Tuesday, August 21, 2012

Retirement income

I think I've mentioned that I am planning to retire on July 3 next year after 40+ years at the same organization.  While I have every reason to believe Glenn and I will be just fine with my retirement income, because I am retiring young and healthy (I think; Please God!) I do have second thoughts now and then that maybe I should just keep working and earning income.

But, yesterday I realized I had an untapped source of income.

I think the TSA might be interested in leasing Darby and Pumpkin.

Of course, I would have to teach them not to leave nose and slobber marks on the contents of the suitcases they inspect, like one of them did on that little black case.

And I'd have to teach them to be careful about burrowing in up to their ears in case there were sharp objects in the suitcases. 

But, aside from a few small issues I'd need to iron out, I think I just might have a good plan for picking up a little retirement income.  Don't you agree?

I'm off this morning for a wonderful conference in Boston.  The Kennedy Center has been hosting LEAD -- Leadership Exchange in Arts and Disabilities for more than ten years now.  One of my colleagues and/or I have been attending for seven of those years.  A couple of years, I took part in presentations and in 2010 we co-hosted the conference at the San Diego Zoo!  It was a lot of work but a lot of fun, too.  This year, I get to attend and have no responsibilities at all!  Well, of course, I need to bring back information that we can use to make the Zoo and Safari Park as accessible as possible to people who have disabilities, but that's all I need to do -- soak up information.  That will be easy to do at this fun and informative conference.

After the conference, I'll fly down to visit Erika, Christian, Bonnie and Bailey in Virginia and will be home next Wednesday.

Glenn will be holding down the fort and taking care of the girls while I'm gone.  I asked him if he'd like to do a few guest posts and he said, "No."   There are usually a several dogs at this conference, but they aren't Corgis and they are working service dogs and it isn't always appropriate to take their photos, so I'll be posting when I have something interesting to show or tell -- which is SURE to be the case when I get to Virginia.

"Oh, One Who Feeds Us!  Say it isn't so!  You aren't leaving us again, are you?"

4 comments:

November_Rain said...

Boo's Mom! I've been a long time (silent) reader of the blog who works in non-profits! I'm so thrilled to hear about someone going to LEAD! I work in museums (which share philosophical ideals with zoos) and I know colleagues who are also going to LEAD! Enjoy!

Taryn said...

Great post!

Since Darby and Pumpkin are such good sniffers, maybe you could take up the hobby of Tracking with them. It would be a fun way to use some of your retirement time.

Anonymous said...

Can't stop laughing! Really enjoyed your post! Have fun at the conference. I am retired but still love to go to conferences. Just attended the ISTE conference in San Diego. We had so much fun! Learned so much. Have a safe trip.

Boo21's Mom said...

Nice to hear from you November rain. Email me with your colleagues' names so I can tell them I "know" you. You're right that zoos and museums share ideals -- in fact our Zoo IS an accredited museum and our director was president of AAM. Taryn, tracking sounds like fun! Becky, I've thought about doing volunteer work in some aspect of "disabiilities" and then would be able to justify continuing to go to LEAD!