A Lot to Think About

The weekend following Bubba and Joe's first kayak adventure, we had a bad case of hitch itch.  We were ready to camp.  Now that we have a year of camping under our belts, we are more particular about where we want to camp.  It is important to us to be able to sit outside in a peaceful location preferably on the water with a nice view.  One of the two places that fit that description best is the park on Lake Seminole where we had just been with Joe and Judy a few weeks earlier.  So we headed out on Friday morning and were able to find the perfect spot.

The route we take to Lake Seminole goes through Marianna, Fl, where we always stop at the Travel Centers of America truck stop.  Now what makes this truck stop so appealing to us?  You guessed it!  Three of our favorite fast foods are offered there.  It's clean and it's easy to park the trailer.  We cannot pass this place without stopping.

I'm not going into a lot of details about this trip except to say that we both enjoyed time paddling the kayak.

Bubba ventured out a long way this time. 

Nature is a constant reminder of

all His hands have wrought.

 We both spent a lot of time in our recliners just talking, reading, and thinking.










I really had a lot to think about this particular weekend.  I worked for a man that I really respected, who treated staff well, and who made going to work enjoyable.  He was recently very unfairly advised by the higher ups that he could either move to another prison in south Florida or go home. He chose to go home.  His mother is elderly and in poor health and he didn't want to leave her.  We were all upset at work.  I began to think about my future and what I wanted to do.

I can tell you that I gave a lot of thought over the weekend about going ahead and retiring.  It would cost me a lot financially to do that.  Health insurance for just myself is $569.00 a month not to mention that I would have less retirement and social security to live on; however, before the weekend was over I decided that if I wasn't happy with the new boss I was going to retire.  

This was my view for a lot of the weekend.  

It was nearly two more weeks before I met the new boss.
I have to say that so far I'm happy.
He's a young man and has treated me as though I'm very important to him.  I have listened very closely to his dealings with staff and families and I like how he treats them.  He approves of the flex schedule I'm on now that allows me to be off every Friday which is very important to our new camping lifestyle. So my decision for now is to stick with it a while longer.

Anyone who knows Bubba knows that he is a pessimist (a glass half empty kind of guy).  I, on the other hand, am an optimist (my glass is half full).  It's kind of interesting that when planning for the future, we swap roles.  He is optimistic in thinking that we will both probably live well into our nineties.  I am pessimistic in thinking that we need to enjoy things while we are both in good health and can.  I think that probably we are both being somewhat realistic on this.  At any rate, I'm looking forward to retirement whether it be in a few months or a year.

This was a great weekend for relaxing and for thinking.  We all need one like that every now and then!