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RETIREMENT

When I left KODAK in 1991, I was 54 and too young to fully retire. So thats when I
wrote TEAM ZEBRA and that led to a successful consulting career for about 10
years. During this time I travelled all over the country and to Canada and Great
Britain and worked with many organizations of all types; large and small
manufacturing, private and public , for profit and not for profit, local, state, and
federal government, etc.
The message was simple to describe but hard to do. Most organizations need to
improve as did the ones I worked with. And most of them have a common problem,
utilizing their people better than they did. So my job was to coach and encourage
them to better accomplish this through leadership, teamwork, and empowerment.
So for these 10 years, I tried to urge those I worked with to learn from the lessons of
TZ and to inspire them that, if we did, they could do it too.
If you read TZ, and I hope you will, youll better understand, and I soon realized,
that it doesnt matter what products you are making, what services you are
providing, where you are located, what size you are, your people hold the key to
your success..if you let them and encourage them.
So it was fun and rewarding. I enjoyed it. I visited lots of places and met lots of
good people. And I think I made a difference to many of them and how they
thought about and did their work.
During those 10 yrs. Nana and I travelled extensively. We spent time with all of your
families whenever we could and she went with me to many of the workshops I
conducted in some interesting places.
We bought places in Palm Desert CA and Hilton Head, SC and tried to get there most
years at least once. PD was a Marriott Time Share near Palm Springs in CA. What
funpools, tennis, golf, the Living Desert, good restaurants, bear claws, and golfers
who hit bad shots. Of course you had to watch out for the mean red ants!! We
had many good memories and lots of enjoyable stays there.
Harbourtown Yacht Club in Hilton Head was also a regular stop for us between 1992
& 2006. The Club was 1st Class and we loved the Yacht Basin and the Sea Pines
Plantation setting. We walked the beach daily and had the most wonderful views.
The Clubs boat, the Mystic, took us out on the Calibogue Sound to enjoy the water,
the sunsets, and the frolicking dolphins. Once we watched these bottle nosed
dolphins which were always swimming with the boat, playing ball. Really..they
made balls out of the seaweed and would use their noses to pass the ball to each
other. They seemed to know they were entertaining us. There were wonderful
(expensive) restaurants with lots of delicious food.

Golf was difficult and also expensive since all the courses were well known
championship courses. We would take a boat to Dafuskie Island which was about a
half hour away to play Melrose, Bloody Point or Haig Points golf courses. Tough but
fun golf! My friend Bernie Girouard and I won the Club Championship one year and I
hit the longest drive of the tournament.265 yards (it hadnt rained for a while so
my ball rolled and rolled and rolled some more!! By the way, there was much
discussion what Dafuskie meant. It was a feather shaped island so some thought it
meant feather in Native American. Others were just as sure that it was the way
southerners said da fust key which it was.
In 2004 our friends Sally and Earl Thomas invited us to come see them in The
Villages where they were staying. They claimed it was too hard to describe! Well,
Nana and I never wanted to live in FL based on our impression of it from the days
when your Mothers grandparents lived there but we agreed to drive down to visit to
be nice. Of course, you know what happened.we fell in love with it.
It had many things Hilton Head didnt have; like lots of doable golf, very easy to
make friends, relatively inexpensive living, load of restaurants, tons of activities,
and much better weather.
We rented for a month in 2005 and returned for 2 months in 2006. Then we
decided to buy.a small house on 1658 Snelling Dr. in Mallory Squareright
where a tornado hit! We were lucky, not much damage and it worked out OK after
they fixed everything like it was before the storm. After 2 years of being
snowbirds, 4 months in FL during the winter, we decided to become, seasonals,
half the year in FL. Dont be alarmed, but the next phase is frogs, in FL until we
croak!
We built our home at 2323 Bramble Ter. in 2009 then sold our Perinton home, leased
the Webster town house and became FL residents saving tons of taxes.
As you know, we love it in The Villages. We have many friends.some from my
Uniontown high school days like, Anne, Bill, Jacque, Jan, Ron, Nels, Corky, Henreitta,
Tom, Polly, Bob, Lou and more who visit us here. Also we see friends from NY
Sally, Earl, Neil, Cindy, Dan, Sue, Chip, Dianne, Lindsay, June, Joyce and Steve
B..to name a few. And there are the new friends from other places.Sue & Roger
(Jamestown), Alex & Mary (Binghamton), Ed & Sherri (Watertown), Jack & Dorene
(Pittsburgh), Rick & Sue (Michigan), Tom & Vonnie (Florida and PA), Keith & Becky
(VA and Boulder), Jan & Bob (Michigan), Art & Carolyn (NC and LA), John & Mary
(Kentucky), Rafi & Aida (Puerto Rico) to name some. All are very nice and we have
a good time with them!!
We walk almost every day as much as we can. Our main activities are golf and
socializing with our friends. We belong to golf groups in our Bonita neighborhood,
Earl and Sallys Sunset Pointe neighborhood and Largo neighborhood friends.

We belong to several ClubsCentral New York, Irish (Celtic pronounced KLETIC),


Kodak, Fayette County, and I recently joined The Science and Technology Club. It
has some of the most amazing people here and we give presentations to each other
on subjects such as: space, photography, medicine, energy, military technology,
search for aliens from outer space (I kid you NOT), etc. Im giving one on space and
spy photography in Feb.
The activities never stop here and we are constantly busy and active. Never a dull
moment!!

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