I have 30 days away from work or volunteering in an educational environment for my retirement to stay official. There is work to be done in the future on the photo collection I donated, and I'll be a volunteer there (to be able to go into the back area in Special Collections). I'll start looking for jobs to apply for any day now, but I have a few weeks of down time before I push harder.

I've spent most of the afternoon and evening pacing myself as I work through an online Defensive Driving course. I've completed five of the eight sections. B-O-R-I-N-G. But saves me about 10% on my auto insurance, and it lasts for three years.

Tomorrow is a holiday, part of a three day weekend, and it still just feels like a weekend. I predict that on Tuesday the joy of being retired will begin to sink in. My retired neighbors have kidded me about every day being Saturday now that I'm retired. I still have appointments on my calendar so I can't just drift from one day to the next, but I'll have so much free time compared to before it will be a luxury.

News came this morning of a fellow from the university who died suddenly last night. That makes three in two weeks, younger than me. One had long term cancer she didn't tell anyone about, but not the others as far as I can tell. I feel like I'm escaping with my life.