The anniversary that I didn't reach

Had I not retired in February, today would have been my 11 year anniversary at Google. It's poignant for me to think about that milestone strictly from the perspective of what it meant to work for such a great company. But from the perspective of what my life is like now, it's also a reminder that I made the right call when I decided it was time to leave. Hitting 10 years in 2015 was a very fulfilling milestone that came right as I began to understand I'd done what I needed to do in my existing role with plenty of positive impact and that it was time to move on to "something else". The freedom that decision gave me triggered a avalanche of thinking that would not have happened with such clarity had I maintained notions of continuing on some career trajectory to my next anniversary. Ultimately it led to the realization that the something else I wanted to do was not work for a living any more, even though opportunities to do so weren't lacking. So I was happy I left when I still had something to offer if I'd wanted to stay, and before I'd reached the point where I might no longer enjoy the work or be as productive as I wanted. Everything that has happened since is just like gravy on a chocolate cake. 

A day in the life

I've had a few friends I communicate with regularly ask me what my days are like now that I'm retired. Now that we've been in the temporary apartment for over a month we have some predictable routines. So here's what happened yesterday:

1. Got up a 6:45. Apartment has no yard so that means dogs have to be walked whenever they have business. This is something I would have hated while working but is a non-event now. It's a nice way to wake up before I've even had coffee.
2. Make coffee and read the paper while Dona sleeps in. Look online to see what houses might be coming up that we can look at to buy. Have a few email exchanges with our agent, which is definitely a daily routine.
3. Dona gets up and I propose we skip our simple oatmeal and toast at home and go into downtown Napa to a great little bistro type place for breakfast. We toss off the PJs and toss on some workout clothes, pack the dogs in the car because we take them everywhere now, and head off on the 5 minute drive to downtown Napa.
4. After breakfast I take the dogs for a 1.5 hr 4.5 mile walk along the river and in a nearby open space preserve. It's in the high 70s and it's a great workout. Hardly anyone is out which makes it seem like I own the whole place.
5. Showered and free of sleeping and workout funk, Dona and I drive to get a light bulb for the living room lamp and to drop off some docs for shredding that we cleaned out of our file cabinets recently since our life, and the need for all this documentation of those life, has gotten simpler. Before we get there we decide mid-morning coffee is in order so we stop at Starbucks and actually take the time to finish our coffee before hitting the stores. 
6. We get our light bulb and shredding done and then pop into Target for a couple of items we notice are on our short term shopping list (dutifully kept up to date in Google Keep). Unlike in Sunnyvale where the crowds are unavoidable the stores here are only mildly populated and all these errands feel more like recreational activities rather than chores.
7. On the way home we decide on the fly that we should stop at our favorite Napa lunch bistro, where we are now so regular all the servers and management have started introducing themselves to us so they can learn our names. We have no reason not to so we have a carafe of nice local red table wine with lunch. Our waitress invites us to a special dinner they are going to have after hours in early May where the chef and a local brewmaster are going to team up for sit down dinner pairing. We're really starting to get plugged into a new network of people here.
8. Back home Dona goes out shopping for clothes while I stay to organize our files now that we've cleaned up (see "shredding" above) and dial in my reduced office space a bit more (an ongoing process that for me is much like a beaver continually working on a dam).
9. I prep dinner by marinating some swordfish we got at Whole Foods. 
10. A very old friend who has been going through some serious tribulations in life and who I have been waiting to hear from calls me and we talk for an hour and half while he catches me up and I try to be helpful. 
11. Dona comes home from a successful clothes shopping trip and comes into the office where I'm still talking on the phone to my old friend and hands me a beer in a cold glass. 
12. We make and eat dinner while we alternate back and forth between the SF Giants game and the SF Warriors game. We drink a couple more beers in the process.
13. I have another 30 minute phone call with another old friend about hooking up this weekend when we head back to the south bay area for a jazz show at a little club, an event we had planned going back before we moved. We'll spend the weekend in Saratoga,  a beautiful little village, and do some local hiking. 
14. I decide to crash out about 10:30, right after Dona and I discuss some new home listings that just popped up in the evening that we are very excited about. So we ping our agent for the umpteenth time that day in the hopes we can tour the homes next day.