I never saw a snake in my backyard

I was walking to Shul this morning. Through my back yard. Another thing I won’t do in a year from now. I noticed in a bare spot in the grass, a slug. It’s not a snake I thought. I’ve never seen a snake here. Only slugs, and they are no way as graceful as a snake. Only 3 inches long. (Or perhaps 6 cm.) And certainly not evenly slim. There are lots of slugs in the grass that I see each day on the way to Shul. Never a snake. I though about the snake we saw on the Appalachian Trail a few years ago. They usually scuttle away pretty quickly. As I think about is now, I just had that thought when I was walking through the yard, but I think it came because of the sign I saw on the Kakiat Park trail: beware, Copperheads and Rattlesnakes have been seen on the trail. Stay close to the marked trail. I wonder what wild life there is in a city like Jerusalem, even if we are on the southern end of the town. There are parks and walkways, the promenade. Probably lots of insects – roaches.

Kakiat trail to the overlook.

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Starting to wind down

Or wind up, it sometimes feels. How do you get ready to retire? It’s like a new job. What am I going to need? New clothes, new paperwork, bring some old stuff, get some new stuff? Really. It’s not like it should be hard? What’s so hard about retiring? To tell you the truth. I’m really not prepared for this. Maybe that’s why it’s so hard. I don’t know how to not do what I’m doing now. We’re going to seminars, got a planning meeting set up. We’ve gathered a lot of resources. We just can’t stop doing our jobs. There’s always something to keep us interested.

But you know, we know the steps, we think, and we’re plodding along. Clean the house, it’s got to be sold. Clear the clutter from the family room, from our lives. We’re not going to take everything. I’m so ready to retired, I could just leave everything, (well maybe one suitcase) and just live out of it. I’m that ready for a big change. And it’s not like we don’t know where we’re going. We’ve been visiting Baka since Alieza moved there 7 years ago. But you just can’t leave thirty years behind without a parting. I’ve got to wind things up and leave school with a semblance of continuity. So many tell me they love the order I’ve brought to the school. there’s enough change with the new administration. Shouldn’t my department have some continuity with the next leader?

So much to think about. Parting has never been easy for me. I hate change, don’t we all. But I’m not making a change. I’m moving to the next step. The step I’ve been dwelling on for so much time lately. Got to move on.