Where do I start.....

Thankyou for the warm wishes (not that I'm counting the days...or hours...or minutes...or number of 911 calls I still have to answer)

Friday morning at 0600 I'm out the door and no longer a supervisor in the Comm Center. We do have a per diem program and I'll pick up a couple hours a month around my travel schedule in years ahead, but I've served enough time working 40 hour weeks (almost 32 years among two police agencies), that it just makes sense to go while I still have my sanity (and more importantly, good health and good friends, many here on FT). You don't see a lot of police dispatchers make it to retirement. Burnout usually kicks in and people give it 5-10 years and bail out. I'm only the second person to retire in our 27 person center over the last dozen or more years.

I really do want to travel more, and even though the City had a pretty liberal vacation policy (I was able to schedule 10 weeks this year), it's just never been enough to hit all the places I want to go. My very tentative plan is to do one international trip a month, starting with Ireland in September for 10 days, and working out from there. I'm planning on making my first time SIN-DO in January, and the first ever Wellington Do in March. Hey...I'll be retired...I can try to make them all now

I also expect to get to a number of Natalie's upcoming swimming events, including World Championships in Montreal this month, and Duel in the Pool in Irvine in August (background for newbies: I've known her parents for 30 years, and have been to a lot of her major swimming events, including the Olympics in Athens).

It's going to be one fun year ahead, that's for sure, and I'm looking forward to every minute.