Decision Time

I received some very disappointing news at work on Monday, right at the start of a week that has held other disappointing and distressing information from a volunteer activity I do too. The only thing I can say is that's good to get it all at one time and then move on!

I came home Monday after being upset and decided the most constructive thing to do would be to take a bit of a walk. So out the back door on the river side of the building and look what I saw:

I spied this coming downstream and wondered, "What's this?" So I waited until it got closer. Remember Monday was Halloween -- is this a steamboat dressed up for Halloween? The only thing I can figure out is perhaps equipment and supplies are being transported downstream where a new bridge is being constructed.

Here's a close up:

I've never before seen anything that looked so "messy" on the river.

The outdoors brought me some beauty too. While the leaves are fast disappearing, this one was there:

And I walked down a different street than  usual and found this lovely rain garden.

Because we are so very close to the river, there are many areas like this to hold the rain water so it doesn't just pour into the river bringing along all the by-products of car traffic and other unwanted things from the street. These spots bring a lot of beauty, too.

Now for the decision -- I have been trying to get a bit of reduced work schedule, but that request was denied -- so I hit the computer last night and wrote a memo announcing that I would simply retire. For awhile I couldn't imagine not working, but now I'm beginning to wonder why I want to put up with all the office politics and some of the inequities that are going on.

I printed the retirement memos out last night and got up at 6:30 this morning. I was in the office with the sealed envelopes pushing them into office boxes by 7:05AM. Then I went up the road to a Panera restaurant and had breakfast. Remember it's still dark at this time. (We don't change to standard time until this weekend.) I love this place; it's wonderful to walk in and get some good food and sit by the fire.

So that's what I've been up to!