Freedom--It's Grand!

Or, What Retirement Means To Me: When you get tired of a job, you can put the rest of it off until tomorrow, or next week.

This morning I toted another load of paper out of my office, old tax returns, bank statements, Amazon.com sales slips--more than half of the stuff in my file tub. I was thinking I'd like to have a paper shredder; but I asked myself, what for? If anyone was misguided enough to steal my identity or plagiarize my writing, pity them. I have also thought about renting a big dumpster from Veolia--I could really get my house in order if there was just somewhere to put stuff. The curb?

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I've made a lot of progress lately, getting my office the way I want it. Jed hooked up my new printer over the weekend. (He also installed a new switch in the foyer, so the chandelier works.) I moved the white desk out to where I can use it just by swiveling my chair around; and I put the book bins in the corner where the desk was. Once I get everything out of here, down to the bare essentials, then I can do some scrubbing and painting, new curtains, all the cosmetic stuff.

The main obstructions are books: I've sold about 500 books on Amazon, and now I've got more than I had to start with. The bookcases won't start to hold them all. I'm thinking of putting a big box on the curb with a sign that says BOOKS! And then tote armloads of the same out there to fill it up.


The camera didn't want to do this; too much light-and-dark contrast, I guess. But it gives a general idea. The molding around the door is sort of beat-up, but someday I'll get everything painted.

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Mitch Miller
July 4, 1911 - July 31, 2010

This was a man I would have married, if he had ever asked me.

"Be kind to your web-footed friends,

For a duck may be somebody's mother.

Be kind to your friends in the swamp,

Where the weather is very, very damp!

You may think that this is the end--

Well, it is!"