Back in early December I started a little countdown to retirement. I added the number of working days on the bottom of a small whiteboard on one of my upper file cabinets that I use it to keep track of projects and such which it is placed really where only I can see it.
When someone pops in and says, “Hey, I heard you are retiring. When?” I tell them April 2nd. The next question would always be, “So, how many days left?” I’d pull the whiteboard off the wall and show them. They would get a surprised look on their face because that number seemed awfully small for a date that far away. I would explain, “That’s in working days. It doesn’t count weekends, holidays and the 4 weeks of vacation I’ll get on January 1.”
My last day at work will be Friday, March 2, so right now that number stands at 34, while actually being 46 days away. Because every day was a working day in Uncle Sam’s Yacht Club, this would have been translated into Navy speak as, “Forty-five and a wake up.”