I'M HIRED

What's going on? I thought I was retired. Ah yes, retirement, when one can rework his life to one of ease and no cares. Try that, I say, and you will see a crazy man after a few months. In my opinion, you should rework your life and do something that is worthwhile and lasting. I am trying that mode with the hopes that I will be satisfied with the results as I experience it and when I look back on the events.

I took some time at the end of last year to map out a regular schedule of things at home and what I wanted to do with some volunteer activities.

My current “at home” plan looks like this:
Monday: Vacuum, personal family history efforts (3 hours)
Tuesday: Study Preach My Gospel, otherwise open
Wednesday: Vacuum
Thursday: Study Preach My Gospel
Friday: Vacuum, clean bathroom, laundry, dust

Away from home schedule is:
Sunday: every 3rd week teach Gospel Doctrine; set direction and keep things going with the ward's efforts in emergency preparedness (family emergency plan, food storage, first aid and fire prevention efforts, disaster preparedness)
Wednesday: weekly 9 a.m. - 3 p.m. Family History Center, 3rd week Noon meet with the Inflammation Research Committee at the Spendlove Research Medical Institute.
Thursday: weekly Noon-2 p.m. Serve as a volunteer SCORE counselor to help people thinking of starting a company or those running small companies with their questions, 1st week 8 a.m. SCORE board meeting.

I had three main meetings this week with my volunteer activities. On Tuesday I met for two hours at Dr. Rex Spendlove's home as he went over his ideas with me of a very much expanded research group. In typical Rex mode, his ideas are expanding at the speed of light and will hopefully eventually result in the lowering of U.S. health care costs. It is remarkable to see his mind at work. He asked me to write a grant proposal on what we can do to impact the diagnosis of ALS. The fact that I have never written a grant proposal did not phase him one bit. Man, I hate when I get challenged and I go ahead and accept it! The idea is to use the expertise of the diagnosis techniques developed by Quansys (one of Rex's companies) and team up with other diagnosis companies in a volunteer effort to further ALS work. In concert with that effort, I went to Salt Lake City on Thursday and attended the ALS board meeting. I shared with them what we are trying to do and asked for some people to contact that might help with the work. I received the name of the person who determines where grant money is used from the ALS national organization and two neurologists working on the disease. That was worth my trip to SLC.

The I'M HIRED thing was about me applying to the Family History Library in Logan. I visited with the director on Thursday afternoon and he said they would be happy to have my assistance. I start as a “newbe” this coming Thursday by trailing a trainer around to learn the ropes. I also have a CD to go through to learn about my duties. I have been looking forward to this ever since I thought about what I would do with my retirement so now is the time to dig in and start working.