NO REST FOR THE WEARY...OR THE RETIRED! (You read that right!)

Happy Retirement!  Flowers from my beautiful daughter, Carly, delivered to me at work!

WOW!  What a busy first morning I have had so far!  They do say that retirees are more busy than when they were working, and how did anything ever get done with work getting in the way!  Okay, I am exaggerating a bit.  I didn't have too much to do, since Ray has been retired for two months and playing the part of CinderFella. I am just puttering around the house mostly (plus, being on the computer doesn't count--mindless task to scroll facebook page and write emails to friends that can be done at any time but seem to take a while to get done).

While I couldn't really believe that this past week had finally arrived (shock more than denial of quitting my job), I am so happy to be done, not with dental hygiene per se, but with the dental office environment.  Is that politically correct enough?  If I could have done my job for the past thirty years  working as dental hygienists can in Colorado owning my own practice, now that would have been the way to go.  I made great friends at the last two offices I have worked at and these friends made it great those last few days.  Let's just say, I didn't get anywhere near the send off and "thank you for being so great these past few years" that Ray was given by his employer.  But the girls and I made fun for ourselves.  We made sure we got together with those we wanted to be with and made wonderful memories.  We appreciate each other, love, care and support one another. And again, things in the next few weeks at the office should be interesting.  Leave it at that.  Leave it at the door.

Anxiously trying to get home and get to the next day this past week was not helped in any way by the commute.  Driving home these past few days was horrible.  Tuesday afternoon, lovely day that it was, I left the office at 4:35 and arrived home at 6:15.  Do the math.  It did not take the usual one hour.  I heard at the last minute (as in "too late to bail") that only two left lanes of the highway were getting by at mile marker 139.5.  I know I looked at around the thirty minute mark and saw that I was coasting along at about 2mph and had reached mile marker 140.7.  Still a ways to go to see what the heck had happened up ahead to cause this mess.  There was a tractor trailer horizontal on the highway and over a guardrail.  We all eventually took over the left shoulder (what happened to two lanes being opened?).  Medevac chopper was on its way.  They were trying to disconnect the cable so the trailer could be removed from the cab.  Once through the accident, I heard that the center lane was open (guess two parts of the truck were on two different parts of the highway now).  Ray had my dinner on a paper plate (sub from Subway with chips he knows I like), told me to take shower, and then we would eat.  He knows my mood.  I was surprisingly calm.

Sitting stopped on the shoulder with three lanes of traffic to my right soon to merge.

Moving onto Wednesday, and there was a horrible hail storm.  I managed to get out of the office around 4:45 this time, and there wasn't any traffic until the heavy rains came.  BUT everyone paid attention, maintained a good speed, got pelted with the hail, and after about ten minutes, we were out of it.  I was concerned about my car since she has been sold, and I didn't want her damaged by hail!  Since many people were stuck on the highway way behind me, it took just over an hour to get home that night.  While making a salad with Ray for dinner, we heard a loud pop.  Out the cable went.  No tv.  Ray hooked the Roku up, and we started watching "Breaking Bad" on Netflix.  An hour later, out goes the internet.  Getting us ready for Panama here, but at least we had lights.  And water.  So we read our books.  Always have a back up plan.  Internet was restored within an hour, but the cable man needs to come today to restore tv.  This is why I am here writing this post.  I am tied to the house until he shows.  And then, once it is done misting outside, I can take a walk.  (This just in, our cable guy came thirty minutes earlier than the window of time that was given--wow!  Of course, he loved my car and that got us talking about Panama haha).  Four mile walk in, and now back to this and trying to figure out my archaic IPOD.

Back to work and the commute and my last day--Last night, I was super lucky that a patient that always has to see me canceled.  He was scheduled for six months at four pm.  I have seen his name on my schedule for months knowing that he would show, and I would be working a full day (horrors), because those four pm appointments are tough to come by, and with only wanting to see me, I just knew he would keep that appointment.  He canceled sometime on Tuesday.  Oh well, he won't be seeing me now. So out of the office I left around 3:30 (my last patient was fourteen!) after giving repeated hugs to my friends and two dentists.  I was home in no time flat (an hour).  FANTASTIC.  So happy.  It was pouring again, but I was super sunny and bright and clear in my head! I was finally excited!   Ray and I enjoyed a great meal out at Longhorn Steakhouse using a gift card a friend gave me, I have lovely yellow roses on one table (from friends at work along with balloons), and I have a beautiful bouquet of flowers on another table that Carly sent to my office. Cute story about Carly's flowers is that I was just explaining to a 76 year old sweet patient (another one that only sees me every six months--toot my horn here) why I had roses on my floor and a Hulu dancer on a balloon in the window.  We were talking about Panama, how her children moved to Seattle and "never looked back, but you just have to make the time to visit often, and it is a good thing to live an adventure", and then a delivery of flowers came into my room.  For me?  I looked at my patient and told her "yay, we get to see who sent me pretty flowers once I finish your cleaning, of course".  She had all of eight teeth (I was working hard), so the appointment is usually full of chatter.  Once I let her rinse out the paste, she and I opened the box together and saw that the bouquet was from Carly.  I was SUPER surprised!
Finishing up with last night, Ray and I watched more episodes of "Breaking Bad", and today I slept in until 8:30.  (I swear the clock had just shown 7:30 when I rolled over!).

They were too tall to sit on the counter, so they brightened the corner of my operatory.

That's me in the Hulu skirt.

Since it was drizzling out, I decided to switch up my "schedule" for the day.  Funny that last night before bed Ray said "wow, we are finally a retired couple together!  What will you do all day tomorrow?!"  I laughed and told him I thought I better make myself a schedule of some sort!  Yeah right, routines go out the door right about now!  What I did do was start by making a peanut butter Texas sheet cake to take to my dear friends river house tomorrow where we will celebrate our retirement and her gorgeous new home and pool!  And of course, I ate the batter!  Ray left me for the day (really?!) to have lunch with an old co-worker from his days with Giant Food, and then he is having dinner with many old co-workers from his law firm before and after it merged years ago (should be a great gathering).  He figured since he was way up there in Northern Virginia for the dinner, he would combine the lunch date and just stay up there for the day.  Then on Monday, Ray and I leave for Tazewell, VA to see his mom and family before we head to Panama.  We will be there until Thursday, so life is busy this week!  Better get my laundry done, ironed, folded, and I did get the bedroom vacuumed.

All done with the chores, the walk and the tv is restored. The sun is out so perhaps it is time to sit on the porch and read a bit (a murder mystery based in Panama called "Murder in Panama" by Robert Hatting).  Who knows what could happen next and right about now, who cares!  Time to rest my brain.  And. Just. Relax.

Student partners, 1983 (getting my hands on my first set of instruments)

Pinning ceremony, 1983

Last week of dental hygiene

TRES DÍAS MÁS DE TRABAJO! (THREE MORE DAYS OF WORK!)

It is coming to the end of a gorgeously sunny and spectacular holiday weekend (for most, it's three days off, but for me, it's four).  Memorial Day is today.  A federal holiday in the US in remembrance of those men and women who died while serving in the country's armed forces.  It was really strange to wake up Friday morning and for Ray to be in bed still asleep.  Since we have owned the lake house, I always take the Thursday afternoon off before the holiday and drive ahead to the lake house.  I buy groceries on my way down and enjoy the quiet until everyone else starts arriving either late Thursday night or Friday.  Ray always worked Friday until about noon, and he would then try to beat the traffic to get here.  The traffic usually beat him.  This weekend was super!  He was home, and we walked for five miles, which included walking to The Barn, so I could get the local paper.  I do miss reading a newspaper every morning with breakfast.  (I can get over this ritual if it means retiring, sleeping in and not commuting to work.)

We then lazily sat on the deck and sunned for a while thinking our one roommate would be here early in the morning.  Just about the time she arrived after lunch and closer to two pm, we had decided to suit up and go float!  We were hot!  I am NEVER in that lake water this early in the season.  This is unusual for me.  But I was hot on the deck, the water was cool, and to float above the water on the raft, was superb.  I had just bought a big Jane Goodall floppy hat, and life was great! Our roommate joined in the float, then shortly before dinner her sister arrived, pork chops were thrown on the grill, and we enjoyed a delicious dinner on the screened in porch.

Repeat for the next two days the above paragraph adding another roommate coming down on Saturday afternoon along with another sister and niece.  We chatted on the porch, ate hearty meals, the humidity was low, the sun was bright, there was a slight breeze, and the lake water got a little warmer.  Ray walked with me all the days, but once, and then I was alone and off to The Barn I went again for that newspaper.  Today the walk was much shorter (I could finally sleep in a bit, and I didn't care about the paper), Ray chose not to float, the neighbors were out with their grandchildren on boats and jet skis, and again, life continued to be great!   Meanwhile, and I don't blame her one bit, our daughter chose to enjoy her three day weekend spending time hiking at parks, getting her lesson plans done, maybe seeing a movie, and not getting stuck in three hour traffic to be here at the lake.  She knows that soon we will all be off for a good month, and our time spent with her won't be limited to the weekends.

Now this week I have twenty-three patients to see.  Three days of work.  I start an hour later tomorrow morning. I blocked my eight am slot a long time ago--just because.  I have many more patients this week that are patients that will only see me as their dental hygienist every six months.   Last week I spent a lot of time chatting with these same kind of patients.  I chatted into my lunch hour.  I chatted with patients up until their appointed hour was completely done and then some.  I chatted until the clock struck five pm.  I expect these next three days to be the same.  Chatting more than usual (hard to imagine!).  Explaining my future plans.  Saying goodbyes.

 I spent a few hours last Monday after work having dinner out with nine co-workers and one of the newest dentists.  What a great dinner that was--to spend a little bit more time with the same girls I had gone away with a few weekends ago and with this wonderful dentist.  There are some more changes that will be happening soon that coincide with my last week of work.  I am eager for these to occur and will elaborate in another post.  This Friday I will have a lot of time to myself to reflect on the past, present and future.  Ray is having lunch with a very good friend of his from his Giant Food days, and then he is having dinner with co-workers from the law firm he just retired from.  I will be alone in the lake house.  Ah, forget reflecting!  I will sleep in, walk to The Barn, daydream, read that newspaper, float--all of the above or maybe none of the above.  All I know is bring on Thursday night!  Bring on retirement!

WE HAVE A HOUSE!

Lots going on here!  Okay, not really.  Ray and I just came back from a nine day trip to Sonoma Wine Country and also spending another fantastic day in San Francisco with our wonderful friends from Tennessee (we traveled with this same couple last fall to Napa).  It was a great vacation (you know Ray being retired for almost two months really need a getaway), but the pollen!  I thought Virginia was bad and was hit with dark circles and big bags under my eyes upon my return from a beach weekend with my co-workers.  I thought California would be cleaner?  Or maybe I was thinking everything would have been bloomed and grown by the time we got off the airplane?  What was I thinking!  Apparently Sonoma County and northern California have a pretty high pollen rate!  Last week, the oak trees were in full swing.  The grasses and flowers were all growing and blowing.  And it was all stuck in my face and head.  And then Ray suffered by developing that night time cough, and then one other person in our group suffered that night time cough.  So for about a third of our vacation, I was in bed by nine pm with my head feeling full and the rest of my body feeling lethargic and non-vitalized!  The wine tasted off a bit, but that didn't stop me from tasting 96 of my favorite kinds!  I celebrated my 49th birthday, and I had a relaxingly calm, quiet, and peaceful Mother's Day.  I did miss seeing Carly though.  This will be one of many events and holidays to follow, I realized again, that I will not be hooking up with her.  I was not only feeling a bit under the weather, but I was also feeling homesick.  But I know we will make up for it all the times we come back to VA or she visits us, or better yet, when we travel to other far away exotic places!  I have no worries that we won't see each enough or make it a priority to get together somewhere.

This brings me to our living situation in Panama and where Carly can spend time with us when we move there!  Our great friends, Clyde and Terry, once again hit their gringo trail and "toured" a three bedroom, two bathroom house in a gated community with a pool in the town of Chame.  Not getting into too many specifics just yet about the house, since I am not there and I haven't seen it myself except for pictures that the owner has on her site, and then Clyde took fifty additional more for me (Thanks, Clyde!), the house was given the thumbs up when they did the walk through.  Many A++++ later (given by Clyde) and a "take the house" by Terry, Ray and I emailed the Canadian owners, wired our deposit and first months rent etc, and with the wire going through tonight, they will email us back the signed contract.  And we will move in sometime the first week of August.

Chame.  Not exactly El Valle.  But the way Ray and I see it, there are two properties we are interested in El Valle.  We want to see and tour these houses once there.  We think it might be best to spend rainy season out of the mountains.  Then, possibly once our contract ends, we will either ask to stay on in this fabulous looking house or move up to the mountains for dry season.  Who knows!  This house in Chame looks wonderful, comes with a neighbor that will help us with odds and ends to get started knowing the ins and outs, comes with a community pool, is secure (for the most part, but just because it is gated doesn't mean I will let my guard down), and just seems organized.  We have done so many things efficiently, smoothly and orderly, I was hoping to move into our first home in Panama the same way.  With calmness.  Knowing it is clean and organized.  This, along with vacationing, was accomplished this past week.

Tomorrow, Ray and I are meeting a couple that found us through this blog.  We are meeting at a quaint restaurant that I love in Culpeper, VA.  We will share with them our stories, answer any questions they may have, find out where they are at with their plans on moving to Panama (I think they are a few years out still), and wonderfully make new friends.  I have seven days of commuting to work (three and a half work days this week--yes, I am still cutting out early this Thursday since it is Memorial Day weekend-- and three days the next).  This past week was difficult working two whole days.  I will miss many of the girls I have worked with these past eight years, but I won't miss the "hoopla" surrounding the past months events.  For now, I am going to enjoy this sunny Friday (the beautiful blue sky after a stormy night of rain and hail) cutting low lying branches off trees, pulling some weeds, taking a long walk working off all of that wine, and spending the day tinkering.  Looking forward to many more days of just tinkering in Panama.

PENSIONADO VISA--YES!

Email just came in this week that we have been approved for our Pensionado Visa!  Okay, what this actually means is that we have to go into the Migrations Office within a year or we will be fined, show them our temporary card and passport and one day later we should have that hot little permanent card that states "indefinito" on it!  AWESOME!  Fantastic lawyers I must say!  So on August 3rd we will land in Panama City, hang out until the next day in some hotel, meet with our attorneys the next day (This is still to be confirmed.  Is August 4th a holiday?  NOPE, there are no holidays as of this writing in August haha), and we will be driven to the office again to get the job done!  So psyched!
Maybe Ray won't have such a cone head in his permanent picture!
Tomorrow our friends, Clyde and Terry, meet with an owner of a rental house in Chame.  Let's see if we have a place to live soon, too.  Stay tuned!  Getting better and better by the day!  Oh, and the Visa took approximately 3 1/2 months from Day One in January.
Vacation tomorrow, a little Cinco de Mayo thrown in there, my birthday, and Mother's Day--so many reasons to celebrate!

RAIN, RAIN FINALLY WENT AWAY

Not that I will want to wish rain away too often when living in Panama, because I know that all of the rain water brings colorful plants, flowers, less dust and dirt in the house, and electricity, most importantly.  But after coming home from a gorgeously sunny and warm weekend at Rehobeth Beach, Delaware with my fun-loving, loyal and trusting co-workers, I didn't want it to then be cloudy, dreary, cold and rainy.  Five inches of rain for this matter.  Buckets and buckets.  Our neighbors Rubbermaid shed was floating in the lake this morning.  Our decorative solar lights were poking out of the swollen lake water.  The water came up to where we sit on our picnic bench and look into the lake for fish.  We didn't see any tonight after our walk.  There is a jet ski floating in the lake.  But now the water is receding.  And after three days, the rain stopped today.

This is a rarely used picnic table.

Our neighbors boat house across the way.

The picnic table we sit at and look down into the water for fish.

Our neighbor's dock under water.

Normally the rip rap is seen.

A soggy mess.

Before the storminess, we had bright blue skies and several sunny days of spring that brought swarms of bumblebees just doing their job pollinating the trees at the lake house and beyond!  Yes, I had late nights this past weekend with only a few hours of sleep, but I also suffered hard from allergies this past week.  Ray made the comment Monday morning (he was out of bed before five am for whatever reason...not to taunt me, of course) "wow, you are looking a little..."  I didn't let him finish.  Dark circles and bags under my eyes which I never really present with were going to stick with me for three days.  I think the skin under my eyes is almost flat and pale.  I started feeling rested and more open minded today.  I knew I looked a hot mess when I had tea bags on my eyes! I jumped right back on the Claritin bandwagon after missing my doses over the weekend.  Who needs Claritin at the beach?  I had other medicinal cures ;)  Or maybe it was the baby shrimp Ray tried to slip me when we grabbed dinner out on Sunday night.  He had ordered stuffed pork chop fajitas which usually come stuffed with chorizo.  I asked him for some of the pork since I was having vegetarian fajitas and felt the need for some protein.  I told him I thought I had just eaten a baby shrimp.  It was pink and round and chewy like shrimp.  I am allergic to shrimp.  He doesn't even eat shrimp let alone any seafood.  He read the sign that stated Stuffed Pork Chop (which is where we stopped reading when we assumed it was the same meal he had had before) with Chorizo and Shrimp.  So maybe these dark circles and bags are a result of his poisoning me and not the pollen?  Not that one baby shrimp would do it, but it did cause a slight tingling of the back of my tongue and inside my lower lip.  Nope, still no camarones for me.  

This past weekend, nine friends of mine (and wonderfully loyal co-workers), whom I hardly ever see outside of the office, "celebrated" (some of us more than others) my future retirement.  What a good time!!!  I will miss these girls.  I just wrote and turned in my resignation letter, and because of an upcoming vacation we have had planned for six months, I have NINE MORE WORK DAYS!  My resignation letter states that my last day is May 29th.  Today was my last day of work until mid-May, since we leave for vacation on Saturday.  Does Sonoma have pollen?  The wine should help keep my head clear :)  The commute along with my allergies were impossible this week, but there is such a  light at the end of the tunnel!  A  five mile walk tonight, catching up on some recorded season finale tv shows, along with a manicure tomorrow and not setting the alarm clock are all the order of the next twenty four hours! This little light of mine is looking brighter and brighter!  Summertime soon, road trip with our daughter, airline tickets in hand for August, and we will be just in time for rainy season in Panama!