Saturday, July 23, 2005

Exclamation Marks!

Today is Saturday - at least that is what the calendar says - I really do not keep track to the days of the weeks because I am retired! I have said it many times before and many ways that I love being retired and I still love it! Can there be too many exclamation marks in a posting? I think back to that episode of Seinfeld where Elaine breaks up with one of her many boyfriends because he will not use an exclamation mark. Well, being retired definitely deserves exclamation marks!

It is not an exciting day by any means. I just finished a library book called Appaloosa by the author who wrote the Spenser series of books. It was a decent book and the reading was fast. It is a western and basically could be called "
Spenser Goes Wild West".

Mrs. Ex-Fed is out with a group of Red Hat Society ladies at some function in Baltimore. Sort of a strange concept to wear red hats and some purple clothing but at least they are having fun. It is a good way to meet some new people for Mrs. Ex-Fed although she continues to see her old friends (some older than others) from her old agency - and some of them retired on the same day as she did! Wow, another exclamation mark!

Naturally, I have friends who are still working - or should I say, still employed. Some of them are thinking about retirement in the next year or two. The government is going to be real short of agency knowledge when that happens. The person that took my place had worked for another agency, the one that took Jimbo's place worked for another agency, and the recent hires in staffing also have been from other agencies. This does not do anyone any good. When a field specialist calls in to the central office for answers, they want an experienced specialist to tell them of agency policies that may not be written anywhere. If a central office specialist has only the same written answers as available to the field specialist, there is no use for the central office specialist. Our leaders have to think about succession planning and this has been an agency problem for the past few years. People retire and there is no expert to take their place.

Once again I have to say to all who read this posting - if you are eligible to retire and have the financial means to have a good retirement life, DO IT NOW! There is just so much to do - even if you do nothing - it is so much better than commuting to work (thinking about terrorists), and just do some volunteer things that you find enjoyable - on your own terms.

posted by Ex-Fed @ 10:04 PM 0 comments

Monday, July 04, 2005

Independence Day

The 4th of July was one of my favorite holidays when I was growing up in Minnesota. It was during the mid-1950’s and the kids in the neighborhood would borrow military items from their fathers and hold a parade each year. It was not much of a parade but Alan had a drum that he would "play", Sharon had a clarinet and Doug played a trumpet. The rest of us would just march behind them and one of the kids got to lead the parade with an American flag. We would just go around the block once or twice and the parents would stand on the curb and cheer as we passed by. In the evening, all the families would come to Ken’s backyard and we would have a neighborhood picnic that every family would bring their favorite things to share with each other. Later that night, after dark, we would all gather in the yard by Alan’s driveway and his father, Wendell, would shoot off fireworks that all the neighbors contributed to the fund to buy. No one ever got hurt by the fireworks and no fires were ever started by our fireworks. Well, that was the 1950’s in Minnesota and not 2005.

Independence Day, 2005, is very different from those days in Minnesota. We are at war with Iraq and Afghanistan (or should I say with terrorism). Just too bad that Iraq and Afghanistan got in the way of terrorism so we had to bomb both countries back to the Stone Age. Tens of thousands of Iraqis and Afghanistanians have been killed by our attempt to give them freedom and democracy – even if they did not know they wanted freedom and democracy. Over 1,750 American troops have been killed in these countries that hate America more than they did when the war started. The USA is bogged in a quagmire that is just like Vietnam in the 1970’s. George W. (Weasel) Bush will not fix a timetable for withdrawing American forces even though the majority of American feel it was a mistake to invade Iraq when the war on terrorism should be focused on Osama bin Laden. Iraq was invaded because of phony intelligence cooked up to look like there were "weapons of mass destruction" and that Sadaam had ties to terrorists of Al Queda.

When my family goes to see fireworks at the Washington Monument grounds tonight, we will have to pass through metal detectors and be subject to body search for weapons. The show will be spectacular with fireworks accompanied by the Washington Symphony. Afterwards, there will be drill to see how quickly people can be moved from downtown in the case of attack. Wow, what a super end to a patriotic 4th of July.

Am I alone in wishing for Independence Days like those of the 1950’s in Minnesota?

posted by Ex-Fed @ 9:38 AM 0 comments

Asbestos
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