Eleven days since the last post. I can do better than that in retirement….
It’s been six weeks since we got down here in TN, and even though we live in a neighborhood, the winter nights are really dark. This community embraces a posture of minimal streetlights due to the local wildlife. So short, cold days and long, dark nights with not much happening outside- plus the lack of a work schedule to occupy the mind throughout the day- makes for very different dynamics on what occupies the mind. Changes with the seasons, I’m sure. Back in USNA days these were referred to as the Dark Ages- almost no distractions from dreary winter routine.
The above picture was taken from our back window about a month ago. We see roaming deer almost every morning and evening. Not much golf or other activities yet, but that’s going to change real soon. So it’s been good to have most of these two winter months to get settled into the house and now we’re ready to get out.
At the end of January I took a solo trip through parts of the southeast in search of some golf weather and friends. Well, at least I found friends. Drove down to Pensacola and had dinner with Tim “Dirtman” Durst at McGuire’s and got to attend Gordon “G-Daddy’s” retirement with lots of my NETSAFA friends in the crowd. The next morning I got the pleasant surprise of the trip when I ran into USNA classmate and retired USMC Colonel Bob Destafney. I won’t pretend to know Bob that well, but we have an interesting history. When I was in 5th/6th Grade in Pensacola during the 60s, Bob’s brother Tom was in my class and we lived in the same neighborhood. My family moved north to DC and NJ after my 7th grade year, but fast forward six years to our 1974 Plebe Summer and Bob recognizes me one day out of a crowd of 1500 midshipmen, all wearing the same uniform. Since graduation, Bob and I have run into each other about once every 10 years, usually in Pensacola. After very successful active duty and civilian careers, he returned to PNS for retirement. Now Bob, by his own quiet nature, has a large personality, and I mean that in the most positive way, and he will be a standout presence in that town for as long as he stays there. My opinion anyway.
Next day I drove over to Jacksonville FL and had a great lunch at Dotty and Don Boland’s home (another USNA classmate). Between them, they have a garage woodworking space with hundreds of tools where they create all sorts of woodcraft for their grandkids. Nice way to spend your spare time! We could have spent another three hours talking, but I had one last chance for golf with a friend the next day, so continued up to Hilton Head, then back to TN.
Two other USNA gatherings to mention which occurred before we departed DC. Between Christmas and New Year’s Elaine and Brian Rochon had us over for dinner and to catch up on families. Our son Andrew joined us for dinner- he and Brian share common University of Michigan postgrad backgrounds. Brian has a ten-year head start on those of us just retiring, and I’m hoping he’ll weigh in on this blog sometime. And then there’s Dave Babcock, USNA classmate, fellow ex-H2 helicopter pilot, and former NETSAFA coworker, who tracked us down in Arlington the night before we left for TN. Until we moved up to DC four plus years ago, we’d seen each other in Pensacola over the previous twenty years on a regular, almost daily, basis. Always nice to catch up with Dave.
OK, back to retirement subjects with the next post, I promise. I’ve already started it.