Going...Going...Gone!

Me, saying "So long, and thanks for all the fish!"

That's it...it's over. I started this blog almost two years ago in order to chronicle my last "year" in the teaching profession. Somehow, though, the time got extended a bit. I'm glad. I said goodbye to Algoma High School today: a place where I've been a regular for the past 29 years. I intended to stay four, get my master's degree and go off to coach in college. Instead, I stayed, we raised a family there, and now I'm off to coach in college...only it's student-athletes, not merely athletes whom I will be coaching/teaching. It's not really a change, as so many have intimated...one-to-one teaching has it all over one-to-forty teaching in my book, so I'm excited.
Nostalgic? Not yet. Maybe it's because I'm used to summer vacation, and this seems like any other year. My garage is now full of crap I've saved from school over the years as treasured mementos...they'll mostly get pitched here, I suspect, when we get tired of tripping over them. I could say that organizing the stuff is my first retirement job, but I've already got about fifteen things to do tomorrow, including talking my doctor out of a colonoscopy...again. I doubt I will sleep late, at least tomorrow. There's just so much to do.
My son Ryun called today to ask if I was moping around and depressed yet for lack of fulfillment. I was still breathing hard from unloading the car! Ask me in a month or so...but, somehow, I doubt it. It'll take that long just to decide what kind of design for my new shoes from nike.com (thanks, Patty and Mark). I have not even had time to check out the possibilities yet. EEK!
Right now, I gotta check my email so I can make up questions for one of my students for her quiz tomorrow. More to come, as Johnny Carson's little commercial break always said.
After seven hours of retirement, I have to say, though, that it is every bit as hectic as retirees have told me it would be. Rock on.