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Retirement Already??
2007-05-23, 5:22 p.m.

Day 1k4 Retirement Already??

Went to a retirement planning seminar last night. What with leaving one employer and moving to another, my old pension plan has been uprooted and our 401(k) is also changing administrators. That leaves us the option of taking it all and heading somewhere else with it, or just trusting it to the same old (lame) administration for the rest of time.

I used to like our 401k plan. Then they took away the ability to buy into a slew of different funds and forced us all into these blended plans that were all vanilla�d down based on your expected retirement date. Nice, safe, and low return.

So I sat through a boring presentation, eating some very fine, free food, with some hopes of maybe getting some decent advice on how to preserve my pension & 410(k). Got some decent info, and now an appointment with them in another week to talk details. Suppose I get to drag Cindy through this too, huh? She had the option of attending last night, but for some reason 2 weeks warning wasn�t enough time to adjust her schedule. And she complains that I don�t involve her in these types of decisions . . . Guess Treadmilling under the influence (TUI) took priority.

Got home around 9:30. Kids were just getting home from someplace � maybe dinner? Heard they went to a local greasy spoon and got �Garbage Plates�. They�re really tasty, but they�re also a heart attack waiting to happen. Home fried potatoes, macaroni salad, couple of hot dogs, onions and some hot sauce. I think what I had beat that. Cindy? In bed, snoring, reeking of cigarettes & booze. Yum. No idea what she had for dinner, but odds are there weren�t a whole lot of solids involved. Not like she wasn�t warned either � she turned down the initial invite to the seminar and I reminded her about it again Monday night. Her dinner was not my problem.

Tuesday morning�s workout was cut short, again. On those non cycling days, I have real problems getting up & out of bed. Consequently, I only ran a quick 5k, no weights. Did manage to run a decent time, but that was about it for the morning. Also forgot my lab slip, so no stopping at the clinic to get blood drawn for the cholesterol test. Wasted a perfectly good fast. Bummer.

This morning was a spin class day, so there was some motivation to haul my carcass out of the rack. Actually made it to class during the stretches, a whole minute before the first climb. Brutal climbing day today too. Peddling Patty wanted to do the Tour de Cure riders a service and start prepping them for the tour�s hills. She is such a sweet, considerate (and sadistic) girl. She did say that the Tour�s course was very hilly, and coming from a rider like her, I consider that a serious warning. Did upper body weights today too, but that�s a big whoopee anymore. Bump the weights up 5 pounds every month or so, and keep grinding them out.

Now this morning, I remembered my lab slip, so I hit up the clinic that�s directly between the Y and work. Very convenient. When I got there, I got number 17. As I was sitting down in the only vacant chair in the waiting room, they called in number 6. Oy. I had a meeting with a very hungry vendor at 9, leaving me only 40 minutes to get blood drawn, finish the trek to work, and get in the building before my vendor arrived. By 8:45 things had only progressed to #14. Odds were that I�d get called right at the stroke of 9, making me waaayyyy late, so I turned in my number and scooted. Made a few people happier, shortening their wait by 5 minutes or so. I�ll try again tomorrow. This will make 3 straight nights of no snacks after dinner. Probably be good for my weight, huh?

Man, I need a meeting. Had to miss last nights because of the seminar, missed last Thursday�s because of the dishwasher. Will NOT be missing tomorrow nights. Gotta call my sponsor too. Haven�t touched base in a while. It�s such a foreign feeling, being expected to call every day. WTF do you talk about? I�m not a needy, talky kind of guy. What I should do is set up bi-weekly meetings with him to start going over specific items, start some exercises and working steps. Actual productive type stuff. He�ll do it, he�s just expecting me to be the driving force. So be it. He lives far enough away from me, it might be a nice bike ride to his house, or to a park or neutral site near his house. Sneak in a free workout, while he sits there puffing away. What ever. As long as we get some progress made on my head. Like I said, I need a meeting.

Time to head home and see about dinner. Pork chops I think, with winter squash, maybe some steamed cauliflower & roasted taters. Good enough for me.



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