Very busy day running errands, meeting friends and family. It just never seems like enough time for doing everything, even when one is retired like I am.

    Started out by calling up an old co-worker at the Division of Wildlife and setting up a lunch date with her and who ever else wanted to come. Turned out that she was the only one who could make it, but that is okay because the truth is that other than one other guy there, I don't really know many people working there anymore. Most of them have retired and moved on to other lives also.

   Went and picked my friend up and we went over to a local Thai-Viet hole-in-the-wall kind of place we knew, because I was craving a Vietnamese noodle bowl for some reason, and they have great ones there. We ate and talked for over an hour catching up with what was new with both of us. Mostly I let her vent because working for the state, or most government agencies, these days just isn't very enjoyable any more. It's sad these days, when I worked there we had so many dedicated people who had been with the agency for 25-45 years, not because they needed to be, but because they believed in what they were doing and were good at it. I don't know about other agencies but more than 80% of the people with 20 years or more in retired before I did or soon afterward. Some people might think it's a good thing to clean out that much 'old wood'. But we lost so much institutional knowledge with them that the agency won't recover for a very long time. Kind of sad.

   Her 'kidlet' is doing well though, now in 9th grade and playing volleyball and doing all those school type things. Also; lot's of reminiscing done today of course and it was good to catch up on all the other people whom are still in the area but that I don't hear about any more.

    After lunch it was a quick stop at some friends house in Westminster to pick up some DVD's I'd loaned them last year before I left. Then it was on to the Arvada Center to exchange some theatre tickets. Decided to change the tickets for the 1st play of this season from my usual date, the 29th, to the 11th of September so that I would get to see at least one of the 7 plays I had payed for. I've been a season member there for 15 years now so I still buy tickets for the whole year so that I don't lose my seats, even though I haven't had a chance to see many shows there for the past 3 years. So this year I'll at least get to see this first one and then maybe the last one of the series, which will be next July sometime.

    Met up with my sister and her partner then early this evening. Had a glass of wine at their house, checked out the latest remodelling job my sister had done... it looked great, and then went out to eat with them at the 'Saucy Noodle' down on south University. Good food, good conversation, good company.... what more can a person ask for?

    Just hanging out at George and Marge's now. It's been a long day so I suspect I'll be headed for bed pretty soon, but not before I read a few chapters in my book.