So, the retirement thing

It's been a year and 5 months or so since Linda's last day in the office. Three months for me. It's been wonderful, but we're still getting used to it. Every day retired makes it less likely I'll take another office job.

So today, now that I can sleep to whatever hour I like, most days, when am I awake? 4am. Wide awake. At 4:45 I gave up, got up, coffee, breakfast, and beat the rush hour traffic to Repsol. Or so I thought. The rush was in the pool. There are always 100 m of lanes available for the public, and so there was. Except the public was already 11 or 12 deep in them. I recognized some of the swimmers and had no desire to try to keep up. Even the dive tank was full of synchro swimmers.

I hung out in the hot tub a bit, then chatted briefly with my buddy Katie. Once a few lanes in the competition pool opened up I was over there. If I'd had to be in the office, I'd have made do with the full lanes. But as long as I was home by 10, life is good.

It actually turned into a good swim. 50 m backstroke to warm up. 500 m in 9 minutes flat. It's been a long time since I've done that, and I could feel the water feel today, unlike much of the recent months. 400 m backstroke working the core hard on the flip turns. 3x100 in less than 1:45 on 2 minutes. 20 minutes brisk water run. 50 m backstroke, then 200 easy easy watching the guy sharing the lane with me thrashing trying to keep up. It's the little things. I wasn't working as hard for that 9 minute time as I have for times substantially slower. I could get into exactly what I was doing with my hands a fraction of a second after entry, but I already see some of you yawning. Yes, you! Stop it!

 Linda was off to a yoga class, then lunch with a buddy and other stuff. Yesterday was the opening bell at the Millarville market. All who know her, know she conquered and returned home with goodies.

What was I doing? Researching astro lenses. There's a trip to the Southern Hemisphere coming up, and it's likely to be the only time I see those skies. I'll want to get nice night sky photos. Black Friday sales coming up. Just saying.

This photo is from a year ago, and is one of a category called 'no idea why I didn't blog this at the time.' It's clear she was enjoying retirement then, and is enjoying it now.

Speaking of night lenses, here's a night shot from almost a year ago, in the same category.