retirement.seuss

You’ve worked high
and you’ve worked low
for most of your years;
its been quite a show!

By aeroplane and automobile
your been near, and gone far.
On the wide road of work,
you’ve been a fast car!

Despite the long hours,
and with kids at your feet,
you put pen to paper
and made the ends meet.

You may have left work,
but your work is not done–
life is an adventure
and this part is so fun!

Because the measure of a man
isn’t in a gold watch,
or a pat on the back
from an overbearing boss…

And nor is it Who He Was
and What He Did,
but instead is Who He Is
and What He Does

So love the past
for delivering today;
but what happens tomorrow
is yours to say!

Thank you for
all the work you’ve done;
for the opportunities you’ve given
to your looney-bin son.

You can go outside
and relax in the sun.
Or do anything else
that sounds like good fun.

I love you, Dad.

exit

I haven’t written about the exit strategy much (if at all) because I really don’t want to talk it up too much, especially if I don’t go through with it. But in a nutshell it goes like this…

1. find a new home for the cats
2. ride the motorcycle for a few more months then sell it
3. sell the house
4. couch surf Gainesville for a while, still holding my job (homeless!)
5. sell the truck
6. hit the road by bicycle, touring the united states first then a flight to europe

I imagine it will take me into 2009 to get this rolling.

I’ve been realizing that I can do whatever I want and that most of the time when i feel inhibited it is not because other people are inhibiting me…rather its because of the choices I’ve made…to buy a house or a motorcycle, to go to school or choose a particular job, to buy “things” that need you to maintain the above, to take on pets, to get into this relationship or that, etc.

So I am shedding my inhibitions. Having almost nothing, needing almost nothing. For now this is my direction, which could change at any time, on a dime.

workday

The sun slowly pries my eyelids open as the first birds of the day remind my ears how to hear. This takes as long as it takes. The cats do their part, too, stomping on my stomach as though I have forgotten my responsibility to them.

I wander outside, barefoot, feeling the slip of morning dew between my crackling toes. Perhaps today I will practice yoga. Or slide on my running shoes and run for about 30 minutes. Or tai-chi…qi gong…meditation. In any case, I first feed the fish and make sure the bird feeders are generously stocked.

Afterwards, a relaxing shower tickles my flexed muscles, and the warm beat of the water-jets bring my viscous blood flow to the surface of my skin, making me pink from head-to-toe. Peppermint soaps invade my olfactory and liven those remaining synapses that still long for slumber. Delicate application of shaving cream and blade smooth my timber-forest neck, leaving a bushy growth of red beard keeping my face warm.

Bluejeans and a t-shirt, socks and boots. If I’m feeling loyal, perhaps one of my school-logo shirts. Otherwise, one of my stripey coloured shirts that feel so comfortable. Keys, wallet, telephone. I’m almost ready for the day.

Breakfast! I take my time, slowly and deliberately preparing my meal. A cuppa tea with honey joins me and my culinary inspiration by the backyard-pond for a mindful breakfast, appreciating each bite.

Jacket, helmet, and pack. I carefully roll Satya (the motorcycle) from her home in the garage and light the cylinders for a reverberating ride to work. Traffic is light, and I’m able to weave my way ahead of the clusters without offending anyone. The lights are mostly green.
OR
bicycle

Arriving at work I settle into my office space to find a few messages waiting for me–email and voice. Some are just information, others end up on my to-do list. I am focused and purposeful, and organized. Interruptions and distractions are few and far apart. I consult my colleagues and superiors from time to time, and provide instructions to my employees, who in turn focus on their own assignments. I am spending some of my time researching new ideas, learning new materials, and fine-tuning existing protocols.

After six loosely-scheduled hours of productivity, I reset my space for the next day, collect my effects, and put this world behind me. When I’m here, I am here. When I am not, I am not.

The rest of my day is dedicated to making music and art, spending time alone, spending time with friends, enjoying lovingly-prepared meals, engaging in enlightening conversation, fulfilling random inspirations, taking walks or riding bicycles, balancing with and appreciating my surroundings, finding connections of heart, mind and soul, and being.

Finally, my eyelids dictate my intersection with the bed, and I rest, fulfilled.

–

Manifestation. I know what I want. The hard part is over.

Rich

I work for Santa Fe Community College (ever heard of it?). This sounds all stiff and starchy but I manage systems & networks for the IT Education program. See the campus has this big network, but the things ITE students do (to learn) tend to interfere with normal (business) network operations. So they carved out a “quarantined” section of the network and that is my sandbox. I prepare and service all the workstations and servers and networking gear inbetween.

Truth is, I’ve been a little at odds with what I do for a living. On the one hand, technology is a beautiful thing. On the other hand, what we do with it is not always so beautiful. So I often feel regret that I’m indirectly encouraging the bigger, better, faster, more attitude. On the other hand, it comes very easily to me and so the job is more like playing than “going to work”. And I make a decent salary for Gainesville. I’m not getting rich (by this country’s standards) but I’m paying my mortgage and driving a cool bike!

Fact is, I’m rich as hell by world standards. I’ve got a huge amount of land and an enormous house and A/C and 2 vehicles and a dishwasher. I’m sure that puts me in the upper 5% if not 2% of the world population.

Heh. Its odd. Its like we juggle all these balls so that we can get…more balls! I wanted a house so I got a job so I got a car to go to the job so I got a better job so I can afford the gas and maintenance then I had more money so I got a TV and then I *needed* (ha!) a DVD player then I *needed* a bunch of DVDs and on and on and on…!

Maybe I should just sell all my shit and ride across country…having nothing, needing nothing. Or trade it all for a sunny little corner where I can live off-grid, grow food and appreciate whatever 42 is the answer to. Either way, living the UNamerican dream ;o)

This is tempting!

Work

My job goes like this:

At the beginning of the day, some things are zeroes and by the end of the day, they are ones. Some other things start out as ones, and end up as zeroes. Some new ones are created, and some new zeroes, too. But overall, most of them don’t change at all.

Often, it feels like a whole lot of nothing happening. The frenzy this creates hardly seems proportional.

In other news, the sun will most likely set tonight, and most likely rise tomorrow.

—

Geeky quote: “There are 10 kinds of people in the world; those who understand binary, and those who don’t.”