What a Difference a Day Makes

My kitchen at 9:25 a.m. on Saturday, October 8, 2016.

I think this photo of my kitchen says it all.  Hurricane Matthew is gone and the sun is back.  I love seeing rainbows in my kitchen and am grateful they're back.  It's a stark contrast to the weather we've had for the last few days.

I've hauled all the patio furniture, etc. back where they belong.  The sun is helping to dry out the saturated ground.  It feels so good and is a reminder not to take my life for granted.  It feels wonderful to be able to breathe deeply, not worrying if the next minute will bring life-threatening winds or devastating rains.

It's not all sunshine and rainbows, though.  There are a few things in the aftermath of the storm that aren't so great.  Since it appears my roof is going to stay where it is, I was forced to finally clean the house.  While I was cleaning I heard a loud, constant sound from outside.  I stepped outdoors and realized it was the sound of weeds growing.  Apparently, now that I have the house clean, I'm going to have to spend a few hours soon pulling weeds before my house starts to look like Angkor Wat.

I took this photo in Angkor Watt in July, 2014.  I saw a weed today that looks a lot like these tree roots.

I'm joking, of course, about the downside of the storm being over.  Now I'm focused on what I need to get done in the week to come and planning to head to Ormond Beach (just north of Daytona Beach) a week from today.  That's assuming the resort will be open for business.

I'm Home!

Sorry for the long hiatus between posts.  I take full responsibility for the days you've missed work, as you sat in your pajamas, laptop on your lap, hardly breathing as you waited for my words of brilliance upon which you've based all your life decisions.  Ok, so maybe you didn't notice.  But I have.  And I've missed writing.

You may have noticed a new title for my blog.  That's a hint that I'm changing directions, both in my life and in this blog. 

If you have a life and haven't read every post on this blog, let me give you a Reader's Digest update. (If you don't understand the reference to Reader's Digest, congratulations on your youth.  Google it.) In 2010, I left Florida and my life as an independent management consultant to become a Peace Corps Volunteer, teaching in the beautiful village of Faga on the island of Savaii in Samoa.  That's independent Samoa rather than American Samoa.

After a roller coaster two years in Samoa I returned to Florida, planning to also return to my life as a consultant.  I spent a couple of months at home with my mouth hanging open in amazement as I considered what had changed in my absence.  Then, as a way to ease back into the consulting world I took a several month assignment as a Senior Consultant in Malawi, Africa.  I loved Malawi, I loved the people I worked with and I realized that I preferred first graders to CEOs.  So after another couple of months at home I headed to Mandalay, Myanmar where I taught first grade at an international school for more than two years.  I decided it was time to head home and I did, after six weeks traveling in Thailand and Vietnam.  If you'd like a few more details on those years on my life and there's nothing good on TV, check out my previous posts.

Now I'm home and officially retired.  I'm also in what I call the hallway.  You know how they say when one door closes, another one opens?  In my experience that is true.  But, they don't always happen immediately.  I call that time between the door closing and the next opening the hallway.  The hallway can be scary, relaxing, annoying, perplexing and a whole bunch of other adjectives.

So, dear readers, the next posts will be my thoughts about coming home, life in the hallway and what might come next.  Hopefully, there will be humor, photos and who knows, maybe a bit of travel tossed in.  I promise to regale you with a description of my new hobby - being on hold with Social Security Administration and other fun stuff.  Tell your friends, it's gonna be fun.