Over the last 12 months, whenever I’m asked, “So, Ed, how is retirement treating you?” I love to answer:
“5/5 stars, highly recommended”
Boy, has it already been a year since the day I retired?! Why, yes, it has. I would like to quote my retirement buddy, Lori Hart, who started and ended at Ford with me, and is often fond of saying the following:
“Dude, we are totally KILLING this retirement thing!”
For example, the first week of Dec 2022 looked something like this. For the uneducated, that blog entry has a photo that is probably my best shit-eating grin ever. Maybe more than one photo, in fact.
It turns out that, over the last year, I devoted much of my extra time becoming more involved in music. Thanks to my existing regular presence at Open Mic nights at The Owl in Milan accompanying my good friend and singer, Maggie Penhorwood, I quickly landed a gig as a bass player for a Christmas concert, which turned into a regular gig with the Wilson & Brenner Co as a bassist in their trio, which became a quartet when we added our ‘designated drummer’ Alan Warmanen. Looking past the last year or so, we’ve played out 11 times since April. In addition, and also thanks to my presence at The Owl, I landed a few gigs with Laura Russeau, including a return to the Ann Arbor Art Fair, which I played once before with my Blue Skies Trio. But I was also up to plenty of other shenanigans.
In January, I went to Cherokee, NC(snow) to visit my sister-in-law Debbie, and her friend, Gina(and Killer, the dog) at the Indian Creek Campground, and a few weeks later, went to Florida(sun) to visit a college friend Alla and her sister, Raisa.
In February, I finished the rear suspension on my Impala.
In March, I finished the frame.
In April, I played at a funeral for my friend Amber’s mom, and played my first gig with Wilson & Brenner. We also hosted my high school friend, Michell Stewart, having her join the family in going to the DSO for the Stravinsky’s Firebird Suite.
In May, I picked up the Impala from the shop, and brought it home so I could finish it. I had intended to blog about this more extensively, but I was in a rush to start my road trip to Texas to celebrate my dad’s 81st birthday. Along the way, I visited a college friend, Ann Ames, and her family in Bloomington, IN(Ann is a fellow bass nerd), and then I visited my friend, Michelle Giannoulakis, in St Louis, MO, and helped her pack for moving to Omaha, NB. I stopped by the Deep Fork National Wildlife Preserve before the final leg of the trip to San Antonio.
In June, after years of performing ‘arm chair’ astronomy, I finally acquired my first telescope, which I reviewed for my club, the University Lowbrows, and took it to a club Open House event. Then, I went camping in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula with my friend, Lori. This was the first time I’d been to the UP since I had driven through it in 1992 as a calibrator for the Lincoln Mark VIII program. We went in the middle of the week because, well, because we’re retired and can go whenever we damn well please.
In July, I went to Cherokee, NC again, this time accompanied by Cyndi, Adam and D’Arcy, where we meet Debbie for a week’s vacation. While we were there, Cyndi and I celebrated our 30th wedding anniversary!
August had much activity: Cyndi took some more time off so we could extend our celebration by taking a three day weekend getaway in Grand Rapids, MI, including spending time at the amazing Frederik Meijer Gardens and Sculpture Park, enjoying both fine and casual dining, and also enjoying an escape from home.
Then, I took my (nearly) annual pilgrimage to Muncie, IN for the IRCHA Jamboree with my long time flying buddy, Dr Marco Ceze. After a previous Jamboree, Marco had gifted me his night flying parts(boom lights, lighted main and tail blades, and a lighted canopy), so I was able to fulfill one of my long time dreams: night flying. Back in 2013, I saw this for the first time. One of the night pilots told me, “Yeah, night flying is just about the coolest thing on the planet, and I get to do it” So can I, finally, so can I.
Then, Cyndi, Aaron and I went to Denver to visit Aria. I insisted on driving my Mustang, while they flew. Along the way, this allowed me to stop in Omaha, NE to visit my friend, Michelle, again, and help her pack, again, after which we visited the Omaha Zoo. I also stopped to visit the Gothenburg Pony Express Station in NE. That was one of those signs that you see on the highway, and I always think, “Nah, I don’t have time for that touristy stuff, I have to get to <wherever>”. Not this time. I took the damned detour, and really enjoyed it without feeling I would be late to my next destination.
We had a wonderful time in Denver, which will be the subject of a future blog entry. It was really nice having a week together, in typical Hernandi fashion: some days , doing stuff, while others days, introverting. But we were pretty active, with trips for mountain hikes, the Denver Botanical Garden, the Denver Zoo, Meow Wolf Convergence Station, the Colorado Railroad Museum, the movies, an art fair, an amazing game store called The Wizard’s Chest, and great food. We also helped Aria shop for a new apartment.
On the way home, I reconnected with an old high school friend, Karen Helmers. She was one of ‘my’ clarinet players during our championship shows in high school. She now has a ranch just outside of Denver, where Aria and I got to meet her kids and her horses, chickens, cats and a dog. I was able to help Karen her fix her horse trailer, and she taught me how to drive her tractor.
In September/October…alas, by now, you know what happened. I had originally planned to drive down to Texas for my mom’s 83rd birthday, intending to stay through Oct 14 for the annular eclipse that was going right through San Antonio. But right before I went down, we decided to put Dad into home hospice. Although we were able to celebrate mom’s birthday, Dad did not last very long, and passed away on Oct 13. I’m glad I was there, and able to stay, to help mom and my brothers through the decline and death, and to help plan the rosary(where I gave the eulogy) and funeral. See those links for additional emotional content, but suffice it to say, we all miss my dad. Sigh.
A couple days after his passing, I went camping with my high school friend Michelle at Enchanted Rock. After the previous weeks, and especially the agony of the previous few days, it was a welcome respite. Michelle had lost her father, who suffered from Alzheimer’s, a few years before, and understood “losing him before losing him”. I also got to visit with yet another high school friend, Paula Johnson, who also lost her father to Parkison’s, but during the pandemic, so was not allowed to be present when he passed. I’m very grateful to have had good support down there.
While in Texas for so long, I was able to hang out with my brothers, Mike and Mark. There were plenty of baseball, basketball and football games to watch together. One evening, we went downtown to a high class restaurant and bar, Bohanan’s, to see one of Mike’s friends, Johnny P and The Wiseguys play. That night, the keyboard player was none other than Andy Langham, the key board player for Poncho Sanchez. And on another night, I took my brothers to see Spyro Gyra, who are still touring after 49 years! My brothers had not seen them before, but knew some of their tunes.
Also in October, Aria and Aaron and I attended Lightbox 2023 in Pasadena, CA. We had planned this trip months in advance, bought tickets to the convention for airfare. Then the situation changed with my dad, and we had to reconfigure our flights around the rosary and funeral. Fortunately, we were still able to attend. Lightbox is billed as “the ultimate gathering of artists who work in the entertainment industry bringing your favorite films, animation, games, TV shows and illustrations to life.” Aria and Aaron had attended the year before, talked me into attending this year, while also securing jobs to work the convention allowing them to earn some money. We were hosted by another college friend, Juanita Albro, and her son, Sean, in Burbank. We had a wonderful time, but by the end of the weekend, Aria and Aaron were pretty exhausted. They flew home from there, and I flew back to Texas(where my car was waiting for me to drive it home).
Since I had not planned on staying in Texas that long, I still had my summer tires installed, and wouldn’t you know it, a cold spell came through the States from Canada, forcing me to delay my return until the temperatures rose enough to drive safely. Once home, I was able to install my winter tires as usual.
In November, Cyndi and I drove down to spend a week in FL visiting her folks and sister Debbie. During our visit, The Downey’s celebrated their 58th wedding anniversary!