TheBanyanTree: stop the presses!

[Laura Hicks]

Conga-rats, Julie!

(Robin, the Banyan Tree list is set to not accept photos. It did come
through, but got stripped in transit.)

Laura/Wolfie/HenchWench
wolfljsh at gmail.com


On Thu, Jan 4, 2024 at 4:13 PM Robin Tennant-Wood via TheBanyanTree <
thebanyantree at lists.remsset.com> wrote:

> WooHoo! I can almost hear the sound of champagne corks popping from here
> (albeit 49 days prematurely). And did you mention backyard flower farm?
> Here's mine. I specialise in dahlias. Big, colourful, kick-arse dahlias!
>
> Enjoy the next 49 days.
>
> cheers
>
> Robin
>
> On Fri, 5 Jan 2024 at 04:56, Teague, Julie Anna via TheBanyanTree <
> thebanyantree at lists.remsset.com> wrote:
>
> > Dear Tree Folk, some of you have known me forever and a day, and during
> > the whole time you've known me, I've been here at a computer screen,
> > pressing my silly little keys and keeping my silly little life afloat by
> > writing computer programs which ostensibly provide those-in-charge with
> the
> > information they need to keep charging.  Well, I did some calculations
> this
> > morning.  Or, rather, I opened the handy-dandy Excel spreadsheet in
> which I
> > had previously coded and saved the calculations almost three years ago
> > (when the numbers seemed impossibly high and nearly insurmountable).  And
> > what these calculations told me, in the form of a single number with a
> lot
> > of backstory, is this--
> >
> > Ahem.
> >
> > Little Julie Anna Teague,
> >
> > who was born into a dirt poor family in Nowheresville, Indiana
> (population
> > 500),
> > who has worked her entire life at jobs with varying degrees of
> > meaningfulness, including almost 41 years for Indiana University,
> > who has written a story or two, climbed a mountain or ten, and been owned
> > by a cat or twenty (and currently one very spoiled dog),
> > who has done yoga, breathwork, meditation, acupuncture, reiki,
> > vision-boarding, primal screaming, long distance running, art therapy,
> > sound therapy, talk therapy, and several things that were
> self-destructive
> > but felt good at the time,
> > who has loved and lost and loved again, ad nauseam, etc., and so forth,
> > who has tried always to be kind and giving to her friends and family and
> > animals and the environment and other good causes,
> > who has scraped and saved, made do and paid off, re-used and re-grouped,
> > eaten all the leftovers and composted all the scraps,
> > and raised two damn good kids,
> >
> > has FORTY-NINE actual working days left in her working life at Indiana
> > University.
> >
> > Forty-nine.  LESS THAN FIFTY DAYS, FOLKS, and, to paraphrase the great
> > MLK, I am free at last, free at last, Thank God Almighty, I am free at
> last
> > to live my life no longer beholden to a forty hour work week or shackled
> to
> > my computer with the proverbial golden handcuffs.
> >
> > I get the key to the handcuffs in forty-nine days, and guess what, they
> > aren't real gold anyway.  I've mostly stopped worrying that I'll end up
> > eating cat food, but getting my teeth cleaned twice a year will become my
> > budget luxury item.
> >
> > And before anyone responds with, "You'll need a PLAN to get through your
> > retired days."  I think every person I've told has said that to me.  No
> > worries, I have plans.  I have grandkids to nurture and am gaining two
> more
> > in the Spring.  I have reading, classes, art, and volunteering I want to
> > do.  And my big plan, already in the works for many months now, is that
> I'm
> > starting a micro-sized flower farm in my urban back yard and will be
> > selling at the Farmer's market.  It is hard work, but it's the work of my
> > heart and never feels like work.  I can be in my garden all day every
> day,
> > doing the crappiest of garden tasks, and come in exhausted and filthy and
> > with my back aching, and it still feels more like joy than work.
> >
> > So, that's where I'm at.   Let the countdown commence.
> >
> > Julie
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
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> >
>
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