Wednesday, July 31, 2019

A time for celebration

The time has come to move onto the next adventure in my life.....retirement. Today was my last day at work, a company where I had been for 30 years. It is going to be a huge routine change for me but I want to make sure in this next phase that I do get into a routine. There are some changes that are coming down the pipe that already has been put into motion. The first change is we are moving from Toronto Ontario to the outskirts of Moncton New Brunswick in Atlantic Canada. Julie and I are not city folks and we're really only in Toronto as it was closer to where we both worked. New Brunswick offers a slower pace, lower cost of living, it may sound funny but it's dark at night and quite too. As for ham radio, I will be changing to a VE9 call from my present VE3 call. I have always wanted a 2 letter call but here in Ontario, it's a very difficult challenge. I noticed on our Federal Governments website that in New Brunswick there is plenty of 2 letter calls available. The other week I was looking at them to see which ones had a nice CW ring to them.
Once settled into the new place with boxes unpacked, furniture setup, the little "oh look at that" stuff around the house that has to be fixed and resting my weary bones once all that is said and done it's time to set up for radio.
I have always wanted to get involved in the CWops CW academy program to get my code speed up to some decent contest speed. I had looked at this program in the past but with work, I just could not see myself having the needed time they were asking of students. I did not want to take a spot to find I could not complete the demanding program. I would have blocked someone who had the time and could advance. So this is a program I want to look into and get my code moving in the direction I have always wanted it too.
Paying more attention to my blog regarding posting and updating as I am sad to say it has taken a back seat. In the past, I did not want to post for the sake of posting something. I hope with retirement and my increase activity in amateur radio with operating, reading and going to club meetings it will spur me on to posting.
Along with the above activities, there will projects around the house, getting out to exercise and saying a warm hello to our new neighbors. Then there is the touring around the area that Julie and I can do as well.
I am not sure how many posts I will be pumping out in the near future as our move is at the end of August and before that it's the task we all love....packing. The the next task.....unpacking and setting up.
Thanks to all for your support with the reading and commenting on my blog and as the song goes
 "see you in September"

4 comments:

John AE5X said...

Congrats, Mike! I'm looking forward to you getting set up and then hearing about life in NB for you!
73 - John AE5X

VE9KK said...

Thanks John and as always it's great to hear from you! I have been not posting much these day as I said in the blog post but I very much enjoy reading your entries on your blog keep up the good work.
73,
Mike
VE3WDM

VA3ZC said...

Congrats Mike,
The people that I know who have retired are wondering how they got anything done before the work ended. There is no end of things that will need attending to especially with a new house.

I completed level 2 of CW Academy this past Spring. It is a very good program. I'm sure you would enjoy it.

Good luck Down East.
Best Wishes,
Paul VA3ZC

VE9KK said...

Good morning Paul and very nice to hear from you, I checked out your QRZ page and you have a very nice setup at home. I see you are a fellow condo dweller was well. Yes today is the first day of the retirement gig sure is something I will have to get used too. Congrats on attaining level 2 with the CW academy!
73 and thanks for stopping by!
Mike
VE3WDM