Thinking of Kayaking

I was cleaning out some old magazines and came across my next to the last issue of Canoe & Kayak magazine, so naturally I started to think that it would be nice to go kayaking again. Not right now, though. I think I can wait until the weather is a little better. Last summer we were planning to run the Delaware from Milford to Dingman's Ferry. It usually takes about three hours, but on the day we had picked, the river was running very high and fast. We decided it wasn't a good idea. A ranger told us that if we tried it then we would do it in about an hour, if we didn't turn over before we got there.

I want to do some fishing this year too, being retired and all. The big craze now is kayak fishing which gives you the maneuverability of the kayak, yada, yada, yada. People buy a sit-on-top kayak with rod holders and built in bait wells, attach an electric motor (with heavy deep cycle battery), add a fish finder (with battery), tackle boxes, poles and something to keep the catch in until you might as well just stick with a canoe or aluminum boat. I want to keep my recreational pursuits as simple as possible and as inexpensive as possible. We do have two kayaks (three if you count the Folbot) and a canoe, so I don't really need another boat. The canoe is fine for fishing and what's wrong with using the sit inside kayak. For all the fish I'm likely to catch, I don't think I need to go crazy.

So, anyway, I was thinking of kayaking all by itself, which is an enjoyable pastime without cluttering it up with extra equipment. I'm not talking about boofing or playboating, just gentle lake or river kayaking. I would like to expand the list of places where we kayak, but you have to consider where and when green flies and black flies and mosquitos will be out looking for you. Green flies are the worst. I guess I will just lather up with deet, sun screen, put on a cockpit cover and paddle off into the sunrise. That's what I was thinking about on this last day of the year, now maybe I'll think about something else. Let's see, what other magazines are there. Here's one about extreme snow skiing. Ugh!

Pictures on the Wall II

So we arranged and rearranged the pictures on the wall and finally decided that it was good enough for now. If we want to change it at some future time, that will be all right, I think. I filled in the old nail holes and when the spackle dries, I can sand them put some paint on.

We seem to have a large number of pictures, etc., classified as wall hangings. The trouble is, in our house, there isn't a lot of space to hang things on walls because of the large and plentiful windows and the number of doors. Sometimes we switch the pictures, but if they aren't the same size, it can be a bother.

I think I'm ready for Christmas to end and to put away the decorations. I know, it hasn't even been a week since the holiday, but it seems like it was long ago. I'm ready to start on something new now. I don't know what that is, but I'm ready. Maybe I should just paint the darn wall. I can't do that right now anyway. On Friday, our kids and families are coming here for New Year's Day. On Saturday we are all traveling to Chip's house in Burlington County for a party and on Sunday, we will go to Metuchen for the postponed play, Annie, in which Katie Rose has several parts.

Pictures on the Wall

There is a stairway going to our second floor that has a wall along one side of it. The wall needs repainting. Before we had our new roof installed, moisture must have gotten behind the plaster and blistered some of the paint in one spot. I fixed that and put a primer coat of paint on it and now must gather the courage to do a little more patching of some minor cracks way high up on the wall. The wall is hung with many pictures, some painted by my father, some acquired during various travels, one painted by Anne and one photo contributed by our son, Leo.

At one point, these pictures were arranged in a beautiful symmetrical arrangement, the likes of which has rarely been seen. However, over the past few years, a couple of pictures have taken to fall right off the wall and several new pictures were acquired that needed to be squeezed in. It is sad to say that the arrangement has lost some of it beauty and symmetry. So, in anticipation of painting the aforesaid wall, I wanted to arrange the pictures, once again as a beautiful array and patch the excess picture hanging holes. (Making holes in plaster is not quite as neat as making holes in sheet rock.) The rooms on our second floor all have picture rails going around the perimeter of the room from which pictures are hung by wires from hooks that slide on the rail, thus eliminating the necessity to poke a hole in the plaster. Apparently, these rails were on the first floor at one time but were removed long ago. We tackled this today after I returned from lunch with two associates of my former employer. I can only say that arranging pictures along a stairway while trying to keep the viewing height consistent and the display pleasing with pictures of various sizes is challenging. Some people seem to have a knack for decorating and can make their homes beautiful without effort. I am not one of those people. My creative abilities must lie elsewhere. I only hope that I am able to find where they lie before it is too late to do anything about them. After a couple of hours of resetting painting and pictures in frames, cleaning glass, etc. and trying to arrange the pictures on the wall, we decided to try again another day, which better be tomorrow if we don't want the place to look like a wreck for New Year's Day. I will report further on progress after there is some.

A Day or So After Christmas

It's getting to be that I hardly know what day it is anymore, but we did remember to go to church this morning. Christmas Eve was spent with Christine, Adrian, Katie Rose and Stephen. Christine made a delicious chicken dinner and we had plenty of cookies for dessert. On Christmas morning we traveled to Basking Ridge to have brunch with Teddy, Patti, Timmy and Bridget. We watched the twins open their presents and they were quite cute about it. Patti made a very nice brunch and then even served dessert later. We came home from there and spent the rest of the day doing not too much of anything.

On Saturday, I decided that our china cabinet needed cleaning. It doesn't get cleaned very often and I can testify as to why that is so. It has glass doors, glass sides, glass shelves and a mirror back, so to clean it, everything has to come out. While everything is out, it is a good time to wash all of the glasses, etc., etc., etc. I did all that and then polished some silverware, which I had noticed was getting a little tarnished. All of this I did after patching up a small imperfection in the stairway wall in anticipation of painting the whole thing. I started my projects right after breakfast and didn't finish until after 4:00p.m. Anne made some tea and let me have some cookies to replenish my energy. Cookies are good at replenishing my energy. She then made a nice turkey dinner.

Also yesterday, I was trying to put together a collection of music to listen to at a dinner party we're having at the end of January and was somewhat frustrated because after I hooked my iPod up to the living room stereo, it wouldn't play through the left speaker. It played through the surround sound and the bass, but not the left. This morning I set out to try to find the cause of this very unsatisfactory situation. (I like my music the way I like my music and stereo music is supposed to come out of two speakers.) I thought I was being very careful when I plugged in the RCA jacks to the back of the receiver. I could not see what I was doing, but had to work backwards and upside down. I wasn't upside down, although it might have worked better that way. Anyway, as strange as it may seem, someone snuck into the house in the middle of the night and plugged the left speaker plug into the wrong jack, where another plug had been when I did it. I'm thinking it may have been that Elf on the shelf, Georgie, that lives at Timmy and Bridget's house before Christmas and reports good and bad deeds to Santa. Why Georgie would want to cause me trouble, I cannot say, but he's the only one small enough to get back there and fool around with those plugs. Well, I now got the thing sorted out and all that remains is to choose the music. I really don't know why I bother for background music because Anne will tell me it's too loud, or turn it off, or people will want to watch television or talk or something, all despite my best efforts and long hours of toil.

I love this blog thing. See, you can't say all this stuff on Facebook; no one wants to read it. I can write it here like a diary and if nobody looks at it, fine, or if they do, they will know exactly what I'm thinking or doing, if there is someone who wants to know that. I'm guessing that there are not too many people who care, since, despite great publicity (I've told some people about my blog) I have only one follower.

Teddy got this thing called a Sno-wovel, which is a snow shovel attached to a giant wheel. He was impressed with it and said it worked really well with our last snow storm, especially when the accumulation was in the 3 to 4 inch range.

I heard Anne practicing the violin, so maybe I should stop all of this writing and go try to make some music too.

The Snow Came, the Snow Blower Went

We had some snow today. I was planning to be the hero of the neighborhood. I revved up my 9 hp snow thrower (they don't call them "snow blowers" anymore), proceeded to clear around the house and started on our parking area, when what to my my wondering ears should hear, but a snap and, there it stood. It wouldn't go back and it wouldn't go fro. A cable governing the transmission had snapped. My neighbor, Rich, was able to help me determine that it was a spring that had broken. I had a box of springs in the cellar (how many people have a box of springs) and we were able to jury rig a fix, temporarily. I was then able to finish our parking area and four neighbors sidewalks. My next door neighbor is an FBI agent and as I was coming around to do his sidewalk, another neighbor, Mark, also an FBI agent, was ecstatic that I could do the sidewalk. I told him about the problem and he said that if anyone would have the tools and parts to fix it, it was me. (We must live in a dangerous neighborhood, since they have two agents living four houses apart.)

So we got the darn thing to work, but now I will have to figure out what to do for a permanent repair. After, extra super shoveling, repair work, etc., I decided that a Sunday afternoon party was in order, so I conjured up some snacks, a wee dram or two or three, listened to music and had a generally relaxing afternoon.

Waiting for the Snow

It is about 3:30 p.m., Saturday, December 19, 2009 and the promised snowfall is just beginning to organize itself. We were most concerned about getting to the production of Annie in Metuchen. Christine asked the production manager last night about the chances of cancellation of the evening show for which we have tickets. She was told that they rarely cancel and as long as the actors are there, the show will go on. Since there were still seats available at the 3 p.m. show, Anne decided to call and see if we could change. She got a call back that all the Saturday and Sunday performances were cancelled because at least one principal player, who lives in Cherry Hill, couldn't get out of her driveway. The show has been rescheduled for January 2nd and 3rd.

Anthony got his flight from Florida just fine and Peter met him at the airport in Pittsburgh, so that plan is working out. Teddy and Timmy are driving out to Pittsburgh tomorrow and are bringing some more warm clothes for Anthony.

I figure that a good part of tomorrow will be devoted to snow removal, both here and at several neighbors houses, so I'm not doing any weight training today. I'll have enough of that tomorrow. What I am doing, what I was doing, before I started writing this, was to get pictures organized and labeled in iPhoto and then get them onto Flickr. I had passed a very clear law for my life that said to get photos off the cameras as quickly as possible, edit and label them before I forgot what they were, who the people were or where they were taken. I have been stellar in getting the pics onto the computer, but less than shining in getting rid of poor shots and labeling the rest. I still remember who the people are, but some of the places are getting foggy. It is astonishing how fast the little buggers accumulate (the pictures, that is).

I want to put a link on my blog to my Flickr account so that anyone who cares to can simply click and see them. I think that should be called a "clink," when you click a link. Maybe it is called that already and I am just ignorant of the fact. That having been said, I must discover, first, what the heck the link is to my Flickr pictures and second, how to put it somewhere on my blog. [I figured out to do that so now I have my first clink, right there at the top of the page.]

The snow seems to have let up. I wonder if this is another one of those fake storms the weather people get themselves all worked up about but then fizzle out. I guess we'll know by Sunday morning.

Retirement II

Charlie Gibson is retiring today after 34 years as a reporter and anchorman at ABC News. He was on Good Morning America this morning and mentioned that Bill Bradley had recently told him that after he retires he should wait six to nine months to decide what he wants to do, or if he wants to do anything at all. In the meantime he should read and relax. Charlie said that he was never able to get more than two weeks of vacation in a row while he was working. I feel somewhat the same way. It has now been three months since I retired and I have been wondering what the future holds for me. After so many years of work, I feel somewhat guilty about not doing something productive all day long, so I do try to do something productive each day.

Should I pursue my dream of becoming a world famous author of best selling novels, a folk musician, a renowned artist, or what? Anne thinks I should become a Renaissance man and do all of them. She suggested painting, but I'm not sure if she meant painting on a canvas or painting the outside window trim.

It is said that if you want to be a writer you should read a lot and if a musician, listen to a lot of music. So, I'm reading and listening to music and I have three to six months to go to be on Bill Bradley's schedule of deciding what to do. In the meantime, I'm going to try to figure out how to spiff up my blog and to get more of my pictures on Flickr and organize them better. All of this thinking is making me tired. Maybe I should take a nap, but it's only 10:00 a.m. Oh drat.

Splitting Wood

Anne went out after lunch to see a friend so I decided that I would do some weight training. Then I remembered that I needed to split some wood. I had put some cut logs in the cellar last year to keep them dry, so I hauled them all outside. I discovered that I am no longer 20 years old. I can still split wood, but my body reacts more angrily than it did when I was younger. By the time I got done I was warm enough that I didn't bother to build a fire. However, I did need fortification in the form of a wee dram. I think I also need a maul designed for splitting. I was using an axe which I don't believe is made for that purpose. I guess I'll have to go to Home Depot.

Rochester, Boats, Etc.

One topic that never seems to end at our house is where we will move now that I'm retired. Anne went to the doctor the other day and the woman doctor asked, when Anne mentioned that I was retired, "Where are you going to move?" It is almost a given that retired people look to move out of NJ because of the taxes and because they can get a much better deal on house prices elsewhere.

A few years ago we had had this same conversation. Actually, we discussed it over a couple of years and decided that if and when we moved it would be to Rochester, NY. Anne's brothers live there (her sister is in Virginia) and she has recently become reacquainted with high school classmates that she hadn't spoken to in years. We have nieces and nephews there too. What we don't have there are children or grandchildren, which is a concern.

I like the Rochester area. It has a lot of ponds nice for canoeing and kayaking. It also has Lake Ontario, which is probably not the ideal place to either canoe or kayak. Since I have weened myself from boats with infernal combustion engines, my boating experience has been much more enjoyable. Sailboats are nice, but there is always the question of wind, too little or too much of it. We had a number of sailboats. Let's see, a Lightning, Sunfish, Albacore, Blue Jay, Laser (the last two were really Leo's) and most of them all at the same time. For a while we kept two at the Monmouth Boat Club in Red Bank, or in the back yard with a canoe and a motor boat. So many boats - sigh. Oh, I forgot the Folbot in that list which we still have. Anyway, the Greater Rochester area would be nice for water activities. I was, however, aghast the other day when the weather forecast was talking about 3 to 4 FEET of lake effect snow in western New York. Rochester only got about 6 to 8 inches, but there was a great deal of snow in the Finger Lakes area.

So, there are some things that Rochester has going for it and some things against it. Children and grandchildren being about 6 or 7 hours away is a negative. Also, you make friends over the years, Anne more so than I, but I have a few friends too. Some are old, some new, but friendships are important. This is just my rambling and this question will not be resolved today and probably not for a couple of years, so I will ramble about something else.

I am trying to add a couple of songs to my repertoire. It gets tiring playing the same songs day after day, especially when I don't seem to be getting much better at them. I can at least play some, although not to my satisfaction, which is why there won't be a recital any time soon, but I guess there is some progress.

Blogging Some More

I believe it is once again time to write something in my blog.. I haven't written anything here in so long that I almost forgot the name of the thing.

I don't know why I bother to plan what I will do during the day. This morning I got up and decided I would resume my weight training and would practice some music. What I did was to finalize some internet shopping and was then assigned to wrap some Christmas presents. That was ok. That got me more in the spirit. I didn't get to the weights until around two o'clock and didn't pick up an instrument until after eight. What was I doing the rest of the time? Maybe I was staring out a window and just forgot.

So, what have I been doing? We spent two and a half weeks in Florida visiting Pete, Roxanne, Anthony and Alex. Pete was able to get home from Haiti for a week during that time and that was nice. As always, we were treated well and the boys were fun, although Anthony is getting too good at games. The weather down there was warm (mid to upper 80s) and when we got back to New Jersey, there was snow on the car. Yuck.

Last weekend (I still think in terms of weekends to do chores) I made some changes to the train set and cleaned up the cellar in case anyone visits over the holidays. Leo, Kristen and Tyler will stay over either New Year's Eve or New Year's night, but then have to get home because of the dogs, cats, bird and fish - mainly the dogs. Their neighbor will look after them for the one day.

I went to Eastern Title on Tuesday, December 15th to help Santa give out presents at their annual secret Santa thing. I had a very nice lunch with one of the Associates and have two more lunches planned; one with Mike, the boss, in January and one with an Associate near the end of January. I may want to run down to Crisfield, MD for an overnight when my new instrument is ready. Trying to talk Anne into that.

I'm sure I'm forgetting something here. I must be doing more than what I described; the days are flying past, at least I think they are. I'm no longer sure exactly what day it is since I retired and when we were in Florida, I didn't even know what season it was.

Someone recently suggested that I should write some more. Maybe I will, but then you'll have to read it. Well, I guess you won't, but then how will you know if I say anything interesting?

Retirement Today

This is Thursday. One day until my 1st weekiversity of retirement. I started out by finishing digging up the main part of the bed that Anne wants for her strawberry plants.

Anne and I took a hike on the Red Trail at Cheesequake and found it quite enjoyable. We met a man also hiking and chatted for a while.

Our new wireless Lexmark printer arrived today. Set up was easy and so far the printing works great. I haven't tried the copy, scan or fax modes yet although the machine said that the fax was working fine. I am always amazed by technology. This printer found the wireless network and basically installed itself. It works with the PC and the Mac.

I had taken four fishing reels to the Tackle Box in Hazlet to have new line put on them a couple of days ago, so I went back today to get them. The fellow there said that my reels were in great shape. While there, I looked at poppers which are used for stripers and I was aghast at the price. They range from about $11.00 through $23.00, at least the ones that I saw. No wonder people make their own. I then went to Dick's Sporting Goods to see how their prices were and found them to be pretty much the same. I like the fellow in the tackle box (the store) who was very willing to talk and give recommendations on how to catch fish. The non-existent person in Dick's wasn't nearly as helpful. I'm not feeling quite so irrelevant today, but not into the routine yet, if there is a routine. It is probably better if there isn't a routine. That could get boring.

Retired Still

I am posting this as a diary and for the benefit of my one blog follower.

Today we got some of the umbrellas and tables from the pool area into the loft or attic, went for a hike in Cheesequake Park and then I was put to work enlarging our garden area for a strawberry bed. Other than that, I guess I'm feeling fairly irrelevant.

Retirement

So now I'm retired. I guess I have time to do everything I always wanted to do but didn't know I wanted to do. I started by washing the car on Saturday, getting my new Thule load bars set up for the kayaks and today I spent some time organizing things in the garage loft. Maybe you think I'm spending too much time with things associated with the garage, but these things need to be done. Messes accumulate over time and periodically they need to be straightened out, so that's what I have set out to do. I also got some pieces of wood out of the cellar and put them in the loft. The cellar looks a lot better.

I still am not fully conscious that I am retired. Whenever I think of something that needs doing, I think in terms of doing it on a weekend, but, now every day is a Saturday except Sunday, to quote my friend, Ray. I have a long list of home repairs or improvements that I need to do. At first I thought it would be nice to do nothing for a month or two, but that's not realistic. Anne hasn't put down her dish cloth or spatula, so if she's still chugging along, I suppose I can too.

I do think that everyday shouldn't be a full day of work around the house. If I'm going to do that, I should go back to the office and get paid for the work. I will try to do some chores for part of the day and then find something fun to do, or, do a project for a day and then find some recreation the next day. I don't really have a handle on this retirement thing yet. I think I will re-energize my blog so I can keep more of a diary of what I'm thinking and doing. Facebook is not set up to do that.

So, tune in next time to see what I have or have not accomplished.