{"id":29542,"date":"2018-05-03T19:57:16","date_gmt":"2018-05-03T19:57:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/?p=29542"},"modified":"2018-05-03T19:57:16","modified_gmt":"2018-05-03T19:57:16","slug":"happy-trails-part-99","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/?p=29542","title":{"rendered":"Happy Trails, Part 99"},"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\/2018\/04\/Retirement.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-medium wp-image-29071\" src=\"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/Retirement-300x200.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"200\" srcset=\"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/Retirement-300x200.jpg 300w, https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/Retirement.jpg 627w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>I get asked occasionally a question that challenges me to come up with a concise answer. One of them came today from a friend who asked: <em>What does it feel like &#8230; to be in your particular place right now?<\/em><\/p>\n<p>My friend was referring to my impending move from Amarillo to Fairview.<\/p>\n<p>After thinking for a total of about, oh, <em>three seconds<\/em>, the concise answer came to me: <em>I feel as though I am having an out-of-body experience.<\/em><\/p>\n<p>Why? My wife and I have no particular intermediate- or long-term plans waiting to be executed once we make the move. We are free to do whatever we want, or <em>not<\/em> do something. The &#8220;body&#8221; I am looking at in this out-of-body state is my former self.<\/p>\n<p>It&#8217;s the body that for decades carried me from one job to the next, or from one task to the next one.<\/p>\n<p>The move that&#8217;s coming up in a few days will lead us to a life we haven&#8217;t yet charted out precisely. All we know for certain is that we have found a dwelling where we intend to stay. The <em>immediate<\/em> task awaiting us involves unpacking boxes and rediscovering possessions that have been stashed in a warehouse for the past seven months.<\/p>\n<p>We&#8217;ve done this before. The most recent time occurred when we took possession of our newly built house in Amarillo; it was just before Christmas 1996 and it provided a joyous experience looking at possessions that had been stored away for nearly <em>two years. <\/em>That was a memorable Christmas, indeed.<\/p>\n<p>After we unpack the boxes now? Beats me, man.<\/p>\n<p>Therefore, our retirement journey is leading us to that proverbial fork in the road. As Yogi Berra once supposedly said, we plan to &#8220;take it&#8221; &#8212; wherever it leads.<\/p>\n<p>Once we do, I suspect that&#8217;s when the out-of-body experience will end and I&#8217;ll be whole once again.<\/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 get asked occasionally a question that challenges me to come up with a concise answer. One of them came today from a friend who asked: What does it feel like &#8230; to be in your particular place right now? My friend was referring to my impending move from Amarillo to Fairview. After thinking for &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/?p=29542\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Happy Trails, Part 99<\/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":[3920,4668],"class_list":["post-29542","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-local-news","tag-retirement","tag-texas-panhandle"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29542","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=29542"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29542\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":29543,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29542\/revisions\/29543"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=29542"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=29542"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=29542"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}