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 Being Retired now, I thought that it was time for a new name to this Blog |
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Talk about perks, my career had one of the best I can think of! I traveled in the course of business, delivering classes for my employer. I was a Senior Training Specialist for Motorola Solutions, and taught classes on a wide variety of subjects centered around 2-way radio communications. I knew that when the time arrived that I would retire, and I have. I've always said that if you can't stand the heat in the kitchen, get out! I can't handle the heat anymore. I was qualified to deliver approximately 32 different classes, but about half of those were 'Legacy' classes, and were not in demand anymore. My students were technicians, those who maintained, programmed, calibrated, and repaired large 2-way radio systems. Some of these systems are statewide, and use TCP-IP networking to allow sites to communicate with others. Some are small, traditional type radio sites. The size doesn't matter, in each case the systems must be kept operational at all times, since many of them are Public Safety Systems. So I traveled, sometimes frequently, 3-4 weeks in a row.... where have I been? Some of the places I've been (I can't list them all here, the list would be toio long) are pretty interesting. 1. Hawaii - Four times, Oahu, Maui (twice), and the Big Island 2. BangkokThailand, twice 3. Frankfurt Germany, twice 4. Algiers, Algeria 5. Melbourne Australia 6. Bismarck North Dakota, Summer & Winter 7. Los Angeles, Too many times to count 8. Washington DC, Too many times to count 9. Seattle three or four times 10. Texas, all over the state 11. Florida, all over the state 12. New Mexico, HOME! Several times  Best Cultural And Regional Honorable Mention |
Yesterday 6/3/25, And Retirement I had an appointment with our 'Pain Doctor' (His office is really called The Therapeutic Spine And Pain Center), I just call him the Pain Doctor. The appointment was at 1pm, and while we were a couple of minutes late, it didn't hold things up. Y'all know what doctor offices are like, but this day was a bit extreme. We sat in the office and were not called for at least 10 minutes. That's okay in my book. Once we were in the room, she took my vitals and said the doctor would be right with us. Thirty minutes later and still no sign of the doctor. I had already said that if he wasn't seeing me by 1:45, we would leave. Sure enough, 1:45 arrives, so we get up to leave. I opened the door, and who's there? You guessed it. Dr. Carmichael. To make this long story shorter, I will be referred to a Spinal Surgeon for evaluation. Now about retirement. Before I retired, I was not provided any guidance on what needed to be done, what benefits (other than the 401K and the like), things to check & do. I've slowly gotten about everything done. When I was hired, we filled out a lot of forms. One of them was designating a beneficiary of my pension, should I pass away. Of course my now ex-wife was my beneficiary for everything. I knew enough to change my 401K beneficiary, but there's a different website that manages my meager pension. I do mean meager. I spent just over 20 years in the Navy, and 24 years at Motorola Solutions. My military retirement is about 8 times more than the retirement I receive from Motorola! Shaking My Head (SMH) over that. It took 'jumping through hoops to get my pension beneficiary changed. I've been getting calls from Aptia365 for a few days now. Since they are part of Motorola's insurance plan, I was kind of annoyed, I only have Medicare and Tri-Care For Life now after all. A call came in today that I couldn't take, but I decided to call them back. It's a good thing I did. It turns out that Motorola provides a Health Reimbursement Account (HRA) Free Of Charge. It's not a lot, far less than $1000, but still.... I will receive an e-mail in the next 2-3 days about this, telling me how to set the account up. It's an Annual amount, and has no expiration. I have this benefit until I am no longer on God's Green Earth. I still feel a Checklist of sorts should be provided to anyone retiring, so a person can ensure they have completed all the items needed when retiring. I will be sending my former manager a note about things that should be completed by a pre-retiree when someone decides to retire. Hopefully that will help. |
Relaxing Sunday I haven't done a lot today, other than pull a few weeds around our Crabapple tree. I did make a mistake though in doing this. I didn't have an 'escape plan', I mean a plan to get up from my hands and knees. It took a bit, but I finally managed it of course. The problem was my arms were tired, I was on my hands & knees, and had trouble standing. I was scooting to the curb when I finally managed to stand. We've decided to grill brats tonight. We should be eating somewhere between 6 & 8 pm, if you're hungry, drop on by! A simple dinner really. Coleslaw, Brats, Wine or Mixed Drink of choice,whatever our minds choose. Maybe some pickles, and pickled Okra on the side. Depends on how hungry we are. I made a simple breakfast this morning too. Toasted Bagel with Fried egg and cheese. I put both buter and cream cheese on mine. Yummy! My mind is all over the place today. Right now, I feel a nap coming on. I apologize for the short entry, and lack of interesting material to read. I'll do better in my next entry. Love those who love and support you, and Write! Jim |
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