The COV-19 crisis continues – there are more extreme
measures – including closing of non-essential stores, a curfew from 8:00 pm to
5am, except for work or emergency. So
far these are suggested and not legally binding.
We are making the best of the situation.
We completed the testing of the Zoom application and we are set to run the DBSA Succasunna Support Group meeting using Zoom tomorrow evening. It looks like a good tool so hopefully people will be able to login and participate with not too many worries about the technology of it.
I got out three times this week running – once at the Horseshoe Lake in Succasunna and twice at the 1/3-mile track in Flanders. There were less people at the walking track so I did that later in the week, the lake can get crowded with people in the afternoon when it was warm.
Today I baked a batch of chocolate chip cookies – actually with a mix of types of chips from left over chips I had on hand. I packed them into 10 baggies – and went around the neighborhood and passed them out. I had to leave at the door for a few since they did not answer the door, those that answered the door were appreciative… Jarred the young man diagonally across from us came to the door and said he had been home for a period and was symptom free… I handed him the bag of cookies and wished him well, a sentiment he returned as well.
This morning I sent my good friend Yungchai an email to ask how they are doing out in Irvine, CA…. to my surprise she called me this afternoon, it was so good to hear from her.. she and I became friends when we worked for adjoining departments back in the early days of Buck opening the Secaucus Office back in 1986…
These are difficult times but we will get through it better if we find ways to help others or do something nice that might be unexpected.
Since my last writing the world has changed – today we are
living with the effects of the Coronavirus – COV-19…. The President, Governors
are speaking to people every day. Except
for essential services stores are closed… Supermarkets had a run on toilet
paper and hand sanitizer, you can understand hand sanitizer but toilet paper –
is totally crazy.
However, I can understand the concern…. The mayor of New York City has been saying that hospitals will be overwhelmed in 45 days…. So that generates panic and people start hoarding – they are afraid the stores will be empty sometime in the not too distant future.
I agree it is important to limit exposure to others and wash hands frequently – it is important to limit the spread of this disease… the impact is much worse even critically for elderly individuals or those with other respiratory type risks…. You don’t want to spread to anyone in that high-risk category and how do you know who might be high risk?
The blatant disregard to others that the Florida beach goers
have is deplorable.
I also believe that we will survive this and recover to full capacity – we don’t know how long that will take but we have sufficient resources to carry us into the future. Hopefully this event will make the general population kinder and gentler to each other.
We also have to adapt to the situation at hand, as an example we temporarily had to cancel our support group meetings, we are exploring an online video tool where we could hold the support group meetings, this may actually have the benefit where more people seek out help when needed.
As we adapt to the situation at hand I hope we can learn for
the next emergency.
If I was to say something about exercise it would be this: “Exercise is great for your physical and mental health and is a lot of fun.”
About 12 years ago I was not physically fit, not a couch potato but I was not doing any exercise at all. I started to feel my pants getting tighter and bigger…. When I got up to the next size I said to myself I have to do something about this.
Every day before work, about 5:30 to 6:00 am.. I put on reflective gear and walked in the neighborhood. I did about 30 minutes during the week and 60 minutes on the weekends. I started with a pedometer attached to my shoe, which recorded on my phone…
I started in September and did this every day for a year, through the cold winter and the hot summer.
When it came around to the second September I got cold feet about the cold weather to come.
I joined Planet Fitness and did that a few times a week.
I walked and then ran on the treadmill.
Around early June I saw a sign for a 5K in town in mid-July, I cranked up the treadmill. and did a few practice runs.
When race day arrived my wife, Megan, son Paul, daughter-in-law Gretchen and my sister Virginia came to cheer me on. I ran the race and came in second place in my age category!!!! I was in shock and thrilled.
Thus, began my commitment to regular exercise and the pleasure I get when I run. After my win I started running every day that summer to the point of injuring myself…. The doctor thought I was crazy to start this at my age.. but he did advise to pace better and I started to do an every other day routine.
I later graduated to the local YMCA, where there was also swimming.
This past year I ran in a few 5K’s and my first 10K.
This September I am going to run my first half marathon, never in a million years did I think I would be running and no less a half marathon.. but here I am…
Now it does not matter if you walk, walk briskly, ride a bike or run… the exercise is so good for us in many ways…. it is something you can do with others or by yourself.. I it something you can do for yourself…
I am approaching six months into my Encore Career.
I am working a part time schedule, about 12 hours per week. I fill that time up on Monday, Tuesday and sometimes Wednesday mornings.
I have been doing the Food Pantry runs every Monday, Wednesday and Friday, I pick up milk, baked goods and other products just at expiration date and bring to the food pantry, I get to the Ashley Farm at 9:00 am do the pickup and deliver to the food pantry and usually I am home by 9:30.
The work is going well, it is different not being the overall lead, although I lead most of the projects for the assigned client and I am available to solution issues as they arise.
The team is progressing and I am trying to make sure they are ready for when I fully retire.
I have read two books recently, The Big Alone by Kristin Hannah and The Goldfinch by Donna Tarrt, the first is an historical fiction and the other is fiction mystery. Both books held the interest and were page turners; you could not put them down because you knew what you wanted to happen but had no idea if that it would and you could not wait to get to the end.
I also admired both authors for the way the tied the whole
story together at the end.
I am getting ready to plant seeds for the spring planting in
the garden.
I am doing well and feel good, the phase into retirement and my encore career is going well!
“Friendship
can mean different things to different people. For some people it is simply the
trust that someone will not hurt you. For others it might be unconditional love
or just normal companionship. Whatever your own definition is, friendship is
often considered as a mutual and agreeable relationship between two individuals,
and that’s a good thing, as it has been said that a person who finds a true
friend has found a priceless treasure.” – source: friendship.com
I have been thinking about my friends recently.
I am blessed with many friends, not any from high school or
college years, although I had friends then but none of them continued.
I have friends from work, two I know for about 45 years from my earliest days at Buck (known as George B. Buck Consulting Actuaries back then Many of my friends come from work and other areas of my involvement in the community.
My friends are varied, some are funny, some are serious. Some are conservative and some are liberal. I
have met many people through the community garden and the support groups.
People make the world go by which is so true.
I thank all my friends for sticking by me in times of trial
and the many times of joys.
A time to reflect on the year that has passed and a time to turn over a new page and a new beginning or a change.
During 2019 we were fortunate to turn the page on my 45-year career and move to a part time status, which I will maintain through the middle of 2020 – my Encore Career!
To celebrate my Encore Career we took a trip to California in late November, the goal of which was to drive the Pacific Coast Highway from San Diego to San Fransisco, see my post titled “California Adventure Complete.
We spent ten days in Florida to celebrate Christmas with the
Dolan family, which we very much enjoy, this year the weather was not the best,
but it was a good time anyway.
Now that we have returned to NJ we look forward to the new year and are hoping the winter is mild and the spring weather is soon upon us.
I look forward to the spring planting season at the garden.
I adjusted my work schedule so I can do the Food Pantry run
on Monday, Wednesday and Friday, previously I had a meeting that prevented me
from doing the run on Monday’s.
Now that I conquered the 10K, I have my sights on a half
marathon, I am thinking in the early fall possibly September or October – someplace
in the NJ area.
I wish everyone a happy, healthy and prosperous New Year –
2020!
We are back for almost two weeks and one week from today we will be in Florida. We will be staying in Plan City, the hometown of our daughter-in-law. We will celebrate Christmas with the Dolan family. We will do a few activities with the family as will.
Paul and I will be running a 10K in Winter Haven on the morning of December 21, 2019, after that Paul and Gretchen will run the 5K.
I did a practice run on Sunday and completed 6.26 miles at a
pace of 10:05 per mile. So, I feel ready
for this race, at least I know I can do it.
I have been running on the treadmill at the Y a few times a week too.
Late last week I got the sad news that my friend Rich had
died. He was one of the key legal staff
at Buck for 27 years, he was a sharp business person and one of the kindest
persons you would know. As he was my age
this was hard to hear. He had an
advanced case of cancer that was not caught until about 7 months ago. The initial treatments seemed to be going
well, however that changed recently and resulted in his recent death.
Today I started out with my Food Pantry run this morning, there was two cartons of milk and some baked goods. I then went to the post office to mail Christmas Cards and a quick run to Shoprite. It was early and the store was quiet with not too many people in there. I was walking to the refrigerator section when I spotted a lady that looked familiar…. I stopped and then asked if she was Nancy – she said yes and she recognized me – called me Paul at first. This was Nancy, my son’s second grade teacher, a dear teacher and lady who was widowed a number of years ago. She has come to the group several times but not recently – I have tried to contact her to make sure she is OK. She told me her daughter does keep close eye on her. I encouraged her to come to our support group holiday party next week. She agreed to take a selfie with me.
Nancy with me in Shoprite, Succasunna
It is important to watch for our neighbors to make sure they
are OK or need some help. Especially
this time of year when people get together with families and some do not or cannot
be with family at this time.
Last night we had a light dusting of snow and all the trees
were snow covered this morning.
We have completed our California Adventure and we are home again.
This trip was much more than we could have expected or
planned.
As we had planned we started in San Diego and worked our way
up to San Francisco, approximately 500 miles.
The first night we stayed at
the Hyatt in San Diego – we had a first-floor suite which was very nice.
The drive up the Pacific Coast Highway from San Simeon to
San Francisco was breathtaking, the pictures could not capture the breath of
the vistas, the twists and turns up and down the mountainside with the Pacific
down the side the whole way.
View of the Pacific Coast Highway
In San Diego we stayed at a very nice hotel Downtown San Diego – I got breakfast every day at a little Starbucks Cafe
San Diego
Patrick Foley – We visited Megan’s cousin Patrick, daughter Kelly and granddaughter Harper. It was delightful to spend time with these members of our family – they live in Oceanside, California which was about an hour from our hotel.
San Diego Zoo – it was all that you hear about.. conversation is in its blood.. you can tell. The Giraffes were so close that it was amazing.
USS Midway – we stopped at the Midway on our way out of town.. this was a wonderful experience.. there were people who had served on the Midway or similar vessel giving first hand explanations of the area we were in. One that stood out was this man that is about our age, had served in Vietnam as a helicopter pilot. He was covering the special exhibit on helicopters.. he explained how helicopters worked. A great man.
San Diego Zoo
USS Midway
Orange / Anaheim
Our next stop was Embassy Suites in Orange, California, near Los Angles.
We visited the Getty Museum – the trip up to the Getty was quick, about an hour.. the return was something else. The Getty was the second highlight of the trip, the size of the complex was amazing, the pieces shown were simply amazing.
When we were completing our tour of the Getty I got a call from our friend Yungchai, this was to be the best day to visit with her…. That was around 3:00 in the afternoon.. It took us almost two hours to get back to the hotel.. the GPS in the car could not locate her address, Google Maps said Exit 7 on Interstate 405…. I set the GPS to go back to the hotel… after at the hotel and the GPS found the address…. We had a wonderful visit with Yungchai.. went to a Mediterranean Restaurant and had kabobs which were delicious.
Since we had such a bad experience with the traffic we did not want to go back into LA the next day, so we went to Disneyland… this was different than we had planned.. but was a really nice detour. The Adventure Park Entrance is just across from the Disneyland Entrance, so we bought Park Hopper tickets.. started in the Adventure Park and after half the day went to Disneyland – we had a very nice day here.
San Simeon
Hearst Castle
This was our longest drive between cities – 250 miles.
The target for this stop was the Hearst Castle – which was the estate that William Hearst built – we did two tours – the Grand Rooms Tour and the Cottage / Kitchen Tours – the massive size and grandeur of the estate is incredible. The gardens, pool and the art and antiques included were massive.
We had a delicious dinner at a local restaurant.
Route 1 from San Simeon to Carmel is the most scenic portion of the Pacific Coast Highway, which was wonderful.
Carmel
Tickle Pink Inn
Could there be more of a dreamy place than the Tickle Pink Inn.
Our first day in Carmel was spent at the Immediate Care Facility in Monterey, Megan got a pain in her side late on Sunday and it is suspected she has diverticulitis. She had a CT Scan on Wednesday, we are still waiting for the results.
*** Update – Megan has diverticulosis which apparently flared up (which would be called diverticulitis), the CT scan showed the diverticulosis (which is pockets in the colon) is common – the diverticulitis is when they became inflamed… she probably had some minor inflammation that went away by the time of the CT Scan. She will check with the doctor here next week.
We had a delicious lunch on Sunday in Carmel the day we arrived.
The Tickle Pink Inn had a breakfast every day and a wine and cheese event every afternoon. We met several people at these times. A young navy sailor who had a love for cars – Mustangs to be specific – he was there celebrating his 21st birthday with his wife and parents – he had a Mustang GT that he got a good deal on through the dealer he was working for. We also met a couple around our age, she was Japanese and he was American – they met in Houston and were married for 30+ years.. the young sailor was from Texas as well.
We were able to visit the Monterey Bay Aquarium, which was amazing.
The Tickle Pink Inn
Monterey Aquarium
San Francisco
This was our last stop
We spent Thanksgiving here – we had Thanksgiving Dinner at the hotel restaurant. I had a wine pairing with my dinner which included one wine with each course. Zinfandel, Pino Noir and a desert wine – I finished the first glass and half of the other two. The dinner included two large slices of turkey, stuffing, cranberry and carrots. The dinner was great and so was the service.
On Thursday, Thanksgiving Day we went to Muir Woods – this is a national park that includes a forest of redwoods that are thousands of years old…. We could only get a 3:30 pm time for parking…. This was amazing, I had visited this park with a collogue after one of our Safeway Meetings around 2006….
Friday – we were not able to get reservation for Alcatraz… so we walked over to the ticket booth, but they did not have any stand by or alternative available. We walked to Pier 39 and found our way to the sea lions of the pier on floating docks.. but first we had to go through an arcade like group of stores restaurants targeting the tourists. After we went through the stores we made our way to Ghriladi – Megan had a hot fudge sundae and I had a vanilla shake. We then spent some time in Ghriladi Square which are a bunch of stores.. we bought sweatshirts and a hat.
We walked over 15,000 steps and 6.5 miles
We had dinner at the hotel – I had Duck, Megan had a burger
We arrived at San Diego Airport on Saturday, November 16,
2019 landing at 11:00 am local time.
We started the trip with a bang!
When we arrived at the airport, after the driver left us off, I opened my wallet to discover my driver’s license was not there. I quickly realized I had left it in my running shorts the day before when I had gone for a run. It was about 6:00 am we had an 8:30 flight and there would not be enough time to get a car service to take us home and back. I thought we would have to reschedule the flight.
I walked over to the person at the Security Line – we have TSA Pre Check, and told him I left my driver’s license at home. He directed me to a supervisor who directed us to a baggage agent by the door. I happened to have my Company ID, showed him that and my American Express Card. The Company ID did not have my full first name, just Chris. He took our bags and gave us the receipt.
The Supervisor took us to the front of the regular Security Line. They let Megan through based on the TSA Pre Check, I had to take off shoes, empty pockets and have a check with the wand. After going through the screen machine, they went through my bags completely.
I contacted our neighbor Camille and told her where the driver’s license was, thankfully we had shown her and her husband how to disarm the alarm, I asked her to FedEx to our hotel in San Diego. She texted back during the flight that she would do that, by time we got to the car she had sent me the tracking number.
This was very stressful and at each step of the way I thought this whole thing could fall apart, but it didn’t. I always say that these mini-crisis events teach us how to deal with the bumps in the road. I was surprised that it went so well, but not the kind of thing you plan.
The flight was long but uneventful, it was actually only about half full.
When we got to San Diego it took a while to get our bags, we had to switch the car to be under Megan because I did not have my driver’s license. I took over the driving after we left the car rental place – and drove around without my license for a few days.
On Monday morning I got the notice that the FedEx package was delivered to the hotel. I went to the front desk and they could not locate it. We went to breakfast and when I finished my meal I went to the front desk and the agent called the shipping area who confirmed they had the envelope. A short time later a guy walked into the lobby with a FedEx envelope.
I took a picture of my license and stored it on my phone. I will pick up the travel highlights in my next blog.
To Be Continued
We saw the San Diego Zoo, the USS Midway, Getty Museum and Disneyland. We visited family and friend while in San Diego and Los Angeles Area.
Less than two days before we begin our trip to California!
Everything is in place of course the last-minute things await attention…. Setting timers for the lights, packing… making sure we have everything, double and triple checking, the common drill we all do, I suppose. As long as we have the essentials we will be fine.
The itinerary – the whole trip is an exploratory trip , so we have broad plans…. we have hotels booked at the interim stops along the way for our trip up the Pacific Coast Highway, the two big cities we will be visiting, LA and San Francisco have so much to offer and we narrowed down to a few key places and will add ad-hoc as we go along….
BIG Anniversary
45 Years… As I am still a Conduent Employee – it is important to note that Monday, November 18, 2019 is my 45-year anniversary at the company – or the 45-year anniversary of my first day of employment at “George B. Buck Consulting Actuaries” as it was known back then. Which evolved over many iterations – Buck Consultants in the early 80’s…then sold to Mellon Financial and they adjusted the names over the years… Mellon sold the company to ACS (Affiliated Computer Systems) which then was merged into Xerox in 2010… and finally Xerox spun the Consulting and Outsourcing to an independent Conduent… Conduent has since spun off Buck into an independent company on its own and is now known as Buck Consultants. I am with the outsourcing group so am employed by Conduent at this point.
I look back in awe and pride – and wonder – where did the years go? All the people I have known, some having passed…. So many friends I have to this day.
I took actuarial exams with limited success but did achieve the Enrolled Actuary designation in 1985 – that was such a huge accomplishment at the time. I am still enrolled as I have been keeping up with the continuing education requirements.
Activities
I had contact with a representative of the Joint Board for Enrollment of Actuaries over the summer and I had indicated I would be interested in serving on the Actuarial Exam committee in 2020, I will dig up that email and contact them and see if there is still interest – I would be reviewing proposed questions for the exam. This might be a bit of stretch as I would have to review the regulations or procedures being tested. We shall see where this goes.
So far the Encore Career is going very well.
I have been doing the volunteer run for the Food Pantry twice a week, running at the Y, preparing for my first 10K in late December, working on my first 1,000-piece puzzle.
Of course there is helping others through the local support group and the phone line / email for the DBSA NJ Organization.
I have been trying to make something unique when I am in charge of dinner on Wednesday’s.
