The Beginning of the End - August 9, 2022

The process of closing down our office began in earnest today.

We have to be out by August 31.  

I started shredding and discarding copies of documents more than a month ago.  Last week, I delivered a big box of my personal books to donate to the library.  My pictures and trinkets are all packed up.  My car is loaded down with my personal computers that I took to the office before we had official access to the internet.  (What in the world will I do with those old dinosaurs?)

Today, the judge-elect showed up with a crew to start moving books and furniture that we won't need to survive these last few weeks.  

It is kind of bittersweet.

The Boss and I are both tired of our jobs.  But having worked together for 27 years, life will be strange for a while.

I have not found another job yet.  I've applied for a couple of government positions that I really don't expect to get and might not even want, when it comes right down to it.  Both jobs are in the "big city" - a long, tedious drive for me after 27 years of a 20-minute commute, with a couple of stop signs and a red light between me and the office.  Either job would up my retirement pay nicely.  But, again, I doubt I'll get one of them.  

I'm not sure I want another job, anyway, to be honest.  I may be too old and set in my ways to break in a new boss.  

If I don't get another government job, I can work for a private employer AND draw my retirement at the same time.  

It won't hurt my feelings one bit to take a few months off.  The house needs for me to have a throwing-away party so my kids don't have to do it when I croak.  (Having gone through this with my parents and other relatives, I don't want to put that on my kids.)  The house also needs new flooring in some of the rooms, and a new countertop in the kitchen.  We've been putting it off.  This may be the perfect time.

The yard is over-grown and needs attention.  There's a rampaging bed of phlox that needs to go away, and hydrangeas that need to go in their place.  And English ivy is eating up everything on the hill.  When I asked my gardening group for ways to get rid of the phlox, people started saying, "Oh, no!  Don't kill them!  Offer to let people dig them up and they'll disappear like magic."  

Really?  People are going to drive to the boonies for phlox?  

I must have $10,000 worth of craft supplies that ought to be used - probably enough to start my own store.  Enough fabric for multiple quilts.  Maybe I should learn to use all this paint, if it's not dried up.   

Maybe I need my very own workshop.  ;)