It's almost THAT time again!

 Yep....le Tour starts in just ELEVEN DAYS! Woo HOO!

And for the first time, I will get to ENJOY every single stage without needing to fast forward (unless I want to)! 

 So...it's been almost FIVE MONTHS since I retired...how is that possible? Rae, I totally understand your comment about finding a talent in wasting time...I have found that also! All of February I was on a real bike riding tear...4 to 5 rides a week. Jeanne was working from home in her little office, and I had absolutely guilt-free riding... she was home with the monsters, and with me gone she had absolute quiet for work...it was perfect! March rolled around and I caught some bug...seemed like a typical cold, the first week was the usual head-cold symptoms...and THEN, whatever that little alien monster bug was it dropped down into my chest. And for almost the rest of March I was in misery. I had aches and pains like I don't remember having, and I tried to ride once and realized that wasn't going to happen. Took a Covid test (as did Jeannie, we were both worried) but no. It finally released it's grip near the end of the month...that was really something. Jeannie had been forced to work back in the office (even tho her Union Contract says she can work from home) and her 4-10's schedule was also revoked (even tho that was also in her Union contract)...so at least she didn't see me suffering most of March. I don't recall ever being sick that long in my life. Good thing I was retired, I'd have hated to burn that much sick-time being SICK! (I sold back over a months worth of sick-time and several months of vacation I'd been hanging onto).

April arrived and I started riding again, boy how quickly I lost my hard-won fitness! But the weather was good, not hot, not cold, and the spring WINDS were moderate and ridable. May arrived, I'm still avoiding any big house-projects...tho my LIST is getting longer by the day. I still had my Peacock subscription (got it last year on a special offer, something like $25 for a year which was quite a deal). So I was able to watch most of the Spring Classics, that was fun. And sheesh, can ANYBODY beat Pogacar?? Man oh man, he is something! Classics, Grand Tours, he's a rare rider for sure! 

May came and it got HOT. Not here in my little town, but go inland just a few miles and BAM...90's +. I did a few long rides on days that were forecast to ONLY be in the 80's, but the winds and heat were relentless in the interior. Then June came and same thing...so I looked into my house list of projects, and the one I decided to tackle was replacing Fascia boards (the 'storm-side' of the house 2x10 boards, the roof  'trim' if you will) were needing replacement. Thankfully we have a 1 story house, but it does have a vaulted ceiling. That goes up PRETTY HIGH. But I came up with a plan and I'm about 3/4 of the way done. I got the entire side of the house fascia off, did a bunch of stucco patch where a creeping vine had worked it's way onto the stucco not long after we moved here (we liked the look so let it go for a few years, turns out it really digs into the stucco and is a royal beast to remove...it did damage!) I got new 2x10's, made the angled cuts to put them together (all on the ground on my saw horses), painted them (front is our house trim 'white' and the back is the color of the house...a very light brown 'mocha' type color). I bought an airless sprayer and painted the entire side of the house just 2 days ago (had to wait a few days for the winds to lighten up a bit...we've had a week or so of high winds which is pretty abnormal for this time of year). So now I'm waiting to hang and install the new fascia boards...Jeannie doesn't want me doing high ladder work or going up on the roof if she isn't home...which I understand. 

So it looks like I won't finish the fascia until after I get back from two short trips. On Thursday morning I'm meeting up with my brother Greg and we are road-touring down to Santa Monica (on Sunday afternoon we take the train from Santa Monica to Union Station/downtown LA) and from there we catch the Surfliner that takes us both north and home. Then Tuesday morning I fly to Las Vegas to meet my other brother Dave and we get our rental Jeep and get OUT of LV, headed to the Grand Canyon North Rim this trip. Yep, it's going to be warm, but if we stay up high it will be tolerable (down in the canyon it would be horrible hot). I fly home from LV next Friday afternoon. So maybe next weekend I can install the fascia boards, put in new strips of tar-paper to cover over the boards an inch or so, and the re-install the cement roof edge tiles (they hang over the edge a few inches). I originally wasn't going to tackle this project cuz it's kind of dangerous...but I figured out ways to do this by myself with only minimal danger...I think the hardest part will be putting the new boards in place...I've developed a way to hoist the boards into position, set them on brackets I made and shim them firmly to the roof and use special screws to install them to the rafter boards, then my air nailer using stainless steel finishing nails to nail the roofs outer 'ship lap' boards to the 2x10's. It's the getting the 2x10s perfectly positioned that will likely be the hardest part...once I do that the screws and nails are a piece of cake. 

So the completion of my fascia project is on hold, and anyway I need to get the rest of my road touring gear out of the attic, along with my hiking gear for the Grand Canyon trip...so I'll do that today. I've been working the 2x10s for almost 2 weeks now...(roofers would have done it all in a day, but they wouldn't have been painted, and also I did cut out and replace a few sections of damaged ship lap roof boards along the way). We had some estimates to have a crew do all this, and it was pretty pricey indeed (the house across the street is a 2 story and their fascia is REALLY bad, their quote to replace it all was 20 grand! We only need 1 side done, about 40' worth, and that was still several thousand...yikes). 

My excitement for the upcoming Tour has led me to watch the Dauphine this year (suddenly I have TIME!). My 1 year Peacock subscription ended a week or so ago, and I held out...HOPING they would make me an offer I can't refuse, and they DID! So I got another year for the same price (I was going to have to go monthly for like $17.99 because the normal annual is like $79.99 I think) and just get July, so this is a WAY better option!) I really don't ever remember watching the Dauphine before. I know it's THE SPRINGBOARD for Tour GC hopefuls...Vingegaard and Remco are both there, so along w/ Baby Face, that would be my top 3 choices for the Tour, assuming all are/stay healthy and unhurt. I just watched Stage 6 (in the background while I was typing here)...had to leave the computer when Baby Face just RODE AWAY from Vingo and Remco like he had an electric motor (ala Spartacus in his famed attack in the cobblestones...the attack where non-believers actually claimed he had a motor in his bike...remember that? It was when the electric bikes were not here yet, and conspiracy theories had a few select pro's having prototypes in their bikes, Cancellara was one of them). And wow, in Pogo's 7.2 kilometer solo ride today (I reference past races I'm just now watching like they JUST happened, cuz to me it did) he put a minute on Vingo and almost a minute and a half on Remco (who WAS wearing Yellow since his ITT win on Stage 4...he put over 40 seconds on Pogo). Vingo HAD 21 seconds on Pogo going into today...so now the GC status is Pogo all by his lonesome, Vingo back at 40 seconds or so, and Remco down by like 1:20. That's just nuts! And the next 2 stages are mountains! Baby Face is more like Baby KILLER! Man, he is something...they went thru the laundry list of BK's season so far and it was crazy with podiums and wins! Back in Stage 1 the Peacock crew of Bobke and CVV did the announcing, and then on the rest of stages it's been the other Euro guy (Todd?)...I'm getting use to him...but nobody replaces the Peacock Tour Crew! Anyway, Bobke and CVV were talking after Stage 1 that it's impossible to compare any athletes from different generations head to head, but they both agreed that IF it's possible to be as good or better than Eddy Meryx, Pogo is it. That's some pretty heady-stuff! 

Oh, and I failed to discuss MY new found talent for wasting time...well, to be honest, I've ALWAYS had it, but I kept it in check somewhat. Now that I don't have to go to work, I get up when I want and do what I want...yea, not really. Jeannie gets up before 4am most days, and me being a light sleeper, yep...I'm awake. Every now and then I can shake it off and go back to sleep, get up around 6. But not very often...most days I lie there till 4 to 4:30 and finally get up, get some coffee, and put on the news (we got rid of our satellite TV and got us a Tablo and 2 Firesticks...works well for us! The Tablo is wireless to both TV's, and the Firesticks have any streaming Apps we use). We have wall over 100 channels on the Tablo for FREE, including all the local channels and many movie channels. Jeannie wheels and deals and gets us constant streaming services for cheap, bouncing around to whoever has a deal...(those are usually for 30 to 90 days). We always have Amazon Prime, and now I have Peacock again for a year, and I think we have Netflix, HBO and Starz right now...so THERE is how I can waste WAY TOO MUCH time...all those channels! I sit down at 4:15 to 4:30 with the monsters Sophie and Abbey, and before I know it, it's 9am and I've done nothing but watch the TV! I haven't ridden a bike in over 2 weeks now...(the fascia project took over my life, that and the early morning TV). Oh, in my  defense of not riding for 2 weeks, my neck has REALLY been bothering me again...got hurt LONG LONG LONG ago (I was 19 I think?) and the last ride I did was just miserable. Usually this sort of thing will mostly go away as suddenly as it showed up...right now I'm taking a ton of ibuprofen every day...that's got to slow down/stop soon I hope. 

Oh, and one other fun item...I just applied for Medicare Part B... I turn 65 in September (how very fast THAT is coming up!) and that's going to hurt. I never took the rather pricey company insurance because I have Tricare (gov insurance) due to being retired military (Jeannie is on my plan too). When I turn 65 Tricare for me becomes free for the rest of my life, but becomes backup to Medicare which I have to pay for. And how much will that be? Don't know yet, but its going to hurt...because that price is based on OUR annual income...from LAST YEAR! Right now I'm not taking any of my 401k (now an IRA), or my other IRA's (a Roth and another one with our financial management company) and I won't take my SS until I hit 67. So MY income is down to just my Navy Retirement and my company pension...so lets say about half of what I WAS bringing in when I was working. Next year Jeannie can petition the Medicare cost based on our taxes for this year (which will be significantly lower due to my cut in gross income)...but for now it's gonna hurt I'm very afraid. But it is what it is, and WHEN I start taking my IRA's and SS I'll be in great shape! (for a while anyway...we'll see how inflation kills us once we are both fully retired). California isn't really a great place to live as they are KILLING us with taxes and fees, and just the cost of living...I heard recently that if you're making under 100k you are poor in most of CA...I get that. Single people are really living hard around here unless they have a fantastic salary.

OK..enough on that. Time for me to get up off my butt and do stuff. Attic, here I come!

Have a great week, talk more starting on the 5th for my annual "Tour Talk", it's gonna be a GREAT RACE!  

Later gators! 

I made it!

So today (Saturday) is my very first day of being TRULY retired! (I retired from the Navy long ago, but that doesn't really count as I still had to work a lot more years). Thursday was my LAST day going in to work, and yesterday was officially my last vacation day. So today, the 1st of February, is the FIRST day I'm well and truly retired (and drawing my pension, which should paying as of today). 

My mind is suitably blown, it just doesn't seem real, and likely won't for a while. I did have an epiphany in the wee-hours of Thursday morning, as I woke up ridiculously early (actually finally got out of bed at 1:15am when it was apparent that the brain woke up and was churning away on the reality of the day). So I got up, turned on the coffee, and sat on the couch. Our bulldog Sophie (always faithful and totally a daddies girl) sat on my lap while I was just thinking about the enormity of the coming day, and likely how hard it was actually going to be for me. It was then that it occurred to me that Monday was when it would really start to sink in...because Monday won't be Monday, it will be Saturday. So will Tuesday, and Wednesday, you get the picture. Also there will be no more Sunday evening 'get stuff ready for work and go to bed early', and needing to do laundry and all my other weekend chores so I have clothes for the week (without reaching down into the pile 'Navy Style' to find something suitably aged and can be flipped inside out where it's still good). I can now do laundry and any other chores whenever I want!

And I wasn't wrong about how huge Thursday was for me. I ended up going in WAY early (I was inside by about 5:15am), but had 'things to do'. The last 2 weeks was slowly ramping up for me in the 'must finish' certain things before I could in good conscious walk away (I'm not one to drop my work on others). I did however complete all the projects I had going, and then in the final few days it came down to 'holy crap do I have a LOT of stuff here'! That's what 21 years does...I'm an 'accumulator', collector, (hoarder?). I know Jeannie thinks I'm a hoarder, and that may be true in a VERY minuscule sense...true hoarders are something to behold. I consider myself 'frugal', as in I HATE to throw away something that I just KNOW I will need some day (I also HATE to have to go BUY something that I threw away, because that's just flushing away money!) So yeah, I had a lot of stuff. 

The Government (Air Force/Space Force) is our Customer, and owns pretty much everything where I work(ed). The buildings, vehicles, furniture, computers, refrigerators, microwaves, etc. Everything. Our gigantic tool boxes (Snap On, probably the finest and most expensive tools you can buy) are provided by the Gov. Due to the expense (and the possibility of a tool being left somewhere it shouldn't be) we need total and complete "Tool Accountability" (and we have several online training courses every year covering the topic). The medical field knows this as "Sponge-count", where surgeons need to account for literally every single thing that goes near/inside a patient (for obvious reasons). We actually call it the same thing, and only go full blown Sponge Count during our 'critical' times (which would be whenever we are prepping for and especially actually moving a spacecraft). If there's a missing tool, screw, zip-tie, piece of tape, whatever, that was taken anywhere in the vicinity of our container or a spacecraft, well, that's a really REALLY bad day. It MUST be found.

So anyway, we the working folk have these 'tool chits' (which are like mini credit-cards, each has our picture, name and employee ID # printed on it) that we take off our little ring 'O' chits and put them inside the tool-box in the spot where that tool was for each tool we take out (so if say a socket comes up missing at the end of shift they know exactly who to go to). In my final few days I hid almost all my tool chits (about 30 give or take) in various 'fun' places. My guys will be finding these in the coming days/weeks/years. I hope each time they find one it will bring smiles..."found another of Matt's chits today" and then everybody will want to know where it was (and hopefully NONE of the chits themselves become FOD which is "Foreign Object Debris", which can cause the other type FOD, which is "Foreign Object Damage". FOD is bad in my line of work. With our huge building and multitudes of large and supremely expensive equipment that we use for our Missions (each Spacecraft Transport is considered a unique Mission), I had a LOT of cool places to hide my chits.

So, going back just a bit, two weeks ago on Tues Jan 14th my people had a pot luck barbecue in my honor, and Jeannie was allowed into the building (escorted by my boss). Our Space Force Commander came over from the Headquarters building where she works and gave a very nice talk about me (she had been provided a copy of my bio beforehand from my boss it turns out). She then presented me with a beautiful wooden 'memento' box with 2 Coins (Challenge Coins they're called...in the last few decades they have become a REALLY big thing for the Military and there are zillions of different Coins out there). The first was a coin from the very first Launch I worked after I hired on (and it also happened to be the very LAST launch of an Air Force Titan IV rocket, which was carrying our Customers spacecraft to orbit). That launch was in October 2005, and my Mom, Dad, Jeannie and brother Greg came up to the base to watch. The other coin was my Commanders Unit coin. Lt. Colonel Ruth being our Commander, she and all her People ARE the NRO Vandenberg group, which makes all of us contractors that work for her part of that group too. And finally she pulled her NRO unit patch from her uniform shoulder and gave me that also. 

Then My people presented me with a beautiful "Flag Box" with a US Flag that was carried on our last transport mission (there are only 2 flags per Mission, one on each side of the Container, and we do anywhere from 0 to 3 Missions per year). So just know that these flags are pretty hard to come by. Also the box has two nice engraved plaques on it, the upper one saying it's being presented to me, and the lower one listing all the Transport Missions I worked over the last 9 years (when I came over from a different division to work in the PTS group, which stands for Payload Transportation Services). I was also presented a framed photo montage of a few launch pictures, a night-time shot of us going down the road in the middle of the night with our container, and also an aerial pic of SLC-6 (which is Space Launch Complex-6, the home of the Delta IV and Delta IV Heavy rockets). All of this really choked me up I have to say. It was pretty difficult not to 'lose it', but I hung in there. Then we had lunch and all was great! (our people REALLY know how to barbecue Tri Tip btw, you can even find it around the country where they call it "Santa Maria Style Barbecue", but NOBODY makes it better than my people!) I even had to give a little 'speech', and did pretty good by not breaking down.

The above picture shows the photo montage, the Commanders Memento Box and her NRO patch, the Flag Box and also my "yearbook" which the company gives to all departing people...got a bunch of pictures of launches and people doing work and company parties and such, and also everybody can sign it at the back. 

 

                And this shot is a closeup of my Flag Box.It's really beautiful, I was stunned!

After that day I still worked another 2 weeks (usually this would have happened on or very near my 'last day', but they bumped it up due to a co-worker who was retiring 2 days after and he really wanted to be at my 'party' (it was a huge surprise to me that he would be there, quite an honor as he was one of our Engineers I worked with long ago, and he was leaving after 41 years on our contract!)

On then finally, my last day of work (last Thursday the 30th of Jan). I brought in Cheesecakes (Jeannie's family recipe which I'm not allowed to give out, I can truly say it's probably the BEST Cheesecake I've ever had) and Jeannie also made me a big batch of her world-famous White Chocolate Macadamia cookies to bring in one last time...and they are also OH WOW! After our morning meeting (where the days work is discussed) I took off in a truck and made the rounds to our other buildings, saying my goodbyes to everybody. I made it back for "coffee break" and all my PTS folk along with a few select others showed up for Cheesecake, cookies and coffee. Then I had to give one last little speech, and this one I was on the very edge of losing it. 

After that it was time...I had an appointment with our Security Manager over at the HQ building at 10am. My boss showed up and came in with me, where I turned in all my badges and signed some forms (NDA stuff...mostly saying I need to forget a lot of stuff that I know which I'm never supposed to talk about, which is pretty easy when you consider that I only have 2 remaining functioning brain-cells). Then my boss took me over to the Command Center (where our Commander works) on our way out. Her Secretary let her know I was there, and she came out and we said our farewells (she is an AWESOME Commander, and I guarantee she will make Colonel on her first time up for it, probably only a few years form now). And that was that...I walked to my car and drove away (that part was actually pretty difficult). 

So this last picture is a selfie I took after leaving my building FOR THE VERY LAST TIME! Jeannie thought I looked happy, but I assured her I was on the verge of breaking down sobbing. The building you see behind me was originally built to be the OMF, (which stands for Orbiter Maintenance Facility). The giant rolling doors (they are closed here) behind and above my head run across nearly the entire lower width of the main hibay, and were made to open wide enough for a Space Shuttle to go in and out. This was where all the maintenance would have been done for all West Coast Space Shuttle launches. SLC-6 (which I mentioned earlier) had been retrofitted to launch Space Shuttles. The original "Enterprise" Orbiter (which never went to space) was flown out on it's 747 transporter jet and fit-checked to the pad, and there are even pictures of the Enterprise inside this very building, which is where I worked the last 9 years. Anyway, long ago after all the preps to do shuttle launches from both Cape Kennedy and Vandenberg, the Challenger disaster happened. After that the Air Force decided the Shuttles were too risky for their ludicrously expensive spacecraft, so they nixed shuttle launches from shuttles and started launching their biggest vehicles on Titan IIIB's and then Titan IV's which happened several miles away at SLC-4, which is where I worked my first 2 years here on base. After that SLC-6 was converted to be the Delta IV pad. So this building behind me ended up housing all our PTS equipment instead of actual shuttles (the Space Shuttles were called SCTS, which stands for "Space Cargo Transportation System", which is also exactly what our giant containers are called).

Anyway, that's pretty much my last 2 weeks. I still can't wrap my head around the fact that I no longer go to work...EVER. That they pay me now to do pretty much anything BUT work. It just doesn't seem possible.

 OK, well, I made it. The light at the end of the tunnel is no longer at the end of the tunnel, it's BEHIND me. I'm out of the tunnel. Holy smokes, I'm done! I have SO much to do, and suddenly SO much time! (or not...I don't really want to go 'there', none of us know how much time we have here, making it so important to live every day to the fullest). Whatever time I do have left is MY time now. I plan to make the best of it! I hope to do at least ONE FUN thing every single day from here on out! Hopefully more than one, but at LEAST one.

And so, Aawaaaaaaaayyyyy I go! 

Game ON!