Saturday - August 14th

I was thinking about retirement and how many people put off retirement because they enjoy their work and they feel as if they are accomplishing something with their life.  I could not argue with these people about their reasons.  However, I do not feel we as a society do enough to prepare people for retirement.

Retirement should be a time to reflect on your life and do things that you have always wanted to do but never had the time to do.  It is a well deserved slow down from the quick pace and responsibilities of having a job.  In my particular case, I have pursued my music interest - taking piano lessons.  My goal is not to get a job but to be able to play beautiful music for myself and occasionally for others.  I would also like to try painting but I have not made that commitment yet.  I have stayed away from pursuing things that were related to my job of teaching because I am afraid that I will make commitments that will tie me down.  I do not want to be tied to a part-time teaching job with a schedule.  I like the idea that I can go anywhere I want when I want.
Everyone should give back to their community by volunteering - so far I have stayed with projects put forth by Kiwanis which I have joined.  Again, I do not want to commit myself to a schedule.

One of the highlights of retirement is the freedom to wake up in the morning at a leisure pace -read and think about life and decide what you want to do for that day.  I am not sure I could ever go back to that pace of getting up and rushing out to a job in the morning.

Another issue is health - We just do not know what tomorrow will bring.  There are so many cases where people develop cancer, arthritis or some other health issue as they age.  I try to do some kind of exercise but I am not as dedicated as I should be.  When my wife and I are in Florida, we join the YMCA and make a concerted effort to go just about every day.  We need to make a similar commitment while we are up North.

Another thing to think about is community.  Where will our life long friends live?  Will they follow a similar lifestyle or will we make new friends.  I do like the idea of living in a community and sharing thoughts and ideas about growing old.  My ideal setting is to find a church within a community that I feel part of and want to grow with.  The catholic church has always been my religious focus but it does not meet my needs for community.  They are not meeting the needs of the communities in the US by finding ways to ordain married and female ministers.  Smaller communities are better than larger and the catholic church's solution is to make larger parishes with fewer priests.

August 12 2010

Went golfing at Reservoir Creek in Naples with John Lesky, Jeff Rubin and Barb Mattison was suppose to play but cancelled at last minute.  Rick Ek, Dave Q, Jerry Golden and Dan Hoover played in 2nd group.  We got a great coupon price of $20 per person for cart and golf.  I drove well but did not score well - I missed alot of putts and my irons were long enough but off direction.  I shot a 92.

After golf - Mary's brother invited us to the lake for dinner with Illig cousins.  Mark and his daughter Melissa, her fiance - Justin, Joe Illig and friend Mary, Joe Driscoll and daughter Kennedy, Diane Driscoll and mother Gloria came in from Olean.  Weather was perfect - we stayed till 10 pm.

Plans for today - need to practice piano, check on lawnmower, car needs oil change - maybe practice my irons over at Willowcreek.  Neighbor Dominic stopped over to see my accordion the other day - he may be interested in buying my old one.  I was keeping it because there are times when I do not have access to electricity.  However, I checked online and I could get a battery powered amp to my Roland FR-3 accordion.  So I may ask Dominic if he wants to buy it.

We have a busy weekend planned -  Saturday evening we are going to a 20th anniversary party for Don and Rita Barber on a boat in Ithaca and then Sunday we are going to the Rennaissance Festival in Sterling, NY with our free tickets we won when we played putt putt golf

August 10th

Today is Tuesday - Mary is babysitting Megan and Molly this morning - I have piano lessons at 9:30 - girls will be with us all day and most of the night - Kelly and Mike are celebrating their 10th anniversary (Aug 12th)  Yesterday - Rick Ek, Jerry Golden and I went up to Waterloo to play the Silver Creek golf course - I drove the ball generally well but my chipping was not too good - ended up with an 89 but could have been alot better.  Eight of us going to Reservoir Creek in Naples on Wednesday - they have a special $20 including golf and cart!

1st day

Today is Sunday, August 7th

Started the day by going to church at St Charles Borromeo in Elmira Heights at 7:30 am with my wife Mary.  Sermon was about doing something to become a better person - don't wait.  The message from last week was reiterated about "what does it profit a man to gain the world but lose his soul"  At the end of mass, three teenage girls talked about a youth conference with over 3000 teens.  They were very excited about the event and all said that it affected them positively and changed their lives.  They indicated that it was the first time for our parish to send teens to this event but my wife Mary and I know that we took teens to several national teen conferences -  Louisville, Indianapolis and Philadelphia.  We both reflected what a great time it was.

Our plan is to take a drive to Waneta Lake and visit the Allisons at their cottage.