{"id":24690,"date":"2017-09-13T18:54:22","date_gmt":"2017-09-13T18:54:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/?p=24690"},"modified":"2017-09-13T18:54:22","modified_gmt":"2017-09-13T18:54:22","slug":"happy-trails-part-40","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/?p=24690","title":{"rendered":"Happy Trails, Part 40"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<div class=\"twitter-share\"><a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?via=jkanelis\" class=\"twitter-share-button\">Tweet<\/a><\/div>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/09\/Retirement-1.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-medium wp-image-24629\" src=\"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/09\/Retirement-1-300x200.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"200\" srcset=\"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/09\/Retirement-1-300x200.jpg 300w, https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/09\/Retirement-1.jpg 627w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>I ran into a fellow I&#8217;ve known for almost the entire time we&#8217;ve lived in Amarillo, Texas &#8230; in other words, more than 22 years.<\/p>\n<p>We chatted this afternoon about this and that. &#8220;Are you liking retirement?&#8221; he asked. Why, yes! <em>Of course!<\/em><\/p>\n<p>Our brief visit turned immediately to our immediate plans, which include packing up the house we&#8217;ve owned for more than 21 of those years, fixing it up a bit and putting it on the market to sell.<\/p>\n<p>My friend looked somewhat astonished. &#8220;Where you going?&#8221; I told him we plan to move to the Dallas area to live nearer to our 4-year-old granddaughter, Emma, who &#8212; I told him &#8212; is &#8220;growing up way too quickly. Time is getting away from us.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>My friend gets it.<\/p>\n<p>I told him that at my age &#8212; 67 and counting &#8212; I&#8217;m ready for &#8220;one more major life&#8217;s challenge. And this is it!&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>The best news for me is that I am married to someone who knows how to manage this kind of challenge. I&#8217;m more or less along for the ride. She adapts well to big changes in life. And so do I, actually, as I believe I&#8217;ve have mentioned to you before.<\/p>\n<p>Our move from Oregon to Texas in 1984 constituted a major challenge for yours truly as I sought to advance my career in journalism. It worked out well for both of us. I&#8217;ll admit to trepidation when it began but I realized soon afterward that I am significantly more adaptable than I ever gave myself credit for being.<\/p>\n<p>So it is with this latest challenge. I am not nervous about it. I am <em>anxious<\/em> for it to occur.<\/p>\n<p>We are moving at an ever-accelerating pace toward that end.<\/p>\n<p>I suppose you could say that challenges in life make it all worth living. I&#8217;ll be sure to keep you posted on how this all turns out. It&#8217;s going to be a hell of a ride.<\/p>\n\n<div class=\"twitter-share\"><a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?via=jkanelis\" class=\"twitter-share-button\">Tweet<\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I ran into a fellow I&#8217;ve known for almost the entire time we&#8217;ve lived in Amarillo, Texas &#8230; in other words, more than 22 years. We chatted this afternoon about this and that. &#8220;Are you liking retirement?&#8221; he asked. Why, yes! Of course! Our brief visit turned immediately to our immediate plans, which include packing &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/?p=24690\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Happy Trails, Part 40<\/span> <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[3920],"class_list":["post-24690","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-local-news","tag-retirement"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24690","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=24690"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24690\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":24691,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24690\/revisions\/24691"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=24690"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=24690"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=24690"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}