Day: January 9, 2022

“Congratulations to Retired D!”

This was the big retirement week for Diana.  Can you believe it?  Yes, after more than 35 years battling away in the IT world, she’s going to become what her Mom describes as “A Lady of Leisure.”

If you have worked with Diana, then you know nothing is done half-way.  This was true of the last week also, with several 5:50am alarms to make sure she was fully prepped for her 7:00am calls.  Here she is leading her last ever Thursday morning 7:00am call:

You can tell from the layers that it’s been very cold outside this week – temperatures down around 20 degrees Fahrenheit in the mornings.

Friday was retirement day, and flowers and cards arrived to celebrate McD.

Here she is with the official retirement sign:

If you didn’t zoom in, here’s what the top part says:

I thought I was pretty funny with that one.

Diana showed me over 60 congratulations emails that she received during the week.  Very impressive, I certainly don’t think there will be that many people sending me notes if I retire.  Here’s the farewell note she sent to her NTT colleagues:

Scott is going to try and replace Diana, and he must have had the most complete turnover that I’ve ever seen.  Would you expect anything less?

We enjoyed a lovely retirement dinner at C.T. Provisions on Friday, with Brent as our waiter.  Finn and Alicia were able to join us.  The food, company, and service were all excellent.  Diana toasted her retirement with an Old Cuban (first experienced at the Moonshiner speakeasy in Paris.)  C.T.’s was very busy, and Finn got a kick out of watching Brent buzzing around.  Here’s D reading Finn’s retirement card, I think she liked his message about “sip and dip” and “fun in the sun”:

We tortured the kids with a mathematics problem during dinner.  I was impressed that Finn remembered the order of operations and was able to get it right on the first attempt:

Yes – that’s the kind of exciting stuff we do when out for dinner.

So, what do you do with your first day of retirement.  Well….it seems you get up early and attack one of your Christmas jigsaw puzzles.  In this case, a hummingbird shaped challenge from my Mum.

You can see that the outline had to be completed before we decided to get dressed for the day.  As I sit here at almost 1pm on Sunday, the puzzle is more than 90% complete.  I’ve heard a lot of comments about how difficult this puzzle is – apparently all the pieces are almost exactly the same shape and size.  I remember watching an interview with Rob Gronkowski after he retired from the Patriots and the NFL.  He was doing a jigsaw puzzle and talking about how it was helping to heal his brain.  I think D is substituting one challenge for another, and hopefully doesn’t do what Gronk did and come right back out of retirement.  I don’t think I’d put any money on that happening.

Changing locations to Stewarton, Scotland.  Mum sent this lovely picture of a snow scene in the back garden.  Pretty to look at, but not ideal for driving.

Late breaking news, as I finish up this post, the puzzle was just completed.  It’s a very pretty one.

And lastly, happy 26th birthday to Campbell, celebrating in San Diego yesterday, and finally feeling much better today.  We’ll see you in New Orleans soon Campbell.

I thoroughly enjoyed “South and West: A Notebook” by Joan Didion this week.  After her passing a couple of weeks ago, this was the only one of her books available at the library, and fortuitously, one of the few that I haven’t read at least once.  She is one of those authors whose books you have to read a few times to really fully appreciate.

The book traces a road trip she took with her husband, John Gregory Dunne, in June 1970, through Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama. She interviews prominent local figures, describes motels, diners, a deserted reptile farm, a visit with Walker Percy, and a ladies’ brunch at the Mississippi Broadcasters’ Convention.

From the Foreword:

“The idea was to start in New Orleans and from there we had no plan.

This has been the idea of so many people who have come to New Orleans.  It was the idea of the French explorer Rene-Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle, who in 1684 set out to establish a city near the base of the Mississippi River, only to fail to find the river’s mouth from the Gulf of Mexico and, after three years, to be murdered by his mutinous crew.

It was the idea of William Faulkner, who quit his job as postmaster at the University of Mississippi and moved to New Orleans because he despised taking orders, and of Tennessee Williams, who wrote in his diary, ‘Here surely is the place that I was made for if any place on this funny old world.’  One does not have to stay long to learn how easily plans in New Orleans, like its houses, become waterlogged and subside into the mud, breaking to pieces.”

She writes about the stifling heat, the slow pace of life, and the preoccupation with race, class, and heritage she finds in the small towns they pass through. And from a different notebook: the “California Notes” that began as an assignment from Rolling Stone on the Patty Hearst trial of 1976. Though Didion never wrote the piece, watching the trial and being in San Francisco triggered thoughts about the city, its social hierarchy, the Hearsts, and her own upbringing in Sacramento.

Back in New Orleans:

“In New Orleans, the old people sitting in front of houses and hotels on St. Charles Avenue, barely rocking.  They have mastered the art of the motionless.”

“They had many suggestions for understanding the South.  I must walk Bourbon or Royal to Chartres, I must walk Chartres to Esplanade.  I must have coffee and doughnuts in the French Market.  I should not miss St. Louis Cathedral, the Presbytere, the Cabildo.  We should have lunch at Galatoire’s (where I had my bachelor party lunch): trout almondine or trout Marguery.   We should have dinner at Manale’s (where Diana has her oyster meetings with the girls), tour Coliseum Square Park.  I should appreciate the grace, the beauty of their way of life.”

Some classic Didion as her road trip moves on to Mississippi:

“A somnolence so dense it seemed to inhibit breathing hung over Hattiesburg, Mississippi, at two or three o’clock of that Sunday afternoon.  There was no place to get lunch, no place to get gas.  On the wide leafy streets the white houses were set back.  Sometimes I would see a face at a window.”

I highly recommend this short book.  A delightful afternoon read.

Here’s an interesting version of the Todd Rundgren classic that I stumbled on this week.  Rick Wakeman doing his thing on keyboards:

It would have been David Bowie’s 75th birthday yesterday, he shares it with Campbell.  So here’s a couple of my favourites:

Keeping the Rick Wakeman theme alive, here’s his excellent take on the same song:

We had tickets to watch a Bowie cover band celebrate the 50th anniversary of “Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars” on Friday night, but decided it would be safer to have a local dinner.  Here’s my favourite from that classic album:

Stay safe and be kind!