T minus 3 days

     Awoke this morning to the sight of an inch of snow on the ground and the knowledge that for the first time in my adult life, I do not have a job to report to.  Both are surreal.  I was hoping to put in around 6 hours of riding today, but unless the snow stops soon that's not going to happen.  This is after all, April 20th, and this sort of thing has been known to happen here in Minnesota.  A few years back, I had signed up for the Ironman ride, also in late April, and awoke to a few inches of snow on the ground.  A ready excuse for not doing it that year, so I didn't go.  Later I was told by people that did go, that the roads were clear down in Lakeville. I guess I should have gone.   My last day at work yesterday, having completed 24+ years at Aspen, was equally surreal.  Saying goodbye to patients, staff, my wonderful nurse Jill that I've had the fortune to work with the last couple of years  ...handing in my badge, keys.....removing almost all remnants of myself from the office....it just all seemed like too much to absorb at the time.  I will miss Aspen.  I think I really will.  I've always had a hard time giving up on things.  Look at the car I drive.  True story: a nurse who hadn't worked at Aspen for awhile returned after a number of years and said that when she saw my car in the parking lot, was shocked that I was still driving that car.  Well, that was 8 yrs ago and I'm still driving that Subaru Impreza, which other than rusting out and leaking large amounts of oil, still runs reasonably well.  No, I don't embrace change the way some people do.
     My duffel bag came yesterday and I realized that I'm going to have to figure out a way to organize my stuff in it; otherwise it will be like traveling around with the equivalent of one big bag of jumbled laundry.  On the Kilimanjaro climb, one couple brought along these very large heavy duty Glad storage bags.  What I'm going to do is to get a few of those to help sequester some of my things.  So instead of one big bag of laundry,  it will be like carrying three or four.  Sounds like a trip to Target is in my immediate future.  I hope they have toenail clippers too.

-Grinner