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My friend Kyle just returned from his mission to Brazil. I talked to him on Sunday to welcome him home, and then he left town Tuesday to live in Utah for a while before returning to school at BYU.

I was surprised to get a text message Tuesday night with this photo:

That’s Kyle on the right. And of course that’s Alex in the back seat.

Apparently Kyle and his mom, Rocio (on the left) were driving on the streets of Provo, Utah in the dark and saw Alex on the street corner. They shouted at him, he jumped in the car, and they drove around for a while reminiscing. The two guys haven’t seen each other in over three years, because Alex is a year older and left on his mission before Kyle left for his. But I’m thrilled to see they caught up again. Small world!

Today as I was driving around town, I glanced over at the things hanging from my rear-view mirror. Of course I always see them– they’ve been there for years– but normally I just look past them, paying them no mind.

But apparently today I was in a more reflective mood, because I saw each of them, one by one, and thought about them for a moment.

– A tassel from my high-school graduation (black and gold, with a golden “90”)… reminding me of the amazing friends I met in high school, and still hang out with today.

– A second tassel from college (also black and gold, with a golden “95”)… reminding me of the many people and experiences that, in many ways and over the course of five years, shaped my life.

– A little globe, taken from a seminar I attended in college… reminding me of the fragility of the earth, and also of relationships. The seminar featured a powerful speaker who told a group of ambitious, eager, not-too-mature college students how they could enrich their lives, deeper their relationships, and care for the earth and all that’s in it.

– A set of car keys… reminding me of a couple of dear friends who helped me to grow as a person.

– A string-and-bead gecko… reminding me of Kyra, who made it for me when she was very young. The string has stretched a bit over the years, and the beads aren’t quite as shiny and vibrant, but in a way that little gecko represents a daughter’s love.

– A tiny llama… reminding me of Alex, who picked it up when he was serving his mission in Peru because he thought I’d like it. Indeed I do. He’s always been a sharp, strong, steadfast young man, and even now as he navigates the tricky waters of college, I have no doubt he’ll go far in this world.

Some people might see all this stuff hanging from my mirror and wonder why I have such junk impeding my view. But these little reminders, infrequent though they may be, help me remember how lucky I am.

I retire in 222 days. It’s strange to think of it… I guess it feels a little like getting close to graduation from high school or college, and counting down the days. It’s still a big number, so it doesn’t feel real quite yet. But in a couple of months, as the numbers wind down, I wonder what it will feel like. For so many years, I’ve poured so much time and energy into a job that I truly love. Yet all that time I’ve had this feeling in the back of my mind that I wanted to do something new and different. I still don’t know what that will be, but having the option to go in an entirely different direction will be a strange mix of liberating and frightening.

And so, the countdown continues.

Today was a gorgeous fall day, so Laralee and I headed out on a walk. I brought my camera, thinking I might catch some pretty fall colors in the trees, but I think I’m about a week too late– most of the leaves are brown and crispy, not orange and red. Still, I managed to catch a few fun shots.

These aren’t weird trees– they’re some kind of plant in someone’s backyard.

We really enjoy the sidewalk that runs along the creek near our house. It’s a good route to head out into town.

The ground is covered in a thick layer of leaves. Last week’s snow accelerated the fall of the leaves, I think, and they’re everywhere because no one’s taken much time to rake them yet.

We found a fun little swing near the creek. Someone had climbed into a tall, ancient oak tree to tie it. Because the ropes were so long (maybe thirty feet) it took some effort to get much momentum.

There weren’t any cattails in this part of town (they’re mostly around the lakes) but Laralee was captivated by these little seed pods. They’re stuffed full of seeds with fluffy white tops, and when they burst, the seeds float away on the wind. Pretty cool!

Yesterday I was driving through downtown Denver and noticed the lottery billboard.

I assume the sign for the Mega Millions jackpot can’t show anything higher than $999 million dollars– sure enough, when I checked the news in the evening I found that the jackpot had risen to a record-breaking $1.6 billion dollars.

I saw the winning numbers and couldn’t help but notice they definitely weren’t the numbers I would have picked. So, I guess I won’t be buying any tickets, and that means I also won’t be an instant billionaire any time soon.

I’m rich!

Well, sort of.

I guess I should say I’m richer than I thought I was.

Or I will be, someday.

Yesterday I was doing some retirement planning (yeah, I know… another crazy Saturday morning). In a conversation at dinner with some friends on Friday night, I realized I’d mis-calculated some of the taxes in my long-term plan. As I considered how to efficiently “draw down” from my investments to fund my retirement, I’d been calculating the taxes at standard federal income tax rates. But in a flash of insight, I remembered that withdrawals from stock positions are actually taxed at the capital gains rate. Moreover, it’s only the gains that are taxed– not the bulk of the investments (they were already taxed before I invested them).

I pulled up my spreadsheet and updated a few formulas, then sat back and looked at the numbers. Things are much better than I thought they would be. Before, retirement felt a little bit like skating on some questionable ice, and now I’m relieved that it shouldn’t be quite like that. Of course we’ll end up adjusting things as we go, but it’s nice to know I’ll have a little bit more money than I thought I would.

Yeah, the adventures of financial planning, right?

One of the many great things about being an adult is the opportunity to make a fresh batch of chocolate-chip cookies.

Whenever you want!

So yeah, that’s what I did tonight.

From strictly a statistical viewpoint, this is technically correct…

… but, really, Fox News?

Yesterday I booked a flight on United Airlines. Later in the day I received an email that outlined all of the services and perks I wouldn’t be getting with my ticket.

“You have a carry-on? Nope. You want to sit with your family or friends? Too bad.” I can’t decide if it’s funny or tragic that air travel is so terrible these days that the airlines have to send emails specifically to point out how terrible it is…

Zaque’s been growing out his hair for the better part of the year, and he finally decided it was time to give it a trim. He called himself a “mushroom head”, although I felt more like he had a lion’s mane:

After ten minutes with the trimmer, things looked much better.

I’ll miss that crazy head of hair, but I admit it does look a lot better now…