It happened. I am retired as of 13th of this month. For some reason it is not the joyous occasion I was expecting. Don’t get me wrong it is great to be retired, it just that struggle at the end, kind of like a fish out of water. I have been watching the Vikings on Netflix. That is my reference to London bridge. In season one they bring it down. This was a mixed blessing for them. For the Vikings they won by capturing of the boy king of England, but they still needed him initially to get the noblemen inline. It was a joint rulership.
My situation is not unlike this joint rule. I was expecting to retire and still have a per diem job. I worked for two bosses. My supervisor was from the IT department and my director was from the cancer center. Everything went away because my supervisor didn’t act quick enough to get things settled before the hiring freeze was put in place. He thought the job openings he had were exempt from the freeze. Alas he was wrong. Mind you I gave them plenty of notice to get things in place way before the hiring freeze. I had been training my replacement since October and I told them I was retiring when I moved here 18 months ago. So you tell me who made a mess of things. My directory is still keeping in touch with me. She hopes to find a way to bring me back in the next quarter. So all is not lost.
Though all of this my supervisor forgot/didn’t know about paperwork that needed to be filed so that my final checks could be processed through HR and Payroll. Had I not called payroll it may have never happened. It has not been a restful retirement yet. Payroll told me he didn’t file anything. They sent him a letter telling him what he needed to do. They also suggest that I call him too. I did and he had some lame excuses, but it all got processed and two days later I had my money.
I know this is a lot of boring details but it just makes me crazy. So I am putting it all down here. The week before my retirement date I returned to Reno and they threw me a small retirement dinner party. It was nice and the promises of the per diem were still in place. I would get the details the following week. They gave me a leather bound diary for my present in which my co-workers had written nice things about me. In a side pocket were gift cards. I intend to add to the this diary my adventures in travel. Of course, I will probably post them here too.
I am trying to get into this thing. The first few days I was lost. I cleaned house. I organized things. We picked out carpet and flooring for the bedrooms and main bathroom. Now I am searching for the right vacations. High on my list is to see Paris. I really don’t know why but it is calling to me.