December 5, 2003. This was my last workday at Fox and retirement became a reality. That evening, the staff organized a retirement party hosted by Sarah Cha at her lovely home. I was genuinely touched by the warmth and personal feel of the gathering. Jeanne and I had formed personal friendships with most of the staff and leaving was like saying goodbye to a group of friends. Several fine gifts were presented, but the most thoughtful was a picture book the group produced in secret. It is truly an honor to have worked with so many talented people. I have no doubt there will be many successful careers from this group and I plan to stay in close contact.
We have been living in Mom’s house for several months and preparing the property for sale has turned into a monumental task. Jeanne has been instrumental in taking care of Mom’s household effects and I focused on everything else. Slowly we’re getting through it, but until the house is sold it looks like a full-time job. It turned out that my mother was a borderline pack-rat and it has taken months to sift through everything.
We are carefully considering what to take in the motorhome and setting those items aside in specific areas of the house. The plan is to load the motorhome in one visit to the house as quickly as possible. Most everything else from the apartment has already been put in storage. The coach is still scheduled for delivery by the end of January but the timing remains tricky.
A dilemma! We enjoy fishing and want to take a boat of some sort, but are not sure how to solve this problem. Our very good friends, Doug and Karen suggested folding kayaks and even demonstrated how theirs sets up. We ordered two Folbots and expect them to arrive very soon and should easily fit in the cargo compartment of the motorhome.