Mike Humfreville - 12-1-2004 at 10:01 PM
I will be retiring soon, living what we presently consider to be half-time in Bahia de Los Angeles. We?ve been looking for property there for the
last several years and worrying all the while that we?ll not get what we want. But today I realized there are other things in life.
I was walking across what we call the mall, a place at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory where we enter the guard-secured gates, show our badges and walk
to our further-secured offices. The mall at JPL was being constructed when I hired on there as a kid, fresh out of the USMC with zero academic
credentials. I was a delivery boy for computer generated input and output on second shift making less than 3 dollars an hour.
For most of my career, the mall has been a place where we collect, both for work and for social occasions. There are fountains and podiums and the
press, tourists, and grand landscaping in the southern California style and a number of deer that have integrated with the likes of us across the
decades. We?ve watched presidents and foreign dignitaries speak there.
Today, a friend from my past calls out to me. I stop and turn. It is Van. We last worked together 35 years ago, but still exist in the same
engineering environment. I stop and we talk and I ask if he?s thinking about retirement, fixed in my mind like something I need to do for myself, but
left wondering.
?It?ll be another few years for me.? Van says. We talk for a few moments. I ask Van if he?s seen so-and-so and he says yes and I ask him to say
hello for me. There are several friends we share that one or the other of us have maintained contact with as time passed, across decades. It was a
sad moment, thinking of moving on, beyond the institution where I have worked most of my career.
Like Baja, JPL is a collection of culturally unique individuals. We all chose to work in a mutual environment. Sure, the vast majority of JPL?ers
are highly educated, but that doesn?t necessarily carry through to the social aspects of our lives. I work daily with folks who have come to America
from at least half the countries on our small Earth. We?re just a mixed bag. And that is my point.
Baja will, in some ways, be a continuum of my life at the laboratory; a rich mixture of life-types and ?styles. It certainly helps get through all
the international incidents that we have been experiencing much of our lives to be involved with and respectful of folks of other races and cultures.
A young man that worked for my small business during our bad years with Iran was from there. I knew him as a hard worker and had met his family in
our home, knew them to be good people. This solved a potential problem. I meet daily/weekly with people from China, Iraq, Iran, Japan, Korea,
Taiwan, Philippines, Western Europe, Eastern Europe, north, central and southern Africa and elsewhere. In our professional dynamic environment we all
get along and find ways to contribute. That is good.
In the end, though, I guess I?m feeling sorry for myself to be leaving such a culturally enriched environment after so many years. I hope my
experiences are of value in Baja. And I know they will be.
But, in reflection, that moment on the mall is still stuck in my mind. My life forever will be wrapped around those experiences I have had for so
many years across my life.
I guess I?m lucky, in a way, to have had two major drivers throughout those many years. JPL and Baja. While I?ll be spending less time in the first,
I?ll have more time for the latter.
A little yin and yang deal I guess.
Bruce R Leech - 12-1-2004 at 10:12 PM
You don't have to be a rocket scientist to to figure out what Mick is trying to say.
we have all been there or were going to be.
Mexitron - 12-1-2004 at 10:44 PM
Nice post Mike....must be tough to leave JPL behind...it was definitely the high point of my uncle's career, working on Viking and other
things......we all wondered if he'd be okay after retiring from JPL, you know, retirement could be a letdown. Not to worry, he's driving people crazy
as a local water quality board member for one of the lagoons in San Diego...happy as a clam(no pun intended).
How Did I Get Anything Done???
Capt. George - 12-2-2004 at 07:42 AM
Mike, that's what you'll ask yourself once you settle in to retirement. I semi retired at 43, and now, at 59, realize the only thing wrong with that,
was that I didn't fully retire at 23!
Enjoy it to its fullest, life has a tendancy to turn around and bite us in the ass when we least expect...Go For It!!
I wish you the best...Capt. George
Don Jorge - 12-2-2004 at 08:29 AM
Good luck Mike!
Working at JPL must have been like living in a fantasy. Retiring in Baja will be a fantasy too.
And maybe Herman will tell you where "el dorado" is!
Jorge
Edie H. - 12-2-2004 at 11:10 AM
As always Mike, your way with words are something I don't have much command for.....however, after spending 26 years at Ma Bell and finally getting
the "golden handshake" while I was only 46 years of age, I had to wonder what was I to do now??!! All my friends that I had been fortunate to acquire
over all those years were like family to me and I knew things would never be the same after I left. No more everyday meeting them in the halls to say
"hello".......exchange the latest in their families etc. I won't tell you it wasn't hard because it was. The one thing I did find out though was
that it left no room for other experiences in my life since I was so wrapped up in that life. Now my days are filled with whatever I want/need to do
and I too as well wonder how I ever worked and still accomplished all the other stuff. Now I'm rewarded with grandchildren that will fill my day
today and the joy that comes with a new life......one with the freedom to do anything......even on the spur of the moment.
Now we are making plans for our future that as well include Mexico to a greater extent than just the usual long weekends. We will be cruising the Sea
of Cortez in 3 years and beyond......hopefully ending up in the canals of Europe. See, it really doesn't end...it just opens up new doors and new
people to meet. I'm wishing you well in your new adventures and remember it won't be easy, but you will soon be rewarded with different experiences.
Soon one day you'll look out from your hacienda in BOLA and see us just anchored offshore. Just keep a cold Pacifico ready for us and those wonderful
mushroom appetizers you make!!! I can't wait...
BIG HUGS to you and Mary Ann 
[Edited on 12-2-2004 by Edie H.]
Mike Humfreville - 12-2-2004 at 05:02 PM
Most of my JPL friends don't want to retire. That's understandable as they spent a lot of time gaining an education and their focus is deep into
whatever their discipline is. I never wanted to retire until I started creative-style writing after a 40 year break. That gave me a focus and I
could see what I might do with my life if I did retire.
Thanks for all the kind words. Edie, I?ll give Mary Ann a hug for you!
viabaja - 12-2-2004 at 05:24 PM
Mike,
Very good reflections! After over 25 years with Northrop Grumman (formally TRW), I looks forward to getting out of the workforce in 3 to 4 years. But
looking with trepidation & knowing I will have to break the "habit" of corporate work mindset. You know what I mean!
Having something to do & focus on after that is critical. You are on track with your writing. I need to have something to move to, and not just work
on my house & fish! I'm still working & refining those goals.
Hope to see you on Shell Beach with cold Cerveza!
Good Luck! Chris
Bob and Susan - 12-2-2004 at 05:32 PM
Mike
The lot next to us is for sale....we would like to have YOU and your wife as neighbors.
El Jefe - 12-2-2004 at 06:08 PM
Mike, as usual your words ring true.
As for me, I'm in the same boat with 30 Mondays to go. It will be strange to leave all these great friends and co-workers after 28 years. Stranger
still to move away from out kids. We just keep thinking of all the "quality time" we will have with the kids and grandson when we are back in north
county visiting and staying at their houses or when they come south to visit us. We will probably see them more after retirement, even though we live
farther away. All in all, it will be big changes indeed. Thanks for the thoughtful post, and same to you Edie.
Glenn...
Mike Humfreville - 12-2-2004 at 09:10 PM
I know where you're goin', I know where you're goin'!
Mike,
Eli - 12-3-2004 at 11:27 AM
Thanks for the well put reflection provoking thoughts. I was more than ready to retire until I did. Than I spent the first year out trying to
rememeber what were all those things that I planned to do once I was free.
Thank goodness, I remembered; now my life is full of projects again, but not other folks, but my own. The days fly by me way to fast, and my only
regret is there is never enough time to do all I wanna do.
I miss the people I worked with terribly, but I sure don't miss the paper work and stress.
It will be interesting to hear what you have to say about three months into your new found life.
Happy Trails into retirement, you're almost there! Sara
[Edited on 12-3-2004 by Eli]
Buena suerte, Mike
expat2B - 12-3-2004 at 11:46 AM
Congratulations on the new Baja adventures that await you, Mike. What a great cross-roads you're at, savoring a really gratifying career, yet looking
ahead with great expectation to an entirely new phase of your life, certain to be full of rich experiences and friends to be made (both native
residents and ex-pat). Anyway, best of luck y vaya con dios.
P.S. Sounds like we could be neighbors - was just walking my dog in Hahamongna Park the other day
God Bless you Mike~
Skeet/Loreto - 12-3-2004 at 01:36 PM
Mike, I only met you one time, but one time gave me inspiration to think "What i was Doing with my Life?
I am the opposite of most in that I did so many different things and moved to so many different Places.
I now know that I was trying with out success to get the "Country out of the Boy" Impossible! Virginia is now starting to realize her Dream of working
with Horses, and I, the Old Buzzard is going to help her among some very good people of the Texas Panhandle, where i left on a Freight Train 55 years
ago.
Mike you will do Well wherever you go, you are just one of those People.
You carry in your Heart a Kindness for People, Never loose that!
Skeet/Loreto
Mike......
Debra - 12-3-2004 at 03:36 PM
I understand your fear, yes it will be different....BUT! Go for it Putz! You have earned it!
It's a different time in your life....remember when you went with your buddie to Baja, (and he turned around?) You still went......you had to see what
was next, is this different? Don't think so.....you go! But, remember, you must get a Sat comupter so you can share.....(and don't forget to build a
room for B & Me.... )
Just another adventure
bajalou - 12-3-2004 at 04:53 PM
Well Mike ( I sure wish I could write like you do) but I have a story to tell anyway. The main point of it is DON'T WAIT TO DO WHAT YOU WANT.
(sorry to yell). I worked for several years for railroads (3) which is a place that you really get tied to the job. I watched many people wait to
retire and die within 6 months as they had no other interest in life. Another one I'll always remember was my 4pm Chier Yard Clerk in the San
Francisco office. He would tell me the things he was goint to do with his wire when he retired - but he wouldn't go earlier than 65. You see this
coming I'm sure, a month before his 65th, he died, and both he and his wife never got to do the wonderful things they planned. Soooo Mike, as many
others have said, it's just a different time of your life - embrace it for all your worth - and may you have another 50 year adventure. With your
writing and lave of Baja, you won't have any problems..
Via con Dios, amigo
