Retirment 101 part 1

I've been retired for about a month.  Lessons learned:

Be prepared for a lack of energy and a need for more sleep.  I thought I was feeling depressed because I wasn't getting much done.  No, I just needed to give my body time to adjust and destress.

Have a plan in place.  You need a new routine and a schedule, otherwise you will sit and play solitaire on the computer for hours.  What a waste of time!  I joined OLLI and am taking 5 classes.

Think before signing up for another activity.  You do want some time for yourself!

Have at least 2 months of savings in place as that is how long it takes for a first retirement check to arrive.  It took close to 5 weeks to get paid for unused vacation time.  And think about what bills will be due during that time--I had house insurance, auto insurance, earthquake insurance all due the first 2 months plus my property tax bill came in.  Also, Medicare part B sends a bill for a quarterly payment in those first 2 months.

Girl Scout Camp 2015 is coming up in June.  Hope to apply all the lessons learned.  Our theme is "The Musical World of Pirates" which nicely compliments our SRP theme of "Read to the Rhythm".

GS Day Camp
Day Camp 2014 was a success!  Lessons learned:

It takes twice as long to set up tents than planned.

Instead of formal rotations, have troops sign up for 2-3 stations at a set time.  Thursday rotations were not clear at all.

Ice cream truck = nice idea but it took 2 hours to get everyone through the line.  Better to have scooped out ice cream or sorbet instead of having so many choices.  And should have been smaller sizes on the icees--they were huge!

Literary Orange on April 6

Literary Orange is coming up April 6!  An all day event featuring authors new, well-known, and up-and-coming.  Go to www.literaryorange.org for more information and to register.

Happy 90th Birthday!

Today is OC Public Libraries' 90th birthday! Every branch did something to celebrate. We kept it low key as we have events Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday. Birthday cake and apple juice in the (unairconditioned) lobby. I brought in 3 cakes--standard birthday cake, followed by a cream cheese icing cake with raspberry filling, and then chocolate cheesecake. Less than 2 hours later, every piece was eaten! Two volunteers set up and two more stayed to serve cake and juice and clean up. Our teen volunteers are fabuloso! We even sang Happy Birthday and we are looking forward to our Centennial!

Tuskegee Airman at the Library

Our library hosted our most successful adult program ever with the appearance of Mr. O. Oliver Goodall, a pilot in the WW II Tuskegee Air Force "experimental" program. Over 130 people came--the overflow listened outside the back meeting room door or from the hallway. An inspiring two hours with an outstandingly appreciative audience of all ages, including WW II veterans wearing their uniforms. While the local photographer from the O.C. Register created a photo spread that appeared in the next week's Star-Progress, mine is the only photo showing Mr. Goodall with a smile!

Picasa vs. Flickr

I've tried them both, but much prefer Picasa. I can edit photos (great for eliminating red eye and for cropping). If I want to post to the Web, I can preserve SOME privacy by only sending the link to those people I want to allow access. Of course, nothing prevents people from passing the link on to others, but at least it's not wide open. Flickr, on the other hand, doesn't have the same level of privacy. Plus, I find that even after using labels, I can't access the photos I've uploaded. I may be doing something wrong. Or, it may be a glitch in the tagging.