It's News to Me

In what felt a bit like an unexpected call in the middle of the night, back in October, the 21st to be specific, I received an email from a former client of mine with whom I have consulted off and on since around 1988 asking whether I'd be willing to consider «an assignment for a year or so in New Mexico.» Having already retired and, I'll admit, having begun to resign myself to the inevitable decline that leads to the end of life, I was surprised and invigorated by his suggestion so I followed up with him just to learn what the possibilities were. That conversation and subsequent events have now led to a new opportunity for me, a new role. And just this last week, I received a formal offer to become the Call Center Manager for the Vertex Outsourcing call center in Las Vegas, NM -- not Nevada mind you, but New Mexico.

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Happy Birthday Dad

Originally uploaded by Dr Reelgood & Co..

On November 7th, Mike and Cheryl and their kids helped me celebrate my 66th birthday with a dinner at their home. Mike captured this official portrait of me posed before an assortment of cheeses and fruit that he had purchased for the occasion. It was a delicious and enjoyable way to celebrate my birthday. He suggested that the caption for the picture should be Dad cuts the cheese on his birthday, but in the end, he labeled it a bit more soberly.

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Back on July the 8th, a Saturday morning, I decided it was time for me to stop committing suicide by sitting (TM) and set aside a regular hour during which I would commit to getting some exercise.  I chose walking.  Believing that scheduling a time for the activity might make it more likely I'd notice that I should be doing some form of exercise at that time, I set the hour between 8 AM and 9 AM as my designated hour for exercise.  Since then, I've been quite pleased that during the ensuing two months I've kept up the walking through my neighborhood with good regularity.  (I've missed walking on only two days in the last 62.) 

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In an email exchange this morning with my friend Juan, who recently celebrated turning 60, he commented that he had been somewhat concerned about me because he noticed that I hadn't updated my blog in «many days.»  He is right of course in a manner of speaking , but in another way he is overlooking that the blog actually is updated each day, even if there isn't a newly composed post like this one.  Since others of you may not be aware of these daily modifications either, I thought it worth my time to point them out to you and to share some of the insightful remarks that Juan made in our exchange. 

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On June the sixth, I had my semi-annual appointment to get my teeth cleaned, and I dreaded the usual but familiar difficulty associated with removing the stains from my teeth that smoking a pipe causes.  So the night before, I tossed out my pipes and decided that the night of the fifth of June would be the last time I smoked the pipe.  It was (and is) time to give up that addiction.  When I arrived for the appointment, I told the hygienist that I was giving up smoking, and of course, she was very supportive and encouraged me to follow through on my plan.  And while I had every intention of doing just that, I had no idea whether I'd be able to stick to my resolve.

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I went to the doctor to have my eyes examined on Monday the twenty-first. It had been two years since I had had an exam and it was time, if for no other reason than to check for glaucoma. As it turns out, my «dress» glasses, meaning the ones I wear everyday when I go out of the house, the trifocals without the lines, weren't working for me as well as they used to. I need them to see things at a distance while I'm driving, to a restaurant for instance, but once I get to the restaurant those same glasses don't work as well as they used to because I now find reading the menu to be difficult. So I was due for an eye exam for that reason as well. It turns out that I do need a new prescription, which I am having filled ... for $480.50 (ouch!).

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This morning I composed and sent this message to Patricia Pomerleau, the CEO of the online service CEOExpress.

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Today is my pal Paul's 83rd birthday. I want to wish him a Happy Birthday publicly here on my blog and to say I hope he has many more years of happiness there in his adopted home in Berlin.

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