the last of cold and snow I see!  We will not be back for awhile.  We had a nice Thanksgiving in South Haven Michigan.  Then Chris’s retirement luncheon, they honored her with a very nice lunch in Waukesha and many old friends and the owner came into town.  The drive down to Florida was good, and now we have been enjoying each day.  And January will be better!

Merry Christmas!

John, MJ, Chris, Denise, Claire, Skip

Retirement with old friends

Florida skies!

Merry Christmas!

We have had a beautiful fall here in Wisconsin.  Above normal temperatures and lots of sunshine.  The way I think it used to be!   But it has been above normal and there are averages, which means it will need to be below normal some days.  So yesterday morning we woke up to some snow and howling winds.  Back to some sunshine today.   The leaves are off the trees though,and we are in the grey days of early winter with bare trees and ominous clouds.   But we will take the blessings we have had.   The Oshkosh Christmas parade this week had the warm weather and the crowds with their children were out.  And we have many blessings to be thankful for as we head into this Thanksgiving week.   We have a house rented again in southwest Michigan for the holiday weekend and will share time with MJ, John, Skip, Claire and Denise.

And the following week Chris will be retiring and we will go to Waukesha for her retirement party at the office.   And then from there we start heading south to Florida.  So we will be there for the Boynton Beach Christmas boat parade the following week.  I have been given permission to work from Florida until after Christmas which I greatly appreciate.  Of course they don’t know what they will get out of me, since I am retiring Jan 6,2017,  what are they going to do fire me?  I have started transitioning my workload to someone and have some projects to work on in December.  So it is an exciting time.  We have spent a lot of time on Social Security, Medicare, insurance and what do we need to take to live in Florida for a number of months?   All good things.   So more excitement to come as we prepare.  We even have new phones (and yes I finally have a new smartphone and a new phone number) and there will be other things to take care of.   It will be good.  So we wish all the best for everyone on this holiday, and my next pictures may look a little different!

Lake Winnebago

south Oshkosh

Oshkosh Sunset

city of Oshkosh tree

The month is going by quickly.   We continue to have a great fall with above average temperatures.  It has been filled with chances to get outside and chances to see good friends.  We took a trip to Washington Island off the tip of Door County.  Friends Steve and Janet invited us along last year and we enjoyed their friends so much we had immediately planned to go back.  We traveled up on a Thursday and stayed until Saturday morning.  In between we enjoyed some fresh air, some biking, too much food, and lot’s of great conversation.  It was great.  And we left early for another special event, Mike Ortiz’s wedding day.  It was hard to leave Door County but at the end of the day we were very happy we did.  A very special ceremony we were blessed to be present for.  Judy radiated the love in the room and we know Phil was there.  Thanks to all of our old friends for spending time with us, Darren thanks for spending some time with us old folks.  And I made it to this years Packer game.  My homebrew friends shared a warm Sunday, steak, lobster, great beers, even brandy Alexanders.  A lousy Packer game, but still a great day.   We sure have a lot of fun!

The end of the month we have our annual physicals coming up.  So some lab tests and visits with the doctor.  And planning ahead for November and a Thanksgiving trip.  And hoping this good weather continues.  Get out and enjoy it.

cooking at the game

raise a glass

Girls on the boat

trip to the island

Things are right in the world.  The Green Bay Packers came out strong Aaron Rodgers throws 4 touchdowns in the first half, and they beat the Detroit Lions.  The Wisconsin Badgers had a big win yesterday.  Work will be more upbeat this week!  And Wisconsin has had a nice weather run in September.  Temperatures well above normal,  you know I like warm!  It looks like fall is coming this week, but still just getting back to what is expected for the end of summer.   So we are hoping for a nice long fall and not an early winter.  It can hold off until January!

And our next step towards January and our retirement.  We picked up a new car for Chris yesterday.  This will be our car for our retirement travels.  We hope to see a lot of country and wanted something dependable and comfortable.  So we had our car guy start looking and found a 2015 Lexus with 15,000 miles.   So now Chris has to learn how to work everything, since this is her car!

So we hope that early fall is good for you.  We had stir fry again today with fresh vegetables from the Farmers Market. It has been fun walking the market and choosing what we want to eat.  Looks like snap peas are done but brussel sprouts, beans, broccoli  all have some weeks to go.

Enjoy!

Unbelievable summer is almost gone!  And I am way behind in updates.  Time to start getting back on track.

It has been a busy summer.  Bike rides, Door County camping, EAA, a trip to Colorado for me.  Marie came north in May and was with us until August.  Mj came in June and we explored downtown and even got a boat ride in.  Door County took 3 weekends of July.  I worked 1/2 days during our 2 weeks there which enabled me to get some golf in.  And always good to get some time with old friends.

We made it home from Door County in time to see some of the EAA from our roof top, which was pretty cool.  And we moved again in August,  just one apartment over.  We gave up our 3 bedroom apartment for a 2 bedroom which was always the plan.  It was our easiest move ever!  And we have been enjoying Saturday morning farmers markets on Main Street in Oshkosh. http://www.osfmi.com  We love interacting with the community and with all the current fresh vegetables we have broken out our wok pan to enjoy them.  We did miss the farmers market for Irishfest weekend.  We have missed very few of those over the years, and enjoyed it again this year.  Lot’s of music, food, and a few beers.

And Chris and I are taking a serious look at retirement.  Chris has told her employers that December 1st will be the end of her 49 1/2 year career with them.  A big step.  And I may not be far behind her.  So lot’s of things to research and think through.  But it is exciting.

So we hope everyone has had a wonderful summer, and look forward to the next time we see you.

After some cold damp weeks of Wisconsin Spring we finally can figure out what average is.  Those weeks were 20 degrees below average temperature, and now we have had a weekend of 20 degrees above normal.   It was wonderful.  Everyone had smiles on their faces and were out on the streets.  We had the patio open and took some walks.  It has just felt wonderful.  Now again,  it is Spring in Wisconsin, so it won’t last.  But a couple of days in the 70’s does wonders for the soul.

We are loving our apartment and downtown Oshkosh.  Today we took a walk and spent time at one of the coffee shops.  From our upper deck we have great views of Lake Winnebago. and we have great views of Oshkosh and historic Main Street.  Main Street and the National Bank building we look at were used in the Johnny Depp movie Public Enemies.  So we hope that spring continues as above average until we get to summer.   Chris and I have both finished our colonoscopies and are good for 10 years.   It is good to get those over with, and with a clean bill of health.   So those were 2 uneventful weekends we are done with.    Coming up will be some weddings, a baby shower and a trip to Florida.  So it will be awhile before we get to an unplanned weekend, but we will have fun getting there.   My work continues to be interesting.  I have been told which company I will work for later in the year, and told because I need to move out of the building I office in now.  So this week is moving week,  and hopefully before May I know a little more about what I will be doing later in the year.   But what ever.   I will take it as it comes.

Hopefully everyone is getting some time to enjoy the weather.

We are back home in Oshkosh, so we can start unpacking and organizing!   But we had a great time in New Mexico.   Janet and Steve joined us to help celebrate Marie’s birthday and we had a great time.  We visited breweries, wineries, aquariums, historic sites, Sante Fe, Petroglyph National Monument, Bosque del Apache and probably a few other places.   Besides eating a lot!  But it was all good.   We rang in Marie’s birthday with some other of her friends, and managed to keep moving each day.   While the weather was cool  (we understand Wisconsin was having a very warm spell),  even when it was in the 50’s and 60’s in Albuquerque the sun warmed us up quickly.  It is a great place to visit and every time leaves me wanting to see more.   Chris and I flew in and  out of Denver and drove to Albuquerque.  The price was less than 1/3rd and we had the bonus of seeing Steve and Nancee, and being treated like royalty at their house (Thanks Rehfeldt’s).   Steve and Janet decided to Amtrak it to ABQ, and provided the only downer of the trip.  They left ABQ Sunday the 13th and were on the Amtrak that derailed in Kansas.   Thank God they are OK, and with some side trips have made it home safely.  Enjoy each day!

raise a glass

Green Jeans Shipping Container Businesses, Hydroponic year round Farmers Market

Kaktus Brewery certainly unique

Happy Birthday!

most carvings are thought to be from 1300 AD

Petroglyph National Monument, volcanic rock formed the area

they say even though it looks like graffiti it really is that old

look at those 2 birds

Winery just starting to bloom

Sante Fe old plaza

Bird Watching

in addition to the National Wildlife Refuge being a winter home to 100’s of thousands of birds it has great views

It has been awhile since I updated,  but it has been rather hectic.   Chris stayed in Florida until early February when I went to get her!  Florida was wonderful,  Marie had spent time with Chris in Florida so they ‘bonded’.  We have great friends in Florida who we love to be with.  Including Al and Viv, our 90+ year old neighbors who we spend our happy hours with!  Chris and I had a good drive home in early Feb.   We look forward to retirement when we can make that trip over a couple of weeks instead of days.  We received, and accepted an offer on our house in late January.  So February has been busy.  Once we were back in Wisconsin we were busy trying to finish our downsizing.   We had much more in the house, garage, and boathouse to deal with than we though we had.  So there were many trips to St Vincent DePaul, Habitat Restore, and the town dump.  On Feb 15 we took a rental in downtown Oshkosh, just where we wanted to be.   Many trips in the cars hauling stuff here.  Mary Jane was in town for a week and we tried to keep her busy.

And today it is final.  We had our closing, and a check in hand.   Still lot’s of boxes to sort through.  We took a 3 bedroom apartment because that was all that was available, and for now it is a great place to store boxes we need to sort through!   And on Wednesday we head to Albuquerque for Marie’s birthday,  with no worries about leaving the house behind.   We now live at 100 North Main Street, Oshkosh WI  54901. Apt 602.

Al and Viv

Empty house

The Library and Northeast Oshkosh

North Main Street

South Main St towards the river

3rd bedroom