12/15/06: Any day you see a heron is a good day

[davidlevine]

Word count: 7209 | Since last entry: 2062

It's been a long time since I've posted. Sorry. I did start this entry yesterday, but then the power to our whole neighborhood was knocked out by the massive wind storm that pummeled the whole Pacific Northwest. (The power came back a few hours later, while we slept, and we had no other damage, unlike maryrosenblum, who lost a shed and an apple tree when a huge tree landed on them.)

Tonight I had a phone interview with Jason Rennie, host of The Sci Phi Show (http://thesciphishow.com), a podcast from Australia that looks at questions of science fiction and philosophy. I talked about where my ideas come from, and how I differ from my characters, and my history and ambitions as a writer. I think it went well, and it should be up on the site in January.

I've been writing 100-300 words every day -- haven't missed a day yet this month. It doesn't feel like much progress, but this tortoise-like steady progression is better than longer but intermittent bursts. Or so I tell myself. I'm learning about the world and the characters as I go -- a vaguely-defined group of aliens that my protagonist encounters in chapter 2 of the outline has resolved into a single, elderly cat-like creature named Huss (at least so far). I like him.

I don't feel that this novel has really found its voice yet, and I think my protagonist is far too independent and self-assured for a traumatized 14-year-old. I might decide that it's easier to change my notion of who she's supposed to be to match the way she's turning out, rather than to go back and rewrite her to be more the way I originally conceived of her.

It's also very hard to write any kind of meaningful description when the viewpoint character's whole world is made up. Not only do I have to decide what the alien ship looks like, I have to describe it using referents that the main character (who was raised on a different alien ship) would have, rather than using analogies or metaphors that will be meaningful to the reader. Why did I set myself such a hard task?

Apart from the writing... well, I had a pretty head-exploding day on Tuesday. First, I learned that I have been selected as one of the top 7% of engineering staff in the company. What this means is that, along with about 100 other employees and their spouses, Kate and I will be taking a trip at company expense... to Phuket, Thailand. It will be some time in February and I don't yet know how long we will be gone or any other details. It doesn't seem real yet.

Thailand.

Right after getting that email I headed off to meet with our financial adviser. We'd paid for a detailed analysis of our retirement situation, to answer the question of exactly when we will be able to afford to retire. And the answer came back: we are already making more from our investments than from my day job. And even the most conservative estimates of inflation and return on those investments indicate that they will continue to provide enough for us to live on, in the style to which we've become accustomed, for the forseeable future.

I can retire any time.

Guh.

I enjoy my job (well, most aspects of it, most of the time). I'm good at it and, after all these years, I've finally reached a place that people respect and request my opinions. I feel a certain responsibility to my co-workers, not to mention that I want to see my current project, which I have been working on for between one and four years depending on how you count it, through to shipment some time next year. But the commute -- lord, I'm tired of the commute. And it would be nice to be able to make travel plans without having to eke them out of a limited vacation budget.

So I'm probably going to retire in 2007. Or I might scale back to three or four days a week and keep on for longer than that. I don't know -- I haven't discussed it with my boss yet. I talked with my dad and he suggested that there's considerable value in continuing to work, even when you don't need the money, for the external stimulus. It's certainly true that Scott Adams's work on Dilbert went downhill when he quit the day job.

Retirement is an extremely strange thing to contemplate. I've been going to work every weekday for twenty-three years, or thirty-nine if you count going to school as "work." Although I'm sure I could find plenty to fill the empty days (everyone I know who's retired says they can't imagine how they found the time for the day job with all the other things they have to do) I still have a lot of trouble imagining what life would really be like if every day were Saturday. Yes, even with the writing.

As I was driving to work this morning, Code Monkey by Jonathan Coulton came up on the iPod and I found myself crying. And laughing at the same time, because it's a silly little song and a stupid thing to get all weepy about. But there you have it.

And I saw a heron. Any day you see a heron is a good day.

Comments

That's wonderful news

[fairiegodmother.livejournal.com]

Wonderful news. I'm happy for you.

I agree, any day you see a heron is a good day.

[calimac.livejournal.com]

You have pleasant options facing you. Good luck with them.

I'd certainly recommend part-time work. I've been in all three positions at various times, and part-time is most pleasant. I find I get as much done outside of work as when I'm not working at all.

You are also fortunate to be offered a vacation you want to take. A beach resort in Thailand is not me, and I'd find the offer conflicting.

Herons

[tandw.livejournal.com]

That's one of the positive things about living where I do--on the one hand, that ~40 mile round-trip commute is ugly, but we live only a few miles from a heron rookery. So it's exurb whitebread Hell with herons and egrets in the retention basins. And even after living here for five years I still actively look at the retention basins, because you're right. Any day you see a heron (or an egret) is a good day.

Re retirement, is there any way you can go into consultancy?

[joycemocha.livejournal.com]

I'd join in with the vote for working part-time, or a consultancy. We're not quite in your good situation yet, but we're getting there, and I'm strongly suggesting to the spouse that he consider part-time/consulting as well. In his biz, that seems to be the default in retirement.

So conga rats!

As for the writing, I think different projects have different voices. When you find the voice for this one...I bet it'll take off.

[rmeidaking.livejournal.com]

My dad 'retired' at 53 from General Motors. He has gone on to have a second career as a property appraiser and as the IT guy in that office. It might be better to think of yourself as 'self-employed' rather than 'retired'.

If we didn't have kids, we could be in this position too, but we have that money sink of "College tuition" in front of us. I think my dad *could* retire at 53 in part because his kids decided not to go to college (I went for one year, and after that, paid my own way; my sister joined the Navy).

Congratulations!

[dd-b.livejournal.com]

Congratulations!

I'm sure your thought-processes (and those of your adviser) don't actually make this mistake, but reading your post one could come away with the impression that the criterion was having the investment income equal the work income. And I know lots of people who couldn't possibly be happy retired on half their current pay. Having all that free time is *more* expensive, not less! Especially when you're into travel, which you mention.

Writing is a really cheap hobby. Or poorly paid profession. Or well-paid profession if you're lucky enough and etc. Quite a lot of people don't find their writing productivity increases greatly when they can do it full-time, either.

[ramblin-phyl.livejournal.com]

Consider your health insurance options before you change anything. If you lose it by retiring you lose a LOT.

[apparentparadox]

Working three days a week (on a flexible schedule, so some weeks, working 5 days, some weeks not working at all) was pretty nice while I was doing it -- plenty of time to do things that I wanted to do, and plenty of enjoyment time at work as well.

However, you have another "job": writing. So, maybe you need more time to do the "non-paid" stuff?

One odd thing that I've noticed since basically retiring: I'm much less tolerant of standing in line. When I was working, I could only go to stores at certain times, and you just knew there would be a line, so I would just accept that. Now, if there's a line at the grocery store, for example, I'm tempted to just say "screw it" and come back some other time when the store is empty. It's weird: back when I didn't have a lot of free time, losing some of that time to standing in line wasn't a problem. Now I have practically all the time I could want, and I don't like wasting it.

[nancymcc.livejournal.com]

Working part time is a one option, but being a consultant is another. Some folks seem to imply an equivalency I don't perceive. Unless your "consulting" is really just an intermittent part-time job for one outfit, it means going out and selling yourself. And I'd think you have enough of that with getting published (unless of course, you like selling!)

Any thoughts on how you'd approach the boss about going part time? I keep thinking that I don't need a full-time income (thanks to martin!). But my bosses already need about 1.2 of me, so less of me means what? Another part timer? We all know that .5 + .5 doesn't equal one when it comes to employees. Not just more computers, desks, etc, are required; there's the overhead of communicating tasks between people. I feel as though going in and saying "part of me or none of me" is an unpleasant ultimatum. Of course, you've been in your job longer than I've been in mine....

[smofbabe.livejournal.com]

So, let me get this straight: you won a Hugo and discovered you don't have to work any more if you don't want to all in the same year? Can I have some of that fairy dust? :->

Seriously, congratulations on having the ability to choose your path, although I echo someone else's sentiment about investigating health insurance options before you finally choose. Having just gone through babysitting my non-insurance-carrying actor brother through heart surgery, this was driven home to me.

Best of luck with your decision!