Day Six
When I first moved to California as a callow youth in 1974, I didn’t really appreciate the beauty of the San Joaquin Valley. I loved the weather (once it stopped raining in February) and I loved the thrill of being able to drive to whatever season I wanted to experience. Now, after having seen more of the world, I understand what I was missing.
Taken from the airplane as we neared the San Francisco airport, this photo shows the tidy fields of American’s vegetable garden. It feels good to be back!
Day Four: Photography
When the prospect of retiring became real, so did my taste for real photography. Around our house, Music Man has been the designated photographer for years, and I tagged along with my pocket point-and-shoot. Since I hate getting my own photo taken, this wasn’t a good setup for an empty nested couple. One’s albums can only hold so many pictures of architecture and scenery, and we have thousands of faceless photos in our archive. This one was taken at Ightham Mote outside of Sevenoaks, England, but who would know that?
After consultation with photo-intelligent friends, I purchased a dealer refurbished Canon Rebel T3i DSLR at a great price. The box didn’t even look like it had ever been opened and camera has worked just fine. I’m sold! The camera came with an 18-55mm lens, and I shopped telephoto lenses until I found the Tamron AF18-270mm at a good price. Tamrom is running a rebate through June 30 if you buy from an authorized dealer. They have other lenses on this rebate as well, so if you’re looking for a special lens, it’s worth pricing out.
Having a real camera has been a mixed blessing. My friends and my friends’ kids are already tired of me having a camera in their faces at every event. I carry it around all the time and I’m on my third camera bag — I want a bag that doesn’t scream camera’s in here, and I’ll probably end up making one myself. Maybe there’s a new career in camera bags that also don’t scream I’m a tourist in Europe.
I was going through a stack of papers in my office (see yesterday’s post) and I ran across a cartoon that my cousin sent when she heard about my new retirement hobby/vocation. It is so very perfect that I couldn’t resist sharing it. She doesn’t even know that I’m a nut for all things Tudor as well. 🙂
Day Two: Cooking Carefully
Last week the district communications director asked for a quote about what I would do in retirement. I said the obvious: “I plan to travel and will be spending part of April in Paris.” Then she asked for more, and the real nerdy me came out to play. I stumbled around trying to say something about cooking with organic products and shopping locally for fresh food. I talked about the slow food movement. Word to self: The concept of slow food doesn’t fit into a sound bite for a company newsletter. Finally I gave up because it just sounded so pompous. My second quote that was published in the newsletter said that I would visit my children in California (just like everyone else said they would spend time with their families and grandchildren).
And then my lovely team partner gave me a beautiful rosemary bush, and I knew I was off to the culinary races. I picked up a plump chicken at the market and an acorn squash. When I told Music Man about the plan for dinner, he said he wanted to try roasting the bird and the squash on the new grill. Since it was in the 90s yesterday, I was all for firing up the outside oven! We just bought this two weeks ago, kind of on a whim, and we’ve been very happy with our new baby.
I found a recipe online for using rosemary with a roasted chicken and I figured I was in good shape. I stuffed the cavity of the chicken with chunks of white onion and two big sprigs on rosemary, trimmed right off that new bush. I used freshly ground pepper and Wine Country Salt and sprinkled the bird liberally with the seasoning. Then we put it on a barbecue grill topper pan along with the halved acorn squash and pretty much ignored it for two hours.
RECIPE: Roast Chicken with Rosemary (source credit)
- 1 (3 pound) whole chicken, rinsed
- salt and pepper to taste
- 1 small onion, quartered
- 1/4 cup chopped fresh rosemary
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). We turned the Weber gas grill to 350 degrees and kept the lid closed)
- Season chicken with salt and pepper to taste. Stuff with the onion and rosemary. Place chicken in a 9×13 inch baking dish or roasting dish.
- Roast in the preheated oven for 2 to 2 1/2 hours, or until chicken is cooked through and juices run clear. Cooking time will vary a bit depending on the size of the bird.
The chicken came out moist and tender, with a nice crispy skin and a whiff of onion and rosemary.
The acorn squash was a little crispy on the edges, but with a dab of pesto sauce (next time I’ll make my own!), it was delectable.
We started with a spring mix salad and had a lovely dinner al fresco.
Who’s the pompous one now? Not me — I cooked a wonderful meal with very little fuss and I intend to keep doing it since I now have time to both shop and cook more carefully.
Happy retirement!
Day One: My Introduction to Retirement
Retirement. What a concept. One day I just decided I was done dealing with bratty teenagers and their delusional parents and I wanted to be able to go on vacation in the spring and the fall. After that it was easy.
The first thing that people ask when one decides to retire is, “What are you going to do?” My answer is, “I’m a photojournalist and I’m going to write a book.” Before one can write a book, however, one must have material, so I decided to chronicle the first year of retirement. I’ve created a new blog and will freely co-mingle my postings with my other blog, Got My Reservations, as well as my Facebook page. 
One of my first tasks in retirement will be to create a new design format for Retirement 365, so I decided to take a quote from one of my favorite movies, Under the Tuscan Sun, and misuse it for my own intent. I’m not sure whether Audrey Wells or Frances Mayes actually wrote it, because I can’t find my well-thumbed copy of the book.
The trick to overcoming buyer’s remorse is to have a plan. Pick one room and make it yours. Go slowly through the house. Be polite. Introduce yourself so it can introduce itself to you.
So that’s my plan. I’m going to take retirement slowly and let it introduce itself to me, one day at a time. And I’ll take you along on my journey.
Retirement 365 