A Few Things I’ve learned About Retirement

All the things you thought you would do when you retired you probably won’t do.  If you REALLY want to do something you make time to do it.  When you retire you just do what you enjoy doing more often. (Well maybe not everything)

You don’t have time to blog. 

Day light savings time does not matter.

Don’t go shopping on weekends.
You don’t need an alarm clock, you get up early anyway.
Two can retire as cheaply as one. (If one of you doesn’t eat and the other doesn’t dress.

...just practicing

I have not blogged since my trip to Finland in February (not the best month to visit Finland) and my past blogs for the most part were documenting my foreign travel. Now, as my retirement approaches, my blog will take on a different slant. My hope is not to get in a heavier air flying machine anytime soon. It has been my experience that Singapore is a great placed to visit but 28 hours in an airplane seat is just too much. I was fortunate enough to be a in a larger business class seat and it was torture. Coach has to be the equivalent to “water boarding” and everyone on the plane is paying for the privilege.

My retirement travel plans will for the most part be on wheeled ground based vehicles, sleeping in my own sheets, and will rarely take me out of the state of Texas.

As I write this I’m sitting in that exotic destination of Ranger, Texas. Ranger was a Texas Ranger camp in the late 19th century, an oil boom town in 1917 (the oil boom that won WW1), the home of the 3rd oldest airport in Texas and now is a sleepy little town on I-20 with less than 2500 residents.

I’m in the RV park right next to the T&P railroad track. Yes it does have about 15 trains a day and they do blow their horn as the train approaches. Did it keep me awake last night? No, it lulled me to sleep.

54 days until I retire. I’m just out here practicing.

Finland in February - Ice Station Zebra

We managed to leave Bush International at 4:25 PM on Monday just ahead of a cold front. The first third of the 9.5 hour flight to Schiphol (Amsterdam) was pretty rough even at 30,000 feet. We had a two hour layover at Schiphol before boarding a flight to Helsinki, Finland. As far as I know the flight to Helsinki was uneventful. I slept during the entire 2 hour and 15 minute flight. At Helsinki we had a 4 hour layover. Then we boarded a bus that took us out to a small commuter prop plane. This was my first introduction to Finland in February. For some reason I was the last one off the bus and consequently the last one on the plane. As the 40 plus people slowly climbed the stairs, selected a seat wedged their carryon luggage into small overhead compartment (I had a 1968 Chevy with a glove box bigger than those overheads), and then wedge themselves into the little seats, I stood on the tarmac at the end of the line in sub freezing weather. It was cold. The flight to Pori, Finland was a short 45 minutes. We landed in Pori on Tuesday at 6:35 PM Pori Time, 10:35 AM Texas time. Total travel time 18 hours and 10 minutes.
When we landed in Pori, or course I was the last one off the plane. As I walked to the terminal building I noticed that another passenger had turned around and was taking a picture of the plane with his cell phone. I turned around and saw the photo opportunity. This picture reminded of the old 1968 movie “Ice Station Zebra” staring Rock Hudson. Of course this was when we had a “Don't ask, Don't want to know” policy…

Passing Through Holland

I just spent a couple of days in The Netherlands, not much to say about that. I stayed at the Holiday Inn in Leiden. Leiden is a nice medium size town with a windmill museum and some wonderful restaurants. However this is a working trip and every night my colleague and I stop in the Hotel Bar and ate a cheese burger, the best I’ve ever had on the continent, went to our rooms and promptly began writing reports until about 18:00 then went to bed, got up and started over.

The last day we were there we were in Delft , NL. At the end of the session, about 15:00, we raced back to the hotel in Leiden to pick up our luggage and then on to Schiphol Airport. We confused the cab driver a bit when he asked, “Which airline” and we told “none, drop us off at the train station.”

Did you know that they actually have a special lounge for first class train customers to wait on the train in? I didn’t either.

At 18:45 we boarded a bullet train for Paris. I was a very nice experience, lots of room and it had a WiFi internet connection on the train that was free.

The trip was about 4 hours long. I think it would have been better in the daylight. The only bad part of the train trip was a group of 5 drunken Americans who were very obnoxious. The term “Ugly American” came to have a real meaning for me. On top of that their train tickets were all messed up. After the very good train staff helped them with their tickets they had to move to another car. One French woman comment to me, “I know all Americans are not like that.” I thanked her for that observation and apologized for my fellow Americans. Soon my car was full because everyone was move out of the car with the drunks moved into my car.

We arrived at the Paris Nord Station about 23:45. As I was loading my bags into a cab one of the Drunks spotted me yelled as if he knew me, “We made it!”

Ignorance is bliss and 1 Euro is worth $1.47.

The Greening of Aberdeen

Tuesday evening in Aberdeen I had a little walk about. That’s when I found the neighborhood store to get my junk food dinner (see below).

I saw a lot of other stuff too. One of the more interesting things about Aberdeen are the houses. Most private residents are constructed with granite. There are even streets paved with granite. Why? Because It is readily available and very strong. I’ve been told by the locals that the gray color on most of the buildings and some streets around town with only a few hours of sunlight in winter and what sunshine is available reflecting off gray, gray and more gray is somewhat depressing.

Aberdeen and the rest of the United Kingdom are also getting very green. They already have small uncomfortable fuel efficient cars but now you see solar panels, water saving bathroom fixtures, and passive heating systems. The office building we visited was new and had many energy efficient aspects designed into the building. The building has room for 900 workers and only 300 space in the parking lot. Most workers ride the bus.

As an outsider looking in I think I discovered a energy source that the Aberdeenians are missing. I think that in each of those granite houses there is enough NORM* in the granite blocks to light up the house and it's inhabitants.

* Naturally Occurring Radioactive Material.

My last meal in Aberdeen, UK

Anyone can eat the local fare and I have tried a few things. Last night I had a British staple, Fish & Chips with mushy peas. I’ve passed on the haggis and blood pudding. I have discovered that there is a much larger selection of “chips” or crisps as they call them here. They have plain potato “crisp” although they are not too easy to find but for lunch I had broasted chicken flavored crisps. They also have Doritos with all kinds of pepper flavoring.

I went for a walk just before sundown and came upon a small neighborhood market and decided to select local junk food for dinner. Here are my selections. 1) Diet Coke, bottle in Scotland, 2) a snicker bar, packaged in Edinburgh,3) a chicken salad sandwich, made by the in store staff, but my greatest find was 4) Kettle chips with Sea Salt and Crushed Peppercorns. Mmmmmmmmmmm---Good

Tree Top Hilton – Aberdeen, UK

I like the people that work at this hotel, there nice and attentive to your needs and always smile but if I ever come back I think I’ll stay somewhere else. I stayed here about three years ago and it was my first trip to Aberdeen and it was a charming place but now it’s just old. I think it must have been a private mansion at one time and then it was converted to a hotel and rooms were added and added and added. There are long dark halls, fire doors and fire extinguishers everywhere.

On Monday afternoon they have fire drills. Do they know something I don’t? Yes I think it is a fire trap. I’ll be leaving in the morning. Yes, I’ll miss Clara the desk clerk, Edwardo, the bellman and Anyah the Russian waitress in the restaurant, but I shall not return. I look forward a few modern conveniences like a shower bigger than my travel trailer shower. There are two things that I will not be able to find in hotel this side of the Atlantic and it’s a common problem. That is ice and A/C. The A/C is not necessary in Aberdeen and ice? I guess when you have two seasons, winter and July ice is the last thing you want to see.