Debbie's First Retirement Project

We had this patch of really ugly clay out in front of the house, so I decided it would be fun to put in a flower garden. So I went to the nursery and bought about flowering plant I liked. When I got home I got right into digging, hacking with a geology hammer and all the other things I could think of to make dents in the baked clay. I spent about five days planting and soil amending and hacking and visiting the nursery for more plants until I had a pretty little flower garden:

Then, enter the monster salad mongers

and this is what the salad bar looks like now

Lessons Learned and Observations from the first 60 Years

The first day of retirement is really cool.

Anything is possible it's just a matter of time, bucks and creative minds.

Just because you can doesn't mean you should.

You accomplish more and get more satisfaction out of life it you approach it from a "how I can" rather than a "why I can't" point of view.

There is something to be learned from every bad experience; sometimes it takes years; and some of it I will never figure out - but I will always know it is there to be learned.

There is something I could have done differently to make bad experiences less bad, but sometimes the price would have been too high.

Never sacrifice personal integrity, at the end of the day that is all that you have.

There have been no perfect parents and I won't be the first one.

When the environment becomes too inflexible for me to tolerate, it is time for me to change my environment.

Do the right thing for the right reason.

An absence of laughter stifles the creative mind.

For everything I have done there is someone out there who could have done it better, with a few notable exceptions.

I am intolerant of those things I perceive to be stupid, but when I keep an open mind occasionally discover my perceptions were wrong.

If I will remember something in ten years then it is probably important, everything else is not worth getting in an uproar about.

Life was easier when there were only 3 kinds of sneakers to choose among.

With hundreds of atheletic shoes to choose from, there is only one that comes in a narrow size with a high arch support. When there were only 3 choices, all three could be ordered narrow and all shoes came with arch support.

Things to do once you're retired

Make yourself a Saturday. Pick one day a week where you get to do the thing you like best no matter what. The day before will then be your Friday - the day you have looked forward to your whole working life.

Make a schedule for the daily routine stuff and do it first thing in the morning (except for your Saturday). By the time you are really awake you'll be past the drudge stuff.

Start a family blog to collect family history, stories, pictures, etc.

Castenada: Options

We either make ourselves happy or miserable.  The amount of work is the same.

      --Carlos Castenada, mystic and author (1925-1998)

All about 401K

[Contributed by Peter Childress]

http://www.howstuffworks.com/401k.htm/printable

Things to get rid of

Security badge
laptops
desktops
disk drive contents
bottle of water
office contents
p-card
Forrester subscription

Countdown

Items to check off the list as retirement date approaches.

This site gives a new date based on +/- number of days:
http://www.timeanddate.com/date/dateadd.html

red signifies this is or was a critical item, everything else is missed opportunity

3/01/06 - 3/15/06 Call HR-WELLS and request retirement package

4/01/06 - 5/01/06 Submit Health Coverage Forms complete 4/1

4/01/06 - 5/01/06 Submit Notice of Retirement complete 4/1

5/01/06 - 5/15/06 Request Cash Balance Payout Options Form 1-877-479-3557 complete 4/15

5/01/06 - 5/15/06 Request 401K Payout Options Form - 1-877-479-3557 complete 5/1
They said this is automatically sent out when you are dropped off payroll

5/15/06 - 5/31/06 Make list of physical items that need new homes

5/15/06 - 5/31/06 Determine work items that won't be completed by 6/30

6/01/06 - 6/07/06 Book good-bye lunches

6/09/06 - 6/09/06 Send Supervisor Notification to manager

6/01/06 - 6/10/06 Submit Cash Balance Payout Options Form

6/01/06 - 6/24/06 Reassign work items that won't be completed by 6/30

5/01/06 - 6/30/06 Exercise Options

6/01/06 - 6/30/06 Find homes for stuff and list of stuff that needs new homes

6/01/06 - 6/15/06 Clean out email

6/01/06 - 6/23/05 Clean off disk

6/01/06 - 6/30/06 Cleanout office

6/26/06 - 6/30/06 Celebrate a lot

7/10/06 - 7/20/06 Call 401K for payout options if they have not been received.

Networking and Job Hunting Ideas

From http://slashdot.org/ SlashDot (contributed by Doyle):

The guys at the Google Press Center presented upcoming Google technologies at a press conference. http://www.google.com/coop Google Co-op beta is a community where users can contribute their knowledge and expertise to improve Google search for everyone. Google Trends builds on the Google Zeitgeist to help users find facts and trends related to Google usage around the world. Google Notebook is a simple way for users to save and organize their thoughts when conducting research online. This personal browser tool permits users to clip text, images, and links from the pages they're browsing, save them to an online 'notebook' that is accessible from any computer, and share them with others. Also, Google Desktop 4 is also mentioned." Googleblog has an outline of the new services.

Expressive Short Timer Responses

You have our sympathy
What a shame
I'll get right on that
Might I suggest someone who could help you
But who's counting
Not that it matters
Gee, I'd love to help you with that, but...
Not a problem
That's the last time I'll ever have to...
So what are they gonna do? Fire me?
You know, Paris and Rome in the summer are nice.
I hear the beach isnt crowded on the week days.