New Day!!

Retirement is indescribably delicious like eating ten pounds of chocolate with getting fat or sick! I've been waiting a long time for this day and now that it is here, I'm at a loss for words to describe the feeling of complete freedom that comes with it. It's the same feeling I used to get when I went to bed on Friday night and knew I didn't have to set the clock, but instead of only Fridays, it's every night. It's that Saturday morning feeling every morning and it's never having my Sunday spoiled by random thoughts of Monday morning. That's how it is.

Now that I'm retired, I'll have to give up my beautiful Hill Country and move once more back toward the coast and Deep East Texas 'where I come from'. I've invested in a modest lake country home (without a lake view, of course) but the water is within walking distance... not that I would walk there, but it's close. Fishing piers, boat ramp and the biggest lake in the state of Texas.
East Texas has its drawbacks of course. There are those mosquitoes that are the size of rescue helicopters that attack you on those hot, sultry afternoons and mornings, hence the need for screen porches and mosquito spray. Then of course the Gulf is not that far away and sometimes it decides to pay a visit in the form of the occasional hurricane or two. I'll be far enough away that I won't have to evacuate, but I'll be the refuge point for evacuees, which is always fun. Not that I would turn anyone away, but it's better to have people (family and friends) visit because they want to rather than have to. But I was born and raised in the woods and back to the woods I must go, once more proving the cyclical nature of life.
I'm not complaining, don't get me wrong. I'm free and it feels good!