Sinking In

     I was wondering when the reality of being retired would actually sink in.  There is a spongy answer.  All retirees have a specific date when retirement is official, but the emotional/mental reality of retirement is indistinct.  For educators the ambiguity is quite pronounced.  We are accustomed to lengthy periods of time off annually.  So, while my official retirement date was June 12th, I haven't really felt any different than I have felt during any previous summer.
     Last week my former colleagues went back to work, school buses dropped excited, anxious children in the parking lot of a freshly cleaned school, teachers welcomed their charges to overcrowded classrooms while students found their names on desks that will be theirs for the next ten months, and I wasn't needed to welcome new students, calm anxious mothers of kindergarten students who were much more excited about the experience awaiting them than they were sad about leaving the women who have nurtured them for the past five years, solve the problem of too many students in one class and too few in another, check the campus for unsafe conditions or solve last-minute problems for teachers.  Like a ship that slowly takes on water until the tip of the bow finally disappears below the surface, the truth of my situation has finally sunk into my consciousness.  That former life is over.  I'm okay with that.
     This weekend we went camping with my son and his family.  Seven people in a tiny pop-up trailer is just a little on the tight side of the packing-sardines-into-a-can spectrum.  But how wonderful to have been able to go up on Friday by myself to claim a campsite and return home Sunday knowing I don't have to roll out at 5:30 A.M. to go to work!  Well, not paid employment, anyway.  I have plenty of work to do on the south side of the house in 100 degrees (plus) temperatures for the next few days.
     Guess what was hiding underneath a neatly stacked pile of my wife's clothing?  The wallet!  How it got there has already been the subject of some debate, but no conclusions will ever be reached, at least none that anyone wants to announce out loud.  I'm glad to have it back with the few things I had forgotten about, and the $55 to boot.  I knew it was in the house.
      I have now seen a Bald Eagle in California.  I have seen them in Colorado and Minnesota, but the one at Silver Lake was the first I've witnessed in this state.