Almost Retired

Well, a lot has occurred since the last post on November second. I worked until November 13, Thursday. And I use the term 'worked' very loosely. My delivery manager is great to work with and we had only two projects still active by the thirteenth. I had many people ask why I was leaving on THURSDAY. I wondered why they would ask!

I have enough vacation time (30 days) remaining to take me through year end. Why would I work one extra day? So the folks in the area took me to lunch at The Cheesecake Factory! Their meat loaf is delicious. And they gave me a very generous gift card to The Home Depot. Two people I used to work with directly took me out to lunch on separate occasions. And a couple of very special friends gave me farewell gifts also.

By the time l left on the thirteenth , it was hugs and kisses and tears. I will miss the folks intensely. They are some wonderful people who all pulled together and pitched in to help when someone had a problem with their work load.

Saturday the fifteenth Sally and I took off to Missouri by way of Prairie Du Chien, Wisconsin. I know, I know, that is not 'on the way'. Cabela's has a store there that is one of three distribution centers in the country. If I find a pair of pants that I like but they are not in my size or the color I want, the clerk will call the attached warehouse and order them down. In ten minutes or so they are ready. So away we went. We did our shopping and headed on through Iowa. We stopped for the night in the middle of Iowa.

Then Sunday we got on the road and drove and drove and drove. We went through a lot of country I've never been through before. It was nice to see; but a very long drive to Kimberling City, MO. We got there about five or six o'clock. We had dinner at my sister and brother in-law's home. We visited and planned our activities.

We went to see the Roy Rogers and Dale Evans museum. It had a lot of memorabilia and the story of their lives. Then we saw Yakov Smirnoff. That was a first class show. He is very funny and the whole production was very entertaining. The theater was full of folks. I think they said 1600. We saw the 'New Shanghai Circus'. It was very good acrobatics and adagio. However there weren't that many people there, less than one hundred. I picked a real looser.

The Jim Reeves Tribute show. Jim Reeves was a country ballad singer in the fifties and sixties. He was a phenomenal talent who had a fear of loosing his voice. This drove him to record many songs and save them in a vault. Although he died in 1964, since 2003, the US based VoiceMasters has issued over 80 previously unreleased recordings by Jim, including new songs that fans have not heard. The show was his 60+ year old nephew doing a few songs and telling his story between breaks. The warm up act was a big fellow from east Texas and a blond 'contest winner' from east Texas who had 'won' the chance to perform in Branson, MO. She did three gospel numbers one at a time and he did three sets. Her family came with her. There was her mom and dad, husband, two kids and sister and brother in-law. Then there were six people in the front row and I think three other couples. I bet it is hard to perform for such a small audience.

And we saw the Osmond's Christmas Show also. It was Jay, Jimmy and Wayne. It was a real first class show and it too was a full theater. The troop was an excellent group of dancers. They did some of my favorite holiday songs like Santa Baby.

We spent Thursday at Silver Dollar City. When I was a kid of eleven or twelve I took a trip with my grandmother's neighbor to Albuquerque. Down historic Route 66. As we went by Silver Dollar City it was a small outfit in what seemed like nowhere. But like everywhere in this country, it has built up and developed. There are an unbelievable number of holiday lights on every wall, tree and shrub. The shops in the park are craft shops of high quality furniture and articles made by hand. It was really very nice but my leg was killing me.

Friday the twenty-first we got up and hit the road for home. We bought gasoline for $1.55 in Missouri. It was a long drive but wasn't bad after we got into Illinois. Actually none of it was bad; it just seems like we are almost home once we cross into Illinois.

That is the end of week one of semi-retirement.

HALLOWEEN

Halloween came again, much to our excitement. We have fallen in step and decorate a bunch. Sally has a talent for building these little vignette in the corner of the front porch. A bale of straw, a string of ghost lights and a string of pumpkin lights draped on a home made chair. Some knick-knacks and a cauldron of smoking brew.



Tinker Bell was first to arrive. I took several pictures of Logan and she is making so many different expressions. It was hard to choose. She was so non-plused being set in a pile of leaves.



The Cephalopod was very good at maneuvering around her tentacles. Cora is very cute and good natured about it all. These little ones didn't go Trick or Treating.


Alex is next to the oldest. He was a Hobo carrying his jack o'lantern on a stick. Alex also did not last too long door to door. He got his fill of candy and came in.

Ashley was a NU Wildcat fan. That's not a stretch! They all are. She stayed out the longest and came home with not a lot more than her brother.

Here you can see a bit of all four. The older kids enjoy the babies.

And Tinker Bell was a darling of the trick or treaters coming up on the right. The ten or eleven year old girl was really smitten.

The girl whom you hear off camera and her sister of about eight came up the stairs and Kyle went in the door to get the candy. He dropped a Snickers bar in her bag and she handed him a religious pamphlet and said, "Jesus loves you."

Kyle took it and said, "Thank you." Then gave a candy bar to her little sister.

She said, "I'm all out of God!"