The long awaited January 07 has finally come and gone. Its significance relates to the early retirement provisions of Mobil (and now ExxonMobil), which stipulate that one can retire (with a reduced pension, of course) a month after reaching his 55th birthday. Sailing through the past 25 years, full of navigational hazards represented by layoffs every 1.5 years, early retirement was a safe harbor, which, unfortunately, seemed hopelessly unreachable. It feels good to finally make it. In addition, the high oil prices of the last few years have considerably calmed down the waters and so the next few years should be more psychologically comfortable than the last 25.
We spent the beginning of the month still in a Christmas mode because both Alice and Monica were still with us. Interestingly both of them are showing interest in cooking and took charge of cookie preparation.
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Alice also prepared a traditional New Year’s dinner of “slimers” (potato dumplings) with cabbage and roast pork. This is the second time, totally unassisted and I must admit, she pulled off much better slimers than I have able been able to manage. Monica took care of making soup and my only function was that of a food critic.
Houston is not exactly the sightseeing capital of the world. One of the few places worth a visit is the NASA center just south of town. We saw in during our first stay in Texas in the early 80’s and so it seemed it was a high time to see what changed. Disappointingly, with the exception of the entrance fee which went way up, the rest of the center experience went way down. The bulk of the exhibits bears more resemblance to an entertainment theme park/MacDonald’s play center rather than a museum of space exploration which it used to be.
I am told that the trick is to take the little train which takes visitors around the actual control center (something we had not seen before). There was a long line with an estimated wait period of over an hour. Luckily we bought a year ticket (essentially the same price as a single visit) and we will go back, this time arriving very early so we do not have to wait in line too long.
January also brought several days of spectacular temperatures – around 19 degrees C. it felt very good to go for a walk in a t shirt and shorts at this time of the year.
The mild days were followed by a freeze scare, we actually had a little bit of ice on trees and on highway bridges, even though not as severe as Dallas, Oklahoma and other northern regions. The prospect of icy roads was enough to scare people from driving to work and Houston schools were actually closed for a day.
At the end of January I spent a week on a business trip in London. Little bit cooler than Houston, we actually had one day of snow. London was as exciting as ever, but there are better times to visit than January. Luckily, I was able to see the new neighborhood into which Alice is moving, even though not her new flat, she was moving on the day I was flying back to Houston. It is close to the river and just a short walk from lots of nice shops and restaurants. It will be fun to visit her.