The First Day of Retirement is Strange

 This whole week has been strange.  The first three days of this week were spent at work getting ready for the 3rd day when I was going to retire.  Now that I am retired, it does feel strange not to have to go to work.  I can feel the stress leaving me right now.  I know that it will take several weeks, maybe even months to get to the point where I am stress free, but it's coming.

My last day of work was strange because I spent most of it checking out, turning in my badges / laptop / keys, going out to lunch with part of my group, and finally going around the building talking to people that I had known for many years, almost 27 to be exact.  I walked in on one of the last people in the building (most everyone was working from home because of   Covid-19 concerns) and he was in a telecon with his headset on.  I just wanted to shake his hand when he then told me that my name was mentioned in the telecon, and that I was going to work on a proposal for the company.  I shook my head no, then told him verbally that I was retiring and today was my last day.  He then pulled his microphone down and repeated what I said.  A short pause then he said "he is standing right in front of me".  He then shook my hand, pulled up his microphone, and told me that he was going to follow me in retirement not long from now.  That was a strange event to have happen right when I was checking out.  Evidently the managers had not looked at the list of people leaving the company close enough.

This morning (the first day of retirement) was also strange.  I got up, put on my exercise clothes, went downstairs and spent time on the weight bench, followed by the rowing machine, and then followed that by some time on the treadmill.  My wife and I then went to our local First Watch to have breakfast, something that we hadn't done for a long time.  When we got back I spent some time trying to trace down a smell of something coming from what I assumed under our porch.  I still haven't found the source of the smell, but am still trying.  The main thing was the number of flies that appeared and have been swarming our porch.  So some trips to Home Depot to get a fly fogger, some fly spray, and got some items to remove the stench.  When I got back I also removed some birds nests that were on the porch and under the eves of the house, in case that was the culprit.  Now there is a virtual deluge outside from rain and I will have to wait on getting this completed tomorrow.  But that is the thing, none of this had anything to do with work and since this is a Thursday, it is also the day that I am busiest with back to back telecons with only 30 minutes in between.  But now I am not worrying about that, I just do what needs to get done in the time I have available.  Strange Day.