Retirement time ...

[ZeroID (Brent)]

Had to happen eventually, my 'working' career is about to end. Thursday is my last day after nearly 43 years in the same place. I've had a variety of roles and projects which has kept it all very interesting and sometimes even rewarding but the technology is getting ahead of me and some of my physical attributes (ears, eyes etc) are struggling to cope with it.

Been quite weird training my replacement over the last couple of weeks. How do you condense the last 20 or so years with particular projects and systems into a set of ongoing instructions. The joke is that some update info I could have used about a month ago to resolve issues has just arrived and I basically have one day to try and get it working.

I have a number of home projects to get on with, some casual work to keep the beer flowing and I've just picked up an Arduino experimenters kit to have a play with some astro related projects I have in mind. Plus my Ebikes 'business'.

Going to miss the people as you do and the sense of a purpose but we'll work on that. Ex-employees and some still employed people meet last Friday of the month at some suitable watering hole for lunch and a beer or two to keep in touch and I have a mate who wants to go fishing more often.

Should all work out ok but the thought of it is daunting

Phew ....

[Kunama]

Congratulations Brent, if there is one bit of advice I would share.....

Change your mobile phone number and address if possible before the endless lists of " Bro, now that you've got tons of spare time would you mind helping me out with...... " come in....

I swear I had more spare time when I was working than I do now....

Enjoy retirement,

Matt

[glend (Glen)]

Congratulations Brent, now you can stay up all night doing important astronomy stuff. Those ex-co-worker social events will dry up in a few years. People move on pretty quickly, and frankly without work to talk about you lose interest. Dive into all the things you want to do. Heck you could come over to Australia for the South Pacific Star Party in May.

[leon]

It will be great, congratulations indeed, but it will take some adjustment to get into your retirement role, Astronomy springs to mind, enjoy.

Leon

[ZeroID (Brent)]

Cheers guys,

I already have a separate mobile number and to be honest not a huge friend base to annoy me, a select few you might say.

The Friday Monthly has been going for about 30 years Glen, unlikely to die out but the 'members' pass through although some like myself are founders while others are 'youngsters' at just 10 years or so. There are other common interests amongst many which helps of course.

Definitely looking forward to some late night astro sessions. We are planning a trip to the UK early next year for a couple of important birthdays, one of them mine and an Aunt of Liz's who shares my birthdate but she's a few years older. Planned to be a surprise when we turn up.

[Shano592 (Shane)]

Congratulations, Brent. 43 years in the one place is heck of a thing in today's climate.

If friends do come scrounging for technical help, always start with, "My hourly rate is $1 per year of my age, per hour of my time." That will sort out the wheat from the chaff.

And always finish with, "Cash, thank you."

Have fun with all of your spare time. Sleeping in is apparently pretty popular!

[xelasnave]

Good on you Brent.
Life begins.
Join a band and start playing pool and build all those crazy things you may have talked yourself out of...
Take much time to look at jobs before rushing off to do them and learn to put things off...
Good luck.
Alex

[ZeroID (Brent)]

Originally Posted by Shano592

Congratulations, Brent. 43 years in the one place is heck of a thing in today's climate.

If friends do come scrounging for technical help, always start with, "My hourly rate is $1 per year of my age, per hour of my time." That will sort out the wheat from the chaff.

And always finish with, "Cash, thank you."

Have fun with all of your spare time. Sleeping in is apparently pretty popular!

I'm liking that sort of Maths Shane ... I'll keep it in mind.
Not one for sleeping in but early morning bike rides is a good option.
I've been putting off things for years Alex, plenty of practice. Not to sure about my musical skills though.

[multiweb (Marc)]

Get out, travel. All the time in the world.

[h0ughy (David)]

al the best. you can now chase clear skies full time

[Rkonrad (Richard)]

Well I semi retired at 58 do a bit of contract work (i am a quantity surveyor)
and love it I spend most of my time in RSA and 3 months a year in Czech republic in a place called Janov Nad Nisou where the sky is really dark, enjoy

[bojan]

I think (and wish) you will be fine..
The same is behind the corner for me as well.
I have a number of home projects to finish and I am looking forward to this, but on the other hand, my future income (or, lack of it) may prevent me from finishing all of them... so here you go.

In any case, good on you :-)

[ZeroID (Brent)]

Hi Bojan,
Yeah, the finances is the biggie always. I'm lucky in that my wife has a good well paid job and looks to have quite a bit of part time work opportunities for me as well. They are growing rapidly with both ongoing logistics bottlenecks and project speed bumps coming up. Hopefully should mean I can afford to buy a beer or two and a few astro bits if I save for them although for now at least I think I have got the setup I want. Just contemplating an SII 1.25" filter so I can have a go at Narrow Band later.
I have rejigged the scope\guidescope setup so they are rock solid now, no more flexure and only one plane of adjustment but I can always find stars to use. Now just got to fix the cloud disperser.

[erick (Eric)]

Congratulations Brent! Enjoy the freedom of choosing your nights under the stars, unencumbered by work the next day.


30 August is our retirement date (wife and myself) and the day we fly back to Australia for good.