My Graduation Plans

On the first of June 2018 I graduated from the Toronto IBM Lab, at 67 years old and after 25 1/2 years there. They thought I'm was retiring, but I'm not exactly the retiring kind. I just want to do a few other things with my life while I can, and after 44 years working for many managers I think I can manage myself. If not, my wife has volunteered to manage me. 8<)

Here are some of the things I plan to do, some typical "retirement" things and some not so "retirement":

• Home repair:
  • Finish repairing the living room and dining room ceiling cracks (not trivial, because they share a fancy swirly textured real plaster. Using plaster to patch just cracks again. Non-silicon latex caulking is needed so the cracks have to be widened first), then painting that shared ceiling.
  • Also repair the hall, kitchen (also needs patching cracks but is flat) and bathroom ceilings.
  • Paint the walls and baseboards of all those rooms and our bedroom.
  • Clean out an old office enough to move my computer and other things from the rec room to the office.
  • Clear out the rec room so it can be insulated and fixed up. Negative progress: Cleaning out my brother's storage locker led to a dozen boxes now living in the rec room.
  • Put a railing on the basement stairs.
  • Lots of smaller house repairs and improvements. Active.
• Some outdoor work too:
  • Get our shared driveway repaved in a year or two this fall (it's been 33 years and it's been partly dug up twice). Update: Our neighbours now want to do it this October not next year, so the next item is more urgent.
  • That means first making a concrete driveway edge for about 30 feet, including a 2' radius quarter circle. It should match the 7 foot one I did years ago between the sidewalk and street.
  • And that means trimming back a 15' high 15' diameter bush.
  • Extend an interlocking brick sidewalk. I have half the bricks needed but that style is hard to find so likely will cast about a dozen myself in concrete.
  • Take better care of the lawn, hedge and bushes. Active.
• Travel:
  • At least the Atlantic provinces, England, Scotland, Ireland, somewhere in the Caribbean, a river cruise (Rhine? Seine? English canal?), other countries, maybe some train trips and museums. Likely not in that order.
  • Visit old friends and people I grew up with or worked with.
• Get a lot more exercise. Active, but not yet a lot.
• Spend more time with my kids and grandkids, my cats and especially my wife.
  Walk my cat Charlie (leashless of course) at least once a day as he demands and pet Muffin cat more. Active. Both active.
• Build a small portable model railway or two. About to start.
• Maybe build a room sized one too, but its room became the family storeroom and needs more wiring and drywall, so maybe not.
• Catch up a bit on my reading. If you're interested see http://home.eol.ca/~ianmc/ian/whatIread.htm. Active.
• Maybe complete a short book I started writing years ago?
• Finish cleaning out my brother's storage locker. Done! Took maybe 100 hours.
• Catch up on some paperwork. Active.
• Do more volunteer work, especially for one organization (CARM) I already help. Active.
• Continue on at least one standards committee (C Floating-Point) (active), and join at least one more.
• Catch up a bit on my sleep? Nah, except for a few naps.
• Also start my own "hobby" business, having fun writing software I believe the world needs but nobody has done yet. I have over a dozen possible projects so far. Two would even be for IBM's benefit, if they're interested. I couldn't do anything beyond thinking of ideas until I graduated (done), or IBM would have owned whatever I did. Very soon.
  The project I like most needs knowledge of 7 areas of which I know something about 5 1/2. One aspect may be impossible. It's definitely hard - one reason I like it. I estimate it at 3 to 5 years part time. Aside from being fun and making the world a better place, as a bonus it might even be profitable. Alas, once it's ready it would require occasionally travelling here and there all over the world, along with my executive assistant / wife.
  Of course it all depends on my health (especially mental) holding up and my beliefs in the future being correct.
  I'm on LinkedIn, or email me, in case you want to check on how it's going in about 2024 or so.
• And a gazillion other things. My short term To Do list started with about a hundred. Of those I've done about 200, with under 200 more to do. Active.

The house, outside, travel and family are all also on my wife's list, and I think she's OK with the rest as long as she and her list don't get neglected. I offered that for one week each month or one month each quarter I would do whatever she wanted. She thought a second or two then said "That sounds OK. I'll take both." I had forgotten to start with the important word "either". You'd think as a programmer I would be more careful about or versus exclusive or, or at least remember that my wife is (by definition and in practice) always smarter than I am!

  (C) Copyright Ian McIntosh 2017, 2018, 2019. You may copy for your own personal use, but you should make your own list! All other rights reserved. Last updated 2019/01/06.