The bride and my daughter are in San Diego packing up my mom’s house. I will be rearranging my basement this weekend to make room for the stuff we are having shipped. My basement is 1000 sq ft so I will have plenty of room. I was looking into a storage unit but the cost and inconvenience did not make sense to me.

Mom and I took off yesterday and headed for Wendover NV. It is on the Stateline between Utah and Nevada. It is where all of Northern Utah goes to gamble. We took the 2 ½ hour drive, parked in the parking lot in Utah and walked through the front door of casino into Nevada. Had a wonderful prime rib buffet and mom helped me go through $70 on the slot machines. It was fun and well worth the money.

The bride and I will leave this coming Friday for our cruise and to celebrate our 35th wedding anniversary. My sister will fly in from Georgia and spend the week with mom. It will be nice to get away and relax. As soon as I get back I will have both of my knees replaced. They have giving me fits for a number of years and having gotten so much worse in the past year. I figure if I am going to improve my quality of life I should do it now while I am still young enough to enjoy it. Between the cruise and my surgery I will be out of the office for at least 5 weeks. I am getting a lap top so I can keep up with my work from home. I have been in this particular position for 11 years and I have been one deep the entire time. Now it seems management has figure out that nobody else knows how to do my job and are in a panic. I am in charge of nonnuclear munitions loading for the F-16, and I am the weight and balance authority for the aircraft.

They have assigned fellow to be my alternate this past Thursday. I know him by sight but don’t know where he sits. He works in another building and I don’t think I have spoken to him more then two or three time ever, and that was about fishing. One of my bosses asked if there were classes that teach my job. I explained to him that I learned it through 11 years of on the job training.

Retirement is looking better and better all the time. I believe I have about 129 days until I am eligible. One more cup of coffee while I read the paper and I will tackle the basement. Wish me luck.