Buh-Bye 2014! And Bring on the New!!

Definitely retiring at end of spring term. Summer is full of travel plans,and then I'll come back here, pack up and move to the northwest. Once the house is empty, realtor-friend will get the piddly work done and sell it. I shall rent up there until I can decide what's next. If I love the place, I'll stay. If not, I'll move south or out or something. But I won't be back in Red Neck State, and that is what is important.

I'm really excited about all this. And ready to tell the Powers That Be - when the time is right. Hopefully right after they tell me I have to teach x, y and z next fall, and that they're eliminating the program around us. The prioritization process, which they'd hyped to all as completely transparent - isn't. And they are causing a lot of unnecessary fear and angst around campus. Enough so that it prompted my decision to retire early just to get the hell away from them.

That all means that this is going to be my last term at Red Neck U. That has so many implications attached to it that, for me, it's this New Life that is opening up. And it's starting off well.

Monday is my knee replacement surgery! So tired of the pain and associated sedentariness, that the promised pain and rehabilitation seems like a lovely future. The surgeon said 3-4 days in the hospital and then a couple in rehab before I can go home. The Insurance twits say 2 days for everything. I am always astonished that we tolerate the extortion of commercial insurance. Our carrier is, like many, known as Auto-No. Their first response to everything is NO. NO you can't have that doctor. NO you can't have that med. NO you don't need the care the doctor thinks you do. Yes, you can appeal, but that initial NO is just damned irritating. And totally unnecessary. No wonder more and more doctors are opting out of the insurance racket: they get the hassle of filing and tracking and fighting just as we do. Only as patients, we're the bottom of the food chain.

So the new year for me is one of hope and promise - the biggest hope being that the bad mojo of 2014 is all behind me. Here's hoping your New Year is fun, exciting, relaxing, productive and everything you want it to be!