It’s Official – I’m Retired -- Saturday, January 1, 2011

Friday the 31st of December seemed like every other New Year’s Eve. I worked (kind of) a half day and came home to celebrate New Year’s Eve with Nancy. Only this Friday was a little different. I had taken all my work files, records, literature, demos, equipment and work cell phone and turned it in to my now ex-boss. He was really a great guy to work for, but, now – that’s it – I’m done!
Corporate Bill

Bill's New Office

It’s a little scary – now what? We have to sell this house so we can pursue our dream of full-timing in an RV. With no salary coming in any more, I don’t want to be paying the mortgage, utilities and all the other stuff associated with owning a sticks and bricks house for any great length of time. I have quickly turned my efforts to the house. All the painting is done, bathrooms are cleaned and scrubbed, furniture dusted, rugs vacuumed, etc. The house is not cluttered at all and is in “show” condition. We just have to keep it that way. All we need is a buyer! Know anyone that wants a beautiful, furnished house at the beach...let us know!!
Four Bedrooms, 2 Baths at the Beach on a Golf Course!!

Our New Year’s Eve was typical for us. We had our close friends, Bill and Chris Jordan, and Nancy’s Mom for a traditional Northern New Year’s Eve dinner – Sauerkraut and Pork with all the trimmings.
Nancy here,
I just layer sauerkraut, sliced onions, apples slices, pork roast, apple slices, sliced onions and more sauerkraut (in that order) in the crockpot.  Sprinkle caraway seeds on top, then mix the reserved sauerkraut juice with a little brown sugar and dry mustard and pour over the mixture.  Let it cook on medium all day and then YUM!!
We even had a little Hard Apple Cider and Homemade Apple Pie, thanks to the Jordan’s.  Bill is holding our Mega Millions Lottery ticket.  We never play the lottery, but Nancy suggested we get one pick for everyone.  So we had 5 chances to win $220 million.  Boy would that have been something, but it was NOT to be....no winning numbers for us.

After dinner I drove Nancy’s Mom home and when I returned Nancy had totally cleaned up all the dishes and had the place sparkling. Bill and Chris had gone home and Nancy and I did what we’ve always done on New Year’s Eve – we went to bed. Our kids always laugh and say we’re the only people they know that tape the ball dropping in New York City and watch it the next day. Well, this year I fooled them – I didn’t even tape it.

I guess we must be old fuddy-duddies in that we don’t wear goofy hats, bang pans or shoot off fireworks for the new year. However, we are both early risers and enjoy a brisk walk first thing in the morning so, staying up late is not in the cards. Our lives are pretty simple, some might say boring, but, we like it that way!

2011 should be an exciting year for us. Hopefully, our house will sell quickly and we can get Nancy retired as well so we can go to the 2011 RV-Dreams Rally, go to Alaska, and then start our full-timing adventure!! In the meantime I will keep the house spotless and give Nancy a kiss everyday as she goes to work to pay for our medical insurance. Thank you honey!

We do have a 2 ½ week trip to Florida starting on the 7th of January. We have made reservations at four Florida State parks, namely Stephen Foster, Hillsborough River, Collier-Seminole and Silver River. Our class B Pleasureway is waxed (REJEXed… thanks Gin and Syl for that tip) and ready to go.
It is SOOOOO Beautiful!!

Nancy here,
Thanks to Gin and Syl's tip and Bill's hard work, we now have a 10 year old Van that looks like new.

Along with biking and kayaking, we plan to do a lot of R & R. We are going to the large RV show in Tampa for a couple of days. Look out – we’re really getting serious about this full-timing gig. It will be a nice break for both of us.

From Nancy and me, we wish all of you a Happy New Year.

Hope to see some of you in our travels,  Bill

11 comments:

  1. Congratulations on your retirement, Bill!

    Looking forward to seeing you and Nancy in April and hope that the only house you have by that time is one on wheels!

    Hugs, Ken and Cindy

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  2. That sounds like a very nice New Year's Eve celebration to me. Forget about the silly hats and Time Square. There's nothing fuddy-duddy about y'all.
    That Rejex and elbow grease sure does make your rig shine like new. Enjoy your time in Florida. I'm sure the lottery winnings would have been nice to have at the Tampa RV Show. Safe travels.
    Syl

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  3. Congratulation on your retirement - we hope to be joining your ranks, soon! Your house looks beautiful, it should sell quickly. We are right behind you.... Marti and Paul

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  4. Congratulations on the retirement Bill! Looks like we have that in common. Rick retired today. He was all finished at 1:30 this afternoon. We will be on the road by Saturday. Can hardly wait.
    Good luck with the house. It only takes one buyer. It's a beautiful home and someone will fall in love with it soon.

    Looking forward to seeing you both at the rally in April.

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  5. Way to go, Bill! Can't wait to see you both in April, a year of research under both our belts, we'll have more to talk about I'm sure! Keep up the faith on the sale of the house..tis a slow go!

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  6. Hey Bill, congratulations on your retirement! Good luck with the house sale. Hope it happens soon.

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  7. Way to go Bill! You are gonna love it. We do althought we don't seem to be any less busy and wonder how we did anything and worked too.

    Look on the bright side, you got out or rather in before they spend all the Social Security money for something else!!

    Anxious to see you both in April. Keep us all posted on the house news.

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  8. Congrats on your retirement! Selling the house is always a big part of the equation-good luck.

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  9. David wants to know where you got this Rejex since we can't find it locally. Did you order it on line??

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  10. We couldn't find it locally either, so we order it online. Good Stuff!!

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  11. Oh, so you retired on the first day of the new year? What a way to start 2012! Well, I hope you have luck selling your home. Traveling around the country in an RV sounds like a great way to spend your free time...

    Congrats on retiring!

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