Probably the most significant move of the last twelve years was my decision to bail out of my Federal government career back in 1996. Thanks to a blanket early retirement program in my agency then, I had the opportunity, and I really didn't think twice. Leaving as early as I did, about ten years before a regular retirement would have been possible, did not have me looking at a life of luxury, but I had done well enough in my grovelment days to be looking, at least, at a life of some comfort.  Two years before that, Greg and I had bought a funky little Ace hardware store just across the line from Berkeley--the deal gave him a business to run and me a silent partner role.  Except for the fact that I ended up working several days a week at the store after I retired from the government. You would have been proud of me, had you seen the incredibly great hawker of nuts and bolts I morphed into! But my retailer career has, all along, been just for the fun in it.

We lived twenty-five years in the Bay Area, most of them in Oakland, and then, five years ago, a light went on at the same time as we were feeling an almost unbearable crowding and rushed atmosphere being down there. After ruling out Seattle as just another version of the Bay Area, we ended up here, in Portland. It is a bit like being in a cleaner, quieter, more genteel Berkeley--at least the lefty spirit prevails. We traded the funky little store down in California for a larger, much nicer (and much busier) Ace hardware up here, in Lake Oswego. LO is sort of the Hillsborough or Walnut Creek of the Portland area.  The store has done extremely well, even without my regular presence down there--I am out of the daily nuts and bolts loop these days, by choice.