One more time

Well last week came, and went, and I still have one to go. They decided that they wanted me to stay one more week to ease the transition. That is OK with me but I am hoping to work in an advisory mode only. There is still a lot of information to pass on and not much time to do it. I have looked forward to this for so long that it is a little disappointing to not end it when I expected to.

I am enjoying the basketball season though and our womens team won two more this week. They are no longer ranked in the top 25 but they have the capability of returning there with consistent play. NCAA Division 3 is a tough place to compete and the ASC is one of the toughest conferences. I think we will be in the conference tournament but winning the conference for a fourth straight year may be a big stretch. We will be there rooting for them all the way for another shot at the national tournament. They won the national championship 2 years ago and it would be great to snag another one.

I don't know who originally coined this definition of freedom but it was passed to me nearly 3 decades ago and has stuck with me. "Freedom is not the right to do what you want to do, but it is the power to do what you ought to do". In this country we enjoy freedom and often we talk about the freedoms we have, that are guaranteed by our constitution. But are we really free, or are we enslaved to our lifestyle, attempting to keep up with the people we know? Many are so far in debt that they see no way to get out. Our government is also in debt and goes deeper each day. I, for one, believe that debt will be the thing that ruins the United States. The enemy may not be "over there" but may be right here with us, masquerading as our friend. Deficit spending has become a way of life in this country and the problem will not go away by itself, it will take hard work, and even harder choices in our lives and the life of our country if we are ever to see the economy of our nation recover and our people prosper again.  It can happen, but it will be a long road. Be thankful for the freedom we have, it isn't free.

Until next time...

Five more days

Next Friday I retire from the full time workforce. In case you didn't notice, that makes room for one new worker. In the summer of 1959 someone, somewhere, retired and made space for me. I was the new worker then and had a lot to learn. After a summer job, I entered the military for a while and the older I get the more I appreciate the things the military taught me. Two that come to mind are "Being on time" and "Respect for authority".

My dad always said if you were not 5 minutes early, you were late. That has stuck with me through the years and even today I would rather be early than late to anything. I tend to be at work a half hour early, if for no other reason it gives me time to collect my thoughts and plan my day, although often my day is planned by the incidents that naturally occur in a university IT department. Many of today's young workers do not share that committment to punctuality. I see more and more a casualness about being on time or being where you said you would be when you said you would be there. It boils down to a lack of respect for ones employer, fellow workers, clients, customers, etc.

Respect for authority is waning in these latter days whether it is government, employer, parental, teacher, or some other authority. We all have many forms of authority over us and whether we like it or not, it is there to help us. God places us in various situations like this where people or organizations have authority over us. We are reminded by scripture that we must respect that power and obey. This is sometimes a hard lesson but it must be learned if we are to be all that God intends for us to be. Our jails are full and overflowing with people who have rejected the idea of someone having authority over them.

Sometime this week I expect there will be some sort of reception to allow everyone to say goodbye and wish me well. In the meantime I need to share as much of my knowledge as possible with the person who replaces me and who starts tomorrow. I will also clean out my office, removing all the "stuff" that has made it uniquely mine for these years. Some of it will be easy and some of it will be hard, not physically but emotionally. Ones office and workspace become an extension of oneself and giving that space up will be difficult.

I am told that I may need to work the first week of February but that will be considered part time hourly so Friday will be the last official full time work day. It has arrived faster that I thought it would when I told them I was retiring. As it approaches I am both frightened and excited. I am ready and I await what the next phase of my life holds.

Counting the days - and Contentment

Well another week is done and it was a busy one. I did get my day off on Friday and it rained most of the day. It was still productive though so I will try again this week to get my last 2 days off on Thursday and Friday. You have to practice for this retirement thing so I am practicing. At this point I have 8 official days left to work and they want me to stay an extra week to ease the transition to a new employee. So I guess it will be 13 days more but that is OK.

This coming week should be a little slower since we now have the first week of school behind us. The first week is always busy. We have a couple of home basketball games this week so that will be fun.

People ask me if I am going to be busy enough or content when I retire. I am reminded of Philippians 4 where Paul tells us that contentment is a learned behaviour. We are not content by nature... we are always scurrying to improve or reach some new goal. That is how I have been for my entire career, but Paul tells us that he "has learned to be content in whatever circumstance he finds himself in". I too am learning, there will be a reduction in income because I don't have enough savings to provide income at the same level. I think we can deal with that but the big thing is that after 50 years of working and having that regimen of getting up and going to work each day and having stuff that I had to do, I will no longer have that schedule. Finding productive use for my time will not be hard at first because there is so much to do around this house and the creek house but later, say a year from now, it may be more difficult. We will see what the future brings. I plan to do a little work part time for the business of the person that is replacing me but I am not sure how much. I may free lance a little at other companies if I can. I know that the time is right for me to retire and that God is in control, so I will try my best to practice these verses, also in Philippians 4.

6 Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God.
7And the peace of God, which surpasses all comprehension, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.

So I will leave you with this thought, God is good, all the time...even when we don't deserve it.
 
Rejoice in the Lord always, and again I say, Rejoice. Phil. 4:4

Pictures posted

I posted a link on the right to pictures at picasaweb. Right now they are all related to the creek house and birds we see while we are there.

Week 1 - Make a Difference

Week 1 was up and down.
It started on Monday when our lowest ranked tech did not show up after break for a project we had planned. I discovered that he was to be released the next day anyway so that meant we had to scramble for a worker to help with the project. We already had one student and were able to secure 2 more so the project went on. I wound up working on it for a couple of days myself which I really did not have time to do.

The maintenance department was moving people and computers all this time and we were trying to keep up with that as well. The new Asst. VP for IT started on Monday and filling him in on various aspects of what we do and several meetings consumed more of my time. We are bringing a remodeled building back on line and it is far from ready so we needed to terminate cables and connect phones and computers for that.

To top it all off, a wonderful young lady who has worked for me for the last 5 years plus, had chosen to leave us and pursue her career at another school. I needed to host a reception to honor and thank her for all her hard work. We pulled that off very well with lots of homemade cookies and punch. Today was her last day and it was sad to see her leave but I know it was the right choice for her, so from that aspect it is fine.

It has been a very busy week and next week will be no different. Students arrive Sunday, classes start Tuesday, and we will be very busy taking care of connectivity issues in the dorms and adding users to the network. I hope to grab a day off toward the end of the week but may not be able to, we will see.

I have a personal motto that I have posted in my office and other places. It is "Make a Difference". We are here not just to do a job or earn a salary so we can afford to live, but to invest ourselves in others to help them to grow. At a university, especially one like this one, we have so many opportunities to do just that. One thing we did this week was take most of the leftover cookies and punch from the reception and send it to a group of dorm resident assistants who were here early for training. They enjoyed it and we had the opportunity to "Make a Difference" in their lives. Only time will tell what that difference may be.

Opportunity is all around us but only those who are looking for it will recognize it as a chance to make a difference in someones life. Even in the face of difficulty or dicouragement we can still find time or resources to impact someones life. I encourage you to find a way to "Make a Difference" in someone's life tomorrow.

Home again

We are home again from the Creek and have accomplished a lot. I posted a picture of the finished bath, well not really finished but close enough that it appears so. That was our major project for the trip. The two weeks went by quickly, it was cold, windy and rainy most of the time but we enjoyed the work and made good progress. We had a few days where outside work could be done and Martha used them to paint the front of the house and burn the rest of the old boat and some other burnable trash.

The area we are in has many birds and we were able to spot a few that are here on our Texas coast. One was a Roseate Spoonbill, a large bird with pink feathers on the wings and a large spoon shaped bill. Another was the Great Blue Heron. There were a pair of these that frequent the area of our house. They and the Brown pelican have wingspans of almost 6 feet and are neat to watch. We have many Brown pelicans so they are pretty common. I'll try to post some pictures of the birds later.

Last night we went to a neighbors and had a seafood buffet. he had cooked fish, shrimp and oysters as well as potatoes, fried pickles, etc. We all ate more than we should have except Martha who is not a seafood lover like me, although she did try some of the seafood. It was all very good.

Well tomorrow we go back to work and I begin the last month of employment. My replacement has been hired and will start tomorrow as well. It should make for an interesting month, I am looking forward to it.