Yep, It's Wonderful!

I didn't have to get up for work yesterday.  That's because I retired on Friday!  I've known for about a year that I was going to retire early this year, but it still seems unreal that I actually did it.  Over the weekend, people kept asking me how it felt to be retired.  I told them that I didn't know yet; ask me on Monday when I don’t need to get up for work!  

So I thought that I’d sleep in, but 37+ years of getting up between 6 and 6:30 makes your body get into the habit of waking up at that time.  I tried to go back to sleep, but the traffic helicopter circling over the area kept me awake.  We had a big front come through on Saturday which brought lots of snow on from Saturday night into Sunday. On Sunday night, the temperature rose and hovered around freezing, so sometimes it was snow, sometimes sleet, sometimes rain; all of which made for an icy mess for the Monday morning commuters.  We didn't have it nearly as bad as some other locations in the country, but it was still treacherous driving.  

So Monday morning about 6:30, someone had an unfortunate encounter at one of the odd angle intersections near my house.  Hence the helicopter.  I live in Southwestern Pennsylvania, where there are lots of hills and bridges to contend with.  We have more bridges here in this county than they do in Venice, Italy.  True fact! The other thing about this area is that a lot of the roads were old trails before they became roads.  So the topography makes for some really interesting intersections that don’t play well with ice and snow.  I am really, really, really glad that I didn't need to get out there in that mess. So, in answer to those who want to know how it feels to be retired?  The answer is Wonderful!