Home Again

I got back last night. Mom is in rehab for 21 days. She's feeding herself and PT has her up and walking. (I haven't seen that, but the improvement is remarkable.) I'll head back over when that's up and see how things are going. 

I did spend a lot of time trying to write blog posts, but mainly for my other blog. I thought I could do five last week, but I barely did one. You can't exactly concentrate in a hospital or at a rehab center, and serious blogging takes more time than I had anticipated. (Being a smartass just seems to come naturally.)

I don't really have a lot to say today. I still want to go back and clean up some of my earlier posts. (I passed The Shed on my way home but didn't stop.)  You may have noticed that I did activate a Blogger layout and archive the earlier blog. I'm gonna play around with labels next.

That's enough rambling. I've been retired for 12 days. (Yep, that's as entertaining as ever.)

You kids get off my lawn.

The Best Laid Plans

Well, for 1024 days of this blog I planned to retire on 2/15/2015.  I guess that plan worked out okay. Friday was my final payday.  It looks like it was a pretty good one, I guess the last one should be.  I got my payment for annual leave (which I didn't expect for another month.)  That relieves a little anxiety.  In a couple of weeks I'll let you know how it's workin' out for me.

I had planned to blog daily for the last 10 days before I retired.  I only missed one day.  That's a  90% success rate, far bettter than I expected.

Let's look at some other plans.  I had planned for more than two years to have a Scorpion at Lucy's Retired Surfers' Bar on Third Street in Baton Rouge on Friday the 13th of February.  That didn't happen.  We'll see about Friday the 13th of March.  

I had planned to attend my first post retirement Ethics Board Meeting yesterday.  That didn't happen either. I had also planned to post this blog Friday night.  I guess that makes me 2 for 5.  (Still a better batting average than I would have expected.)

I started writing this on Saturday afternoon while sitting with my mother in a hospital in Selma, Alabama. She's 97, dehydrated, has a touch of bronchitis, and hadn't eaten for three days when my brother and sister-in-law called the ambulance to bring her here.  When I got here she wass doing better than I expected, but as I may have mentioned, she's 97.  She doesn't hear very well (did I mention she's 97?)  I'm 57 and I don't hear very well.  Anyway that doesn't make it easy to converse.

It is Sunday afternoon now, and I'm back at the hospital.  I got her to eat a few bites of lunch yesterday, and a little more today.  She has been more out of it today than yesterday.

Anyway, I'm going to give up on thinking of anything interesting to say and post this thing.

I have been retired for 7 days now.  (That's gonna get old fast.)  Letterman will retire in 87 days.  (That will too, but at least it can last no more than another 86 days.)  I'll spare you my more morbid countdowns.  It's only 18 days until the Grand York Rite Sessions in Baton Rouge.  I guess I need to get my reservations in the mail.

You kids get off my lawn.

ZERO!!!!!

I AM RETIRED!!!!!

I can now begin my post-retirement career. As I mentioned yesterday I spent over 16 years with the Louisiana Ethics Administration Program.  For more than 10 of those I was Chief Cook and Bottle Washer for the IT Department.  I was the IT Department.  Then it was decided there was too much work for one person and they needed somebody else to run it.

They were right, and that's the best thing that ever happened to me.  If I had been picked I would have been an "Agency Head," and I would be prohibited for 2 years from assisting anyone, for compensation, in a transaction with my former agency.  But I wasn't, and I'm not.

I just started a new blog, which should post at the same time this does.  You can find it at https://campaignfinancela.blogspot.com.  I created it under this Rasputin ID.  I made my other Google ID an author, but I think it still shows up as Rasputin.  I'll deal with it. 

What I really did for the Ethics Administration Program, both before and after they hired a real IT staff, was technical support for electronically filed Campaign Finance reports.  That's what my other blog will be about.

It's an election year here in Louisiana.  I have 16 years of experience with Campaign Finance reporting requirements and softward.  I'm available.  So if you're thinking about running for office, or you know someone who is, you might want to give me a call.

So, let me see... I've been retired since midnight, Letterman will retire in 94 days, I can reasonably expect to live another 8225.  (That's 22 years, 6 months, 8 days.  When I look at it in days it's really depressing, since I've been blogging for 1024 days.  But it is 710,640,000 seconds.  That doesn't help.)

You kids get off my lawn.

ONE!

This is my final day as a Classified Civil Servant, the end of a 25 year career.  At least LASERS says it's 25 years.  Their calculations work in the employee's favor.  That doesn't happen much in Civil Service (common knowledge to the contrary) but I feel I should give credit where credit is due.

Since I have just reminded myself that it has been a 25 year career, I hope you will indulge a little stroll down memory lane.  (I started the first draft of this about a quarter to ten this morning, intending that little stroll to be a brief recap of my civil service career.  By two in the afternoon it had turned out to be a memoir of my first interview.  It may show up around the 2nd of April, but right now I'm going to try to find my way back to the original path.)

I started with Civil Service on April 4th 1990, as a Human Resource Development Specialist (that's a trainer) for the Corrections Training Academy.  (We trained Correctional Officers, not inmates.  Some people have trouble wrapping their minds around that.  Others aren't sure of the difference between the two.)  Anyway, I really enjoyed the job, but after about 2 years there were some budget cuts and my position was eliminated.  I had a few options, but the one I chose was to become a Correctional Officer and continue at the Academy doing pretty much the same thing I had been doing (except I had to shave and wear a uniform.)  That lasted for about a year, but around November of 1993 I had the opportunity to go to Big Charity Hospital in New Orleans as a Network Technician.  

(I see another path leading off to the side here, but I'm going to try to stay on the main road.)

I found a semi-furnished, relatively inexpensive one bedroom apartment in the French Quarter, a short 15 block stroll from Big Charity, and started learning IT.  (Yes, started learning, but that story is down the path I just avoided.)  I stayed there for a little over 5 years (or as I counted time at the time, 6 Mardi Gras.)

There were political changes in the wind again, and I began looking for someplace to go.  I had over 7 years in Civil Service and I wanted to get my 10 in so I would be vested in the retirement system.  (Nobody 'splained to me back then that I coulda bought five.)  I didn't have much luck until mid-1998, when I got an inquiry from the Louisiana Ethics Administration Program.  I went to Baton Rouge for an interview, and had a good feeling about it.  (I started to compare it to my interview at Angola, but that story is down the first side path, you probably won't hear it 'til later.  I also seem to have failed to mention HERE that the Corrections Academy is located at the Louisiana State Penitentiary at Angola.  April.)

Anyway, back at Big Charity..., I had an office.  I had been detailed as Network Technician Supervisor for a year.  The detail expired, but I kept the duties.  So it goes.  I was in the aforesaid office and my phone rang.  It was JoAnn Johnson, Executive Secretary of the Ethics Board, asking when I could start.  Actually she asked if I would take the job, and I said yes.  When I hung up the phone I felt a great sense of relief.  Since I had no idea what I was getting into, which should have been stressful, I knew I had made the right decision.

As I said, JoAnn asked when I could start.  I had a bunch of stuff I was involved in at Big Charity.  Ethics had a problem: they had one IT person (actually, she was an investigator who liked computers, had taken on the duties, and learned enough to get a private sector IT job before the Ethics Board managed to get an IT position) who was leaving in a couple of weeks.

Everyone needs to know the HR people.  There is always one who knows how to do what needs to be done.  I went to the HR Director at Big Charity to see what I could do.  I wanted to give them 2 weeks, but I needed to spend a week learning the Ethics systems from someone who'd be gone by then.

SO..., on July 1, 1998 (start of the fiscal year is always nice) I started at the Ethics Administration Program, learning from Betty, who would be leaving at the end of the week.  There were a couple of others leaving then too.  (I also learned that a relative of mine had left a couple of months before I got there.)  Anyway I spent a week at Ethics, then went back to Big Charity for two more weeks before settling into Ethics for good.

More so than I had planned.  I remember telling them when I got there my plan was to make my 10 years, get vested in the retirement system, then find an IT job in the private sector.  That was 6072 days ago.  (Not counting today.  That's 16 years, 7 months, 13 days.)

So, even though I've been with Civil Service for 24 years, 10 months, 10 days LASERS rounds that up to 25 years, and at midnight tonight I will be retired.

YOU KIDS GET OFF MY LAWN!

(And Happy Valentine's Day!)

Two

After I posted the last blog I got about 3 hours sleep.  I started writing this about 9:30 Thursday morning.  

Yesterday I told the horses to get off my lawn, so I thought I might explain that.  Apparently Monday night there were a couple of horses running around my yard.

It's Friday the Thirteenth, which would be my last day at work, if I was there.  I have been planning for more than 2 years to have a drink on Third Street tonight, but I don't think I will.  Maybe next Friday.

Two days from now I'll be retired.

GET OFF MY LAWN!!

Three

I missed "Four."  I should have known I couldn't do ten straight.  Yesterday was busy.  Today will be too.  I probably won't have time to blog so I'm doing it now.  It's almost 1:30 in the morning, I was tossing and turning, and remembered I didn't write a blog before midnight.  I didn't have anything to say, then or now, but as I've said ad nauseum, that never seems to stop me.

And now it's after 1:30 and I can't get Blogger to load.  Oh well, I'll post this later today.  You oughtta be asleep now anyway.

But three days from now I'll be retired.  (And hopefully asleep.)

YOU HORSES GET OFF MY LAWN!!!

Five

I almost forgot.  (Me, forgettin' to blog.  Whoda thunkit?)  I got nothin' to say.  It's 4 o'clock now, I might not get this posted on time.  Oh well, I will by midnight.  (I hope.)

I've been blogging for 1019 day.  You'd think I'd come up with SOMETHING worth saying in that time.  Nope.  I scrolled all the way back to the first one.  Not a darned thing.

In that first one I did make a few obscure references to amuse myself.  I'm not sure whether anybody else got 'em or not.  I do notice that I assumed a morbid tone from the very beginning.

Okay, my usual publication time has come and gone.  I've been reading from the beginning.  (I skipped the movie review, and my two-part whine on identity theft.  There's only so much punishment I can take.)  I'm kind of surprised at the number of typos that slipped by me.  I didn't find the first 2 or three to be a total embarrassment, either.

Okay, I just went through the first 14.  Minus the three I admitted to skipping, that means I just read 11 of my own blog posts in their entirity.  What's wrong with me?

(Please, don't answer that last question.  We don't have the time.)

And I still don't have anything interesting to say, but five days from now I will be retired.

YOU KIDS GET OFF MY LAWN!!!!!

Six

It's Monday morning.  I guess I'm going to have to get used to not going to work.  Maybe I'll blog instead.  I figure Monday will be a good day to blog about politics, or my post-retirement career.

Let's see, what subjects have I threatened to cover?  Religion, Politics, Freemasonry..., and of course I'll continue to be a smartass.  And whine a lot.  What else?

Technology, there's another subject.  I can do a lot of whining there.  For example, I have an iPhone 4.  (Yes, I know the 6 is out.)  I use an app from Chase to keep up with my bank account.  Recently I tried to check my balance, and was told I had to upgrade to the latest app.  That didn't bother me much, since it's a banking app and security is pretty important, but I couldn't upgrade the app until I upgraded iOS.

I really dislike iOS 7.  No, that's not true, I HATE iOS 7.  I don't understand why these technology vendors think it's a good idea to constantly change user interfaces.  Different is not the same as better.  Different is not even necessarily the same as new.

Oh well, that's the sort of whining you can look forward to.  Excited?  Me neither.

But I will be retired 6 days from now.

GET OFF MY LAWN!!!!!!

Seven

It's Sunday.  A week from now I'll be retired.  (And it looks like I may have this posted at the usual time.)  If I start Writing multiple blogs, I think that on Sundays I'll blog about serious things.  Like Religion.  Or Masonry.

I may have mentioned somewhere along the way that I'm a Mason.  I have a card that says "Take a Good Look at YOURSELF * You're SomeBody's IMPRESSION Of MASONRY."  (I use it as a book mark in a "Masonic Lectures" booklet.  It's currently marking the Fellow Craft Lecture.  I should probably be studying that instead of writing this.)

In his first message to the membership, our newly installed Grand Master has said:  "You need to examine your reason(s) for becoming a Mason and how you live your life and practice the purpose and lessons of Masonry.... Others should see Masonry through you and how you act."

No pressure there....

In a way I regret ever mentioning it.  I want to be my usual smartass self in this blog.  But since I'm known to be a Mason, I have to give more consideration to what I say.  I'm not even sure expressions like "smartass" are appropriate.  But that's who I am.  Then, Masonry is a big part of who I am.  I couldn't be me in this blog if I left it out.  I think I've also mentioned that I'm pretty good at being a bad example.

There are two things we don't discuss in Lodge:  Religion and Politics.  As I said yesterday I'm looking forward to blogging about Religion and Politics.  We'll see how that works out.  Actually, the forbidden subjects would be more accurately described as SECTARIAN Religion and PARTISAN Politics, and the reason they are forbidden is their tendency to disrupt the peace and harmony of the Lodge.  As I say, we'll see.

Anyway, I will be retired in seven days.  YOU KIDS GET OFF MY LAWN!!!!!!!

Eight

Okay, so much for posting this at 4:45 PM.  It's 11:20.  I never did think of anything interesting to say.  I was going to finish tomorrow's blog and set it to post at midnight.  Best laid plans ....

Last thing on Letterman.  I promise.  (Unless I start counting down to his retirement,  8 days from now.)  I can't even remember whether I watched him last night.  I don't think I did.  I won't watch tonight..., it's Saturday.

I have threatened to clean this thing up, archive the old stuff, maybe even correct some errors.  I'll try to do that when I retire.

Which will be in 8 days.

YOU KIDS GET OFF MY LAWN!!!!!!!!

Nine

I set yesterday's blog to post at 4:45 PM, but apparently while I fought to get the countdown widget to work it reverted to draft.  I clicked "Publish" around 10 PM, but it still said "4:45 PM" when my screen went blue.  Maybe it did publish on schedule and my screen wouldn't refresh.  

Then I started working on the first draft of this blog (at 10:23 PM) with every intention of setting it to post at 4:45.  It is now 8:12 PM.  Oh, well.

I did the first draft of this while watching Letterman.  I mentioned earlier that I used to be a fan.  I took about 10 years off, but I don't seem to have missed anything.  (Okay, Marty Short was pretty funny, but he always was.)  I just can't ignore Dave's left-wing slant any more.  Of course Colbert will be far worse, but I'll never know.  I may watch Dave until the end though, just for old times' sake.

When I was trying to get the widget to work yesterday, and didn't think I was going to, I did a Google image search for "Phil Donohue Countdown Calender," and couldn't find a single one.  Go figger.  When I search "phil donahue countdown calendar" I get 5 pictures: 1 of Dave, 1 of Dave with Bill Murray (go figger,) two guys I don't recognize and a Late Night with David Letterman logo.  (Remember Late Night was his old NBC show, but that's where he was when he did the countdown calendar.)

(Am I obsessing on this?)

When I break the search term into "phil donahue" "countdown calendar" I get a bunch of stuff, most of it ragging on George W. Bush.  There are also a lot of pictures of Charles Grodin, and one of Regis Philbin.  Ain't the interwebs great?

Maybe in 9 days I'll start counting down to Dave's retirement 103 days from now.  

YOU KIDS GET OFF MY LAWN!!!!!!!!!

The Countdown begins....

I can retire in ten days.

I'm going to try blogging daily until then.  Wish me luck.

Monday night I watched Letterman for about the fourth time in the last decade.  (I used to be a fan.)  I did laugh while Jack Hannah was on.  But during the top ten list, I was thinking about how it originated as a replacement for the Phil Donohue Countdown Calendar.  (I told you I used to be a fan.)

I'm in the same boat.  I've been wondering what I'll do when I don't have a retirement date to count down to.  I guess I'll think of something.

Once my retirement becomes official, I will no longer be restricted by civil service rules.  As I've said before, this is supposed to be my "smart ass" blog.  I'm thinking about starting other blogs for other purposes (religion and politics, for example.)  If I can pull of blogging ten days in a row, we'll see where that goes.

If I'm going to blog ten days in a row, I guess I should save something for tomorrow.

In case I didn't mention it, I can retire in 10 days.  Now you kids GET OFF MY LAWN!!!