Book review: "The Pecan Man"

I read a book yesterday for my current book club round, "The Pecan Man", by Cassie Dandridge Selleck.  As far as I can find out, this is her one and only book published.  I definitely hope to see more from her in the future!  This book is a gem!

The story takes place in the South, in 1976.  It is a story of pain and tragedy, but also of compassion and sacrifice.  It follows one woman's road to discovery of herself and her motivation for her "works of charity."  It is an insightful examination that should be considered by us all!

I recommend this book for your reading list!  Although some of the content is mature, it is NOT explicit, but discretely handled.  I can only recall reading one "bad word" in the whole book.

Retirement update

We are now 3 1/2 weeks into retirement, and we are starting to get the hang of it!  We've been going out to hike the trails at Lake Mineral Wells State Park once or twice a week.  We would like to make it out there 2-3 times a week, but we have a hard time fitting it in due to other obligations or rain.  We have had so much wonderful rain!  Last week, we got 2" on Thursday, 2.75" on Friday, and 2" on Saturday.  It is pouring outside right now.  The Lord is blessing us with the much needed relief from this long-standing drought!

Dennis has done a few more small projects around the house.  He has asked a couple of contractors to come out and make bids on building his shop and adding on the room to the back of the house.  We also had to turn in a request to the city to get approved for those projects.  We decided to hire those done, since it would take Dennis a LONG time to do them on his own, and we need the shop completed before he starts in on the kitchen.  We've been shopping for wood sources for some smaller projects that he has planned.  At one place, we stumbled upon a super deal on a jigsaw that he was needing, so he bought it with some money that he received as a retirement gift.  It is funny when people ask him "what he plans to do now", thinking he'll get bored being retired.  He has too much to do to even think about getting bored!

The kids threw Dennis a retirement party last Saturday at the old, historic post office (which is now the women's club).  It was wonderful to celebrate with dear friends and family!  Warren and Belinda had "conspired" on their gifts because of a post that I had made on facebook about Dennis already having learned the joy of lounging around in his pajamas.  He received two very interesting pairs!  One was decorated with minions from "Despicable Me".  Dennis' response?  "Who is that guy on these pants?"  (He definitely doesn't keep up with popular animated movies!)

We enjoyed getting to play with Jesse over the weekend.  Then we made a quick trip to Paris this week to take care of rolling over Dennis' thrift savings plan.  This was the first time that we managed to see Jesse close together, so he definitely remembered us!  It melted my heart when I walked into their living room and Jesse got excited and started reaching for me!

So, all in all, this whole retirement thing is working out quite well for us! 

Flowers

Song of Solomon 2:12  The flowers appear on the earth; the time of the singing of birds is come, and the voice of the turtle is heard in our land;

Dennis has always loved photography.  He acquired some good equipment when stationed in Germany (which was later ruined in a flood), and took a photography class in college.  Life got busy, though, and he quit taking pictures.  He decided to start up again when we were planning our trip to Yellowstone and invested in a good digital camera.  Since his retirement, he has been having a lot of fun reviving the craft.  One of his favorite subjects is flowers.
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A bud from our bush

These look a bit like Lantanas, but not sure what they are

These are all along the roadside...gorgeous color!

Neighbor's rose peeking through our bush

Indian Paintbrush with an "albino" specimen

Yellow wildflower

 

1st Week of Retirement

Well, the magical day finally arrived, and Dennis is no longer among the workforce!  Of course, right now it all feels like a vacation, but we are starting to develop new routines.  When he got home from his last day of work, he was ready to do something fun.  So after supper, we headed out to the state park.  We drove around looking at deer and photographing them.  Then we hiked along the trailway until almost dark.  We took it easy, not knowing how my heel would do, but it held up pretty well.  I can't walk as fast as I'm used to, or would like, but distance doesn't seem to be a big problem.

Dennis has grilled for us 3 times in the past week:  hamburgers, shrimp and fish.  He plans to wear out our old grill!  Eventually we would like to get a smoker and try our hand at that.  He has also had time to mow the yard, spray the stumps in the backyard (the shrubs that Ricky cut down for us) to try to kill them, clean out the hall closet of all of his postal uniforms and then build shelves for storage in said closet.  Things should really start shaping up around here!

Last Thursday evening, the postal employees treated us to a retirement dinner at The Mesquite Pit.  Dennis enjoyed saying his good-byes to all of his fellow workers.  His supervisor surprised him with some framed photographs of Dennis on the job.  And there was cake (one that I didn't have to make)!  Sheila and I mostly just sat there and smiled at all of the well-wishers...and enjoyed our wonderful dinner.

It has been nice not having to set an alarm.  I happened to have CASA obligations every morning last week, so I did set my alarm as backup but awoke before it went off.  Even if I'm getting up close to the same time, it is so refreshing to do so naturally rather than with the shrilling sound of an alarm!

We were discussing our plans last night after services, about how we want to spend our time now.  We hope to do a LOT more visiting and entertaining, plus have a special night, once a week, for us as a couple.  When something catches our fancy (such as wanting to see the spring wildflowers), we hope to take short trips to enjoy it.  (We already have too many other obligations right now for a wildflower trip this year, but maybe next year, Lord willing!)  One of the things I look forward to the most is finding more time for each other.  When we first married, we did EVERYTHING together.  As the kids came along and life got busier, we started drifting our separate ways more.  Dennis had his interests and obligations, and I had mine.  Although that is still the case (I do NOT intend to take up hunting again), we now have the time to develop more shared interests that we can enjoy together.  Dennis has been my best friend for 37 years, and I am very excited to be able to have this extra time together!