Day Zero

Today's wake up was at Upper Pine Lake.  As noted, fall is upon us.  Following an early morning commute back to the Twin Cities I had a few conversations and meetings with a couple of my staff.  We discussed the AZ telecommunications update and thought about followup strategies.  That was pleasant; the kind of strategy that kept me engaged for a long, long time.  This was a day of 'lasts,' including my last commute downtown, turning in my parking card after about 20 years in the same ramp, switching my cell phone to a personal Visa, etc.  WED I'm having lunch with the Chairman of the Board (former CFO) and the CEO.  I suspect that it will be a pretty shallow 'thank you' lunch but I'll take the high road.  My goal in all of this was to depart as gracefully and professionally as possible, setting an example for others.  I think I've done that.  It's been a long few months but this did allow closure to occur.  It could have been an open wound.

Day '-1' #2

It appears that I cannot count.  Tomorrow is my last day.  I'm assuming that my first day without a real job will be Tuesday and that will be post #1.  Should my last day be day #0 or day #1 or day #-1.  My son, Thomas, cautioned me on the challenge of a daily blog.  I'm confident that I can keep it up for a year.  Perhaps he knew from the first post title that I was already challenged.

Today I helped Linda with merchandise for the Chickadee Boutique.  Included were a few items that I did branded with 'L11 Up North Gallery."  My focus is primitive folk art.  My internet research indicates that Nova Scotia is a hotbed for folk art with lots of well-healed East Coasters keeping the prices up.  Everyone can appreciate whimsical.  Travel for 2014 includes Denmark to see Heather and Thomas and Nova Scotia to scope out the art scene.

Headed out now to bottle honey, did potatoes and create some more art.  I'd like every day to include 'create some more art.'

Day -1

Tomorrow is the last day of my 27.5 year career as CIO (Chief Information Officer) at a large commercial construction / property management / real estate development firm.  Over the years people would ask me what 'CIO' stood for.  "Career Is Over" was my standard response.  Now it is.

I'm not going into the office tomorrow.  My replacement is starting and I've left some reference material for him, both in paper and electronic form.  Without a doubt he'll put it in a folder and throw it away in a while.  That's what I would do.

Over the past few months I've been attempting to come up with a plan for this 62 year old person.  Sixty-six is the age at which I'd like to draw Social Security so working a few more years is part of the goal.  My wife and I have spend more than fifteen years helping the seniors in our families and I think we've done about 20 moves.  Ask me about senior apartments, assisted living, long term care, etc.  I keep a stash of moving boxes in the garage along with the debris and 'valuables' from many of those moves.  My car has not been in the garage for a decade.  OK, that's a good goal.  Get one car in the garage before winter descends upon us.

I'd like to write a few professional journal / business publication articles on IT, management, organizational structure and development, etc.  Fortunately my employer made a commitment to Lee Hecht Harrison, an international outplacement firm.  They're pretty good at getting you motivated to find a new job or direction and have a lot of tools available.  While I was skeptical I'm much more positive now.  There are ten months remaining on that contract.  The person I'm working with is writing a book and attempting to put together an income stream so this is a pretty parallel journey.

Today is SAT.  I'm sitting at my wife and daughter's cafe helping them a bit (not at all according to my wife).  Tonight I'm going to work on some graphics and web projects and hopefully get a good dinner somewhere.  Tomorrow I'm headed 'up north' to continue fencing this year's grape and tree plantings before the deer consume it all.

Thanks to my daughter Anne for the blog name "I don't even have a dumb job."