Congratulations, Barbara! I am so happy for you. And to sell a photo to Rodale- that's no small accomplishment! Hooray for you!

A word of warning, however, about retirement. As you know, I did a similar "early-early retirement" although for different reasons. The advice my mother gave me turned out to be true: when you retire, you miss the vacations!

Hunt and I are officially self-employed now and have started our own small business. We actually have to schedule days off, now, because many's the time we look back over our calendar and realize we haven't taken a break in 10 days, 2 weeks or longer!

I look forward to seeing you at Old Songs- now, savor the sweet days of summer, knowing you don't have to squeeze every last drop with the start of school always looming on the horizon. And oh, that first day of school when you can linger in bed, listening to the school bus go by!