Fewer and fewer ties remain that bind us to the pier and prevent our departure for our long planned Life On The Hook™. The most significant one has been Rhonda’s employment. While I retired last January and have spent the past twelve months working on our boat to prepare for our adventure, Rhonda has continued to go to work five days a week.

Rhonda likes her job. She’s the customer service and logistics manager for a local chemical company that provides products used by mills around the world in the manufacture of paper. From responding to and fulfilling orders to tracking inventory in rail cars and following tanker trucks across the country, she stays quite busy. She’s been there for almost 18 years. There has been a minimal amount of office politics, only the average amount of drama, and she’s pretty well paid for the Pensacola area. It’s been about as good as working for someone else can reasonably be.

Yesterday was Monday, January 4th, the first work day of the new year, and it was a really big day for Rhonda. At 8 o’clock in the morning, she submitted her letter of resignation. Her last day will be Monday, February 29th. She thought it would be amusing and a bit distinctive to join me in retirement on leap day. She actually slept poorly the night before. It was a really big step, and not one she took lightly. But it was a necessary step to allow us to move on to the next chapter in our lives.

The last major line binding us to the dock has been untied, and on the final day of February it will be tossed ashore. Then we’ll only need a few weeks to take care of some final items while we wait for a good weather window to head south. It has been a long journey, but we’re almost there…