A new road… or the end of the road…

Prairie Thistle… beautiful but prickly…

I am frequently asked two things in my early days of retirement:

1) What are you going to do with yourself;
2) How’s retirement treating you?

Both questions probe into the existential nature of what to do with the gift of time after devoting so much of it to a lifetime of work. The answer, within the boundaries of available resources and personal responsibilities is that “I will do whatever I want, whenever I want…”

That said, retirement is as I see it, an open playing field to accomplish as much or little as desired… One of the purposes of this weblog is help me focus and reflect on how best to take advantage of this open playing field. The headings in the weblog menu speak to my initial interests, which include music (guitars of varying type), digital photography, reading, and perhaps in the dead of Iowa winter, scale model building (usually WWII Allied aircraft). Though not listed, a considerable amount of time is devoted to maintaining physical fitness to perhaps extend and enhance the quality of my time before the end of the road…

I invite you to come along with me on this journey by reading and commenting if you wish…

a first post…

Nike and me in Hartman forest..

I’ve been contemplating some time about finding a new space to post my thoughts and ruminations outside of social media, particularly Facebook (FB)… privacy issues as well as maintaining a sense of well being during my retirement lead me to question my continuing involvement with FB…

I do not want to compare myself to others, nor have others compare themselves to me, which I find problematic on FB… Further, I am increasingly wary of the utterly creepy instances where my involvement with FB indicates a lack of privacy and suggests that my “data” are being used for ill purposes I do not approve…

Consequently, I am going to wean myself from FB, yet I need a place to express myself, and for those who care to peek in, a place where friends and acquaintances can catch up with what I am doing… Call it a public journal… That is what I hope to accomplish on this website, which unlike FB, I must personally finance it, but it’s not that expensive… I do this with some trepidation because there are friends out in FB land that I have great affection for and will miss their reported activities, but after watching the Netflix documentary, “The Big Hack” I am convinced that extricating myself from FB is a good idea for myself and everyone else…

I invite anyone interested in my doings to follow along and comment (in a constructive way)…