After two weeks of spring break / visiting relatives in Florida I’m back home and back at work. Since my retirement from the PD back in January, “back at work” has a whole new meaning. Although I was greeted with a backlog of e-mails (many of which I kept up with while I was gone) the only work waiting for me was the work I had left undone 2 weeks ago when we headed south. No personnel issues, no emerging crime issues, no critical incidents in process, nothing but the work I’ve created waiting for my attention. And that feels different. Not better, not worse, just different. Actually though, after 25 years of basically the same thing, I believe different is better.
I intended to spend a fair amount of time on our trip reflecting on my past and planning for the future. Although there was some of that, as usually is the case we spent the majority of the time fixed in the present. We stay at Cam’s mom’s house when we visit Florida. We got word during the drive down that her mom had some medical issues and was in the hospital. Without going into detail, we spent much of the time dealing with the inevitable issues that arise with aging parents. So regardless of what our plans are in life, looking at the past or looking to the future, life happens in the present, we live in the world of today. And that life is good.
We had a good trip, Cam got to be there through the medical issues as opposed to being 1500 miles away. Sophia got to spend a lot of time with her big sister Amy. Amy got to get the tan that was her objective of the trip. And I got some of the best sleep I’ve had in a lot of years. When I slept, I slept hard and on occasion it was more than once a day. (and George you can save the trouble of sending the inevitable comment, I’ll do it for you: “So how’s that different from when you were Chief?”)
So it’s good to be home, back at work, and sharing stories.
