Saturday, April 23, 2005

The Celebrity Century Cruise

Here it is, the 23rd of April, and I still love my second retirement! Sounds like I am rubbing it in, doesn't it? Maybe I am, but that is a great feeling. I have now been officially out of work since March 31 when I left my 4-month consulting gig at the new Agency. Since that time, I have taken a Caribbean cruise with Mrs. Ex-Fed and also have just done some relaxing around the house.

The Caribbean cruise was excellent. We sailed from Fort Lauderdale to San Juan. There was only a 6 hour stop in San Juan so Mrs. Ex-Fed and I decided to just stay on the ship. The docking area was a taxi ride away from any tourist area and you were advised that walking around San Juan at night was not a very wise idea. It would be similar to walking around the Anacostia area of Washington, DC, at night. There was an excellent singer for the evening show on the ship and that was better than seeing San Juan again.

The ship then sailed to St. Thomas in the US Virgin Islands. Now, that is a great place to visit. The wife and I took a taxi to a small beach and really enjoyed the gin clear water of the Caribbean. There were plenty of small fish around the rocky outcrops where we did some shallow water snorkeling. The fish swarmed around us when we opened some small packages of cereal from the ship. The sand was white and smooth, the water was clear and warm, and the drinks were mighty smooth, too. I enjoyed some excellent local beers and Mrs. Ex-Fed enjoyed a couple of rum drinks made with coconut milk and Bailey’s Irish Cream. We went back to the ship after several hours of pure luxury on the beach and had a wonderful dinner and then on to the Piano Bar.

The next stop of the Celebrity Century was St. Martin. This is a small island that is actually a divided island. Half the island is Dutch and half the island belongs to France. The ship docked in Phillipsburg, which is on the Dutch side – where most of the shops are. We decided to do a tourist thing and took a catamaran sailing charter halfway around the island onto the French side where we did swimming and shallow water snorkeling on a picturesque beach. There was plenty of rum punch and beer on all parts of the trip! I really enjoyed floating in the warm water sipping on an ice-cold beer – and watching the lovely nudist ladies who were swimming and sunning their shapely bodies right next to where we were swimming. Good thing that Mrs. Ex-Fed doesn’t mind me leering from time to time!

We enjoyed a couple more days at sea with nothing to do except to walk around the beautiful ship, read a good book by the pool or in a quiet lounge, have a tropical cocktail at Happy Hour time (it had to be 4 o’clock somewhere in the world just about anytime), and break into a great big grin when thinking about the employees at the new Agency – or at the old Agency!

Unfortunately, the week goes by too quickly and it is back to the reality of retired life. I felt really great about having a vacation end and not having to think about the commute in the Washington DC traffic each morning. I also did not have to think about projects that were piling up on my desk because no one else had done them while I was on vacation. Once again, readers, RETIRE as soon as you are able to do it! You may be missed for a short time at the office but that is not your problem! Life is wonderful and you should enjoy every moment.

posted by Ex-Fed @ 9:03 PM 0 comments

Monday, April 11, 2005

Back to Retirement

I said it earlier and did not mean it that I was going to do contract work only until March 6. I allowed the Agency to talk me into an extension of my contract until March 31. They tried to sweet talk me into working until the end of April but I stood my ground this time and as of March 31, I was back into the ranks of being RETIRED.

I have written earlier that the HR Specialists at the new Agency did not know anything about position classification and they are going to be in a world of classification hurt – as if that means anything – with only Classification Susie being there as the only one who knows or cares about classification. She is an excellent classifier but does worry too much about the minutia and does not see the big picture some of the time. She does have cute legs, though.

The Boss Lady is going to crack the whip on some of the HR Specialists but then is going to find herself without a staff. Two of the 4 HR Specialists (both men) are eligible to retire anytime they want and the other 2 are women who have no idea of what is going on. The women try hard but the work is over their collective heads. Upward mobility is a good idea in theory but is not worth the effort most of the time. You have to have some ability to start with in order to be taken up the career ladder. Do not get me wrong, I know there are some successful upward mobility stories but more likely than not, the failures outnumber the successes.

Back to my last day at the Agency and off of the digressing. I did leave with some unfinished business and willed that to Classifier Susie. Mr. McQuint did not get the Financial Analyst classified the way he had planned; Betty did not get her Management Analyst upward mobility position classified; and Cindy did not get her Management Analyst upward mobility position classified. You can tell from this that there was a pattern at the Agency of creating a B.S. position beginning at the GS-7 grade level with a career ladder of GS-12 or 13 and selecting a person from your office who was a good technician and placing them into a career ladder position – since they could not be found qualified any other way. I had told all of these managers – except Mr. McQuint – that their positions could not be classified but they were too stubborn to take "no" for an answer.

I was kind of surprised when the HR Office at the Agency gave me a little going away party. They went out and bought a couple of cakes and signed a very nice card for me.

I went out the door of the Agency that evening with a huge grin on my face due to the fact that I had successfully completed my first HR consulting job. I made a worthwhile contribution to the office as well as making a decent amount of money for that time period.

I AM NOW BACK TO MY PRIMARY OCCUPATION OF RETIRED – AND LOVING IT! I again urge any of you that are able to retire from your jobs to DO IT NOW!

posted by Ex-Fed @ 10:45 PM 2 comments

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