Playing Hooky

This blog is about retirement. As a career counselor and transition coach, I’ve worked with other people’s retirement. Now, I get to experience my own. Not exactly my own, but my husband put in the paperwork to retire June 30 after working for the same company for the last twenty-six years. I’m not retired. This blog is about our experience, what I know or am learning about retirement to help others, my husband and myself live a phenomenal life post ‘earning a living’.

Today, we played hooky. Well not exactly. My husband works graveyard (from 10:00 pm until 7:00 am). I picked him up from work at 6:30 (so, I was playing hooky) and we drove up to the high desert north of Los Angeles to look at the poppies.

We’ve lived in the area for over twenty-five years and have never seen the poppies. It’s on my list of things to do before leaving California. There was just the right amount of rain this year, not too hot or too cold in temperature resulting in one of the most beautiful springs I’ve ever seen. Everyone I know who has allergies is suffering. Besides that, the hills are green, and the wildflowers are going crazy. There is one area in Antelope Valley that has golden poppies that pop for only a couple of weeks during year and now is the time to see them.

There is poppy preserve state park, but we were told of another area north, so that’s where we started. You can see what we found with the top photo. We were disappointed the poppies weren’t opened. We arrived early, about 8:15 as the sun was still rising. As we talked to others we discovered poppies are particular about opening. It’s quite windy in the high desert and that affects whether or not they open, as well as the time of day and the temperature.

We then drove to the preserve and walked the pathways with all the other retirees and their cameras. EVERYONE had a camera. It was nice. I liked it. I thought to myself, “I could get used to this.” Of course, once we got back, I had emails, phone and a list of things to do.