Day 2

Before writing about our day yesterday, some comments:

I changed the title of the blog. When I started to write this blogs, we had years ahead of us before the R day, however, we were lucky enough to retire this year. So in reality, we reached the end of our journey to retirement.

The new name is more reprensentative of what we will be doing. I didn't do any scientific research but I think that a speeding snail, even going down hill, doesn't rise much dust in its trail. I will really have to remember this often, going from a go-go life to a slow one is something that I will have to conquer.

Why will I write this blog?

The first and most important reason is to have our daughters sharing our journey. I think it's  the best way to bring them with us. We will try to do interesting things just for them so they don't drop us from their reading list. hahaha

I also want to have a journal, I forget so fast that having everything in writing will help me with my recollection of events, town, people, etc.

For a long time, I have been reading several blogs, I gained a lot of insight through them. This is a great way to share informations with a very large pool of persons that have common interest.

I also want to keep in contact with friends and family, I will have a facebook account so that I can see what they are up to...

Now for people who are new to the world of blog reading, when you click on a picture, a new window opens where you can see that same picture but in a larger size as well as all the other pictures from that posting. I like that.  Often, before even reading a post from the blogs I follow, I will go and check out the pictures in their bigger size.

At the end of each post, there is a comment section, I really enjoy every comments. This is a little like my pay for writing the blog. You don't have to have an account setup, there is an "anonymous" option available where you can write a comment. If you are "anonymous, could you write your first name at the end, it will help me with any response.

Back to regular programming...

Yesterday was just a perfect fall day. A lot of sun, not too cold, but cold enought that we had a good fire going for most of the afternoon, to warm us.

I went to the library, got a couple of books. I had a 1$ fine on my account because of a late returned book... Shame on me :), it's one thing that doesn't bother me at all, fine at the library. I always paid without arguing, most library don't have a budget that is excessive. For a small town like Val-des-Bois, they are providing a great service.

There was a lot of people at the camping that came to close their trailler. For winter, they have to blow all the water lines and pump antifreeze in those pipes and get all their stuff secure for the winter.

I went around to some of our friends to invite them for supper. So we ended up 7 people at the table. This is a little like the last meal... Fernand and Reina left last night, Jean and Suzanne are leaving this afternoon and Guy who came only for the day but stayed overnight is also leaving today.

Professional Retirees

Reina, Fernand and Christiane

Jean and Suzanne

Guy and Suzanne (because Nicole was not there :) )
 

We had a wonderfull time with a lot of laugh (and a lot of wine!). Hope every one has a great winter, see you next summer guys!

A new journey begin

Today is really our first day as retirees. I was asked yesterday what will I do... and in the same phrase a person was saying "You will probably sleep in". Well not quite, I like to get up early. I was not getting up early for work but because my perrfectly tuned body :) was ready to start the day. Most of the time, I didn't even need an alarm clock!

So today I woke up before the sun rise, got my coffee going, and went outside to take a picture of the sun rising - this is how dedicated I am to this blogging venture. But as you can see in the picture, the sun was in a little fog, and I thought, how appropriate since this is how I feel, I  too am in a little fog...
Don't get me worng, this is not a dark cloud, it is more like I don't see clearly what is ahead but I am more than happy to find out!

Now let's get back to yesterday... My plan was to get to work, send an email to my EX-colleagues to thank them for having put up with me for so many years, go around and shake hands, hug and share souvenirs with everyone. A good thing I was not in management, because, my plan was not one that was well thought of. If you think about doing something like I was, DON'T pick a Friday... I missed a lot of people that I wanted to see...

When I arrived, I sat at my (now) ex-desk, and was putting final words to my email, Ghislaine came to say goodbye, we ended up both with tears in our eyes. After she left, I was thinking that it would not be an easy day...

In the elevator, I saw Claudine, we were talking about my retirement, but her floor came up and she left, I wanted to go back later but I forgot, if you ever read this Claudine I am sorry that I missed you but I am sure we will see each other at the "boulangerie" some time.

Shortly after, Christianne called and invited me to have coffee with QA at the cafeteria, I couldn't pass that opportunity to say goodbye to a group of people that kept pointing out my soooooo many mistakes for so many years hahaha. It was good to share a last coffee with you, Christianne, Peter, Isabelle and Michel. I missed Charbel (not :) ) and Johanne, and the ex QAs like Marie and France.

Around 10nish, Luc my ex-chief came back to the section to say goodbye, I was so glad to see him.  He now works for another department. One story with Luc that Elaine always reminds me of is that at a divisional picnic, we were playing a ball game, on the pavement. I felt down and kissed the pavement, Luc came to me and had a look of horror in his face when he helped me up. He took charge and was walking with me toward one of the building. I was bleeding a little but I was not feeling like I really hurt myself... On our way, Luc told me that in the building there was a shower and that WE should take a shower... hahaha I hit my face on the pavement but I was conscious enought to know that I would not get in the shower with any one, not even my chief :)  Now Elaine, you had a lot of chuckles about that, what I might have forgot to tell you is that in French the pronoun (On) which translate as (We) in english, excludes the person that uses it. So it was not an indecent proposal, ouf!!!

Just before leaving the building, I saw Éric and Robert (my boss and the chief), I teased them about NOW I could tell them how I really felt about them, but, the truth is that they are the best persons that I had the opportunity of working for. I really enjoyed working with them and I was lucky to end my carrer with such great people.

Before noon, I dropped my employee card at security and that was it, I was out of the building and into a new journey.

I picked my up wife who was also having her last day, she was waiting at the door with her BFF Nicole and Dan.  She received among other things, a lawn chair for her retirement.  There is a plaque on it, Retirement 2012.

We went for lunch at a Shawarma place in a shopping center.  There was a long line up, I got in the line up, while my wife when to get something... I was in the line up for maybe 2 minutes when a women started to talk to me. I thought it was my wife, I turned around and it was someone I didn't know. She kept chatting and also complaining about the line up. She looked at her watch and told me that it had been 5 minutes... I told her I didn't care because I had plenty of time, I had just retired half an hour ago. She told me that she retired 3 months ago, and the funny thing is that she retired from the same department, she was working 2 floors above me. Us retirees should stick together hahaha

After lumch we went to do some grocery and got back home to pick up stuff we were bringing to the campste. We said goodbye to our daughter, got in the truck and drove away. We both were anxious to be on our way, but having eaten Shawarma for lunch.. we were thirsty and didn't think of bringing a bottle of water. The camping is an hour away from home, usually, we don't do any un-necessary stop, but, now we ARE retired so I stopped to get a bottle of water. My point is that it is a change of pace folks, I took a consious decision to stop just to teach myself to slow down, there is no fire to attend to (this is just a way of speaking because in the future, there will be a lot of fire and it won't matter if it is Saturday, Monday, Tuesday, Friday...

Full disclosure

After spending 4151 days working at statistic Canada as a programmer, I am ready for this day.... That is retirement day!

I worked at Tunney's pasture in Ottawa, building Jean-Talon, on the sixth floor. Here is a picture taken on sept 27th 2012.

For the one that doesn't know, Statistic Canada is a government agency that each year is recognize as one of the best employer in Canada.

I know that I will miss my co-workers (also known as my friends), but going from being an older employee to becoming a younger retiree was just one opportunity I couldn't resist.

Of course you might be asking yourself why to retire, let me show you by some pictures:

The above picture is the view from my cubicle when I am standing up... between the hanger there is a window that I can almost see.

Following is a view from my "new" office, I can see a mountain which is getting it’s fall blanket on, a lake where there is no motor boat allow. What can I say about those two ergonomics chairs. If that was not enough... a little wine is really acceptable around a nice fire.

What is really helping me to cope with the syndrome of quitting my working days is to be confident in my collegue and knowing that someone else can and will do my work...


Nooooooooooooo