“Now is the winter of our discontent made glorious summer by this sun of York:” Thus begins the opening soliloquy by Richard III in Shakespeare’s play (my favorite Shakespeare drama). Richard III has just begun to realize there is a major change about to take place in his mundane life and he plans literally to make things happen for his future. He kills people – lots of people. He marries the queen and sets about changing history.

As I begin my first month of semi retirement I too realized that things would change in my life. Although there is nothing at all similar in my life as in Richard III (other than I also married the queen), it represents the sudden aspect that life is not what it once was. Things will change, can change and I must make some decisions to apply in this new phase of life.

Simple things like trying to keep a schedule, remembering what day it is, knowing which days I need to put on pants, planning to avoid watching tv all day, lose 20 pounds, write more blogs – all good stuff. So one of the first items I took care of – well actually it was taken care of for me by my “golf buddies” (see blog #6). They signed me up for “Senior’s Wonderful World of Golf”. So now beginning this Spring I will join 120 other old fart golfers as we trek around from one golf course to another once every other week for several months enjoying the camaraderie, sharing golf stories (the same ones over and over) , making new friends, playing new courses, and standing around a lot (some of these guys are in their 80s).

As one begins this transition from semi retired to completely retired it is important for one to keep the mind fresh and body active. Hopefully as part of that goal I will be more consistent with the blog and thus we can share this new journey together.

To paraphrase another line from Richard III  “a course! a course!, my kingdom for a (golf)course…”