I feel like I am riding the last couple of days of a bike tour. The end is just down the road a bit. I want to savor the last bits of riding but the anticipation of completion is yanking at my monkey mind.
That’s what the last week of work before retirement is like. It would feel worse if not for the fact that DC is a sauna this week and I am mighty happy for the air conditioning in my office.
Today, I erased all the scribblings on my office white board. The list of hikes I meant to do this year. (Intentions count, don’t they Ultrarunnergirl?) And the list of 17 states I have ridden a bike in. And the list of 31 countries that various members of the family Rootchopper have visited. (The family Rootchopper sounds a bit like we should be escaping the Nazis over the Alps. Given the recent news, it might not be a bad idea.) Down went the list of clever phrases I came across during my six years while at this job, such as
- The future is a foreign country – Finn Quinn
- You are what you do, not what you say you will do – Carl Jung
- Is this useful? – Joseph Goldstein
- Simply begin again. – Also, Joseph Goldstein
- Ride and shine – Me. A fortuitous typo of “Rise and shine,” the words my mother used to say to wake me up for school
- Fusiform gyrus – the part of the brain for name/face recognition. By way of Katie Lee who says mine is broken. She’s right. I am pathetic.
- Full hearts, clear mind, can’t lose – from Coach Taylor’s pre-game speeches in Friday Night Lights.
- Culo y calzon – literally “ass and panties”. Spanish language idiom that (very) roughly means “thick as thieves.” Used with coy double meaning in one of Florencia Renedo’s blog posts.
- Let it go. Move on. Fuck [’em] – Katie Lee who had to tell me this too many times before I finally listened to her. Still grateful.
- Are you happy? What will make you happy? Do it with everything you’ve got. – Speaker after speaker quoting their departed friend Lorena Gimenez at her memorial celebration.
So tomorrow is closing time. Every new beginning comes from some other beginning’s end.
Time to get to know the feeling of liberation and release.
A Few Spokes Shy of a Wheel 
Congratulations! And well done on coinciding your retirement with the best months of riding!
Thanks, Mary.
I hope your retirement turns out as good as mine. I am living like a teenager again. On my last day of work, I rented a tuxedo and walked around the office all day saying goodbyes.
Thanks.
Congrats sir and good luck with the up coming tours. I am trying not to think about how not close to retirement I am and how I am not jealous of those fortunate folks who are crossing the finish line. The future is a foreign country….. heard that somewhere
I don’t know if it originated with Finn but she used it in reference to US car oriented life and supporting infrastructure