Life in the slow lane - how to (or not) transition from tech to retirement

No, this is not about Colorado’s latest gold rush, which appears to be driving the economy, and the recent influx of millennial, stoners and Deadheads. And probably the expansion of the Google office in Boulder. TGIF probably has different refreshments than other offices. This post is about one of my favorite spots in Colorado, which I was lucky enough to take a quick visit on my house-hunting trip to Denver…..Mount Evans. If you have ever visited Denver, one of the first things you notice other than the absurd use of the colors orange and blue (go broncos), and the enormous IKEA sign along I-25, is this huge mountain looming on the horizon. That’s Mount Evans, all 14,271 feet of it. Unlike all but one other of the 54 fourteen thousand foot peaks in the state, only Pikes Peak and Evans have roads to the top. So if you are not too adventurous in terms of high altitude hiking, you can get really high by traversing a long, winding, very narrow road, with precipitous drops, to just about...

Four weeks into retirement, and I’m starting this post sitting on a plane, heading to Denver. Home….at least for a good chunk of my life. I have probably done this round-trip between Denver and SFO/SJC close to 150 times, between various consulting engagements, and commuting back and forth when I joined Google. This trip is an exploration to see if we want to go home - we have really close friends there, and while housing is a bit expensive due to the influx of Californians (californification), it is still less than the Bay Area. The house prices may also be a result of the new found wealth in the weed business. Jeff Sessions and Donnny John may do something about that. I hear Sessions is thinking of doing a remake of Marijuana Madness. At any rate, Denver is still less expensive than California, is a ‘purple’ state, has great shopping, restaurants, and health care. And then there are the mountains….I still miss the easy access to hiking the fourteener’s, even at my advanced age. Yeah,...

My search for direction and structure has met only marginal success as I approach my third full week of retirement. That my be due in part to usual lack of focus, but also to our continued confusion and indecision on where to live. Go..or stay. Since we are considering moving. quite a bit of my first few weeks of freedom has been consumed with home related tasks (see last post on the Avocado Roundup). But his past week, I finally executed on one goal, which I had initially targeted for Day One - hiking. Henry Coe State Park is the second largest in the state, and spans a huge area just east of the Anderson Reservoir in Morgan Hill. I’ve done a few hikes there in the past, and thought this would be a good warmup since there are a series of ridges and valleys which should provide a good workout. The park is also a great place for wildlife and scenic photography - I’ve seen lots of wild turkeys and California quail there. So, off I went with one of my friends who suffered through the ...

I have not quite decided where I want to go with this Blog - my first one was focused on my goal last year to conquer the Cable Route on Half Dome. (Mission Accomplished...barely). This one has no specific goal or end date, other than documenting my adventures (?) in retirement, and miscellaneous comments on retired life in general. I am going to try and avoid political commentary, but that’s hard to do given the current state of affairs in Washington, so there will be an occasional jab or to, or stolen lines from Bill Mayer or John Oliver. (I really wanted to use Oliver's theme song at my last presentation at Google...Welcome, Welcome, Welcome. I was talked out of it) This entry is all about why I want to get out of where I live, into someplace where someone other than myself has to do all the farming and yard work. Not an elder ghetto (Active Adult...blah), but something where there is no backyard and someone else does all the work. It may take a while, but we will find it. ...

Today was my first Monday apres-Google and a miracle occurred. I slept un-interrupted by work related dreams, did not even think about work in the morning, I read through the papers and shared commentary about Trump with my wife (who was reading the same articles in the #amazon WP and #failing NYT), did some planning on the next place to consider moving to, and then headed off for my project-for-the-day - thinning the front yard jungle. I have always enjoyed landscaping for some unknown reason. It makes no sense  since I grew up in Brooklyn, NY where everything has been paved over for the past 100 years. All of the greenery in the apartments I grew up in was plastic - horticulture should not be in my genes at all. But, as we moved from house to house over the years, I started to enjoy digging holes and planting things...not all of these lived for very long, especially in Colorado where plants rarely survive the long winters (...winter is coming has a different meaning then on G...

Once you are unemployed and living on a fixed income of $0 per year, with no annual bonus, peer bonuses, new stock grants, etc., your outlook on expenses changes a lot. I’m not quite ready to start routing through my neighbors trash on Monday night, looking for cans and bottles since I do not have a Safeway shopping cart to roll around (hey, I’ve seen people in nice neighborhoods doing that), but we do need to start looking at reducing major expenses. Unfortunately, one of those is our house. Unlike many of our friends who grew up in the South Bay or bought their homes before 2000, we purchased our home in Campbell in 2011, at a very high price (for us at least), and with a high tax rate. So, unless I follow through with my crowd funding idea (gofund me.com/richb-retirement), something’s got to give. The problem is, where do you go when you have lived in this part of California. Where is the weather any better than this, other than maybe San Diego (still in California) or Maui (...

I think anyone planning on retiring should cut themselves some slack for not meeting whatever goals you set for the first day of permanent day camp. You really cannot prepare for that first day of not working. If you were dumb enough to not have a long ramp-down ( I was) , that first day is sort of like hitting a brick wall at 100MPH. In my case, I had planned to sleep late, have coffee in the backyard and read the Washington Post AND #failing nyt from end to end. And then spend the day at our tennis club, lounging by the pool (I had given up on hiking since it was really hot). Reality #1: I woke up my normal time of 5:40AM, but at least I realized that I did not have to get ready to leave for the Google bus. Reality #2: I did have coffee and read one of the papers, but kept looking at my gmail account and hangouts, hoping for contact from the real world. I did eventually get out of my stupor, and went for a long walk (4 miles) to ponder my fate. That's me below pondering. ...

I turned in my resignation at the end of June, after returning from a vacation in Hawaii...sort of a pre-celebration of things to come. I gave a full month of notice - I was involved in a significant project, so figured it would take a while to do a brain dump, and help transition my replacement. Reaction was more or less expected....meh. Nobody was notified that I had resigned which I found amusing.  I probably could have just packed up my desk the last day and walked out with half of my organization wondering where I was the next day. Some people were very upset, other didn't care, and probably some were glad that the old dude was finally leaving. I was not too disturbed by any of this - my focus was on getting myself prepared for August 2nd...the first day of retirement. So how exactly do you plan for not working? I really did not give it much thought. I was constantly asked what my 'plan' was. What was I going to do on day 1. How about day 2. Where did I want to travel ...