At the end
of my 25-year career at a Fortune 100 manufacturing company, I was entitled to
5 weeks of vacation each year. A year
into my retirement, I am wondering how much vacation I am now entitled to, and
when will I be able to take it? Of
course I know the retiree clichés about being busier now than I ever was when I
was working, and will admit there’s a lot to that. Otherwise, what excuse would I have for not
posting anything to my blog in over a month?
But let’s at least pretend I've been on vacation since the middle of
June – the kind of summer vacation we remember as school children. What have I done in that time to make the
world a better place? I decided to go
back over my calendar and came up with 10 things that I did so far this summer
that might fit that description.
- Blog Posts: Counting this one, I've written 2 blog posts. One was about the explosion in fracking or hydraulic fracturing to extract natural gas, and its potential impact on the environment. This one is about using one’s time to have a positive impact on the world, albeit positive from one’s own perspective.
- Getting Published: While I am pleased as punch to have many visitors to my blog (nearly 1,200 since it started), it is gratifying to reach a larger audience once in a while. I was able to do just that when the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette published my global warming post (“And Jesus, He Wants to Go to Venus”) largely intact on June 23. It appeared on page 1 of the Forum section ABOVE THE FOLD! I also wrote several articles for my church’s newsletter. Please send the Pulitzer to my home address.
- Volunteering for Habitat for Humanity: Look out Jimmy Carter! I organized a group of volunteers from my church and on Saturday, June 15th we spent the day measuring, cutting and hanging drywall at a Habitat home to be purchased by a refugee family from Burundi. Fortunately, some members of our group actually had some construction experience and helped the rest of us avoid any major mistakes.
- Rally in Support of Public Education: My wife is the teachers’ union representative at her school. I tell her she is the shop steward, though some think that sounds too radical for a professional union. Anyway, she told me that union members, parents and community organizers were getting on buses on June 25 to travel to Harrisburg to protest cuts in funding for public education by the Governor and Republican-controlled Legislature. I had never before participated in a bona fide protest. After a bit of hesitation, caused by my years as a corporate lawyer, I agreed to go. We listened to fiery speeches, circled the state capitol chanting slogans and holding signs, and marched in front of the Governor’s Mansion. Hopefully, we got our message across, and fortunately nobody got arrested.
- Participated in Diocesan Dialogues: The Episcopal Church in the United States has been undergoing a significant amount of conflict and division over the issue of same-sex blessings and the ordination of gays and lesbians in committed same-sex relationships. The new Bishop in Pittsburgh, though known to be theologically conservative, has called for a dialogue on these issues. I participated in a structured dialogue on June 29. As might be expected from my blogpost, “Everybody wants to Be. . .”, I was a voice for full acceptance of LGBT persons in the Christian community.
- My Daughter’s Wedding: On July 5th my one and only daughter got married. I thanked God several times – for a beautiful day, for everything going pretty close to perfectly, and for having the money to pay for it. My daughter made nearly all the arrangements and stuck to the budget we had agreed upon. It was a wonderful day! She picked out a pretty darn good guy as well - sort of reminds me of myself, only nicer.
- Gasland 2 Screening: On June 20th I attended a screening of the new film, Gasland Part 2. I have yet to see Part 1, but just added it to my Netflix Instant Queue. In these films the director, Josh Fox, tells of the environmental damage that can result from fracking. As a corporate lawyer, I had bought the notion that fracking had risks like any type of mining, but those risks were manageable with appropriate regulations. The film raised questions in my mind about whether it is possible to extract natural gas by fracking in a safe manner that doesn't adversely impact the area’s environment. I promised myself that I would learn more on this subject.
- Donated Blood: Who can debate this one? I donated 4-5 times per year throughout my work life. After all, it’s an hour break from work, which is never a bad thing. And you don’t have to feel guilty eating a bag of chips or other snacks that are made available for donors. Now that I am retired, I am trying to continue to donate at the same pace as when I was working. I look for places with free parking and special bonuses for donors. My recent donation was at a mobile unit in a Bruster’s Ice Cream parking lot. Bruster’s gave a pint of ice cream as a thank you to everyone donating a pint of blood. The ice cream tasted great! I treated myself to a cone and took the pint home to share with my wife.
- Vacation Bible School Volunteer: My wife, who is the ultimate volunteer, ran Vacation Bible School at our church during the week of July 15. Of course, I was expected to volunteer as well. After all, I’m retired, right? So volunteer I did. Our VBS had a western theme, so I put on a western shirt and cowboy hat and was Cowboy Joe to the kids. We learned to draw a picture of an armadillo, held a mini rodeo, made butter and learned why prairie dogs don’t have police. (They practice what we Christians mostly just preach – they love one another as shown by the fact that they look out for and take care of each other.) The experience gave me a renewed appreciation for what teachers do every day of the school year. I taught only three 20-minute segments with breaks in between but still felt exhausted at the end of each day.
- Recycled Hard to Recycle Materials: Every two weeks I carry bags of cans and bottles, newspapers and cardboard to the curb. The City picks it up and recycles them. However, the City will not pick up electronic waste or Freon products for recycling or as trash for the landfill. So on a day that my wife agreed to babysit the 4-year old son of a young couple we know, I decided to take a load of our e-waste and an old air conditioner to Construction Junction in Pittsburgh. I took our 4-year old charge along for the ride. He enjoyed the trip and had fun exploring the warehouse which contained all sorts of interesting things: tables, chairs, sinks, cabinets, bricks and even roof tile. I got rid of my e-waste for free and happily paid the $10 fee for recycling the Freon-containing appliance. And my trip with the 4-year old to and from Construction Junction gave my wife a much needed break since she was the primary babysitter. (Can I count that as number 11?)
