My First Blog Post

I live off the coast, in northern Oregon. I can see the ocean from my house. It sits on a hill, overlooking one of the most pristine bays to be found anywhere along the western coast of the United States. More on that in future posts.

I am a landscape designer, recently retired from the company I founded in 2001. Landscape design fed my passion for gardening and the outdoors. The work was rewarding and fulfilling, and I was my own boss. What more could you ask for from a job?

But I won’t miss the work. Don’t get me wrong. I loved my job. I had many wonderful clients that allowed me to express my creativity through my designs for their outdoor environments. I had a strong network of fellow landscape designers, contractors and vendors. These things I will miss.

I have never been a workaholic. I’ve had many jobs before I began my landscape design practice. I was always reliable, I went the extra mile. I’ve worked many late evenings and weekends, because that’s what was required at the time. But my work has never consumed me. I have looked forward to retirement from my very first job, making pie dough and washing dishes at Strauss Pies while attending junior high school in Elkhart, Indiana.

I have not had any difficulty in adjusting to my life of retirement. I don’t have trouble with finding things to do with all the time that is now available. I don’t feel guilty about doing absolutely nothing. I don’t feel the need to find a part time job. I do intend to keep my design skills intact by taking on occasional landscape design projects that come my way.

And I finally have the time to put those landscape design skills to work on my own home. My wife and I have owned our home for over 30 years. It was always a second home for us, a special place where we could get away from our work in the Portland area to relax, take the dogs for walks on the beach, enjoy watching the evening sun fall into the ocean. When we decided to move here full time for our retirement, we remodeled the inside of the house. It’s now time to work on the remodel of the outside.

So now I begin my new career…in leisure management! I intend to use this blog as a journal for all of the various things that I am passionate about. Travel, photography, music, the environment, climate change, recycling, current events, sports, landscape design, books and movies. I have several new hobbies that I plan to get started on. And sometimes, I may just want to rant and rave.

This is going to be so much fun!

Thanks for reading.