I Can Smell..........

F1nut

A long time coming, I'm sure you'll make the most of it. Congrats!

starchaser

Congratulations George, thank you for your service to this great land.

Our local drop zone is always looking for pilots!

enjoy.

Polk65

Nice one. This will give you more time to study the finer points of rum.

Sherardp

Hey congrats George, now buy yourself a cadillac, throw a nice set of clubs in the trunk, and golf. Afterwards, go to local gym and show the boys you still have a nice jump shot.

George Grand

I'd rather throw you in my trunk than a nice set of golf clubs. I'm 5"7", and picked elbows out of my teeth everytime I played basketball.

I AM however sniffing around a gorgeous '99 Cadillac Coupe DeVille STS.

One out of three ain't bad, that's .333 in base-a-ball. Give The Yankees a call, and thanks for saying nice things.

Strong Bad

Congrats George! Sounds like someone is going to have alot more time and $$$ to play with alot more audio gear.

My father has been retired for years. People ask him occasionally what he does with his time. His answer..."Sometimes I do absolutely nothing and don't even have to do that if I don't want to!"

What you could do is to pack your wifeys lunchbox in the morning and have breakfast waiting for her. (ducking my head as a pair of size 8 1/2's fly at me)

Enjoy!

John

cfrizz

Now there's an idea!!!!:D George could do NO wrong if he gave (the former Ms. Theresa Talamonti) the royal treatment like that! Throw in breakfast for the Mrs. & Stephie & they will both worship the ground he walks on!!!:D

Hell Ms. Talamonti might be so pleased that by the time she is finished with George every night, he just might pray to go back to work to get some rest!:eek: :eek:

Strong Bad wrote: »

What you could do is to pack your wifeys lunchbox in the morning and have breakfast waiting for her. (ducking my head as a pair of size 8 1/2's fly at me) Enjoy!
John

TroyD

What? Replacing a Shark??

Say it ain't so

Cathy, he dotes on those girls. I've seen it in action.

BDT

zombie boy 2000

Congrats George! Thanks for your service. Sounds like you have nothing but blue skies and better climes and times ahead.

shack

Glad you CAN retire. My suggestion is to have a plan B. In six months you will be finishing the list of all the thing you were going to do when you retire. Six months later you will be bored stiff. Whatever you end up doing...make sure it is fun.

George Grand

Thanks for the sage advice Steve, Sistuh Cathy, and everybody else. I'm not quite off the hook yet, in fact, I will still be quite on the hook until a maximum of June 08. The only thing in my immediate future is, it appears that 30 Sep 07 will be the last time I HAVE to go to the airbase on a full-time basis as a federal employee, and they are going to pay me handsomely to assume that status. I will still be a member of the New Jersey Air Guard, subject to the whims of the president and/or the governor of the Great State of New Jersey.

Unless "activated", I will be able to refuse any unsavory missions, or trips. I will probably pick and choose when, where, and WHO I'm going to work with. The latter being the most important, cause some of our new pilots, as well as some of the receiver pilots I have to service inflight, can't drive airplanes worth a damn. I'll probably go to work a couple of days a week for the guard, and due to the nature of the guard, will receive a minimum of one days pay for every 4 hours I spend there, not to exceed two days pay in one 24 hour period. Pulling alert at home will be especially lucrative. Pulling alert AT THE AIRBASE also being lucrative, but requiring me to be THERE as opposed to my backyard or sofa.

I have had some job offers for very low stress positions that I will probably investigate further as time goes on.

There is no NEW stereo equipment in my future, my ears don't warrant it, and ever since Tiffany, my heart really isn't into it anymore. I rarely turn these rigs on, and sometimes when I do, find that I shut them off without having listened to anything other than Sesame Street and Disney music for a few minutes. I WILL however still be heavily involved in the chase, the wheeling and dealing, and giving the proceeds to The Githens Center.

Golf, and strip bars are completely out of the question. Golf being too stuffy for me, and as far as strip bars, I always found that scene kind of pathetic. The only things on my body that seem to operate normally now anyway, are my hair and my nose.

bikezappa

Congrats George.

What will you do with all this time now? What things interest you that you never could do because there wasn't enough time?

Start a flying school.

Fix and sell audio equipment.

Travel.

tentoze

Front me a franklin till payday?

George Grand

Peter, what will I do?

1. I hate flying. Always have, always will. This was always just a job to me.
2. I hate to travel. After all these years, you would too. The only place I would really like to go, is Jacksonville, FL. That is where my good friend Tentoze lives, and I am dying to meet him in person. If he is one tenth as funny, intelligent, and articulate in person as he is on the screen, I'm in for one helluva treat. I get to go a lot of places, but he is constantly on the road, to more much interesting places (and usually accomodations) than I.

Toze, I don't know. When's payday? You still drinking up your checks? Capital "F" in Franklin there Frankenstein.

bikezappa

George Grand wrote: »

Peter, what will I do?

1. I hate flying. Always have, always will. This was always just a job to me.
2. I hate to travel. .

That leaves fixing and selling audio equipment as a possiblity.

Do you need a plan for retirement?

halo

Congrats George. Thank you for your service. Thanks for the advice on the AR's as well - Dad is enjoying them!

engtaz

Congrats

George Grand

Thanks again to everyone. Peter, the only retirement planning advice I'll need is tips on the best razor for trimming a perfect Zappa 'stache and Imperial (the little thing under the lower lip).

Halo, that is one of the best things that anybody on this forum ever said to me. I am delighted that I could steer your dad towards a pair of speakers that are giving him pleasure. I'm sure you understand that it is in complete contrast to "go away old man, you have nothing to contribute." Just because it's old, or cutting edge, doesn't mean it can't be good. HI PEARSALL!!

steveinaz

Congrats George, and thanks for your service. I've got 25 down, 15 to go--that'll put me at 40yrs/60 yrs old.

One thing the military has taught me: There's a million ways to say "**** you" in a respectful manner....LOL

Enjoy brother!

ohskigod

good on ya George!!!!

p.s., I owe ya thanks for my first exposure to AR9's AND Carvers so....thanks

hearingimpared

steveinaz wrote: »

There's a million ways to say "**** you" in a respectful manner....LOL

Enjoy brother!

I would like to learn a few.:D

SDA SRS 1.2

Congrats George! Retired April 1 myself and loving it!

Robbie

BlueMDPicker

George Grand wrote: »

......retirement right around the corner.

As with all things, it has its pros and cons. The best part of retirement is that when you wake up in the morning, you're already on the job. Enjoy George! (you've earned it)

George Grand

Thanks Mike! Off subject for a minute, Millerlitescott is running up here tomorrow to secure his RTA11t's and sample real pizza. I know it's short notice, but you're welcome to drop in for the same, minus the RTA's, but plus the AKAI machine. If not, don't sweat it, I have taken off the week of May 7-13. If that fits give me a shout

Robbie, congrats on your retirement. Now go out and torment as many young folks as you can in the course of your day! That's what I plan on doing.

Steve,

I'm pulling for you to make that 40 years so you can bang the snot out of Uncle Sugar for that pension. I have to assume that with 25 years you're an old type CSRS guy like me, and not FERS. Bully for you, we have the best retirement going. Sad news, my wackjob Uncle Benny doesn't live down the road from you anymore, so we may not get a face to face anytime soon.

BlueMDPicker

George Grand wrote: »

Thanks Mike! Off subject for a minute, Millerlitescott is running up here tomorrow ....

Wish I could swing it. Mitchell (my first grader) has "The Carnival of the Millennium" at his school tomorrow. With a title like that, how in the hell could I miss it?!

steveinaz

George Grand wrote: »

Steve,

I'm pulling for you to make that 40 years so you can bang the snot out of Uncle Sugar for that pension. I have to assume that with 25 years you're an old type CSRS guy like me, and not FERS. Bully for you, we have the best retirement going. Sad news, my wackjob Uncle Benny doesn't live down the road from you anymore, so we may not get a face to face anytime soon.

Actually I'm FERS, I bought back my 15 years active duty Army time for $5500 and I've been a civilian for 10 years with DoD.

Well, you know if you're ever out this way--the invite is open.

tonyb

George Grand wrote: »

......retirement right around the corner. I am mulling over an offer from the feds. They want to pay me a $25K lump sum, and then $2k a month after taxes NOT to come to work anymore. They want me off the rolls by 30 Sep.

The best part is I can still go to the SAME PLACE, and do the SAME JOB, until what looks like 6 June 08, and get two days of pay as a Master Sergeant if I fly a 4.0 hour mission or longer. For the uninitiated, a Master Sergeant with my years of service (31) TAKES HOME a little more than $3k every two weeks. KaCHING!

Don't ever let anybody tell you the military is not well re-imbursed. When I first started as a federal employee/military member, my fed pay DWARFED my military pay. Superlative raises for the military and pittance raises for the feds over the last 25 years has totally put the shoe on the other foot.

Oh, and at age 60 (I'm almost 55), I start collecting my military pension as well as the fed pension. It should monetarily be the same or better than the fed pension. Then SS at age 62.........

My neighbor asked me what I'm going to do when I retire.

1. Grow one helluva Zappa.

2. Listen to my wife's alarm clock go off every morning.

3. MAYBE wake up with my wife, pour a cup of coffee, pull a lawn chair onto the driveway, make sure all the rest of you boys get off to work okay, and then go back to sleep for a couple hours.

George my man,I'm gonna slap you upside your head...envious I am.
You'd better find something to do or you'll go crazy.Maybe the new Walmart greeter.....only with attitude.
Congrats anyway you ****.I can't wait.:)

George Grand

Steve,

I hope you've heavily been throwing into the TSP. They gave us CSRS guys the opportunity to start contributing around 1987 I guess. We could throw in up to 5%, but with no matching donation by the gov't. Naturally that is because we already operate under the pension system. Then about 3 years ago they upped our max contribution to 10%. I took advantage of the 5 from the initial offering, and then switched to 10 when they offered that. I figure that little ditty alone will be close to six figures when I'm ready to leave.

When they finally retire the "E" model tankers, if I get a chance to fly one out to the boneyard, maybe you, Wes, and I can meet. That's what this whole retirement thing is about. My wing is going from 20 "E" models to 8 "R" models, and we're going to lose one flying squadron. Just don't need that many people anymore.

BobMcG

Good for you G'Man! Go for it and enjoy. You've worked hard for it and earned every bit of it. Congrats, good luck, and relax!

treitz3

George Grand wrote:

I hate flying. Always have, always will. This was always just a job to me.

I agree with the "this will always be a job to me", but the first part of the statement....pardon...me..CougBullhshi....tell me you don't love flying! The prep yeah, but when you are up...............come on G.......;)

Congrats on Ret. and TXS for your service. Enjoy the benefits and don't retire your brain as well as your body. We'd like to see ya' 'round for a while, Shorty!:D