We (Sue and my multiple personalities) haven’t sent out a holiday letter in probably decades. It’s not that we don’t do things, it’s just that most of those letters are filled with proud parents talking about their kids accomplishments. Not having kids, makes those pretty short- “The cat’s slept a lot and bugged us to give them treats.”
2023 started with Bruce trying to figure out what his life would be like… should he retire? After bouncing around a bit he pulled the trigger and in March decided to start planning.
Things were pretty normal until the end of the school year- OK almost depressingly normal. We did take some time to see the Centennial of Disney Exhibit in Philadelphia (now in Chicago) and a weekend visit to the home of Mothman in Point Pleasant, West Virginia. As the school year ended in May so did over 35 years teaching. Bruce did not want any kind of “celebration” so he quietly emptied his classroom and drove off. It had been a good career with lots of great times, but… as the Walrus said, “the time has come.”
Retirement began with GeoWoodstock in Owensboro, KY. From there it was a bit of rush. While Sue (being still gainfully employed) worked and attended conferences, Bruce started on his personal list… in the Pit of Despair aka the basement. He had an idea of some traveling then decided to ignore traveling over the Summer and waited until the off season was over and things died down a bit. Sorting comics and reorganizing LEGO builds and sets kept him happy. When August came, Bruce started to realize just how much time, energy, and emotional toll teaching took… he’s been shying away from employment and especially educational related activities until at least 2024. After working since he was 13 Bruce decided he deserved a few months off.
The late summer and fall brought about a few things- like taking a weekend to see some races at Road America in Wisconsin, and a week to embrace our viking heritage at “Going Caching” in Georgia. We also spent some time in Asheville celebrating Sue’s parent’s 60th wedding anniversary, and we looked at options in area, but we still have time to decide where, when, if we relocate (and Bruce still has a lot of comic books to organize- current count over 5,000.) We also spent mid-November in Las Vegas. Bruce explored and played while Sue worked.
Our big event took some time and training- being balloon handlers in the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade. We spent Thanksgiving in New York City wrestling the Macy’s Gold Star (you may not have seen us, we were behind the Wonka float). On a “whim” (we’ve been told we do a lot of things on a “whim” which was not said in a whimsical manner… really… when it comes to “whimming” we’re very serious) we headed to San Francisco on Christmas Day because… ok, maybe this was a whim. There we spent two days just chilling and taking in the sights – especially a great exhibit at the Cartoon Art Museum.
Other highlights in no particular order:
- Bruce went to a lot of conventions including: Gen Con, Power-Con, Cincinnati Comic Expo, Cartoon Crossroads Columbus, and New York Comic Con
- Visiting the Strong Museum of Play– Highly recommend it without or without cats… I mean kids.
- Visiting the Corning Museum of Glass
- Meow Wolf – Omega Mart, Las Vegas
- Tour the Randolph County Asylum with the Fort Wayne MINI Cooper Group
- MINI Together up into Michigan
- The Great Seneca Pizza Trail
- Sue knitting gnomes… lots of gnomes.
- Sue finding a geocache in all the counties in Ohio. and the milestone of 12,000 finds. Cecil trails behind with a measly 3,000.
- Reading books… lots of books- remember comic books are also books.
What will 2024 bring? Who knows? More work for Sue (Someone’s got to pay there bills), more drawing for Bruce. Some exotic & boring travel for both. Bruce will be looking for employment, not because he’s bored, but it’s nice to have some “egg money.” Bruce has been thinking about his word for the year… last year was “draw” and while he did draw more, he still has a long way to go. He considered “rebirth” but thinks now “whim” might be a good one. (Yes, it is going to be a running gag… Bruce thinks it’s hysterical) Oh, how can we live like this? Remember: cats don’t go to college.
Tune in next year… same bat-time, same bat-channel.