Someone recently asked me about my impressions on retirement now that I’m more than a year into this new lifestyle and I could only really think of a few things. My clothes seem to all come from Rural King these days, and I lose track of holidays. This weekend being no exception. I didn’t realize this was Labor Day weekend until a couple days ago. It’s easy to get lost in time when you aren’t watching the calendar closely.

We’re still busy with all that goes with moving. I don’t remember how long it takes to stop living out of boxes but we ain’t there yet. Yesterday I made a run to IKEA to pick up a new bookshelf to hold a chunk of my old radio book collection. I hadn’t realized how large that had become until we moved it. It was an opportunity for better organization, but it also caused me some wasted hours as sorting through all those old books gave me ample opportunity to flip a few pages and refresh a few old memories.

I’ve always been impressed with how prescient many of the early pioneers and radio enthusiasts have been about what was an emerging technology a hundred years ago. For instance, this forward to the 1935 book The Beginner’s Story of Radio by B. Francis Dashiell:

A clear and simple description of the fascinating mystery of Radio, written in words that are easily understood and avoiding complicated technicalities. This book is written for the millions who, interested in radio, desire an intelligent understanding of what goes on within their receivers. We especially recommend this book to the youth of America from whose ranks must be drawn men who will carry on, to ends now unimaginable, the work of the pioneers.

I gotta put this stuff down and get back to unloading boxes…