Filed under retirement, work
At the end of January, I went back to work at the place I retired from as a contractor. Last Friday was the last day of the contract.
For most of my career, I worked as an operations instructor in nuclear power, both in the Navy (40 months) and at a commercial plant (24 years). As in many jobs, there was more to it than just the teaching. And, unfortunately, as the company went from a moderate sized utility to a corporation operating the 2nd largest nuclear fleet, there was a lot of additional administrative requirements.
By the time I retired, enjoyment of my job was long gone, except for the small percentage of the time that I actually spent in the classroom. That, combined with a number of administrative burdens and other issues, contributed to my decision to retire when I reached 55.
My plan was to take at least a year off before even considering looking for work. By the end of the first six months, I had no intentions of actively seeking work.
Work came seeking me a year after my last real day of work.
Dogwood Tree Berries/Fruit
From our yard
November 2, 2007 at 2.07pm CDT
Camera: Pentax K10D
Exposure: 0.006 sec (1/180)
Aperture: f/5.6
Focal Length: 300 mm
ISO Speed: 100
August 2008 was an interesting blogging month for me. I’ve gotten out of my comfort zone a bit and have had a number of interesting comments.
I don’t get a lot of commenters, but I do have some regulars. A few new folks dropped by in August and were gracious enough to leave some comments, many of them interesting.
My feed reader has been purged of most of the make-money-on-the-internet-blogs. Those have been replaced by new blogs that piqued my interest when I visited them. Some of them may not make the cut, but others appear to be keepers.
I’ve been very bad about answering comments. Delay turned into procrastination. I’m going to try to reply to all (or most) of the comments from August — but no promises.
I’m doing something a little different here. I’m tallying all of the folks who commented for the month of August and providing a link back to their most recent blog post.
Thanks again for all of those who have visited and commented on this blog.
August posts and the commenters:
01: Big Falls Inn - near Upper Mesa Falls, Henrys Fork of the Snake River, Idaho
03: Aged and Weathered Logs
05: RV Shower Modification
06: Moving out of my comfort zone
07: Can you guess who I’m voting for?
08: The answer, my friend, is b….
09: Why the change from the same old, same old?
13: Down the tube…,
14: Global Warming? August in Arkansas 2008
18: In Winter
19: What does “Gay New York” mean to you?
23: I was told yesterday that my last day of work is next Friday!
24: A Solitary Walk on the Beach
26: A Very Long Driveway
27: From Our Porch
28: Goldfinch against March Snow in the South
28: Life expectancy — 5 years.
30: Like A Rock Hand Emerging Out Of The Earth
This year has certainly brought us plenty of weather events.
We certainly didn’t expect to see “Hurricane Statement” on our weather map. Of course, Gustav is now a tropical depression, but it’s still looking like we are going to have a rain event. We may be getting anywhere from 4 to 8 inches of rain.
It’s been cooler and wetter overall than normal this year. Normally, in September, everything has dried up to the point that there might be one more time to mow before the end of the season. This year everything is green, green, green!
Some of my 2008 posts on Arkansas weather:
- Global Warming? August in Arkansas 2008
- Weekend in Little Rock… Too Hot, Hot, Hot!
- Ho Hum — here we go again… And — another Anniversary
- In the weather crosshairs — again.Tornado Warnings by Phone, Email, and Sirens Wailing in the Distance — Storm Shelter, Here We Come!
- All Safe Here
- Flash, bang, boom! here we go again!
- Out of the house, finally…, power interruptions… and (a little) more
- Arkansas: Spring Weather Forecast
- A Little March Snow… in Arkansas
- Scenes of destruction
- Record Long Tornado Track Confirmed in Arkansas…
- Arkansas Tornado One of the Most Severe
- Crash! Flash! Rumble! Sirens are wailing in the distance!
- Power, Trees, Snow
- Crash… Smash…. Flash… Heigh Ho, Heigh Ho, it’s off to work…
Museum of Automobiles
Composite of two images
Petit Jean State Park and Petit Jean Mountain
July 3, 2005
Camera: Kodak DX4530 Zoom
Arches National Park
September 24, 2007; 9:49 MDT
Camera: Pentax K10D
Exposure: 0.003 sec (1/350)
Aperture: f/8
Focal Length: 18 mm
ISO Speed: 100
Filed under family, health
That would have been the average life expectancy of a person diagnosed with lupus 40 years ago — 5 years.
Twenty years ago, when my wife was diagnosed with it, the life expectancy was — possibly a normal life expectancy.
Karen was in pain, she was weak, she tired out quickly. One doctor dismissed her symtoms as being “in her head.” She made an appointment with a different doctor in the same clinic. He didn’t know what it was for sure, but he was suspicious of the rash and sent her to a dermatologist. The dermatologist identified the disorder and lined her up with a specialist in Little Rock.
She was diagnosed with lupus and other related disorders, including fibromyalgia and polymiositis. Fortunately, through the care of this doctor and doing what she is supposed to do, she has been in medicated remission for many years. When she backs too far off of the meds, symptoms start to reappear, so she must maintain a low level dose of them. She does have pains related to the disorders and she isn’t able to build strength easily — it has to be slow and gradual. Other than that, though, she lives a normal and healthy life.
Today, she went to a dermatologist for a small rash that has been rather stubborn. It turns out is is probably related, so she is going to have to be a little more careful with staying out of the sun and/or using sunscreen.
It was the same dermatologist that diagnosed the lupus on August 23, 1988. It was the first time she’s been back since he referred her to the specialist.
How cool is that?
Note: the picture above was taken last September about a mile out on a trail in Canyonlands National Park.
March 4, 2008
11:49 AM CST
Camera: Pentax K10D
Exposure: 0.006 sec (1/180)
Aperture: f/5.6
Focal Length: 300 mm
ISO Speed: 100
July 27, 2008
Camera: Pentax K10D
Exposure: 0.017 sec (1/60)
Aperture: f/5.6
Focal Length: 300 mm
ISO Speed: 400
The long driveway out to The Ranch
August 17, 2007
Camera: Pentax K10D
Exposure: 0.008 sec (1/125)
Aperture: f/8
Focal Length: 55 mm
ISO Speed: 100