On Football

Today is the big day in  Michigan--the Michigan vs. Michigan State football game.  I'm excited.  I like football.  That may seem odd, considering that I am philosophically opposed to violence and that I play no sports myself.  But I actually understand the game (sort of) and I love to watch them run and dodge tacklers. And when the quarterback throws the ball and the receiver catches it--wow, I am psyched.  I cheer, I jump up.  Yeah, I'm that kind of fan.  I especially love it when my team wins.  However, that makes today a tad bit difficult for me.  I never know quite who to root for on this game.  See, I actually attended both schools and have degrees from each of them.  And I worked for each of them.  I have a t-shirt that's half blue Michigan and half green State.  So how shall I decide who gets my football loyalty?  For this game, maybe I don't have to decide.  No matter who wins, my team wins.  Cool.  I'm gonna have a great day.

On Blogging

So I've been thinking about blogging.  I've just gotten started with this genre of writing and, of course, I have discovered that the technology is a hang-up for me.  Honestly, I'm surprised by this.  I know. At my age, I should expect that I don't know everything about technology.  For a long time, I kept up.  I had my first email account when they were still working with a C prompt and 8 digit file names (1992, I think).  I did grad work on writing and technology.  I actually published a couple of articles about using technology in writing classrooms.  But technology has moved on, and I just spent a good chunk of time trying to figure out how to make the technology side of this work.  I'm not sure I'm there yet. 

The other side of blogging is the actual writing aspect.  What does one put in a blog?  Someone told me: "Whatever you want."  It's surprising how little that helps me.  I really need to know what other people are doing with blogs.  Maybe so I can do the same thing.  At least for a while.  Or maybe so I'll know what boundaries to push.  Yeah, I'm a boundary-pusher.  But I'm a stealth boundary-pusher.  So don't let it get around.  It seems to me that the point of a blog--right now, right here, for me--is to try out some writing and to see what happens.  That's good enough for now.  Now if only I could get the technology to cooperate.

Walking

Monday, Wednesday, and Friday mornings my alarm rings at 7 a.m. I rise, put on sweatpants, warm shirt and tennis shoes and meet my neighbor at the end of our adjoining driveways.  We climb into her vehicle and drive a mile to a walking path that winds behind the middle school and through a wooded and wetland area.  And we walk.
 I hadn't really planned to do this.  I mean, I intended to start getting more exercise, but I was going to join a gym or jump on my treadmill or just walk on the road or (more likely) try something for three days and then quit.  I'm famous for broken resolutions.
It happened like this:  My neighbor called me and said, "Now that you're retired and have a little more time, I wondered if you might occasionally like to go for a walk with me.  There's a nice trail up by the middle school."  It seems that she and another friend of hers had tried this trail, but her friend lives a little further away and couldn't always get here.  I thought about it for a moment and considered how to respond.  Gym, treadmill, walking on the road all flashed through my mind.  What came out of my mouth was "Yes, I'd like that."  About a week later, after a trip out of town, we did our first walk.  We met at 7:30, drove to the middle school and followed the trail to the end and then walked back.  At the end of the mile and a half walk, I was exhausted; she was barely breathing hard. When we got back to her car, I said, "Good walk."
She said, "Maybe we could do this on a regular basis, like Monday,  Wednesday, and Friday."
And again, I said, "Yes."
So we have.  We walk past the backyards of houses by the middle school and notice the large garden in one backyard.  We comment on the for sale sign on one empty lot and wonder what it would be like to live that close to the middle school. We talk about her remodeling project and our respective grandchildren as we crunch through the hickory nuts that have fallen on the paved pathway.  We cross the wooden bridge over the wetlands area and stop to gaze at the ducks.  She tells me she has seen turtles in the pond.  We walk through the wooded area, commenting on colors of leaves and trading recipes.  We curve past the cemetery on the right and the goose pond on the left as we complain about the state of the world and comment on how much things have changed since we were young.  And then we stop at the end of the path and come back.  It's a good walk.  We've been doing this for three weeks and so far, I'm keeping up.  Actually, I'm enjoying it.  Who would have thought?

Today is the first day. . .

So I'm retired, and it still feels a little funny to say that.  This is officially one month and one day of my retirement.  Immediately after my official last day, I would tell people I was retired and they would always say "When did you retire?" I got such a kick out of saying "Yesterday" and then "Day before yesterday."  But now I think I'm settling in.  I've turned in the keys, had the retirement party, took a little vacation and have started waking up in the morning and smiling because the day is mine, to do with what I will.  I haven't begun too many of the myriad of projects I intended, but I've realized a couple of things:  one,  I can clean my closet on a Tuesday and have lunch with a friend on a Wednesday without worrying that I won't be prepared for class the next day.  That's pretty cool.  Two, just living takes a lot of time.  So all the stuff I thought I'd accomplish every day hasn't happened yet,  but that's okay.   There's always tomorrow.